Posts

Posted on

Hot Sticky New York AM

8 July, Early AM

It wasn’t too bad getting into town. Took the Airtrain to NJ Transit commuter rail into Penn Station. 40 minutes. Nice. Beats the subway from JFK. Faster, cleaner, less stops, place for baggage.

Subways are not designed for baggage.

The station turnstiles and gates are also not designed for baggage. Try going through these with a roller and a backpack!

Got an early check-in at the Helmsley Windsor. It’s on W58th @ 6th Avenue. Very nice location. Central Park is a block away, the Madison and 5th Avenue shopping districts are close. And the F line (subway) is across the street from the hotel. The hotel is a bit worn, but for $85/night, I’ll deal with it.

Went puttering with one of my friends who escaped San Francisco. She likes it here but misses her home in Southern California. Can’t blame her, but she IS in a better place than San Francisco.

We met at the Popover Cafe where they serve popovers with strawberry butter. Yummy place. Stuffed animals all over the place. Kinda cutsey. Stayed there for two + hours because of the heat and my need to recover from my flight. Lots of coffee…

Madison Avenue has all the chi chi shops and we puttered up and down the strip. Dunhill moved here from Park Ave and they have a very spiffy new humidor. I think we stopped at or poked into every fancy haute couture boutique before we split up. She went back to Hell’s Kitchen (where she and her husband reside) and I went down to Nat Sherman’s to pick up some supplies…

Posted on

Red Eye moaning

7 July, late night.

I don’t like red-eyes.

I understand how they’re useful. Once you arrive at your destination, you have the entire day to do stuff. This is with the proviso that you can sleep on command once you’re airborne. Door closes. ZZZzzzzz.

I can’t do that. Not even in 1st Class. Granted, it was 1st Class on an A320 (small plane) but nevertheless, 1st class.

I wound up tossing and turning and sleeping for only half the flight. The 1st Class food was a coldcut sandwich served with a hot bun and nice plates. The coldcuts were pretty good and we had our own flight attendant. But still coldcuts! Can’t imagine paying full fare for 1st class and getting coldcuts.

When we landed, we emerged into Singapore heat. 95 degrees with 100% humidity. Crap! At least I packed properly. Lots of linen shirts and some shorts and pants too. Welcome to Newark.

Posted on

Well, New York is closer…

I remember promising my Asia logs, but there’s a lot of stuff to go through. Pictures. Pages. Lots of work. But there needs to be new stuff to read.

So I’m going to post stuff from my July trip to New York. An easier read and not as boring. =P

Posted on

Back to the Past

I was chatting with a friend via ICQ about traveling so I sent her to this page. The one you’re reading Right Now.

She said “There’s three pictures of planes on it”.

Soooo now that I’ve got this Blogger thing working right, I will, over time, be posting pix and commentary from my trips to Asia. This is something that I’ve been meaning to do for several years now. And since I’ve finally cleaned off my desk, this is the next thing to do on the “To Do” list.

Well, at least it’s something to read at work, eh?

Posted on

Airport Security and teachers

Flew back to SFO on the same kind of jet.

Going thru security was awful. Only one checkpoint and a really long line.

Sloooooooow

I met a really attractive young woman in line behind me. She said she was a teacher of little kids. I asked, “San Francisco Unified”? She laughed a lot and said “Marin”.

She would get eaten alive in the SFUSD. If the students didn’t get her, the administration and union would. No one’s allowed to be attractive or young there.

Posted on

The difference between a big and a little jet

When I associate Air Travel with airplanes, the concept of a big bus with 4 engines, some space and 1st class service comes to mind.

Or these

So when I have to fly a regional jet, all that goes out the window.

Isn’t this a tad too small?

In fairness, it’s pretty fast, if cramped. Smooth riding. No overhead compartments to speak of. Not too bad.

But still, isn’t this a tad too small?

Posted on

Summer = Stay at Home Season

Amazing how quickly the year has moved…it’s already Memorial Day!

Over here in the US, Summer travel season begins on the last Monday in May and ends on the first Monday in September.

For me personally, this is the beginning of the “Stay at Home” season, since it’s high season out there. High airline ticket prices, high hotel rates, high humidity and temperature…

That’s not a problem in SF…we had 4 days of 80 degree (24 degrees C?) weather. That’s a lot of summer for around here! Now, we’re moving into our classic summer pattern of 58 degree days with gusty 20 knot winds blowing in from the west. In short, COLD!

What all this moaning really means is that everyone else in the world (or at least in the office I’m in for 9 hours a day) is getting onto airplanes and flying somewhere where they have to reset their watches. I’ve got a backyard full of weeds and an Elite 250 to reassemble.

I’d rather be traveling…

Posted on

More UA rants.

Today, the flight was oversold, even though we got there on time. That AirTrain thingy that goes to EWR works pretty well. Just a little bit of drama before we finally got assigned some seats. We got on the plane, in row 32 of a 757. That�s near the verrry back of the plane, folks! Check out just how far back at seatguru.
Now about the so-called “food”…
They forced us to eat vegan (favourite food lifestyle of der furher) awful sponge like �chocolate chip cookie�. How do I know this? It said so on the stupid wrapper! I wanted to spill a drink to test how absorbent the sponge like cookie really was…
They ran out of the stuffed pasta shells so there was dry chicken rice like substance. It�s not that the stuffed pasta shells are the bestest thing out there, but if you are going to overbook the flight to assure that it�s full, perhaps you should make sure that there�s enough food for people. If it�s not enough that they are trying to force an alternative lifestyle on us with Coke being replaced by Pepsi, reminding us that we fly for the benefit of the unions at the beginning of each flight and we should be grateful for what slop we do get, having to deal with the nazi vegan thing is going waaaay too far!
Yes, I like quality cookies. If you’re going to serve them, make sure they’re good! And that’s what pretty much inspired this tasteless (pun) post.

Posted on

NYC tip #4

Cabbing in NYC is a 50/50 shot. Before, cabbies were pretty honest because you could lose your hack license if you screwed people. Nowadays under Bloomberg or if you’re a tourist, I guess it dun matter…
The cabbies going to the Hudson and to Norma�s were OK when we arrived in NYC.
Honest and good drivers.
But the one today that was supposed to get us to Penn Station @ 1530 on a weekday naturally went down Broadway.
Straight into a San Francisco traffic jam.
When I asked about the route, he said something like �could be traffic�. I responded that he may have picked this route to run up the fare. No reply. And the meter ran. And ran. And ran.
Finally, when it hit $6, we jumped out @ 49th Street and took the Subway to Penn Station instead. Left him stuck in gridlock where he thought he was going to make money off of us. He ain’t gettin’ any fares sitting in that mess!
Rat Bastard.

Posted on

Movie Idea

Something cool did happen today.
I was standing in line to get my one day Fun Pass. This guy sees me and offers me his. Tells me he got an extra and he didn�t need it. It�s a legit 7 day pass that expires on 1 Jan.
Pretty nice.
Just gave it to me and left. So when we got to Penn Station before we left the subway, I found two people from Europe buying tickets. Passed the pass along to them. Good karma I guess. Maybe they can make a short film chronicling the adventures of this pass. Adventures of a MetroCard. Nah, too cheesy.
Sounds like a student film…