Author: geoff

We’re flying home to the States today. The day started with the hotel fire alarm going off at 6:20am just as I was turning on the shower. That was exciting. While we were sitting outside in the car, waiting for the all-clear, I read Robert Fisk in today’s Independent on the third anniversary of 9/11. Powerful and pointed as always. (Hands up those who knew where Fallujah was three years ago.)
After showering and packing, I came over to the WiFi hotspot to log in. As I started typing this, Morrissey’s America Is Not The World started playing over in the restaurant. I’ve heard it almost every day while I’ve been here. What a tragedy, that Bush and his henchmen should so totally squander, trash, and sh*t upon the worldwide compassion and empathy that followed 9/11. And how depressing that Americans appear unable to see Bush for what he is.
Talking to people over here, mostly professional or academic, I find a curious attitude towards the US Presidential election. Of course they are interested, and of course they hope that Bush is defeated, but it’s not accompanied by any great expectations. It’s almost as if they’ve written America off: it’s a hopeless case, perhaps it will come to its senses some day, but there’s no point in thinking too much about that. (I saw one op-ed piece that pointed out that since the actions of the US had such an impact on everybody around the world, maybe we all should be entitled to vote for the POTUS. And the lapsing of the assault gun ban was the occasion for the usual head-shaking about the suicidal insanity of a gun-drenched culture.)
Of course this raises more questions than it answers. But that’s for another occasion.
Update: We’re now home – but not before experiencing yet another fire alarm: this time in Heathrow Terminal 3. Every passenger in the terminal was herded into the structure that links the terminal to the more remote gates, while ear-splitting sirens blared overhead. It was 20 minutes before the Terminal was declared safe.

This morning we went into Oxford to do some shopping – some more books (surely not?!) and some items for my mother. Lunch time rolled around, and we decided to try a place in the Covered Market that sells authentic Cornish Pasties. (No, nothing to do with costume accessories for West Country strippers..!) While Merry had a second cup of tea, I went round the corner to the Auto Model shop, with a vague idea of buying one more model.
In addition to the man who runs that branch, the district manager was there, ranting on the phone to someone. When he’d finished, and saw that I was about to buy a small bus model, he jerked a thumb in the direction of a pile of large boxes and asked if I had any idea what was in them. “Take a look at these before you buy anything,” he said, and opened the top box to reveal a 1/24 scale Sun Star RM8 Routemaster model. This is reckoned to be the finest bus model ever produced for retail; only a couple of thousand are being made, and all have been reserved for months. But he had one cancellation… and so I bought it, for £99, and arranged for them to ship it to the US for me. It’ll be the culmination of my collection; I doubt I’ll buy many more bus models after this. But what a way to go.

As I noted, the Little Chef next to my hotel has a WiFi hotspot. For some reason, they turn it off every night at 10 when they close. And the manager hasn’t told the staff that turning it on is part of the regular opening procedure. So this morning I came over at 7:15 for breakfast and a quick fix of Internet, and the WiFi was down, and the poor minimum-wage school-leaver who had just opened the store and restaurant had never heard of “WiFi” or “network”, and thought that the manager “might be getting in by 8:15.” (He wasn’t.)
Oh well, things are working now (mid afternoon). But I wonder why they turn it off at night. It probably takes less electricity than the Budweiser sign in the window….

I flew over to the UK on Friday for a week’s vacation. Good points: Virgin Atlantic upgraded us from Economy to Premium Economy for free; service was excellent. Bad points: the flight was oversold, and it took Virgin an hour to sort out who’s on and who’s off. And it was a daytime flight – I was neutral, but my wife preferred it. After the event, I am no longer neutral. Daytime eastbound transatlantic SUCKS. Instead of having a short, broken night which stresses your body into taking up the new schedule, you have a short broken day, so it’s impossible to get to sleep. Never again.
Normally when we come to Oxford we stay with relatives, but this time it wasn’t convenient, so we stayed at a random motorway-type hotel at the A34/A40 intersection. On Saturday morning we walked into the Little Chef diner next door for breakfast, and I saw a WiFi hotspot sign. “Heaven, I’m in heaven…” So that’s where I am now. (And of course the setup time on my PowerBook was just as long as it took me to type in a credit card number to buy a few hours of credit. Sweet.)
The weather here is perfect, and forecast to remain that way for our stay. So more anon, with pics (and perhaps video).