Baggage

It seems to me that waiting at the baggage carousel is one occasion which brings out the very worst of people. Everyone wants their own little bit of space, which has one end adjacent to the carousel, and then extends outwards, ending in their own baggage trolley. Of course, there is not enough space around the carousel for each of the hundreds of (probably exhausted) people just off the plane to fit, so the situation is unstable.

While I was waiting for my luggage yesterday, I ended up standing behind a woman who had positioned herself in the above situation. Due to the fact that I hadn't read the hand-luggage rules that apply to flights leaving UK airports, I had had to check in three bags. Each time one arrived, I had to move the trolley out of the way, ask the woman to move so I could pick up the bag, and then retreat out of the way so the pushier passengers could continue standing right next to the carousel watching everyone else's bags go by.

Travels

I have spent much of my Christmas holidays in the UK travelling back and forth between East Malling and London. The first occasion was to obtain my new US visa, and I was shocked to discover the price of a return ticket was an astounding 24 pounds and ninety pence.

Since then, I have been pleased to find that my four trips in the space of one week were not going to set me back 100 pounds, since a cheap day return, valid only after 10am, was only 9.50GBP. However, the most ridiculous thing, which I had forgotten, most British readers will be aware of, but the Americans among you will find crazy, is that a single ticket for the same journey costs 9.40GBP!

There is some sort of strange market forces going on here - buy a single ticket and get a return for only 10p extra. But who on earth would ever think - "Oh yes, I was going to get a taxi back, but I'd better go by train because it's such a bargain...". Are they trying to penalise people making single trips on the train? But why?

Merry Christmas!

Seasons greetings to all our readers... as it were.

Killer fog

Killer fog? I mean, really?

Efficiency...

...is a word that can be applied to two things.

Firstly, to the Embassy of the United States of America. My visa interview waiting time last week was a little under an hour and a half (compared to the four hours it took last year), and after saying it would take a week for them to return my passport to me, the actual return time was less than 48 hours.

Secondly, to the batting of the middle order of the Australian cricket team. Not that we're going to talk about that though.

I hate jetlag

Said at 1:30am on a Sunday morning...

I'm terrified

Yesterday I was thinking of writing a post entitled "Hoggy, Hoggy, Hoggy, Oi, Oi, Oi!". Now, that seems slightly less appropriate. You'll notice the second test is not yet over at the time of writing. Only time will tell just how entirely useless the England cricket team really are...

Skinny

The standard image of American fast food outlets is that once you've ordered your meal, the server will then ask you if you want to make that "Extra Large" or "Supersize" your order. Today, I had lunch in Potbelly's, a rather nice sandwich chain, and when I ordered my "Meatball Sub on Wheat" was asked if I wanted to make that "skinny" - with one third less calories than usual.

Three things

Three things happened last night:

1. England batted considerably better than last week. Something has to be done about the openers though...

2. The dollar hit a fourteen year low against the pound. Not the best news for someone as unorganised as me, who will most likely end up buying Christmas presents when I'm back in the UK.

3. It snowed. A lot.