Tag Archives: England

Adam Curry – The Daily Source Code

AdamcurryMany of you know Adam Curry from Mtv, but these days he’s known as “the prince of pod” or “the podfather” or a few other (complimentary) things. He did a lot of pushing in a lot of ways to make podcasting what it is today. His almost daily show is The Daily Source Code, to appreciate it you really need to listen (at last count I think he said he’s got 50,000 listeners). He does it like a live show, if he screws up it’s there, it’s about 40 minutes an episode so put it on your mp3 player or burn a few episodes to CD and listen to it at your convenience. He’s hysterical. His show is about tech, podcasts, music and his life, check it out.

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I’m leavin on a jet plane train… – 3x Thursday

1. When’s the last time you went on vacation? Where’d you go?
London, England. Short vacation – Chicago/Evanston, IL (which I’m currently en route to).
2. What’s your favorite mode of transportation to get to/from/go on vacation? Plane? Train? Boat?
I love the train! It’s a mile from my house. Today I left my house at 5:25 for the 5:34 train. Parked 100 yards from the train. And guess what? We left at 5:34!!!
3. How important are vacations for the human spirit? Do you think it’s healthy for someone to go 20 years without a vacation? Why/why not?
I need them. I think that some people don’t, it just depends.
Bonus Question for Comments: What’s your ideal vacation/time off from real life?
I really liked my last trip to Costa Rica. Mostly staying in one place not running around crazy from place to place. It might have to happen again this winter.

From 3x Thursday

Have my cake and eat it too!

So I know you’ve all heard me mention my Waffle Toffee Crunch Ice Cream Sundae from the last few times I was in England. So at work yesterday (for my birthday, which is actually today/Saturday) we always have cake for the birthday-boys (and girls) and Kim had made me a Waffle Toffee Crunch Cake with Whipped Creme on top. I thought it was kinda silly at first but it was delicious!!!

Blading

england04-24_09-08-52So while I was in England I got to hang out with Monika, Danielle and Alysha. They were a blast and the kids had these accents that were so cute it actually sounded like that they were pretending to have accents. I should have recorded them so I could add an audio clip here.

Don’t Leave Home Without Them.

A lot of people asked me about ATM fees when I used my money card in London. The only fee I had for using the card was $-1.00. My bank doesn’t charge me any fees (I think) so it it was just the fee from the other end (although if that’s true I don’t know why only a dollar and not a pound). My experience with ATMs anywhere world wide (England, Costa Rica and Prague) has always been that the ATM has been perfect for a good exchange rate.

Charge cards are good everywhere and as far as I can tell have no extra fees and the banks calculate the exchange rate. Be sure to use one at Garfunkel’s because they use a cool remote gizmo to scan it at your table and print your receipt right there.

Be sure to get a good phone card (AT&T) from Sam’s club or somewhere so you can save $$$ on your calls back home. Be sure to look up on-line what the International numbers are to dial first to call back home. Read the instructions on the card, you can generally hit *** after making one call so you don’t need to dial all the digits again. If you have a 200 minute card you get about 30-60 minutes when calling back to the US (they calculate and tell you how much you have left at the start of each call) and you can add minutes with your charge card at the same really good rate (which is generally > 4 cents at home and 25-35 cents to call home). Use it from a pay phone NOT your room, they’ll really nail you from the hotels overseas. (Use change to call locally when you are overseas, otherwise it seems like you’re actually calling from the US to overseas when you use the card.)

Incompetent

The hired help here is pretty useless many times. The biggest problem is they don’t know how to say "I don’t know" and just make up an answer so if it’s an important question be sure to get (at least) two confirming answers. For example:

1) When you see a train arriving (on the wrong track) and you ask the guy at the ticket counter where it’s going and he tells you there is no train. Don’t argue with him for more than 88 seconds that there really is a train, just go down and check for yourself. That 2 seconds might be what you need so you don’t have to wait another 30 minutes for the next train (trust me).

2) When you ask the waitress what the "Scampi and Chips" is and she says it’s chips with scampi don’t bother asking any more. But if you feel the need and all she clarifies with is that chips are (french) fries (which anyone who’s been in London more than 15 minutes knows, i.e. fish and chips) with scampi. So you feel the need to clarify more and she tells you scampi is beef don’t think it’s a chips=fries thing, think it’s a she’s clueless thing. (I saw this one happen)

FYI – prawns=shrimp and tiger prawns=jumbo shrimp. When you order water (unless you want bottled) order tap water, it’s yummy and free. They don’t keep anything cold so be sure to get ice.

Also the less busy a store/restaurant is and the more staff they have, the lower the quality of service. :)

I’m not saying we didn’t have fun, I’m just saying it wasn’t had to find bad service.

Raya was awsome! (Pronounced Ria) She worked at the same place as #2. She answered all of our questions we asked about food, the restaurant, the register surveillance system (which she never noticed before), acting school and told us that M is for music.

Time Flies.

england04-21_22-59-59Four seats in a row, a lone ranger type mask to block out the light and an Ambien (thanks to my sleeping problems) made this seven hour flight feel more like just a few hours. If it hadn’t been for breakfast I might still be sleeping.

Less than an hour to land!! Plus we just reset the clocks so it magically just became five hours later. Customs will take a little while, but it’s always easier going in than it is coming out. It’s looking nice and sunny out, I’m guessing it’s going to be a nice day!

Take Off!

We’re in the air! There is a lot of room on the plane so that’s really nice. Huge plane but needs updating: TV projector is old (3 tube RGB) and it appears to be the only way to watch the movie. No phones, no little indents in the trays to hold my drink steady, plus they don’t have those little air vents above the seats, I don’t think I’ve ever not seen those on a flight…

It’s a direct flight so that’s really nice. I think this row of four seats I’ve acquired is going to be great for a snappy nappy later on. We get there at 10 am England (5 am our time). The new terminal is really nice although you shouldn’t get tricked by the “food court” on the map it’s far away but you can ride the cool monorail to get from one end of the terminal to the other.

I already know I forgot a few items, I think it was the first few I set to the side, nothing crucial (I’ve got all my gizmos and allergy medicine). I’ve got books for bookcrossing.com (after we read them) and Charms Blow Pops!

It’s kinda like day care here. You come in by rows, they wait ’til you’re all relaxed and then give you instructions, after a little while they bring you a snack and then it’ll be nap time.