Entries this day: .2airplane .3arrival Today _day1 airport bryn_writes

.2airplane

8:11 pm 14-3-02 (houston time)

Bryn arrived relatively late, but we boarded even later, so it was no worries whatsoever. 'We're going to London, mate!' is our most used phrase.

While we were on the runway, the video screen was displaying our groundspeed and time to destination and it was *completely* inaccurate. It looked basically like it was the data from the previous flight into Houston, and it believed there were 19 minutes remaining in the flight.

'Only 19 minutes! Whoohooo!!'

Bryn quizzed me on all my Japanese hiragana flashcards. I know most of them, but it's quite apparent that I haven't studied in a while.

The movie of the night is Serendipity. The amazing thing is that we each have a video display imbedded in the seat back in front of us. I'm listening to the Continental Dance mix. It's pretty hoppin' techno stuff.

8:27 pm

This is the lap of luxury. (I don't think I've ever used that term before) Check this out:

1. Bryn's travel agent Rosemary put us in seats A and C, leaving B empty in between us. She theorized correctly that no one would end up sitting there; we have an extra seat! (I told Bryn I'll send Rosemary two postcards for all that goodness!)
2. We can watch one of 8 different channels, listen to one of 15 different audio channels, or play one of 10 different games. But I can't play a game and have the audio that I want and play the game at the same time.
3. But(!) we have an extra seat. So I am listening to the Continental Dance (ambient trance now) on the empty seat and I'll play the game on my video display.

See? The lap of luxury.

10:09 pm houston time

Bryn and I are tching a bizarre ideo thing animation called Loves Me Loves Me not. Totally bizarre. by Jeff Newitt.

We watched the end of a silly movie about snowboarders on Bull Mountain with Lee Majors starring as the corrupt businessman.

.3arrival

12:59 am houston time

Bryn and I have been sleeping for a bit, like a small puppy pile at a rally.

Thing is, the seats are tilted back, but the arm rests don't go as far back. So one thing that is relatively comfortable puts the pillow against the raised arm rest.

It's apparently 7am London time now. I'm going to sleep a bit more; we have a bit under 3 hours of flight time left.

2:48 am = 8:48am

breakfast now on the plane. There is snow outside on the ground.

12:30 pm 15-3-02

We waited for quite a while but never saw her. Finally decided to go upstairs to look and found her immediately. Now we are at Garfunkel's Bar and Restaurant to eat fish and chips.

Today

7:am CST Thursday 14 March 2002

In 12 hours Bryn and I will leave for London and Paris!

Whooohoooo!!!!!

I started packing around 6AM and am now chilling outside my work because last night after Wednesday Night Dinner at Dude's (starring Gene, Dude, Veronica, John, Alex, and me) I left my phone, visor & keyboard. Doh! I realized it as I arrived home near 1am on my bike. I chose not to go back out there whether by bike or car to wake them up to retrieve it.

So I packed this morning with some questions as to how many pairs of pants and how many long sleeve vs short sleeve shirts blah blah blah - it's really unknown to me.

In my mind, I have messages like, "don't wear shorts; you'll look like a tourist." and "Wear dark because it's dirty." and "It will be cold and rainy" and "pack light; everyone overpacks." and "there's lots of pick pockets over there." "French people are rude and they hate Americans." All this (and more I'm sure) while I'm packing.

So I think I'm doing pretty well and I decided to come to work to use the phone to call Dude to coordinate getting my stuff. (*) But I couldn't get into the building, not just because I didn't have my access card (it's with my keyboard), but because the phone outside the door which I should be able to use to call Drew said, "MEMORY EMPTY" when I tried to use it. I laughed at the irony.

Dennis let me in when he arrived around 7:15.

7:15am

I have reached Dude and Veronica; Dude will be there for a bit so I can retrieve my stuff. Hooray! I'm thankful that this didn't make my final leaving-day a huge chaotic mess. I'm going now to get it and finish packing.

9:53am

Okay; I'm packed. I'm back at work. Tons of email flooding in to process. I'm working on version 2 of changes to the OS survey for the peeps in Singapore.

12:16pm

Okay, the changes for Singapore survey are complete; I just need to move them to the test cluster. I couldn't make all the changes, but they are cost conscious and these other changes could take some hours to do, or are undoable.

I've also written an email detailing the status of projects I have been working on. I think this should help everyone handle the load.

Still need to show Dave and Minh the code management system I've been using.

2.75 hours until I leave!

2:48pm

Okay; everything seems to be calm and tranquil. I have all 3 of my smartmedia cards for my camera, extra batteries for my camera and handspring visor. I cleared out all old entries and put a new one online: January 6th "bicycle" which I don't think is online already.

I'll be back on 26 March.

Bye!

day1

7:56 pm 15-3-02

We've been totally fun throughout the day today - after fish and chips at Garfunkle's bar we had quite an adventure getting train tickets for Tanja so she could ride the same train as Bryn and I.

Bryn, we're in London!

Free internet terminals in te airport, but I resisted the temptation to check email and write an entry. 50p for fifteen minutes at a different terminal, so I didn't even consider it.

Cool thing to step out of the train station and see that the area we were in used to be outisde, but has had a big ass roof built over the whole operation. All the storefronts were outdoor brickwork like the mall i OZ Daimaru or something. I didn't take picutres inside except for the pic of the Sock Shop for Wende.

London seems cold and overcast and perpetually wet, so I love the humidity level, but it's too cold for my taste.

Met up with Graham and went rief shopping with him in the little neighborhood stores,news agency, chemist, grocery, etc etc etc.

We only went to two stores, and I stopped by the news agency to get post cards to begin writing.

Walked to Graham's house, which is more like a coop, with a bunch of people living here all doing their own thing.

Plyed some ping pong and then some cats were all, 'you wana go to the pub?' and we're all, um, uh, maybe, and then they were all, 'we've got a van right here; we're leaving now.' 'Okay'

So we put on shoes and walked outside to the van, a normal enough van in the front, and in the back, a bunch of lawn mowing equipment, covered in water and bits of grass.

What a fabulous grand adventure! I almost busted my ass one time but then found a pretty secure way to hang on. Lots of laughing, not knowing where we were headied, no windows, hanging on, light flashing, looking out the tiny pinholes to see random signage that was way far from where we had started.

Arrived at the pub and played about 5 games of billiards, but the difference is that instead of stripes and solids, they have just two different colors of balls.

12:59 am houston time

Bryn and I have been sleeping for a bit, like a small puppy pile at a rally.

Thing is, the seats are tilted back, but the arm rests don't go as far back. So one thing that is relatively comfortable puts the pillow against the raised arm rest.

It's apparently 7am London time now. I'm going to sleep a bit more; we have a bit under 3 hours of flight time left.

2:48 am = 8:48am

breakfast now on the plane. There is snow outside on the ground.

12:30 pm 15-3-02

We waited for quite a while but never saw her. Finally decided to go upstairs to look and found her immediately. Now we are at Garfunkel's Bar and Restaurant to eat fish and chips.

7:56 pm 15-3-02

We've been totally fun throughout the day today - after fish and chips at Garfunkle's bar we had quite an adventure getting train tickets for Tanja so she could ride the same train as Bryn and I.

Bryn, we're in London!

Free internet terminals in te airport, but I resisted the temptation to check email and write an entry. 50p for fifteen minutes at a different terminal, so I didn't even consider it.

Cool thing to step out of the train station and see that the area we were in used to be outisde, but has had a big ass roof built over the whole operation. All the storefronts were outdoor brickwork like the mall i OZ Daimaru or something. I didn't take picutres inside except for the pic of the Sock Shop for Wende.

London seems cold and overcast and perpetually wet, so I love the humidity level, but it's too cold for my taste.

Met up with Graham and went rief shopping with him in the little neighborhood stores,news agency, chemist, grocery, etc etc etc.

We only went to two stores, and I stopped by the news agency to get post cards to begin writing.

Walked to Graham's house, which is more like a coop, with a bunch of people living here all doing their own thing.

Plyed some ping pong and then some cats were all, 'you wana go to the pub?' and we're all, um, uh, maybe, and then they were all, 'we've got a van right here; we're leaving now.' 'Okay'

So we put on shoes and walked outside to the van, a normal enough van in the front, and in the back, a bunch of lawn mowing equipment, covered in water and bits of grass.

What a fabulous grand adventure! I almost busted my ass one time but then found a pretty secure way to hang on. Lots of laughing, not knowing where we were headied, no windows, hanging on, light flashing, looking out the tiny pinholes to see random signage that was way far from where we had started.

Arrived at the pub and played about 5 games of billiards, but the difference is that instead of stripes and solids, they have just two different colors of balls.

8:25 pm 15-3-02

Um, so two different colors of balls, and the balls and tables are 2/3rds the size of ours.

I was on a team with Doors (girl from NZ), and Bryn & Graham, and Tanja & Drew

Drew is far better than the rest of us, but Doors and I won 3 games in a row, two of which we won because the other team sank the 8 ball or other tchnicalities. Oh, and they ae an 8 ball along with the 2 sets of 7 colored balls.

Walked back home because the van had left early. Stopped by a bottle store to get some drinks.

8:36 pm

Now we are back at the co-op house and Drew is challenging Matt at ping pong with 10 pounds each on the table. est of 5 games. Drew is winning 2 games to 1, and in this fourth game, his is winning 7 to 4.

Now it's 10 to 10.

8:42 pm

20 to 20. And Matt won 24 to 22.

So now it's 13 13 in the final game. 2 to 2 games.. 22 to 20 Matt wins.! Very close games.

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airport

3:07 pm 14-3-02

I'm chillin' outside my apartment complex now. I've officially left work and I think they'll be pretty able to cope without me no problem. I wrote a prett long explanitory email of te status of the projects I've been working o. Cool. I just called Wende to see why she's late, but she reminded me that we had agreed upon 3:30pm, not 3.

I'm just so thrilled about this trip that I'm ready early!

4:40pm

I'm at the gate at the airport. Traffic was no problem at all, and during our trip I systematically tried to guess the 3 digit code of the lock we used for our luggage in Australia. I got the code after 100+ attempts. 372.

No problem getting through the security. This time I didn't freak whe I sa the guns. Butt I did smile to myself as I thought, 'how'd you get that in here???'

It's faster for me to put my Visor and keyboard in my bags becuse I don't have to shw it to anyone and don't have to unpack and repack my pockets.

I'm at Gate 11, at the far end of the International terminal. Buut I'm healthy and strong and I ca walk it no problem. I enjoyed the moving sidewalks, not just for their movement, but for the memories of David ad I oing to Ohio and playing on thtem, plus my long Koosh Joke, which I told to David and Amy and Hethre on the way to Austin Rally.

Interesting to begin the European immersion. I see a lot of European facial structures, and hear some accents. Fun.

I shoulda brought water. I'm slightly hungry; I'll go get a snack.

5:04pm

I've now had an orange/pineapple muffin and orange juice for $4.78, twice the price I'd pay outside. Wow.

Should see Bryn in about one hour.

This is my third international flight as an adult:

1. Costa Rica in Nov 1997
2. OZ in February 2001
3. UK and France in 2002
4. Japan 2003

I wonder if we will need to show our passport to use the Chunel from UK to France. I doubt it, but I hope we do so I can get one more stamp in my passport.

I find it interesting that I'm anxious to get stamps in my passport. I wonder if I'll be as excited in 5 years.

bryn writes