Same & Different: Business Class, Beers & Beans – Wheels down in London
Just go into London yesterday. Lots to say, but here are some quick hits:
My flight was twenty-three hours. Very, very long. Eight hours to Bangkok was long, but the next twelve to London felt like season finally episode of The Amazing Race. Fortunately I flew business class (a gift, not a habit). Being able to stretch out in to a horizontal position on a plane (alas, for sleeping) was insanely good.
I also had access to the “snack kitchen”. I ate about twelve fresh fruit plates while everyone was sleeping. Lots of fruit: good for the hydration, bad for the digestive track.
I also had access to the booze cabinet. We almost had to divert to Russia for more Vodka. No amount of double-Bloody Mary’s can ease the dull drone of the X-Man prequel, “Wolverine”. One sip for each Hugh Jackman muscle flex. Two sips for every mutant love scene.
Flying business class is dangerous for the heavy economy class traveler. You get fast-tracked through customs, you get access to the club lounges and all free drinks and finger food you can consume and your bags, decorated with a “priority” tag, pop of of the carousel first. Of course, you pay for this…but the justification wheels start spinning as soon as you realise your airplane food actually resembles something you would order from a proper restaurant.
We flew @britishairways, and the service was excellent. The club lounges were great as well…except for the coffee. The lounges have beer on tap, spas, business centres, post flight shower facilities, wireless internet…but the coffee tastes like brewed plane tire treads.
It is a mystery to me as to why in club lounges at airports, at hotels and at sales meeting the worst coffee is served. There is no replacement for a well trained barista armed with high quality beans and an unapologetic grinder. No topshelf espresso makers and drip-drip-blah coffee makers can act as a substitute.
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London is massive. Coming from Sydney, I feel like virgin Pagan ritual conventional…and I like it! I forgot how much is out there. There is Abundance every where. I haven’t seen this many brands and shops and people since I left the States back in 2005.
This place is a marketing and advertising dreamworld. It is consumerism run amok and no one is bothering to get out of the way. We went to Harrod’s today. The wife had a full-on shopping seizure. She froze up and started quaking in her high-heels. Two security guards came running over like they were part of the A-Team and shoved some smelling salts up under her nose and snapped her out of it. They had obviously been well trained for emergency situations like this.
Check out this cool interactive store guide of this London shopping institution: Harrod’s Store Guide
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We stopped in Whole Foods yesterday. I hadn’t been there since we left Florida. This was my favourite grocery store by far. You pay for what you get and what you get is good. Two bits of “good” I loved and missed about Whole Foods: the prepared foods & salad bar and the beer selection.
As I walked around the store I checked in on my old friends.
The salad bar looked glorious in all of its sneeze-guard protected splendour. There was fresh from the can tuna with no mayo mixed in. And beans…beans as far as I could see (without turning my head). I used to get a big container with garbanzos, black beans, kidney beans, tuna and corn…and eat the hell out of that. My digestive tracked shuttered at the sight of that bean-a-palooza.
The beer selection did not let me down either. Yes, I am sad to leave behind Cooper’s and James Squire back in Australia…oh, the time I invested in building those relationships…but, now i am able to hook up with some of my old time used-to-be’s. The wife wished she had some of those Harrod’s smelling salts to get me out of the good-beer tractor beam i was caught in.
My fridge has been stocked with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sam Adams & Negra Modelo and Model Especial. Same great taste, same messy result.
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More stuff from the streets of London to come to this blog soon…
