Climbo - did you get to London (safely)?

[MallyG]

After your post a couple of weeks back, I was wondering if you took the decision to fly to London or not?

[Kevin]

Climb has not posted in four days. We may have to send out a search party.

Kevin

[Climb01742]

yes, i went. and here i was, all worried about the danger of terrorists, when the real danger lay in a plate of rissotto.

flew over tuesday night, leaving boston at 7:30. virgin atlantic is a brilliant airline. upper class is quite sweet. because i can't sleep on planes to save my life, i spent most of the six hour flight playing with my seat. virgin has these seats that you can slide up and down via power controls from upright to almost flat. in the middle of the night, stuck on a plane, trying to get thru a nicholas cage movie, playing with your seat passes for entertainment.

got to heathrow at dawn. had a meeting on charlotte street in london at 9:30. so went to the charlotte street hotel (highly recommended, IMO) for a proper english breakfast. so good so far. had meeting, then got on train for newcastle for the next day's meetings. left from king's cross station, of harry potter fame. tried harry's trick of running thru stone arches to enter train. failed. took normal route. passed much lovely countryside. could see lovely gothic cathedral in durham as trained passed. arrived newcastle. checked into hotel. went out to dinner. big mistake.

i'm issuing my own travel advisory. in newcastle, avoid upon pain of a slow lingering death the wild mushroom rissotto. ate dinner about 8 pm. by midnight, i was becoming intimately familiar with every square inch of my hotel room's bathroom. food poisoning is, i think, a sneak peek of death. for the next 24 hours, i contemplated exactly how much the human stomach could contain, and exactly how long, and in how many ways, it could be emptied. missed a full day of meetings. but saw about six replays of chelsea beating leicester city. awoke friday morning still quesy but able to venture more than ten feet from a bathroom. which was good, because i was to fly home that day. got to newcastle airport for a 9:50 flight. saw many people drinking beer at the airport pub at 9 am. visited bathroom. flew to heathrow on BA. declined kind inflight offer of a bacon roll. got to heathrow and virtually crawled to virgin lounge. perhaps the nicest lounge i've come across. richard branson, god bless you. was a bit windy and bumpy for seven hours flying home. played with my seat some more. visited the bathroom. pitied the poor passenger who visited it next, but was glad that the cabin was dark, so maybe i was able to enter and leave unnoticed.

i'm home now. my stomach is accepting solid food again. and i continue to hold english cuisine in the highest esteem. and please pardon the tastelessness of this final comment but i had alot of time to ponder it. we need a new color in our security warning system. we need threat level brown for the wild mushroom rissotto in newcastle. cheers.

ps: sorry for my awful spelling.

[Kevin]

Climb,

Similiar to what I said when you were concerned about flying. "Don't let those bastards win." You keep eating the wild mushroom rissotto. If you stop, you will show the terrorists that they stopped you. Remember we are counting on you. By the way I hope you don't mind if I don't follow you in a paceline for a while.

I am glad you are back.

Kevin

[TimD]

Ouch.

[MallyG]

I wish I hadn't asked!