I got up at six this morning, well to you, it's yesterday morning. It's been a long day and my head feels a little giddy with gradual moments of swayage, like when you were five and span around as much as possible to the point of bubbling-stomach-pukeiness.
My journey was full of odd, incidental little stories starting with a lengthy chat to a monk in full-monk-gear complete with matching coloured trainers whilst waiting to check-in at Manchester, he'd just been up in the Lake District camping by a temple and was on his way back to Connecticut via New York. He seemed almost totally amazed by the good weather they'd had over the Bank Holiday weekend and had all these 'monk waterproof overalls' left over that he hadn't used, now there's a shop I'd like to find...
Next, at the security I got delayed whilst observing the chat between the man in front of me putting his hand luggage through the machine and a security guard. .
As he puts his bag through, the man says, “Oh, I've got two chunks of cheese in there...”
There's a brief pause as they disappear under the flaps before reappearing the other side. The security guard gives him a slight frown.
“I'm sorry we'll have to confiscate them.”
“But, it's just cheese...”
“Well, it is liquid-based... Sorry.”
At this point, I'm now repacking my laptop into my bag and making my way to the departure lounge and the man is still protesting behind me.
“At least let me keep the Branston pickle...”
I swear this actually happened, it's just too odd for me or anyone else to actually think up something this bizarre.
I struggle to sleep on planes sometimes, so I tried to immerse myself in Andrew Keen's 'The Cult of the Amateur' which is an extremely critical look at the Internet and how sites like YouTube and Wikipedia might be destroying our culture. It raises a lot of good points about people looking for viewpoints and media sites similar to their own simply to reconfirm their own thoughts and beliefs, but it misses out on the fact that mainstream media, in the US at least, seems to be running the same way these days, with less reporting and more opinion-based items. Also, there's a section where he goes after online-poker in a big way, with a story of a bright young kid, going huge into debt and then robbing a bank for money. But at the same time, there's no mention of betting on horses online, or the very underhand way in which the UIGEA bill was passed either. But despite these criticisms, it's definitely a book work reading as does make you think about the future of the internet.
Getting the second plane from Atlanta to Las Vegas, I spotted Andy Black sitting 6 rows in front of me, I do know him well enough to chat to him but never got the chance, shame because the banter he usually dishes out is always highly entertaining. As I got off the second plane, I was walking past the staff thanking them, then one of the air-hostesses got wind of my accent and said, “Oh I love the British accent, please can you say the word 'Water' for me?” Due to tiredness (which also prevented me from making the slightly pedantic point that it's an English accent, not a British one) and also a slight sense of superiority, I acquiesced. “Oh my god, I love the British accent,” she said with a sigh.
That's me. Takin' chips and breakin' hearts.
At this point, I really should stop and grab some food, but I've just had a phone call from Rod, whose luggage has gone missing at LV airport and he's having to wait around, so I'll probably wait for him instead. Meanwhile, Pab has already invited us to what he describes as 'The Ultimate Balla House' that he's sharing with Moomin, Allinstevie and Geeforce. Certainly it'll be something worth seeing, await a trip report and pics in the upcoming days.
Finally before I forget, it's song of the day (I'm actually more interested to know what people think of the songs as opposed to everything else in the blog!). My choice today is 'Break 'em All Down' by The Soledad Brothers. It's a pretty simple song really. It's awesome bluesy rock with lyrics all about gambling.
Enjoy.