Month: September 2004

Inspired by our trip to NY, here’s a new game you can play anytime you buy anything. The objective of the game is to have the last word when ending a transaction, with a secondary aim of scoring as many points as possible, with a point won each time either you or the shop person says something.

An example of how not to play… let’s say you’ve just handed over payment and been given a receipt:

1. You: Thank you.
2. Shop person: You’re welcome.
3. (you leave the store)

You lose: you didn’t have the last word, and it’s a short exchange anyway. Let’s try again:

1. You: Thank you.
2. Shop person: You’re welcome.
3. You: (smile expectantly)
4. Shop person: Have a nice day.
5. You: And you have a nice day too.
6. Shop person: Why thanks.
7. You: You’re welcome.
8. (you leave the store)

Yes! You win, and you score 6 points. Good work.

Medieval history… dull dull dull. Except when Terry Jones does it. I only caught the last two episodes of Medieval Lives, but it was just smashing. Much was learned: Good King Richard I (actually bad); Bad King Richard II (actually good); Hunchback King Richard III (complete fabrication). Or that medieval society was very litigious, spending much time in court rather than, as I probably thought, eating mud or something.

Reading an interview it looks the whole series would be pretty good.
There’s also a book of the series, but I don’t know what that’s like.

On our trip to New York we flew with 2 different airlines, using 2 different UK airports. We left Gatwick on Continental and returned to Heathrow on Virgin – this gave us a pretty good opportunity to compare the service provided.

The service on Virgin was much better, including bringing around ice creams half way through the flight, but Continental was adequate, they weren’t rude or inattentive or anything. The entertainment on Virgin was again better, having a decent selection of films/TV/radio, whilst Continental had a lot less options. The legroom was far and away better on Continental. I’m not especially tall, but when a heavy person sits in front of you and moves around a lot it’s a lot less painful when your knees aren’t actually touching the seat in front. According to Global Airline Seating Guide there is no difference, but on our flights (of course, the different aeroplanes may make a difference, between a Boeing and an Airbus) it felt more like 3 or 4 – quite a noticeable difference.

Update: Just spotted that Pete has blogged on a similar subject, and he found SeatGuru. SeatGuru also seems to display the legroom per plane model per airline. Mind you, this claims that Virgin should have more legroom than Continental on the specific planes we used which wasn’t our experience.

We’re back from a trip to New York. I’ll just mention one thing before I forget: the crossing signs on the streets spoke (not so unusual in itself) but it was more like a song. We got “Wait… Wait…. Wait…. Sixth Avenue! Walk sign is on to cross Sixth Avenue. Sixth Avenue! Walk sign is on …”. There’s something about the pause between “cross” and “Sixth Avenue” that made it flow so well. There’s an example WAV sample of something similar you can listen to, but it’s much too flat – not the same at all. We should have recorded it.

It looks like there will be a parade around London for the Olympic athletes – it’ll be held on Monday 18th October. Other details aren’t known yet, but the BBC mention that it will end in Trafalgar Square, with highlights of the Games being shown on big screens.

Wired had a story yesterday about a guy Segwaying across the US. Another mad scheme. This one seems to be being done to make a documentary out of – rather than just because they can as he counts a “Writer and independent filmmaker” amongst his 4 strong support team and their plan states “And when we’re finished, we’ll wrap it up with a feature-length documentary.” This still counts as an adventure in my books though!

Meanwhile, my friends Vic and Banz and their friends Spencer and Cath continue to make good progress in their respective world trips – both sets are travelling from the UK to Australia – Vic and Banz by bike, Spencer and Cath in a more traditional way.