17 April 2007
Quote:
A $250 Room Recovery Fee will
be charged for smoking in your guestroom.
Lost in America (part 2)
My flight to New York
finally departed at 11:00AM or so. When I arrived in New York it didn't
even rain. At least they have free wi-fi hotspots at JFK -- but
unfortunately not enough AC plugs. It was like waiting for the swings on
the playground - every plug was occupied with desperate people's laptops,
mobiles and DVD players. My flight to Buffalo was scheduled for 8PM and
was still "ON TIME" when I arrived. We eventually departed with
about 50 minutes delay after waiting for another delayed plane that carried
7 people who were connecting. It was interesting to watch the people on
my plane get upset about that wait. One man protested because he
had earlier missed his connection by 5 minutes so he didn't want to wait
for those people now who were 40 minutes late. I think few people
had had a similar long delay like me. I couldn't be bothered now that I
was already sitting on the plane! Hurray!! I watched 2 1/2 episodes
of Star Trek which is enough to console me with the world in any
situation. In Buffalo a nice young man found a taxi for me and even my
luggage arrived totally intact. It was like a miracle! See, I'm easy to
please. I made it to my hotel by 11:30PM, technically still on the same
day that I originally was supposed to arrive. It felt like such an achievement after they
had tried to convince me that the soonest I could get a connection from
Denver to Buffalo would be Wednesday night! I checked in and plundered the minibar. Shockingly you have to pay for the corkscrew! How cheeky!
How
else would you open the bottles of wine?!
I wrestled the free wireless access PIN out of the front desk lady, but
the next morning I couldn't establish a connection anymore, so I clicked
on the pay-by-day service. Let's see if I can get my money back. If not I
will charge it to the company, because I have used it for answering work emails.
More worryingly than my
travel delays however were the strange ongoings on YouTube and Gaydar: All
of George's videos are deleted, and his Gaydar account appears to be
closed!! How are we supposed to send him drunken PMs now?! Susan is very
worried, and I am wondering if there is maybe a plan behind it all?
We now think we've found him again, but of course there's no way of
knowing... If I get a chance I will ask him where all the YouTube videos
have gone. I guess that's an OK question, much better than announcing an
"exclusive interview for the new Culture Club forum"! I would love to see
his face when that happens, and I just might -- if DP is real, which I doubt.
Today I went to see the
falls, which are much easier accessible than I thought they would be. The
city is so funny! It's like a British seaside resort with all the
fairground attractions, eating places, and amusement halls -- only
about 80 times bigger! It is totally low season so not many tourists are
about, but I can just imagine the mayhem in summer. If Denver was "wet", this
place is definitely more "wet" -- but it did not rain today, which was
nice. The falls have snow and stuff all around them still, and ice is
floating on the water, which is probably why the Maid of the Mist boat
tours aren't going. What a pity, I was looking forward to that. Instead I
went on the "Tour Behind the Falls" -- which was also kind of limited, but
still something to do. I also went up the Skylon tower, just so. Then I
had lunch and went back to the hotel for a nap.
In the afternoon I took advantage of the pool, the sauna and the
whirlpool, listened to George on Radio 2 talking about the history of
Studio 54 (?), wrote some emails, and then went for dinner. I'm still
answering my work e-mails like I am at work, but people are not sending
me much. I miss them! LOL
I'm loving the American "niceness" in the service industry! It's so funny to get totally friendly responses to my friendly approaches! For once I don't feel like a total moron, but instead like I'm acting in some kind of play: "Hi, I'm Debbie! I'm taking care of you tonight!" - "Wonderful, thank you so much!" - "This is great, thank you!" - "Could you maybe bring me another glass of wine?" - "Fabulous, I can do this for you!" etc.... I can say things like "smashing!" or "most definitely!" or "No change, thanks!" -- and people are all positive and enthusiastic! Of course one could say it's all "fake" friendliness, but I'd rather have fake friendliness than genuine nastiness any time.
I'm watching TV and just now a programme came on called "The Knit Cafe" where people compare beautiful yarns and patterns! How funny after what Craig has told me about his colleague who has asked him if he wants to join the "knitting circle" and who talks about nothing but knitting and is stalking knitting authors! LOL
Happy to be there!
Combi-view of my room and the sights
View of Niagara Falls from my room
My hotel
At the falls
View of the casino
On the Skylon tower
