26, 27, 28, 29, 30

26 - Drive a Saab convertible to Williamsburg, Virginia. Eat hickory smoked burgers in a 17th century tavern, check out the open air museum and drive home to eat German food at the Bier Garden, High St, Portsmouth, VA.

27 - 5am. Up. Flight to La Guardia, NYC. Hire Car. Oh no: Ford Taurus. Spend day in NYC. See Ground Zero, swan around, get sore feet, hit Easton, Connecticut. Drink Beer. Eat Mexican food (Steak Diablo) Have beer. Fall asleep.

28 - Black Rock Turnpike, Easton, Connecticut, Olde Blue Bird Inn: pancakes, syrup, bacon, tea. Westport, Connecticut. Shopping. Driving. New England roads. Coffee. Beer. Food (Tengda, Westport, Asian restaurant) See a band in Viva Zapata, Riverside Av, Westport.

29 - Mystic, Connecticut, wait 35 minutes to be seated in "Friendly's", visit Aquarium, drive past Mystic Pizza, head home. Pizza. Beer. Evening of drinking Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at Bobby Q's, Main Street, Westport.

30 - Wendy's Jalapeno Cheese Burger, Shopping. Midday snooze. Write this. Must get beer... Sam Adams Cherry Wheat or a Blue Moon (weissbeer)

Merry Christmas

Just popped in at 12:21 EST to say a quick Merry Christmas to you all :* :)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

(aka London to New York in just 36 hours or Farnborough to Virginia in only 46 hours)

It started like this...

Tuesday:

Up at 5am and into the car (that wouldn't start at first - I think it needs a new starter motor) We drive to Southall to park the car and get two separate shuttles to Heathrow T4 and T2

8am: Get text message from BBFK... "I'm at the wrong airport" BBFK should have been at London City Airport (Docklands I think) for a 9:30 flight to New York via Amsterdam and Lever's flight to New York via Madrid was at 12:15. How TF did that happen?

BBFK gets tickets transferred and finally exchange of tickets for a direct flight to New York.
Lever waits around for 7 hours whilst fog delays flights.

Madrid

BBFK touches down in New York and spends night in Brooklyn.
Lever touches down at Madrid Airport at 7pm and is told the next flight out to JFK is Wednesday 1pm, 18 hours away...

After trudging 2 hours through Barajas airport, being sent form pillar to post, Lever finally secures a ticket that will gain him a bus ride, a meal and a bed for the night... sans suitcase, fresh clothes and washing kit.

Oh, and if you ever get banged up in the Tryp Diana Madrid ignore the quatro estellas rating... it's about the equivalent of a UK/US 2 star!

After a bland meal and a couple of small glasses of frothy-topped CruzCampo it's off through the threadbare corridors to the flaky bedroom for 8 hours kip.

Wednesday:

10am: Go. Catch bus to Barajas Airport, sit in the departure lounge and be thankful for the sound of the English language... Americans, Germans, a couple of Brits and a Puerto Rican.

Hit JFK at 3pm and find lost luggage, getting the grouchiest of Russian yellow cab drivers to whizz me to La Guardia and giving him $20 too much in the rush.

BBFK's phone worked yesterday in NYC when I called her from Madrid but today mine doesn't work in NYC so we're completely incommunicado. I check-in my luggage at La Guardia, 4pm, for the 6pm flight to Newport News airport and wait to see if BBFK turns up. The guy at the gate says best to pass through security by 5:25pm at the latest. So I wait...

At 5:25pm I decide it's time to go to my gate when BBFK arrives! We check her in just in time and race to the gate via the security check where we have to even remove our shoes and belts... before stuffing ourselves onto a plane to Newport News. I also find out that she lost her phone.

By the time we extract ourselves from the plane and head out to the baggage carousel we're the last ones there with all but one case. Yes, we're a case down! So we leave the airport bound for Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia, and get there a mere 46 hours after we left home :) So that's 3 planes, 2 trains and 4 automobiles.

I do love travelling but after this episode I'm so glad to finally stop moving..

Magnarok

aka Magna Rock.

What? Well seeing as I'm gonna miss out on the Hawkwind Christmas Party due to a flight tomorrow to New York via Madrid, I decided to go see Hawkwind at Magna in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. It's a long way from here is Rotherham, about 190 miles or 3 hours drive... and all to see Hawkwind a) filming a new video and b) playing a gig in an old Steelworks.

It was a long drive there & back and it was fucking cold when I got there but the small (mercy) bar and the fact that Hawkwind play a rocking live set made up for it. Dave Brock's voice is still good, Richard Chadwick's drumming was superb and Alan Davey was on top form tonight and Lever the wannabe bass hero watched the technique with particular interest :) So here's what I can remember of the play list, I'll tweak it later when I get more info & time.