Last Wednesday, Mr and Mrs Rambler set sail for their summer hols. We returned to Austin Texas to spend three weeks with Anne's brother and sister in law. Just before we booked our BA flights we went through the new on-line visa waiver procedure. The questions asked are similar to the green form you had to complete on the flight before landing. You may remember being asked whether you have been guilty of any offence of "moral turpitude". Anyway, after completing the form, as if by some cyber magic, we were both allowed entry in the US of A . Couldn't imagine the "huddled masses" using this system!It was our first experience of BA's Terminal 5 at Heathrow. It had a terrible opening last year, but now that the bugs have been ironed out, it offers a much, much better " traveller experience" than was ever offered by its predecessors.
The last time we flew to Austin, our first point of entry was Dallas/Fort Worth. The average time to pass though immigration and customs and get your baggage re-tagged to your destination was at least two hours. This time, travelling via Chicago O'Hare not only sliced a couple of hundred quid off the flight costs, but over an hour from the customs and immigration.
US Immigration employees seem to have had their sense of humour removed, but Anne did enquire why we still had to complete the green Visa Waiver form, and by so doing complete almost exactly the same questions we'd answered on line a couple of months earlier. He confirmed that they could perform all the pre -entry checks before you boarded your flight. And if there was any problem it could be sorted out well before that.
OK, I've given 4.5 stars for BA's new Terminal 5. However the Boeing 777 flight 0295 easily lost BA their 4.5 star rating.
It all started when the Cabin Service Director...don't you just love those trolley-dolley euphemisms? started to scrabble around for the safety briefing props. No sign of the screens lighting up. And with a cursory " the screens are not working in business class" off the cabin crew went with their verbal/manual presentation.
Thirty minutes later, the second officer announced that the on board entertainment system was non-functional, but they were in the middle of talking to a ground engineer to solve the problem.
The flight to O'Hare was just short of eight and a half hours. No entertainment! Rambler managed-just- to entertain himself with his trusty Sony Walkman. A couple of
"Down the Line" podcasts and Radio 4's two part-er of John Mortimer's
The Penge Bungalow Murders to keep him sane
The flight to Austin lasted just over two hours. American Airlines for most of their shorter internal flights use
Mc Donald Douglas super 80s.They must have been in service four thirty years, but they are reasonably spacious and comfortable. He was a little concerned when, five minutes after the pilot started to land at Austin, the passenger opposite was still stretched across three seats, with a large travel bag and its contents strewn over the unoccupied seats!!!!! The plane landed with the passenger belted up, but her luggage was still spread out on the seat!!!!
It's now 90 in the shade: there's a wonderful Mexican restaurant, Jardin Corona, close by. They sell a wonderfully refreshing
margarita.And just in case you thing that the pleasure is without some pain, this is a photo of the Rambler's right leg. Just imagine the size of the creature that bit me!!
On the more serious side, Obama has appointed his first of perhaps two Supreme Court Justices,
Sonia Sotomayor, She has already been branded a racist by
Rush Limbaugh, the right wing Republican radio host. The general view here is the Republicans may make some noises at her confimation hearings, but they would be crazy to cause offence to the hispanic American population. After all, they will soon be the largest racial minority in the US.
And finally, I'm using-for the first time ever- a Mac to type this. And I rather like it!
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