The Journey, Part 3

So, I'm now sat in the departure lounge at Orlando.

There was some confusion over my bags.

I was sat near the desk, so as to be able to hear any announcements (the tannoy system was a little bit useless).

I heard "Would Clark, party of two, please contact the staff at Gate 85".

Well, that's not me. I'm a party of one. The some other girl appeared, and said she was Laura Clark. She disappeared off again, and then came another announcement...

"Would passenger Matthew Clark please contact the staff at Gate 85".

So I did, and she gave me a bit of flack for standing there when she announced the first time. Hang on a minute... You cocked up. I'm a party of 1, not 2. And Clark is a common name.

So all they wanted to do was check they'd got the right bags.

That done and dusted, I got on the plane, a Boeing 747.

I'd been sat down about 10 minutes (complete with 2 other people "blocking me in"; I had a window seat. More announcements... "Would passenger Matt Clark from Charlotte please make himself known to the cabin crew". So I did. Turns out they wanted to check they had loaded the right bags. Well I'd got the right receipts, and I'd seen them load my bags onto the plane.

I got back in my seat, and settled down for an otherwise uneventful journey.

The Journey, Part 2

So I arrived at Orlando just about on time.

I thought to myself, do I need to collect my bags and re-check them in again? I wasn't sure, so I took the receipts to the baggage desk. The agent there said "Give them a few minutes... they'll be on belt 10 soon."

So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. My travel buddy, a very nice art and design student from up north somewhere, collected her bag. I was sure that the Charlotte bags had appeared, but still no sign of mine. Then some bloke came and took off all the other bags, and switched the belt off.

I went back to the baggage office, and another bloke said "Hmmm... Those have been tagged all the way to Gatwick. They'll already been on the plane. One was not amused. I'd just stood around for half an hour, when I've only got an hour and a half to change flights.

I hot-footed it around to the Virgin desk (on the advice of the bloke at the US airways desk) only to find the flight was delayed by four hours, and Virgin were trying to transfer people onto a later (but earlier) flight.

Phew. I had some extra time.

The Journey. Part 1

The trip home started with packing bags.

Thanks to Chase for helping out with that. Chick-fil-A again when I get back?

Anyway, on to Charlotte airport, and I was greeted by a pianist playing seasonal tunes.

I would like to apologise to Emily though; I can't seem to be able to send the photo to you. I'll fiddle with the phone a bit, and see if I can convince it to behaive itself.

Anyway, after a pleasant hour on the flight to Orlando, things started to go wrong..

Message on a cup...

"A am the best damn scone maker ever!"

Speaks for itself really.

But yes, I hand-made Amber some scones for a special Christmas present.

Cinema.... MUST SEE.... MUST SEE....

So Saturday night, a work colleague and I went to the cinema to watch Avatar.

I'm not going to say too much about the story, for the benefit of those that haven't seen it yet. I don't want to spoil it.

However, in my rating of films, this one ticks ALL the boxes. It's amazing. I was speechless afterwards. The special effects will just blow you away.

If you're over in the UK, it's already been released. GO AND WATCH IT, if you haven't already.

Although I've been to see it in a conventional cinema, I am going to get the IMAX 3D experience.

Dan... You wanted to know. It's well worth going to watch.

Hooters

After a good week at work, I thought I'd treat myself to a drink at Hooters.

So here I am! I hooked my Acer up to the Hooters wifi and away it went.

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the drink :-)

Message on a cup...

"It was Colonel Mustard in the Drawing Room with that bloody candlestick again.

... How do you kill someone with a candlestick?"

This cup revolves around the word "bloody". Which, although considered a bit of a wordy-durd in the UK, is not quite so strong here. And since Amber loves Cluedo, it had to be Colonel Mustard!!!

Message on a cup...

"My Bartender / Waitress really digs my accent"

There's a funny story behind this one...

Those keen blogreaders will note that certain parts of the blog were changed tonight.

I must apologise to Amber. Apparently, her official job title is "Bartender", not "waitress", so I corrected the erroneous entries in the blog.

Artistic Polycups

As I said in the previous post (or maybe a few posts ago), Amber the Bartender writes messages on the polycups.

So, in order to keep the memory of this (my own is a bit sketchy at the best of times...) I'm going to start a new bit on the blog....

"Message on a Cup"

Not very original, I know, but there it is.

So.. I'll start off with a few from the past, and update as we progress through the rest of my stay here in the US.

The two old ones I can remember are:

"I'm stuck here with these guys"

"Mind The Gap... But shop the store... Great sweaters"

I'm sure there was one about pickles...

This weeks to follow...

A small piece of England

So... I've been to Empire Pizza a couple of times now.

It's nice there. Not too busy, and the bartender is really nice. Hi Amber!!!

Last week, however, was a bit special. Someone phoned ahead to let Amber know we were going, and she wore a special T shirt for me. Unfortunately, I don't really look all that good on a photo (I'm usually on the other end taking the picture..) so please excuse my strange face-pulling :D.

As if one British-themed T shirt wasn't enough, the following day, we have an old red phone box... Thankyou Amber, Ben and Dan :)

Salad and a slice of pepperoni pizza, with a large Diet Pepsi :)

A sad day

Sagebrush Rock Hill has closed.

This is bad. Really bad. I liked that place. The food was good, and they always had a table. Always. Everyone knew me there. They were like a second family. And now they've gone.

The signs have gone. The lights are off, and no-one is there. And there's a big container outside.

I'm still in shock.

The next nearest Sagebrush is in Gaffney, which, I think, is about a 30 minute drive from here. I guess I could go there, but it's not the same.

:( :( :(