Text 5534, 68 rader
Skriven 2006-09-16 08:30:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: to Hap's 1  - 249
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0911 UA 779 BOS DEN 1335 1559 752 4D Ch 9 Y Empower N

I arrived shortly before noon. No line at security, so of
course the priority line was open - every time I've seen
the concourse jammed, that line has been closed. Security,
now bear in mind this is 9-11, took 2 min tops. So I had
an hour to go to the club, call Carol, get some e-mail out,
and check out the snack situation: apples, plums, Cadbury's
Caramilk, Prize brand raisins, Ruffles, Knott's raspberry
shortbread. The Caramilk is made in Canada, so it's a
compromise between the acceptable stuff from the Continent
and the nasty, cheesy stuff that the American palate expects.
It was only slightly nasty and cheesy, but in common with
most milk chocolates, it was tooth-achingly sweet.

For some reason I thought it was a 1:15 flight, so I rushed
to the gate at 1:05, gave the agent my ticket, and flew
aboard the plane - to find that boarding hadn't started yet,
as it was a 1:35 flight. The flight attendants were still
being briefed. I asked, are you ready for us, and upon
receiving an affirmative (they must have thought that I was
an air marshal or a VIP), went to my seat.

People didn't start boarding for ten minutes after. There
was a preflight drink service. It turned out to be a totally
packed, no empty seat flight.

I snoozed as we took off and headed west; woke up to the
fragrance of warmed nuts. Mine came with a cold Courvoisier.

There was some trouble with the entertainment system, which
had to be reset a couple times. The movie was Poseidon, an
odd choice (disaster movie on an airplane??). Channel 9 was
on, but there was a lot of crosstalk among channels, in
addition to the background noise, which made the audio sound
as if it had been recorded in a subway tunnel with various
gnomes and trolls tromping around in the background. Funny
thing about the movie: at the moment when the ship is hit by
the tidal wave, we entered a zone of light turbulence. If
only movie theaters could do so well.

The lunch choices were "Southwest chicken salad or a roast
beef and red pepper sandwich with mushroom bisque soup" -
I had no strong feeling so said I'd take what was left. I
ended up with the sandwich plate, which turned out to be
quite different from what was advertised. It was a deli
assortment - ham, roast beef, and provolone, on a nasty
little onion roll. The meats were fine. The kicker was that
the soup was a shrimp chowder, quite nice actually, and
superior to what Campbell's used to offer, but probably
trouble for anyone allergic to shrimp or Jewish. The
Southwestness of the salad manifested itself in the form
of a scattering of corn and black beans and a substitution
of ranch for Asian dressing.

The cabin crew were quite helpful, and one flight attendant
was gorgeous; she was working in back and occasionally came
up to help. There have to be some consolations to flying
coach.

I took my usual snooze and was wakened by my seatback being
pushed straight shortly before landing, which was about
10 minutes early.

The Red Carpet Club was grotesquely busy. I got the last
workstation and tapped away happily for an hour.
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