PlanetAnya

You might know that our corporate airline of choice is United (or Untied as my fingers seem to insist on typing). Anyway the cool thing is that because the planes are ancient and the cabin crew geriatric there was a deal done that means that if we fly international business we get upgraded if there’s space.  So before you go all “oooooh get you” if you’ve ever flown on United you’ll know that’s not really _such_ a big deal.

Anyway for the first time I got to see one of the refurbished planes – and actually they aren’t bad. Crazily even in first in most United planes you still only get a choice of 4/5 progammes that aren’t on demand. But the new ones have – I watched Deception (not bad actually), Kung Fu Panda (liked it but then I’m a sucker for cartoons) and Sex and the City (wow how overrated is this? Yawn) all at a time when it suited me. There’s still the odd reminder of the age of the planes – such as ashtrays in the loos but otherwise not too bad at all.

The seat is also pretty nice  – all curvy with lots of secret hiding spaces for stuff. The only really unusual feature is a three point belt/ harness. I’ve never seen that on a plane before. Otherwise the thing goes flat. Which is nice if you want to sleep.

Something very strange happened here the other day. Petrol prices (I still refuse to call it gas) went down. Now I’m very familiar with prices at the pump going up when the cost per barrel goes up – but I can never recall them going down when the price per barrel drops. What a fantastic surprise.

The price rises have been a HUGE source of wailing and gnashing of teeth here – with people even selling Corvettes and buying Smart cars because of the rise (as if you buy a Corvette for its petrol consumption). OK so it did increase significantly but compared to what we pay in the UK – it is still cheap as chips. I merrily fill my car with super-premium-with-knobs-on-petrol with a smile on my face. Usually a fill costs me about $40 🙂

I’ve mentioned the level of journalism you’ll find in some of the papers here before. Today I read a Pulitzer prize possibility in USA Today (the newspaper you step over when you leave a hotel room in the US). Anyway, today’s gripping front page news (below the fold but still front page) was that 21 year olds get shitfaced to mark the ability to drink legally. Who knew? Lucky we have such insights or we wouldn’t know what was going on in the world.

Additional insights include the shock revelations that, during the 24 hours surrounding their 21st birthday celebrations 54% experienced a hangover (surely not), 34% threw up and amazingly 26% suffered embarrassment.

I know I spend quite a lot of time bashing some of the stuff out here (don’t mention the food – urgh). Anyway there is one thing that is waaaaaay better. Don’t laugh but it is washing machines. Yes they are butt ugly but they are HUGE so you can get masses of stuff in, but they also only need 20 mins or so to wash your clothes. The fact that they are ugly isn’t a drama as they won’t really fit into most kitchens anyway – as you can see this is in the cellar. I guess that’s why you don’t see them in Europe.

I’ve never been much of a fan of TV stands. Well actualy that’s not quite true – they have always been in the same category as white goods and lawn mowers as far as how interesting they are to shop for. A girl going out to buy a TV stand must be the same as a boy going off to buy conditioner or hair straighteners. Anyway I finally gave in and bought a TV stand.

OMG this thing has transformed my life (OK not quite but it HAS transformed my living room). All the DVRs/ music stuff etc are no longer scattered around the floor with their accompanying tangle of wires and cables. This thing is fabuous. Unfortunatey I don’t have a before picture but here’s after:

Another thing that really struck me on the roadtrip is how much of the scenery is absolutely stunning. The trip took us as far as South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Touring round here was completely breathtaking. Here are a couple of tasters.