Call me a cynic, but....

You obviously do *DO* slow. If you walked fast on the moving walkway
you would be much faster. Still, you're probably rushing into an early
grave. Can I have your bike after your heart attack?

 

I'm pretty much the same. Ironically, I take my time in getting to
airports, time to chill, etc. At the other end, I can't wait to get out.

 

No, I'm saving time since I get a cardio workout and avoid spending
additional time in the gym. In any case, my car won't be brought to the
front of the airport by the time i get out so I'll have to hang around
for a couple of minutes there.

And re rushing to an early grave, I doubt it. My cardio system is
tip-top according to my recent medical there's a 3% chance of coronary
heart disease in the next ten years (for my age it should be a 7%
chance) exactly the same as it was four years ago.

Anyway, which bike are you angling for; K100 (parked), K100RT, K1100LT
or ZXR750H1?

 

Well, since I generally take an early morning flight (Heathrow at 6.15
means getting up at 4.15) and I can't get out of the house in less than
40 minutes from getting up so I end up doing the hundred miles to
heathrow in about 1 hour 10 to 1 hour 20. This isn't a 'chilled'
journey in the car. It is on the bike though.

Put on Guns n' Roses and go for it basically.

 

Well, yes I use this one when traffic is moving. But it's when traffic
is static and it's slightly awkward to move to 1a through 2.

I just get miffed that people don't automatically get out of my way; if
there's a faster bike behind me I always pull in at the first chance to
let them past.

 

That's your fault for being an hour behind the rest of Europe!

For me, most of my flights are between 7am and 7:30am, so most days
it's a 5am wake up.

Heh, for me it's BBC World.

 

I think that of all the possible ukrm candidates you were number 1 on my
list to come out with these comments. Do you get very cross if the
plane is late when you're travelling on business?

 

I'm with you on the food, and note you make the subtle but essential
distinction between 'being prepared' and 'being served'.

Shite service in restaurants and hotels really, *really* annoys me.[1]

As for waiting - depends in how much of a hurry I am. If I've got a good
book and maybe a Scrabble set, I can wait for a lot of things.

[1] Some years ago, dining at a restaurant in some poncey country club
outside Coventry, with a load of colleagues after a food exhibition at
the NEC:

I've been scoffing different foods all day, and wasn't wildly hungry. My
eye fell on the 'Greek salad', which sounded just the ticket.

After a wait of 50 minutes (!) out came a plate, bearing a neat
hemisphere of shredded lettuce, four tiny cubes of feta cheese, a sliced
tomato, a few slices of cucumber, and a handful of stuffed cocktail
olives.

"What's this?" queried I.

'Your Greek salad, sir.'

"That isn't a Greek salad."

'Yes it is. It's what you ordered.'

"It's not a Greek salad."

Off she went and came back a couple of minutes later with the salad and:
'Chef says it's a Greek salad.'

At this point I seized it, marched into the kitchens, slammed it down on
a surface, and hollered that a Greek salad was composed of a nice lot of
feta cheese, lots of cucumber, lots of tomatoes, a bare minimum of
lettuce and quite definitely decent olives, not stuffed cocktail ones.

There was a deathly hush.....

 

Heh, I do. I have to concentrate to calm myself down. Even worse, is
when you're on the plane and the pilot comes on the tannoy announcing a
30 minute delay 'due to ATC'. Even thinking about it, makes my blood
boil.

Yes, yes, it's irrational, but I'm trying to learn to calm myself down.

 

I'll criticise food, but will rarely send it back. I just don't go back
to the restaurant concerned.

Mind you, I tend not to eat in shite restaurants.

 

No, the delay that *really* gets on my tits is when it's due to some
cloth-eared chav fuckwit who hasn't connected with the final boarding
call, and who has his luggage offloaded.

 

LOL! - splendid. Just like the Waldorf Salad scene from Fawlty Towers.

I can just imagine you doing it too. In that special tone of voice you
reserve for talking to morons [1].

[1] you have a written version too which is just as amusing. I can
picture the disdain on your face when I read your words.

 

I think it's worse with air travel because once you're at the airport
you've nowhere to go and you're crowded in with the seething masses.
Once on the plane you're definitely held hostage.

Thankfully I don't do business travel - except the odd tube ride to
Neasden - and almost all of my flights (to date) have been on time.
Flying with BA back from Berlin last year was an exception which was
very irritating as Tegel is the size of an overgrown bus shelter and has
very little room to deal with the volumes of people that result from a
delayed full plane. Still I get cross if the bus is late!

And to think you only used to get cross when a tin box of circuits fell
over at the weekend. Now you're well on the way to full blown business
induced psychosis. Welcome to the world of management ;-)

 

I've never thought about it that way. It does make sense.

<VBG> Heh, it's a different kind of stress now. TBH it's less stressful
than my previous job, all things considered.

 

If it's crap, I won't have it. It's a product like any other. Why should
you treat it differently from, say, a sweater that turns out to have
only one sleeve?

It also makes a point that (hopefully) someone might react to. Food sent
back means "I'm not paying for this, so don't even think of putting it
on the bill." If more people did it, restaurants would get the message.

 

Whoa, too close for comfort!

Ali

 

I'm always concerned that it comes back after having been rubbed in the
crack of someone's arse.

 

No, I don't really. I don't get cross, I may get impatient but those
are slightly different really.

I've learnt to accept things that are beyond my control. It avoids me
wasting energy getting angry.

 

Heh.

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

Me too, but I don't complain however if the service is crap the tip will
reflect this (i.e. it won't exist).

Well, I pretty much want to be where I want to be rather than waiting to
get there.

And, re footnote; I can actually see you doing that.