San Francisco to London

Posted on 2007/02/03 23:17:28 (February 2007).

[Saturday 3rd February]
I took the unusual step for once of starting to write an entry half way through a day, as I'm here at the airport and have some time to waste.

Today has so far been the day of many internet connections. I woke up at the hotel which has been my home for the last three weeks, and before checking out there availed myself of the internet connection a bit. I had a couple of things to drop off at the office on the way to the airport, so also took advantage of that internet connection for a while. Just for kicks, after leaving the office I then sat outside on the grass, and availed myself of the free public wireless they have in Mountain View.

I then drove to the airport, arriving rediculously early, concious I could also take advantage of my NorthWest gold card and use the lounge there. So yet another internet connection (and free beer!).

I randomly bought a boxed set of The Simpsons at the airport, and spent my time in the NorthWest lounge transcoding episodes so I could watch them on my iPod on the plane (thanks HandBrake!), and also downloaded a few bits and pieces from iTunes for additional entertainment whilst flying. Apparently the flight is an hour shorter on the way back, so that plus the fact I ought to have plenty to entertain me should mean it isn't too tedious!

...

So, from here on I'm writing after arriving in the UK. As often seems to be the way, the flight started off pretty miserable and, whilst it didn't particularly improve, I guess I just gradually got used to it. Owing to some "policy issues" and a general lack of organisation, I actually had to fly economy this time, which was pretty depressing. I at least paid the little surcharge to get an exit seat, so legroom-wise I was OK, but the seat was still narrow and uncomfortable, and I had to spend the whole flight sat next to a couple who were just frightfully common. An awful business.

Having flown a couple of times with Virgin recently, it seems I had largely exhausted the movies / TV shows in their selection that I wanted to watch. I did find a couple of things I hadn't seen before though, including Borat and that Chinese film called The Promise. I actually quite enjoyed The Promise, I was pleased they managed to resist that strong temptation in East Asian films to have a thoroughly miserable ending where everyone is dead. Yea, sure they had to kill off a large part of the cast in the closing moments, but not enough to leave me with the feeling of "Well what was the point of all that then?".

Also I watched a few of those episodes of The Simpsons on my iPod, which was a resounding success - that sort of animation seems to come out very well on the little iPod screen.

Hmmm... I'll have to try a couple of animations... So far I've converted a few 50-minute documentaries to the iPod. That format seems to work well enough too. Next up will be some of those Poirot episodes I'm so fond of!

Posted by Nigel at 2007/02/04 20:45:00.

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