Hello, finally an internet connection that works. In a nutshell, we’re having a wonderful trip,
although the weather is about what you would expect for Wales in the fall,
coupled with the shirttails of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Gonzalo, we’ve been
kind of in and out of showers most every day. And, since this is supposed to be
a food missive rather than a travel missive (which it sort of has been lately)
I thought I’d do a quick food update, before I forget the details.
For the purpose of this issue, the worst of times refers to
the meal we had on the airline on the way over.
The start of the trip was kind of halting. Actually all the logistics of getting to the airport
were fine, and we were even able to benefit from MFO’s little sheet of paper
that got her TSA Pre-approved. Shoes,
belt, pants stayed on, only laptop and cell phone out of cases. Not bad.
With the usual Dulles walk about, after a brisk walk of seemingly miles,
we arrived at our gate, and met the rest of the travelers for our trip. More new friends along with re meeting old
ones, or I guess is should say previous fellow travelers.
It was not a full flight for Manchester, and mercifully both
of us were on adjoining aisles with nobody next to us, and in fact, MFO was the
only occupant of her row. The center
seat in my row was empty. As part of our
planning for the trip we had “upgraded” to that nebulous class of seats called:
“economy plus” or something that gives you a little more room for your knees
and tray tables, which in fact it does and is well worth the fairly nominal
price.
So I settled back ready to enjoy the flight as much as
possible. Soon after takeoff, I got out
my Bose headphones, ready to connect to the entertainment system, eager for
that first drink before dinner. The
first indication of not the best of times was when I touched “music” on the
touch screen and got a screen full of “Selection Not Available” avatars in the
classical music menu. Tried, jazz, pop,
R&B, all same stuff. About this time
the attendant came trudging down the aisle with her cart, and when she got to
our row, I asked her about it and got a reply of “Oh, we don’t have ANY music
channels anymore”. Huh? Yes, so many people have their own devices
that we discontinued it. Well, lady, I
don’t! Out of luck there. At any rate I would like a Scotch on the
rocks, please. Admittedly, it has been a
while since we’ve done international
flights, but I swear then the drinks were complimentary. Nope, $5 and we accept (only) major credit cards. This was anticipated as the thoughtful folks
at Cole Travel included two drink chits in our envelope. So armed with the slip I was presented with a
plastic of ….Dewars. Um, do you have
anything else? No sir that’s all the
scotch we have. Fine, no music, a
pedestrian scotch, and no warmed nuts.
Fine. Cold nuts in a bag would
have been nice, so we broke out some of the ones MFO purchased at the airport
for probably twenty dollars a pound.
I was going to surrender my second voucher to dull the frustration,
but before I could do that, the rumbling cart re-appeared and I was quizzed:
“chicken or pasta”. I took the former
and MFO the latter. Well, I don’t enjoy
complaining although I do it well, but what followed was the absolute worst
excuse for a meal any airline has had the audacity to set before me. Exactly as presented (or rather chucked on the tray):
Which looked like this after unwrapping everything
3585
MFO’s Pasta like material appeared as
Despite a gallant attempt, I honestly could not eat the chicken. You know that texture that results from
cooking with steam (in like a Combi oven?)
kind of spongy, bread like stuff?
Even so, it was so tough I couldn't cut it with the plastic tools they gave
us. I had to unceremoniously hold it by
hand, and bite it and even then it gave up reluctantly Two bites and back to the plastic tub. awful.
I passed the time by watching a couple of movies, “Chef”
which was kind of a foodie movie, and then a rather odd one called the Grand
Budapest or something like that.
Anyway, we finally landed, and we knew we were in a
different country
So off we went to tour, our first stop being Chester
And lunch in a recommended Pub, the Brewery Tap, which i had researched. Nice Job.. feeder...
There's nothing like it at home.. Wise travelers that we are we knew to get the menu at the bar
I ordered a version of "bangers and Mash" and ti was pretty good.
More to come, as wireless becomes available... oh yes, within our packed bags were the necessaries to be
DFD
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