6 hours ago, MmM said:

I would worry more about what you eat the day before. It takes that long to travel from the stomach to your rectum. 

As I learnt in a previous thread (I think that included a video explaining in perhaps too much detail how the digestive system works) eating stimulates the intestines to move it all along (and it's not simply the pressure of food entering the small intestine, there are hormonal and nerve reactions involved), so eating in the n hours before your meeting will result in some of that s**t being closer - perhaps too close - to the action.

4 hours ago, EZEtoGRU said:

 Here's another example of the spicy food conundrum.  I'm currently on a Delta flight back to Michigan.  Along with the main course, a small salad was also on the tray for my lunch.  They provided a tiny bottle of Spicy Tomato/Chili salad dressing to pour on top.  No non-spicy alternative was available.  I'm not picky about salad dressings.  I can eat French/Ranch/Thousand Island/Blue Cheese/Oil & Vinegar/Many others....but I don't want spicy dressing on my salad.  I did use the dressing on the salad but frankly I do not desire my salad to be spicy.  Very irritating.

18 minutes ago, BuffaloKyle said:

You said no non-spicy alternative was available so you asked that time? I honestly would call Delta customer service. Don't be afraid to speak up.

The cynic in me says that on a US Legacy 3 airline I would need to taste test the dressing before taking their word that it was in fact 'spicy'. One hot chilli in the room when they made it, sure, a lot, or actually any heat in the dressing, maybe not! (And as an aside, to me spicy and hot are not the same thing, there are combinations of aromatic spices that flavour foods that aren't in the least bit hot. Of course there are some cuisines where the two go together, Sichuan being one,)

56 minutes ago, pubic_assistance said:

Why does everything need to be served spicy now?

Probably because the US is finally catching up with the rest of the known world where they like their food to actually taste like something.

(Great Britain not included).

 

This is an outrageous slander of the great British culinary tradition.

Actually, no it's not. It is, however, slightly unfair to say that the idea of food actually tasting like something had completely passed the country by. Curry houses have been popular in the UK for decades, and chicken tikka masala is called a national dish of the country. I haven't been there for years (sorry Jamie) but there was, and perhaps still is, much stodge on offer.

On 3/9/2024 at 11:20 AM, mike carey said:

Lol, my sincere thanks for your concern, and you didn't mention that it's a short domestic flight. I can assure you that the traveller in me is significantly less excited than the avgeekish part. It's a new aircraft type for Australia and an aeroplane that has been widely greeted in the FF blogs as being innovative in its 'passenger experience' (to use the jargon). I won't be wearing a Qantas A220 t-shirt by the pool at InnDulge!

Well, that didn't happen, IRROPS intervened!

My flight home was scheduled to be from LAX to Melbourne but unexpected headwinds resulted in it diverting to Sydney. Easy, refuel and go on, right? Well no. Given the circumstances Qantas handled it reasonably well.

Whether the result of crew duty and an inordinate delay that would have occasioned or the requirements of Australian immigration and customs we had to collect our bags and clear arrival formalities in Sydney. Whether they chose the best solution is a separate question, but their execution of the arrangements were a case study in how to recover well and at the same time a text book example of how to fuck up the communications.

On the aeroplane on arrival the flight crew told us that the flight would terminate in Sydney but they didn't know whether the aircraft would continue to Melbourne with a different flight number (and they didn't address what passengers whose destination was Sydney would do) or we'd clear customs and be rebooked on domestic flights (SYD-MEL is one of the five busiest airport pairs in the world, so onward flights wouldn't be too hard). Fairly quickly the 'clear customs' option was confirmed and we were told an extra SYD-MEL flight had been scheduled (and that SYD pax were free to collect their bags and leave). So far so good.

Quickly the 'shit happens' fairy intervened. The queues for the passport checking machines were slow, but eventually I had cleared it and had my entry ticket in my hand. Then, a problem! The automatic final entry gates hadn't been programmed to expect QF94 pax in Sydney so they didn't work and we had to queue again to be cleared by an immigration officer. Sigh, beyond Qantas' control but not a good look, nor a good first impression for visitors.

Once through that baggage collection and customs took moments (comparatively), and at the Qantas domestic bag drop/check-in area they had reconfigured it to handle our flight separately from other pax, that was smooth and the line kept moving, albeit not at an express pace.

While what we were told by the crew and ground handling staff was accurate (and importantly told us if they didn't yet know something), the overall communications were appalling, as the digital comms were invariably at odds with what actual people were telling us (I have no idea whether the digital part had any human input or if it was all system-generated, but I don't care, it was wrong, incorrect texts, incorrect e-mails that didn't actually matter as I didn't see them till I was home, and incorrect information on their app, but hey, the digital comms all said the same [wrong] thing!).

Surprisingly, not everyone was as sanguine about what was happening as I was and there were plenty of 'worst airline ever', 'totally incompetent' and 'I'll never fly Qantas again' comments being thrown about. There was also a fair amount of unfortunate near-abusive commentary directed at the ground staff member there to answer questions.

I had to laugh, in the five hours after we landed in Sydney, I received 10 (ten) text messages telling me the supposed timing for the new QF94 from Sydney International Terminal to Melbourne, the last when I was in baggage claim in Canberra!

Inconvenient for many, I'm sure, distressing for some who travel rarely, no doubt, but if you could step back for a moment it was interesting to observe the responses, both corporate and individual, and not for the first time I saw a sort of camaraderie among the people going through the 'ordeal'. Okay, so I didn't get my first A220 flight, but I was booked onto a Sydney-Canberra flight, and was home before I would have been on my original schedule. Oh, and I didn't lose the points upgrade I'd scored on the MEL-CBR flight, they put me in J to Canberra.

3 hours ago, Vegas_Millennial said:

That's good information for us in other countries to bear in mind, that single-payer systems have it's drawbacks.  In this case, its the lack of availability for personalized doctor consultation regarding safer sex and preventing the spread of disease.

It may not be as clear-cut as that. A consultation for a specific condition is different to one for sexual health advice, although ideally they would be with the same primary care provider. In Canberra, there is a sexual health clinic that offers advice, testing, vaccinations and related prescriptions. It's run by the territory department of health and is free at the point of service delivery. My last appointment they offered advice on mpox and HPV vaccination (the latter would be at a cost to me) and PrEP on demand.

Now, back to the topic of the thread.

1 hour ago, BenjaminNicholas said:

Bagel from Utopia (Queens, NY).

Fresh lox or nova.

Toast bagel.  Add schmear.  Add salmon.  Add capers.  Add fresh red onion.  Donezo.

This is about as complicated as my cooking skill gets.

However, I make a fantastic reservation.

Whatever you do, don't tell @nycman you prefer a bagel from Queens!

Grin!

6 hours ago, Simon Suraci said:

Accountants work at a ledgerly pace.

Simon, I think your number's up.

5 hours ago, Lookin said:

But I find it very difficult to mince in sneakers.  

OMG!! So, sneakers are straight-people shoes??

Quote

Literally snail mail is faster and more reliable than RentMen Messenger.

Well, that's something I would never have expected to read, @Simon Suraci!

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend, the usual suspects who did the heavy lifting, @Oliver and Phil, @David-SF, @sam.fitzpatrick, @azdr0710 for his tireless taxi service (and bit of In N Out). Thanks @Simon Suraci for your invaluable advice on things to do in San Diego, if only I'd had time to more of them. The zoo is worth it in itself. I know there are things and people I've missed and for that i apologise.  À l'année prochaine!

9 hours ago, BSR said:

A friend of a friend made adobo (kind of a stew w/garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, bit of brown sugar -- unofficial national dish of the Philippines) that was the best I ever had (trust me, I've had a lot of adobo in my life).  When I begged her for the recipe, she said she couldn't give me one because she just eyeballs everything.

I'm sure I could figure out a good recipe for adobo on my own by starting off with a YouTube recipe video and then finessing it.  The problem is that because adobo really stinks up the house, I don't want to make it on the regular.  Too bad because it's a simple recipe, pretty much the Filipino can't-fail dish.

The thing with a lot of those folk recipes is that if you don't know what it 'should' be like and try to make it from a recipe or a video, what your first attempt tastes like will be your 'standard' (or convince you it was a bad idea to even try). If you persevere, you may vary it either by chance or to incorporate suggestions from whatever source, and your 'standard' may shift. If you then try an 'authentic' version, your opinion of it is coloured by your version, for better or worse. And of course every cook from the particular culture has their own version that is 'better than all the others'. And so many 'native speakers' of the dish have similarly vague versions of the recipe as your friend.

15 hours ago, dutchal said:

With that name you'd expect he'd write well and tell a good story.

Yes, but would it be the truth or a fairy tale?

4 hours ago, Vegas_Millennial said:

My 2024 gay lifestyle is pretty fabulous. 🤩

My brothers' lifestyles are all pretty nice, but not quite as fabulous.

It's nice to have a lifestyle that is absolutely fabulous.

4 hours ago, Vegas_Millennial said:

Exactly what I had thought!

Great to have met you, @BodeBrentwood, I'm so glad you enjoyed the weekend.

Spooky!

24 minutes ago, BenjaminNicholas said:

This is a reply with such little understanding that it's nearly satire.

For the op's sake, I hope it is.

You could say that, I couldn't possibly comment!

2 minutes ago, Socalguy said:

Hey there Inndulge peeps! @Robster and I were hoping to head over there to mingle and was wondering if someone might be available to let us in? 

Yep, there's a group playing cards plus a few others. Love to see you here!

15 minutes ago, MikeBiDude said:

Ummm, ok but there are some horror visa/immigration stories entering a certain country down under too!! 🤣

Welcome!!

Oh, yes there are, and for me it was only time, not anything that really affected me in the grand scheme of things. I can live with that!!

And thank you!

In LA, have car, see you all tomorrow!

PS. I hate the LAX immigration queue. Over 90 minutes tonight. OK, I'm over it now!!

10 minutes ago, Oliver said:

What's my congressman doing in Australia??😏  Is this some paid political junket??  Is this for business or pleasure?😋

Hey, a guy's gotta milk this gig for all it's worth!

Eid Mubarak! And a glorious autumn day it is in Canberra. A far nicer day to walk to the bus stop than it was yesterday, 9 degrees at midday and cold rain. And I am about to do just that now, to go to the airport for my flights to Melbourne then on to Los Angeles. I can't wait to get to Palm Springs tomorrow. Well Thursday, and it is already Wednesday here, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

3 minutes ago, samhexum said:

YES... didn't you hear we had an earthquake?

Things shifted a bit.  🙃🙃🙃

Small earthquake in far away country ... nothing to see ...

Seriously, I had heard something about that, but I'm never sure about which small island a place is on ...

To quote another poster, 'grin' ...

6 hours ago, samhexum said:

The new meters, which will first be rolled out in Upper Manhattan on May 8 ...

So is Upper Manhattan in Queens now ... ?

I remember using such a parking meter in Rotorua (on the North Island of Aotearoa) when I was there with two other forum members a few years ago.

1 hour ago, azdr0710 said:

I saw the 2017 eclipse at 100% totality under clear skies (Oregon). It's something everybody should see. Absolutely incredible. We were on a mountain top and watched the shadow race toward us from 100 miles away. 2028 in Australia anybody??!!

1 hour ago, Luv2play said:

What time of the day was that?

And Sydney is in the band of totality but near its southern edge, a bit further north at say Newcastle would be closer its centre. The path of the eclipse will be from the NW, moving to the south-east of the country. I've seen (well experienced) one, 200km south of Canberra, in the mid-seventies. It was overcast, but you certainly knew it was happening, and the 'shadow' of totality was still obvious.