The New Heathrow Terminal

LONDON: British Airways canceled 37 flights Sunday and has yet to clear a backlog of about 15,000 pieces of luggage after disruptions at London Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 spilled into a fourth day.

The carrier has so far abandoned only short-haul and domestic flights, to cities including Amsterdam and Glasgow, representing about 11 percent of all flights.

British Airways, based in London, has canceled more than 200 flights since the terminal opened March 27, after computer log-on failures for baggage handlers and delays at staff car parks sparked turmoil at the airport, Europe's busiest. The number of flights canceled Sunday fell by 30 from 67 yesterday.

About 6 percent of the baggage British Airways has handled in the past four days still has yet to reach its owners, the spokeswoman said. The carrier, Europe's third-biggest, is already Europe's worst airline for lost luggage and the second-worst for delayed bags, according to the Air Transport Users Council.

Terminal 5 took two decades to plan and build at a cost of 4.3 billion pounds, or $8.6 billion, as the UK government battled campaigners who said the building would only add to congestion at Europe's busiest airport. British Airways has said the terminal will ease journeys and help retain passengers disillusioned with Heathrow's overcrowding.

[source: International Herald Tribune]

***

We're pretty happy that we flew with United and not British Airways. Otherwise, we would have been caught up in all this mess. And our luggage would probably be still sitting at Terminal 5 in the pile of 15,000 that still haven't been shifted. This actually explains something. Yesterday, when we were trundling down the sidewalk to our apartment we passed two old codgers who made some comment about "oh, you must be coming from Terminal 5". We just laughed politely and continued trundling. I guess they were referring to the aforementioned snafu.

The new Terminal 5... According to the news yesterday, the problems started when nearly all the employees didn't have anywhere to park when they arrived on opening day. Therefore, there were only two check-in desks open. Parking for employees... a pretty fundamental thing to have on the ol' "To Do" list!

Doesn't bode well for the Olympic Village, currently under construction around London.

Florida!

We had a really nice, relaxing time in Florida. Neither of us was looking forward to coming back to England. K had been there since the end of February and I was there from March 15th. Most of our time was spent taking in American culture, eating at our favorite places (like Pollo Tropical, Fernanda's, Taco Bell, The Cheesecake Factory, and others), doing work around the house, and generally "wasting" time. Hardly thought about work at all, except for dreading this coming Monday (it's going to be insanely busy for the first 5 weeks of term). Also read through K's PhD. It's very good! I had a red pen in hand, but I didn't need to use it much.

Last weekend, we drove up to the Tampa/St.Pete area to see my sister and her fiance. We had a great, low-key weekend doing the same things mentioned above. It was just nice to see them again. The St. Pete area is very intriguing.

My mom came back from Sweden this past Tuesday, so we got to spend a little time with her, too. She had a nice time seeing her family and only had to spend about a day in the Stockholm snow before being back in warm Florida.

It was comforting to be back in the US. I thought I would have had a bigger culture shock, but it wasn't too bad. And we quickly delved into the American consumer habits (driving around in an SUV and buying things). I'd like to think we weren't too extravagant, though. We were just buying food, some clothes (which we really needed), and a few other bits and pieces.

Now we're back in England. We left Friday on a 1.40 flight through Washington DC. Got to London Heathrow at 5.50 in the morning. It was a really short flight, so we must have had a hell of a tailwind. They had to get special permission to land at Heathrow during curfew (no flights before 6am). Took a National Express bus at 7.10 and arrived in Westbourne around 9.30 tired as hell and bleary-eyed. A nap was definitely in order! Then we went to M&S to get some food for the weekend. Since then we've been unpacking, checking email, and restarting our life over here. I'm so glad it's Sunday tomorrow so I have another day to unwind before going back to the salt mine on Monday.

Tonight Europe finally turns its clocks forward.

An Easter Message from MM

So? ... A Note from Michael Moore

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Friends,

It would have to happen on Easter Sunday, wouldn't it, that the 4,000th American soldier would die in Iraq. Play me that crazy preacher again, will you, about how maybe God, in all his infinite wisdom, may not exactly be blessing America these days. Is anyone surprised?

4,000 dead. Unofficial estimates are that there may be up to 100,000 wounded, injured, or mentally ruined by this war. And there could be up to a million Iraqi dead. We will pay the consequences of this for a long, long time. God will keep blessing America.

And where is Darth Vader in all this? A reporter from ABC News this week told Dick Cheney, in regards to Iraq, "two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." Cheney cut her off with a one word answer: "So?"

"So?" As in, "So what?" As in, "F*** you. I could care less."

I would like every American to see Cheney flip the virtual bird at the them, the American people. Click here and pass it around. Then ask yourself why we haven't risen up and thrown him and his puppet out of the White House.

The Democrats have had the power to literally pull the plug on this war for the past 15 months -- and they have refused to do so. What are we to do about that? Continue to sink into our despair? Or get creative? Real creative. I know there are many of you reading this who have the chutzpah and ingenuity to confront your local congressperson. Will you? For me?

Cheney spent Wednesday, the 5th anniversary of the war, not mourning the dead he killed, but fishing off the Sultan of Oman's royal yacht. So? Ask your favorite Republican what they think of that.

The Founding Fathers would never have uttered the presumptuous words, "God Bless America." That, to them, sounded like a command instead of a request, and one doesn't command God, even if they are America. In fact, they were worried God would punish America. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington feared that God would react unfavorably against his soldiers for the way they were behaving. John Adams wondered if God might punish America and cause it to lose the war, just to prove His point that America was not worthy. They and the others believed it would be arrogant on their part to assume that God would single out America for a blessing. What a long road we have traveled since then.

I see that Frontline on PBS this week has a documentary called "Bush's War." That's what I've been calling it for a long time. It's not the "Iraq War." Iraq did nothing. Iraq didn't plan 9/11. It didn't have weapons of mass destruction. It DID have movie theaters and bars and women wearing what they wanted and a significant Christian population and one of the few Arab capitals with an open synagogue.

But that's all gone now. Show a movie and you'll be shot in the head. Over a hundred women have been randomly executed for not wearing a scarf. I'm happy, as a blessed American, that I had a hand in all this. I just paid my taxes, so that means I helped to pay for this freedom we've brought to Baghdad. So? Will God bless me?

God bless all of you in this Easter Week as we begin the 6th year of Bush's War.

God help America. Please.

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

It's done!

After two years of research, 104 working-weekends and 296 pages of writing, editing, rewriting and proofreading, my PhD dissertation is finished. The defense is scheduled for late June, so technically the degree isn't complete yet but barring any major issues, the research and writing are done!

Yay!

~K

A Pro-England Blog Entry - Part 2

Finally, Part 2 of the two-part blog entry attempt at balancing the vitriol unleashed in the past 3 years or so. A Vitriol-offset scheme, if you will. Sure it's not going to solve the problem entirely, but it might make a dent (just like the carbon offset schemes).

There are a lot of great things about living in Europe (that's why we did it in the first place). There were a few reasons why we moved to Europe: a higher quality of life; a better work/life balance; living in a more open-minded culture less focused on vanity, materialism and gluttonous consumption of EVERYTHING; and to do something challenging. [It would be easy to say we moved because of the Bush Administration, but that was only a minor factor.]

England has most of the above factors, though I'd argue the quality of life is not as high as in Europe (or even the US) and there is almost as much consumer-driven gluttony here as there is in America. Not nearly as bad, but they'll get there soon enough. Anyway, to the good points!

- Better work/life balance. Full-time employed workers get a lot of vacation days compared to the US. I currently get 35 days per year. The full-time work week is generally 37 hours. Americans tend to define themselves by their trade. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that Americans tend to live to work, whereas Europeans work to live.

- Strong currency. The Pound Sterling is very stable and usually strong. It's still almost $2 to a £. That makes it really cheap for us when we visit the US and it allows us to send a fair amount of dough to our US bank account every month. We've still got some debts there, after all.

- Great dairy products. K isn't really that willing to accept this, but the dairy products in England are much better than in the US. The milk and cream tastes so much better. The cheese is more flavorful because it's not pasteurized to hell. And you can get real buttermilk here. The dairy in Continental Europe is even better (except for in Southern Europe).

- Good beer. The UK is the home of several beer styles that the US emulates or used as a reference. To name a few: India Pale Ale, Barleywine, Mild, Bitter, Stout, and Porter. These have been brewed here for a couple of 100 years. The traditional way of serving these beers is hand-pumped from casks (wood or steel) kept in the pubs cellar. It is not artificially carbonated or indeed "fizzy" at all. The beer is transferred into the casks just before it finishes fermenting so it can finish in the cask. This creates mild, natural carbonation. It is "Living Beer". Furthermore, it is not served icy cold, but at cellar temperature (54-57 degrees F). This method of serving is called "Real Ale". Unfortunately, it is kind of dying out and it takes the efforts of CAMRA to keep it vital. The typical lament of some tourists to the UK is "they serve the beer flat and luke-warm" (mis-stating it a bit!). It takes some getting used to at first, but it's actually easy-drinking and much easier to taste and smell the nuances of a good beer when it's served that way. That doesn't mean serving beer by other methods is wrong, of course. This is just the best way to serve the traditional British ales.

- Beautiful countryside (in some areas). You've seen it in movies, on television, postcards, or if you've been for a drive over here. The quaint, English countryside is lush, green, and "cute" what with the hedgerows, fluffy livestock, and thatch-roof buildings. Some of the coastal areas are breathtaking. And then, of course, there's the Scottish Highlands which K and I absolutely adored.

- English-speaking. Ok, let's face it. We loved Belgium, but the language-barrier was a bit of a problem. In that respect, it is a bit easier to live in the UK as opposed to "the Continent". There's always Sweden and Denmark, but that wouldn't really work for K!

- Fewer advertisements. It's so much nicer to watch TV over here. The BBC has no advertising breaks and most of other stations only have three to four short breaks. It's always such a "culture shock" when we're back in the US and a show gets constantly interrupted with loud, annoying ads. We don't miss that!

- Good produce. Lots of great "fruit and veg" (if you go to the right place) and it's very easy and cheap to get organic produce. We were having them delivered straight to our door from local farms for a while there (until we moved to a top-floor apartment and the delivery guy could no longer leave it on our porch). I think they generally use less pesticide here, too.

- The Royal Mail. I believe we've mentioned this before, but we are just damn impressed with the postal service over here. The Brits make it a national past-time to complain about it, though I don't understand why. You put a 1st Class stamp on a letter, stick it in one of those funny, red mailboxes in the morning, and more often than not, the letter arrives at it's destination the very next day. And that's even considering the fact that half the country doesn't have house numbers! Or street signs!

- Freeview. This is free digital TV over a standard antenna. You buy a Freeview receiver for about £20-30, plug it in, and voila! Decent quality digital TV with quite a few channels to choose from. We don't have this anymore because we've upgraded to satellite television, but we did have it for a while. Can't beat it!

- Quality television. Speaking of TV, there are a lot of great shows being produced here. Again, the Brits like to complain about the state of British comedy, but we've certainly been kept in stitches! I still like the original British version of The Office more than the American one. Then there are our favorite British comedians: Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Eddie Izzard, and Ricky Gervais, to name a few current ones. And the BBC has fantastic nature documentaries all the time. David Attenborough is a god!

- Free PhD. K is doing a PhD for free! Even before she switched over to full-time PhD-ing, she was getting paid AND being allowed to do her PhD without paying tuition. Then she was offered a chance to have a "bursary" which is basically government funding to study. She's fairly sure she would not have been able to swing that in the US where you have to apply for a grant with all the competition involved.

- An incredible variety of potato chip (crisps) flavors. It's amazing. Never have I been to a country that had so many different flavorings for deep-fried thin slices of potato. Things like: roast chicken, chargrilled steak, thai sweet chili, caramelized onion and balsamic, prawn and cocktail sauce, mango chutney, and on and on. The roast chicken one is really weird because it smells EXACTLY like roast chicken (and so do your hands for about three days afterwards).