Well, I’m back from my vacation, and I’m pretty wiped – which in my twisted little world means that it was done right. Hey, I was in the UK (and France) – did you expect me to be relaxing on the beach somewhere? Not that I can, really – I hate sitting/lying around in the sun for extended periods of time. Which might explain why I don’t like watching baseball.
Anyway, because I don’t make readers suffer enough, here’s some highlights of my trip.
That would be me and the wife
The groom and the bride
Meeting of the families. Or if you prefer, the Sharks and the Jets
So we were in Coventry from about 9:30pm until 10pm. As were the majority of the guests, which was around 500 (that’s small for an Indian wedding). To say that the wedding was a bit long is an understatement – most of that time was ceremonies and the like. Interesting, but a heck of a long day.
Stratford-Upon-Avon. You should see what happens when a woman touches his (censored)
Captain Picard in a wife-beater. Try to get that out of your minds, too
What people would like to do to Revenue Canada employees right about now
Paris, Musee D’Orsay. This is what happens, apparently, when the Louvre is closed.
Paris, Sainte Chappelle. Worth seeing – the picture doesn’t do it justice.
Moulin Rouge
Interesting thing about the Moulin Rouge – you’re not allowed to bring cameras into the theatre. My wife and I managed to get a seat close to the front. Actually, you’d call it “perv row” if you were at a strip club, so yeah, it was pretty close. The show wasn’t bad, actually, and the nudity was not particularly distracting as you might imagine. But if you’re offended by boobs, I don’t recommend you go. And if all you want to see are boobs, the 90-something Euros for a dinner and show might make you think twice about going there and heading to one of the nearby peep shows instead.
By the way, Air France sucks. Having worked for an airline before, I’m used to the service at the hub airports to be pretty superb – gate agents are in the right place at the right time, there’s enough staff to keep things moving, etc. Not in Paris, apparently. Nope, in Paris there’s apparently two agents to check in 20 groups in one zone, and one of them doesn’t do a damn thing. Now, we didn’t exactly help our cause by arriving to the airport close to the cutoff time, but then again, they were still processing people whose cutoff times were about 15 minutes past, so we figured we were ok. Luckily, we decided to use the “express check-in” machines. I say luckily because it still took a good ten minutes for an agent to take our checked baggage (which is one reason why I try to take carry-on baggage only as often as possible. But, well, wife + Paris + shopping = big bag.). Still, we made our flight, and we headed back to the “lovely” Midlands of the UK.
Stonehenge
Odd story. A couple of girls pulled into the parking lot across the street from Stonehenge and were telling the ticket vendor that they couldn’t find Stonehenge. The vendor naturally asked if it had up and disappeared, that it was a big bunch of rocks etc. until he realized that the girls were dead serious.
IP Linkage:
– Shelly does her recaps of “The Ultimate Fighter”. I have to say, the combination of Team Dagger plus Ross’ need for subtitles (he’s a Brit, you know) was pretty funny.
– Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback is back at ESPN’s Page 2. I’d love to hear the story on how that happened.
The Week In Hindsight:
I was catching up on a lot of things, so I’m doubling up in places.
Saturday:
‘Takeshi’s Castle’ – Yes, the Brits get to see the full version of the show we’ve come to know as ‘MXC’. And frankly, it’s just as ridiculous without the dubbing as with it.
Sunday:
‘The Amazing Race’ (OLN Canada) – Thanks again to Matt for filling in. Had the Hippies been Philiminated, I would’ve been upset. Certainly, they deserve to hit the Finish Line ahead of the deteriorating team of Ray and Yolanda.
Monday:
‘Prison Break’ (Global, Fox) – I’m glad I got to watch two weeks of the show in one day, as the whole swerve with Savrinn takes two episodes to pay itself off. And next week… the Escape!! We hope.
’24’ (Fox) – OK, so catching up to this, my anger at Logan being the main “villain” has abated as he’s shown that he’s still an incompetent idiot. I mean, he’s got a whackjob plot with the dual purpose of making himself look good AND gaining control over the oil in Asia, and he’s thinking that this will go off without a hitch? It seems to be a veiled shot at Dubya (and make no mistake, Logan is a Republican) but hey, even he didn’t manufacture a crisis to move in on Iraqi oil.
Anyways, my point is that it was a harebrained scheme that has actually went pretty well despite all the loose ends. Although at this point the odds are pretty good that Kim Bauer will somehow stumble onto the plot and expose it.
‘The Ultimate Fighter 3’ – DAGGER!
‘CSI: Miami’ (CTV, CBS)
Tuesday:
‘American Idol’ (CTV, Fox)
‘The Unit’ (CBS) – I think that this was one of those episodes where you’re supposed to keep saying “man, that’s f*cked up”.
Wednesday:
‘Lost’ (CTV) – Gah! Clip Show!
‘The Amazing Race’ (CTV, CBS)
‘American Idol’ (CTV, FOX) – Goodbye to the Gherkin.
‘Iron Chef America’ (Food Network Canada)
‘CSI: New York’ (CTV, CBS)
‘Good Eats’ (Food Network Canada)
That’s it for this week.
