are you serious?

Okay, I officially hate flickr.  I spent the last three hour editing photos of Cairo, then uploaded them to find that Flickr doesn’t give a FUCK what you did to them, they’ll turn them however they like and put them in whatever order they like.

So then I had to re-rotate everything and re-order everything and add descriptions and put them in a set.

And then – bear in mind that I’ve never actually USED Flickr before – I saw that i had a set of pictures and I had a photostream.  And I thought to myself “Self, what use have I for both a photostream and a set entitled ‘Cairo’?”  And my Self said “None.”

So I deleted all the pictures from my photostream, assuming it would leave the set that I had so painstakingly reordered intact.

You already know the answer, don’t you?

It didn’t.

So, expect pictures of Cairo sometime…later.

Filed under daily | Comment (1)

I’m Lovin’ It

No, not McDonald’s, though I’m sure that would be delicious right now.

Actually, what I’m lovin’ is this month.  Don’t get me wrong – it hasn’t been easy or always fun, but it’s been amazing and intense.

It’s only been 29 days since August 1st, but it feels as if it’s been at LEAST three months.  I’ve worked over 150 hours this month.  I realize to you normal folks with a ‘real job’ that sounds a bit ridiculous.  But you might not realize that by working so many hours, my schedule shows I’ve only had six days off this month.  Which is NUTS!  I’ve been away from my Home Base for just over 400 hours.  I’m so bloody exhausted, I can’t even describe it.  I’m writing this at 3am, because I just got back from Mumbai (Bombay), India and it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced jet lag.  I’m on a totally whacked schedule.  Luckily, I head to Las Vegas tomorrow and it’s a late flight, so I’ll sleep all day tomorrow (today).

This month:

• 1st: JFK to ATL turn-around; then went to see Rocko Dorsey at Fontana’s in Manhattan.
• 2nd – 4th: London Heathrow, very expensive.  Wrote about that already, though.
• 5th: off, but had to head to airport at 11:30 that night to sign in for…
• 6th-8th: a ten minutes after midnight sign in, headed to Georgetown, Guyana (my new favourite layover)
• 9th-10th: best reserve day ever.  one leg to orlando.  stay the night, deadhead back.  deadheading means I don’t have to actually WORK the flight, but I still get paid for it.  I. Love. Deadheading.
• 11th: worst reserve day ever.  JFK-Tampa-Cincinnati-Chicago-Cincinnati-LaGuardia.  Ew.
• 12th-14th: off, and since Adrian was here, I got to spend time with him!  And I got a new tattoo!
• 15th-16th: three leg day with a 14 hour Houston layover.  Not the best trip, but it sure beat five legs a day for two days of the stupid shuttle between LGA and Washington, DC.
• 17th-19th: Barcelona!  Found a lovely sea-side town with gorgeous beaches, then danced until 4am.
• 20th-21st: off, again with Adrian.  We met our immigration lawyer.  Got an iPhone.  I don’t think I like it.
• 22nd-25th: Cairo, Egypt!  I’m uploading pictures to flickr now, will post a link to them soon.
• 26th-29th: Mumbai, India!  Ditto to the above.  Oh my GOD, I want to go back!  I almost got pickpocketed.  Will tell you of it later.
• 30th-31st:  Las Vegas, Baby!  21 hours is long enough to get in plenty of trouble.  Will be back and have two days off.  And I’ll need it!

So, I’m loving it, but it’s…rough.  I’m thinking I want to cut down on the hours I fly, maybe just fly half the month and take a second job.  Could be fun!

Filed under daily, werkin', world travellin' | Comments Off

London is like Disneyland – the people suck and the food is overpriced.

This past visit to London wasn’t my favourite trip of all time.  I’m not kidding when I say the GBP is at a record high – over $2 USD to £1.  Buying a metro pass for the day ran about $12.  My Starbucks (yes, I went to Starbucks, and we were the only three people walking around with *gasp* COFFEE CUPS IN OUR HANDS!  The SHAME!) cost me $9 when run through my bankcard (which is how I usually get decent exchange rates).

Unfortunately, I had the bright idea of trading in my euro for pounds, thinking I’d use them sooner.  Um, not.  I’m definitely likely to go to the UK again, but I had more fun in Ireland.  None of the sights I used to miss about London were anywhere as awesome as they were ten years ago when I was there.

Ayoaka, Daniel and I are walking around London, coffee in hand, seeing the sights.  Having a FANTASTIC time.  I must say, I was on top of my game – I had Ayoaka in stitches most of the day.  At one point we were under a tree, waiting for the pouring rain to let up.  I was (probably loudly) cracking them up, ragging on the signs in the metro (“This is the HOT SEASON!  Stay COOL!”) … “People, you wouldn’t know a hot season if it bit you in the arse!  You wouldn’t survive a hot minute in the New York subway during OUR hot season!”

Some older British gentleman walked up to me and said, without preamble, “It’s not polite to sweat in public in England.”  I was totally taken aback, as I – unfortunately – am one of those people who can’t seem to help but regulate body temperature the proper way, regardless of whether I’m in public or not.

“Oh.  Really?  Dammit.”  I laughed a bit awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

He threw up his hand, making a disgusted noise.  “Go back to America,” he called over his shoulder.

I looked at Daniel and Ayoaka.  “I’m thinking I misunderstood his accent.  I think he said “It’s not polite to swear in public in England.”  They agree, but mention that Bridget Jones and nearly every other film shows otherwise. “Also,” Daniel adds, “that enormous umbrella, his socks with his sandals and the bright turquoise roll-aboard suitcase they’re oddly dragging with them through the park around Buckingham Palace tells me they might not know what the fuck people actually DO in public in England.”

True.

Whatever.  We enjoyed ourselves, and I cursed as much as I liked.  No one else batted an eyelash.  I even had one guy trying to stifle his laughter on the tube when the three of us were DYING laughing at our own renditions of the train’s computer voice announcing that “This is the train to…COCKFOSTERS.”

No shit, thats the name of an area in London.  And only in London.  I love the British, sometimes.

Filed under daily, feeling crafty | Comments Off