hermorrine's journal, I was over in Chicago again last weekend. The outbound journey didn't get off to the best of starts - I was stuck on a long call which caused me to miss my bus which caused me to miss my coach, which got stuck in worse-than usual M25 traffic. Thankfully the "minimum 2 hour check-in" is a complete fabrication to make people turn up early and I had no problems being only 90 minutes before the flight - besides, it just meant no hanging around in the departure lounge. The flight was completely full, and I hadn't even managed to snag a bulkhead seat, although I was at least on the aisle. We arrived somewhat late and had the longest taxi ever, but all that conspired to do was get me out front of the airport two minutes before hermorrine arrived instead of the usual twenty or more.We were staying in a previously-visited hotel this time, chosen soley on the basis of free cookies at check-in (nice, but really not worth the $8.95 they want for a tin of 6 - no cookie is worth that, even the ones I make). On Saturday, we went out for English Tea at a French Creperie - quite the bizarre combination. It was very nice and convinced me that some day I must hang the expense and have tea at the Ritz. Unfortunately, I did let the British side down by making a hash of pouring the tea - go me! Also, they had possibly the world's smallest scones - rather yummy, though.
In the evening, we decided to brave the swimming pool. This turned out to be a rather poor plan as the place was positively seething with small, largely unsupervised children. The main pool seemed like a bad idea, so we went for the nice, empty, but not very hot hot tub. Alas, this too was immediately invaded by splashing kids who mostly seemed to be trying to see how long they could stay underwater -
Sunday lunch was the obligatory burger and shake - something very hard to find done well on this side of the pond. Very nice, although I decided not to go for the somewhat excessive 1 lb burger. Alas the movie we wanted to rent was already out, so we had to go with alternatives - we got Mona Lisa Smile which was enjoyable enough although the ending came out of nowhere and was IMO entirely out out of place with the main part of the film. Alas, all to soon it was time to fly home (bulkhead this time - yay!), but I shall return!
Thanks to the undocumented challenge, on this trip I achieved my AAdvantage Gold status - more miles and other benefits for me, huzzah!
In related news, I really ought to talk about what happened at New Year's. Yes, I am a complete t00b for leaving it this long, as
hermorrine managed to write about it much closer to the time. In fact, you should go and read that if you want to know what happened because I don't remember much else that isn't there. Well, except for pressies!First of all there were the magical glowing ice-cubes - we had these in our drinks at a place we had dinner in Disneyland, so they are both cool and have nice memories attached. Next was the Incredible Smooching Bears - two cute little teddies with magnets behind their lips and velcro on their paws so that they can kiss and hold hands - awwwww! The next two pressies will not be discussed here ;-) Last, but not least, was a lovely watch. Not only was the logo an eerily appropriate 'HP', but I can open up the watch and inside there's a picture of
hermorrine and a little message! <3 
March 28 2004, 06:54:00 UTC 17 years ago
Hurrah for your Gold status! How many AAdvantage miles are you up to now, and how close does that get you to a free return flight?
How far is ORD from LHR, anyway? If it's over 4167 miles then you only need three round-trip returns per year to maintain your Gold status purely on the Q-miles.
You need to start volunteering to go on business trips for work next... ;-)
The next two pressies will not be discussed here ;-)
Mmm-hmm! Monogrammed handkerchief and a pair of cuff-links, eh?
March 28 2004, 09:11:13 UTC 17 years ago
Requalifying for gold is certainly not going to be a problem - but I may well to the Platinum chanllenge later in the year and get that status for the floowing year as well (getting that by Q-miles is unlikely, especially if I take any freebie flights).
Monogrammed handkerchief and a pair of cuff-links, eh?
Strangely, no. I don't infact own any handkerchiefs - although I do have a pair of monogrammed cuff-links.