OK, so I’m hiding in my hotel room coz it’s raining and 9 degrees out and I’m feeling chronologically and geographically challenged. I keep thinking I’m going to write my powerpoint for Weds, but nahhh. I did manage to book a ticket to see these people though, who look like an unreasonable amount of fun. Any performance that provides the first five rows with plastic ponchos for protection gets the thumbs up from me. And the hispanic fellow at ticketmaster liked my accent. I liked his too. We enjoyed some cross-pacific mutual appreciation.
Question: why is coffee so goddawful over here, and why the hell is there NO WAY* of making tea in my hotel room??? Don’t these people realise what a lack of access to quality caffeinated products will do to me? I won’t be held responsible for what comes. Likewise, they want to charge something like $50+ for a load of washing, which I refuse to pay. As I said, I won’t be held responsible. And while we’re at it, why can’t I get beans for breakfast? I know everyone around here went all bean-phobic after drowning themselves in molasses but that was 1919 and I want beans, dammit. If I have any more eggs for breakfast (with/out “optional breakfast meats” – I shit you not) I will follow it up with a prompt coronary.
Oh yeah, this is my lofty abode. Note conspicuous absence of tea:
And here’s what Boston is doing:
I may need to go buy jeans.
*OK, so there’s an electronic drip filter coffee maker that they suggest you put a teabag in the top of, ie., let the water run through the baggie before the water gets warmed up. Beside the utter travesty to tea-making this represents (Caroline, back me up here), note I don’t say “boiled” as we don’t go anywhere near boiling in crummy drip filter world. And the bar fridge froze my milk. Which leaves me with brie and pastrami as tea additive options. Assuming the brie hasn’t frozen. Mmmmmmm cheese icecream. The uni is paying US$200+ per night for this joint and they can’t provide a jug??? I understand I am supposed to hand my credit card over to the Starbucks downstairs, but oh no, they’re not gonna get me… and besides, THAT’S NOT COFFEE.
April 13, 2008 at 1:45 am
Good Blog. I will continue reading it in the future. Nice layout too.
Aaron Wakling
April 13, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hmmm, the absence of tea in the US… or even more vexing, having to ask for ‘hot tea’ instead of a cuppa… I *sympathise*. Whole generations of people now think tea grows in small bleached bags. Imagine trying to explain it’s a camellia. Once I made the mistake of asking for a caffe freddo in New York. Enter coffee syrup, extra glucose, refried milk and faux cream. And as for cheese products, my irony-ometer couldn’t get past the ‘spray-on cheese’ I encountered during my first ever trip to a supermarket in San Diego. I was losing it in the aisles, laughing it up while clutching an aerosol can with pictures of sticky orange broccoli on the side… O America! Is it wrong to giggle? A lot??
April 16, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Eeep – Dave did mention that the tea in the US is heinous or non-existent. And drip feeding??? Ergh.
The hot tip is to go to Walgreens to buy a “Hotpot”, which is a small kettle type do-hicky. They cost about US$10 and are worth every dime. Ha! I can say dime here and mean it.
April 16, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Oh for goodness sake. I was just writing about wee and piss and syntax (and how starbucks has its own syntax regarding how many points you can make before someone needs to ask a question) when my computer says ‘you are posting things too quickly’. My other point was about the coop bookshops which from memory do non-starbuck coffee, but if anyone asks, it was not a whole point on its own, but part of my first one. It was all one point from what I remember, and someone asked a question…straight after. Soon after