Random thoughts fom the plane

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April 7th 2012

Published: April 7th 2012

We are at 28000 feet about five minutes out of Houston – seats 3E & F; Scotch and Soda at hand. It is a crystal clear blue sky out the window. Life is good.

I am so pleased that we made the effort to head to Houston. It was a bit of an extra from what we had first planned but to get to see the PGA golf and Rob’s family was quite a bonus and a side trip I will cherish. The Stevens have been long time family friends and Rob and I shared many moments on the cricket pitch both at school and for club. He was always a tough bugger to get out; even in the nets. Narelle and I enjoyed the opportunity to eat a home cooked meal as we seemed to have been surviving on a diet of cooked breakfasts and burgers – and portion control is not easy here. Rob cooked on his “only in Texas” BBQ with the deer antler handle and shotgun cartridge knobs. It was also apparent that shooting is quite a hobby in the State; Rob goes to the range and he also showed me video of a team building day – they learnt to blow things up, safely of course!

Looking back on the PGA golf it was just a wonderful day. The logistics of the event were amazing to watch. What I have noticed about America is they are all about moving people. Line up in a queue at a restaurant or event, which you think will take time and suddenly the path is clear. For the golf they had encouraged everyone to head for a car park near the airport and from there buses just kept people moving. Police lined intersections stopping all cars and waved the buses through. It cost us $5 return for the bus and as you got on the bus they handed you a pairings sheet with all the tee times for the round. There was a real carnival atmosphere to the day helped in no more small measure by the $6 Buds and frozen margaritas. The US has now designed aluminium bottles to carry with you. I must admit that their advertising for the ‘Jumbo Dog’ was a bit misleading; it was the tiniest morsel I have been served since arriving. But it just felt right!

The rest of the time in Houston was all fairly uneventful. I awoke to what I thought was a leaking pipe outside our seventh floor window only to find when I opened the curtains that the rain had arrived. If it had been 24 hours earlier the golf would have been doubtful as the rain had lots of lightning in it. So that pretty much forced our hand for the day. We did not move far; catching up on some admin, reading, and Narelle worked remotely writing resources.

Now we skip a few days but I am still rambling…another AA flight; this time to Chicago and a new Scotch in hand.

One of the nicest touches that I have seen since arriving in the US is how they treat their active service people. Obviously the States are still heavily committed in regards the military and even on this flight we have about six soldiers in their fatigues. They have either just arrived home or are heading off again. From what I can observe your military ID will allow you many privileges. American Airlines allow those in uniform to check in first and also board the plane first. Many of the fast food chains give discounts to family and at least one of the ice cream vendors we saw in San Francisco made the announcement “service people eat free. It may only be a small gesture but I feel it is justified. It is strange looking at how young these soldiers are – many must have only been 7 or 8 years of age on that fateful September day in 2001 but the call to duty is still there.

Sadly there is also the flip side. It is apparent that there are many young men and women back in society that have been injured in battle. We all hear of the fatalities but the number of wounded is astronomical; a whole generation marked by war. I stood next to a guy this morning who was proudly wearing his Army cap but his right leg was held together by a large brace. He looked too young to be dependent on a stick and shuffling through the terminal.

I am really looking forward to our time in Washington, DC as it coincides with ANZAC Day. We will attend the Dawn Service, which takes place at the Korean War Memorial. The Australian and New Zealand Governments take turns hosting the day and this year it is NZ’s turn. An exciting part of the day will be going to the "gunfire breakfast', which father-in-law JD has arranged for us.

It’s baseball season! Opening day was yesterday so all the hard work over Spring Training will have been put to the test. The Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues have ended for another year and it is now all roads lead to the World Series later in the year. It is just astounding how many games these teams play in a season – somewhere in the vicinity of 130. To reach the playoffs you most probably need to win about 60%!o(MISSING)f these games. There is no possibility of doing an unbeaten season. On that topic we have enjoyed watching the NCAA Women’s Basketball – sadly Stanford did not make the final but do have the distinction of going out to the winner Baylor. The Stanford star was Nnemkadi Ogwumike who obviously is quite the scholar and person. Someone said the other night during the telecast that if she was to swap her basketball for politics after leaving school she could be the President of the United States. Quite a rap! The victors, Baylor College have become the first team in NCAA history to complete a 40 from 40 season; quite amazing. Their top player was 6 foot 8 inch Britney Griner and she was just fantastic. This season she became only the second woman in NCAA history to do a slam dunk. Baylor’s reward for winning the title will be a trip to the White House to meet President Obama – he ‘phoned the coach after their win. This underlines how important the NCAA competition is.

We did not win the California Lottery last week. It had jackpotted to US$670m. Our tour director bought two lots of tickets for the group over the week and Narelle and I put our dollar in. we were slightly concerned one morning that our driver may have won and left us with the bus but he was only away getting his coffee refilled. Anyway the money was won in three States – ironically no one in California won – but no one has yet to come forward with the winning tickets. I see the man who won NZ$26m in Lotto has gone to ground as family and friends he did not previously know have turned up. He should take solace from one point – no tax in NZ on the winnings. In the US you will be paying around 40%!t(MISSING)o the IRS.

I know I have talked about the bus tour at some considerable length but this will be the final chapter. The cynical side of me did not want to do the tour. I was worried that it would be too restrictive and that I would have to share too much with others. I think we chose well and I did not suffer my fears. One area, which made a lot of difference, was our Tour Guide Gordon. He was exceptional in every way and was always trying to make our trip comfortable and he went the extra distance to get us to see new things. His explanations were superb and the way he set the scene when we were driving made many some boring bits palatable. Trafalgar were great and the fact that we did not need to worry about our bags, breakfasts and checking in made it all quite comfortable. I was very envious of Gordon as when he left the tour he flew to Atlanta to attend the Masters; as a golfer this is the ultimate and his luck had really been in as he was drawn out of an international ballot for his tickets.

We have spoken a lot to people about pay rates and holidays. It appears that NZers should never complain again. A lot of people manage to get two weeks annually but they struggle to take it all in one go. The fact that we are taking nine months out has meant some we have spoken to have had palpitations. Pay rates are obviously lower in the service sector – our bar lady earned $2.13 an hour so you can see how important tips are to them. And obviously that is out of your control. Some on our tour did not tip at all when they went to bars and restaurants. Tipping is interesting to say the least and we took a few days to get into the swing of things (Jonathan in LA was a Godsend for this) – a bag carried = $1 min, wait staff = 10 – 20%!m(MISSING)inimum, taxis 10%!m(MISSING)inimum so it all adds up over time. I am not sure we will ever get it bang on but I do think we are close.

We have arrived in Chicago and moved into the Marriot Residences on the Magnificent Mile. We are here for a week and it is an apartment style room. We have even enjoyed cooking a meal tonight and at this very moment we have the dishwasher on – everything sounds and feels normal! From our 16^th Floor window we can just see the lake so we may explore that tomorrow. Narelle has already checked out the shops and seems to be drawing up some kind of map to get the best out of the days ahead. I have been watching the Masters from Augusta and Tiger’s fairly average day. Tomorrow is usually titled "moving day" so he will need to make an early play for the lead otherwise it will be out of his reach. I am very happy to see Fred Couples on the top of the leader board.

Should be an interesting few days in the Windy City!

Random thoughts fom the plane

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