Text 8795, 120 rader
Skriven 2014-01-12 23:39:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: YZF 2013 trip 63
========================
Next morning we gave the seal one last taste, measurable in
perhaps tenths of a gram, both the meat, foul, and the
blubber, extra foul; on one black day long ago I'd ordered
salo at a place in Estonia, expecting that wonderful salty
rich lard that usually goes under that name, but found a
neatly sliced portion of what looked like aged cheese but
turned out to be rancid pigfat with a salt crust. This
blubber tasted like that only unbelievably fishy.

AC8175 YZF YEG 1400 1541 CRJ 2A

There are more gates than last time I was here, but we
boarded from the same one, the security (taking way much
longer than it ought) dumping us out into this big room,
which has two boarding doors, some TVs showing the likes of
Thomas the Tank Engine, and a few vending machines.

They boarded back to front, which most of the Japanese tour
of 20-strong didn't understand, so by the time I got there
there was a young lady in 2B who was obviously hoping for
either an empty seat next to her or someone more attractive
than I. The FA was rather pouty, apparently fed up with
passengers who completely lost their scanty English when the
phrase "completely under the seat in front of you" was
uttered. She actually ended up being pretty nice to the
tourists, stowing and unstowing their bags efficiently and
without complaining.

Cashews and Pringles and one other thing were available for
$3.50, 50c more than the brochure said.

A notably smooth flight, a good thing as I suspect the seat
belt sign was largely ignored.

We came in right on time, so I was at the lounge by 4 to
savor the lovely food and wine offerings.

There were the same between-hours offerings as before,
hummus and pita chips, chips and salsa, olives, crudites.
The hummus was again pretty good.

Wines:

Sterling Vintner's Collection Merlot 11 - rather overoaked
with extract but palatable if a tad sweet;

Koonunga Hills 11 Shiraz Cabernet - too sour, too sweet, too
fruit-forward (fancy word for cheap-tasting). Drinkable,
perhaps better than onboard offerings from, say, United.

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay 10 was the usual thing,
rather pleasant, actually, recognizably Chard, not too sweet
and not too stinky;

Sumac Ridge Gewurztraminer Private Reserve (Okanogan) 11 - a
whole lot better than the Merlot, with the expected citrus,
pineapple, and pear flavors, very slightly off dry.

I seldom encounter the situation where the whites are better
than the reds, but here it was. I ended up amusing myself
with trying to palatablize Clamato juice in both regular and
spicy versions (the conclusion: impossible).

Other offerings: Glenlivet 12, Courvoisier VS, Crown Royal,
two kinds of Captain Morgan, Bailey's, Kahlua, Tanqueray,
J&B, Johnnie Black, Grand Marnier, Smirnoff. I would say
"that's all," but that level of quality and variety would
be unheard of at a U.S. domestic club.

I was surprised that the DataValet recognized me as worthy
of the silver level of service; but that service was deadly
slow anyhow.

Around 5 an attendant came by and announced that supper was
served. This consisted of a main dish of sorts and two
soups. What was labeled as pasta carbonara was a foodservice
tray of twisted ridgy macaroni in a bland white cheese sauce
studded with bits of bacon and mushroom - not exactly a main
course but palatable enough.

The soups were vegetable beef barley that made Campbell look
good, though it wasn't actually too salty, and a quite stinky
cauliflower cheese that I tasted for completeness' sake.

Cookies of many varieties.

There being lots of time and not being more interesting
provisioning, I eventually made my way back to the concourse
to see what was on offer in the way of more substantial
provisions than the lounge had to offer: nothing; even the
bars were shutting down. So off to the US preclearance area,
which was closed, an early casualty of sequester, no doubt.
We took off from a domestic gate, which meant the dreaded
march through the bowels of IAH after.

UA 571 YEG IAH 2355 0518 320 2A

No Courvoisier. Being a manly man, well, more or less, I
had a glass of Jack Daniel's, and being a tired manly man,
I curled up by the window for a couple hours.

Luckily, another quite uneventful though rather bouncy
flight and an on-time arrival, which meant plenty of time to
negotiate said bowels, pass the grumpy but efficient customs
guy, and have a shower at the club.

UA1279 IAH BOS 0715 1209 739 2A

I almost missed this flight, as it left from a different
spot than I expected. It wouldn't have been a great loss.
The breakfast offering - bland mushy horrid sausage, bland
mushy horrid omeletical product, bland mushy but not quite
horrid potato cake wedge, bland mushy rotten fruit, and
yogurt - was not worth staying awake for.

Boston was sort of semi-welcome.

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