In The Time of Strawberries

I’ve been visiting the UK. This has, by force of circumstance, reduced the number of blog postings that have been possible. I’m beginning to think that I’ll have to buy an iPhone to deal with life on the move. Too few WiFi spots when I need them and no way to get to the Internet without them. I’ve stuck with simple pay-as-you go phones for too long and the 3G iPhone is now here.

London, In the Time of Strawberries

There is a brief period in summer, which spans Royal Ascot and Wimbledon, and in most years, the weather is as beautiful as it gets in England. It’s s time to go boating on the Thames or to head out to the country, armed with a picnic and chilled white wine. It’s the time of strawberries – a strange fruit, which is so easily and prolifically grown in Europe and yet doesn’t appear to grow at all in the US. The United States has its own version of the strawberry which is gross, tasteless and impersonates the European strawberry only by virtue of the nature of its skin, which is indeed red and seed-bearing. It is an imposter, and should be arrested.

I was on Waterloo Station on the Saturday of Royal Ascot surprised (simply because I’d forgotten what time of year it was) to see clutches of ladies with strange and unusual hats and men in top hat and tails, which always looks both smart and exotic in a British kind of way. Wimbledon was just beginning and I’d read that they had built a roof over the center court as the latest doomed tactic that Wimbledon has employed in order to neutraize the British weather. As you would expect there was no need for the roof because the rain kept avoiding Wimbledon, as though with disdain. Nevertheless, a little cloud broke off earlier this week and wept a little on a women’s center court match – sufficient for the authorities to launch the roof – which they did with great excitement.

This allowed them to leave it up for the Andy Murray (he’s a Brit) game against Wawrinka, which he won – just. He was not at all happy with the roof, but didn’t dare aspeak out against it, asthee center court roof is the Brit equivalent of NASA’s Apollo program. Apollo was about putting an American on the moon, while the Wimbledon roof is ultimately about putting a Brit in the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon – a much harder task than putting a man on the moon, because Brits are so lame at tennis. There was a little muttering on the side when the Brit that they were trying to put in the final concluded that the roof was an obstacle rather than a “leg up”.

Continental Airlines

I’m a fan of Continental Airlines, mainly because of the air miles program. You really do end up cashing in the airmiles for free travel after a while and the value is genuine value. Nevertheless I was disappointed by them this time because of two things:

1. I bought an adapter specifically to connect my laptop while in flight to and from the UK. Continental has new removed all the plug points making my adapter useless. I’m annoyed.
2. They changed the entertainment system which is now a PC running Red Hat Linux. I know this because it rebooted on me when it failed inexplicably. I’ve seen most of the movies it’s offering so the in-flight entertainment seems worse rather than better than before.

Back in the USA
I’m back in the USA now, having escaped the worst excesses of the Michael Jackson wall-to-wall coverage. I was proud of the Glastonbury Festival for not turning itself into an instant Michael Jackson tribute vehicle. The pop singers that played it rarely mentioned the dead star. That’s how it should be – although someone pointed out that the promoters of the original Michael Jackson concerts that will now no longer take place are hoping to have endless tribute shows instead.