London to New York to Pittsburgh takes me 24 hours... Part 1 LHR to USA

Some days just last a very long time.

London Morning

7 hour jetlag to London so up at 5:00 am this morning in London. Body still on Perth time, i.e. noon.
I seem to do a lot of "5:00 a.m.'s" on these roadtrips.
The first cloudless morning in London since I got here on Friday.

An English sky washed with a pleasant, soft un-Australian blue.

LHR Terminal 5

I dislike admitting it, but LHR Terminal 5 is quite possibly the best airline terminal in the world.
It's well laid out and seems to work efficiently now that they have sorted out the early teething problems.(Little snafus like all your luggage disappearing for 5 days and turning up in Moscow).

The eating options are plentiful (including Wagamama), the shops are interesting and there is a bit of a buzz sadly missing from most international airports, even the much acclaimed Changi* and Hong Kong airports.

Arrived early so had time to share some nicotine addiction with BA staffers in the smoking bunker outside  at the far end of the Departures Concourse (presumably the only place uniformed BA staff are allowed to indulge their filthy habit).
How times change... (Yes, yes for the better of course!)
Those of you that can travel half price on public transport may remember the Peter Stuyvesant adverts featuring handsome airline pilots and glamorous hosties puffing away.
Now there is something weird about chatting to a four-stripe 747 pilot and a bevy of high-heeled attendants dragging on fags while hiding behind a screen wall.
I found it vaguely disconcerting.

BA Lounge serves a jolly good breakfast without those silly restrictions in Oz about no alcohol before 12 noon.

Hot bacon rolls, french pastries, Bloody Mary and all the Daily Mail  you can stomach at 7am

On the plane to JFK: Delighted that what appeared to be an American Airlines booking turned out to be a British Airways plane with those truly ruly flat bed seats that I like**.

This is good and getting better.

No it is not.

This plane was hit by lightning and a few things don't work...

After farting around for half an hour on the stand, we taxi.
Then we stop, then we go back to the stand.
The Captain announces very cheerfully that this plane was "hit badly by lightning three days ago" and a few bits an' pieces went rather kaput.
Including something deep in this nose-cone without which, apparently, no one since Lindbergh would dare cross the Atlantic.

The nasty nose cone covering the kaput thingamebob

A fluorescent gaggle of sturdy men in yellow jackets swarm aboard (including one tagged "Turnaround Manager" - which is what I've decided I want to be when I grow up) and converse in far too jolly a fashion with the captain whose gadgetman's dream is right in front of me.
Why is there laughter in the cockpit in this time of crisis? I don't like it!
After much swarming and too much PA jocularity from our captain we finally rejoin the let's-get-out-of-here-queue on the runway.
We are 1 1/2 hours late and my JFK - Pittsburgh connection is looking sick.

However, a Bloody Mary puts me in the mood for a bite of lunch.
A few tasty scallops and a glass of Riesling are promising and maybe things aren't so bad after all.

Chicken Chernobyl

Until the main course arrives: Chicken Tikka a la Chernobyl.
It is extremely ugly.
The very nice and friendly mothery hostess lady confesses to me:
"While we were back on the stand, I thought I'd save a bit of time and zap them.
Maybe I did it a bit too much..."

Poulet Chernobyl avec Agent Orange

I'm sure it will take pride of place on the BA inflight menu.
I could not eat a single morsel of it, so asked for the whole bottle of Riesling and a triple portion of the cheese.

Six hours at JFK

Despite JFK staff hustling me at speed through the US citizens line (a new and pleasant experience), I am too late for my Pittsburgh connection.
The next flight is not until 8:30 tonight (which is 1:45 am tomorrow morning London time and 8:45 am tomorrow Perth time!) and it is now 2:45. The joys of travel.

I hang around outside Terminal 8 in the sunshine, engaging in ESL conversation with backpackers from somewhere east of the Elbe. 

After an hour I give up trying to explain the rules of cricket to them and head for the lounge.

The American Airlines Flagship Lounge is a big step up from the two-drink-vouchers-per-customer mean and nasty feel of the Admirals' Club. It's almost as good as our Qantas / BA lounges back in Oz.

I have been on the go for 15 hours now... 

I need a drink and something to make up for the Chook Chernobyl.

"Droop Dead!" Oh how I long for some News of the World instead of Perth's dreary Sunday Times.

Buffalo wings, sushi, a turkey roll and several glasses of excellent Chablis later I can really enjoy the New York Daily News earth-shattering scoop on Viagra being found in Osama bin Laden's fridge.

Pittsburgh, PA

Quick flight to Pittsburgh, but after 21 hours travelling I'm beginning to rather droop myself.

Pittsburgh airport 10:30 at night...

Where is everybody? Has there been a war and nobody has Twittered it?

I am so pleased to see our visit to Pittsburgh coincides with a convention of the National Rifle Association. That should be good for a few barbed comments from Rory about the state of the nation of our revered allies.

Finally, 23 hours after setting off on this leg of the trip, Rory and I sit in the Sheraton Station Square bar watching the Conference for Christian Unity delegates progress from self-righteous and abstemious mineral water to Margaritas after 11:00 o'clock and certain church representatives becoming potentially very biblically unified for the night as they get more blotto. 

Truly uplifting to see and all in a jolly ecumenical spirit.

24 hours after leaving SW12 for LHR finally to bed with a Pittsburgh view out the window.

It's been a long day and warehouses start 6:00 am tomorrow.

Footnotes:

*Changi Singapore has never worked for me.
It's exceptionally efficient, but is always undergoing a scaffolding / boarded-up revamp of some sort which makes it hard to figure out what overall picture they are actually trying to achieve.
Pre the last revamp, the Changi retail layout had that disconcerting "repeat every 100 metres" pattern: Same shops, same brands, same looking staff repeated in every direction. Add that to jetlag and a few too many shandies on the plane and a brisk leg-stretching walk becomes a bit of a headspin..
In the current revamp, a spree of designer label shops is about to be added by 2012. That may improve the look of things, but I have not found Singapore prices - especially designer label - anything to write home about since the late 1970's.
Smokers' Cough Zone: It may have been there forever, but I just discovered a Nicotine Addiction Area almost underneath the Business Lounges.
No need to climb up guiltily up through the kiddies' playground into the Harry's Bar & Cactus Garden (Who on earth wants to look at a cactus garden in 99% humidity.. They are nasty, spiteful looking things that could have been reject designs for extras in The Day of the Triffids.)

**Flat is good. Despite the claims of other airlines, I still find that BA Business Class beds suit me the best. Yes, they are narrow , but - unlike the gradual slope in the bottom 30% of of other airlines - they are truly flat./
The secret is in that simple little pop-up footstool that connects to the bottom of the seat and keeps it horizontal.

USA Part 2 Pittsburgh, Niagara Falls

Pittsburgh at Dawn. Why do all our buying days start so early?

One of Pittsburgh's dozens of impressive steel bridges

Rory at a warehouse. (3 square miles of books to look at...)

Pittsburgh Airport security the pits...

Just finished reminding Rory what a nice little country town airport Pittsburgh is and that there was really no need for us to have arrived there as early as we did... when we hit the queue to get through security.

TSA officials manning security checks are obviously the brightest men & women this great nation can produce to protect its borders, airports and public toilets.

Because it was lunchtime these dedicated heroes, totally appropriately, decided to shut down 3 out of 4 booths so that the 250plus passengers queueing to check in could have a little extra time to get to know each other in the queue and carefully avoid making illegal jokes within hearing of our uniformed protectors.

Niagara Falls and then Rises in My Opinion

Pittsburgh-Chicago (Elizabeth used to route via CHI just for the Cinnabons at the airport) - Toronto - Niagara, Canada.

For many years I was underwhelmed about impending visits to Niagara, believing The Falls to be the only good thing about "PlaceWhereWaterPissesOverEdgeAtGreatSpeed" (or whatever the original Red Indian name for Niagara was).

Not that I have anything against a town where - apart from the Falls - "Ripley's Believe It or Not House of Fun" is the top of the list attraction.

I have been to Blackpool.

I like people in tracksuit bottoms who drink Coors on Monday mornings at Thank God It's Friday with their fried Mars bars.

I used to own a tracksuit.

I think Tony the Wog's World Famous Ribs (or some name like that) deserves its spot on the list of gourmet restaurants.

Somebody's got to come last.

However, I have changed my view...

I now actually look forward to going there and enjoy it!

Firstly, our local supplier generously offers to accommodate us either in a B & B next to his warehouse that I swear could double as the house of Norman Bates's house in "Psycho"...

Or in comfortable suites overlooking the Falls...

Niagara Falls at dawn (We do a lot of dawn.)

(Much as I am an admirer of Tony Perkins, we invariably opt for the view.)

Secondly, they transport us by limo to and from airports.

(Even when, on a misguided whim we fly into Toronto instead of Buffalo.)

I am easily impressed by ridiculously long cars with drivers in black caps who hold open the door for me and pretend not to notice my $39.95 K-Mart luggage.

Thirdly, we went to dinner at very cheesy but very pretty Niagara-on-the-Lake via Lake Toronto.

The British, the Rebels, the French and the Indian fought for decades to own the land around Lake Toronto...

And now real estate values there are down 30%... The futility of war.

Fourthly, in Nia-gara the tulips ara on Via-gara!

Sunday lunch in London today with cousins who attended Royal Wedding

Should be good source of goss about Tweedledee and Tweedledee Tart Princesses, Elton John throwing hissy fit about his seats, Labour Party complaining to the BBC about not enough coverage of Milliband, Pippa being the real star of the show & the Old Etonian boyfriend in the background...


Not, of course that I am the slightest tiniest bit interested in all that Royal stuff... (I can't wait!)


Maybe I won't show them our Twitter List of "20 Things I'd rather do than Watch the Royal Wedding" (incl 'Eating my Own Hair') - at least not over the Sunday roast and Yorkshire pud.

Elizabeth’s Bookshop Rokeby Road, Subiaco. What a great pic!

Just a 'test' image from a photo shoot for a new bookmark....

Don’t you just love it?

What a great picture..
Let this get out on the net and we’ll get a whole new avalanche of enquiries about franchising the brand…
The problem is, folks, that running 7 Elizabeth’s Bookshop branches tales ALL our creative energies and time plus the wonderful  skills of Kirsty & Nat in our Senior Management. (Apart from driving them to Sauvignon Blanc!).
So, however much we are flattered by your enquiries about whether you can open an Elizabeth’s in Singapore or Kerala or Newcastle (we are not kidding!) … We just don’t know how we could possibly do that without diluting the brand that we have spent 38 years building up.

Toby chats on Bell Shakespeare's online Q & A

LINK: Toby talks about Shakespeare, Much Ado, Acting, Ella

Toby Schmitz CAPTURE THE FLAG

LINK: Toby Schmitz on his play "Capture the Flag"

Review from its first showing 4 years ago:

At a time in Australia when symptoms of nationalism are on the rise (bribes to schools to fly the flag, bizarre definitions of "un-Australian" and "Australian behaviours, for instance) prolific actor-writer-director Toby Schmitz has turned his attention to the topic of nationalism - and its effect on children, particularly in time of war.
Child soldiers have been in the news in recent times because of the atrocities committed by and to them in various parts of Africa. As in so many social innovations, however, Adolf Hitler was one step ahead. His Hitler Youth - part boy scout-part brainwashed psychopath - was an integral part of the Thousand Year Reich plan: world domination, no Jews and really sexy uniforms being vital components of the dream.
Schmitz's new one act play Capture the Flag is predicated on Hitler's edict to his youthful followers: Rule One: Your body belongs to your nation. It is the mantra desperately recited by two Deutsches Jungvolk (German Youth) Karl and Albert as they cower in a freezing, wet sewer beneath a Berlin street. Their mix of bravado and naivete gives the lie to their futile attempts at playing men. These are boys and the square-jawed resolution to be ready to fight to the last (as the fuhrer has instructed) begins to crumble as, from an unseen above, the roar of tanks and marching Russian soldiers invades their dank, dark refuge.
Adding to the unease and outright fear and confusion is their companion, Herret. He is younger and more visibly damaged than the two soldier boys and wants only to get back to his mutti. He is unnerving to Karl and Albert because his indoctrination is either incomplete or didn't "take" - the heroic ideals of dying for the Fatherland and the Fuhrer are mostly lost on him. The result, for the older boys, is that their own resolve begins to crumble as uncertainty and fear replace blind belief.
It's strangely compelling to watch three boys dissolve from one state of being into another in the course of an hour or so. It's virtually real time and, because of the close confines of the theatre, there's also a strong sense of experiencing their fear, bewilderment and horror at the circumstances to a disquieting degree. This is probably heightened because the audience knows what they do not: that Hitler was not about to pull a miracle stunt and win the war, that the invading Russians would not be merciful and their dedication and sense of honour was all for nought.
A hint of reality, which is both a relief and even more disturbing, arrives with a girl who's just escaped from above and left her mother in their kitchen - being beaten and, although she doesn't say so, raped by the invaders. She - like most girls of that age - is older and wiser than her years and the boys. Her advice and understanding of what is going on in the city above their heads is unwelcome - as the truth so often is. That there will be tears before VE Day is more than simple historical fact and the inevitability of it makes fascinating viewing.
The creatives in this production are exceptional: a seeping, brick-lined sewer set by Leland Kean is minimally lit to great effect by Luis Pampolha and enlivened by echoing sound effects - dripping water, the invading army above - by Jeremy Silver. The excellent cast of Anthony Gee (Karl), Robin Goldsworthy (exceptional as Albert), Sam North (Herret) and Ella Scott-Lynch (Mathilde) inhabit their characters and Lisa Walpole's intelligent costumes with the ease and weariness of five long years of WW2.
It's probably not for the claustrophobic, but Capture the Flag is a thought-provoking and engaging piece of work that suggests Toby Schmitz is beginning to harness his ambition, energy and ideas to something like restraint and discipline. If he carries on like this he will be in grave danger of realising his great potential.



Military Police raid Canberra second hand bookshop

Never mind Afghanistan, ADFA sex scandals, Collins submarines not working, Terrorism...

Let's deploy our Defence Force to do something really important.

The owner of a Canberra second-hand bookshop raided by military police says other booksellers will now be worried they could be targeted.

Military police confiscated 21 books and pamphlets from Simon Maddox's Beyond Q suburban second-hand store on Thursday.
The books included a 1937 pamphlet on small arms training and 1970 instructions on how to use standard mortars.
Also confiscated was a Vietnam-era soldiers' handbook and a guide on how to use grenades and "pyrotechnics".
Mr Maddox does not record whom he purchases books from, so it might be difficult for the military to trace who sold the titles to the store.
"It was polite, but it was still intimidating," Mr Maddox said of the raid.
"All the current bookstore owners will be looking at their shelves now."
Mr Maddox says the military police acknowledged they had been tipped off by a serving member of the Defence Force who later asked if he could "photocopy the books".
Australian Booksellers Association chief Joel Becker suggested Defence was being a little too cautious in the age of WikiLeaks, but said: "Sometimes agencies have to respond to complaints."
Questions to Defence about the raid and possible further action went unanswered.

From AAP

Progress shop front 'new' 257 King Street, Newtown

Lighting installed on the decking. How groovy does that look!

Painting & signwriting happening after Easter. (So beware of ladders and lots of green paint!)

Transport snafu caused 3 pallets of books to arrive all at once at Sydney shops:
Caused temporary staff panic, but now all sorted and the shelves are chockablock for the 5 day Easter – Anzac Day break.
Also doing some excellent second hand buying: Interesting stuff across the whole range.

Good Friday was HUGE in all non-city Elizabeth’s Bookshops…
The Bank Manager and us pray it continues over the whole holiday break.

Big selling categories:
Children’s Books (1000′s of real cheapies now at the South Terrace Freo branch), Lit Fiction / General Fiction (obviously Easter holiday reading), Cookbooks, Military History (because of Anzac Day?)

Easter

What a perfect time to curl up with a stack of books from Elizabeth’s, a box of Lindt easter chocolates, maybe a couple of slices of Poland and your favourite German shepherd.

Filming has started on The Hobbit

Check out the video of the start of production.

And Elizabeth's Bookshops have splendid hardcover copies of The Hobbit for only $6.95 !



The Hobbit is a novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. It was first published on September 21, 1937.
While it also stands in its own right, it is often seen as a prelude to Tolkien's monumental fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings (published in 1954 and 1955).
The story, subtitled There and Back Again, follows the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he travels across the lands of Middle-earth with a band of dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf on a quest to restore a dwarven kingdom and a great treasure stolen by the dragon, Smaug.

The Novel Is Born...

In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien recollects in the late 1920s, when he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, he began The Hobbit when he was marking School Certificate papers. On the back of one of the papers, he wrote the words "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit". He did not go any further than that at the time, although in the following years he drew up Thror's map, outlining the geography of the tale.
The tale itself he wrote in the early 1930s, and it was eventually published because he lent it to the Reverend Mother of Cherwell Edge when she was sick with the flu; while the Reverend Mother was in possession of the manuscript, it was seen by the 10-year old son of Sir Stanley Unwin, Rayner Unwin, who wrote such an enthusiastic review of the book that it was published by Allen & Unwin.

Travelling in winter: Random images from book buying expeditions 2

Not all european airports close when there is 5" of snow. I wear my ski gear on warehouse visits.