Dom Pannell's Blog

Such a small world

Oscar Wilde said "It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world."

Well, based on 72 hours here, I reckon San Francisco is a delightful city. The people are, so far, exceedingly friendly (and not in that 'superficial American' way so hated by the French). The food is great. The weather is great. The city itself is exceptionally attractive. What more is there to life?

Ah yes... in life one needs friends.

As luck would have it, as I was strolling through the Ferry Building planning the most strategic way of attacking the food stalls*, I spotted the familiar silhouette of Veronica Brogan having lunch in DELICA rf1:

Veronica is an old (not in terms of age) and excellent friend. We'd lost contact in recent years, but she was instantly recognisable. She, like me, is out here on business - as a rule, she's to be found in Dublin these days, so the odds on me bumping into her on the west coast of the States are relatively low.

We chatted for a while before she had to head off to meet her clients. She's still the same gorgeous, lovely, bubbly Irish girl that wowed all before her in Sweden.

Meeting Veronica made my day. Possibly, it made my week.

So there you have it. San Francisco is a wholly delightful city.

Don't know how it stacks up against the the next world...

*the Ferry Building deserves its own entry!

[EDIT: Turns out that Heather Armstrong (AKA Dooce, the mother of all bloggers) has also been visiting San Francisco. As I'm having problems uploading my photos, my millions of readers will have to content themselves with hers! /EDIT]

Scalped... again!

I've been trying to grow my hair long for about 4 years now. Rather like people who try to give up smoking, I keep failing.

I failed again yesterday - this time in San Francisco, where I am staying for a week. I took a photo of the place I lost my locks. What do you mean you're not surprised? Actually, I loved the old-time look of the Palace Barbershop:

I'll add photos when I'm able to transfer them from my phone, but as I know that so many people eagerly await my every pearl of wisdom (according to Bloglines, I've got three subscribers and only one of those is me, so you can't call this vanity publishing, oh no...) I'm letting you all know about my general state of upset.

On the upside, the weather is lovely and I met my San Franciscan work colleagues who proved to be very hospitable, not to mention highly intelligent. The wines from Napa Valley are also proving to be delicious as is the beer from the Thirsty Bear micro-brewery over the road from my hotel.

Actually, I was genuinely (unexpectedly) impressed by the quality of the beer. Apparently the US West Coast is renowned for its ales. I tried 2 types: the ESB slipped down a treat (I think I had 4 pints without really noticing!) and the ISP was rich and hoppy. Both were served chilled, which wouldn't be the case back home in Blighty.

Right... I'm off to have breakfast.

Travel woes 2: Car hire in Sweden

I just checked my credit card statement and noticed two payments relating to my recent trip to Stockholm.

04 Sep THE HERTZ CORPORATION GENERAL HEADQ on 01 Sep 190.93

06 Sep Hertz Ostermalm STOCKHOLM on 02 Sep 2,617.70 SWEDISH KRONA at 13.42 194.92

The first relates to the amount I paid to hire a car during my stay. No problems with that.

The second payment relates to the amount I was charged for a slight dent on the right-hand rear bumper.

Now, I only travelled approx. 60 kilometres (the decision to hire a car was really for convenience rather than distance) and know for certain that I didn’t bump into anything. Given that I parked at my friends Chris and Kicki’s house, which is well off the road. I’m pretty sure that nothing bumped into the car while I wasn’t driving, too.

The nice man at Hertz on Östermalmstorg told me that if it weren’t possible to remove the dent, he might have to replace the section of the bumper.

It seems he didn’t waste much time before deciding to replace it – he’d processed the maximum payment (SEK 2500 limit) he could before I’d left the country.

Oh well, I had a wonderful time, even if it turned out to be a relatively expensive trip. I'll certainly pay more attention when hiring cars in the future - especially if it's from Hertz (I'm not planning to use them again unless I have to).

Travel woes 1: Ryanair in cohoots with Boots the chemist?

Well, perhaps not, but the thought struck my mind when I was at Stansted on the way to Glasgow last week.

The bored girl at check-in didn’t bother telling me that no cosmetics could be taken on to flights, she just ran through the standard warning about sharp objects. Consequently, I had to spend 15 minutes watching a very polite airport security chap going through my backpack, removing all of the lotions and ointments, etc. that I’d picked out at Boots the day before. Apparently, everything is destroyed even when (like several items of mine) they had not been opened.

“You can replace all of this in Boots once you’ve gone through passport control,” said the nice security fellow helpfully.

Indeed, Boots the Chemist is barely ten metres away from where I stood watching him dumping my toothpaste, antiseptic spray, deep heat lotion, etc (I was going walking and had quite a few cosmetic products). £32.50 of unnecessary spend later I’d restocked everything. Well, almost.

The one thing I couldn’t replace was the stick of MyggA that I’d bought in Sweden the previous week (I made a special detour to a chemists while returning to Arlanda airport).

MyggA is an incredibly effective anti-mosquito product (virtually 100% effective according to tests carried out in Sweden) that is NOT, repeat NOT for sale in Boots! As a result, I got attacked by Scottish midges at the base of Ben Nevis.

OK, I don’t suppose Ryanair is working with Boots, but the pharmacy chain appears to be doing a roaring trade at UK’s airports. It just goes to show that one man’s meat is another man’s poison…

Post Script: I nearly forgot to mention that the previous week I flew to Stockholm and back. Not once was my hand luggage questioned and on the flight home (via Copenhagen) I was carrying the same backpack with the same washbag that was emptied in Stansted five days later.

The 1 1/2 Peak Challenge

On Friday, I joined Steve (on the left in this photo), who is a friend from college. together with 6 other lads at Stansted Airport from where we caught a plane to Glasgow and then spent the weekend charging around between the highest peaks in each of Scotland, England and Wales - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon respectively - in an attempt to achieve the 3 Peaks Challenge.

Now, I had a feeling that things might go awry when, after checking in at the hotel we stayed at in Glasgow, I realised I'd forgotten to bring my walking boots... in fact it was probably a blessing in disguise given that my feet are pretty much blister-free and I'm walking without pain of any kind - not something that most of our posse can claim!

Of course, they all have far more reason to feel proud than I do, but I'm not bothered about that - it was a great weekend and I'm grateful to Steve for making it happen. Saying that, I don't want to see the inside of a minibus again for quite some time... much of the 24 hours was spent hurtling around being driven by our driver Chris (somehow I only got a photo of his back!).

I was, to put it bluntly, a bit slack when it came to making the challenge; I had a bash at Ben Nevis, but bottled out after starting off at far too fast a pace. Instead I spent a pleasant afternoon taking photos and practising using my walking poles on the lower slopes, while the rest of the lads were injuring themselves in order to get up and down in as short a time as possible. I'm a bit disappointed because I have since realised that had we set off at a more reasonable pace (it was my fault... I was the initial pace-maker!) I should have made it to the top of Ben Nevis without problems and without slowing down the others who wanted to climb all three peaks within 24 hours. Saying that, seeing as at least four of them came off the mountain carrying twisted joints and overstretched muscles, I'm not overly upset!

Having failed to conquer Nevis, I took a pragmatic view when it came to Scafell Pike, by all accounts the hardest of the three climbs. Not having proper footwear (I was wearing reasonably sturdy Timberlands) the decision not to trudge off into the night was quite an easy one to take. I was later joined in the minibus by Neil who was forced down again after making a valiant attempt to climb it. At least we got a couple of hours sleep!

I did, however, manage to climb Snowdon - I couldn't really back down, as it's the easiest of the three mountains to climb and I had already done it before... when I was about 12 years old! Up and down in approx. 4 1/2 hours, which, while hardly record-breaking, isn't bad. I have definitely broken in my walking poles.

Seeing as I had more time on my hands than the others, I became something of the trip's unofficial photographer. I've posted unedited pics here, but will describe them on this post at some point over the next few days or so. Right now, I need some sleep!

For the time being, I'll just say congratulations to Steve, Phil, James, Gel, Rich, Bruce and Neil for all of your efforts. I'll even forgive the three of you that snored so loudly in the hotel we stayed in last night before returning to London!