Tips for the Unlucky Holiday Season Traveller
Due to poor travel booking on my part (I optimised on ticket price rather than flight time or schedule robustness), what was scheduled to be a 19 hour journey from London to Kelowna, BC, Canada via Cincinnati and Seattle, if all connections happened as planned, became a 40 hour door-to-door ordeal. Obviously all connections did not happen as planned.

Which sucked.

But I got to Kelowna the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and unlike the poor people I met in Cincinnati I didn't have to spend 36 hours sitting at a gate looking forlornly out the window at a plane that was not boarding, and there were no massive tsunamis killing thousands of people nearby, so it could have sucked much worse. It would also have sucked worse had I not mitigated my booking stupidity with some packing, purchasing, and attitudinal cleverness. My tips:

1. Wear a hat
   Soft hats with brims have many important uses and don't take up much space in your bags. They keep your ears warm in a cute and stylish way. They act as a very thin pillow when you're sleeping against a plane or bus window. They cover up your haven't-showered-in-40-hours hair. Pulled over your face, they not only act as an eyeshade but also conceal that you're sleeping with your mouth open if you are in fact sleeping with your mouth open.
2. Carry it all on
   It's bad enough when you know that you only have 25 minutes from the time your plane has landed until your next plane is due to take off. If you do miss that next plane, though, at least you're not second-guessing whether the time saved not waiting at the baggage carrousel would have made a difference.
3. Sleep better through chemistry
   At Gatwick I did the timezone calculation and discovered my flight from London to Cincinnati was over 9 hours long. Consequently I bought sleeping pills and deep vein thrombosis-preventing flight socks at the airport Boots. I don't know if the sleep socks helped any, but a sleeping pill after the meal had been served made it much easier to sleep through the remainder of that flight, and another before the start of my bus trip from Vancouver to Kelowna made up for my poor-despite-the-hat-eyeshade sleep in the Vancouver airport.
   I don't recommend taking sleeping pills on flights shorter than 6 hours or if you're sleeping in an airport or bus station. Your paranoia may vary.
4. Don't panic
   This helpful advice came from the US Customs official who checked my visa exemption form in Cincinnati, after the other official herding us into queues had announced that no flights had been leaving the airport for the last 2 days due to snow, and when asked what the purpose of my visit to the USA was I'd replied "well, I'm supposed to be flying from Seattle to my parents' city in Canada later today..." Indeed, panicking is much less useful than a hat and sleeping pills.
5. Don't believe the departure screens
   After clearing customs, the screens said my flight to Seattle was still scheduled for a timely take-off. The screens lied.
6. If you can't get on the plane you want, get on one that gets you somewhere closer to it
   This is obvious, but when there are no further flights going where you want to go for the next two days, and it's late in the night of December 23rd and you really want to get home for Christmas, it's worth asking the check-in agent if they can put you on another flight that gets you within a reasonable bus ride of your destination. I am extremely grateful to the Alaska Airlines agent who got me on the flight to Vancouver, and who protected my return flight despite the change of itinerary.
7. To get off the plane quickly, cover your face and fake a nosebleed
   Sadly, by the time my delayed flight to Vancouver had landed, the overnight bus to Kelowna was already en route and I was in no hurry, already mentally braced to sleep in the airport if I couldn't get on a flight with Westjet or Air Canada (I couldn't, as it turns out -- the Westjet agent kindly suggested that it was less dodgy to sleep at the airport than the bus station and that the area between the domestic and international terminals had the most comfortable benches). But another unlucky traveller was trying to get off the plane more quickly because they were holding the airport shuttle to Whistler for her. The guy sitting next to me let her go ahead of him in the aisle, but the people in front of us were unsympathetic, so he suggested the nosebleed tactic: "no one wants to get blood on them. It works every time."

I hope you had a good Christmas, if you celebrate it, and that you're well rested with warm ears.
- posted by Christina @ 2:20 pm 2 comments

 
Being the super fantastic
I've graduated. Or rather, I've been presented to the director of the LSE, with my last name mispronounced but that doesn't really matter because, unlike when he was reading Grash's name, the O.R. department convenor didn't leave off the key "with Distinction" phrase after my name. So anyone who reads this, please be aware that Grash is the super fantastic and very distinctive and did an amazing job on the project she and John did at the British Red Cross. It's a horrible shame she didn't get the little transformation of facial expression from Howard Davies after he'd heard that before shaking her hand. At least she was wearing super fantastic shoes.*

There were four other departments presenting their students in the same ceremony, so LLM after LLM went across the stage before they got to our department. In his closing remarks, Davies said "I'm sure you're asking yourselves the same question I'm asking myself: Does the world really need so many lawyers? But then, they all seem to get jobs. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective." (or words to that effect) Given the set of ten key tasks to make the world a better, safer, more equitable place Professor Margot Light set us in her opening speech, I reckon the lawyers have lots to do.

My brother said the ceremony made him less keen to attend his (or to do a postgraduate degree? He'll correct me if I'm wrong.) but the PhD robes and puffy caps made me eager to get even more overedumacated. The hats in particular are super fantastic.

It's not clear to me if I'd already graduated before this when they sent our transcripts, or if that's not official until January when they send our diplomas. Details, whatever.

Anyway, it was a lot of pomp and circumstance and getting photos taken and filling in forms and picking up gowns and wearing caps (but not during the ceremony since it wasn't a graduation) for 10 seconds of walking across a stage. Afterwards, though, there was a reception with sandwiches and mince tarts and champagne. We liked the champagne. We especially liked the mince tarts with the brandy cream. Yum, we said. Several times. There was also mingling and catching up with classmates and professors, so all in all, a very good, very super fantastic, very tiring experience.


*If you didn't check out that earlier link, Manolo's shoe blog is the funny.

[edited 5 January 2005 to add photos and the Howard Davies and Red Cross links]
- posted by Christina @ 8:50 pm 0 comments

 
Rerum Cognoscere Causas
The other thing I'm doing in preparation for the presentation ceremony (read: I'm finding excuses not to get out of bed) is looking for a good image online of the ceremonial LSE whisky decanter I'm ordering. I have given up for now, having only found an image of the LSE crest and logo, but must post these links lest the last hour be tallied a complete waste:

• This Introduction to LSE ought to be easier to find, though there are shorter pages about LSE.
• From the LSE history webpages, a nice sentence: "The true spirit of the School can be found in its motto - rerum cognoscere causas - to get to know, to understand, the cause of things."
• Even better, the motto is one of the three things this alumnus remembers from his time at LSE.
• It was also favoured by Elias Ashmole, Masonic Icon.
• The 1993 presidential address to the British Society for the Philosophy of Science ends with the motto, but with a different translation:

  Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
  Happy he who understands the explanations of things

• A translation from Virgil, the source of the motto, indicates there are ways to be happy other than in finding the causes of things:
  

  Vergil, Georgics 2.490 (ref. to Lucretius?)
  
  Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
  atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatum
  subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.
  Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestis,
  Panaque Silvanumque senem Nymphasque sorores
  
  Blessed is he whose mind had power to probe
  The causes of things and trample underfoot
  All terrors and inexorable fate
  And the clamour of devouring Acheron;
  But happy too is he who knows the gods of the countryside, knows Pan and old Silvanus
  And the sister Nymphs.
  
  tr. L. P. Wilkinson
  

• And a critique of the beaver as school mascot.

- posted by Christina @ 1:45 pm 0 comments

 
Things to do in London
In a few days I'll be crossing the stage at the Peacock Theatre wearing appropriate academic dress* (this is not a graduation ceremony but a presentation ceremony, for some obscure LSE reason). Consequently my brother and I are finding things to do in London next weekend with my mum, who's flying in for the occasion. Sadly, she's arriving a few days too late to be Santa.

Sam passed on a link to Kultureflash, a "free, [somewhat] weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London." I wish I'd known of it while I was living there. I'm also impressed by Londoneasy, and intrigued by the Le QuecumBar, a gypsy jazz wine bar they wrote about.


*and possibly also carrying a small bag of John's fingernail clippings, unless Grash volunteers for the task. John was unable to book the necessary tickets, but maybe this way his DNA can attend.
- posted by Christina @ 11:40 am 1 comments

 
Which reminds me, I need to visit Scotland again. Soon.
Ardbeg apparently named distillery of the year by Malt Advocate magazine. Oh, and you can bake with barley grist.

"Consisting of barley that has been malted, dried and crushed, grist is the primary ingredient in Scotch. And on Islay (pronounced EYE-la), the grist is often dried over peat, a practice that imparts a deep smoky flavor to most of the whiskey produced in the region.

"Islay distillers have traditionally used peat-heated kilns to dry the malted barley because there is no coal and very few trees on the island," said Adam Hannett, who works for the neighboring Bruichladdich distillery. "That's why so many Islay malts have such a pronounced smoky taste."

With a mildly sweet, chestnutty flavor, an aroma that declares beach barbecue and a texture that looks suspiciously like wood chips, peated grist is an unusual ingredient — definitely not the sort you would invite to tea without getting to know it a bit better."
- Sarah Doyle Lacamoire, New York Times Correspondent

Right. So, to Scotland to get to know if first, and then I can invite it to tea.
- posted by Christina @ 4:12 pm 2 comments

 
I think you'll find...
Tonight was the Le Roc Christmas social. Saturday there is a ball. I like hanging out with people who dance. As dinner was winding down, the restaurant was supporting local artists by playing Portishead's Dummy. Someone complained it was making them want to slit their wrists.

"Not that slitting your wrists is necessarily bad," said Nick.
"I think you'll find it is," said Martin.
"In fact it is," said I, concurrently, and then wishing I'd chosen Martin's words instead. Alas I am only fake British, despite my burgundy passport.
"Well, not from a death point of view," justified Nick.

I feel as though I have been having epiphanies left, right and centre about various matters, many of them career-direction related and others related to where I belong. Some of them might even stick. I think you'll find I've grown bored of publishing that sort of navel-gazing online, though, so I'll spare you.
- posted by Christina @ 11:32 pm 0 comments

 
Festive!
John Scalzi takes on sicko Canadian directors, Ayn Rand, the Muppets, and more in The Ten Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time:

Seasonal material of a sort finally appears in the 23rd minute when Dorothy Parker, already on her fifth drink, can be heard to remark, "one more of these and I'll be sliding down Santa's chimney." The feed was cut shortly thereafter. NBC Red's 1928 holiday special "Christmas with the Fitzgeralds" was similarly unsuccessful.

(thanks to Jamie R. at The Perfect World for the link -- his Penguin cards are also festive!)
- posted by Christina @ 1:07 am 3 comments