Back from Houston (2)

Yet again I am back in the UK following a visit to the great State of Texas. Despite Jacqui Smith's expenses claims, along with those of many other MPs, it's a nicer place than Texas. 

The journey each way does not improve though. BA meals are beginning to bug me more and more as they are always the same on the way out and the way back. On the way back, at 01.30 in the morning UK time you get duck salad followed by braised texas short rib. Or something creamy in the pasta line or, worse, mahi mahi in creamy sauce. Or chicken and duck galantine with salad. I had that last time. And it's weird having duck salad after a duck salad starter. It gets weirder when you realise that those strange thin green slices on the salad are in fact raw marinaded potatoes. Why would anyone who claims to know about menus do that?

Of the last 4 flights, three have been on a 747 with a failed auxiliary power unit. No air-conditioning on stand, endless marching of engineers in and out of the flight deck followed by various explanations from gate staff and the Captain. On the way back this time, the excuse was "last minute security checks" from the gate staff and "a minor technical glitch meaning we have to start an engine on stand before we can turn on the air-conditioning" according to the senior first officer. Senior? There's only one of them in the cabin, I can see that as the door is still open to allow for the parade of engineering types. So why call yourself "senior" on the tannoy? By the way, only one of those engineers sports a stetson. He didn't fix anything either, by the way. 

It also takes a very long time to start the engine.  I still am not sure why. 

so, back to the food. I was left wondering for the fourth time in 6 weeks, why would you want duck then beef? I know, I know, inherently there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that late at night it's way over the top. And quite indigestible just before trying to sleep.....

Back from Houston

A small selection of sides. That's what the man said. Hash brown - a small field of potatoes shredded, pressed into a dinner plate size cake 6 inches thick and fried. Mashed potatoes - two large serving dishes with mash, with cheese and butter and cream and chopped cilantro (coriander to much of the rest of the world). Asparagus with bearnaise. Brussels sprout salad. Shredded sprouts, warm red wine vinaigrette and bacon bits. Green beans, times two. Lobster risotto. Fries times two on huge platters, dusted in salt and parmijan (parmesan to you and me). Warm cheese bread and butter. Spinach. 

That apparently is a small selection in Houston. Well, you say. If  you are feeding 40 maybe that's ok. NO, we were 9 in total. We all had entrees of monster proportions, we had all had starters again of gargantuan proportions. The beans and the fries would have been fine. As it was it took a lot of effort to send most of it back. It took a lot of persuasion of the servers that we didn't want it all put into nice neat doggy bags.

So, back to the land of the normal portion size and, maybe, just maybe, the cheese free meal.

No zoning laws

More foreign language. Houston has no zoning laws. Try driving down the I610 South towards Galveston. I did today. It's a big, wide road.  Along each side of it there is a random mixture of oil refineries, churches, houses, "gentlemens' clubs", video shops, Taco takeaways, "Chicken and biscuit parlors, schools, hotels, hospitals, scrubland, railway marshalling yards and more. Randomly dropped all over the place with no logic or order. None, I promise you. Like some child's toy box upturned and shaken over the floor to see what is there.

No zoning means no planning controls. You can put what you like where you like apparently. And people do, clearly. NASA Johnson Space Centre is opposite a block or two of new condominiums "now renting" on the seafront.  To an English ear "now renting" sounds like the condo has found itself somewhere to live but I suspect means that there are apartments available to rent.

Oh, answer this one- why is Mission Control for the shuttle in Houston, Texas, when it launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida?

Because that's where President Johnson wanted it to be, in Texas, his home state (he was a senator at the time, not president).  So there.