Back home, sob, sob

Had a fab flight from Vancouver to LA though. Flew out directly over the ferry route back from Vancouver Island that we took only last Monday. And then south across Washington State which was a blanket of cloud with just the odd snow-capped mountain poking its head through. Finally there was a brilliant red sunset to view. Did have to get a move on in LA to catch the connecting flight to New York but got there with a whole 20 minutes to spare. Then a little bit of sleep on the 4.5 hour flight before arriving in NY at 7am!!!! Why Vancouver to New York via LA I hear you ask? Well for some ridiculous reason only known to the airline companies, it is cheaper to do it that way than to fly direct. ???? Then one final mostly lazy day in New York finishing off a few things (like collecting my now-repaired original camera).

Even managed to take in American football game even though Ticketbastard (sorry TicketMaster) tried to stop me. Ticketmaster seem to be like a lot of Americans and don't seem to realise there is a whole world outside of North America. First their web site would only let me specify a credit card billing address in the US or Canada. Having been stopped by that, I then found an actual retail location in Tower Records, only to be told that tickets for the NY Giants could only be bought over the internet (!) or by phone. So over the street to a payphone to find that the Ticketmaster phone system has some fancy speech recognition software that can't seem to cope with anything other than a US accent. Finally (after about 15 minutes) got through to a real human being who sold me a ticket but couldn't release it. That needed someone from customer services (another long hold on the phone). Spent more time going through the order details with them before they proudly announce that they don't make sales against non-US credit cards. Bastard then proceeded to cancel the order. I bet they thought they'd fobbed me off - oh no, I'm nothing if not persisent. Next stop was the Giants website to find if they have a ticket office at the stadium. Yes, so another phone call and the good news that if I headed out to the Meadowlands I could buy a ticket on the night. Yes. And at face value too. No Ticketmaster "convenience" fee.