Sunday, April 29, 2012

Karaoke and Cherry Blossoms

My most recent trip to Japan was pretty cool.  Finally got to fly with my friend Sandy.  We've been waiting four years for that and we were working together in first class.  On the day we arrived, the weather was pretty crummy and rainy.  Sandy and I had planned to go into town for noodles and drinks, but instead met up with some of the other crew members for a little karaoke time.  Karaoke, Japanese for "empty orchestra" originated here, and this was my first time performing karaoke in Japan.  Some of our selected performances included "Crazy" by Patsy Cline, "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Get Ready" by The Temptations, "Lady Marmelade" by Christina Aquilera, and "Living La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin.  I used my camera phone to record a little of the fun!



I woke up early the next morning and was happy to see it wasn't raining so I decided to take the bus into town for a few hours walking around.  It was the end of the cherry blossom season and I wanted to catch a glimpse, since it might be a while before I get back here with all the changes coming down the pipe at work.

I made my way down Green Street towards the Narita-san temple.  



Lots of flowers were in blooms and lots of variety of colors, but I was not having much luck finding cherry blossoms.


I noticed that there were a lot of blossoms on the street.  I wonder if the heavy rains from the day before had pushed the colorful pink blossoms to the ground?




In the end, I didn't really see anything spectacular in the cherry blossom department.  I still had an enjoyable couple of hours walking around.  The pretty blossoms I saw ended up being from outside my hotel window.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

In Search of a Better Burger

I was able to trade one of my Hawaii trips for a London trip this past week.  I was there the same time as my friend Kathy.  We've gone and hung out on previous trips.  The plan was to go to a place called The Dove in Hammersmith.  But I was on the late late trip and didn't get to the hotel until about 2pm so we got kind of a late start.  Being that we are both fans of the burger, we ended up at a London chain called Byron.  Last summer we found what we thought was the best burger in London, which I profiled in my Camden Town entry.  Well, Byron blew the Lockside Bar & Kitchen out of the water!


We started our night with a pre-burger meal at The Blackbird in Earl's Court.  I enjoyed a summer beer called Honey Dew.


Before heading to dinner, we checked out the local Boots for Remegel.  It's the best thing ever invented for heartburn and about two months ago they quit making it.  Our mutual friend Dr. Terry gobbles it down like candy, and I have probably bought him about 50 boxes or so over the last few years, but sadly, Remegel is not more. :(


Dinner was great.  Kathy wanted me to try the zucchini fries, but I have never really embraced the zucchini and opted for onion rings instead.  Our burgers were great, made even better with Perroni beer and Coleman's mustard.  It's spicy English mustard with horseradish!



The Byron Burger in Earl's Court was apparently rated the best Byron Burger in 2011.  They were the recipient of the Super Squirrel, being that they received the highest score on their reviews.  I give them snaps for creating this unique award, but it's still kind of freaky.


My friend Mary Beth was on the trip with me.  She's always fun to fly with.  Last summer her mom and daughter came along on our 4 day London trip.  We snapped this picture in the crew rest seat so we could post it on her daughter's wall to embarrass her since Olivia said we are "old".

Friends


Catching up on the blogging, my friend Melissa was kind enough to trade trips with me so that I could be working the return from Maui when my friends Lisa and Debbie would be traveling.  They divide their time between Hawaii and the mainland, but when I am in Maui, they are always kind enough to take me out to dinner.  On this trip, we went to a little hotel called The Four Seasons and had a great meal at one of their branded restaurants, Wolfgang Puck's Spago.  I enjoyed chicken with onions, mushrooms and goat cheese.  All the ingredients from the chicken to the onions were local from the island.

The flight home was typical... full full full.  Lisa and Debbie were right by my jump seat and Lisa and I chatted for a bit before she caught a nap.  Of course what redeye isn't complete without a medical emergency.  This time we had a little girl who was bleeding thru her eye!  A physician onboard thought she was having an allergic reaction, but after a little Benedryl, she was fine.