I was in the US earlier this week, staying in New Jersey and Connecticut. I flew in to Newark for the first time – quite impressed with the airport. Only took about 30 minutes to get to where i was staying – Summit. A colleague of mine had landed at a similar time but at La Guardia airport; he hired a car and then drove to the hotel. unfortunately it had started snowing at this point and the last 30 miles were covered at an average speed of 10 miles an hour – next time he’ll ask for a 4WD! Needless to say we did not end up meeting for a drink, but met up for a late breakfast. There’s been 6 inches of snow over the night, so a late start after the snowplows was the best course of action.
I spent the next 2 days up in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company has just moved from Stamford, so there is a brand new office, very nicely put together. However, the hotels are not as good and I’ll have to see what the local restaurants are like the next time I visit.
I flew back through JFK – and security there just drives me crazy everytime. In the UK, there’s usually a person at the start of the screening, making sure you get the boxes, do the right things, take off your coat etc. At JFK, I think they expect everyone to have telepathy and be able to intuit exactly what set of rules they are follwing today. Coats on or off. Laptops out of bag or leave it in. Shoes on or off. There’s no guidance and as there’s never anyone at the start of the process, no one to ask. So if you guess wrong, you go back to the start, holding everyone up, causing longer lines than they have already. I always come out of that process feeling completely pissed off, even though I know it’s going to happen. So I scream silently to myself, smile at the security team who only seem to have half an eye on proceedings and just carry on to the plane where I can finally get some sleep
