Oh yeah, I found that my shampoo leaked all over the rest of the stuff in my toiletry bag. But not all over the clothes, yay

nods

I had a similar thing on the 'plane, having foolishly put my much loved orange & vanilla bodysplash perfume into my wee rucksack. The sudden whaft of intense orange&vanillaness en route to Frankfurt alerted me to the fact that this was a Bad Idea after all. Happily I'd had the wit to put it into a wee plastic bag. Unhappily it was with my toothpaste and new toothbrush. Oops. So the hand luggage, it smells pretty.

Re: coming from Egypt - nope, they were doing that shit to every single non-Citizen arriving from any destination. They didn't even notice the copy of the Qu'ran I brought with me in my hand luggage - between that and the dodgy-smelling tobacco in my luggage, I'm pretty much asking for trouble, I know - but neither of these things had any bearing on the whole lengthy queuing malarky. I'm thrilled to be here and happy to see you all, but I have to say that I hope that the rest of the non-Americans were feeling less jaded and pissy about the whole YouAren'tAmericanSoClearlyYou'reATerroristAndWhyShouldWeLetYouIntoOurFantasticCountryAnyway routine than I was. Yes, I understand that people are afraid of terrorist attacks. But I don't think this is going to do a damned thing to reduce them - just sewing low-grade resentment and irritation. Although that may just be me, having spent nearly 20 hours travelling by that point and being a stroppy cow at the best of times.

That said, props to one of the security officer blokes, who was doing his damnedest to be cheery and charming and friendly and funny and welcoming to us unAmerican cattle as we trudged through line after line after line. Yay for him.

bounce bounce bounce

Well, I'm UP! Where's everyone else?

More coffee just cause...

Here I was all crazed the last few days with the huge numbers of posts, and here I am adding to the crazy.

But I'm a big old dork and I just got all excited looking at the fog. Because there is fog here, and hills! You would think I never travel with my excited response to such things. But fog! That means I'm in San Francisco!

Oh yeah, I found that my shampoo leaked all over the rest of the stuff in my toiletry bag.

Lush solid shampoos = perfect for travelling, for just this reason.

Yes, I really like the fog too. Deb kept apologising that it was obscuring the views, and I was all 'It's fog! Do you know how often we get fog in Cairo? That would be NEVER.'

...seriously, I'm a bit head explody with the culture shock. I can't express how very, very VERY not Cairo this is. Driving especially. My God. Yes. So very much an entirely different world.

Hi Fay! Did you sleep well?

really not here... working until later when the HS is open...

Like a noisy log, thanks!

Memo to everyone still packing: Bring umbrellas. The climate has apparently gone out of its tiny little mind.

Weather forecast says rain, showers, and more rain. Fuckers.

So Matt the Bruins Fan missed his flight and will be getting a later one; Amy Parker rang me because her flight is delayed. So I'm a bit less crazed and rushed.

Going to do morning errands, drink a metric fuckload of very good very dark coffee, find Fay a sweater, take a shower, load the car, and come down to the hotel to start getting HS set up.

Oy.

Awww...shucks! And I was looking forward to the orb. Ah, well. At least we've gotten it here for a few days.

GO, DEB!

Can I call someone later to obtain the room number of the HS? I'm a-wandering over there post-lunch.

Damn, left my umbrella at home. I'm sure I'll pick one up somewhere.