Maximo's

At dinner tonight, the wait assistant brought over some Voss water, sparkling. It was flat, and she seemed reluctant to get us a different bottle. When she came back with a new bottle, we asked her to get us new glasses, and she grabbed our glasses and poured the flat water into the plants over the fence, and put the glasses back in front of us. I could not stop laughing. Then she was talking loudly with the bartender about partying and "getting wasted" and boyfriend stuff. Very strange to have a conversation about that kind of stuff in earshot of the customers, I think.

The waiter forgot the bread, the other WA's were also fairly inept, the owner speaks Afrikaans (that has nothing to do with anything), the manager was not present, and the food was overpriced.

But the food was great, and the setting is nice.

Discovered today that I got overcharged at the bar last night. She didn't take a drink off the check that was wrong. Chick owes me 5 bucks.

The Beach Club

Was out with my brother last night at the Beach Club, here on Siesta Key in sunny Sarasota. It's the kind of place I avoid at home, but gladly go to when I'm on vacation, because that's what is there.
The waitress, Anna May, was good, very attentive. What was interesting to watch was another waitress that kept coming by. Normally I appreciate the teamwork approach, but this felt like she was trying to poach the table from our waitress. I had a tab running with Anna May, and she knew that. Just seemed strange, the attitude she had. The goodnight we got from Anna May, however, seemed a bit cold, considering she had been so warm and friendly the whole evening. Like she had my money and now was done with us.

Bought an iPod at Circuit City today. While it took a few minutes before we got help, I got good service from the kid when he arrived. He knew the product line well, and I got what I needed, especially on the information side. Didn't try to sell me anything I didn't need. I have boycotted that chain for 6 years, previously, due to bad service, and was still reluctant to go in there, but I don't know this town, and I wanted to get the player now. So there.

more air travel

At the Wolfgang Puck Express at the Minneapolis airport today, my family and I ordered lunch, and when we went to get a table, we realized that not a single table in the place was clean. Not one. I wiped one off myself, while the staff stood behind the counter and watched me. Pathetic, eh? I couldn't be bothered to call them out on it.
I'm on vacation, dammit.

Flight with NorthWorst was fine. That's as good as it gets with them, I think.

Dinner at Siesta Key Oyster Bar. The hostess wasn't hired for her skills. The server was good, once he finally got to our table. I'll give him some slack, the place was jammed. I've been in his shoes before.

The driver was the airport down here to Sarasota was excellent. Polite, nice, gave some recommendations for restaurants, didn't talk on her cell the whole time (she actually made a point of being very brief on the phone, much appreciated). We'll call her for a ride back when we leave next week.

dog booties

Bought some booties for the dog today. The girl at the shop was real helpful, though didn't show me all the options until I asked. They also didn't have the various products next to each other on the racks, which I thought was strange.

Went to Treehouse to get some CDs, I love that shop. Smells like an old school record shop, which it is.

Had a great time at the Bulldog last night as well. I love that they remember my favorite beer. Not bad when I haven't been there in 4 months.

iceland air further

Well, there was no problem getting checked in. they didn't even want to see my e-ticket, just my passport. Which was fine. Except that then he said very nonchalantly that was a four hour delay. I said, "excuse me?"

OK, not much I can do when Keflavik is socked in with fog. I'm not the Cold Miser.

But the gives me a voucher worth 20 Euros to buy some lunch while I wait at the airport. Do you know how much 20 Euros buys in an airport restaurant? A burger.
That's it. One crappy burger that got slapped with mayonnaise (which I hate!). Undercooked bacon, half a fucking onion, tomato wedges(aren't slices more appropriate?), two different kinds of fries. But no drink. There was not enough money to buy a Coke to go with my burger. Pathetic.

The Salmon House at the airport charges 60% more per kilo of geitost than at any grocery store in Norway. I should've known I'd get screwed there, too.

Otherwise the flight was fine, except for one family complaining like they were the only ones who had been waiting an 5 hours. We politely explained to them that we were all in the same boat and that they should shut the fuck up.

Off to do last minute Christmas shopping. Should be fun!

iceland air cont.,

I booked my ticket online to got to the states for the holidays, and the new US regs. require tons of info about the passengers. The Icelandair website attempts to solve this by letting you put in info there, even allowing you to go back and add info or change it after you have booked the ticket. The problem i have is that it says I need to use the credit card i paid with as secondary i.d. This would be fine, except that I used my Dad's card, which I don't have in my possession. And there is no place you can change that bit of information.

So I called Icelandair at their Norwegian number and got a woman who sounded like she was from India, who spoke very broken Norwegian. She asked me to switch to English almost immediately, which was fine, but you'd think they would try to staff the Norwegian customer service line with a stronger speaker. Anyway, she assured me I don't need that credit card, even though it says so on my ticket and the website.

This could make for some fun on Friday.

iceland air

big pain in the ass with the reservation system, though I think I have to blame the US government for this one. details tomorrow.

goggles

I tried to order some goggles for my Dad for Christmas online. OpticsPlanet.com
While I apprecitate that they try to prevent credit card theft and fraudulent orders, their process for dealing with it is not very easy, especially for me who is half a world a way and they want me to fax them a form? There are better ways to deal with this. I don't understand why the US banks haven't adopted the process I use here, with the little code generator combined with a password. That works pretty slick.

I'll have to go to REI on the 23rd, I guess.

Oh my god the smell...

You would not believe the smell inside the taxi last night. It was the driver. The worst body odor I may have ever smelled. Worse than a hippie! Who the hell do I tell about this one?

Also, he had no idea where he was going and we got totally overcharged. But at 4 in the morning, who has the energy to complain?

No use trying to teach this dog any new tricks

The Post Office. that's right.
I received a slip saying that I had a package to pick up at the post office which didn't fit in the mailbox. Of course I managed to lose the slip. So I went down there anyway, and they said they couldn't help, and without the slip, there was no way they could find it.
It seems they put a sticker on the packages and then file them away, without any method of cross-referencing the name to the number. Now, I know that they could do this if they wanted, since they have scanners that read and sort mail. Or they could file it under "S", for my last name. Instead, it was in slot 6606. I figured that out when I found the slip later. I received a reminder slip 2 full weeks after I got the first one. The lady at the post office told it would only be one week until I got a notice, and I would just have to wait.
I tried to explain to them that their system didn't make any sense, and she just said "that's how we do it. Next!"
After that, you don't want to know how rude I was to her in return... I was so angry, my Norwegian turned into babble as I was walking away.

The bus that got away

Coming back to the bus that drive right past me and 20 others last Saturday night. I have not written to Oslo Sporveier this time. I understand that they will give me a refund of the price difference for the taxi, at least that's what they claim. I, however, have not managed to keep the receipt, which is of course necessary to get the refund. Which is also why I am not bothering to follow up this time.

Went to Baerums Verk the other day. Raining like hell, so it wasn't' as interesting gas it could have been. The woman who gave the tour was very enthusiastic about the ovens. Food was ok at the Brasserie after, though there was no dressing on the salad. When I asked, they brought out some sort of dressing that was bland as hell. Boring. Terje said there was too much meat. How can there ever be too much meat?

Going home for Christmas soon. Doing most of my shopping online. Love Amazon.com. It's so easy, I can buy everything cheap and have it sent to my parent's house. This way, I avoid the crush of holiday shoppers on the 23rd when I get home.

At Stargate last night I stepped out for a smoke, and then was held at the door when I tried to get back in, because it was too crowded. I told the doorman my beer was on the table over there with my friends and just walked past. He didn't try to stop me. What a maroon...

Apparently it takes a genius

to run a gas station. The convenience store, anyway. At the Esso - On the Run c-store up the street, I am always amazed at the poor service. The other night, the cashiers were changing over, and the one who was leaving counted her drawer at the register. While no other register was open, while a line was growing and growing. First rule. Never count your cash in front of customers. It's not safe. It would have been easy to grab the cash from the counter and run. Lucky for me, I'm not a thief. It's also rude. Rule 2. The manager should know his job. He stood right there and did nothing. To me, the customer, it looked like 3 people just standing around with their thumbs up their asses. It should be possible to make a seamless transition. Excuse yourself to the next customer, print your report, pull your drawer, new person in, drop the drawer, punch in, greet the customer. 15 seconds, max. I stood in line about 5 minutes last night.
There is obviously no training there. One night I watched the manager and 3 others try to figure out how to use the money-order printer. No one was manning the register and there were 30 people in the store, most of them hungry after the Vålerenga match. They all spent 5 minutes looking at a blank postgiro and trying to put it into the machine, and none of them acknowledged anyone. No apologies to anyone for making us wait. It didn't just happen once, I've seen this problem other times, actually.

I understand it is hard to get c-store employees to care a whole lot, since they make crap for money, but..... wait, this is Norway, they get paid excellent for a c-store jockey. That's right, it's Norway, no history or understanding of service...

arbitrary

Arbitrary is the word of the day. I was at a bar called Internasjonale on Youngstorget this past Friday, with a couple friends, one of whom is 23 years old. They wouldn't let her in. They said she was too young. Now, there is no law that says she can't come in, and she was dressed better than me and the other guy I was with, so it wasn't that. They set age limits apparently to keep out the younger, more rowdy clientele. This is idiotic and yes, arbitrary. They pull a number out of their asses and say you have to be 24 or 26 years old. I just don't understand the concept. The bouncer, of course, could have made an exception, but, hey, he didn't make the rules, he just has to enforce them. That's fine. We took our business elsewhere, and probably won't be back.

Pissed off at the bus company again. The driver drove right by 20 people standing at the stop for the nightbus, at 4 am. He saw us, and just kept going. What an asshole. I suppose I have to write to the bus company again...