• 405 outta there

    From MICHAEL LOO@1:123/140 to ALL on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 11:54:54
    There's apparently no way to turn off the display on these cheap
    iPads, so I took it out of its dock and put it face down.

    Sleep was pretty good but attenuated by the TV - we couldn't
    turn off the alarm, which started with a voice countdown to zero
    followed by the thing coming on full blast. The iPad had
    discharged overnight (rather than going to sleep the way it
    presumably ought to), and once we figured to put it in its
    cradle we had some modicum of control - but the system was
    malfunctioning anyway, and there was no access to the
    relevant controls. Eventually Lilli found a way to reboot the
    room from inside, but by this time we were fully awake an hour
    early and quite rattled.

    We decided to abandon ship an hour early.

    The train station is a quick walk from the hotels (if we'd been
    at the Novotel, that's actually in the station), and it was a nice
    day. Lilli singlemindedly went down the escalator to Terminal 2
    so I shouted goodbye as my train to the Schengen terminal left
    from the other platform. Later she admitted that she thought that
    we'd be on the same train, going Terminal 3, Terminal 2, Terminal
    1 - but in the French way, the arrangement is from west to east
    Terminal 1, Terminal 3, Terminal 2. Not a big thing, I'll be
    seeing her in Wellington in a couple weeks.

    I had been unable to check in on line; turns out that as long as
    I was in Schengen, things were fine, but since my itinerary took
    me outside, a human needed to verify my passport. As I'm Star
    Gold, I got in the nobs' line and had my boarding passes in two
    minutes flat.

    On the way to the gates, Terminal 1 has these slanted and lumpy
    moving walkways, one of which threw me backwards into the arms of
    a middle-aged businessman, who said that it was not a big deal,
    and it happened all the time.

    At the head of the walkway, I got pulled over for the secondary,
    which actually took a very short time, less than a TSA secondary.
    After which, in a tribute to French efficiency they tried to give
    me back a Korean passport. I tried to protest, but only when I
    switched to English did they give mine back to me. Whoever the
    Korean guy was I have no idea, and I hope he eventually got his.

    The Senator lounge is in the basement; last time I'd been there
    (too long ago to remember) it had been dreary and musty - it's
    been slightly renovated since and is better lit and doesn't smell
    bad. There was a fairly decent spread - hot foods included a
    couple kinds of omelet and these pretty good German breakfast
    sausages, of which I had two, and when I returned for seconds,
    they were sold out, never to return. I drowned my sorrows in
    chocolate croissants, decent but made with margarine.

    The Moulin de Labordes (Bordeaux) 15 was a perfectly dull and
    uninspired (though clean) Cabernet. Out of curiosity I looked it
    up and was astonished to find a quote of E33 ... turns out that's
    for a 5 L bag in box, and single bottles are running E6. After a
    hit of it I switched to cafe corretto made with Hennessy, which
    tasted of bitterness and soap but at least tasted like something.
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