Work trip to Philadelphia, USA - 1st to 5th December 2008

What seemed like my billionth trip to Philadelphia (actually, I counted, it was the 8th time I've been), and I still haven't seen the Liberty Bell. Shameful. This was also my 7th and final visit to the goons at US Immigration this year, and thankfully my final foreign trip of the year. It got off to an annoying start, with an excruciatingly long flight over there. 200 mph head winds meant that we almost started going backwards as we approached the US east coast. All in all, we were in the air for almost 9 hours (as opposed to just over 7 that it should have taken) - I really wasn't psyched up for that at all, so it was a very boring and annoying flight.

Some of these trips involve a decent amount of "play", mixed in with a lot of hard "work", but this was not one of those. This was generally all work, and lots of it - there just never seemed to be enough hours in the day whilst I was there. Apart from an evening out seeing Nada Surf, this was a trip of long hours, lots of meetings, and not seeing a lot apart from my office and my hotel. So, although I have had some good times in the US this year, this was not a memorable trip to finish off the year.

One thing I did encounter (again) on my travels was a branch of the Philly deli chain called Wawa. This sells sandwiches, coffee and the like, but encapsulates the endless complexity and customisation options that exist in the US. You can have everything they sell, every possible way - so complicated in fact that you have to go through a touch screen set of menus just to order a sandwich. I captured the whole ridiculous set of choices, here.


Not much to write home about other than that - I saw a lot of people wearing Phillies clothing (now that they are World Series champions) - or maybe I just noticed them more. Those 200mph winds were still there on the flight back home, so we were in the air for less than 6 hours. Good to put the passport away for a while, I'll enjoy not going near an airport for a month or so.