Chris Moss Online

Like most Americans, I have a bit of debt. Mine is probably a bit more than average. Fortunately, I have sufficient investment assets (not counting my 401k) that I could pay it all off if I wanted to, so it doesn’t worry me. I recently made the last payment on my car, so the money that was going to a car payment each month now goes towards paying off the pile of debt.

I thought that this month would be the first month in a while where I would pay more on my credit card than I charged (plus interest), thereby moving my total balance down. Despite my trip to the UK, I did pretty well. Unfortunately, I also got hit with my annual membership fee ($50) which put me about $15 north of being even for the month. Grrr! But hey, I went to London so I only have myself to blame.

Everyone has their Academy Award favorites, and someone has to win and someone has to lose. It was great to see Jamie Foxx win for his amazing portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray.

Morgan Freeman also won best supporting actor. The injustice I mentioned was not committed last night, it has been committed over the course of several years, because the Oscar that Mr. Freeman won last night was his first ever. Unbelievable.

I’ve been watching Morgan Freeman since I was a little boy and he was on “The Electric Company.” He has had many memorable roles, from principal Joe Clark in “Lean on Me” to chauffer Hoke in “Driving Miss Daisy”, to his amazing performance in one of my favorite films, “The Shawshank Redemption”. There have been many more, and I look forward to many more of his films and to seeing him win the recognition he deserves.

Immigra is the Spanish word for immigration. Uttering this word in certain places is likely to send throngs of Hispanic men diving for a hiding place. It’s not funny, but it is true. Immigra is also the word I use for US Immigration & Customs stations encountered when entering the US.

Immigra used to be officially known as the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Services. Since 9/11 and the formation of the Dept of Homeland Security, it is now known as US Citizenship & Immigration Services of USCIS. Please indulge me as I continue to refer to it as Immigra.

As I type this, I am six hours ahead of my normal time zone. Nothing exciting happening six hours ahead 😉

We have arrived safely in the UK. Paul, Brian and I are visiting friend ‘bat and Dunc, who live up in Chester, near the border with Wales. I suppose I could post a link to a map to show you where it is, or to a site that has information about the town, but where’s the fun in that? You can figure that part out, right?

Our trip over was relatively smooth. Got to the airport with no problems and the flight left on time. Used to be back in better days that adult beverages were complimentary on international flights. Well all the airlines are in enough trouble where that is no longer true. Made it much more difficult to sleep! Additionally, the food on international flights used to be much better as well. Now that they don’t feed you at all on domestic flights in the US, the food on international flights is garbage. Actually, it was so abyssmal it was difficult to believe they were putting it in front of us. We had to come over on a 767, which is not as comfortable as the newer 777s. The seat doesn’t really recline enough, so we were all a bit tired when we landed at 9 am. Found a Starbucks in Gatwick airport while we waited for our flight to Manchester. We had checked our bags all the way through to Manchester, and we were assured there would be no problems. When we arrived in Gatwick, we went to baggage claim anyway, just to be sure – and our bags didn’t come out. When we checked in to go to Manchester, they double checked our baggage receipts and we thought for sure there would be no problems, but as we were walking towards baggage claim in Manchester, Paul and I heard our names being called over the intercom to go to the baggage help desk, where they informed us our bags had been left behind. We never got a clear answer as to why, but Brian’s bags made it.

I forgot to tell you about the Ritz-Carlton. We got a “special” rate of $220 for one night but I had to pay “regular” rate of $317 the other night.

I was completely underwhelmed. It’s a nice hotel, don’t get me wrong, but it really wasn’t that much nicer than a good Marriott, Hyatt or Westin. In fact, I mentioned to James that the Westin we stayed in in San Antonio, where we first fell in love with their “Heavenly Bed” was much, much nicer.

Bed was pretty comfy, but even the La Quinta I frequent in Houston has larger than a 17″ Quasar TV. The clock radio was on the high end, though, complete with CD player. They had the nice terrycloth robes with the Ritz-Carlton logo monogrammed on the breast, the towels were fluffy, and the marble bath was nice. There were 3 phones in the room, including one corded one next to the john and a cordless next to the bed. A bit over the top, I suspect one cordless would have sufficed. The view was crap. The food was reasonable but not great. Fell pretty short of the “legend,” if you will.