Darren
Mar 18, 05, 12:28 pm
Michael, being an engineer, is infatuated with gadgets. Although I am not an engineer, I am a dork and so I share his infatuation with cool machines with flashing lights. His latest toy was a very up-to-date GPS unit by Garmin. These little gizmos have made great strides from when they initially came out and this is one of the latest and greatest. The system boasts a three inch by two inch touch screen with automatic light sensing, automatic recalculation, and an updateable street map that includes most of Western Europe. However, the best part of watching an engineer with a toy is not watching the joy and excitement that can only be matched by a five year-old on Christmas morning. That’s what a dork would do. The best is listening to the engineer tell about everything that is wrong with the machine and how these flaws can be fixed down to critiquing the circuitry used to develop the system. Again, it’s all about problem solving.
On the second evening, we headed out to the middle of nowhere to a pub-restaurant called, Sir Charles Napier. We were going to go to a new restaurant in Henley called the Hotel du Vin, however, reservations were not to be had. Sir Charles Napier sits on the side of a hill overlooking I believe Wycombe in the valley below. I was told that in the summer there is a lovely patio for al fresco dining under a vine entangled veranda. Again, this place is in the middle of nowhere including going down wiggly, single-car roads in the pitch black darkness. Fortunately, we had our GPS unit to lead the way. But I couldn’t help but laugh because every direction the machine told us to go, we went some way different. We did get to the restaurant in one piece and was greeted by a very large group of middle aged men . . . and one attractive woman. Turns out they were part of a large group seated in an adjacent room but I am not sure why there was only one woman in the group. She didn’t seem to mind, however, since she was the center of attention all night.
The restaurant is run by the wife of a reasonably renowned sculptor in an old farmhouse with a six-foot high indoor clearance. His various works adorn the bar and sitting area and in the middle of some of the tables in the dining room. My favorite had to be a two-foot high snail that sat in the sitting room in the middle of a glass and wrought iron coffee table. The rest of the restaurant is reasonably non-descript but classy and comfortable.
The menu consisted of about ten appetizers, about 20 main courses, and about ten desserts. I would have liked to have seen a smaller menu since I have found that the expansive menus often lead to chefs taking less care with the individual items, but that didn’t seem to happen in this case. I began with the pigeon and foie gras terrine since they are two things I normally never have. Michael started with an order of sweetbreads (which is a thought I cannot even stomach) and Anne with the parsnip and parmesan soup. For the main, I had venison slices in a fig reduction served with parsnip mash, button mushrooms, and asparagus spears. Michael and Anne enjoyed turbot fillet and breast of guinea fowl respectively. Dessert was an absolutely wonderful but excessively sweet honeycomb parfait. The evening was very enjoyable. Company was wonderful, as always, and the food very good. The only thing I found strange was that the table was put in front of a very large wine rack so we occasionally had a waitress wanting to reach over and grab a bottle for another table.
I left the following morning on a BA award ticket in Club World. It was my first time in the cabin and I had a backwards facing seat by the window. General observations. First, the seat is quite comfortable. It is more narrow than the first seat, but not excessively and the only time it’s noticeable is if you sleep on your side like I do. Unfortunately, for side-sleepers, the seat gets a bit uncomfortable after a while. This was about an 8 hour flight which was just about all I wanted in the seat at one time. As usual, my audio-video system did not work correctly which wasn’t a huge deal since I tried to sleep most of the flight. The video system is not video on demand, which I think is a big failing for BA on this product. The cabin was crowded but not uncomfortably so. Getting out of the window seat takes a bit of balance but things were taken in stride. Food was decent. I believe I had a coconut shrimp curry with saffron rice. Staff was pleasant but a bit demanding of procedure which came across as a bit condescending. Sort of nannyish and at some point I expected a rap on the knuckles with a ruler for doing something bad. Immigration at Philadelphia was easy and I was soon back in a warm embrace.
Past Episodes:
#1: Intro, PHL-LAX-LHR-DXB, Dubai (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409654)
#2 : London : The Flumps (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=412328)
On the second evening, we headed out to the middle of nowhere to a pub-restaurant called, Sir Charles Napier. We were going to go to a new restaurant in Henley called the Hotel du Vin, however, reservations were not to be had. Sir Charles Napier sits on the side of a hill overlooking I believe Wycombe in the valley below. I was told that in the summer there is a lovely patio for al fresco dining under a vine entangled veranda. Again, this place is in the middle of nowhere including going down wiggly, single-car roads in the pitch black darkness. Fortunately, we had our GPS unit to lead the way. But I couldn’t help but laugh because every direction the machine told us to go, we went some way different. We did get to the restaurant in one piece and was greeted by a very large group of middle aged men . . . and one attractive woman. Turns out they were part of a large group seated in an adjacent room but I am not sure why there was only one woman in the group. She didn’t seem to mind, however, since she was the center of attention all night.
The restaurant is run by the wife of a reasonably renowned sculptor in an old farmhouse with a six-foot high indoor clearance. His various works adorn the bar and sitting area and in the middle of some of the tables in the dining room. My favorite had to be a two-foot high snail that sat in the sitting room in the middle of a glass and wrought iron coffee table. The rest of the restaurant is reasonably non-descript but classy and comfortable.
The menu consisted of about ten appetizers, about 20 main courses, and about ten desserts. I would have liked to have seen a smaller menu since I have found that the expansive menus often lead to chefs taking less care with the individual items, but that didn’t seem to happen in this case. I began with the pigeon and foie gras terrine since they are two things I normally never have. Michael started with an order of sweetbreads (which is a thought I cannot even stomach) and Anne with the parsnip and parmesan soup. For the main, I had venison slices in a fig reduction served with parsnip mash, button mushrooms, and asparagus spears. Michael and Anne enjoyed turbot fillet and breast of guinea fowl respectively. Dessert was an absolutely wonderful but excessively sweet honeycomb parfait. The evening was very enjoyable. Company was wonderful, as always, and the food very good. The only thing I found strange was that the table was put in front of a very large wine rack so we occasionally had a waitress wanting to reach over and grab a bottle for another table.
I left the following morning on a BA award ticket in Club World. It was my first time in the cabin and I had a backwards facing seat by the window. General observations. First, the seat is quite comfortable. It is more narrow than the first seat, but not excessively and the only time it’s noticeable is if you sleep on your side like I do. Unfortunately, for side-sleepers, the seat gets a bit uncomfortable after a while. This was about an 8 hour flight which was just about all I wanted in the seat at one time. As usual, my audio-video system did not work correctly which wasn’t a huge deal since I tried to sleep most of the flight. The video system is not video on demand, which I think is a big failing for BA on this product. The cabin was crowded but not uncomfortably so. Getting out of the window seat takes a bit of balance but things were taken in stride. Food was decent. I believe I had a coconut shrimp curry with saffron rice. Staff was pleasant but a bit demanding of procedure which came across as a bit condescending. Sort of nannyish and at some point I expected a rap on the knuckles with a ruler for doing something bad. Immigration at Philadelphia was easy and I was soon back in a warm embrace.
Past Episodes:
#1: Intro, PHL-LAX-LHR-DXB, Dubai (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409654)
#2 : London : The Flumps (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=412328)