US1908 BOS PHL 0700 0842 320 3A

We took off 30 min late; after a certain amount of what the
pilot called "the Philly factor" we landed 50 minutes later
than expected, but owing to the miracle of schedule padding
we ended up technically an on-time arrival. Allowing 102
minutes for a 30 minute flight and all that.

Aside from when I was wakened by the extremely loud PA, I
slept through this (apparently relatively bumpy) trip.

The A club is a shadow of its former self, at least in the
morning. It used to have a nice clubby aspect and serve
a decent snack buffet, including soup, but now the nicer
part is closed off before the afternoon block of
international flights.

I got a glass of red wine and made myself a rather nasty
sangrialike substance with breakfast orange juice. This
works better at places that offer a cinnamon shaker for
fancy coffees, which the A club doesn't.

US4118 PHL IPT 1108 1201 DH8 4A

A not unpleasant but a little OCD FA who checked people's
seatbelts multiple times before the flight, most of which
I slept through but did notice some turbulence as we wung
our way over central Pennsylvania.
[redacted]

US4118 IPT PHL 1221 1319 DH8 4A

Guess who was on the same flight with me. Syd, on her way to
Greece. She insisted on getting to the airport 2 hours ahead
- so instead of having Annie drive us both, she got someone
else to take her. Annie got me to the airport around 1145,
by which time it had become clear that the weather was being
uncooperative (high winds). We ended up taking off an hour
and half late, which meant that Syd had communed with her
friends at the TSA for something like 3 hours, at an airport
that consists of one gate, one check-in counter, one snack
bar, one pair of restrooms, an upstairs restaurant that is
closed but is occasionally used as a viewing tower where the
locals come to see the airplane come and go, and two TSA
facilities that use up as much space and more personnel than
anything else on the premises. It was a bumpy ride, and we
didn't gain any time, which means that the choice of the IPT
staff to put me on a subsequent flight out of Philly was a
wise one. It was 2:40 by the time I got to the mainline
terminal, and though my 3216 hadn't gone yet, it's certain
that my comfy seat up front had. There was a long waiting
list for first on 1878, but I for some reason jumped to the
head when I was taken off the previous flight. Turns out
there were two seats left up front, the second going to the
consort of a lady who had already scored her upgrade.

US1878 PHL BOS 1515 1636 E90 4F
was
US3216 PHL BOS 1445 1608 E70 3D

The flight was fine though really windy; the Glenlivet was
double.

I had (cleverly I thought) booked the Hilton Boston, a
20-minute walk from my listening post at the music school; I
was given a corner suite that was rather nicely appointed
in a 1970s sort of way, with an exceptionally comfy bed.
I thought about resting a while, but then the gaggle of
scholarship candidates wouldn't be heard and pronounced
upon, and I'd feel guilty; plus I'd promised the chair I'd
make this set of auditions. It was a windy walk, and when I
went past the Doubletree halfway (available for the same
price) I began to regret my choice.

It was a worthwhile session, as we pinpointed some
candidates of real talent. My disappointment was in not
having the reinforcement of our other string person, which
meant that one of the cheap tricks candidates, a violinist,
got voted into the next round, instead of a pianist whom I
favored, who relied too much on Debussy, who, I was
informed, is the choice of C minus students. Let that be a
lesson to those entering piano competitions: Debussy is
officially on the shoot list.

Another of the committee members was taking the T back to
Cambridge, so walking her to the station and accompanying
her on the dreaded orange line was my excuse for avoiding
that wind on the way back.

Slim pickings on the continental breakfast buffet, and they
tried to do an upsell to the cooked breakfast; I said that
I really didn't need more than those slim pickings, which
slowed the service down considerably, so I had a goodly
wait for my orange juice refill.