When I order crappy room service from the hotel I'm in, the bill to sign does not make a big deal of it, but upon careful review, I notice they charge 20% for "service" and a $3 "delivery" charge. I'm not sure what service is happening aside from the delivery. Even worse, they then leave a blank line for "tip" and total.
I really miss my family, my butcher, and double cream. Usually in that order.
HDTV? Looks really, really good. When I get home, I'll wonder what's wrong with my TV for a week, before I forget what HD looked like.
Likewise with shower pressure. I always think our shower is broken when I first get home.
The hotel laundry service charges more to wash my t-shirts than I paid for them.
I really miss the per diem model, as opposed to expense limits. The daily limit expense policy doesn't work well for me if I eat a lot one day, over the expense limit, and very little the next day, well under the expense limit. It would be easier to administer if the company could simply figure the average daily spend for the past year's worth of business trips, and specify a per diem slightly lower than that. This would keep spending in check and make everyone happier (and be easier to administer).
yeah, i'm an HD snob now. and there should be a law limiting what hotels can charge for laundry, or at least let you go downstairs and do it yourself.
ReplyDeleteTraci is HD envious, but I am determined to wait out until the prices come down and my 10 yr old Magnavox tube TV dies.
ReplyDeleteHidden bill charges are very annoying. For the redundant 'tip' after being charged for crappy 'service' & 'delivery' you have the advantage of claiming you are European (now) & leaving it blank as most Europeans who are used to VAT typically do in the US.
Shower hydraulic pressure I over-came by drilling out the flow restrictor in my shower head. The time saved in rinsing compensates for the lower volume the restrictor used to provide. I had to drill it inverted, so that shavings would not drop down into the shower's sprinkler head.
On one trip to Hong Kong, when the Koreans had dampened but not cleaned my laundry, the Island Shangrila did a 1 hour job on a set of clean clothes for me that cost my company $60 - still cheaper than buying a new set in Hong Kong. But I assume Chinese laundry is inherently cheaper than New York laundry service. I've also adopted the "disposable" clothes model... instead of lugging good clothes home, I toss the older garments, taking old boxers and socks to the foreign country and leaving them in the dust bin there. The previously mentioned Chinese laundry used to be very harsh on clothes, with liberal use of hypochlorite.
I agree with the per diem model preference. My company has trigger points that bring administrative auditors down upon the business traveler, which I have learned to try and stay beneath, for cash and credit card charges.
I am curious, when traveling, do you pack portable & familiar fat & protein with you? or do you go scavenging once you arrive? or just accept the pot-luck that different menus provide to the business traveler, avoiding carbs as best you can?
I am getting ready to head to SC & GA next month for my quarterly HQ visit - the First one since I began intentionally avoiding carbs last August (and 35 lbs lighter than last trip).
For food, I just wing it. Although it's really tough in the USA. There seems to be sugar in EVERYTHING. Today at lunch I got what I thought was chicken with soy sauce and steamed broccoli. The broc was fine, but the chicken was coated in a syrupy sauce. The other night I ordered a cobb salad (romain, turkey, blue cheese, eggs, tomatoes... what can go wrong here?) and it was super-saturated with some kind of "ranch" dressing that was incredibly sweet. I guess if you are acclimated to it it just tastes like salad dressing, but to me it was like pouring maple syrup over a salad. So not the best time for my food intake.
ReplyDeleteNothing could be as sweet as that maple syrup salmon I had that one time. It could have been a dessert.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get glasses the tv will be much clearer and then I won't want hd.
Not as sweet as the salmoned maple syrup dish, true.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get glasses you'll notice how much better HD looks when you see it.
I picked up some maple syrup cured bacon, at COSTCO from a Canadian supplier. MMMMMM Cooking it smelled soooooooo good. It's going to be a blog posting sometime in the future.
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