Bloomberg tones it down?

Having survived the nail-biting purgatory of flying in an aircraft only wide enough for three seats and a gangway, we deplaned at JFK Airport and headed for our hotel in downtown New York. Why we “deplaned” rather than just “got off” was never explained.

New York has never been one of Julian’s favourite cities since he is a naturally unsociable animal who is easily frightened by loud noises. Thus, the huge throngs of people and the requirement of all drivers of automobiles, vans, pick-up trucks and lorries in Manhattan to beep their horns at regular intervals combined to keep his nerves on edge. Or at least that used to be the case. I don’t know whether there has been an edict from Mayor Bloomberg restricting the honking, but it was definitely a quieter visit than heretofore.

 Unchanged, however, was the level of knowledge and comprehension of the local taxi drivers. Having tried unsuccessfully to get “Water Street and Wall Street” across to the cabbie eight times, Julian finally put the address into his iPhone and leaned through the small Perspex window into the driver’s seat and showed him.

 New York hotels are usually either somewhat tatty or only affordable if you can live off the interest on your interest. For once, a happy medium was found in the bijoux hotel in the financial district that the ever-reliable Hotwire.com managed to come up with. True, a swinging cat would have a sore head if visiting, but everything was new, clean and, more importantly, worked. The hotel was just over the road from Pier 17 where the tall ships are moored and we were therefore able to have a very pleasant wander down the riverfront.

The next day was a different matter. Julian was in Midtown for a breakfast meeting and for the next fourteen hours was walking up and down from 39th to 46th streets seeing alumnus after alumnus prior to the event which, this year, was held at the Penn Club – thanks to the kind sponsorship by member Max Goodwin. Having had previous contact with the Welsh Government’s team in the US, not only were we very well served with Aber alumni, but also various luminaries of the Welsh ex-pat community were kind enough to attend. The venue was excellent , the conversation animated and the Vice-Chancellor’s message went down very well indeed. The only fly in the cowpat was a period during which, having been knocked onto the floor behind the entrance table, I was completely stranded and ignored. Hardly a dignified moment but I suppose, for once, I wasn't the guest of honour so it was slightly more understandable.

And then it was back to JFK for the red-eye home.  It is always a great deal easier to get out of the USA than it is to get in, so the queues were short, the grilling by officials non-existent, and Julian ignored the rules on livestock yet again by sticking me into his sock-bag.  I'm off to cooler climes shortly, and without Julian (for which relief much thanks).  Look out for my next blog from Helsinki!

 

The case of the missing shower gel

America is a truly wonderful place.  As we flew into Washington DC I was, as usual, flabbergasted by the range of services and utilities available to the discerning and not-so-discerning consumer.   In a society which has taken the Victorian concept of entrepreneurism to unimaginable heights, business opportunities for manufacturing and/or services to make one’s life easier abound.  If one wanted to set up a booth in an airport wherein one could have one’s nose-hairs trimmed before that all-important business meeting, they would make a space available.  One almost gets the feeling that anything that happens which irritates is not seen as an annoyance but as an opportunity to invent something to ensure that whatever it was doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Upon arrival at our hotel, therefore, and checking into our room, I was suddenly struck by something which, in Houston, I had presumed to be a local foible but which turns out to be endemic to the country:  no shower gel.  Compared to the usual Holiday Inn Express on the M4 corridor near Slough, of course, the bathroom is the very lap of luxury and conspicuous consumption.  There are shoe-cleaning kits, cotton buds, sewing kits, mouthwash, numerous sizes of bars of soap, body lotion, hand lotion, eyewash, exfoliants and make-up remover.  But no shower gel. 

Is there a reason for this?  Was a laboratory mouse washed for sixty days continually with shower gel and then developed a tumour leading to the immediate Federal banning of the product?  Is shower gel the property of a cartel that has overpriced the licence to manufacture?  Given that Americans shower more than the rest of the world put together, what can explain this absence of the most important invention since the espresso machine?
Perhaps more importantly, is this an opportunity which the US business school professors have missed?  Should the School of Management & Business at Aber be fast-tracking a new course in liquid soap manufacturing?  If someone does crack this market, does this blog serve as a patent-pending on the idea?

But I digress ... as usual.  Far more important than chasing a bar of soap round the shower cubicle (as I don’t have fingers this is more difficult than might first appear) was the arrival in DC of the Vice Chancellor, Prof April McMahon.  Given the circumstances – two powerful women sharing the same stage – we got on famously.   An eminent linguistics professor, April learnt Welsh in the three months between her appointment and arrival and we were able to natter away to each other without Julian, a fey Saesneg who has enough trouble making himself understood in English, being able to follow the conversation.

Our alumni event took place at the offices of the Promontory Group in central Washington, thanks once again to the generosity of Debra Cope.  The assembled throng hung on every word of the VC in DC as she spoke about the changes taking place at Aber and, most excitingly, of the plans for the future of Old College.   As so often happens, the event overran by nearly an hour and only the arrival of security and the imminent threat of overtime for the cleaning staff brought the evening to a close.

Now it’s off to the Big Apple.  The VC and her team have an impossible schedule as they visit current and potential institutional partners all over the north-east as well as attend our alumni events.  In comparison, we have it easy as all of Julian’s meetings are in the major conurbations.  The downside is that the tiny commuter aircraft flying between DC and NYC (think: flying pencil) always give me the heebie-jeebies.