AgentCooper.NET

Yesterday I had the oppurtunity to fly through London Heathrow’s new Terminal 5. I didn’t really know what to expect but was definitely expecting the worst based on reports I’ve had heard in the news since it’s opening two months ago — long queues, useless baggage handling, lost luggage, etc. I attempted to reduce my exposure by doing online check-in the day before and utilize one of the terminal’s “fast bag drops”, this way I reduce one of the queues I would have to wait in. I was working in a time range that didn’t allow much room for error, arriving on the very first Heathrow Express train of the day (e.g. I couldn’t get to the airport any earlier unless I hired a car) and T5’s new conformance policies. For those that aren’t aware, “conformance” are a new set of policies put in place to help the airlines remain on schedule — this includes a policy that all passengers have thier boarding passes scanned at the security checkpoint and if there is less than 35 minutes prior to thier flight they won’t be allowed to clear security. This left me about and hour and fifteen minutes from the time the train arrives to needing to be pass security. I show up to the airport and surprisingly I have my bag checked and made it through security in less than 15 minutes… needless to say, I was impressed!

This was also the first time I had flown British Airways. From the time I had arrived at the airport in London until the time we on the ground in Rome, every BA employee was extremely nice and helpful. The pilots even made every effort to keep us aprised of the flight status (we were initially delayed by almost a half an hour but made up the time in the air). I would definitely consider flying them again in the future.

Anyways, that’s all for now… I gotta make it off to the Termini in order to catch the night train to Munich.

Woohoo, a blog post!

To the friend (you know who you are) that e-mailed me stating that I don’t blog enough… all I have to say is is the link to your site has been updated.

I must be living an exciting life if this is the only thing that I have to blog about. Perhaps there will be more to come if we get more serious about pub night!

Ok, so I haven’t blogged in awhile… sue me.

That aside, I’ve recently been looking at getting a Plush Bag though I’ve been debating the last couple of weeks on whether or not it’s worth the cost as the model I’ve been looking at would be ~$400. Anyway, yesterday I finally convinced myself the cost was justified and as I head in to make the purchase one of the employees informs me that they’re having a two day sale and that everything is 50% off. Talk about a pleasant surprise, getting something I had already intended on purchasing at full price but saving a couple hundred dollars in the process. A very similar thing happened several weeks ago when I went to Macys to buy a watch — I already had an idea of the model I wanted and when I finally went in to make the purchase they had it on sale for 25% off, saving me ~$125.

Now only if I could plan all my purchases around these unforeseeable events.

Ok, so I understand folks get a bit delusional when they lose a close loved one, but the actions of Josh Hancock’s father is completely not comprehensible. If you don’t know who Josh Hancock is, he was a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals who died last month after running his SUV into the back of a tow truck. His father is demanding justice and by that he’s filing civil suit and seeking damages in his son’s death. Typical of any father who you feel someone is liable in the death, however I have an issue when the factors in the death include his son speeding, talking on the cell phone, not wearing a seat belt, plowing into another vehicle, oh yeah… and having a blood alcohol level of nearly twice the legal limit. I have to wonder who you even sue in this scenario though there’s no need as Mr. Hancock answered this for me.

• The owner AND manager of the restaurant that served him the drinks that made him intoxicated. They’re apparently negligent by handing drinks to Josh for the 3 ½ hours he was there. Did he not order, purchase, or ask for these drinks?
• The towing company who is apparently negligent by having their truck in the way of Josh’s SUV.
• The tow truck driver who was assisting the stalled vehicle driver apparently is negligent by failing to put out flares and call the police after only being on the scene for ~5 minutes.
• The owner of the disabled vehicle for negligence by allowing his vehicle to become stalled on the highway and failing to move out of the way of oncoming traffic. BTW, that vehicle that became stalled when it spun out after being cut off by another vehicle – who’s the victim here???

This whole lawsuit infuriates me. I don’t mean to be insensitive but Josh made some bad decisions and his fate was decided – my deepest respects are with him. I do however have an issue with his father; I’m surprised he’s not suing the cell phone company by providing the means for Josh to talk on the phone while driving.

I find it absolutely absurd that frivolous lawsuits such as this are allowed though I guess that’s one of the “benefits” of being a free country – we’re able to place blame on anyone and everyone except ourselves.

I had no real point to this post, I just wanted to vent…

I was at McCormick’s Fish House earlier during their happy hour and while I was there Mac & Jacks was having a promotion giving out raffle tickets to those drinking their brew. Eventually the raffle drawing comes about and I don’t win a thing as their giving out pint glasses, T-shirts and such. Eventually the grand prize – two box seats and a cab voucher to the Mariner’s game – which I end up winning. At first I didn’t know what to think… shit, I actually won something?!?!

Anyways, they came over with the prize (tickets) and I *immediately* plopped them down in front of the couple sitting next to me (of whom I didn’t know). Wow, to see someone else’s eyes *light up* so quickly and wonderfully was just simply amazing. Prior to this we had never spoken which seemed to shock them even more so. Think of it from their shoes, here’s a complete stranger of which we don’t know and have never spoken to and he just gave us premium tickets to the ball game.

I mention that though I’m not going to the game that I’m also in no need of the tickets and that it’s my pleasure to provide them with the opportunity. Another gentleman approaches and states “Working on filling up the karma jar, eh?” a remark that I ended up just smiling to.

Ironically the couple who I had given the tickets to ended up picking up my entire tab (it wasn’t much but a wonderful gesture nonetheless) and ended up bringing meaning to the saying “what comes around goes around; apparently the karma guy wasn’t too far off base.

Walking home I find myself smiling thinking about what I had done, something that I felt was a reward within itself.