Tag Archives: Peter Jones

The Boston Snow Chronicles

Leave a reply

The Boston Snow Chronicles

Chapter 1:  Navigating Boston in the Winter Storm Season

Boston received more snow last week than any other week-long period in history. And then we had a parade.  The two are not connected; the New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl right on the heels of the worst snow week ever, was as unlikely as the Pats’ rookie Malcolm Butler interception. But it happened.

The timeline:

  • Sunday night the Patriots won. The most glorious fourth quarter ever played in a Super Bowl.
  • Monday the snow won and shut the city down.
  • By Tuesday Boston was already brushing off the snow:  the schools reopened, as did the government buildings and suddenly everyone was back on the roads.
  • It deserves its own bullet-point. The T was and still is a nightmare. Does Boston really think we’ll get the Olympics with this subway system?
  • And on Wednesday – in the midst of mountains of snow, of all things, the city of Boston brought out the Duck Boats to carry our glorious heroes and handsome Tom around the clogged up streets, amidst adoring fans.

So we celebrated the Super Bowl win and then most offices were closed – so we kept on celebrating.   And then we suffered and shoveled and we thought that would be our last storm of the season. Yeah right. This is Boston. It’s only just begun!

 

Mums 90th Birthday

Leave a reply

Heading to London to celebrate my mums 90th. Of all days British Airways elects to not run their day flight from Boston to London. So, my worst nightmare. An overnight flight with no sleep time and only confirmed in premium economy. Have a couple of plays lined up and with some luck London will feel like the Caribbean after the Siberian winter we are having here. 3 days of work, fun and theater. And staying at a great hotel at the 7 dials in covent garden. The most central point for all the great stuff you care to do in London.

Ode to Selfie Stick

Leave a reply

Ode to Selfie Stick

I gave away my selfie stick. It had traveled with me from Venice to Rome to Miami to Havana, where I left it in good hands. I didn’t take the decision lightly – it was my first selfie stick after all. The selfie stick is a crowd puller for sure and once you start, it’s irresistible. I bought it in some market in Venice.  The vendor saw me eyeing it. You see, the hook is the stick itself – I was already sold.  It looks like a sort of James Bond thing or an Inspector Gadget contraption. How much? How do you push the button?  Out from the vendor’s pocket emerges the requisite Bluetooth remote.  He sells me that too.

As an aside, the guys who sell the selfie-sticks are a real testament to entrepreneurial spirit.  As soon as there is a spot of rain, they’ve disappeared the selfie stick and are selling three different kinds of umbrellas for your protection and your pleasure. These guys are the future leaders of industry; I have no idea where they keep their inventory! The selfie stick becomes the umbrella, the umbrella becomes the glow-in-the-dark parachute, and at the end of the evening, everything turns into roses.

I used it in Rome all the time, but the only problem is that when in Rome, the selfie stick attracts a lot of attention. Unfortunately some nefarious types are more interested in what’s at the end of your stick, then in the stick itself. Alas, it was the sole survivor of my first (and hopefully last) Iphone theft of 2015. I got another phone and took the selfie-stick to Havana.

Going into it, I didn’t know that my selfie stick’s journey would end in Cuba. After so much adventure it seemed like the right place for it. They’d never seen the likes of it before and it became a fabulous ice-breaker. In the end, our bus driver was so impressed by the power of my selfie-stick, as it were, that the minute before leaving the airport in the midst of saludos, I made a fateful decision. I gave our tour guide a tip, a bottle of something, and then almost spurred on by something greater than myself:  Necesito ofrecerte un regalo. I handed him the selfie stick and followed it up with the Bluetooth.  Parting is such sweet sorrow.  But never again would he need to ask someone to take the picture.

 

Buried In Snow

Leave a reply

The week just got buried in snow. Honestly. Boston looks like a ski resort. My street has walkways that remind me of those pictures of First World War trenches. Cars are buried, even cop cars, and there is nowhere to put the snow. Didn’t the Russians develop a heating solution. It seems like it would be so easy. Snow does go away. And on top of all this, I am heading to Stamford CT for a meeting, plus DC for another meet.

Stamford is our corporate HQ and not the greatest town. It’s main attribute is that it is 40 minutes from NYC. It is slightly soulless and dead after dark. It’s also astonishingly, the most expensive place to live in the Usa. I don’t believe this little gem. It just can’t be. It’s dreadful ! Great week to be traversing the north eastern corridor! For now, I am looking out the window of my country house preparing to go out with snow shoes and shovel the roof, and enjoy this stuff as if I were a kid again

Alitalia – Rome Miami

Leave a reply

Alitalia – Rome Miami

Flying business from Rome to Miami on Alitalia should be a treat. But really the service, the good, and the comfort of the seats on the 10+ hour journey,  is a joke. They have a casual approach, I guess, to the whole experience.

The movie selection was grimmer than flying TAM.  There was an awful film called La Grande Bellezza, about an aging movie star in Rome who smokes a lot of cigarettes and seemed to get off with young woman. It was pure and absolute misogyny and dreadful to boot.

And I never expect to eat anything other than appalling food on an airplane, but frankly eating something is a way to fill in the hours.  If you’re on BA or any number of half decent carriers, the food is OK – not brilliant, but OK. On Italia it is at the highest level of inedibility. The land of pizza, pasta and gelato – you would think, could rustle up something that resembles something edible. The land of prosciutto and parmesan – surely there must be somebody in charge of the kitchen of Alitalia that could make my 10 hours a bit more interesting!  How they managed to get awards for their meals, is beyond me. Perhaps the reviewer was promised an antidote in exchange for a good review?

But the food, this was business or as they call it Magnfica. Even the picture on their website looks like the food stylist took the day off.  Two kinds of putrefied pasta and a risotto you wouldn’t give to your dog. Fearful for my life when I saw the meat dish, I opted for the fish as the follow-up. One bite into the branzino and I realized that this baby had been cooked up a storm and probably should’ve been taken out of the oven several days before, along with the congealed sauce it sat in. Still there was always a chunk of cheese at the end of the meal that I could look forward to. But no luck, the parmesan packets where nowhere to be seen!

Alitalia has nice enough people as crew, but they spend most of their time practicing the art of conversation (with each other!)  and seem absolutely disinterested in the people they’re supposed to be serving. In fact you feel awkward about interrupting their conversation for a glass of water – and they seem to have it figured out because they have set up a self-serve station. Not Magnifica, not at all. I hate to think about what was happening in Economy. Miami was but a few hours away and I was headed off to warmer climates, and hopefully warmer customer service.

Lunch at Da Fortunato al Pantheon in Rome

Leave a reply

Lunch at Da Fortunato al Pantheon in Rome

I’ve been coming to Rome for a long time, yet every time I want a great lunch I always end up at the same place: Da Fortunato al Pantheon.  It seems as though the waiters have been there as long as I’ve been going there. They remember you, they’re nice. The most important thing is that the food is simply out of this world.  I always have the same thing, depending on the season: either untarelle, a chicory dish with anchovies, or radicchioalla grilla, the spaghetti alla vongole veraci and a large bottle of sparkling water.  It’s quite simply the greatest lunch experience I’ve ever had in the world.

It’s simple; the restaurant is discreetly tucked away behind the Pantheon Square, the Piazza della Rotonda.  I am sort of a chaotic kind of guy and I know Rome really well – I like to experiment, try different restaurants, and discover new things in cities. But there’s never been a time where I’ve been in Rome and not gone to this marvelous institution; because in the end, there is simply nothing better than the food at this restaurant.

 

Wireless Connections on the Frecciargento

Leave a reply

Wireless Connections on the Frecciargento

It’s not that it’s frustrating; connecting to wireless in most countries can be time consuming, complicated, expensive and unpredictable.  But on the high-speed trains in Italy they have developed a system at the very highest level of incompetency. Essentially, Italian law mandates that they must charge you for Wi-Fi which means you must give them a credit card so that they can charge you an obligatory amount that will last for 24 hours. The completion of the form is complicated, and on a cell phone practically impossible to figure out.  The charge for this wireless connection is 1ct of €1 Euro, an obligatory charge, mandated by Italian law, so that at least 3000 people sitting in an office somewhere can attend to the paperwork required to administrate its operation.

Once you have completed the application, a username and a password are generated. Both the username and password are so long, with uppercase, lowercase, etc…that there’s a fairly good chance you’ll get it wrong at least twenty times. But not to worry, at some point you’ll get it – but then the ugly truth kicks in. Fast trains move fast because they use tunnels to cut through the central spine of Italy’s Apennines Mountains. Wireless connections, of course, do not work in tunnels.  When the connection drops you have to re-enter the password that you’ve probably forgotten, unless you were smart enough to write it down. Don’t feel bad, it will not remember you either – that would be too easy!  In addition there are five station stops between Rome and Venice; wireless does not work at station stops either and the same rules apply to stations as to tunnels. The bottom line is that if you were planning to do a lot of work on the train, you better have data roaming as your backup. But the trains do run on time!

 

On the Fast Train from Venice to Rome

Leave a reply

On the Fast Train From Venice to Rome

Imagine this, the water taxi picks you up from the palazzo, you jump into this elegant motor launch which wanders through the tiny canals until at last it breaks out into the open lagoon, and there’s the Salute church in the center of San Giorgio on the Giudecca, and across the towering column with the symbol of Venice perched atop and Doge’s Palace, the Clocktower, the Basilica, the Cathedral – and you imagine you’re in a movie.

Under the Accademia bridge, past the Peggy Guggenheim museum and then a shortcut that brings you around to the Piazzale Roma;  in the distance you can make out the freneticism of the mainland as you turn the corner of the canal and see the railway station, essentially abutting the canal and the boat docks. You roll your bags off, walk to the station and sitting there is the fast train to Rome, the Frecciargento.

In spite of all of the chaos of Italy, all of the confusion, the fast trains are a shining example of efficiency that you’ll find nowhere else in the world. The train rolls out within the second, on time, everytime – traveling at speeds close to 200 miles an hour. You arrive in Rome’s Termini station, 3 hours and 40 minutes later having traveled a distance of over 300 miles. Welcome to Rome.

 

The Rialto Fish Market Five Course Dinner

Leave a reply

The Rialto Fish Market Five Course Dinner

I needed to prepare a five course dinner for New Year’s Eve. As luck would have it, I was in Venice and a friend of mine knew a fish guy.  My friend had arranged to meet with me earlier in a bar for a cappuccino and we walked fast-paced across the maze of streets of La Rialto, where he introduced me to another guy who knew the fish guys that sold the good stuff. I felt a little like Jason Bourne. Abutting the Erberia, the vegetable market, is the Pescheria, one of the highlights of any visit to Venice.  You will see fish you’ve never seen: eels in the winter time, scallops in their shells, swordfish with their beaks on and razor clams called cape onghe.

I had decided that I would wait to prepare the menu until I saw what I had. I was introduced to the Fish Guy; I looked around. I would start with 10 large scallops. I would grill them in their shell with some oil and garlic. Then I was going to follow this with grilled razor clams. I would follow the razor clams with two pastas, one with small shrimp and zucchini and the other using artichoke that were in season that I planned to grab from the Erberia, and then finish off with a zuppa di pesce, which sounds decidedly better than its name in English – Fish Soup.

He asked me how I would do it. I felt the answer had to be good or he might turn me away. I would start with a fennel and onion base (he nodded slowly), add some tomatoes (ok)…then I told him I needed a good fish head or two for the broth (I’ve piqued his curiosity!), and then I would create a broth that I could empty the raw fish into for the last 10 minutes of preparation! He looked at me and said come back in 15 minutes. I returned and he’d neatly prepared bags for every course. In the fish soup there were scallops and langostina, a little monkfish, and all placed in at the very end, topped with tiny toasted pieces of bread with a dollop of aioli on them. We served the soup at 1am in the morning, having celebrated the fireworks in St. Marks at midnight. It wouldn’t have been possible without “my guy. “

 

peers menu

Holidays In London

Leave a reply

I love what the Brits do for the Holidays. They light the streets with elaborate displays, the shops are full of angels, snowmen and Father Christmases. London is home to Hamleys, the world’s oldest toy shop. Every holiday season Hamleys is alive with elaborate Christmas displays and the pubs are full of festive decorations and early afternoon revelers. This place takes Christmas seriously.

Pretty much the entire continent of Europe closes for two weeks and the traditional English Christmas food fare is plastered on every restaurant menu you could find. There are Christmas markets in the middle of Hyde Park and the fabulous Borough market at London Bridge steps up a notch over this period. Not to be outdone I had a rather lordly lunch at the House of Lords, eating off of their Christmas lunch menu with my friend, the Baroness!

I took the London cured smoked salmon as a starter, but having just taken the turkey at Thanksgiving I elected for an off-the- menu decision and went a la carte with the Fish Pie. Fish Pie, for those of us with a love of England will know that this is one of the great delicacies of the world. White fish in a béchamel sauce with mashed potatoes and melted cheese on top, served piping hot in its own little earthenware pot. It’s almost as good as a bacon sandwich! Yes, life at the House is good when you’re on the inside.

Marshall Street Pool

Tiny Pools

Leave a reply

I like to swim when I travel. It means I don’t bring lots of bulky gym clothes – all you need is a speedo and a pair of goggles. Well, that’s all you need. You also need a decent pool. I travel to London a lot and always use the Marshall Street Baths in Soho, cost of entry $6 and the pool is a respectable 30 metres long. But so many hotels advertise pools and when you get down to it, they are hopelessly inadequate (tiny pools); or if they’re outdoor pools they have some fancy shape that is unswimmable.

sheratonpool (5)

Case in point, the swimming pool at the #Sheraton Towers in Chicago. It should be called a floating pool because that’s about the only thing it’s good for; that and a great view of Chicago. One flip turn and you’re at the other end. I adapted by jogging around it, which is a great form of exercise, especially if there is no deep end.

But I really think that hotels miss the boat here, if you’ll pardon the nautical expression. When I walked through the gym to get to the pool, there must have been 35 machines. Yet here was this pool and they sunk all this money into it – and they made it too short. How much more money would it cost to increase the length of this pool, using Sheraton dollars?

And it’s the same as the other pools I’ve been to in these hotels. They don’t get it – a pool has to be between 20 and 25 meters, otherwise it’s just a ploy to come up in a search. And as a swimmer I feel that we are being duped. Swimmers unite! Beware of trick photography – if there is only one photo, from an odd angle, note that it’s probably no bigger than a Jacuzzi!

Christmas Cracker Celebration

Leave a reply

Christmas Crackers are such a part of an English holiday celebration, I couldn’t imagine not pulling a cracker and putting a really silly paper crown on my head while eating Christmas dinner.

So, where does this Christmas Cracker Celebration and Tradition come from? Its particular to the UK and the commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand. The Irish have a cracker celebration too. It all started as a candy wrapper idea. A chap called Tom Smith originated the concept in 1847 with fancy wrappers for his bon bon candies or sweets as the English call them. When his candy market fell flat, he resorted to a different concept.

Tom thought of making his sweet wrapper much bigger and stuffing the wrapper with fun stuff and more importantly inserting a thin tape that would explode into a crack when pulled . He filled his cracker with ornaments and silly riddles and hats . And hey presto, Christmas was never the same . One is supposed to cross hands around the table and pull the crackers at exactly the same time. Then the hat ceremony which is facilitated by the vast quantities of alcohol that have been drunk around the dinner table.

When you play the fool, it’s better to not be completely aware! There is even a memorial water fountain to Tom Smith and his family in Finsbury Square in the center of London near the Barbican area. My mum used to make crackers in a factory just after the war. Never a shortage of paper crowns around our house when growing up. It was the closest I ever got to the aristocracy!

Jet Blue

Got Jet Blues?

Leave a reply

Got Jet Blues? According to all those Jet Blue junkies, Jet Blue is heading down the corporate greed path. They’ve taken their biggest single value proposition,” more legroom,” and shrunk it – and all because they want to make more money. Shame on them! Imagine an airline looking for ways to make more money, surely not! Oh hang on, most airlines make no money at all and usually the way to try to break even or make a little bit is to scrimp on practically everything. So what is Jet Blue doing that is so horrid to the Jet Blue faithful? It’s charging for luggage and it’s shrinking its seat pitch from 34.7 inches to 33.1 inches. In other words, it’s decided to take the money that’s currently being left on the table.

I know that Southwest let’s your luggage travel free, but JetBlue offers Direct TV and free Wifi! Plus Jet Blue offers Mint, a premium service for not much more money, that connects the East and West Coasts. Look at this way, I doubt they’re headed the way of Ryan Air, where you practically have to pay to go to the toilet.

So Jet Blue’s introducing new slimline seats that are two inches thinner. All of this means that the magic tube we sit in will give them an increased dollar yield, make it a little less comfortable, but still, and this is the sad news folks, they lead the way in seat pitch. By redesigning their seats and adding a few more, they still are not cramming and jamming the folks in. Most legacy carriers offer 31 inches on long-haul…yikes!

This is a great common sense move for Jet Blue; we want them to be a viable airline and make money. And they still lead the way in the two things that are important to most travelers – legroom and a smile. Below is what you can expect on the misery space level on the worst offenders for seat pitch in the business.

Virgin 32.6
American 31.8
United 31.8
US airways 31.8
Delta 31.3
Sprint 28.3
So if you want to save money, Sprint is the game – but you may have to buy some new knees at the end of the flight! And is that Virgin I see?

san miguel

The Senses Of San Miguel

Leave a reply

He who speaks the most, eats the least. He who eats the most, listens. He who listens, will own the secrets. – anonymous

The Senses of San Miguel: In 1810 the revolution started in these hills around San Miguel. The town itself became an inland harbor offering safe passage along the Camino between Mexico and Guanajuato. It’s a favorite place for artists and hip retirees (the Florida alternative without the hurricanes and the five o’clock specials). And you get siesta! It is simply a wonderful place to live.

There is so much going on and the culture is pouring over and into the lovely cobbled stone calles. Narrow streets with tiny doors and decorative spouts that slosh water sometimes onto the unsuspecting passersby below! There are vivid colors, pinks and greens everywhere. There are smells that stay with you, lavender, jasmine, orange and the aroma of roasting coffee. There are street vendors selling churros and tortillas and tacos on the street. The climate is practically perfect, never hot enough in the day to make you sweat and cool in the evenings because of the high altitude. 7000 feet. There are beautiful views from every direction because the town is surrounded by hills on three sides.

The church bells are a part of the music of San Miguel; bells to mark time and events to commemorate festivals and celebration. These sounds hang in the evening air at the jardin, the central plaza. There are globadores, balloon sellers, for the children who are playing, and mariachi players serenading couples at tables in cafés. The laurel trees in the central square seem to be perfectly manicured, providing shade during the day for the people-watchers and the mariachi taking their siesta. The locals mingle with the tourists as if they are not there. The merchants go about their business and actually let you look at stuff without that constant torment you find in Egypt or Marrakech.

Mexico is getting a bad rap at the moment, but there are real alternatives to the tourist traps of Cancun and Acapulco. And nobody’s suggesting you should opt for a homestay in Juarez! San Miguel is a gem and worth a try.

The Rosewood

Leave a reply

The Rosewood

The Roswewood in San Miguel. A friend of mine had stayed at another Rosewood and liked the hotel a lot. This hotel is amazing. We had a great room with a view, Room 303 incidentally, that looked out across the church, La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, this is the iconic sight of San Miguel. It looks Gaudi-esque and the beautiful sandstone gives off a magical hue at sunset when the sky is still incandescent blue. I could take all this in while sitting in my balcony outside the room! Two fireplaces and phenomenal food at whatever time, skyrocket this fairly recent addition to San Miguel’s hotel offerings, to the top.

rsma_pool_cabana_v2

Add the beautiful outdoor pool, actually long enough to do laps, the state-of-the-art gym, and the close proximity to everything and you have a pretty cool set up. It’s not cheap, but pick the right dates and you have a perfect location in a perfect place. The brunch at the weekends is off the charts. Heap loads of those delicious mushrooms that grow on decaying wet corn, slapped on to fabulously fresh-pressed tortillas with a dash of hot sauce were my favorites. It’s all good news on the menu and that’s even before you leave the hotel to explore the city.