Frustrating day today.
Started with housekeeping knocking on my door 3 separate times checking to see if I was gone so they could clean the room. Check out isn’t until 12pm – talk about feeling under pressure to get out. I finally checked out at 11.15am and met my car to the station downstairs. He wasn’t real bright and it took him awhile to work out I was his passenger. Remember how it cost me $70 to get from Penn Station to my hotel when I arrived. I told the concierge and she said “WHAT? It shouldn’t have cost more than $35!”. Bloody typical. Anyway, that’s what it cost me to get back to the station.
Have to say I wasn’t impressed when the driver tried to drop me off in the middle of the road next to the taxi cue (can’t believe I spelt it like that) queue. No way dude! I did NOT pay more than double the normal taxi fare to have to walk for ages with all my luggage. He got really shitty when I told him I paid for door to door. He said “but it will take a long time to drive around” Big deal dude, that’s what you get paid for. *hmph*
After one rude ‘red hat’ at the station (supposed to be there to help passengers – yeah right), I found a lovely one, who took my bags for me, sat me in the waiting area and then came to get me at train time and deposited my bags and me on the train – lovely man.
The train trip was productive for me as I got one of my assignments done (great having WiFi on the train!) until the motion got to me and I started to feel very ill. Had to stop and close my eyes then. Met a lovely lady, Jinny, who is a children’s book author. We had a nice chat during the trip. She lives in Providence, which looked lovely from the train.
Also on the train, I was Skyping with Scott who took another pic of my darling Dexter for me. Seems those naughty chipmunks are causing quite a bit of dental decay by nibbling at his bottom teeth. Poor Dexter. I don’t think he will last to Halloween 
Got to South St Station in Boston and made my way to the street to work out how to get to the hotel. Taxi driver approached me and told me it would cost about $50 to get to my hotel from the station. The guy on the train had already told me I could get to the airport for $6 on the shuttle and get my hotel free shuttle to pick me up from there in the same amount of time a taxi would take in peak hour.
So, I made my way to the Silver Line Shuttle with all my bags (which I had repacked to allow me two free hands to control them). It only cost $2 and the hotel shuttle was only a 5 min wait when I got to the airport.
Rude hotel shuttle driver was on a personal phone call with his mate when he picked me up. Didn’t acknowledge me and chucked my bags in the back like they were rubbish. Got in the van, finished his call and continued to ignore me. Picked up some other passengers, got back in the driver’s seat and proceeded to turn the radio up loud. Arsehole. He waited expectantly at the hotel for tips. Piss off idiot – no way. I said to the check in clerk to mention to the shuttle driver that, if he was wondering why he didn’t get a tip, he might want to consider the things I mentioned above. I told him that Gratuity meant that the giver was grateful for good service. You gotta give it to get it. Clerk apologised profusely.
Get to my room, which is nice except…went into the bathroom to find it hadn’t been cleaned and still had previous guests dirty towels on the floor. I just sighed.
Decided to have dinner so saw the clerk at reception who acted as if I was daring to interrupt her precious task (heating up someones Indian meal in the microwave). She asked me if I had a “quick” question and I said “No, I don’t have a question. However, I’m going to presume that you aren’t aware that the bathroom in my room hasn’t been cleaned and still has dirty linen on the floor. I’m going to find dinner and I’d appreciate it being attended to before I return.” That snapped her into pleasantness. She apologised profusely and the room was spotless when I returned.
I found a great little grill next door with real food (even steamed broccoli – OMG!) and I had a nice dinner.
Bags have been repacked for the journey home and I’ve cancelled my booking to Disneyland. Worked out that, with shuttle costs, hotel for a shower and park entrance, I was going to be up for nearly $400. Bugger that. I’ve booked the Radisson near the airport and am going to chill for my 12 hour layover before the last, 17 hour leg of my journey home.
Might go into LA though to try and find that book I want that is supposed to be released tomorrow.
Nearly done.
