Gallagher's Travels: Rants and Raves

Love it or @#&#! Rants & Raves

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mary@gallagherstravels.com

@#&#!:Cab Drivers. Now most are wonderful but not those that drive 40 miles over the speed limit and especially not the ones that seriously hesitate to give you back your change. Like I should leave a tip larger than the bill?
Love it: The BBC Food Website. Anyone can join the newsletter mailing list for free by visiting the following link: www.bbc.co.uk/food/newsletter

Prepare yourself for a unique site with great recipes and food ideas. "Whiz until you have a lovely emulsion" is an actual recipe instruction, so poetic. I have to force myself to leave the site and get on with my work.
@#&#!: The most reasonable and professional airport security in the US is Washington DC National five minutes from the White House and Capital buildings. Nassau is the worst in the world for attitude and security skills but outstanding in their abusive attitude while the other Caribbean Islands are slow but generally nice reasonably competent people.

I could write a book the size of War and Peace about the lack of security at airports in the US and Caribbean but to survive the idiocy after my recent interrogation in Nassau here are a few tips:
1. Rule #1. DO NOT drink a drop of alcohol until after you have gone through all security checks. This is one of the first reasons they will keep you off your flight and I never violate this rule anywhere.
2. Rule #2. DO NOT admit to taking any drugs or medications including prescriptions even if half your body has been replaced and running on battery power.
3. Rule #3. Realize most of "these people" have only been issued a uniform not brains or training and were rejected as burger flippers at McDonalds.
@#&#!: Rants for the nitwits taking photos for passports and drivers licenses. Ok remember after years in the tabloid business I know how to make your photo really ugly but nothing I did with aliens can compare with your local "snapshot" guy for these pictures you'll be showing around for at least ten years.

If they only have fluorescent light demand they lighten the setting on the camera and try to stand where the dreaded ceiling lighting is a foot or more in front of you. Or better yet check with local stores like Sears and others in the mall. You don't want to look like a criminal in these pictures. If they refuse to let you smile showing your teeth, smile without showing your teeth. There seems to be a "loose" interpretation with the regulations depending on which shop you go to. Make sure the camera lens is pointed at your forehead no lower. Comb your hair and wear something flattering at the neck. Tell the photographer you want to see the photos on the camera before he prints them or you purchase. If he's uncooperative as my first stop was - go somewhere else.

Love it: Visiting with Mr. "Bunny", the gardener and a wonderful guide at Round Hill, Montego Bay, Jamaica while eating banana pancakes for breakfast on your balcony overlooking the bluest water.
Love it: Any meal at Les Ambassadeurs, Hotel Crillon, Paris, France with service provided by the impeccable Patrice Wilhem, maitre de and his staff.

@#&#!: Why is every single airport screening in the U.S. operating under different rules? I hand carry video cameras, tripods, digital still cameras and some audio recording equipment on most flights. Now airports in smaller cities like Charleston, SC and Lexington, KY require the entire bag unpacked, all equipment removed from protective cases and rerun individually through the X ray machines. Everything is wiped down with the explosive detecting brushes. Meanwhile major airports like Dulles and Washington National have no such requirement. No one on the job knows the answer but they are all following the "book".
Love it: Instead of examining a woman's breasts for explosives, airport screeners are now massaging your back. If you ask nicely they will do it twice.
@#&#!: Has anyone ever had a "left in the overhead" or "on the plane" returned? It didn't surprise me that the Boise headphones never came back but a giant dried gourd?
@#&#!: This restaurant outside of Lexington, KY charged us 75 cents a glass for tap water.

Love it: My watch with two faces that I can set for local and Paris time from Magellan's.
@#&#!: Wheeled bags that no matter how you pack them tip over.
@#&#!: National Airport in Washington DC has mailboxes, Dulles has banned them.

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