Atlanta
26 May 2015
It was my 60th birthday and home seemed a long way away. When I woke, I tormented myself wondering when my birthday had actually started given the time at home was 14 hours ahead. I was in no fit state to figure it; and I still couldn't figure out how to make a cup of tea. To give you an idea of the extent of my discombobulation, the suite had a kitchen. The kitchen had a stove and, tucked away in a cupboard was a saucepan. See? Not hard: remove saucepan from cupboard, fill with water, switch on stove element, bring water to boil, add to cup and tea bag. Allow to steep. Drink. I'm pleased to report I finally figured it out the next morning.
Pterodactyl and I again made our way to the Broadway Diner. If possible it was even quieter and they'd run out of cappuccino. I still don't know how you can do that. I suspect there was no-one there who knew how to work the machine.
For the rest of the day we occupied ourselves with trying to make our telephones work in the US. We'd been told to go Verizon, but a long walk to the Verizon shop yielded only the information that our GSM-based phones wouldn't work with Verizon's CDMA-based network. So we walked the mile or so back to the hotel, had a bit of a rest and set out to walk to the couple of miles to the AT&T shop which we'd been told could help. And it did, except that Pterodactyl discovered his phone was locked to the network in Australia. This great little racket allows phone manufacturers and telcos to sell you a phone and then charge you some more to be able to use it freely. Pterodactyl then had to make a phone call or two and we had to find an Apple Shop in order to unlock the thing. Before we got back to the hotel I'd had my first two experiences of Uber, both good.
A quick march down the road to the Baraonda Café Italiano produced an excellent meal, a beer or two, more red wine, and the end of day 3.
