There and back again

I'm back in New York now, after two weeks back in Blighty. I haven't blogged for nearly three weeks, something which is rather remiss of me, but I really cannot be bothered to blog on a dial-up connection. So I'm going to do a catchup of events in reverse order, and break it up a bit so it's a little easier to read.

Before heading off back to London, we had the JETAANY Pre-Departure Orientation at the Nippon Club on West 57th Street (it occurred to me only too late that the abbreviation we had been using amongst JETAANY members for this thing, PDO, could be read in a rather unfortunate way if the lector were so minded...). We rounded up around 20 volunteers in the end, all of whom strove manfully to get as much information into the newbies' heads as possible. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - the rest is up to them, really. But for even the most cynical ex-JET there's always something charmingly innocent, even puppy-like, about the newbies. It's increasingly clear that many of 'em didn't really know what they were getting themselves into - one hopes they do now, otherwise things could get a little messy. Obviously some of the newbs haven't ever been abroad, so I think their preconceptions and naivety may not have very long to last. Best example, probably, was the person who asked if they could upgrade to a Business Class ticket if they paid the difference between the fares. They were told by the travel reps that indeed they could, and that would be a cool $8,000, or $13,000 if First Class would be preferable. I didn't catch the questioner's reaction.