Atlanta - Day 0

Well, it's somewhere new at least. Atlanta technically, although actually it's the Duluth area to the north-east of the city (Duluth is familiar for reasons I can't fathom at the moment), which also means I got to travel on Delta Airlines and from Gatwick. Delta I've never used before, Gatwick I haven't been from for nearly 30 years I guess. Gatwick is fine, obviously had a spruce up relatively recently, Delta could do with the same. I didn't really expect to be on a 10 hour flight with only a cabin video screen. To think I was disappointed using BA when they only had 20 channels or so. Travelling Virgin a few years back with their on demand system has really spoiled me.

We got off to a bad start when the pilot said that some bit of the plane was stuck and the copilot was climbing under the plane to fix it (note we hadn't taken off yet). Luckily it was only a 5 minute delay. The flight was uneventful, but Atlanta airport has some novelties. You have the usual immigration, backage pickup and border control, but then you give your baggage back to the airport, go through the metal detectors and xrays (shoes off this time), take the train to the main concourse and then wait for your baggage for the second time. By the time I got to the airport shuttle area it was an hour after landing, but the bus was still there. Another 90 minutes later I finally got to the hotel - the problem with shuttle buses is that you have to visit all the other hotels (8 in our case) and this time I was second to last off.

So 9 o'clock and I'm finally in my room with just a pot noodle for company (and the complimentary popcorn). Mind you, it's a suite rather than a room (kitchen/living room, bedroom, bathroom). It's designed for long stays really. The only drawback is, as keeps happening, it hasn't got its own restaurant, but the other side of the interstate is a mall with all the standard chains, so I'll be OK.

Biggest problem so far - the shuttle to work leaves at 8am...