I've found Celiac Hell...

and it's Vienna.

I'm here in Vienna for a business trip. I left a day early so I could see some if it before work starts. Nope, didn't happen. Turns out United, in their quest to improve the "vomit comet" experience (otherwise known as airline food), they've "upscaled" their menu. And that means fresh bread being heated up in the galley. Now for most folks, this isn't an issue, but a) I'm one of the 5% who is prone to airbourne gluten and b) I was in the rear of the plane. Nine hours is a long damn time to fly in that kind of pain, let me tell you. So today was just resting.

The Austrians love their bread here. It's as much a part of their life as beer and coffee. People have been shocked, dismayed and appalled that I can't eat bread. They even asked why I didn't bring my own from home. :) Or if I had contacted them a week in advance, they would've. They can't entirely wrap their brain around it, but they have been more than accommodating. They have a hotel restaurant called S'Park. When I checked in, they talked to the chef, who has the list written in the kitchen. All I have to do is tell them who I am (Or like this evening, the tattoos gave it away I think and they knew right away who I was) and the chef sorts me out.

For lunch, the meal was uninspired, but a solid choice. He played it safe. I went with veal (medium) and salted veggies, that I think were boiled. Very tasty, if a little ho-hum. The veal was just a touch over-cooked, but was still very moist. The itty, itty micro carrots were a bit silly. He likes his baby veg. The rest was carrots, what appeared to be yellow carrots, and broccoli. Dinner was grilled turbot with cep (porcinis) and potato hash for lack of a better word. Very tasty stuff.

I've noticed prices over here are insane!!! Nine euros for a bloody bottle of water?! I don't want to risk anymore digestive malfunction, so I'd rather pay than drink the tap water, but still... OUCH.

RIP Colin Mcrae

One of my favourite sporting celebrities died in a helicopter crash last night. He was piloting the copter, and his 5 year old son was also onboard.

I started playing the Colin Mcrae series of computer games back in 95 on my PC, and started idly following the World Rally Championship afterwards. His personality made it fun to watch, and sucked me right in.

Now it's 2007, and I've been playing DiRT for the last couple of months (it's not badged "Colin Mcraes DiRT" here, just DiRT", and I guess it's going to be the last one with his name attached now. Thankfully it's really good.

With all the focus on cheating in F1, this is news the motor sport's community wasn't prepared for, as if you ever could. Best wishes go to Colin's wife, who has just lost a husband and her son.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/15/ncopter215.xml

Colin McRae, with his flamboyant driving style, brought such excitement to the off-road sport that the former plumber's name has become synonymous with the sport.

Born into a successful Scottish motor-racing dynasty, McRae became Britain's first World Rally Champion, clinching the title in 1995.

At the age of just 27, he was the youngest world rally champion.

Gym

Would you imagine that I was in the gym at 6:15am this morning? *Monday* morning?

It felt great too. I'm hoping I can keep it up a few times a week.

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12oz Filet Minons done on the grill, fresh salad with rasberry dressing on one and blue cheese on the other.

Perfec'

1/2 cup of kosher salt
1/2 cup of *finely* ground peppercorns
1/2 cup of garlic powder
1/4 cup of onion powder

mix together really really well.

Rub into two 12oz filets, throw on the grill.

Oh yeah.

Lolcatz

Lolcatz

Bravo Apple

NBC (Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Heroes etc) has had a deal with Apple for their shows to be re-broadcast on iTunes for the last year or more. Apple has always charged $1.99 an episode, making it a great alternative to missed episodes, and I've used it like this before.

NBC realized they could make more money, so they wanted to bump the price, per episode, to $5.99.

When the story broke this morning it was looking like they wouldn't agree, and the contract in December would expire.

It sounds like the negotiations were already ended. Apple just announced that they would be terminating all NBC shows before they started their new seasons instead. Basically, tomorrow.

Apple may not be the bastions for consumer rights that some Apple fanboys make them out to be for this, but it was a pretty ballsy move, and sends the message to other media companies that to get your stuff on iTunes, the biggest, and from my experience and my opinion, best, online media distrbution out there, you need to play by *their* rules, and not make up your own.

No one will buy NBC shows from another network - instead we will go back to "Life before iTunes" and pull them from bit torrents. NBC will get squat for that.