Getting to TED - the great unveiling of the thermal layers

Last year I decided to go to TED 2009 (prompted in no small part by the $2 - £1 exchange rate - just call me a rational economic deciision maker ). Setting off from a Siberian London to balmy Long Beach California has been a process that matched the TED theme of "unveil" - off have come the snowjacket, hat, gloves, long johns (sorry, microfibre base layer) and snow-crunching boots. On has come the sunglasses and short sleeve shirt. To give London's much maligned infrastructure some credit, 24 hours after The Blizzard all the services worked well, just a 15 min delay on the trains in.

By luck or judgement, by the time I got round to booking hotels all the standard Box-hotel stuff was full, but I got lucky - the Queen Mary is in gracious retirement and is actually a hotel (and living museum to Art Deco style) and has fitted the purpose very well, and is a pleasant half hour walk along the bay away (to the astonishment of the concierge - walking is clearly un-American you jog or take a shuttle).

Update - a few days later, a modern cruise ship docked up just behind the Queen Mary - it looked like a boat built by Vogons - a big, floating, running shoe. If form follows function, the Queen Mary stood for beauty, romance and style - the new ship stands for square, bland and mass production