Freelance Consultant's Diary

When we go to New York City on a Sunday , if possible, we try to park on the street.  We have a few spots that we have been able to identify over the years and one of them is in the area next to Noodies Thai Kitchen.  Typically, when we are headed towards Boston , we try to leave just before dinner time and then grab a bite on the way.  Unfortunately, in the 195 mile trip, except for junk food, there are not many options.  Recognizing that we would have no choice but to eat deadly food from a fast food restaurant, we wondered if we should eat dinner before hopping into the car. As we were strolling in the area, we spotted Noodies and walked right in despite the fact that we had eaten Thai food for lunch as well (77 East 10th Street).  It is a small place but the staff is friendly and attentive.  I opted for noodles and Lorena ate a soup dish.  Reasonably priced and delicious flavor.  Strongly recommended.

I have been blogging about lack of decent cafes in America and within days of discovering LA Burdick in Boston , during a weekend trip to NYC, we discovered Nespresso by chance, because in the past we have been having our afternoon coffee at one of the many Le Pain Quotidien locations.  We had first had our coffee at the Nespresso location in Miami and were delighted to visit them in Soho. As always, excellent coffee and service.  The opera cake that my wife and I shared was delicious as well.  In fact there is something else that I liked about this location.  In Miami, everything is on one floor so that all those shoppers who want to check out their products create a mess.  On the other hand, in this location, the cafe is on one floor while the shop is on another, creating a true full service cafe environment.

One of the things that we enjoyed while we spent a month in Buenos Aires and during our numerous trips to Spain, England, France, and Japan is a cafe, where you can enjoy fine coffee with a few munchies.  It is even better if there is full service (yes I am happy to pay for it because in self service places like Starbucks, it is a mess -- students and self employed folks camping out on tables). We liked the Render in South End , but more often than not, we end up in the Newbury Street area.  What I like about Burdick is that it is open, clean, and there is plenty of place to sit.  There is also a good selection of desserts but someone who is addicted to dark roast coffee that should be nearly perfect, Burdick has pretty good coffee as well.  I really hope that they never offer free wifi so that it does not attract all those losers who have destroyed Starbucks.

For the time being I continue to be on the cheapest possible mobile phone plan in America , but I have been wondering how to use the Vonage mobile app for making international phone calls from my cell phone using wifi.  You see, I am a Vonage customer and on the plan that I have, I can pretty much make unlimited calls to almost any country in the world using my phone at home.  The company also lets me make phone calls with a cell phone by calling a domestic number, but if you have a smart phone, you can download their app and make/receive calls as if you were at home.  In addition, I have also wondered that on the rare occasion that I need, it will be nice to have access to the web (for directions or searching for a business) on my cell phone (which is currently an old, dumb phone).   So I started to research for a smart phone that will allow me to download apps, surf the web using wi-fi most of the time, but when I need to, I can also access the web without an expensive contract or co

Because I work from home , I have access to at least two phones all the time (I am also noticing that hardly anyone calls any more).  Obviously, I also have access to the Internet on a variety of devices, including my laptop, iPad , and iPod Touch at home.  So when I do go out of the house, the last thing I want to do is to surf the web or use the phone, but it is nice to have a mobile phone for emergencies.  The bottom line is that I rarely use a phone, maybe a few minutes a month.  So it makes no sense for me to have a smartphone and pay almost $100 a month when I have no use for it.   After doing extensive research I found that the Tmobile pay-as-you-go plan is one of the cheapest (there are others lesser known brands often run by large companies but they do not disclose that).  You can buy a fairly cheap phone (for less than $50 you have pretty good phones and I think I paid around $29) and then just add $10 to get 30 minutes that last three months (so that makes the phone cost $3.

After the mess that Reese Witherspoon created in Atlanta, GA, when her husband Jim Toth was stopped by a cop for DUI, I wondered what would a passenger in a stopped vehicle need to do in such a situation.  Now if the vehicle is stopped for some other minor violation like speeding or illegally changing lanes or having a broken light, the process for passengers is straightforward: stay in your seat till the process is over, do not interact on your own with the cop , and chances are nothing more will happen.  If the cop suspects that the driver of the vehicle is drunk, then, obviously he or she will not be allowed to drive the vehicle any more (arrest is made instead), but you maybe able to drive the vehicle home with the permission of the cop (assuming you are not drunk as well).  It is also likely that the vehicle is towed and you will need to find some transportation on your own (ask a friend to pick you up, ride on the tow truck, get a ride in the police car, call a taxi, etc.).  In t