the carol service

I have just returned from the local outdoor carol service, it was a clear night and as usual it was a really heart warming affair and certainly the start of Christmas, This year it was a little different.  To commemorate the 1914 Christmas truce the first verse was sung in German  and as the carol finished the International Space station came into view and was clearly visible to everyone at the service.  

Harry Potter

I was passing through Kings Cross last week and I managed to find the very famous "platform nine and three quarters" of Harry potter fame. the first picture is of the queue to have your photograph with the luggage cart in the lower photograph. there is also a large Harry Potter gift shop which was packed. Kings cross station is also on the open top bus routes. Its amazing how much of a global phenomenon the Harry Potter books have become

a Lovely Sunset in Palma

I spent a night in Palma recently. It was not walm but there is something about a beautiful sunset over the water.

What women will put on their faces

I photographed this in a chemist in Hong Kong during a recent visit. I am sure it would not sell well in Europa ..... but then again stranger things have happened

the most expensive beer in the world

I was in Norway at the weekend, I had a small beer,. enough said. for the record it was GBP10 for half a litre.

Lost in translation

so only slow players on these pitches.

only in Africa

whilst waiting at the airport for the flight home I read the small ad's in the national newspaper. the second one is the standard witch doctor advert, It is possible to fix anything when you visit one of these guys !!! the first one ..... I have no idea  

Lost in Translation

either this is the worlds largest souvenir shop or there is a stray "K" in the sign

Joe;s beer house

http://www.joesbeerhouse.com/

Whilst in Windhoek we managed to get a meal at the world famous Joes Beer house. This is a tourist trap without a doubt but a really good tourist trap. the bar has a number of different areas some inside and some outside so the venue does not appear to be as big as it actually is. Legend has it that Joe just collected stuff to decorate the bar and it has grown from there. the photos above are various items in the bar that came to my attention, and yes there is a Trabant on the roof !!!

the menu had a particularly interesting item on it "Bushman Sosatie" having tasted it I can say that Kudu and Zebra taste very nice, Crocodile tastes very fishy and mielepap crocquettes are much better that I thought they would be.

A great night out !!!!!!

Namibia

September was a manic month for traveling, Montreal for a week followed by Namibia the next week. The trip to Namibia was a brief one and the country looked really interesting. our Hotel was by the Domestic Airport and the Executive rooms we were give were HUGE, I had a lounge, dining room, bedroom,  Bathroom and separate toilet just off the lounge. most importantly however it had a bar that faced west and was a great place to have a Windhoek beer and watch the sun go down, 

Making a point

I found this sign in Cornwall I think the owner of the store where we were wanted to make a point about his competition

Sensible idea

On a recent visit to Berlin I took the train into the town and noticed that whenever the train stopped at a station the connecting trains and buses were displayed on the monitors on my train. this is really helpful information, we should do it in the UK 

who is this training for?

The Hotel I was staying in at Montreal was running the above seminar, I assume it was an education seminar for the regulators and not an assistance for the people insider training !!

Not what was intended

whilst walking to the office in Montreal I walked past this truck sat with its engine idling in a recharge bay for electric cars, I am not sure this is what the city intended.

the next morning however all was well again and there was actually an electric car on charge. I have to say I never thought these things got used so have been proved wrong on that one

Going underground ...............

This week I am at an industry workgroup in Montreal my second favourite city in Canada after Vancouver. The weather is fantastic and I am trying to spend time outside. The same cannot be said about the weather in February when the population retreats inside and underground as much as possible. there are tunnels connecting the main buildings in the city so that you can move between them without the need to venture above ground into the snow and ice. at -25 degrees Celsius I would be staying inside as well !!  

Running the 10K

14 weeks after starting running again it was time to see if I could do the 10K run they were promising at the start of the course. The previous Wednesday I had went for my usual run and ran 9.54K when we arrived back at the club house so I continued round the field until my GPS ticked over the 10K mark and a 1 hour 13 minutes I had a personal best for the distance, Given that I had never run 10K before this was always going to be a personal best! I ran 7K on the Friday and found that to be a bit of a strain on my left leg and at after some consultation with “those in the know” discovered that I had a shin splint developing. The only thing to do with a shin splint is to rest it but with the 10K race on the Sunday rest was going to have to wait.   I woke up early on the day of the race and had breakfast at 6AM we left for the start at 9:30 with me feeling fine, normally I am standing around watching whilst my son goes through his warmup and this time I was joining him. The race briefing took place at 10:30 and then we walked a few hundred metres to the start arriving at 10:50. Optimistically putting myself near the sign for runners that were expecting to achieve a one hour time I like everyone else had to wait for the siren to go off at exactly 11AM. The race was down a disused railway track for 3KM around a local forest for 4KM and then back down the disused railway track before routing through a housing estate to the finish.  There were about 330 runners entered into the race which considering at best the biggest group I had run with previously was 20 was quite an experience, The first 2KM’s the track was very crowded and I managed to keep up with the faster members of my running course and then slowly in KM3 they started to pull away which I found disheartening. As I passed the KM4 marker I felt my left shin starting to hurt and started to walk briefly which caused it to tighten up so I started to run again, at the KM5 market the pain was getting worse and I started walking again. This time my lower left leg started to tighten up a lot and realising that I was as far away from the finish as I was ever going to be in the race and the fact that my son was running well ahead of me I decided it was going to have to be a mind over matter and started running again, I knew that even with the two stops I was keeping a pace for a time of about an hour. A huge part of running is mind over matter and just being able to tune out of the actual running. Given the rural area I live in I have never used music or headphones to distract me, and in any case they are banned in competitive races, so I started to focus my mind on things not related to running. By this time the field had spread out and I was running near a lady in a local running club top that stopped and as I passed she told me it was the hardest 10K she had run, this caused me to stop briefly but realising I had to run I started again and could hear her following me until she overtook me late in the race, with her gone I was mainly running on my own and as we turned back onto the disused railway train at 7KM I was determined to finish. My speed was slowing a little and my one hour time was looking unlikely but it was not slipping my much, I continued to keep running past the 8KM and 9KM markers and at that point started to believe I would actually achieve it, the final 1KMwas mainly uphill and as I ran into the housing estate I knew I was nearly finished, There were no other runners around at this point but the marshals were very encouraging at 200Meters to go I started to smile and I was hugely relieved to run under the finish line in a time of 1 hour four minutes and 30 seconds several of the running course that had already finished were there shouting encouragement. I then checked my GPS and saw to my horror that it had only recorded a distance of 9.96KM. I knew the course had been measured at 10KM so it was my GPS that was wrong but I equally knew it would not record my 10K time unless it believed I had done 10K, I put the device on pause and decided I would think about that later.  After getting some water and the obligatory “I finished the “insert name here” 10K shirt and cheering on the remaining beginners that had still to finish, I was still thinking about that to do with the GPS after device as we left the event when my son pointed out that the .04KM I was short was only 40 metres and with that I un paused it and ran 40 metres down the road. Now my tracking app has a little trophy next to the day as I have a new “PB” for a 10K run.

As an follow up to the story, It took me a couple of days before my legs settled down but I decided to go back to the running club on the Wednesday evening as I will be traveling for the next two weeks and I want to keep the running up. I was spot on time but most of the beginners had already left so I and a few others of us were pared up with the club’s elite runners on their 8K time trial that they do monthly. To my surprise I discovered that it was a 1KM run to the start line, having reached that we rested for a couple of minutes before starting, I already knew that my lower left leg was hurting again but I managed to keep up with them for the first kilometre before it was clear I was not going to be able to finish this, after 1.5Km I had been left behind by everyone so I decided to shortcut the course and cut back to the start point. I managed to keep up a jog / walk mix and got back after what I would reckon was a four KM run after about 25 minutes only to find that the first of the runners was already back. With that It was a jog / walk for the first KM back to the club house and home with my leg in some pain. Two days later my leg appears to have fully settled down and I am not sure how much of the pain came from me knowing I had been dropped after 1KM and how much was actual pain but I will give it another couple of days before I try again.                            

SS Great Britain

This year we did the same sort of this for Holidays as last year and took a week and two small weekend breaks. The middle one of these was to Bristol where we viewed the SS Great Britain that is preserved there. The ship was the first ship in the world to have an Iron hull and has been preserved magnificently. In its former life it was used to transport passengers to Australia which was a six week voyage. I was really surprised to see the size of the berths on the ship; even the first class cabins were very small and cramped. What really stuck in my mind though was that these first class cabins were smaller than the first class cabins on Emirates and Singapore Airlines A380’s that can get you from the UK to Australia in less time than it would have taken the SS Great Britain to cross the Bay of Biscay.      

Running Update

The course is now complete, 10 weeks ago I could not run for more than a couple of minutes before I was out of breath and had to stop, I can now run for 7 KM without stopping using a circular course that has a high point 46 Meters higher than the start and finish line. Last week with a couple of brief pauses I managed to run 9KM in a time of one hour.  It is now 12 days until I run the 10KM race that I have entered myself into. I am amazed about the ease that I have found the running which I can assure you is all down to the course and nothing to do with my ability. One thing I have found however is that “mind over matter” is a big factor in running, once you believe you can do it you will and if you have any doubts then just put them out of your mind and before you know it you will be half way round, once you pass the halfway point it’s as easy to carry on as to go back and it becomes easier. The final challenge is the last KM as you are almost to the start and you have to overcome the desire to stop and walk.    It will be interesting to see if I can keep the running up now as with the approaching end of summer and my workload increasing again it is getting harder to find the hour three times a week to go running. The last week has been a case in point. I ran 9KM on the Thursday, Friday I was in Germany and did not get back until 9PM after a 17 hour day, Saturday we went to France for the weekend with family and I could not get out. We arrived back on Monday after dark at 9 PM and today I was in Prague and did not get back until 11PM having left the house at 5:30 AM.

Next week is looking better (hopefully) as I need the practice before the 10K

Customer Service

 

I am traveling on American Airlines this week and I am shocked how far their levels of customer service have fallen since I last flew on them. They still have the friendly and casual attitude that most Americans have but one of the crew members has his top button undone and two others were handing out coffee whilst having a conversation with each other and ignoring the customer. I am sure that this is because of the Bidding system used by all US carriers. The work rosters are issued and you submit a bid for the line you want, the more seniority you have the higher the chance of getting the line you bid. I am flying from London to Chicago midweek which will be a high bid line as a Chicago-London-Chicago five times in the course of a month is a full roster but only a three day week. The more senior you are in a US carrier the less chance of layoffs which are also first in last out and therefore the less you have to worry about your standards of service.

my final flight of the week was on one of their new B777's and with A Los Angeles based crew and the experience could not have been more different that the first flight, the crew were very attentive and the aircraft was new and equipped with new IFE and improved leg room.   

Still running

I am now on week 6 of the program and I am still running three times a week. The first week was run 1 minute and walk one minute seven times, week two doubled it too run two walk one  seven times week three was predictably run three walk one seven times. In week four the time started to rise with run five walk two but now only five times week and this week its run eight and walk 2 but only three times.  So far I have found it all quite easy but the step up to eight minutes has been a little tough especially as I have been running four repetitions and not the suggested three. The real challenge comes this week as I am on the road all week in the US and I need to find time in a busy schedule for running, I have invested in a GPS based free app Endomondo which overlays my run on a map and the poseur in me wants a run down the beach in Hawaii and Los Angeles so there is some incentive.

Running

 

I have recently decided to take up running for the first time in 3O years, the local running club where my son’s practice was offering a “couch to 10K in 10 weeks” I was motivated by the fact that I felt that I was getting old and less fit, no it was not a midlife crisis!  I have to say I was more nervous about this that I have been about anything for a long time. I deliberately decided not to do any practice in advance as I was concerned about injuring myself before I had even started so I had no idea how I would perform. The sessions run on a Wednesday evening and the day of the first session was as good as it could get, it was a clear day and the running area was bathed in warm evening sunshine. We started out doing some stretches and a couple of exercises before moving onto the main event which was running for one minute and walking for one minute repeated seven times. We then did a warm down followed by a talk on clothing for running.  We were told that we need to run three times a week and that the running would be stepped up in week 2. I have managed to run twice since then, the first time I ran for one minute and walked for one minute six times and then ran for two minutes. Not feeling any pain I went out two days later and ran for one minute and walked for one minute three times before running for two minutes and walking for one minute four time. There was still no pain the next day so I intend to move to running two minutes and walking 2 minutes seven times at the next session which should be tonight but unfortunately I am on a plane and will not be back in time so I will have to run tomorrow before work or more likely after work and before my governors meeting. I have to miss the second session but will step up to three minutes running and one minute walking next time. More to follow soon as they hope to have us run 5K by week 5.

Berlin again

I am made just three flights in May this year, a record low since I started working for the company. tow of them were a day return to one of my favourite cities in Europe, Berlin. One of the things I like about Berlin is the fact that I always get about 4 hours spare at the end of the meeting to just wonder round and soak up the atmosphere. This time I walked from the Station past the Reichstag and the Brandenburg gate to Potsdammer Platz. There is not a lot else to add other than it was an enjoyable afternoon and I would recommend the city for a long weekend to anyone.

How Much !!??

The family decided to go out to dinner the other night to celebrate my sons 16^th Birthday, to avoid driving we decided to use the train from the village where I live to the nearest town, arriving a few minutes early for the train and having bought our tickets we decided to play with the machine to identify what the highest fare we could achieve was.  This involved a reasonable knowledge of UK geography and in the end it turned out to be 9 first class return tickets to Kyle of Localsh for the small sum of £5140.00 the machine even offered to allow payment in coins which assuming the exclusive use of £2 coins would be 2070 coins at god knows what weight. 

Rugby Sevens

We had a day out at the Rugby Sevens at Twickenham last week, I has not realised what a party event that this was going to be, we turned up at 10AM and the place was relatively empty but I knew that it was going to be busy later because of the difficulty getting hold of tickets. The rugby was good but it was the crowd that was most interesting. Unbeknownst to us there is a theme to the event and the crowd all appear in fancy dress on this theme. It took us a while to put two and two together on this as the type font on the advertising and information signs were in a “monster” font and I had assumed that the monster energy drink was sponsoring the event. We were it had to be said surrounded by a number of zombies and a fair number of Honey monsters.  It transpires that they sold 75,000 tickets and I would estimate about 60,000 people in fancy dress.

The other thing that became really obvious is that I am getting old; it did feel like we were the obligatory grandparents at an 18^th birthday party later on. By about 3PM the place was busy and whilst very good natured it was turning into a party where the rugby was the entertainment but the party was the central event. A great day out but we left 2 hours before the end which I suspect was going to be far from the end of the party.    

Turkish Taxi Ride

We arrived in Sabiha Gokcen airport in Istanbul just after 8:15PM  and had a departure from Istanbul airport at 1:15AM the next day. My research on transfers between the two airports had revealed that there was a bus to central Istanbul connecting to another bus to Istanbul airport and that the total journey time should be in the region of 3 hours or you could take a taxi for about EUR80 and it would take about 90 minutes.  I opted for what was to be one of the most terrifying taxi journeys of my life. The driver did not speak English and I think my enquiry about “how long would it take” was mistaken for “I am in a rush”, we left the airport at 160KMH and when we hit solid traffic in all the lanes  he made the concession of slowing to 100KMH whilst driving on the hard shoulder, there was seldom more than a car length gap between us and the car in front, often less.  At one point we flashed the traffic police out of the way as they were not going fast enough for the driver, 55 minutes later we arrived at Istanbul airport.  it took a couple of drinks in the lounge to calm my nerves

a lepoard can change its spots...

I have travelled on four Ryanair flights recently, Ryanair have for a long time been known for the dismissive way it treats its passengers. As far as they were concerned they were safe and cheap so people would always book on them regardless of their service offering. They flew you to airports that were two hours from where you wanted to be, there were announcements advertising things you could buy from the moment you boarded and they charged outrageous  fees for everything and they had a very difficult to access website with CAPTCHA technology on it. They made millions as they were cheap and people will accept almost anything for a free flight.

 

Recently there financials took a bit of a downward turn and they have decided it’s time to go up market, they have a new friendly website, and the announcements are gone before 7AM and after 10PM. They have removed the baggage checks and started to move from the out of town airports to places where people want to actually be.

It will be interesting to see how airlines like Easyjet respond as Ryanair have a lower seat cost that Easyjet so Ryanair can undercut them.... and something’s don’t change... people will still do anything for a cheap flight.   

would you live here?

this is a street near the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire

Lost in translation

so is that buy one pair and get one half price or buy one shoe and get the other half price?

Desert sand

We have taken a southerly route to the Middle East this time, across Europe down what was the Yugoslavian coastline before cutting across the Med to Egypt, the photo above is the view as we crossed the Egyptian coast. The desert comes down to the sea but it is still clear enough to get a reasonable photograph. A short while later the sand in the atmosphere meant that the ground was no longer visible. It may sound obvious but sand gets everywhere in the desert, it does not just lie around it blows about and gets into every gap and makes washing cars a daily task or one you just don't bother with at all.

Transition

I love being at home and after all this time I am OK with being away, I do however have difficulty with the transitory state between the two. Its Sunday morning and I am at Heathrow airport having just boarded my flight to the Middle East, its a short trip I will be back home in two and a half days. My Saturday was fine but in the early evening I had to pack a bag and arrange a taxi for 0330 Sunday morning, this meant my head was slowly getting into away mode. This combined with the fact that the meeting I am attending is an important one on the future progress of the company meant that I was not as relaxed as I might have been. I am missing my youngest sons football and the family Sunday which is always depressing, travelling  at weekends is always worse. Once I get to the airport at the other end I will have fully transitioned to "away mode" and all will be fine again. When I get back on Tuesday its just for one night and I am away in Poland for two nights before getting back home about 11PM on Friday night to start the weekend.

The Japanese toilet seat

The Japanese have a very different and unique attitude to the toilet seat and I will try to describe it without too much vulgar reference; they have managed to automate it!

When you sit down it will automatically start some water running into the bowl, I don’t know why it does this but it does. Having finished your business you then have a selection of buttons which will control the speed direction and most importantly temperature of the water, I doubt you want ice cold water sprayed onto your rear unexpectedly.  

Lost in translation

a well know rehydrating drink from Japan

Airport Piano’s

A number of airports have recently installed pianos for the public to play. I am in transit in Amsterdam at the moment and have 4 hours to kill and have just been captivated by a passenger who sat down and played one beautifully. I have to say it has totally uplifted me. I wish she could have stayed longer. Equally I am sure played badly they can have the opposite effect but this was outstanding.     

Lost in Translation

I saw this in a supermarket over Christmas, its actually Dog Food but the packaging does not say what sort of Adult they have mixed with the Chicken.

and so it begins again

So January 5th and the year has started again, its a Sunday evening and I am in an Airport, I love Airports and aircraft but I hate overcrowded departure lounges with masses of humanity looking for seats and waiting for flights. one thing I really dislike is airports that publish the gate numbers late to keep this mass of humanity together in the hope they will spend money in the shops, just let me know where the gate is and let me get to the peace and quite away from the departure lounge........ I tried guessing where the gate would be this time last year and went to the wrong place missing my flight as a result so here I sit in some branded coffee shop which the cup tells me is Starbucks although the coffee tastes no different than McDonalds or Café Nero.