Abu Dhabi F1 Cycling

They have a great thing going at the Abu Dhabi F1 circuit on Sunday evenings. The circuit is opened for cyclists and if you register you can pick up a free bike and cycle round the circuit for up to three hours. it was fairly hot when I was there (40C)  but it was a great evening.

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The Grand Mosque

I spent two days in Abu Dhabi in September, I managed to visit the Grand Mosque and it was an incredible building, I was there for about three hours just soaking in the atmosphere. I was fortunate to see the transition from day to night. it is well worth a  visit and one of the highlights of the year for me.

 

Rainbow trout sandwich

for some reason an image somes to mind of a whole trout stuffed between two slices of bread. I am sure it was nicer than that

Dresden station

Dresden is noting like as grand as Leipzig but there are some photos on the wall of what the station looked like before and during WW2. they are really show the damage the bombing caused. its really quite sobering.

A cool Starbucks

I have written a blog post on Leipzig station before, it really is of a different age .... from the grand old days of rail. The station cafe has been turned into a huge starrbucks and it has to be one of the coolest starbucks around, there is so much space and when you are sitting in it you feel like a film extra in a remake of brief encounter  

Lost in Translation

seen on a menu in Prague, a bumpling sound so cuddly, is it like a minion ? 

Lost in translation

this indicates that there is a plan to evacuate a moving train

Lost in Translation

an innovative approach to recycling.... pets in the yellow bin 

Park Run

Today I undertook my first bit of park run tourism and ran the St Peters Parkrun in Sydney. Parkrun is weekly free 5 kilometres run on a Saturday morning, most of the runs are in the UK there are runs all over the world. When you register for Parkrun you get a bar code that works everywhere and they e-mail you the times you get. The event is put on by volunteers many of whom run as well as volunteering each week. I have been working hard on my weight this year and that has brought my times down from 29 and a bit to 25 and a bit with a new PB of 24:50 last week.

This was going to be my 125^th Parkrun. And from my hotel I took the train into Sydney and then back out to St Peters where the parkrun was due to start at 9AM.  At the interchange station I met a woman who was down from Brisbane and had chosen to run the event as well. On arrival at the park we were told it was a smaller group as there was a running festival at Bondi beach the next day…. Not that small I guess it was about 200 people. The run was a two-lap course on pathways in a park on the site of a former brickworks and was the original Sydney Parkrun, the weather was wall to wall sunshine and the temperature 16 Celsius…. Perfect conditions.  The event was well marshalled and they had even gone to the trouble of writing messages on the path in chalk, the messages were a mixture of useful information like Keep left and route markers and then after about 2.5KM we reached a hill, the message in chalk said “welcome to our hill” it was as the hill got steeper the next message said “Keep going you are doing really well” a little further of “as Bon Jovi said “your half way there”  and then “enjoy your parkrun” “you’re at the top it’s downhill now.” Incidentally the view from the top was spectacular with the Sydney skyline in front of us, at the bottom of the hill the run went through a wooded area and the bird song was totally different that that heard in the UK. Finally, after the second lap It was a right turn to the finish funnel where I was 109^th in a time of 26:50. As a running experience it was right up there as one of the best, if not the best, I have ever had. I had a huge buzz that I still have now twelve hours later a flight to Singapore.

One of the madder weeks in my life

This week was a bit of an epic traveling week. For a while I have had a client in Australia and we have recently been talking about expanding the relationship. At fairly short notice they invited me down for a working visit. Happily, they were paying for the ticket, sadly they booked economy class. On Monday morning I found myself at Heathrow ready to take, what I expect will the longest flight of my life, the QF10 direct from Heathrow to Perth and 16:18 minutes after taking off from I landed in Australia. I could write an entire piece about how nuts a direct UK Australia flight is but the reality is if you are going to fly 13 hours to Singapore you might as well fly sixteen to Perth. The flight was great and aside from the two meal services they don’t bring anything round as they want you to get up and come to the galley for food just to avoid the DVT.

I only had one full day in Perth which was designed to allow me to spend some time at the Airport observing the operations. The Western Australian economy is dominated by the mining industry and Perth Airport is the hub on the operation. The mines wok on a “FIFO” (fly in, fly out) basis with staff working “X” weeks on and “X” weeks off I would guess that over half the passengers that pass through Perth Airport are traveling to a mining site. The airport is full of people wearing Hi visibility gear and working boots. The mines are generally about two hours flying away and have fantastic names like Christmas Creek mine and Tropicana.

I don’t normally get jetlag but on this occasion, I got a case of “second night syndrome” this is where you sleep well on the first night through exhaustion but can’t sleep on the second night. As a result of this I finally got to sleep at 2AM and had to get up at 4AM. With the observation done I spent part of Wednesday flying to Sydney a further three hours and 23 minutes away for a planning workshop on the Friday.

The third night I managed to sleep reasonably well and following the successful conclusion of the workshop on Friday I was free to what I wanted.

Having not slept well, sleep is a theme this week, I was up at 6AM to get to the St Peters Parkrun in Sydney …. More in the next posting. With the parkrun complete by 9AM it was back to the hotel, shower and off to the airport to catch Qantas flight 1 to London via Singapore. The first leg was 7:50 followed by a 1:30 layover in Singapore and then a 12:55 flight back to London where I arrived on Sunday morning seven days after I left home and having flown a mammoth 22,000 KM and 40hours 31 minutes.  

Doha Taxi's

I was recently in Qatar and had to take a taxi back to the airport. they have a great, albeit somewhat big brother, taxi system. the attached screen is in all Qatar Taxis. it has the name and picture of the driver, where you are, where you are going to, how much the fare is.... so far so good.  what makes this different is that the taxi is using GSP to know what the speed limit is and tells the driver to slow down if they are speeding. it also puts up a big red flag on the screen. if you exceed the speed limit again they you get a second warning. I don't know what happens the third time he backed off his speed after the second time.      

The coolest job in the world.....

this is a brilliant picture of a C130 taken in the low flying area in Wales. they would be down below 500ft off the ground and flying down a valley. its an essential part of the special forces pilot training that they should be able to Manoeuvre this 45 tonne aircraft at low level in difficult situations. but they don't have the best job in the world, they would be working hard..........

in my view the loadmasters have the best job in the world, these guys are responsible for loading and unloading of the aircraft. the special forces load masters need to be able to do LCLA (Low Cost Low Altitude) and LAPE (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction) drops which require them to move about the aircraft when its flying like this. they are held in by a strap but on training missions like this they can just sit on the back ramp watching the world go by ........ that's the best job in the world  

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human traffic lights

one of the bars was down a very tight passage, fortunately the bar has installed traffic lights to control the flow of people up and down the passage

carefull what you drink

A recent visit to Prague allowed me to test a few beers, this one was particularly nice but you would not want to, or be able drink to many of them.

not the normal way to load livestock

I am not sure what the story is behind this photo but its a very unusual way to carry livestock. I know these are camels but I would have expected them to be in some sort of "horse stall" and not individually tied down to a pallet.

The Brexit bar

I was trying to find my way to a restaurant in Warsaw recently I cane across the Brexit Bar (bottom centre) is this the new "Irish pub" with one to be found in every European city .....  

I dont like venture capitalists

Midwest Madness

I don’t get much of a chance to go to the US these days and a meeting in Montreal allowed me to visit some new and old locations for me. In the weekend prior to the meeting.

I started out on the 04:00 National Express bus from Stansted. I arrived at Heathrow at 05:30 and then it was straight through Security on the fast track thanks to my BA status. A quick breakfast in three American Airlines Lounge before my flight to Chicago. The winds were favourable and the on board facilities of the new American B787 were very good and after a pleasant 7 hours and 25 minutes we landed an hour early. I was through immigration remarkably quickly and after taking the interterminal transit I was able to be back airside in the United terminal within an hour of touching down.  after a four hour transit it was time to board the connecting flight to Louisville.

The UPS Hub at Louisville has long been on my bucket list and having found a reasonable one way fare from Chicago I thought it was about time to tick it off. On arrival in Louisville I went to the Holiday Inn as it gave good views of the airport. I went to the bar for something to eat, well to be honest for some “wings” I am on a diet and this was going to be a wings and ribs blowout weekend for me. I happened across a former, and much missed, previous life. There were several Mechanics from a US ACMI carrier who was leasing aircraft to UPS, they were at the bar telling “war stories” it took me a while to figure out they were from Western Global and were MD11 Mechanics but it could have been any ACMI carrier. These guys tend to work on a 20 on and 10 off roster, I used to manage a team of operations reps who did this/ I used to do it myself in a small way. There is something comforting sitting in the bar talking aircraft and then the next day flying to a new country and doing the same again, it was the same but different every day. I loved the fact I could do this in short bursts and then get home to the family.

When booking the trip, I was really struggling to find a cheap ticket out of Louisville to another hub city for less than £250 one way, even Southwest were expensive. The only relatively reasonably priced destination was back to Chicago and the Airport Hilton wanted over £200 for the night so that was out of the question. At That point it occurred to me I could try spending some of the miles that I accumulate with my business travel and looking about I could only fine one available ticket with One World or Star Alliance and it was Louisville to Atlanta with a two hour layover in Charlotte for the incredible sum of £4.50 + miles, I grabbed it before it disappeared. After a hour we touched down into what can only be described as a sea of American tails,

The next night was in one of my favourite hotels, the renaissance concourse in Atlanta. I used to Have to visit Atlanta to visit a customer a few years ago, it’s a great Hotel with balconies that look out over the runway. It has a certain luxury which I like in a hotel, I am not particularly fussed about flying business class but I like an airport lounge and I like a nice hotel. Tonight it was the “ribs” element of the wings and ribs weekend.

I had managed to get a one way ticket to Memphis for £5 and some Virgin miles, the reason for the visit was to see the FedEx hub. FedEx have a massive Sunday afternoon hub which was the reason for my visit well that and a cheap (£89) ticket from Memphis to Montreal with a two hour layover in Toronto. A lot of the FedEx Aircraft had layed over from Friday night but there were still a good number of arrivals. Most aircraft were in by 11:30AM and the last arrival was an A300 at 12:40. At that point there were 151 FedEx Aircraft on the ground.

Air Canada took me to Toronto in two hours, The delay in Memphis cut into my transit time in Toronto and by the time I had cleared immigration and got through security again I just had time to grab a bite to eat and get to my connecting flight to Montreal

I miss this sort of traveling, these days I just don’t get to do it much, happily the Autumn meeting of the group is also in Montreal and I am already planning another three day excursion to the US prior to that meeting.

The Dark Side

Occasionslly I am in a situation where I think, why would they do this. Why did people join the Royal Navy in the days of Nelson, they lived on the ships in awful conditions for years on end. Of course, the reason is that is was better than the alternative ….in this case they got three meals a day and access to medical care which is something they did not get on land.

On my last trip to Dubai I saw a modern-day version of this. I needed to take a 30-minute taxi ride and got chatting to the Indian driver. He told me he worked 10 months of the year and went home for a two month break each year, nothing unusual here, that’s the way it works in the Middle East. He had no family in Dubai his wife and Children live in India because he does not have the sort of job that allows him to bring his family to Dubai.  He told me that we worked 12-hour nightshift …. seven days a week for the 10 months he was in Dubai. He lived in a two bedroom flat with seven other taxi drivers, he shared a bed with the driver that drove his taxi during the 12-hour day shift. The taxi they drove had 410,000 Kilometres on the clock and was 18 months old.

He is on a commission only job he earns approximately 900 Euro a month and Pays 260 Euro for accommodation and food, he keeps approximately 100 Euro for himself and then sends 550 Euro home to the extended family in India. He had been working in Dubai for over 20 years. Why do he do it, because it’s better than the alternative of living and working in India.  The same India that has a huge amount of multi millionares.

When I think about I remember what a lucky life I have had and am forever thankful of that. I gave him a big tip, always take the chance to talk to “the little guy” and see life from their perspective. They only want the same for their families that I want for my own ……. the best. It’s just I have been luckier than most and I should never ever forget that.           

The Multicultural face if commercialism

I saw this in Dubai just before Christmas, Christmas Turkey in a multicultural location where its a normal working day.

Does anyone really need these instructions?

I saw this whilst out Christmas shopping, surely there cant be anyone who needs instructions to make a Christmas hamper

Odd advertising

the Car rental company SixT in Germany have always had some odd advertising, I have no idea why a giant fibreglass carrot was blocking a rental car space in the Bremen Airport Car Park

did they ask them ?