Lost in Translation

Maybe I am away from home too much, my wife went shopping yesterday, apparently it is a jumper.

The Gold ATM

I have heard of these “Gold” ATM’s before but a recent visit to Leipzig Airport allowed me to see one close up for the first time. It is just like any ATM except the screen offers a variety of coins. The prices change as you look at the screen; it went up 3 cents whilst I was watching it. The machine indicated that there was a CCTV camera watching it; although I could not see it. I wonder how much gold, if any is actually in it.

Too much choice

I have just spent a week in the US to visit my customer’s, it is a round of lunches and dinner’s. The United States has so much choice it is overwhelming. On of the games I play is to try to order breakfast without having to be asked a question, “two eggs over easy, sausage, hash browns coffee and orange juice please.” “What sort of toast sir, white brown or sour dough?” ... failed again.

One Customer picked me up from the airport and on the way to the office we stopped at a drive through coffee shop, the fact that they have Drive Through coffee shops was amazing enough but the choice was endless. “Coffee or tea”, “large medium or small” (in that order), “How many shots”, “what sort of syrup”. “Full fat or skinny milk” etc. etc. I asked for a medium cappuccino and the assistant was waiting for the rest of the order, I said “just a medium cappuccino”, it took a while before she understood that I just wanted a plain Medium Cappuccino with nothing else. For lunch we went to a Pasta Bar, on the wall is a list of ingredients and sauces. The first question was “which three ingredients?” after some thought I went for Chicken, Mushrooms and peppers Then a few moments later “what sauce do you want?” I went for cream sauce, then it was “what sort of pasta?” I have no idea what the shapes of past are called... its all just pasta to me. I was reduced to pointing. Then finally “parmesan cheese?“ What I really wanted was a menu which I could pick a meal that suited me. I am not a chef I don’t want to assemble the food myself..... let the professional’s do it.

The next day I was in a different restaurant with a different client. I was ordering steak; the meet in the Midwest is the best in the world. I was asked how I would like it cooked and asked for “medium rare” “we can’t do that sir, will medium do?” I asked why not and was told that there was an increased chance of food poisoning from eating uncooked meat and this particular restaurant did not allow medium rare in case you became ill and sued them foe serving undercooked meat.

Choice when you don’t want it and no choice when you do. It is these sort of oddities that I love about the US!!

Atlanta Airport Car Hire Centre

I am on a visit to my US customers this week; one of them is based off airport near Atlanta so I have to hire a car for the day. This time it was from Hertz. The Car Rental centre at the airport is of monumental proportions the text below is from the airport website.

Rental car center facts
· More than 2 million people rent vehicles each year at Hartsfield-Jackson.
· The ATL SkyTrain operates six two-car trains. Each car can carry 50 passengers and their baggage.
· The rental car center includes:
o Two four-story parking decks
o 2.8 million square feet of parking area
o More than 8,700 parking spaces
o 1,200 additional ground-level parking spaces
o 137,000-square-foot customer service center
o 1.3-acre facility to store and maintain trains
o “Quick turnaround” area with maintenance, wash and fuel facilities for rental vehicles
o 58 fuel pumps
o 19 wash bays with water recovery system

Hertz gave me two cars with flat batteries, the walked me out to the third car ... just in case. I was talking to the manager from the Hertz Unit, he told me they had a fleet of 6,000 cars at the airport and they have about 3,000 rentals on a Monday which is their busiest day..... and that is just Hertz, they have another 12 companies including Advantage , Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar and National.

Apparently this is only the fourth largest facility on the country ... where are the top three and how big are they!!!

Over London

I have flown into Heathrow from the East a few times recently in cloudless skies, for me it is one of the most amazing approaches to an airport there is and I never tire of it. The geography of London is breathtaking and from above you can see how the city had developed. The first thing you see are the 1960’s housing developments of Thamesmede, often you see this many times as you go round the holding pattern!! Once released by Air Traffic for the final approach you fly over Docklands and its impressive skyscrapers, then the tightly packed City of London followed by the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and London Eye. Then it’s Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and the west end all the time getting lower and lower. Finally its over Richmond, Kew Gardens and Hampton Court palace about 60 seconds before touchdown. At night with all the lights on is it different but equally breathtaking. I can only imagine the excitement this a must bring out in tourists visiting the city for the first time.

Not seeing anything ......

It’s all been airports the last couple of weeks, I have a new contract and need to open a facility in Warsaw. A typical visit is to start at Heathrow for the two hour flight to Warsaw. I am picked up at the airport by the local manager we visit possible locations for the office meet lawyers and I get driven back to the hotel adjacent to the airport. The next day it’s more of the same and then a trip back to the airport I hope to get to see something of Warsaw on one of the visits. Yesterday I spent the day in Helsinki. Once again it was an early flight from Heathrow which meant leaving home at 4AM I arrived in Helsinki at 12:30 caught the shuttle bus to the hotel for the lunch meeting and then spent the afternoon at an airport office in another meeting. The flight back arrived back at Heathrow at 9PM and I was home by 11PM, I could have been anywhere.

Lost In translation