Berlin Pipes

After Palma I had a need to spend a couple of days in Berlin and despite having visited a number of times I saw something this time that I have not seen before,  a kind of “mousetrap” collection of pipes above ground. They looked to be ramshackle and temporary but they did appear to have a liquid running through them. A quick investigation on Google revealed that they were in fact temporary water management pipes used in construction.  Apparently Berlin in built on a swamp and during construction of new buildings water has to be pumped out of the area and into the drains. The pipes are above ground as they are temporary and the strange “up and down” design is to get them over the roads and other access points.   

A city misunderstood ?

As indicated in the last post I recently had the chance to visit Palma Majorca. For years it has had the reputation with me of a “party island” and not a place that was high on my list of places to spend any time, It turns out however that the Spanish have been very clever. They have reserved one part of the island for the British tourists, another part of the island for the German Tourists and they keep the rest of the island for themselves. Palma Town is particularly nice as the photographs above show. The reason the plaza is so empty is because I visited it during “siesta” another Spanish tradition that still survives.     

An unusual lift arrangement

The picture is not the best, unfortunately, but I have recently spent a couple of days in Palma Majorca and the hotel I stayed in has a very unusual arrangement with the lifts.  The buttons are on the outside. 

On arrival in the lobby you press the button for the floor you want to get to and the display directs you to one of the lifts, there are no buttons in the lifts.  After an entire life of having buttons inside the lift is somewhat disconcerting it is also important that you get into the lift that the screen indicated or you will not get to your floor. If this happens you have to leave the lift and start again on the outside.      

Checked baggage

I am away again, this time I have a sales conference in Prague immediately followed by an internal management meeting.in Palma. The clothing requirements for both are different and as a result I cannot get away with my usual hand baggage only regime. As a result of this I have a suitcase and It has cost me an additional hour in traveling time today.


The check in desks open 2 hours before check in and close 45 minutes prior to departure. In order to make sure that I did not miss check in I was at the airport 90 minutes before departure and on the arrival in Prague the baggage took 30 minutes to arrive on the belt. If I only have hand baggage and used internet check in I would normally arrive an hour before departure and can walk straight out at the other end. Given that I take about 60 trips a year I save a working week and a half by not checking in baggage and my baggage never goes missing.

London Olympics

There is a lot that goes on behind the Olympics that is only seen by the country hosting the event. I believe the London 2012 Olympics will be a fantastic event and essential for boosting the UK economy. For two weeks the United Kingdom and Specifically London will be on almost every television screen all over the world. Assuming it all goes OK and it does not rain this will be a fantastic advertisement for UK plc.


In order to win the games a bidding city has to sign up to a large number of Olympic “ideals” which I first came across when I was working on the Athens International Torch relay in 2004. They have nothing to do with sport and an awful lot to do with corporate sponsorship. The bidding country must agree to change its laws to give a legal framework to the restrictions. The UK bill can be found at the following web link

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20081007160501/opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/en/ukpgaen_20060012_en.pdf

The one that really winds me up is that, as VISA is a corporate sponsor, anything to do with the Olympics can only be purchased using cash or a VISA card. This means Tickets, Merchandise and Food and Drink in the venues, My bank is a corporate sponsor of the games but they decided they were moving to Mastercard a couple of years ago and as a result I don’t have a VISA card and I shall not be partaking in this event …. Bah humbug.

Stealing Electricity

Most airports were designed well before the massive increase in “personalised electronic products” and the only reason for installing plug sockets was to allow the cleaners to plug in their floor polishers. Now if you pass through an airport you will see people sat in all sorts of places often on the floor to be near a plug socket. Luton Airport however seems to have got fed up with everyone stealing their electricity and locked up all the plug points.

Unbelievable parking

to the right of the photograph is a primary school, this photograph was taken at 3:20 on  a chool day, just behind me is a zebra crossing. When I called Tesco to complain they initially said no one was available but rang me shortly afterwards to say they had spoken to the driver and he was new and Polish !!