Heathrow Terminal 5 Survivors

Looks like it was a bad day to give up sniffing glue.

We arrived back at Heathrow Airport in London on Sunday knowing that there was a chance that all would not go well in the next few hours.

Not only do I have a horrible track record with this particular airport (read: losing my luggage twice on one trip, canceling a flight as it was to begin loading, having to take a taxicab at a cost of 200 pounds (400 dollars) to get to another airport just so I could get home within 24 hours - Maybe it could have been better as a script for Airport 3.0. ), but the recent opening of the new terminal 5 had been making the news for all of the wrong reasons. The new terminal which cost 4 billion pounds opened on the previous Thursday to much fanfare which didn't last very long. Soon major faults were found in the baggage movement service which lead to over 200 flights being canceled over the next 3 days, and well over 15,000 pieces of luggage being separated from its owners.

Our plane from New York docked in terminal 3 on the forth day of the new terminal's operation, and we were quite nervous about which terminal our connecting flight to Berlin would be through. As we got to the "Flight Connections" board in terminal three we were quite frightened to see that our flight home would depart from the ill-fated terminal 5.

Maneuvering to the bus which would take us to T5 wasn't difficult, the wait was not long, so far so good. The trip was a long one, and since it was mostly underground (hey, someone got smart and installed a tunnel to the new terminal!) there was not the usual feeling of absolute chaos which one normally gets while taking a bus from one terminal to the other at Heathrow. Can you possibly clean up that mess, BAA?

We pulled up to the spacious, state-of-the-art facility and were greeted by people wearing a "How May I Help You" shirt. One of them was so helpful, he was standing behind a glass wall making it impossible for people to talk with him. None of them had even a slightly friendly look on their faces, making them VERY approachable of course. Similar people were sprinkled throughout the facility, which was helpful actually because even though I would not approach them unless completely lost and late for a flight, I always knew where I belonged next because they were kind of "waving" us into the appropriate direction.

After some confusing moments we were directed to the passport/ticket check line, then on to the security line. Both lines were short, which was good. The passport people were curt but efficient, the security people not helpful at all. After being through many airports we've come to the realization that each one has different rules... i.e. shoes on/off, laptop in/out of the case, jackets off/on, etc. Most of them give you some sort of clue by way of signs, but not this new terminal... oh no, it's just better to have a little guessing game while 30 people are waiting behind you.

The system for checking your personal items still isn't improved in any significant way. I mean this is supposed to be the newest, best, coolest airport in the world... but they simply haven't figured out a decent and speedy way of getting people moved through the security check procedure. I would hope that they might realize that a longer "arrangement area" would be advantageous; people removing all their belongings can take a while. If there is more room for this to happen, then maybe it would proceed more quickly. The same is true at the end, but it is even more hurried on that side than the normal procedure thanks to a Plexiglas wall which keeps you away from your stuff until four other boxes are out of the scanner - lovely for a person standing around in their stocking feet waiting to get to their shoes. It seems the ONE true innovation they've come up with is removing the job of the guy who waited at the end of the line to take the boxes back to the beginning of the line; now that is all automated. The gray "boxes" you put your belongings into must STAY on the "line", and are not to be removed. Thus you can't take your whole box away from the line to get yourself together again... you MUST do all of that at the end of the line and before your box disappears from view on the automated "line". BUT, don't mess up the system by removing a box or piling up the boxes so that more boxes are allowed to come out of the scanner. I would have taken a photo or better yet a movie of the whole event, but I figured that the rather gruff-looking security guard with the big nose wouldn't approve.

The shopping area is extensive, huge in fact. This leads me to believe that the duty free area is the most important thing to the BAA (British Airline Association - I think), because the seating for the individual traveler is minimal. What is the best way to keep people shopping and bringing money into the U.K.? Don't give them a comfortable place to sit down. In my estimation the seating is insufficient in both the main waiting and gate areas for all of the people coming to and fro.

Eventually we got to the gate only to be told that there would be a thirty minute wait while the plane was cleaned and prepped for us. That wait turned into 45 minutes, but we got on pretty quickly after that. Once the plane was loaded they came onto the loudspeaker to let us know that there would be a delay because we would need to wait for more baggage to be delivered to the plane. Soon they announced that the baggage was in but that there would be another delay because we are in line to use the takeoff runway. All in all it ended up putting us back about an hour and a half. The last part didn't bother me one bit, I finally got some great sleep as we waited on the tarmac.

With this great example of British engineering expertise... It has made me wonder about the 2012 Olympics.

The Great 9/11 Tour Continues

Somerset, Pennsylvania - where I spent my first 14 years.

Home of one each, a brother and sister.

While I can say with no qualms that I am very happy that I don't live in this inhospitable land; it is rather pretty. The hills just seem to flow off as far as the eye can see. This is also the land of the "lake effect", where the moisture from the Great Lakes seems to dump snow all over the region with frightening frequency.

My brother is a great host and my sister a lovely tourguide. This is N.'s first time to visit my former home, and she seems to think it's ok...

We are currently finishing up the "Great 9/11 Tour" with a visit to Washington D.C. My first impressions after not being here in over 10 years... the Metro is dark and depressing, when did all of the places to visit become a "reserve at least two months out"?, and OMG! aren't the cherry blossoms beautiful!?!?

Last night we did a "Ghetto Tour". No, not a tour of the ghettos of D.C. (if they have any). No, this was a night tour to the special places which are lit up with a bus driver/tour guide that not only spoke what we will loosely term Ebonics, but was also horribly confused about history... UM, I'm thinking that Nixon was not impeached IN the Watergate Hotel.

For those who are uninitiated into the world of Pennsylvania, I thought I would include a list of the stereotypes:

You know you are from Pennsylvania when:

• You have an uncontrollable urge to buy bread and milk when you hear the word "snow."
• You know the four seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction.
• You only own three spices: salt, pepper, ketchup.
• You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You have more miles on your snowblower than your car.
• You have 10 favorite recipes for venison.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
• You owe more money on your snowmobile or John Deere than your car.
• The first day of "Buck Season" and "Doe Season" is a school holiday.
• Your snowblower gets stuck on your roof.
• The local paper covers National and International headlines on 1/4 page but requires six pages for sports.
• School closings due to snow take the radio stations a half an hour to finish, because just about every town has its own school district.
• You think the start of deer hunting is a National Holiday.
• You pronounce "Suite" as SUIT, not SWEET. As in Living Room Suite.
• You think the roads in any other state are smooth.
• You find -20F "a little" chilly.
• You ask the waitress for "dippy eggs" for breakfast.
• The trunk of your car doubles as a deep freezer.
• You know the four seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction.
• There are still places you can still stop along the road to buy fruits, vegetables, or crafts on the "honor system."
• You say the correct pronunciation LANG-kist-er instead of the mispronounced Lan-CAST-er, and LEB-en-in instead of the equally incorrect Leb-a-NON.
• You know the only way to make good fastnachts is to cook them in LARD.
• You live within two miles of a plant that makes potato chips, corn chips,pretzels, candy, or ice cream, or that packages turkeys, beans, or bologna.
• You can stop along the road to buy fruits, vegetables, or crafts on the "honor system."
• You know what REAL pot pie is.
• YOUR turkey has "filling," not "stuffing," and most certainly, NOT "dressing."
• You know that chicken corn soup from a fire house is the most nearly perfect food on earth.
• You say things like, "Outen the lights," "I'm calling off today," and "They're calling for snow."
• You've heard of distelfinks and hex signs.
• You only buy your beer and soda by the case.
• You think the roads in any other state are smooth.
• Hearing horses clopping down a paved street doesn't bring you to the window to see what's going on outside.
• You never see any Confederate Flags, except on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
• You prefer Hershey's Chocolate to Godiva.
• You consider Pittsburgh to be "out west," and you know the fastest way to Philly is the Turnpike.
• School closings due to snow take the radio stations a half an hour to finish, because just about every town has its own school district.
• When someone says 1972, you think "Agnes," and when someone says 1979, you think "TMI."
• You call sloppy joes "barbecue."
• When it snows, they put cinders on the roads instead of sand.
• You can give directions to Intercourse with a straight face.
• Know that Yuengling is pronounced "Ying-ling," and believe that it really is a premium beer (which comes from growing up on Schlitz and Iron City).
• Have the Rolling Rock bottle memorized: "From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe, we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment. . . . "
• Know that Wilkes-Barre is pronounced "Wilks Berry."
• Can pronounce "Knoebels."
• Can pronounce (or spell) "Schuylkill."
• Live for summer, when street fairs signal the beginning of funnel cake season.
• Have a day off school on the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is the first day of hunting season.
• Never have to worry about being stuck in a ditch when it's snowing. -someone in a 4WD pickup with tow chains will be along shortly.
• Frequently go "with," e.g., "You going to the market? Mind if I come with?"
• Refer to something as "a whole nother," e.g., "That's a whole nother issue."

Let's hear it for free wi-fi in hotels!!!

Tourists in Pennsylvania

My brother is a cook, and we are being WELL FED!!

Thanks to my jr. high school buddy Jodie for cluing me in about the free wi-fi at the Giant Eagle supermarket of all places, I'm able to connect to the wired world again!

It is SO strange being here in Somerset, PA again. It really is an odd thing to come back to the place I grew up after all of these years. The accent of the people I know and love sounds very strange to my mid-western ears. The streets seem to have changed, some of the buildings are gone, the people are much the same though.

Oh well, N. is finished with the grocery shopping, I must be going.

Pics coming soon, I promise.

Red-faced in NYC

Have you ever heard of a person coming to New York City and getting a sunburn?... Me either. But N. and I have both managed to get red faces.

Yesterday was the St. Patrick's Day Parade (pictures later), and we sat facing the sun - which was glorious after the cloudy wet mess from the day before - and must have gotten just a bit too much of the good stuff. When we stopped for a bite to eat - TGIFridays, never again - we both noticed that we had a healthy glow... with mine giving me the lovely red nose of a drunk leprechaun. That nose coupled with the green fur cap with shamrocks garnered me lots of funny looks and knowing smiles.

Oh well, no worries for continued sun burns... today looks nasty, grey and wet.

First Day in The Big Apple

New York City! Wow, what can I say?
First off, let's hear it for free Wi-Fi at the hotel! Super 8 (yes, yes, I know... never stay at a hotel with a number in the name!) gets bonus points!

Second, the weather is cold and wet, so it could be better. But then as we all know, it could be worse.

We got in late Saturday night, then up this morning for a bus tour of lower Manhattan. There is just so much to take in that it is almost mind-blowing.

The bus trip (Grey line of course), was very nice even if it was numbingly cold, (open-air double decker) and got some lovely pictures.

I find that I'm very drawn to traffic shots.

The buildings are lovely, but they aren't alive the same way the people and traffic are.

I'm trying out a new (to me) photoediting software named Gimp which I've found to be quite powerful even if it isn't very intuitive.

Our bus was detoured quite a bit because of the recent fatal crane collapse which really looks horrible, even from a distance. This is as close as we got to it.

Well, signing off for a while. We'll go out again and see what else the big city has to offer in the dark!

Tomorrow is the St. Pat's parade... I am SO PUMPED!

I even bought a green shirt that has a white graphic... um how to describe...

It says I ___ New York, except where the heart would normally be, there is a shamrock!

Tee hee hee!

Start Spreadin' The News...

We're headin' for the States! With the exchange rate absolutely astounding, I think we'll need a few more suitcases to get it all home!

NYC is first, where we plan to spend a few days, take in some touristy spots, do some shopping and enjoy the St. Pat's parade. Hot Irish blood courses through my veins, and I'm excited to be in the city with a bigger St. Pat's parade than even Dublin. It will be my first time to NYC, and N.'s third.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is next. It will be the first time N. will get to see where I grew up. One of my brothers and one of my sisters still live in the area, and will be playing host. My Pop and his wife will cruise into town for a few days as well. Should be a nice reunion.

We'll take a drive down to D.C. for a few of those days, it will be N.'s first time in America's Capitol. We'll do some more touristy things, check out the memorials, and round out our "Great 9/11 Tour".

It works out a little strange, but we'll be in each of the three places that planes crashed on 9/11. Of course Ground Zero in NYC, and the Pentagon in D.C., but an unusual spot that many people never see is where Flight 93 crashed on an out-of-the-way Pennsylvania field. This location happens to be kinda over the hill from where I grew up, and is now a tourist location for my little home town of Somerset, Pennsylvania.

So we'll visit all three crash sites.
I wonder how I'll feel when the trip is over... will I be more mad, or just more sad.

I'll try to blog every once in a while, but I assume it will be sporadic at best.

Flashin'

I got this from my sister. She really doesn't pass things like this along very often, but when she does they are hilarious.

Take a look at HEMA's product page. You can't order anything and it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

Don't click on any of the products pictured, just wait and see what happens. And be sure you have your sound turned up.

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer, eh?

http://producten.hema.nl/

Mary Ann Caught With Mary Jane

Dawn Wells aka Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island was arrested for possession of marijuana!
It seems that she was swerving and not keeping a steady speed... yeah yeah...

The best part is the arrest photo:



















Isn't this hilarious?
I mean come on!
Maybe she's seen too many "Stars Gone Bad" mug shots and decided to look as happy as can be for the camera. Or maybe she's just as stoned as can be.

Wasn't Bob Denver aka Gilligan also busted for pot? Makes you wonder what all they were growing on that island...

Smoking and driving is a no no Mary Ann... didn't the Professor tell you that?

There are endless jokes to insert here... so I'll just stop.

Soo... 69 years old. She's still looking very nice.
It begs the question again...
Which one do you like best, Ginger or Mary Ann?
Maybe to be fair, we need a recent picture from Ginger?

Spring is Coming!

SUNday was BEAUTIFUL!
These lovely flowers were just sitting along the street in Tempelhof.

Berlin Public Transport Strike

Here in Berlin we start another day without public transportation due to wide-spread strikes. The above-ground trains decided not to strike today as planned, but many people had already arranged alternate transportation and did not end up using the S-Bahn anyway.

N. pointed out this morning that having these long periods of transport black-outs is not really as effective as the short periods which are announced hours or a day before the event. If you have more time to arrange an alternate mode of travel, then it doesn't seem as inconvenient. Also you get used to this alternate mode pretty quickly, and don't really care about the strike so much anymore. Whereas having only a few hours or overnight to set something up is a bit harder. Thankfully the short-term stoppages only mess with your daily life for one or two days, then you get on with things as normal.

A wide variety of groups have gone on strike, Kindergarten employees, sidewalk cleaners, trash collectors, theater technicians, all of this the result of a fight between the Ver.di union and state employment negotiators. Ver.di is by far the largest union in the country and is fighting for an immediate 8% raise in salaries.

Also included in this group of state employees is our meteorologists ... what a worthless group of people anyway. The weather forecast is hardly ever correct, the high and low temperatures are rarely close to reality, and days which they say will be sunny may start out that way, but often end up in clouds or even rain. Let's just say that I've purchased one of the world's best umbrellas, (actually two, but that is another story) and simply carry the thing all the time.

What is interesting to me is reading the newspapers. Without fail the union men will point out that the public is "with them", and understands why they must strike, even being supportive. Personally I wonder who they are talking to... their own union workers? So far I haven't personally spoken with one person that is "with them" or supportive of the strikes. In my heart of hearts I can understand why they are striking... the country is experiencing an uptrend in wages, and these people just want to be included. My question is why must they insist on so much all at once? 8% is a HUGE amount. What good does it do to request something which no one can give them? Of course it might just be a bargaining tactic and what they really want is 5%... but do they really have to strike to get their message out? If they strike and hurt the economy then the companies and the city are no longer able to support that pay raise.

So far the strikes haven't been too bad to me. I've been getting car rides to and from work with N., one day I rode my bicycle, and since the weather is going to be nicer tomorrow (supposedly - see above) I'll possibly ride Mimi, our long-neglected motor scooter.

Living in Berlin

I found this plaque on the construction zone fence around the new Unter den Linden U-Bahn site. It really struck me because this is exactly how I feel. Berlin is great, but very often I run into these native Berliners who are exactly like the first people described in this text... Rather bad-tempered and aggressive. To a person like me that really enjoys every moment of walking through the streets of this wonderful, open, energetic, sprawling, artistic city - it is hard to imagine how some of the natives cannot simply love their city. For me it is a reminder that many times people simply take for granted what they have, and getting out and away from it for a while might show them how wonderful their lives really are.

I think it would be great if we all just stopped a moment to open our eyes, look around us, and take some time to ENJOY what we have.

What is it that you take for granted? What is it that you have which other people would enjoy?

The Mean Kitty Song

This video is so cute!
I assume that the guy wrote the song and performed it himself.
The video is well done, and the cat is pretty cute too!
I really enjoy seeing someone with talent on YouTube, unfortunately you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff.

Strikes, Snow and Chaos... Oh My!

Today was the first day of a public transport strike in Berlin... and of course it had to snow during the morning rush hour. I bet that Ver.di were throwing a huge party watching Berliners by the thousands just trying to get to work in the not-so-nice conditions. Check out some more pictures.

We are experiencing a set of public-sector strikes which is effecting not only public transportation, but airlines, garbage collection (street cleaning), hospitals, and other sectors. All in all over 100,000 people are on strike which of course causes problems all over the city.

My boss and I discussed one major image problem for Berlin, the ITB. It is the world's biggest tourism fair, and it just started today. Kinda hard to get that many people around the city without public transport... so of course it doesn't look good for the Hauptstadt. In my business this is the stuff nightmares are made of.

On top of that, right now Hanover is hosting the mammoth CeBIT, the largest electronics trade show in Europe. Yesterday was the opening day and evidently was rather chaotic because the public transport went on strike causing delays. Of course the airports are basically at a standstill and it is possible that public transport in Hanover could strike again.

Fortunately we know about these things in advance, so there is time to plan. This morning I took the bike to the gym and eventually the office, only getting caught in white-out conditions once. Although it was cold as a witch's tit in a brass bra I must admit that riding the bike to work is really a nice experience and I should do it more often.

The sights, sounds and smells of the city are so exciting to me, yet they easily get lost while riding in the car or taking the bus. Berlin has it's own smell which is hard to enjoy unless you are out in it. After a light rain everything seems so clean and fresh, it is hard to imagine that there are three million people living around me. Pretty strange to hear from a "country girl", eh?

The subways have their own aroma... In the beginning I thought it wasn't very nice, but I've grown accustomed to it and now even I enjoy it, finding myself looking forward to that WHOOSH of air coming out of the entrance as I walk down into the tunnel and a train comes or goes. I've learned that I dislike it completely when they clean the stations and use some kind of perfume which simply covers the normal smell and thankfully only lasts a few days.

Oh well, Frank (the cat) is letting me know that it is time to go to bed. He walks into the bedroom where N. is peacefully sleeping and commences howling. Not normal howling, no. This is the kind of noise that has the neighbors envisioning us hanging him by his tail or something. So of course I go to the rescue, flying into the room, disturbing N. even more and quickly escorting him out. This has happened twice already, and he just left this room again... headed for the bedroom... Yup, there he goes! I'm outta here!

German Bureaucracy

At 7.00 this morning my sweet wife N. and I were running into the Ausländeramt (foreign registration office) for my three year anniversary of arrival to Germany and hopefully an extension of my stay permit.

I say running in the literal sense rather than the figurative… Although I’m not really built for running, I do find that when I have an incredibly important appointment with a government official for which I am late I manage to put a little speed into my tree trunk thighs for at least a few steps. Well, for some reason we just kept losing time … five minutes here, ten minutes there… which simply had us arriving at the building just as the big hand hit the 12. Today was just such a day.

When I first came to Germany I was given a three year permission to stay, and then told to come back before that time expired for a re-evaluation of my situation. As long as I committed no crimes (well, I guess technically as long as I didn’t get caught), had not divorced my wife, and had learned a reasonable amount of the German language, I would most certainly get at least an extension of my Aufenthaltserlaubnis (restricted residence permit).

N. had been busy putting together all of the required paperwork (pretty much all I did to help was stand in front of a copier – I’m clueless when it comes to German bureaucracy), and months ago had gotten us an appointment so we would not need to wait in line for hours – she’s smart like that. As we walked past the 50 or so people who were in line, I decided that I would later thank N. profusely for her forethought.

Finding the room of the man who would hold my fate in his hands was rather easy. We knocked on his door at 7.02 which was evidently a bit early for him because he asked us to go back outside and wait for a short time. I was struck immediately by a very bad set of teeth, one of them sticking straight out at me… but his eyes were friendly and that was slightly soothing.
There are no words to explain just how nervous I really was… but I’m sure N. was quite surprised by it. She even asked me once if I was mad at her or something, and of course I was not… I was just REALLY uneasy.

There I sat anxiously waiting for this guy to get his morning coffee, take his office dump, or whatever and I’m almost chewing my fingernails! Dear, sweet N. was quite cute, trying to lighten the mood… all I could think of was that this guy would test my German, he might find it lacking… and then send me packing.

It is so easy to offend in German. When one is talking with a person who is older, superior in rank, a boss, or whatever you are expected to use the formal pronouns. For people of your own social stature, your age or younger, or family you use the informal pronouns for personal address. Unfortunately I keep getting this messed up, usually by speaking in the informal way to someone who should be treated formally and has not “offered” me the option of referring to them in this way. THIS IS A MAJOR NO NO… AND OF COURSE IT IS SOMETHING I DO WITH ANNOYING FREQUENCY!

Alas the man called us into an office filled with plants… the kind of room that makes me think immediately that someone here has a green thumb. I looked around and saw all of my failures as a plantkeeper. Look, that is what a fig tree is supposed to look like! Green, with leaves… and there is one of those crawly succulent plants… and hey, it can still crawl. Deep inside I wish I had a green thumb.

In a nice way he asked for my passport and my new biometric picture, and then wanted to know which one of us was working. At this time N. pushed forward my pay stubs from the past few months and mentioned that we are both working. Several more questions were put forth to which N. gazed around the large plant on the table and answered the man with the nice, rather friendly eyes.

All in all he seemed pretty OK to this point, but I was waiting for the question… when would he ask it, and would I mess it up? Then it came… fast and in German. “And do you understand German?” he said, pointedly looking at me.

HERE is your moment!! Make yourself proud! AND there is a perfect way to phrase my answer so I don’t have to worry about the pronoun stuff at all!! Thus I stammered in my crappy German something about how I understand a bit, but that I work for an international company and speak only English, so I feel it isn’t so good.

At that last sentence he turned away from me and looked back at his paperwork, making my heart skip a beat… those eyes, I can’t see if he liked what I said! He turned away! Maybe he is checking his huge sheet of paper for more questions to stump the goofy American applicant. But as he was looking at the paper in front of him a smile crossed his face. He said something to the effect that it seemed OK to him!!! Tee Hee Hee… Jump for joy!!

Today is a day for congratulations… as of 3 March I have an unlimited right to stay/work in Germany/Europe. By 7.12 the very nice man glued a Niederlassungserlaubnis (permanent alien residency) sticker into my Passport!!

Now, where is my celebratory beer!?!