Friday, December 12, 2008
24 Hours
Long time, no blog. Life has been very, very busy. However, with the holidays coming up (including a paid company holiday shutdown of about a week) and the completion of my 3rd trip of 3 scheduled trips to Finland I think that things will slow down a little bit.
As I write this, it is 4:30am in Finland on Saturday, December 12. I am in my hotel room in Helsinki, Finland about to shower and head to the airport. I have been up for about an hour. I usually sleep fine on these trips, but for some reason I woke up and could not get back to sleep. I may sleep a little bit on the flights, but probably not. I don't generally sleep much on airplanes.
My first flight will be from Helsinki to London. That takes about 3 hours. I have about 2 hours on the ground in London until my next flight to LAX. That will take around 11 hours depending on weather. After that, I get to go through immigration, customs, and then drive home. I should get home around 5:30pm Pacific Time on Saturday, December 12.
I am only worried about one thing right now - the weather forecast in London includes possible delays of around 60 minutes. If my inbound flight is delayed, I really hope that the outbound flight is too. I have to change terminals and go through security and 1 hour is probably not enough time for that.
A minor possible issue is that I am not sure what seat I have for the flight from Helsinki to London. It could be a center seat. I am not allowed to check in ahead of time to verify. I did get good news yesterday though -- my flight from London to LAX will be an aisle seat. I was previously in a center seat which is not fun for an 11 hour flight (been there, done that).
Beyond that, I actually look forward to time to read, watch the little TV monitor on the plane, and so on.
So from the time that I woke up (around 5:30pm Pacific Time Friday / 3:30am Central European Time Saturday) until the time that I get home (around 5:30pm Pacific Time Saturday) will be a 24 hour cycle of very little sleep. I am not worried about the drive home - I have done that before. However, the family claims that I am a bit goofy when I am that tired. Who woulda thunk it?
P.S. Below are a couple of pictures that I took around the city last night. The phone's camera was using Pacific Time -- I forgot to hit the travel location button. I had a nice walk around the city. The temperature was hovering a little above freezing, but I walked at a brisk pace and kept warm. I noticed that they use a LOT of lights in response to the long nights (days are around 6 hours long right now).
The front of my hotel as I start my walk.
This is one of the few boats left in the harbor right now. It is open as a restaurant for dinner.
One of the parks near the waterfront is nicely decorated. There are a bunch of little wooden huts where people sell Christmas gifts, decorations, and goodies.
They have some spectular old buildings around town. The churches below are amongst the most interesting buildings in town.
There was lots of lighting for shoppers and tourists who were walking around town.
The end of my walk at the back of my hotel. The display came out fuzzy, but the right side shows the temperature as +3C.
As I write this, it is 4:30am in Finland on Saturday, December 12. I am in my hotel room in Helsinki, Finland about to shower and head to the airport. I have been up for about an hour. I usually sleep fine on these trips, but for some reason I woke up and could not get back to sleep. I may sleep a little bit on the flights, but probably not. I don't generally sleep much on airplanes.
My first flight will be from Helsinki to London. That takes about 3 hours. I have about 2 hours on the ground in London until my next flight to LAX. That will take around 11 hours depending on weather. After that, I get to go through immigration, customs, and then drive home. I should get home around 5:30pm Pacific Time on Saturday, December 12.
I am only worried about one thing right now - the weather forecast in London includes possible delays of around 60 minutes. If my inbound flight is delayed, I really hope that the outbound flight is too. I have to change terminals and go through security and 1 hour is probably not enough time for that.
A minor possible issue is that I am not sure what seat I have for the flight from Helsinki to London. It could be a center seat. I am not allowed to check in ahead of time to verify. I did get good news yesterday though -- my flight from London to LAX will be an aisle seat. I was previously in a center seat which is not fun for an 11 hour flight (been there, done that).
Beyond that, I actually look forward to time to read, watch the little TV monitor on the plane, and so on.
So from the time that I woke up (around 5:30pm Pacific Time Friday / 3:30am Central European Time Saturday) until the time that I get home (around 5:30pm Pacific Time Saturday) will be a 24 hour cycle of very little sleep. I am not worried about the drive home - I have done that before. However, the family claims that I am a bit goofy when I am that tired. Who woulda thunk it?
P.S. Below are a couple of pictures that I took around the city last night. The phone's camera was using Pacific Time -- I forgot to hit the travel location button. I had a nice walk around the city. The temperature was hovering a little above freezing, but I walked at a brisk pace and kept warm. I noticed that they use a LOT of lights in response to the long nights (days are around 6 hours long right now).
The front of my hotel as I start my walk.
This is one of the few boats left in the harbor right now. It is open as a restaurant for dinner.
One of the parks near the waterfront is nicely decorated. There are a bunch of little wooden huts where people sell Christmas gifts, decorations, and goodies.
They have some spectular old buildings around town. The churches below are amongst the most interesting buildings in town.
There was lots of lighting for shoppers and tourists who were walking around town.
The end of my walk at the back of my hotel. The display came out fuzzy, but the right side shows the temperature as +3C.
