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.
# posted by - Rob @ 6:23 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
No snow yet, huh?
Apparently we're in for a big storm this weekend here in Oregon. They are predicting the coldest winter in five years (oh boy!).
We are all hoping for school delays - but not snow days - those have to be made up. Delays you just get two hours off each morning that's delayed :)
Have a safe trip home & I hope they bump you to first class for no reason (like what happened to us on Diana's San Diego trip). First class is NICE.
:)
Apparently we're in for a big storm this weekend here in Oregon. They are predicting the coldest winter in five years (oh boy!).
We are all hoping for school delays - but not snow days - those have to be made up. Delays you just get two hours off each morning that's delayed :)
Have a safe trip home & I hope they bump you to first class for no reason (like what happened to us on Diana's San Diego trip). First class is NICE.
:)
Helsinki looks exactly like I thought it would, but warmer....I agree about the first class. I've spent a total of 20 minutes there after a 'bump', then gave it to a marine and sat in coach. Karma being what it is, I sat next to a very interesting economics prof in coach so came out ahead anyway
Travel safe, and don't emigrate no matter what the Finns offer
Travel safe, and don't emigrate no matter what the Finns offer
For the record, I made it home just fine. I did not get bumped up to First Class. That has only happened to me twice in 23 years of business travel. Once was when I got shifted to a flight that was taking me to LAX instead of Orange County airport. The other time was due to a co-worker that I was traveling with that had a LOT of miles and travel experience.
There was very little snow in the ground in Helsinki. According to locals, this is a marked contrast from their youth when there would be quite a bit of snow on the ground at this time of year. They had snow a couple of weeks ago, but warmer temperatures and rain had washed most of it away. There were flurries while I was there -- enough to stick for a while. It did not last on a large scale though.
On the other hand, I did not have a center seat on any flights. That was very nice. My flight from London to LAX was originally scheduled in a center seat, but an aisle opened up mid-week which I found and grabbed!
Regarding emigrating to Finland, no chance. However, our partner over there did make some joking references to it due to expected additional work in the future!
I keep thinking that I need to bring a real camera with me on these trips. However, it is nice to have a camera phone that does an acceptable job.
There was very little snow in the ground in Helsinki. According to locals, this is a marked contrast from their youth when there would be quite a bit of snow on the ground at this time of year. They had snow a couple of weeks ago, but warmer temperatures and rain had washed most of it away. There were flurries while I was there -- enough to stick for a while. It did not last on a large scale though.
On the other hand, I did not have a center seat on any flights. That was very nice. My flight from London to LAX was originally scheduled in a center seat, but an aisle opened up mid-week which I found and grabbed!
Regarding emigrating to Finland, no chance. However, our partner over there did make some joking references to it due to expected additional work in the future!
I keep thinking that I need to bring a real camera with me on these trips. However, it is nice to have a camera phone that does an acceptable job.
I can see some coolness in them setting you up with a house and moving your family abroad for part of the year.
Or maybe they can just assign you a family?
Post a Comment
Or maybe they can just assign you a family?
<< Home
