Step 4. Waiting to board the AY833, getting my new toy in sync at the same time. Nice taxi driver, chatted and he offered some candy! If I would be 16 or so that might sound a bit dodgy.. Soon to the plane and then the best moment : takeoff!
Step 7. In Hotel Metropole,, London. So far we have been able to get attention from a nice stewardess, receptionst and cute aussie girl.. Let's see where the night will take us.. Next stop:hotel executive lounge!
Step 9. In train. I must say that the public transportation in London works quite nice, no need to think about having a car - which, in turn gives opportunity to drink beer more often.. Hmm maybe not so good thing after all..
What laptop did you "almost buy"? And yeah wait till u get to dallas, everything seems so much cheaper there now (wonder why...). Although you'll end up with a u.s. plug and no äåö keys...
I can't see why a Finn would like to buy a laptop without the åäö keys! A pda, mobile phone or umpc maybe, provided there's a proper input method to compensate (like on the Sony-Ericsson smartphones). Otoh., a laptop is meant for touch typing, really.
Step 12. In fully packed train towards London Waterloo. Good things about these trains are those nice secretaries who travel at the same time... and some are pretty close :)
Step 13. Off to gym! My project for next summer will never happen I just drink beer. Oh, and there was japanese sushi available in Hilton Metropole's lobby for free.. yum!
Step 14. My final night out in London, we shall go wandering around Edgware rd just so see what is going on... Current status:too much Smirnoff Ice......
@jkniiv hmm I do not follow that thought. You can get finnish keyboard layout and just start typing.. or do you really need to look at the keyboard while writing? I have similar setup in my E61i;finnish language variant + us keyboard hw
ah smirnoff ice.. those things go down too easily and smoothly that you don't realize you've had like a bunch of them until you try to stand up afterwards :P
Step 15. Went down on Edgware rd and ended up in this arabic place.. and found ourselves smoking a Shisha.. No pbs there ;) now to sleep and tomorrow back to Finland.
@jakes2: yeah but the finnish-swedish pc keyboard has one extra key than the US keyboard (something like 106 vs 105 keys). I think it's the apostroph that gets squeezed between ö, ä and enter. How do you resolve that? I'd rather use a danish or german kbd.
@jakes2: And like I said pda-style mobile devices are not a problem cos they're not designed for speedy text entry. Even the E61 has a non-standard layout wrt a PC or even a typewriter.
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
re : step 15. It seems the flu symptoms and the shisha are somehow connected.. My friend said 'strongest stuff you've got' when we were ordering.. Oh well, feeling already better!
re : step 15. It seems the flu symptoms and the shisha are somehow connected.. My friend said 'strongest stuff you've got' when we were ordering.. Oh well, feeling already better!
re : step 15. It seems the flu symptoms and the shisha are somehow connected.. My friend said 'strongest stuff you've got' when we were ordering.. Oh well, feeling already better!
Step 20. In taxi queue at Hki airport. Freezing weather and yes, the plane WAS late. Oh well trying to survive with this flu and wait for my turn in this queue...
Step 23. breakfast at café Baquette, Pasila. It seems my train leaves.. in an hour! But with my charm I managed to talk a power terminal from the café so I can at least get online :)
Step 24. Onboard Pendolino S123 to Salo. Amazing how many nice women there are travelling in these trains. This sure beats driving with car alone in that - yuck - souther Finnish winter weather...
Step 25. Hmm.. Need to rethink the train issue. There is a group of women next to me and one of them has talked c o n s t a n t l y! Jeez, topics change but the words just pour out. If it'd be summer I'd be doing this in my S2 for sure.
Step 29. In train towards ?asila. I am in... restaurant car?? Yeah, it seems I am getting more like @cybette here on Jaiku.. Or is just my own personality? Oh well, another beer.. There are some women here checking me out and one hells angel!
Step 31. Preparing for my India travel. Thanks to co-operation (or lack of it) I am flying to New Delhi international airport first. Scheduled landing at 00:30. My plane to Bangalore departs at 06:00 so this time I hope Finnair WILL be late!
same here, i'm landing in Bangkok at 23:15 and flight to Taipei departs 06:45, a whopping 7.5 hours of waiting time. It'll be nice if Finnair was something like 4 hours late :P
Step 32. At the airport. No candy from tax driver but nice officer from Finnair got me a place with more leg room. Notice:if you are flying md11, go for row 21. Tons of reading and gadgets to get me through the flight... And here I go again!
Step 33. Just ate chicken in the plane.. And for some reason I have listened Iron Maiden's Wasted Years for the 20th time, someone care to tell me why? Guess need to read something instead? '..so, understand... The wasted time I'm searching for those...'
Step 34. Ok so not maybe my ideal flight companion but there is a nice woman from India and I managed to make her eat salmiakki! But, now time for a nap..
Step 37. Incredible India continues. Here is magic trick:You are on flight scheduled to take off 0615.. Once the check in opens you are told you flight has been cancelled and you are on.. 0945!
Step 41. Finally in Bangalore! Only 4h late.. After taking a nap on plane everything feels somewhat unreal... Oh well. Now to the hotel and then sleep. Busy day tomorrow.
@jakeS2: Do you have a workmate called Iska R. - from Tampere, now located in Poland, few months ago in India? Your destinations seems to match somehow...
Step 42. Hotel mess! So you thought it was all over? No sir. Travel agent had rebooked me due to reasons unknown and I arrived dead tired at hotel reception desk only to hear my reservation is cancelled.
Step 45. On the way to customer (still).. It seems the taxi ride after 9 is a murder. The traffic here is interesting, almost no control and huge amount of cars.. Still it works! Amazing.
Step 49. Rise and shine. Got maximum 4hrs due to spending time with a good friend but not feeling tired. Traffic here seems to be similar mess whether doing it at 8 or 9.
Step 59. Oh my god this queuing is horrible. Queue to terminal, queue to check in, queue to security check, queue everywhere. If one wants to go to lounge, one must be here 5h before departure.
why is it connections are always either too short or too long? well, if your luggage doesn't make it, at least there's 24-hour walmarts in dallas. Targets also open till quite late (23?)... good luck!
Step 70. Onboard the AA0049. Desptite the fact of luggage hassle in CDG I am quite impressed. Flight is 20% empty and food was good. I recommend this for all non lactose diet flyers.
Step 75. Another day in paradise. Things went to hell at work but nevertheless I have a feeling that tomorrow we will understand things better. Isn't video debugging fun (yeah right). Now some exercise and then to bed..
Step 76. This is by far better day at work. Managed to get video running it's slow and unstable but - it runs! Now to optimize the perf. We'll be finishing today earlier so that gives me some time to drive around... Grapevine Mills mall -- here I come!
Step 77. So, my hotel does not have free WiFi but they do have LAN connection. So, a short visit to Office Depot (almost next door) and voilá - my own WLAN box is up and running. Now I can do the @cybette = play with computer(s) in bed until falling asleep.
I have a D-Link travel WiFi router I always carry in my laptop bag. It's about two inches square by half and inch tall and can be powered via USB. I do carry a separate US power adapter for it, so I can be mobile with my laptop when in my hotel room. When traveling internationally, I power it via USB so the laptop has to stay near the hotel's LAN jack.
I find wired hotels are much more common than ones with WiFi in the rooms, so the travel WiFi router is really handy. Even when the hotal has both LAN and WiFi, I will use LAN with my WiFi router as then I can get all my devices connected rather than just one.
@caw oh all right, might get that too but this was the cheap-a$$ unit just to test whether the solution works. Might end up at Frys again today. Btw there is a one ultraportable Fujitsu laptop on sale at Plano's Frys, only piece, orig:$1600, now at $800.
Step 78. Googled "aviation museum Dallas" and got this : www.flightmuseum.com. Thought it could not be bad until saw the size of building.. eek! Only some crap there , target audience = <10 yrs. Then scount around Irving, Dallas, McKinney to find an ULTRAportable laptop with $800 but had no luck! In the middle went for lunch in http://www.pandasbuffet.com (recommend!!).. I guess I am going for the one in PcWorld but that is in UK.. Well, @jupenu to the rescue! Now to gym & prepare for meetku.
Step 80. Contact lenses removed [ x ], teeth brushed [ x ], couple more emails and then off to la-la land. The reason CL's are mentioned is that I got something else than Dailies this time and one lense ripped apart at morning so I was a bit scared what might happen when I try to take them off. But things went ok.
Step 84. All righto, managed today to drive to hotel from work without a)getting lost and b)without my navi. Good good, getting to know my maybe future town..
Step 85. Goody goody day at work. We have video running at full speed and man am I impressed now. Drove to work without navi and for some reason (you can ask my sister about this "feature" in me) I turned to 75 SOUTH when I was supposed to go 75 NORTH. Oh well. Interesting ; I can get from office to hotel in 5-10 minutes without navi. For some reason navi wants me to drive tollways and stuff (conspiracy?)
@kk - true! But going to settings-> is not good ui, they should be de-activated by default.. and @shika isn't it fun! And once on wrong lane there is no turning back.
Step 86. What a effective housekeeping they have at Hilton Park Cities. The cleaning lady had thrown away set of my contact lenses and the box of my WiFi router (with some additional hw still in it), great. Let's see how Hilton makes this up. Now of course there is nice sunshine and I cannot see anything w/o sunglasses :-(
Step 87. Bought my 1st ultraportable laptop! Too bad my baby is in UK but I'll get it next week in Tampere. Whee! Now I have motivation to do some integration of video RECORDing with H.264!
Step 88. Finally the flu caught me. So one moment feeling fever building up and the other trying all sorts of pills and stuff to get over it. Went shopping yesterday and came back with bunch of clothes and four bottles off JD's BBQ sauce.
Step 89. Little delay to diary as mostly dozed off in hotel room but now it seems the flu is gone. So packing up and heading towards the airport. Next stop : JFK by AY5726(via AA).
Step 90. At DFW. Strange, I did not even need a navi anymore on last days, just kept driving and ended up in right places. Not bad. Now enjoying a Top Shelf Margarita at Blue Mesa bar , waiting to board. Nice lady at AA's desk managed to check in my luggage all way to Helsinki so no carrying stuff at JFK for me.
@krazykritter, I was at terminal D. Man, if I had remembered we're flying on same day.. But guess your flight was not from terminal D ? @cybette, actually I had two so one was for you :)
Step 91. At JFK. Great, it seems Company has agreements with certain operators so I can have free WiFi at airports, nice. Crowded flight from Dallas to NY, do not recommend that as it's a MD-9 and it's fully packed -> bad combo. Let's see how packed the AY0006 will be... Soon ; home sweet home (for less than 24hrs, but anyway - home).
Step 92. Finally home. AY006 was 40minutes ahead of schedule, hooray Finnair! But the lazy loaders at JFK lost my luggage somewhere and apparently I'll receive them later on. Tomorrow off to Salo and must be awake until 9PM to catch the finnish timeschedule and not fall into jet-lagging.
Step 93. Airport service brought my stuff at 0245. They called before and said it will be 0030..0100. So that was my night sleep. Grand total for last 48hrs:4. Coffee, please!
Step 96. Day done at Tampere, found & fixed some bugs and had really good time (subject is under NDA..). Got my new baby too, this is Advent 9112, a small laptop with 12" screen and some cute features. Too bad the display is already "done" so this sample shall be replaced in the warranty procedure. Oh well... it's nice nevertheless.
great to meet you again, good luck with the move, and enjoy your new baby! (have my two in bed with me right now, makes it hard to get out of bed and go to work...)
Step 101. Talk about you get what you want! My colleague was pondering what might happen if luggage gets lost here.. You know the officials don't care shit and all... Guess what happened???
Step 103. Ok so yesterday went thru in a mist. Too much to drink and too little sleep. Today we were in time and fresh after long night. Today some shopping, watch out shopping malls, here we come.
I found out yesterday that my gym belongs to a trade association with a "Passport" program allowing paid members to use participating gyms in other areas (at least 50 miles from your "home" gym) on a short-term basis. Excellent, I can work out while visiting my family back on the east coast next month. :)
Step 106. Right, same s..t, different way. Our driver is not yet here so we shall be late - again. Today is The final day, tomorrow morning:long flight back to Europe.
Step 107. Ok, so define screwed?? Last time I was here it was taxi strike - and so it is now. So we have to take off to airport at 2am when our flight is at 7am. Grrreat!
Step 108. It just got better! BA flight to UK was announced to be 1,5h late! But some good news too ; we got thru the security etc. with our Hotel Ashok agent - and my colleague GOT HIS LUGGAGE. Propably it had been at airport all week...
Step 110. Arrived to Heathrow in time and spent the 4h overlay in lounge. Flight back also in time (not, actually group of us came back to the lounge from gate..). Then off to Helsinki. Almost lost my cell phone but arrived home safe and sound -- but late.
Step 111. All righto, time to call it a day. Thank you for all who were "onboard" and maybe there will be another tripkus later on from this address. Surely not as exhaustive as this one. We've been in India, USA, couple cities in Finland and India again, phew!
174 comments so far
Step 1. Wake up from the hounds of hell! Oh no, wait - it is my n95 waking me up using method leart from @jupenu. So, grab b'fast and start packing...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 2. Almost finished packing but need a lot of mobile entertainment to go with, so synching my PSP and mp3 players to latest clips and albums...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
where can i apply to be your personal assistant and get to travel this much like you do?
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 3. Riding in taxi to airport, all packed and ready to go. As a bonus I managed to get the 8gb N95 along so things will be interesting ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 4. Waiting to board the AY833, getting my new toy in sync at the same time. Nice taxi driver, chatted and he offered some candy! If I would be 16 or so that might sound a bit dodgy.. Soon to the plane and then the best moment : takeoff!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 5. Onboard the ay833, taking pictures and goofying around.. And we are not even drunk!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 6. In London! Pretty wasted in a Heathrow Express. Having great time!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 7. In Hotel Metropole,, London. So far we have been able to get attention from a nice stewardess, receptionst and cute aussie girl.. Let's see where the night will take us.. Next stop:hotel executive lounge!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 8. At hotel breakfast, weather in London is 'typical'. Soon to catch train to Staines!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 9. In train. I must say that the public transportation in London works quite nice, no need to think about having a car - which, in turn gives opportunity to drink beer more often.. Hmm maybe not so good thing after all..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 10. At customer. Terrible weather! I am soaked.. But bad weather means there is good time to hack customers video adaptation to work..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 11. At lunch in Nando's. Almost bought a laptop today but then I realized I am going Dallas and there is computer hardware even cheaper..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
What laptop did you "almost buy"? And yeah wait till u get to dallas, everything seems so much cheaper there now (wonder why...). Although you'll end up with a u.s. plug and no äåö keys...
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
I can't see why a Finn would like to buy a laptop without the åäö keys! A pda, mobile phone or umpc maybe, provided there's a proper input method to compensate (like on the Sony-Ericsson smartphones). Otoh., a laptop is meant for touch typing, really.
1 year, 11 months ago by jkniiv
Step 12. In fully packed train towards London Waterloo. Good things about these trains are those nice secretaries who travel at the same time... and some are pretty close :)
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Huh, so why do i always end up next to some creepy old guy instead of the hot secretaries?
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 13. Off to gym! My project for next summer will never happen I just drink beer. Oh, and there was japanese sushi available in Hilton Metropole's lobby for free.. yum!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 14. My final night out in London, we shall go wandering around Edgware rd just so see what is going on... Current status:too much Smirnoff Ice......
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@jkniiv hmm I do not follow that thought. You can get finnish keyboard layout and just start typing.. or do you really need to look at the keyboard while writing? I have similar setup in my E61i;finnish language variant + us keyboard hw
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@krazykritter, yeah for sure! Need to synch ourselves when I am there. For sure a meetku is in place!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@cybette maybe it is just my natural charm.. or just plain luck? ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
ah smirnoff ice.. those things go down too easily and smoothly that you don't realize you've had like a bunch of them until you try to stand up afterwards :P
re: charm or luck, probably a bit of both? ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
@cybette if you say so ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 15. Went down on Edgware rd and ended up in this arabic place.. and found ourselves smoking a Shisha.. No pbs there ;) now to sleep and tomorrow back to Finland.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@jakes2: yeah but the finnish-swedish pc keyboard has one extra key than the US keyboard (something like 106 vs 105 keys). I think it's the apostroph that gets squeezed between ö, ä and enter. How do you resolve that? I'd rather use a danish or german kbd.
1 year, 11 months ago by jkniiv
@jakes2: And like I said pda-style mobile devices are not a problem cos they're not designed for speedy text entry. Even the E61 has a non-standard layout wrt a PC or even a typewriter.
1 year, 11 months ago by jkniiv
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 16. Hmm, it seems I might be catching a flu. Now this is a red flag but I think with good amount of Beechams or Vicks I will be all right. No way I am going to abort my tour.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 17. Final time to be in this train. Maybe this time I will not go to the airport lounge but hang around in the lobby area. Might buy something nice??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
re : step 15. It seems the flu symptoms and the shisha are somehow connected.. My friend said 'strongest stuff you've got' when we were ordering.. Oh well, feeling already better!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
re : step 15. It seems the flu symptoms and the shisha are somehow connected.. My friend said 'strongest stuff you've got' when we were ordering.. Oh well, feeling already better!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
re : step 15. It seems the flu symptoms and the shisha are somehow connected.. My friend said 'strongest stuff you've got' when we were ordering.. Oh well, feeling already better!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 18. Highly dozed on Beechams, Vicks and Lemsip at LHR, terminal one. We arrived here about 2h too early... just hope the plane ain't late!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 19. Waiting to board AY834, feeling a bit ill - still..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 20. In taxi queue at Hki airport. Freezing weather and yes, the plane WAS late. Oh well trying to survive with this flu and wait for my turn in this queue...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@jkniiv yup got that right... Maybe guys at Frys in Dallas have something to work that out... But who really needs thr å character ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 21. Finally at home. Time to catch my breath for 6hrs and then off to Salo!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
oh no another one under the weather? hope you feel better soon!
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 22. Goooood morning Jaiku! And here we go again, taking a ride to train station to catch InterCity towards Salo.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@cybette thanks. i have strong feeling I will feel a lot better tonight...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 23. breakfast at café Baquette, Pasila. It seems my train leaves.. in an hour! But with my charm I managed to talk a power terminal from the café so I can at least get online :)
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Good to see being a little sick hasn't affected your charm!
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 24. Onboard Pendolino S123 to Salo. Amazing how many nice women there are travelling in these trains. This sure beats driving with car alone in that - yuck - souther Finnish winter weather...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@jakeS2: what are you waiting for? put your charm to work ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 25. Hmm.. Need to rethink the train issue. There is a group of women next to me and one of them has talked c o n s t a n t l y! Jeez, topics change but the words just pour out. If it'd be summer I'd be doing this in my S2 for sure.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 26. Need to grab something to eat. This is actually not that bad place to live.. But, now some food and then - sauna!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 27. Another city, another wake up call. So the quote of night life in Salo on thursdays:nada. Now off to get some breakfast.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 28. First set of course done, soon heading back to Helsinki. Next time here on 28. of Jan.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 29. In train towards ?asila. I am in... restaurant car?? Yeah, it seems I am getting more like @cybette here on Jaiku.. Or is just my own personality? Oh well, another beer.. There are some women here checking me out and one hells angel!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
I think it's your own personality, but there's nothing wrong with being like me ;)
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 30. One 'final' at Nelu pub, Pasila. Then to home. Tomorrow to Matkamessut, hope to see some friends over there.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 31. Preparing for my India travel. Thanks to co-operation (or lack of it) I am flying to New Delhi international airport first. Scheduled landing at 00:30. My plane to Bangalore departs at 06:00 so this time I hope Finnair WILL be late!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
same here, i'm landing in Bangkok at 23:15 and flight to Taipei departs 06:45, a whopping 7.5 hours of waiting time. It'll be nice if Finnair was something like 4 hours late :P
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 32. At the airport. No candy from tax driver but nice officer from Finnair got me a place with more leg room. Notice:if you are flying md11, go for row 21. Tons of reading and gadgets to get me through the flight... And here I go again!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 33. Just ate chicken in the plane.. And for some reason I have listened Iron Maiden's Wasted Years for the 20th time, someone care to tell me why? Guess need to read something instead? '..so, understand... The wasted time I'm searching for those...'
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 34. Ok so not maybe my ideal flight companion but there is a nice woman from India and I managed to make her eat salmiakki! But, now time for a nap..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 35. It is always interesting to experience any chaos cause by non-organizing people right. This time at Delhi airport...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
you had the song on continuous loop?
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 36. We are here at Delhi terminal 1, bigger than life bus ride through the airport and waiting for check-ins to open..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 37. Incredible India continues. Here is magic trick:You are on flight scheduled to take off 0615.. Once the check in opens you are told you flight has been cancelled and you are on.. 0945!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 38. Lounge access bend over. Web page says it opens at 5am but the swivel-heads said it opens at 6
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 39. Finally good stuff! In the ITC Welcomelounge, enjoying a good snack. Life cannot get better than this!!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
re:actually it can. Just opened my Northen Kings CD and listening it. All I now need is female company and this will turn out to be a good day..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 40. Waiting in sec. check to get to the gate..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 41. Finally in Bangalore! Only 4h late.. After taking a nap on plane everything feels somewhat unreal... Oh well. Now to the hotel and then sleep. Busy day tomorrow.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@jakeS2: Do you have a workmate called Iska R. - from Tampere, now located in Poland, few months ago in India? Your destinations seems to match somehow...
1 year, 11 months ago by map
Step 42. Hotel mess! So you thought it was all over? No sir. Travel agent had rebooked me due to reasons unknown and I arrived dead tired at hotel reception desk only to hear my reservation is cancelled.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 43. Ok, some catching up. Got to this new hotel, Grand Hotel Ashok which is not a bad place. Yesterday sync'd mails and went to sleep
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 44. Rise and shine! Due to jeglag woke up at 4am but managed to get sleep after couple work emails... Now to b'fast and then to meet my customer!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 45. On the way to customer (still).. It seems the taxi ride after 9 is a murder. The traffic here is interesting, almost no control and huge amount of cars.. Still it works! Amazing.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 46. Interesting, this time we were not at Electric city campus but somwhere else.. Now to hotel and dinner!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 47. So first time in restaurant and in India for almost 36hrs. I try lobster and chicken...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 48. My first lobster eaten [x].. Gosh it was good but ate too much. Now feeling like a stuffed turkey..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 49. Rise and shine. Got maximum 4hrs due to spending time with a good friend but not feeling tired. Traffic here seems to be similar mess whether doing it at 8 or 9.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 50. Met some customer reps in hotel lobby, lets see if those guys are going for drinks tonight. Last night here...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 50. Met some customer reps in hotel lobby, lets see if those guys are going for drinks tonight. Last night here...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 51. Again at work. It takes always like 1h from centre to Outer Ring business parks. Now some coffee and let's get cracking!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 52. At the hotel, final day. Still full of that lobster! Taxi ride to hotel today was record! 2,5h whoa. Tomorrow, Finland flight.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
that must have been one huge lobster!
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
2.5 hour taxi ride? that sounds horrible.
1 year, 11 months ago by constantine
Step 53. Not so fast sir, first another taxi adventure to work!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 54. Productive day today, guess it is not to sleep 2-3hrs a day, but more likely 6. T-2 hours and counting...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 55. Made friends with my taxi driver, took a little sighseeing at BLR. Now waiting to board IC404 and then off to Delhi!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 56. My first WALK to the plane from terminal! I thought there are laws to prevent people running and walking among planes...
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 57. Another adventure, this one is called how to get to intl. Terminal in time!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 58. Finally at check-in to AY0021.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 59. Oh my god this queuing is horrible. Queue to terminal, queue to check in, queue to security check, queue everywhere. If one wants to go to lounge, one must be here 5h before departure.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
FFS
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 60. Finally, finally onboard the AY022. Next time I go thru Delhi will be pissed off drunk. Where is the wine??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@cybette yeah and at 8000 Rs it ate my travel budget pretty well..
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@constantine yeah got that right. Traffic jams are nothing in europe compared to India.. Or wait is it lack of traffic control??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 61. back in Finland, couple hours of sleep and then to my friend's varpajaiset... Tomorrow morning will be somewhat harsh??
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
@krazykritter, it is starting on 30th. Thursday will be first day on-site and I'm staying there until 9.2.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 62. In a taxi. Going to Salo.. Missed train and need to be in Salo at 9 -> taxi ride.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 63. Back in Hki. This time managed to get a train ride so no extra costs
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 64. Now managed to get a ride to Pasila so I will catch my train!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 65. Ride back to Hki, onboard S144. Then home, packing, sauna and in the morning:USA
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 66. Taxi ride to airport. This female driver looks nice but she ain't a real driver. Clock is ticking and I must catch my flight!
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 67. Security check. These are times I am glad to live in Finland. No hassle, made it to airport in time : everything ok.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 68. Onboard AY0871. Next stop, Paris CDG.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 69. Late arrival -> transportation to plane -> odds to lose luggage = major.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
re: and the place is CDG of course.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
why is it connections are always either too short or too long? well, if your luggage doesn't make it, at least there's 24-hour walmarts in dallas. Targets also open till quite late (23?)... good luck!
1 year, 11 months ago by cybette
Step 70. Onboard the AA0049. Desptite the fact of luggage hassle in CDG I am quite impressed. Flight is 20% empty and food was good. I recommend this for all non lactose diet flyers.
1 year, 11 months ago by jakeS2
Step 71. Safely landed at DFW. Now to find out what happened to my luggage!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 72. There is a God! Thank you thank you good people working at CDG. I have all my luggage!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 73. Things are looking great, managed to snatch a Dodge Magnum STW from Nationals members area, yeah!!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 74. Unpacked, chatted with a special person and now heading to bed. Dallas says good night.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Count me in for a weekend drinku
1 year, 10 months ago by rcadden
each of you have a drink for me! keep the dallas meetku tradition alive :)
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette
Step 75. Another day in paradise. Things went to hell at work but nevertheless I have a feeling that tomorrow we will understand things better. Isn't video debugging fun (yeah right). Now some exercise and then to bed..
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 76. This is by far better day at work. Managed to get video running it's slow and unstable but - it runs! Now to optimize the perf. We'll be finishing today earlier so that gives me some time to drive around... Grapevine Mills mall -- here I come!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 77. So, my hotel does not have free WiFi but they do have LAN connection. So, a short visit to Office Depot (almost next door) and voilá - my own WLAN box is up and running. Now I can do the @cybette = play with computer(s) in bed until falling asleep.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
I have a D-Link travel WiFi router I always carry in my laptop bag. It's about two inches square by half and inch tall and can be powered via USB. I do carry a separate US power adapter for it, so I can be mobile with my laptop when in my hotel room. When traveling internationally, I power it via USB so the laptop has to stay near the hotel's LAN jack.
I find wired hotels are much more common than ones with WiFi in the rooms, so the travel WiFi router is really handy. Even when the hotal has both LAN and WiFi, I will use LAN with my WiFi router as then I can get all my devices connected rather than just one.
1 year, 10 months ago by CAW
@caw oh all right, might get that too but this was the cheap-a$$ unit just to test whether the solution works. Might end up at Frys again today. Btw there is a one ultraportable Fujitsu laptop on sale at Plano's Frys, only piece, orig:$1600, now at $800.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 78. Googled "aviation museum Dallas" and got this : www.flightmuseum.com. Thought it could not be bad until saw the size of building.. eek! Only some crap there , target audience = <10 yrs. Then scount around Irving, Dallas, McKinney to find an ULTRAportable laptop with $800 but had no luck! In the middle went for lunch in http://www.pandasbuffet.com (recommend!!).. I guess I am going for the one in PcWorld but that is in UK.. Well, @jupenu to the rescue! Now to gym & prepare for meetku.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
To @krazykritter yeah but do they have what I was looking for? Lockheed SR71..
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 79. Meetku over, thanks M and V, had a great time.. Now so so full, falling asleep..
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Had a great time hope to get together again next time your out here...
1 year, 10 months ago by shika
Yeah, if things go right we can have a weekly or monthly meetku in Dallas soon ;)
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 80. Contact lenses removed [ x ], teeth brushed [ x ], couple more emails and then off to la-la land. The reason CL's are mentioned is that I got something else than Dailies this time and one lense ripped apart at morning so I was a bit scared what might happen when I try to take them off. But things went ok.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 81. All ready to go to a party and watch SB.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 82. Watching superbowl with some friends and drinking beer!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 83. Morning glory! No hangover after last nite and now off to work! Nice ads in SB yesterday!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
were you rooting for a particular team? (always make it more exciting)
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette
Step 84. All righto, managed today to drive to hotel from work without a)getting lost and b)without my navi. Good good, getting to know my maybe future town..
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Thanks @kk you might be needed one day :)
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 85. Goody goody day at work. We have video running at full speed and man am I impressed now. Drove to work without navi and for some reason (you can ask my sister about this "feature" in me) I turned to 75 SOUTH when I was supposed to go 75 NORTH. Oh well. Interesting ; I can get from office to hotel in 5-10 minutes without navi. For some reason navi wants me to drive tollways and stuff (conspiracy?)
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
@jake you do that to? Never fails i always turn the opposite way i need to go... Even if i stop and double check myself always wrong way :-(
1 year, 10 months ago by shika
@kk - true! But going to settings-> is not good ui, they should be de-activated by default.. and @shika isn't it fun! And once on wrong lane there is no turning back.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 86. What a effective housekeeping they have at Hilton Park Cities. The cleaning lady had thrown away set of my contact lenses and the box of my WiFi router (with some additional hw still in it), great. Let's see how Hilton makes this up. Now of course there is nice sunshine and I cannot see anything w/o sunglasses :-(
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 87. Bought my 1st ultraportable laptop! Too bad my baby is in UK but I'll get it next week in Tampere. Whee! Now I have motivation to do some integration of video RECORDing with H.264!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
demand for a new router and contact lenses! can i check out your new baby in tampere next week?
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette
@cybette, but of course you can. I have a busy schedule but there always time for a friend. You know my number so call me sometime in the aft, ok?
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 88. Finally the flu caught me. So one moment feeling fever building up and the other trying all sorts of pills and stuff to get over it. Went shopping yesterday and came back with bunch of clothes and four bottles off JD's BBQ sauce.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 89. Little delay to diary as mostly dozed off in hotel room but now it seems the flu is gone. So packing up and heading towards the airport. Next stop : JFK by AY5726(via AA).
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
thank you @krazykritter. That is for sure! Have a safe flight you too. If you have time do visit the Bask area, it's worth it.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 90. At DFW. Strange, I did not even need a navi anymore on last days, just kept driving and ended up in right places. Not bad. Now enjoying a Top Shelf Margarita at Blue Mesa bar , waiting to board. Nice lady at AA's desk managed to check in my luggage all way to Helsinki so no carrying stuff at JFK for me.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
i miss a good top shelf margarita! have a safe trip back to finland too
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette
@krazykritter, I was at terminal D. Man, if I had remembered we're flying on same day.. But guess your flight was not from terminal D ? @cybette, actually I had two so one was for you :)
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 91. At JFK. Great, it seems Company has agreements with certain operators so I can have free WiFi at airports, nice. Crowded flight from Dallas to NY, do not recommend that as it's a MD-9 and it's fully packed -> bad combo. Let's see how packed the AY0006 will be... Soon ; home sweet home (for less than 24hrs, but anyway - home).
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 92. Finally home. AY006 was 40minutes ahead of schedule, hooray Finnair! But the lazy loaders at JFK lost my luggage somewhere and apparently I'll receive them later on. Tomorrow off to Salo and must be awake until 9PM to catch the finnish timeschedule and not fall into jet-lagging.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 93. Airport service brought my stuff at 0245. They called before and said it will be 0030..0100. So that was my night sleep. Grand total for last 48hrs:4. Coffee, please!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 94. Decided to chill for monday & tuesday. Wednesday off to Tampere.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 95. Trip continues. Now in S41 to Tampere. Sausage-on-tracks left like 30minutes late due to technical problems. Lets see when we get to Tre.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 96. Day done at Tampere, found & fixed some bugs and had really good time (subject is under NDA..). Got my new baby too, this is Advent 9112, a small laptop with 12" screen and some cute features. Too bad the display is already "done" so this sample shall be replaced in the warranty procedure. Oh well... it's nice nevertheless.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 97. Got ride back from Tampere from my director, how nice. Went through the immigration process with him and got some tips..
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
great to meet you again, good luck with the move, and enjoy your new baby! (have my two in bed with me right now, makes it hard to get out of bed and go to work...)
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette
Step 98. On my way to India. This is new experience, Hki.. Lhr... Blr with BA. Let's see. So far so good.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 99. All righto! World traveller plus! Now that is what I'm talking about!!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Bon voyage!Try Taj Hotel chain and use hotel car service to make life more relaxing.
1 year, 10 months ago by ommarika
Step 100. In Incredible India. Immigration facade at Bangalore airport is always quite a show...
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 101. Talk about you get what you want! My colleague was pondering what might happen if luggage gets lost here.. You know the officials don't care shit and all... Guess what happened???
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 102. Quest of missing taxi. We had a car but due to our schedule re-work we missed it. And guess how easy it is to get taxi in Blore at 9am??
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 103. Ok so yesterday went thru in a mist. Too much to drink and too little sleep. Today we were in time and fresh after long night. Today some shopping, watch out shopping malls, here we come.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 104. In a Barbeque World. All you can eat for 450rs.. Of course beer is not included :(
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 105. One day more. Work, work, dinner, beer. How non-interesting... Need to shape up.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
is there a gym at the hotel? or find some other form of work out ... ;)
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette
I found out yesterday that my gym belongs to a trade association with a "Passport" program allowing paid members to use participating gyms in other areas (at least 50 miles from your "home" gym) on a short-term basis. Excellent, I can work out while visiting my family back on the east coast next month. :)
1 year, 10 months ago by Bishop
Not sure if they have any in India, though!
1 year, 10 months ago by Bishop
Step 106. Right, same s..t, different way. Our driver is not yet here so we shall be late - again. Today is The final day, tomorrow morning:long flight back to Europe.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 107. Ok, so define screwed?? Last time I was here it was taxi strike - and so it is now. So we have to take off to airport at 2am when our flight is at 7am. Grrreat!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
@cybette , don't think that already crossed my mind ;) miss world has been twice from Karnataka so you can imagine the amount of nice women here...
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
@bishop yes they do but we end up drinking every night before we get to hotel ;) oh soon to US so I can do exercise there...
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 108. It just got better! BA flight to UK was announced to be 1,5h late! But some good news too ; we got thru the security etc. with our Hotel Ashok agent - and my colleague GOT HIS LUGGAGE. Propably it had been at airport all week...
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 109. There IS a god! BA 118 is in time, although they announced it to be late. Get my stuff in and then enter la la land......
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 110. Arrived to Heathrow in time and spent the 4h overlay in lounge. Flight back also in time (not, actually group of us came back to the lounge from gate..). Then off to Helsinki. Almost lost my cell phone but arrived home safe and sound -- but late.
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
Step 111. All righto, time to call it a day. Thank you for all who were "onboard" and maybe there will be another tripkus later on from this address. Surely not as exhaustive as this one. We've been in India, USA, couple cities in Finland and India again, phew!
1 year, 10 months ago by jakeS2
it's layover hon, not overlay. you must still have work stuff on your mind :)
1 year, 10 months ago by cybette