Occasional Observations

Earlier this week I ranted about Martha Stewart's presentation at the otherwise-fabulous DLD08 conference. Now you can decide if she was relevant to a conference of tech-savvy folks, or if she'd stopped off in Amsterdam for a smoke on the way to Munich, as there's a clip on YouTube.

I "poked" Martha (on Facebook , nothing else) and added her as a contact - she hasn't poked back or accepted yet, BUT I'm sure she is busy and will add me soon, since she mentioned that she'd also be writing about DLD on her blog and she hasn't done that yet either. We know she's very important.

For Facebookers, it's quite fun to search on "Martha Stewart" for the Fake Michael Jackson profile alone. Make sure you get the right Martha, mind.

Labels: odd

This lunchtime, I spied a young lady sitting in a corner of the local post office with a pile of letters and a meter-long run of stamps. That itself is quite unusual. What floored me was that the envelopes all bore the logo of a PR agency. Yes, PRs are still sending out press releases per post. This actually comes as a surprise to me...

Labels: odd

This week a little advertising supplement called Guide To Ukraine was inserted into European editions of the Wall Street Journal.

On page two was a handy little map of the Ukraine, and a little insert showing its position in Europe.

Do they know something we don?t?

Labels: odd

There is an airport, not too far from London, which specializes in budget flights to tourist destinations. It sucks for business travel, especially when you?re trying to get through the metal detectors etc, since there always seem to be the people who have never flown before (or even been to a big city?) who don?t realize that getting through the machines means removing your coat, your hat, your belt, the metal items in your pockets, etc.

But I digress. Arriving at said airport, where the lines are long for check-in, is enough to merit the mental ?Abandon hope, all ye who enter here? signs that I always seem to imagine at the entrance to the check-in hall. And let me share a little secret: with a rather well-known and brightly-colored airline, it?s absolutely possible, without fear of recrimination or even funny looks from other passengers (unless they?re within earshot), to pick the shortest line and check-in there. Regardless of your destination and what it says on the board above that check-in desk. So Malaga = Munich = Belfast = anywhere you?re going, as long as you actually have a ticket with that airline, that is.

Aha! You exclaim. Queuing is done only by those who are off the grid. Indeed, I agree ? however when one is travelling with more than a laptop and mobile charger and one night?s essentials, especially on the way back from a trade fair, when one?s bag is likely to be stuffed with Bling / CPS / Chotskys, then a bag is sometimes essential? and no, this airline doesn?t yet do bag-drop only desks.

So today, despite the monster teenagers-sitting-in-circles-on-the-floor-around-their-bags queues, I was in luck ? there was one check-in line that was shorter than the others. And lo and behold, it was even the ?one? for Munich, my destination. Somehow, that didn?t seem right. What really confused me , through, was the lady in front of me. She was going to Dublin, a destination that my airline de jour doesn?t actually serve ? on a different airline.

That, I didn?t get

Labels: odd, travel

They're only a couple of days late, which in the grand scheme of things isn't too bad when you've flown all the way to Munich, Germany, from Australia. No joke, yesterday lunchtime I bumped into a bunch of Oz guys all wearing "Australian beer drinking national team" t-shirts - walking away from the Theresienwiese looking rather dejected. Possibly because the Oktoberfest finished on Sunday? Either they were late or hoping to drink one last lunchtime Maß before the long journey home.

Labels: beer, odd

It's a phenomenon I've observed: Americans who meet abroad are almost guaranteed, within the first two minutes of conversation, to ask: "Where ya from?"

But they never ask a Brit - perhaps the accent is too much of a giveaway. Mind you, Brits abroad never ask each other - it's of course almost always possible to tell a fellow countryman, even if years of living abroad has mangled their accent and way of speaking, there will still be clues. In fact it's usually possible to pinpoint where they're "from" to within a couple of hundred miles - which, in US terms, would be a bullseye.

Perhaps the "where ya from?" question is the reason why the check-in staff at hotels in Las Vegas wear badges with their name, and home town. I once asked, anyway - and was rewarded with a funny look...

Labels: odd

Spotted a total of nine police in three vehicles at a well-used speed trap on a main drag into Munich this morning. Plus the two plainclothes sitting in the speed trap car itself - isn't that rather excessive???

Labels: odd

The Trabi Convertible auction has ended - with hajo030176 being the highest of the 38 bidders and picking up the car for a snip at EUR 2138. That's waay more than I was prepared to stump for a 17-year-old Trabant. It was, I must say, one of the best examples of a Trabi Ostermann convertible: one of the very last Trabis which appeared to be in immaculate condition. Maybe a little bit too good for the Alpentour 2008.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, odd, oldtimer, petrolhead

Two days to go on the Trabi auction and it's parked at EUR800. Much as I'm tempted to lay down a four-figure bid to secure the car (it's my 40th birthday today, so nyah), the domestic debate over what is going in our garage goes on. So no more bids, yet, from me...

Labels: Alpentour, auto, odd, oldtimer, petrolhead

The other night I just had to grin and say "thank you" because telling the truth would have been too hard to explain. I was leaving a golf club after a private tournament (I'd taken the beginner's course) that was followed by dinner, and I was carrying a trophy for a mini-golf tournament. Upon leaving I was widely congratulated...

Kind of strange to receive the congrats for a trophy I hadn't won in a sport I don't play at an event that didn't have anything to do with the actual silver cup. Under these circumstances I decided that a smile and a fast exit were in order.

Labels: odd

Why do people feel inclined to stick Ferrari badges on their boring mass-production cars? They seem to appear most on high-specced Ford Galaxy models, and Audi A4 Avants, normally in black. Is this a secret sign, akin to the delicious rumor that pampas grass in the front garden = we are swingers. Ferrari badge = people who have visited every one of a chain supermarket's stores?

Labels: auto, odd, petrolhead, rant

Labels: odd

One of the more amusing pieces of spam from today's haul advised me that with Easter coming, I could hire a bunny wabbit, as depicted here, complete with person inside and "cooling down breaks". Eight hours inside a bunny costume for ?200 gross. Now that makes the sound of flipping burgers sound attractive.

Labels: odd