The "in-transit" state of being

Back on the road again, in my case this means going from airport to airport, check-in and check-out over and over again to the next transitional destination of the week. For the past weeks, months -- sorry it is getting to be 2 years now I have been on this most amazing project where I got to be project manager for anything not Europe -- first Asia, then Americas continent and then to finish it off --> India.

Among many things this meant -- travel, lots and lots of it, spending 90% of your time travelling and going from place to place puts your body and mind in state of conscience-ness that for a lack of better term I call my "In transit state of being". A large chunk of your time you are surrounded by strangers - in hotels, in taxis, airports, airplanes, ... often in uncomfortable confined spaces breaching your natural private space. When you think of it, on an airplane as a lone traveller you will be spending hours and hours next to virtual strangers often not being able to avoid physical contact let alone securing your private space, in any other circumstance you would cringe at the thought of it. You develop a mental cocoon around yourself, I have seen many other frequent travellers do the same.

You create a virtual private space, your mind goes into this mental cocoon, your thoughts can go you into all directions completely disconnected from anything to do with your physical environment, although you are still functioning bodily - checking in, lugging your belongings around, going thru the dreary security routine, paying taxi - not forgetting to ask for the receipts, scanning gates/departure times, walking thru endless airport corridors, standing in immigration queues, finding the lounge or decent restaurant/bar ... all the time in transit, physical actions executed efficiently, focused and routinely but all the while keeping your mind occupied with something entirely different. After a while this in transit mental state becomes very relaxing  - time to shed all the stress of meetings, deadlines, objectives to achieve. Putting on state of the art noise cancelling earphones with your favourite music to block out all unnecessary sound distractions.

You're travelling thousands of km's but your mind stays in one static place - you have your best ideas and visions in that place, you can cope with any travel crisis thrown at you, like my Houston flight diversion to alternative airport due to severe weather airport closure, the annoying nervous passenger next to you, the potential irritation with casual travellers that take ages going thru the security check points, the nuisance of people that stand one hour in the immigration queue and then still have not filled in their forms correctly, the over perky flight attendant that just can not get it into their heads that when you have refused another drink two times, that your refusal will still be there when they offer a third time.

You let it all wash over you, you control your own thoughts with hours and hours where you do not care or want to interact with people around you, your in transit state of being becomes your premium "in your head alone time", so that you are ready for the next day on the job.

Bar Solar Rijnkaai - good idea? Think again!

Nice sunny Saturday evening in Antwerp,  perfect weather to go and try the new "It" place at the Schelde: Bar Solar,  hyped in the "where to go this weekend" type of write-ups as the "In place" to go to.  Ah even better, tonight is opening night!   Checking out the website it does sound tempting:  Beach, sundeck, terrace, lounge and deck chairs, Mojito's on the menu, even boasting a jacuzzi, and all of that at a prime location Hangar 29 at the Kaai.  No better place to go and enjoy another fabulous Antwerp sunset ... you would think.

Think again ... location - yeah - pretty good, that is if you like your beach to be next to a car park.  But then you notice, ah not really that many seats available, surely the artist impression on the website showed lots of deck chairs, lounge chairs etc ...  I counted 25 deck chairs, about 3 other seating areas and then a small scrambles of tables at the back.  Cheap furniture made to look good from a distance, closer up dinky with a cheap feel and most likely not going to survive very long.  Enfin, quality aside,  for a place this size you would need 3 times the furniture, especially chairs.  They do have some high tables - but standing space only.  Appeal of the jacuzzi on a scale of 1 to 10, about a minus 5.  So if you believe the website and were hoping to get a nice confy loungy seat ... Think again.

Next, getting a drink.  After you spend 15 minutes trying to drag some left over seat to a corner, you are thirsty and want to try one of the Mojitos.  Ah,  were are the waiters?  The guys in the green T-shirts, about 4 of them, all trying very hard to carry one or two drinks to far corners at an annoying slow pace.  Try to get their attention!  Forget it - another 20 minutes later - right lets try self service...walking up the bar trying to get my order in.  Behind the bar a flurry of girls,  white tight shirts buttons not quite keeping the goods in - standing around not doing much,  finally get one to take my order after she stated that normally only the waiters could take the orders,  ah well, I can be very assertive, so I do get my order in with Ms snotty D cup. And then the wait starts ...  seems of that only one of busty girls is making cocktails and by the look of it she has never done it before in her life.  Trailing her fingers over the cocktail recipe to see what is supposed to go in, making cocktails is not the only stretch on her skills, reading slowly with her finger on a page like a six year old indicates that reading is not her greatest asset either.  Clearly the only qualification that was required for the women behind the bar was slim waist and a cup D or higher.  Wonder how the recruitment process went....right luv try the white translucent little blouse on, if the buttons nearly burst then you are hired ...

About 30 minutes later I manage to get my drinks and bugger off to my corner of the "Beach".  So it took us one hour to get a single drink ...  right - this place will be ogles of money ...

It is sad, the ideas were obviously there, website ok, PR machine in place,  great view etc ...  so what went wrong ?   This place needs a manager and somebody with a brain to run it,  hire some qualified staff or if you can not find any -- maybe try to train some -  July/August just get some students in, train them for a week (in fact training them for an hour probably gives better results than the CUP D brigade that was on stand that evening).  Anyway we gulped down our drink and headed back walking towards the Noorder terrace, plenty of people had a better idea than me how to enjoy the view, just take a blanket or pillow seat yourself along the 2 KM stretch of the "Blauwe Steen".  Take your own plonk and enjoy in peace, same view as bar solar minus the irritating experience.

Maybe it was opening day hick-up,  I do not know, I will not go back to find out.  Good idea, great location, decent music ... not enough

Two icons - Not enough Color print for both

Yesterday two icons of my childhood and teenage years died - Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.  I was not particularly a fan of either of them but still they were ever present in daily live in the 70's and 80's, whether you like it or not they became part of what you remember of those decades.

All of a sudden the news bulletins and newspapers shifted their focus from the current world events - mostly Iran versus Iran election riots - to pictures from 30 years ago that you recognise.  Little pockets of memories bubble up by association and keep your mind occupied for a while.  Long forgotten events and feelings surface just by this media explosion of iconic pictures that you had parked in your mind decades ago. 

Undoubtedly many men remember drooling over Farrah's cleavage, whilst women were trying to get their hairdos in the same impossible big wavy tossled style - probably the cause of mental breakdowns and utter despair for many a hairdresser that just could not get their customers coifed in the same hair style.  But as fast as these memory triggers come they quickly disappear again in my case.

I am not particularly sad nor happy that these icons are gone, sorry I am just not an empathic person - more of a very opinionated one, but I do wish that there would have been more color print available for Farrah Fawcett.  Newspapers yesterday morning could not believe their luck and probably had all their next day headlines and front pages plastered with beautiful smiley cleavy pictures of a Charlie's angel to then having to change the whole lot again late afternoon with Wacko Jacko stuff. 

Most newspapers and news bulletins only seem to have so much color print available for one big story at a time,  so Farrah has disappeared to the inner pages and down the navigation list mostly into black and white ... now that is a thought that lingers, she deserves more color print and and a few more days of headlines to be remembered by.

Welcome to US of A

June 2009, business trip to US (albeit via Brazil and Guatemala),  have not been there for a number of years.  You know that you are flying to the US when they start handing out seat-belt extensions for the morbidly obese.  Entering the US and going thru immigration formalities is an unpleasant affair - invariably the whole thing leaves you feeling very unwelcome and threatened, you feel like turning around and getting the hell back out of there.  There must be money to be made if just past immigration you sell a service "Get me out of this country in the next 10 min - bargain at 500$".   

The next hurdle is getting your luggage - then going thru customs, another bout of "who are you, what are you doing, what have you on you, why the f&%#k are you here ... get out of here" experience followed by lugging your stuff around for 100 meter to then get to a luggage belt with a set of sloppy, unpleasant, impossible to understand luggage handlers that take your luggage treat you and your baggage as leprous and throw it back on a belt where you have the distant feeling you are not going to get it back in one piece.  And then off you go scrambling to find your next flight - if you are lucky to another country.

Forget ever entering the country and getting to your next flight with less than 2 hours to spare, do not give credence to the travel agent than claims "yes your connection is guaranteed",   go for 3 hours lay-over if you want to be able to get your wits together, get back composed and shed the smutchy feeling you gathered going thru the immigration-customs "Welcome to the US of A"  experience.  There are 195 countries on this planet - how many of those would I rather get to?  Many ...

10 Things that annoy me in business hotels

The past 18 months alone I have spent 200 nights in hotels, and that is not counting hotel stays for holidays (that would be another 20 or so), ... sad ... perhaps, but it does mean I do have an informed opinion on the topic of hotels, I also have several hotel gold cards as badges of honor or shame depending how you look at it.

Most hotels I stay boast 4 or 5 stars and have an army of people and logistics keeping them operating, so why is it then that most of those hotels get a few very essential things wrong?

• Let start with the plugs ... where the hell are they ? Anyone traveling for business these days has a need for plugs: cell phone, blackberry, PDA, laptop number 1&2, portable DVD player, ... ok that might seem like a bit much, still most people have at least 2 devices to charge these days.
  In a lot of hotels you have to get on your knees to look for the damn things, if you are lucky there is one near the desk, but often you have to go an unplug some (un?)necessary light fixtures to get your plugs in. Some hotels get it right though: Park Plaza in Bangkok has their plugs on the desk, and not just one, but 4 of them ... Hotel conglomerates take note: BUSINESS PEOPLE NEED ACCESSIBLE PLUGS !!!
• Next thing - Bath versus shower - how many people do you know that take a bath in hotel, the vast majority of us take and want shower, so why is it that there are so few hotels that have good sized walk-in showers...why spend the space on a bath that few people use, most of these hotel baths are only suitable for child sizes anyway, unless you like having your knees in your ears whilst taking a bath. It must be cheaper, easier to clean and a much better idea just to get rid of these bath tubs and just give us good sized walk-in shower, and if I can be truly demanding can you make that a rain shower? Again, Park Plaza in Bangkok got that one right, also the Royal Park on Beach road in Singapore got that one right.
• Non Smoking rooms -- is exactly what it that means non smoking, not a room with the ash tray removed. This is a pest especially in China, Mexico and Brazil. You asked for non-smoking room and then you enter the room and it stinks! Note to all hotel staff worldwide: A non-smoker can smell a smoky room from a mile away, do not insult our intelligence, if you can not provide a non-smoking room give us an upgrade or just plainly tell us, do not lie about it.
• Single does not mean we want to pay the same price for a broom closet sized box room, especially the 5-star up the range hotels booked by travel agencies put you up with that. Because you are a single traveller they assume they can half the room size and still charge a fortune for it. One of the many reasons why I prefer to book my own rooms and not rely on travel agencies do it for me. I tend to avoid the flashy big name 5 star hotels and go for the better value 4-star one and get myself a bigger room.
• Two chairs please the last year a few times Roger joined me on my many business trips, you might want to check out some of his great pictures of those trips. One thing that did bother us what that in most hotels you have exactly one chair in the room, if there are two of you, the bed is your only other option. Whenever I can afford I will opt for a junior suite to get some seating space. But still, hotel decorators, surely the price of an extra chair should not break the bank, even if it is just a little stool. Let me send you the IKEA catalogue...
• Speaking of which, that catalogue is the most published item worldwide, so can we not have one of those in the drawer by the bedside instead of Bibles/Korans etc ... If business folks are so religious they need to read up on the bible or Koran when away from home I am sure they got their own well thumbed copy, so why not give us some more interesting to read, No Bibles next to the bed please
• When designing a hotel quite often they seem to take into account street noise, with some proper sound insulation, unfortunately the same consideration does not always seem to have been done with the walls between the rooms. When in an hotel room we are not interesting in hearing the neighbours going at it, or hearing somebody snoring or, worse still, a baby crying. Can we have also a strict separation of floors between folks with, and without kids. Kids invariably tend to scream, cry or be out of control in hotels.
• Hotels seem to spend a lot of money on decoration, accommodation and training the staff, the latter however does not seem to include training on doing things quietly in the hotel corridors. In quite a few instances you find staff treating the corridors and the room they are servicing as play rooms, loud conversations, frolicking on the beds, having an impromptu party in and empty room I have seen it all. When we pay for a hotel room we expect some privacy and peace, when we want noise and boisterous atmosphere we will head for the bar area, please get some basics drilled into the staff.
• DO not disturb signs, most hotels have them either as a tag you put on the door or using button you can switch on. Mostly these things are respected, except when you leave them on all day. When I am staying in a hotel during the weekend, I sometimes just wants to vegetate and be left alone, the number of times I got disturb to ask if I really did not want my room serviced ... NO is the answer, please respect the DO not disturb sign and implement it on the room phones.
• Light switches is it possible to have some sort of standard system?  Every hotel seems to invent some other way of combining the lights, never giving you the combination you want.  Especially the light next to the bed, the one you need to get to when you wake up in the middle of the night, for the first seconds you are not quite sure in which country, city, bed you were sleeping in, and desperately need some light in an unfamiliar room -->  hint give us a big easy button next to the bed for a pleasant not too bright bedside light,  much appreciated if that would be possible.  And god forbid that the room has one of those impossible-to-figure-out light/sound/arico/tv consoles next to the bed, usually impossible to figure out without being on your knees and having to search for your glasses to read what each button was for ... not helping.