Wow! Virtual Earth is impressive. I just went to the website, clicked on the ‘Locate Me’ button, told it to find me using my computer’s IP address, and it did just that in less than three seconds. What is Virtual Earth? From the FAQ: Virtual Earth is a new map and search system soon to […]
Category: Travel
Support a charity trek in Peru
In September, three women will be trekking the Inca Trail in Peru to raise money for a worthy charity campaign. One of the three is Pam Hobson, my sister, who says: Between 14th & 27th September I will be undertaking the most arduous challenge of my life! […] With my friends Karen Slatford and Fiona […]
First podcast from space
As we wait for the space shuttle to return safely to earth – delayed until Tuesday, according to a BBC News report – we can listen to the first podcast from space, recorded on Sunday: Hello, this is Mission Specialist Number 2 Steve Robinson from the Space Shuttle Discovery. We’re high in orbit on our […]
Grin and bear it
As soon as I arrived at Heathrow airport this afternoon and saw the lines of TV trucks, I knew things did not look good. Over the past 24 hours, the news has been full of reports of the cancellation of all British Airways flights out of Heathrow. My flight back to Amsterdam isn’t until 8pm […]
Homeward bound
So I’m sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow Terminal 4 waiting for my BA flight back to Amsterdam. After being stuck here for the past 24 hours (in the UK, not at the airport itself), it will be good to get home. Looking good that the flight will actually get way, in about 20 […]
What price British Airways’ reputation?
In last Monday’s edition of The Hobson & Holtz Report, Shel and I spent a good 15 minutes in the show discussing the communication and employee relations challenges facing British Airways and Gate Gourmet following last week’s flight cancellations fiasco. The broader consequences of that fiasco will be pretty far reaching, starting with financial aspects […]
Virgin Atlantic podcast guide to Havana
The Virgin Atlantic airline has launched their second travel podcast – a guide to Havana, Cuba. Running at about eight and a half minutes, the story is narrated by Clive Anderson, familiar to British TV viewers as the host of the Whose Line Is It Anyway? stand-up comedy show. ‘Narrated’ is the right word as […]
Changes and constants in Budapest
I returned last night from a business trip to Budapest, Hungary, my first visit there since 2003. Reading the Budapest Sun and the Budapest Business Journal during my stay, I was struck as always by the vibrancy and energy of the business climate in this country. While Hungary may not currently have the strongest economy […]
Murphy’s Law and smartphones
One of the downside elements of being away for a couple of days and not online at all is the time you then have to spend going through email and RSS feeds. It always seems to me that the high volume of stuff is directly proportional to the length of time you’re not online. Definitely […]
Winter weather arrives
Sitting in my hotel room in Strasbourg, France, late evening, catching up with email (always a constant task!), I look out of the window to a world of white. Yes, it’s snowing here. I arrived in Strasbourg late this afternoon after a pretty pleasant drive down from Amsterdam. About 700 kilometers and four countries in […]
Snowed under – a literal tale
“Winter weather arrives,” said the headline of my late-evening post on Thursday. The light covering of snow in Strasbourg didn’t really match the optimistic headline, but my journey back to Amsterdam last night certainly did. After a relatively uneventful journey up the A61/E42 autobahn in Germany, the first heavy snow started falling about 20 kilometers […]
How to deal with too many choices
Whenever I travel to the US, I get apprehensive. Not about the travel or why I’m visiting the States. No, it’s all to do with breakfast choices. Here’s the scenario. It’s breakfast time in my hotel. I sit and the ever-so-friendly waitress asks me for my order. Apprehension starts if I request eggs. Before I […]
If I were an architect
If I were an architect, I wonder what my critical eye might make of the design of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, through which I travelled yesterday. It’s one of the ugliest airports I’ve ever been to, a sprawling mass of bare concrete that evokes an absolute air of coldness. As you ride the […]
Ridiculous wifi charges
Sitting in departure lounge 3 at Schiphol airport, waiting for my flight to Manchester. As is natural at times and places like this when you have a spare sixty minutes or so, I connect to the net to pick up email and to see what’s going on. I tell you, Schiphol’s wifi pricing is about […]