Business travel

I am currently sitting on an American Airlines flight from Dallas to New Orleans, where I will spend six days. I left my house in Surrey at 0740 this morning for T3.

I have never been a fan of British Airways, preferring Virgin Atlantic for transatlantic flights, but today’s travel with American changed my opinion. my colleague RP and I had opted for the cheap ticket option – American – and about 20 mins into the flight regretted the decision.

Maybe it is just us, spoiled by years of flying BA or Virgin, but with a ticket costing over £700 I don’t expect to have to pay for my G & T. Or wine with ‘dinner’. But American flights are different.

I won’t do this in a hurry again. Why would you?

Film Review: The Reader

I have ‘read’ the book. I have seen the film.

Do either, do both, but, get involved.

I saw the movie on my flight back from Seattle. It’s possibly not as great as the book, but still a very good film. Kate Winslet is compelling as Hannah. The book had more of an impact on me, but the film left me realing.

4/5 – well worth it.

Asthma worsens

I’ve had asthma for years. I spent many years believing I was just fat and unfit, and that was the reason I couldn’t keep up. Every year after we graduated from uni, at least twice a year, a group of my friends and I would go  away to the lakes – to talk, to walk, to party, to catch up. I was always the butt of the jokes because I huffed and puffed my way to the top of the hills we walked. I couldn’t keep up. I laughed at myself, but secretly, got more and more annoyed that I was so unfit. At home in London, I worked out 3-5 times a week and still I couldn’t improve my ‘fitness’.

In 1995 at a wedding with a friend, his father, a GP, explained my ‘unfit’ condition was actually asthma. Peak flow, something I’d never heard of, was 275 which was apparently quite bad.

For many years I battled with inhalers, telling myself I could control it. In recent years, I haven’t been able to. And more recently, it’s gotten really bad – again. Last week, I got a new inhaler – that’s three in total. This new one gives me palpitations for about 4-5 hours after I take it. I start shaking on the inside and then it reaches my extremities and continues. It’s pretty freaky. The good news is that my peak flow is 400 – for the first time in 13 years. Does that mean I’ve been on the wrong inhalers for all this time?

I can’t believe

It’s been almost a month since my last blog…hmmm, why does that feel like it should be a confession?

It’s been an interesting month, to say the least.

My sister got a new job and now lives in Bermuda. Yes. Bermuda. She’s working and partying hard. It’s great news. I really miss her…really.

My job is going well. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not without issues.

I was at a lunch with the CEO recently who commented on “there are no politics in my company. anyone playing the politics game, I will find out and they will be out”. Less than two weeks later and I’m stuck in the biggest political game I’ve ever known. I’m dealing with several seriously negative people, who squeal to the people above them that will listen and then bleat they are not being heard at all. Oh, and did I mention negative? It’s all been very enlightening.

I’m not a political player, I’m just me. I want to do my job and I want to do it well. I don’t want to massage anyone’s ego. I don’t have time to carry anyone. I don’t have energy to waste on people who think they deserve my time, my trust, or my loyalty. You have to earn all of those things.

On losing weight

A few years ago I lost 65lb doing weight watchers. I was do proud of myself for the achievement and became a helper to help me stay at that weight. Now, I am no longer a helper and I am gaining weight. I am pee’d off with myself – big time.

Before February I was doing well. But, the new job started, and with it a 2 hrs a day commute. It is not my diet that’s the issue, it is the lack of exercise. The ’sitting on my butt for 8hrs plus’ every day.

So, I did it before – despite many other obstacles and now I need to do it again.

I rarely leave the office before 6pm and I leave home before 7.30am – so how do I to it?

Will power? Get up earlier? Leave the office on time?

I work from home on a wednesday so I need to log off at 5pm and get out.

Ugh. I need help with this.

Seattle Trip

I recently returned from a trip to Redmond (Seattle) home of Microsoft. the business part of the trip was ok, as they go. A little frustrating in places, a bit of a giggle in others and tiring all the way through. That coupled with a complete nightmare scenario with my bank freezing my accounts (’there has been a fraudulent attempt to withdraw cash in Seattle’…) and I was ready for a weekend with some dear friends in Seattle.

Ballard was wonderful. Sunshine, smiling faces, wonderful news, and the new family member L. meant the weekend got off to a great start. I don’t get to see friends often enough – and certainly not the faraway friends. Work gets in the way. And for a while many other things have gotten in the way. But, two days with the W. family in Seattle showed that across the miles friendships survive.

I got to spend time with little L. – who is just adorable. And to listen to stories, chat, and just mull over life while enjoying the sun, great food, wine and being in relaxed company. I didn’t want to do the tourist thing, I just wanted to be there and be part of their lives – rather than doing ’something special for my visit’. And it was wonderful (even if we were all a bit taken aback when Besalu was closed).

I have two regrets about the trip though. One, it wasn’t a long enough visit with my friends. Two, that I wasn’t able to share it with my BF. Oh, ok, three regrets – that it’s been so long since my last visit.

So, returning to the UK, jet lag in tact – I have to find a way to catch up, visit, see, meet friends more than I currently do. It’s a big thing. A big ask. But, I have to find a way.

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing about D., L. and G. and their adventures with a ‘new house’ and other stories Skype video calls may have to suffice to make sure that little L. doesn’t forget what I look like until I can get back to Seattle again.

Reading Materials

I currently commute in excess of 10 hours a week. This means that I have very little ‘me’ time or more specifically, reading time. I’ve been a big reader for years. I’ll read anything as long as it’s nothing to do with politics. Classics, chick-lit, trashy airplane fodder – not relevant. But, now I’m commuting I miss my books. So, iTunes and audiobooks to the rescue. I’ve recently downloaded many and am enjoying ‘listening’ to my books instead.

A couple of weeks ago we watched a couple of ‘Nazi era’ movies. The first ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ was outstanding. The story of a small boy, his innocence and naivety in the face of hatred and the Nazis. What a film. What a story line. What an ending. It left me completely speechless. Silent. Moved. Disturbed. Emotional. 5/5

The other ‘Defiance’ – about the courage and determination of the Bielskis. Again, the subject matter is thought-provoking, disturbing, highly emotive and engaging in a way that you really have to experience for yourself. 5/5

I studied German literature at uni – and part of my degree course featured pre-war and post-war literature. So, seeing a couple of movies about that era got me thinking. I downloaded ‘The Reader’ (original German title der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink. What a fantastic book. I really want to see the film. It was more disturbing than the other two films because of the way it makes you feel about Frau Schmitz. You loathe, like, hate, and in the end pity her. It made me think about the war – the second world war and what people went through. It made me think about my granddad. It made me think about my step kids. And it made me think about kids today and their lack of understanding for what happened.

I grew up listening to stories from my granddad. He was a Corporal in the Irish Guards during the war. He took part in the Anzio landings and was captured by the Italians (after a massacre on the beaches at Anzio). The Italians handed over the survivors – to the Germans. My granddad spent the last years and months of the war in Stalag 4b. While the conditions there were not even remotely comparable to the conditions experienced by the Jewish people, they were bad enough. 

I remember hearing about his liberation or rather the liberation of Stalag 4b by the Cossacks. He spoke fondly of the soldiers that came to rescue them. He spoke of their unrelenting brutality towards the camp guards. He told stories about incidents that as a child I couldn’t imagine. But, as I grew older and became aware of the ‘truth’ and all that it meant. 

With the information age comes a huge opportunity for me to research and find out more about the Anzio landings – and even to trace some of the people who were in Stalag 4b with my grand father. Unfortunately, granddad died more than 20 years ago so I can’t share any of this with him. Nor to I have children to pass on my knowledge to. But, I have a burning need to tell the stories. To pass them on. I also want to make sure that other people don’t forget what happened. Whether it’s what happened in Stalag 4b, or whether it’s Dachau.

New ISP & Options

I have to apologise for the shoddy language of my last entry. It was written on my iPod Touch – while ‘borrowing’ someone’s internet access…as mine is down.

I have looked into whether I can change ISP. Yay, I’m out of contract period with Orange. I called this morning to check the situation and I found calling the customer retention team works a lot better than trying to get through the script and the language barrier with the Indian call centre. I even told the guy on the phone this morning that the reason I’m thinking of leaving was because I can’t afford to spend an hour to two hours of my time on the phone working through a script whenever there’s a problem. And, that I was left with no Internet (correction, I still have no Internet access) for several days.

He was most helpful. He checked the line and from my account saw the ‘fault’ had been fixed. I told him it hadn’t been fixed. He registered another service call. And, he’s sending me out a freebie router to replace the LiveBox. 

But there are options. Sky, Talk Talk and PlusNet have all been recommended as possible alternatives. BT was a ‘no-no’ according to my impromptu poll…

We shall see what happens. For sure there’s no Twitter & no Facebook at the moment. What’s worse, my music won’t play throughout the house…only where I have a dock for the iPod.

Orange Broadband, No Thanks

My broadband service has gone down. The computer is connected to the router and the router shows ADSL connection, but no Internet. My ISP is Orange. I have been happy (ish) with the service, if you don’t count the issues with the LiveBox – until now.

I called customer services and reached Angela – a very nice, polite, but heavily accented lady in India. 40 minutes later we have battled through the script and got to the point where Angela decided it was not an Orange issue, but a problem with my Linksys router. “before we can test the line, we need you to call Cisco about a possible fault with your router”. Hmmm. My boyfriend is a geek. We know it is not a router issue. But I hung up, waited 10 mins, had a cup of tea and called back.

Round two:
Hassan (apologies, didn’t actually understand the name of) the new cust servs guy. 40 mins later, again we have been through the script (despite my insistance that Angela told me to phone requesting a line test) and he tells me to call Cisco…when I said been there, done that he said (frantically flicking pages) “then we need you to call Microsoft, it is a broswer problem”.

Despite my anger I giggled at his lack of knowledge. I explained I knew it was nothing to do with the browser on my pc, iPod Touch, laptop or Wii. Finally, after over an hour, he tested the line. And, you’ll never guess, there’s a fault on the line. all that time to tell me something I already know.

Apparently an engineer will call me on Saturday. What use is that to me? Two laptops, a pc, a Wii, the Touch, AirportExpress (two of them) are all without connectivity. Aaaaaaaaargh.

Time to switch? Perhaps. I read comments on Orange Problems and now I wonder if Saturday was a good solution/suggestion from Orange. We shall see. Thank goodness for the end of my contract!

Healthy?

I’ve been feeling tired for a while now. Quite a while actually. I thought it was just a combination of starting a new job, getting used to the long commute, and the elements of stress that seem to plague my every day and now I’m not so sure.

I’ve never been good at sleeping. I can easily fall asleep, but never stay asleep all night. My mum, gran and uncles are the same. (My sister breaks the mould though). At the weekend I take a sleeping pill so that I ‘catch’ up a little bit and try to decrease the sleep deficit. But, why am I still so tired?

Yesterday, something happened that made me think about my health. And without wanting to sound like a complete hypochondriac, I think I’m anaemic. 

Add to that the fact I’ve been monitoring my food recently and yesterday only consumed 990 calories, I’m not really helping myself.

It’s time to rethink my nutritional plan & the way I do things to pull me out of this (hypochondriac speaking here) unhealthy, unwell phase in life. First things first – get to grips with the diet. Stop eating cereal when you can’t be bothered cooking anything or using lack of time as an excuse. Plan menus for a week in advance and stick to it. NO PROCESSED FOODS AT ALL. Oh, and live a little. 

Sounds easy doesn’t it?