Of urinals and trade unions

In today's paper, I discovered a leading candidate for the"You've got to be kidding!" award for 2006: Local 690 Philadelphia Plumbers Union. Why?

Liberty Property Trust is building Comcast Center, which will be the tallest building in Philadelphia when completed in 2007. Even more importantly, it could be the most environmentally friendly skyscraper in the US. To achieve that, the developer wants, along with a host of energy saving measures, to install no-flush, water saving urinals in the men's rooms. Yearly water savings: 6 million litres (1.6 million gallons)!

But no, unless the plumbers union change their mind, these urinals will not be installed. Instead, the old, water-wasting kind will be used. Wouldn't saving water and energy (and ultimately money) be a good idea? Shouldn't water saving urinals be encouraged? No, says the plumbers, and they are powerful enough to get things their way (the city and state authorities won't stop them). Their reason for objecting: the waterless urinals require less labor to install than the traditional kind. You've got to be kidding!

Windy

Having lived a year on the wide open plains in Montana I thought I knew what cold wind is. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Cold wind is what they have almost every day in Philadelphia. Really cold wind.

Home alone

S. is in Australia for a week (Godmother for little Thomas on Sunday, seeing family and friends in Adelaide for a few days, meetings, etc); she left Wednesday afternoon and are coming back Thursday evening. So I'm home alone (no, not like in the movie). So what do I do?

Well, I go to work - which is getting more interesting. Friday afternoon we co-hosted a reception for a Vietnamese bio-tech delegation and US Senator Thomas Carper (Dem). I was just talking to a (very dull) Dean of a Delaware business school, when the Senator walked in. As we were standing closest to the door, we basically got to welcome him to the reception, and have a little chat (mostly about Norway).

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This whole having to wear a suit thing is still new too me, but I'm getting used to it. Currently I have 3 suits, 7 shirts and 5 ties to alternate between, which should be enough. But some of the ties are a bit boring, and they are almost all blue or yellow. My shirts are even worse: blue or white. So I've been thinking about livening up the tie and shirt collection a little. Problem is that most of the ties I like are US$45 to US$59, and that's just a little too expensive.

Saturday, when I was out walking, I decided to walk through my favorite store, Lord&Taylor, in Center City. I do like it because they usually have good stuff on sale, but that can be said for most stores here (no sales tax on clothes helps). What most stores do not have though, is a playing pipe organ. That's right: this department store has the world's largest playing pipe organ. It's magnificent. And it really belongs in a grand Cathedral. Yet, imagine doing your Christmas shopping there: Christmas carols played on the organ during the day. The rest of the year they still play songs at noon (it sounds great).

Anyway, it wasn't the music that made me shop there today. It was the 60% off the already reduced price. How can you say no to a nice silk tie (or three) reduced from US$40 to US$7? Colors? Dark blue, light blue, and yellow/gold with blue stripes...

Skiing

Two weeks ago, S. and I decided to have a romantic weekend away. So we went skiing in Vermont. The weather was pretty bad Friday and Saturday, which meant a late arrival at the B&B we were staying, and a lot of closed lifts Saturday.

To get us from the airport to Stowe, the ski-area, we'd rented a car: a very dull and boring Dodge Neon. But when we (finally) got to the car rental place, they had a PT Cruiser waiting for us! Not quite the car you normally take to the ski hill.

The B&B was cute, breakfast great (loved the pancakes). Could see the skiarea from our bedroom window (only Sunday, when it was sunny). The 50 cms (20 inches) of snow really made it pretty, and the little town of Stowe was nice. Went to Swisspot for a nice fondue dinner Saturday night. Sunday afternoon we drove straigt from skiing to the airport, and, with some delay and a detour, made it safely back to Philly.

Having tried another skiresort, it's time for my highly subjective ski resort ranking:

1. Showdown Montana, USA. No liftlines, no manmade snow. Just great skiing!
   
2. Bridger Bowl, Montana, USA. Fantastic in new powder. OK when groomed.
3. Sunshine, Alberta, Canada. Hell's Kitchen: best tree-run ever (black diamond).
   
4. Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. Back bowls are great. Tree-runs too.
   
5. Stowe, Vermont, USA. Fresh powder=really good. Groomed="let's go for a hot chocolate."
6. Treble Cone, New Zealand. Back bowl was good. More snow would make it great.
7. Perisher Blue, Australia. Pretty going skiing for "down under".
8. Trysil, Norway. Some good runs. Not enough snow.
   
9. The Remarkables, New Zealand. Great potential. With enough snow.
10. Norquay @ Banff, Alberta, Canada. Icy.
11. Coronet Peak, New Zealand. Runs are not too bad. Snow was.
12. Cardrona, New Zealand. Oh dear... never again.
    

Dumb Politicians Win

Have never thought that politicians, in any country, are very smart. And have never been too impressed by the current US President. A President that's been very busy ruining as many relationships with the rest of the world as possible, alienating the people who's support would be critical in the "war on terror". Yet, when it comes to the DPW (no, not Dumb Politicians Win, but Dubai Ports World) deal, he's been almost the only voice of reason in Washington. In a recent speech, he said: "In order to win the war on terror, we've got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East." How true. But why isn't that happening, and what's the big deal about?

DP World, a firm owned by the Dubai government, spending US$7 Billion buying P&O, a British firm that operates six major American ports and several smaller ones. The [US] public are outraged. Never mind that the UAE is an American ally, or that port security will remain in federal hands, or that a port-management firm has a financial interest in not blowing up the ports it manages.

After a US Government committee approved the deal in mid-February, pretty much everybody's gone crazy over it. Not that they really seem to understand it; but that's unfortunately not a requirement when it comes to having an opinion. First, there was anger that key people (read: Congress) didn't know about the deal. Ehhh... Do they read publications other than National Enquirer in D.C.? Or at least, do a single staff of any member of Congress read a publication like The Economist? After all, they've written about the deal since early December. Hence, it was hardly news out of the blue when the deal was approved.

An Australian I know (who's worn out more passports than the rest of us combined, lived in numerous countries and don't seem to have enough pages in his passport for all his visas and stamps), emailed me his comment :
"The Dubai Ports issue is hilarious, isn't it? How completely just that Bush gets hammered by congressmen whose crack-pot sense of 'security' is even more unbalanced than his! The issue is not a new one in the USA (and considering what de Villepin is doing to protect Suez, not unique to the USA). I can remember when Sony bought Universal Studios in the 1980s: the way people around Washington talked about Japan you'd have thought the second world war was still on. Little did they understand that the real danger lurking in the shadows was from Australia: Rupert Murdoch ... who bought Fox Studios."

Are Americans really safer now that the deal has been killed? Well, look at the incentives involved. If something happens at (or to containers shipped through) a port terminal operated by a US owned company, what do they have to lose? Nothing. Blame it on the terrorists. If, on the other had, something similar takes place at a port terminal operated by DPW, they would have had everything to lose. Which is why they would be willing to spend lots of money to upgrade the ports, improve security, etc. Simply because they have absolutely everything to lose if something goes wrong. But no, can't let the operate the terminals (that's right, that's all they would do: operate terminals. In charge of security? US Coast Guard and Customs and Border Control).

I read an assessment by Armada Corporate Intelligence today: "It is hard to fathom a more destructive and negative outcome to this situation. Ignorance, obfuscation and outright lies have carried the day and in the process the President has been weakened, important allies have been insulted and snubbed, US business interests have been compromised all over the world and the US has been positioned as a protectionist and racist nation. But on the bright side some politicians have picked up some additional voter support from people who willing to accept the deception promulgated about DPW and the port deal. [...] The US is sliding into a dangerous pattern of isolationism marked by the clarion call of security. The sad fact is that security is only weakened by this process. The heroes in Congress have saved us from DPW'’s investment
but they still have not invested one additional dollar in the Coast Guard'’s effort to provide port security."

Finally, read this article, and the last paragraph in particular:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/09/greenfield.portpolitics/index.html

Continental

Flying with an American airline isn't that great, sadly enough. Or maybe you're spoiled when used to Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, etc. Anyway, Continental is maybe not the worst, yet still very bad.

Have tried to fly with them six times. How many times have I arrived on time, on the flight I booked? Not once. This is how the story goes:

1. Oslo - Philadelphia Jan 5, 06: Delayed from Oslo, late arrival Newark. Flight to Philly already departed when I get through Customs and Immigration. Have to wait in line at the dedicated re-check area for 1h20 mins, to get a ticket for the next train to Philly. When did the last train leave? 20 mins ago. When is the next train? 1.5 hours. Arrival Philly: 3 hours late.
2. Philadelphia - Oslo Jan 11, 06: Flight to Newark cancelled. Back to central Philly, train to Newark. Arrived in Oslo pretty much on time (surprise, surprise).
   
3. Oslo - Philadelphia Feb 17, 06: Delayed 50 mins from Oslo, arrived on time to Newark. Looking good! Flight from Newark to Philly cancelled. Yeah! Which means standing in that terrible queue again, to get the train ticket. Only an hour in line this time, so I made the earlier train.Arrival Philly: 1.5 hours late.
4. Newark - Burlington, VT March 3, 06: Try to do the train straight to Newark. Train 40mins late. Arrive Newark, see that flight is delayed 1h15, supposedly due to late arriving aircraft. Board, then sit for 35 mins before plane starts moving to the runway. Arrive Burlington, VT 1h45 late. Then have to go pick up rental car and drive for 45 mins. Arrival Stowe, VT: 2 hours late.
5. Burlington, VT - Newark March 5, 06: Arrive airport with plenty of time before departure. Guess what: flight delayed 1h05mins! Eat dinner, go through security. 7:25pm - the new departure time: no plane at the gate yet. That finally arrives, we depart. Arrive Newark 2 hours late. Last train to Philly that actually stops at the airport left 10 mins ago. So have to catch a train in the wrong direction to get on the next train to Philly. Arrival Philly: 1 hour late.
6. Philly - Newark - Oslo July 19, 06: Flight from Philly to Newark actually operated by Amtrak. But is the train running on time? Of course not? The track is too hot. But have plenty of time to catch the connecting flight at Newark. Or maybe not. Arrive at the check-in area at Newark 65 mins before departure. Multiple check-in areas with long queues, so ask Continental guy where to go to make sure I catch my soon departing flight to Oslo. He looks around and points towards to nearest queue and reassures me that I won't have any trouble catching my flight. 57 mins before departure I reach the check-in kiosk, and have another Continental guy try to help me check in. But I have a bag to check, and bag check cutoff is 60 mins before departure... Continental is happy to rebook me on the next day's flight, but say it's my fault that I missed my connection... and offer no compensation, hotel or anything. So after a long argument I tell them to get lost, and refund my ticket. S is flying Lufthansa, and they're happy to sell me a reasonably priced ticket on the same flight as her. And I even got upgraded to Business class on the return flight...
   

So the flights may be cheap, but the queues are long, the flights late and the system and people incredibly inefficient. Don't even get me started on the check-in process at Newark airport.

January - February

Haven't written anything in the Blog for months... Not quite the intention when I started, but will get much better now that we're both in Philly. To bring people up to date, here's what's happened in the last few months:

• Susie left for Philadelphia January 4th.
• Hawk showed up on a surprise visit Jan 5, and stayed for almost a week (Gotta love those cheap tickets a lot of airlines sell as Chrsitams "presents", for travel in Jan and Feb).
• H's visa took forwever to organize. Had to find a new visa sponsor, pay even more money, and wait for a few extra weeks. But in the end, the visa was granted.
• S checked out New York.
• H chopped down trees, burned branches and babysat his little niece, while waiting for that visa...
• H went to Sweden and Denmark in mid-January to see some old friends. Åsa didn't provide the best sleeping arrangements though.
• Mård Johannes (H's nephew) was born February 13, 2006. A very cute little boy. H babysat his 17 month old niece while her parents were off to the hospital. She's very cute too (she calls her uncle "koko" (Koko is apparently a famous "talking" gorilla) or "Håko"), and very smart.
  
• H's younger brother had his book on how to memorize stuff published in January. It's topped the bestseller list since then.
• In January H did some work on an online training manual for exporters and importers.
  
• S is now in charge of change management (communications) on the Glaxo SmithKline project.
• H finally made it to Philly Feb 17th.