London to Shanghai
Urgh. Alarm at 4.20am. Woke (for the second time) just before it. Quick shower and shave and off out into the early morning. Speedy checkout was v useful. Plenty of Ubers around. 3 minute wait then 30 minutes to Heathrow T5. Easy peasy really.
It was a bit odd driving through London past lots of houses where there would have been people sleeping. Was almost a sci fi experience. You felt as if they were all in their pods waiting for the time to be reactivated. Life without sleep makes sense if we were able to do it. Cram far more into your time on this planet.
Last night had a couple of beers with Baskers and Tim. Always good to see them. Then a quick bite at Garfunkels. Not particularly good service and only ok food. They took the order quickly enough but it took ages to come. Bed.
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Now in the galleries lounge. Bacon roll, croissant, milk and OJ. This is going to be a long day.
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On the plane headed East to Frankfurt. Bit of day trip. Brain is somewhat frazzled with the earl start. Should really try and get a bit more kip but experience suggests it won’t happen. A frazzled brain doesn’t lead to creative thinking either. Perhaps a cup of tea or coffee will do the trick. I won’t be partaking of the cardboard croissant I’ve seen on the trolley as it passed by to the front of the cabin. Had a bacon roll and a croissant in the lounge before the flight.
Life in the fast lane is in my ears. Very appropriate.
My attire on this flight is my new Fat Face shorts, a burgundy and white Hawaiian shirt and sandals. Oh and my Tommy Bahama straw hat. I also have a pair of long trousers and long sleeved shirt and a pair of socks in the carry on bag just in case I need them for the overnighter to Shanghai.
We have been looking forward with a degree of excitement for the Shanghai trip. This is coming from someone who doesn’t get excited about such things. I did some research about places to go and see during some of the downtime we will have but decided it wasn’t worth planning anything ahead.
Did note that sites such as Google and Facebook are blocked. This is a stark reminder that we are headed to Communist China. Will have kindly provided me with access to his VPN server and both laptop and phone now have the clients set up. Will be interesting to see it in action. I quite like the idea of posting to Facebook from China. Not sure what bandwidth we will be getting but hey…
I have coffee. Don’t normally drink the stuff, especially the muck they serve on planes, but the brain is telling me it needs it. Ah the glamour of international travel. The captain has just been on telling us we are about 30 minutes away. A lady captain. See more of them these days. Hear more of them is a more accurate description. Didn’t catch the name as my sounds are still in my ear.
American Indian (i.e. Asian not indigenous) family at dinner last night. The parents were constantly on their phones whilst the kids had colouring books.
As we were coming up the escalator from the transit area to the gates (we were boarding at C62 T5) I noted as I was singing to myself that a woman a head of me and Rich turned and smiled to herself. Nice to be able to bring a bit of sunshine into someone’s life. Wonder where she was going?
It’s an interesting concept. The chance meeting with someone who you see once for maybe ten seconds and then never see again. It happens a lot of course. It fits in my philosophy of “chinks” on philosopherontap. This year all these diary entries are down as chinks. Long chinks maybe but these things need to evolve. Nothing stands still. Stand still and catch atrophy. Move it on baby.
I’ve been calling people baby for years. Part of it has been to see how they react. Part of it is because I don’t really care what people think anymore. That isn’t totally true. I’m not in the game of offending. Live and let live eh? I’m wondering if there is something else I should move on to in this respect. Something beyond baby. I dunno.
This whole not offending people concept is something I’ve been thinking about. I don’t think it is possible to reach the state of perfection in creative writing without truly telling people what you think. Pouring out your innermost feelings. Maybe it’s part of the British reserve thing. I’m not sure I like that concept because really it’s English Reserve. And I’m not English. The emotional stuff is something I’ll probably have to build up to. Maybe it isn’t even there. Who knows?
I’ve certainly throttled back from writing trefor.net stuff this year. This is subconscious move away from the constraints of writing for business.
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I like a bit of Offenbach. I say that because we are on a train whose final destination is Offenbach Est. We are in Frankfurt. Already had a bit of drama. Picked up our bags and having inserted a credit card to pay 1 Euro for a luggage cart found our way to check in for the next flight which is in 10 hours time. In front of us at the BA checkin were two guys, the younger of whom was distraught and swearing (scheisse – whatever that means!!). They had arrived earlier on but one of them didn’t have his passport with him so they then had to go home and get it only to find that upon their return the check-in had closed. Oops
Took a while to find money, the station and to buy a ticket to town. The machine didn’t like our credit cards nor, initially , our cash. Now we are on a warm train with 30 minutes until we get to OffenbachOEst which presumably is where we want go.
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Eventually found the main station after going too far past it. Hopped on an open top tour bus (E17) which was very hot in the sun so sat at the back in the shade. Wasn’t really worth the money as there is sod all left of Frankfurt to see tbh. At least it served the purpose of killing an hour. I don’t want to start drinking at lunchtime and in such heat.
Lunch at a posh burger joint sat outside on the pavement. Bull burger or similar. I had a chicken Caesar salad (smug face icon).
Now wandered in a sweat down to the river where there is some fete action. Saw a boat race and am now sitting in the shade of the Lions Club International stall drinking mineralwasser.
Featured image is of a woman looking down at a homeless person asleep in the lunchtime heat.
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It’s been a very hot 34 degrees centigrade today in the city of the Frankfurters. Now we are back in the BA lounge in T2, airconditioning blaring away and pics and vids backing up over the wifi. Shower time.