Hmmm.... I still having issues in getting myself checked-in via internet... This is amazing... Darn... I am trying to get a good seat but even with upgrade, there seems to be some issues in checking-in via internet...
Haiz.... Let's see what happens tomorrow... Well at least now it's slightly better, this morning I can't even log into the site...
Well... It's my last night in Freiburg... Just as I get used to the weather, I am leaving... Figures isn't it?
Oh well, at least I will be getting my photos out of my cam... Not sure if I will be able to get it in here before I fly again...
Meantime... Should start packing... Had quite a few bottles to pack... Hmmm... Wanted to add something but it just hover somewhere behind the mind and refuses to come out... Nevermind...
P.S. - Looks like SIA's website is not the only one that I am having issues with... Even the clubsnap's website is out as well... Weird!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
What? A week has gone???
Cannot believe this... But it's Sonntagabend, and I wonder where has the week gone... It's just an ICE train where all of a sudden, a week has gone... Spend the Saturday walking in Freiburg, walk thru the old town area (or city center); went pass the Munzterplatz where there was a Saturday market - bought a bottle of Honig Schnap (Honey liquor - 35% of alcohol, 200ml) and then 200 ml of Apfel Schnap as well (Apple liquor - 45% alcohol, well, in this case, may not be liquor anymore - don't ask me why there is a difference, I have no idea).
From there, with those 2 bottles in the backpack, I walked to the cable car to take it up to Schlossburg. But that's only like half the way, you got to walk up again till where the tower is. Man, I am so unfit that I had about 3 rest stops before finally I reached the tower. Walked up the steps almost to the top, the wind was so strong that I decided to stay at the 2nd lookout that it has - It's high enough to take pictures of Freiburg and it's surroundings. Meantime, you can feel the wind is trying to blow you off the tower. Good thing is that the weather was holding that day that I don't have to worry about the shutter speed. Had wonder if those 2 bottles had added some weight to make it even more difficult to walk up the er, ... hill? mountain? whatever...
Anyway, it's much easier to walk down to the cable car area than to walk up. However, could be the climb, my left knee seems to be wobbly and had to do some compensation using my right leg... So, it was then to look for a place to have lunch... Went to a restuarant that does not have English menu, so we tried our hand at ordering... Did not do that well - since we are not ordering the usual meal, instead we were looking at appetizer/sandwich/salad type of food... We did get something like that, but it was all meat - smoked bacon (without a better word to discribe it... The word they use here is even worse - raw ham, but it's not really raw...) 2 to 3 pieces of bread and 3 half tomatoes, and some pickle.
After that, my colleague wanted to get some wine for her husband, so we went wein hunting. Found a wein shop and she got 2 bottles of red wein and I got 2 bottles of eiswine. So it seems that I have run out of the permitted liquor... Can't get anymore stuff, except maybe 3 can of beer???
Then had dinner at a colleague's place - she's a Thai working as an apprentice at the german office while studying at one of the University in Germany (not Freiburg Uni). So, we had her version of Thai food. She has tampered the spicyness of the dishes so that we don't have to worry about it. That was like heaven to my colleagues as they had not have much asian food and the sushi we had was not really that good.
So... That's how the saturday went. Sunday came.
Slept late thus by the time I was really, it was 10 am. Could not decide what to do, was actually looking at going to Titisee, but since it's winter, and Sunday, there wasn't much to do there (knowing that all shops close on Sunday in Germany), I could not even have a chance to look at the cuckoo clocks that Titisee is famous for... Thus decided to do a short walk around Freiburg and get some pictures in, especially since at this time, it's very quiet and not many people are around... Like I say, the only places that are open on Sunday are the churches, restuarants and hotels; and at that time, somehow everyone seems to be napping at home or is making their way to the churches. Had some pictures which makes it look like ghost town due to that reason...
Then it was time to take a tram/bus to Merdingen where there is a procession held. It's an event where they dress up and wearing wooden masks (According to what I can gather in internet - it's call 'fools guild', like court jester) and walked down the streets - giving (throwing at times) out sweets as well as throwing paper confetti at people as well as stuffing some of it down some unexpecting spectators. Took quite a fair bit of photos but not sure how good it will be... Will be working on it once I get back (So... photos got to wait..) Was not that lucky as I got paper confetti thrown at me a few times, and there was this fellow who gave sweet on 1 hand, and the other held the confetti where he promptly rubbed on my head!!! Had to brush off from my hair quite a few times...
By the end of it, the streets were filled with the paper confetti as well as some candy that was not picked up by the kids... You would also find empty bottles of either beer or wine on the street (and even window ledges). Had some trouble in getting back to hotel as the bus did not appear as it was stated in the busguide. Walked a big round trying to find the taxi stand... Till we saw some taxis at a section... Turns out taxis could only stop there and not proceed further due to the closer of road for this procession... Problem was the taxis had left and we had to wait further... Waited for another 20 mins when a taxi came and we were back at the hotel...
So... That's how we spent our weekend. Oh... Before I forget, had eiscream again today... which brings my count of eiscream for this trip to 3!
Ok... Time is running out... Need to close this... Hmm... Going home in 2 more days... Don't think I am looking forward to it...
From there, with those 2 bottles in the backpack, I walked to the cable car to take it up to Schlossburg. But that's only like half the way, you got to walk up again till where the tower is. Man, I am so unfit that I had about 3 rest stops before finally I reached the tower. Walked up the steps almost to the top, the wind was so strong that I decided to stay at the 2nd lookout that it has - It's high enough to take pictures of Freiburg and it's surroundings. Meantime, you can feel the wind is trying to blow you off the tower. Good thing is that the weather was holding that day that I don't have to worry about the shutter speed. Had wonder if those 2 bottles had added some weight to make it even more difficult to walk up the er, ... hill? mountain? whatever...
Anyway, it's much easier to walk down to the cable car area than to walk up. However, could be the climb, my left knee seems to be wobbly and had to do some compensation using my right leg... So, it was then to look for a place to have lunch... Went to a restuarant that does not have English menu, so we tried our hand at ordering... Did not do that well - since we are not ordering the usual meal, instead we were looking at appetizer/sandwich/salad type of food... We did get something like that, but it was all meat - smoked bacon (without a better word to discribe it... The word they use here is even worse - raw ham, but it's not really raw...) 2 to 3 pieces of bread and 3 half tomatoes, and some pickle.
After that, my colleague wanted to get some wine for her husband, so we went wein hunting. Found a wein shop and she got 2 bottles of red wein and I got 2 bottles of eiswine. So it seems that I have run out of the permitted liquor... Can't get anymore stuff, except maybe 3 can of beer???
Then had dinner at a colleague's place - she's a Thai working as an apprentice at the german office while studying at one of the University in Germany (not Freiburg Uni). So, we had her version of Thai food. She has tampered the spicyness of the dishes so that we don't have to worry about it. That was like heaven to my colleagues as they had not have much asian food and the sushi we had was not really that good.
So... That's how the saturday went. Sunday came.
Slept late thus by the time I was really, it was 10 am. Could not decide what to do, was actually looking at going to Titisee, but since it's winter, and Sunday, there wasn't much to do there (knowing that all shops close on Sunday in Germany), I could not even have a chance to look at the cuckoo clocks that Titisee is famous for... Thus decided to do a short walk around Freiburg and get some pictures in, especially since at this time, it's very quiet and not many people are around... Like I say, the only places that are open on Sunday are the churches, restuarants and hotels; and at that time, somehow everyone seems to be napping at home or is making their way to the churches. Had some pictures which makes it look like ghost town due to that reason...
Then it was time to take a tram/bus to Merdingen where there is a procession held. It's an event where they dress up and wearing wooden masks (According to what I can gather in internet - it's call 'fools guild', like court jester) and walked down the streets - giving (throwing at times) out sweets as well as throwing paper confetti at people as well as stuffing some of it down some unexpecting spectators. Took quite a fair bit of photos but not sure how good it will be... Will be working on it once I get back (So... photos got to wait..) Was not that lucky as I got paper confetti thrown at me a few times, and there was this fellow who gave sweet on 1 hand, and the other held the confetti where he promptly rubbed on my head!!! Had to brush off from my hair quite a few times...
By the end of it, the streets were filled with the paper confetti as well as some candy that was not picked up by the kids... You would also find empty bottles of either beer or wine on the street (and even window ledges). Had some trouble in getting back to hotel as the bus did not appear as it was stated in the busguide. Walked a big round trying to find the taxi stand... Till we saw some taxis at a section... Turns out taxis could only stop there and not proceed further due to the closer of road for this procession... Problem was the taxis had left and we had to wait further... Waited for another 20 mins when a taxi came and we were back at the hotel...
So... That's how we spent our weekend. Oh... Before I forget, had eiscream again today... which brings my count of eiscream for this trip to 3!
Ok... Time is running out... Need to close this... Hmm... Going home in 2 more days... Don't think I am looking forward to it...
Saturday, February 18, 2006
What to do on a Sat in a weather that is not helping?
Yup... It's Sat (Samstag) again... Well almost... It's still Freitag nacht (Friday night if you haven't got it by now) in Freiburg. Just got an sms 2 hours ago saying that I got my upgrade, and need to call back by 6pm Singapore time to confirm (issue voucher) it. I am still thinking, should I or should I not... Since it will be night by the time I get on the plane and all I want is sleep... Well, and the Noes Joux movie... ARGH... It's so tempting to upgrade for the way back... Darn, darn, darn... Tough decision to sleep on... Got to call by tomorrow morning (morgen) by 10.59am.
Meantime... Well, I did not managed to take pics of the skiing event... Turns out the rain came, thus making it cold and difficult to take any pics... Also, the place was not very well lit, so in the end, only had fun playing with snow balls... Could not even find out how to play with the slides...
Sigh... It's seems to be raining every evening... Rain yesterday evening, rain again this evening... Well, got to figure what to do tomorrow... Wanted to go Basel (Swiss), but then, what's there to see in Basel? So, maybe will be going up to Scholossburg and then the market at Munzterplatz... See if there are some chance of taking pics...
Meantime... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not......................
Meantime... Well, I did not managed to take pics of the skiing event... Turns out the rain came, thus making it cold and difficult to take any pics... Also, the place was not very well lit, so in the end, only had fun playing with snow balls... Could not even find out how to play with the slides...
Sigh... It's seems to be raining every evening... Rain yesterday evening, rain again this evening... Well, got to figure what to do tomorrow... Wanted to go Basel (Swiss), but then, what's there to see in Basel? So, maybe will be going up to Scholossburg and then the market at Munzterplatz... See if there are some chance of taking pics...
Meantime... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not... Should I, should I not......................
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Valentine's Day (in Freiburg)
14 Feb 2006
Frankly... There is nothing special about this day... The day started out like yesterday, waking up at 7 am, getting to breakfast by 7.30 and then out to office via tram by 8 am.
Had a full day training session in office and some "sideline" work issues elsewhere, other than that, it's just a normal day except my day happens in Freiburg, instead of being back home...
Had some lunch which had turkey meat supposedly cooked in kebab (doner) style, but there were no pita or the warp, instead it was this huge bread that is sliced and the slap some huge amount of sour cream on it along with some vege and the turkey meat. Had some soup (suppe) today but does not taste like any type of soup we would have at home... I am not even sure if it's corn, although it looks like corn (you know the yellow based colour...)
When to Martin's Breu for dinner today. Nice! Was there once 2 years ago when I first step into Freiburg, for another training of the same product... I think then I had the 3 types of sausages (if I remember correctly, or it could be some other colleague who had that...) and this time, I had their Lamb chops. It was great as it came with lots of green vege (long beans) and bake potato. Had their brew of beer. Seems to be having lots of beer in Germany, I guess they are famous for the numerous amount of locally brew beer, so what more to do than to taste a couple of them!??! Oh, guess what... At a temperature of 7 degrees celcius this evening... I had a 2 scoops of Häagen-Dazs ice cream while walking back to the hotel!!! Feel kind of weird (and cold!), holding the cup with a gloved hand... Heh...
Anyway, so I am now back at the hotel, typing this (and pasting the other days events into the blog) and finally able to surf, surf and surf (for next 1 and half hour before the time is up!)
Till tomorrow then!
Oh... I am looking forward to tomorrow as tomorrow, there will be a skiing competition in the german office... So I will get a chance to try out flood light skiing photography!!!!
Frankly... There is nothing special about this day... The day started out like yesterday, waking up at 7 am, getting to breakfast by 7.30 and then out to office via tram by 8 am.
Had a full day training session in office and some "sideline" work issues elsewhere, other than that, it's just a normal day except my day happens in Freiburg, instead of being back home...
Had some lunch which had turkey meat supposedly cooked in kebab (doner) style, but there were no pita or the warp, instead it was this huge bread that is sliced and the slap some huge amount of sour cream on it along with some vege and the turkey meat. Had some soup (suppe) today but does not taste like any type of soup we would have at home... I am not even sure if it's corn, although it looks like corn (you know the yellow based colour...)
When to Martin's Breu for dinner today. Nice! Was there once 2 years ago when I first step into Freiburg, for another training of the same product... I think then I had the 3 types of sausages (if I remember correctly, or it could be some other colleague who had that...) and this time, I had their Lamb chops. It was great as it came with lots of green vege (long beans) and bake potato. Had their brew of beer. Seems to be having lots of beer in Germany, I guess they are famous for the numerous amount of locally brew beer, so what more to do than to taste a couple of them!??! Oh, guess what... At a temperature of 7 degrees celcius this evening... I had a 2 scoops of Häagen-Dazs ice cream while walking back to the hotel!!! Feel kind of weird (and cold!), holding the cup with a gloved hand... Heh...
Anyway, so I am now back at the hotel, typing this (and pasting the other days events into the blog) and finally able to surf, surf and surf (for next 1 and half hour before the time is up!)
Till tomorrow then!
Oh... I am looking forward to tomorrow as tomorrow, there will be a skiing competition in the german office... So I will get a chance to try out flood light skiing photography!!!!
Greetings from Freiburg!
Finally! Took me 2 days to figure out what happen and to get myself on the hotel wireless and be connected!
----------------
11 Feb 2006
What a way to start a trip... Upgraded myself on to the Business class for the flight from Singapore to Frankfurt - it was on a 747-400 plane and I took a seat on the upper deck. However, this upgrade almost did not happen - was informed to call back once I received the SMS by the day shown in teh SMS before 6pm, but was not informed I had to ask them to issue an upgrade voucher before it could happen! So I called back, the person who attended to my call did not also inform me that I had to issue a voucher for it as well!!! So I thot fine, I called back, and it was confirmed, so done. Well, it's a good thing that I tried to check in on Friday night when I could not figure what happen to my upgrade as the confirmation number for that disappeared (check it on Thursday and it was still there). After a few calls and finally sorted that out and good thing there were still seats available! The lady who took my call was kind enough to pick a nice seat, which apparently is one of the best/popular seat on the deck - 17A, a window seat next to the emergency exit.
Anyway, I have to say this - after this flight, I think I will be treating myself to 1 upgrade per year for my trips. Will have to pick out which one though. I guess to maximised the miles exchanged, I guess it will have to be a long haul flight except for the direct flights to US - that I think the seats are good enough to stay at economy (think they call it deluxe economy). And if this year's travel is as much as last, I will have that opportunity to upgrade again in 2007. But I seriously doubt I will be travelling that much this year, not unless new stuff is coming out and it's a must to attend the training overseas!
Let me get back to the topic again... So what's the difference... Well, of course the seats are different (let me digress further on this later), I guess the significant thing would be, they do make the effort to remember your surname and call you by that, instead of just madam/sir. Then again, comparing between 20 (in the upper deck) seats in Raffles class and 313 seats in economy seats, this would be expected. You will have space on the side (for the window seats) to store stuff, which could be anything like a book, magazine, even a camera (I left mine on it while waiting for the sunset... Sad to say was not able to get a good shot of it...)
You get a welcome drink before you fly (and if you want, they do serve champaigne); Another drink to start off the serving of meals (asked along with the main course you will be taking) - can be cocktails, wine (including champaigne), different type of teas, and the usual softdrinks. You get towels as well, before and after meals. Your meals are served individually, such as starters (and a new glass of wine to go with it if you want), then followed by mains and finally dessert, along with coffee and tea - you could have some port or liquer to finish. There are also space to place a permanent cup of water (which they refill whenever the level is low or empty) throughout the whole flight.
The seat. Well, the seat is spacious and comfortable. You can extend it just enough to enjoy the movie that is screening (and yes, the screen is slightly larger), or you can extend it to the max and sleep like you would do on a bed. Only thing is that it's not totally a flat level, so you may feel that you might just slide to the ground... Of course there is a flap that your soles will be against to stop that slide.
So, on that flight, I watched Pride and Prejudice which I have to say, the Darcy character was good, infact far better than Colin Firth. However, I still prefer Elizabeth Ehle's Lizzy than Kiera Knightley's. I guess because it's a movie, they had to cut short a lot of different scenes and thus not having the story developed as it would have as a mini-series.
Watched another 2 movies, The Greatest Game Ever Played (on golf) and a dutch movie 'In Orange' it's about this boy's ambition to be in the Dutch under 14 national team, and the trials that he went through before he got there... I think I watched another movie but I cannot remember it.
One thing that I did not find it good was the noise cancellation phones that they had. It was by this Nasaco company and I don't really find it effective. The only time where it was effective was when you extend your seat further such that the pillow became a cushion the side of your head where suddenly you can't really hear the usual plane noise.
Sigh... It was quite enjoyable that it was a sad thing when we landed. Of course by then, I think because of being inactive for 11 hours other than going to the toliet, I seems to have developed seat sore!!!
So there... My boss wondered why I did not do it for the return flight instead, but since it will be a night flight, I will be too tired to bother about anything else... I am certain I will be sleeping most of the journey (except when they wake you up for meals!!!), so I see no point of doing the upgrade then.
---------------
12 Feb 2006
Woke up very early this morning. Had only about 5 hours of sleep as I slept at 12 midnight last night. Looked at the clock, went to toliet and then lay on the bed again and then had broken sleep till 7 am. Took shower and packed my bags again and went for breakfast.
I have to say I find the method of finding a table at the breakfast area of the Sheraton Frankfurt is quite amusing but yet a bit stressful. They do not have assigned seats, so you go there, and you find seats for yourself. Why is it stressful? Well, for one, if you are alone, and you are taking your food from the buffet table, how would you know if someone else will take your seat while you are away? So it's quite amusing to be sitting there, having your breakfast and seeing people try to cope with this system and find some seat to have their breakfast. Some ended up sharing the tables.
After that small drama at the breakfast area, I checked out and went to Mannheim to walkl around. Dn't ask me why I chose Mannheim. I am still wondering about that myself. It seems that most of the cities closes on SUnday (Sonntige). The only places that are open are the churches, restaurants and shops at the train stations (Hauptbahnhof). So I walked, and walked, and walked, to different areas like the churches, the different platzes, the Mannheim University and had my lunched at a restuarant that specialises in pork knuckles and roast chicken. Nope, I did not have the pork knuckles thinking that it will be too much but half a chicken, that's quite a lot as well...
So decided to head back to Frankfurt. Turns out that I was wrong in remembering the even number timing for direct connection to Freiburg. It seems that it's the odd number timing. It's a good thing that I checked the board and found that the next direct connection to Freiburg was at 3.54pm instead of 4 plus as I originally had in mind. Then I check the timing on the printout I got from the ticketing office was a 5.57pm timing and had a mad scramble to get my luggage from the baggage storage in Sheraton and run back to the train tracks. Managed to hop onto it and now heading toward Freiburg as I am typing this. By now, I'm just 30 mins away from Freiburg. The sun has seems to have set, and now the place seems to be covered with snow as compared to areas near Frankfurt and even Mannheim where there were no snow. It's pity that the sun had set for it would have made some nice photos to keep with all the snow... I kind of wonder how Freiburg will be like? Snowing as well???
Oh well, time to keep the laptop. Arriving soon at the train station, 20 mins more to go...
------------
13 Feb 2006
Wow... It's cold in the morning like 8 am while walking to the tram station to get the office. Even with the new warmest glove that I have, seems to be not enough. Wonder if that can hold for the skiing (happening on wednesday). Anyway, it was a slow start with introduction to the new stuff in the product... Skiping thru it... No work to be discussed here...
Went into the city square area to have dinner... And out of the cusines that you can chose, we had dinner at this sushi bar (not surprising as I always find no matter where Japanese goes, they tend to try to find their type of cusine in the city they visit... not sure if this is a generalisation, but so far, even in Melbourne or Brisbane, I usually find them in Japanese restaurants). I can only say - try not to do that in smaller towns/cities. Somehow the rice seems different, they had, like in Singapore, done some modification to the sushi and localised it a little, so it's not really "Jap" food in that sense.
Anyway, was back in hotel and tried to get on to their wireless. Well, not successful - there were a few wireless access point around and I just could not get online. Gave up after 30 mins - could not believe that it's so difficult to get on wireless...
----------------
11 Feb 2006
What a way to start a trip... Upgraded myself on to the Business class for the flight from Singapore to Frankfurt - it was on a 747-400 plane and I took a seat on the upper deck. However, this upgrade almost did not happen - was informed to call back once I received the SMS by the day shown in teh SMS before 6pm, but was not informed I had to ask them to issue an upgrade voucher before it could happen! So I called back, the person who attended to my call did not also inform me that I had to issue a voucher for it as well!!! So I thot fine, I called back, and it was confirmed, so done. Well, it's a good thing that I tried to check in on Friday night when I could not figure what happen to my upgrade as the confirmation number for that disappeared (check it on Thursday and it was still there). After a few calls and finally sorted that out and good thing there were still seats available! The lady who took my call was kind enough to pick a nice seat, which apparently is one of the best/popular seat on the deck - 17A, a window seat next to the emergency exit.
Anyway, I have to say this - after this flight, I think I will be treating myself to 1 upgrade per year for my trips. Will have to pick out which one though. I guess to maximised the miles exchanged, I guess it will have to be a long haul flight except for the direct flights to US - that I think the seats are good enough to stay at economy (think they call it deluxe economy). And if this year's travel is as much as last, I will have that opportunity to upgrade again in 2007. But I seriously doubt I will be travelling that much this year, not unless new stuff is coming out and it's a must to attend the training overseas!
Let me get back to the topic again... So what's the difference... Well, of course the seats are different (let me digress further on this later), I guess the significant thing would be, they do make the effort to remember your surname and call you by that, instead of just madam/sir. Then again, comparing between 20 (in the upper deck) seats in Raffles class and 313 seats in economy seats, this would be expected. You will have space on the side (for the window seats) to store stuff, which could be anything like a book, magazine, even a camera (I left mine on it while waiting for the sunset... Sad to say was not able to get a good shot of it...)
You get a welcome drink before you fly (and if you want, they do serve champaigne); Another drink to start off the serving of meals (asked along with the main course you will be taking) - can be cocktails, wine (including champaigne), different type of teas, and the usual softdrinks. You get towels as well, before and after meals. Your meals are served individually, such as starters (and a new glass of wine to go with it if you want), then followed by mains and finally dessert, along with coffee and tea - you could have some port or liquer to finish. There are also space to place a permanent cup of water (which they refill whenever the level is low or empty) throughout the whole flight.
The seat. Well, the seat is spacious and comfortable. You can extend it just enough to enjoy the movie that is screening (and yes, the screen is slightly larger), or you can extend it to the max and sleep like you would do on a bed. Only thing is that it's not totally a flat level, so you may feel that you might just slide to the ground... Of course there is a flap that your soles will be against to stop that slide.
So, on that flight, I watched Pride and Prejudice which I have to say, the Darcy character was good, infact far better than Colin Firth. However, I still prefer Elizabeth Ehle's Lizzy than Kiera Knightley's. I guess because it's a movie, they had to cut short a lot of different scenes and thus not having the story developed as it would have as a mini-series.
Watched another 2 movies, The Greatest Game Ever Played (on golf) and a dutch movie 'In Orange' it's about this boy's ambition to be in the Dutch under 14 national team, and the trials that he went through before he got there... I think I watched another movie but I cannot remember it.
One thing that I did not find it good was the noise cancellation phones that they had. It was by this Nasaco company and I don't really find it effective. The only time where it was effective was when you extend your seat further such that the pillow became a cushion the side of your head where suddenly you can't really hear the usual plane noise.
Sigh... It was quite enjoyable that it was a sad thing when we landed. Of course by then, I think because of being inactive for 11 hours other than going to the toliet, I seems to have developed seat sore!!!
So there... My boss wondered why I did not do it for the return flight instead, but since it will be a night flight, I will be too tired to bother about anything else... I am certain I will be sleeping most of the journey (except when they wake you up for meals!!!), so I see no point of doing the upgrade then.
---------------
12 Feb 2006
Woke up very early this morning. Had only about 5 hours of sleep as I slept at 12 midnight last night. Looked at the clock, went to toliet and then lay on the bed again and then had broken sleep till 7 am. Took shower and packed my bags again and went for breakfast.
I have to say I find the method of finding a table at the breakfast area of the Sheraton Frankfurt is quite amusing but yet a bit stressful. They do not have assigned seats, so you go there, and you find seats for yourself. Why is it stressful? Well, for one, if you are alone, and you are taking your food from the buffet table, how would you know if someone else will take your seat while you are away? So it's quite amusing to be sitting there, having your breakfast and seeing people try to cope with this system and find some seat to have their breakfast. Some ended up sharing the tables.
After that small drama at the breakfast area, I checked out and went to Mannheim to walkl around. Dn't ask me why I chose Mannheim. I am still wondering about that myself. It seems that most of the cities closes on SUnday (Sonntige). The only places that are open are the churches, restaurants and shops at the train stations (Hauptbahnhof). So I walked, and walked, and walked, to different areas like the churches, the different platzes, the Mannheim University and had my lunched at a restuarant that specialises in pork knuckles and roast chicken. Nope, I did not have the pork knuckles thinking that it will be too much but half a chicken, that's quite a lot as well...
So decided to head back to Frankfurt. Turns out that I was wrong in remembering the even number timing for direct connection to Freiburg. It seems that it's the odd number timing. It's a good thing that I checked the board and found that the next direct connection to Freiburg was at 3.54pm instead of 4 plus as I originally had in mind. Then I check the timing on the printout I got from the ticketing office was a 5.57pm timing and had a mad scramble to get my luggage from the baggage storage in Sheraton and run back to the train tracks. Managed to hop onto it and now heading toward Freiburg as I am typing this. By now, I'm just 30 mins away from Freiburg. The sun has seems to have set, and now the place seems to be covered with snow as compared to areas near Frankfurt and even Mannheim where there were no snow. It's pity that the sun had set for it would have made some nice photos to keep with all the snow... I kind of wonder how Freiburg will be like? Snowing as well???
Oh well, time to keep the laptop. Arriving soon at the train station, 20 mins more to go...
------------
13 Feb 2006
Wow... It's cold in the morning like 8 am while walking to the tram station to get the office. Even with the new warmest glove that I have, seems to be not enough. Wonder if that can hold for the skiing (happening on wednesday). Anyway, it was a slow start with introduction to the new stuff in the product... Skiping thru it... No work to be discussed here...
Went into the city square area to have dinner... And out of the cusines that you can chose, we had dinner at this sushi bar (not surprising as I always find no matter where Japanese goes, they tend to try to find their type of cusine in the city they visit... not sure if this is a generalisation, but so far, even in Melbourne or Brisbane, I usually find them in Japanese restaurants). I can only say - try not to do that in smaller towns/cities. Somehow the rice seems different, they had, like in Singapore, done some modification to the sushi and localised it a little, so it's not really "Jap" food in that sense.
Anyway, was back in hotel and tried to get on to their wireless. Well, not successful - there were a few wireless access point around and I just could not get online. Gave up after 30 mins - could not believe that it's so difficult to get on wireless...
Monday, February 06, 2006
One of my favourite past time - FOOD!
Yup, People's Park Food Centre is back in business! Had my dinner there yesterday at TianJin Fong Kee where I had ordered Hot and Spicy soup, "Zha Jian" noodles and 20 pieces of dumplings (jiao zi). Before any questions raised on the amount of food - I had my mum with me; in fact it was her suggestion that we go there for dinner!
This store has always been famous for their dumplings and the other Northern Chinese cusine dishes. Apparently, it's so good that they have their own website (where you can even ask them to cater for your functions)! What I did not know is that they have 3 different stores including 1 store in Serangoon Gardens Food Centre!
Anyway, coming back to the food - somehow it always happens, and it's happening to this store as well. The Hot and Spicy soup is no longer that delicious and felt a bit watery; and the noodles was ok, just a bit salty to my liking. The saving grace was the dumplings, it is also the star of the dishes for that store IMHO and still is! I think I had about 13 out of the 20 pieces of the dumplings. We even sms my aunt, who is in Penang, that we had that... Somehow, we tend to go for some interesting food when she is not around... I guess it's easier to decide for 2 person instead of 3, also the $$$ spend would be greater! ahahahahahhaah
Talking about that... We also had a good dinner at Pontini on Sat nite (and yes, I think my mum sms her about it as well!) where I had one of their signature dishes - Linguine with Maine Lobster. Starters was this seafood soup which was great as well and finish it off with warm chocolate cake (which was a bit of disappointment, as they seems to be less generous with the amount of chocolate... I mean you would expect chocolate to be oozing out when you get to the core of the cake rite?) Slurped! Mother kept it safe with a sea bass dish and even she finds the soup delicious! The best thing about the dinner? The cost is reduced to only approximately 72 dollars - to share between the 2 of us.... (Yes, there is a catch of course... You got to be on this A la carte program)
Oh well... I am very statisfied with the food I had this weekend... Wonder what will the next bring... Especially when I will be in...... Germany!!! Yup, flying into Frankfurt and taking their Bahn train down to Freiburg...
No... It will not be giantic frankfurters/sausages and pork knuckles!!!
This store has always been famous for their dumplings and the other Northern Chinese cusine dishes. Apparently, it's so good that they have their own website (where you can even ask them to cater for your functions)! What I did not know is that they have 3 different stores including 1 store in Serangoon Gardens Food Centre!
Anyway, coming back to the food - somehow it always happens, and it's happening to this store as well. The Hot and Spicy soup is no longer that delicious and felt a bit watery; and the noodles was ok, just a bit salty to my liking. The saving grace was the dumplings, it is also the star of the dishes for that store IMHO and still is! I think I had about 13 out of the 20 pieces of the dumplings. We even sms my aunt, who is in Penang, that we had that... Somehow, we tend to go for some interesting food when she is not around... I guess it's easier to decide for 2 person instead of 3, also the $$$ spend would be greater! ahahahahahhaah
Talking about that... We also had a good dinner at Pontini on Sat nite (and yes, I think my mum sms her about it as well!) where I had one of their signature dishes - Linguine with Maine Lobster. Starters was this seafood soup which was great as well and finish it off with warm chocolate cake (which was a bit of disappointment, as they seems to be less generous with the amount of chocolate... I mean you would expect chocolate to be oozing out when you get to the core of the cake rite?) Slurped! Mother kept it safe with a sea bass dish and even she finds the soup delicious! The best thing about the dinner? The cost is reduced to only approximately 72 dollars - to share between the 2 of us.... (Yes, there is a catch of course... You got to be on this A la carte program)
Oh well... I am very statisfied with the food I had this weekend... Wonder what will the next bring... Especially when I will be in...... Germany!!! Yup, flying into Frankfurt and taking their Bahn train down to Freiburg...
No... It will not be giantic frankfurters/sausages and pork knuckles!!!
Friday, February 03, 2006
The Bag Quest Goes On....
Today, I had spent about 4 hours at John 3:16, trying to figure out if I should or should not buy the Tarmac Velocity 9 camera bag. I came back empty-handed as I still could not persuade myself that the Tarmac is right bag to get - as, currently, I have 2 bags that I am using. The Lowepro StealthReporter 400 (aka SR400) and Urban (the poor cousin of Crumpler's Farmers Double).
The Lowepro one is nice, with lots of room and space for the gear (which contains a D70, kit lens, 50mm prime len, 75-300mm len, SB600 and other smaller stuff like the omnibounce, etc) as well my wallet, PDA and house keys. However, the only issue I had with it is that it's a shoulder bag, so one side of my shoulder is overloaded, and had to get a waist band to ensure the bag does not bounce that much against my side when I walk. This is also not the bag that I would use when I travel overseas.
The Urban one I got is the one that I uses during my travel trips, and I just bought it recently. The old bag that I was using was getting old and felt a bit unsecure using it. This allows me to carry my laptop and camera on board the plane as a hand luggage. Only thing with this is, I don't carry my 75-300mm lens with me for this - it will not fit. This bag will do fine if I am just bringing the D70 with kit lens and flash.
So now... I am looking at CompuTrekker (so that I can bring all my lens and laptop as hand luggage) and the Tarmac Velocity 9 (this is more of a "replacement" for the SR400). I still could not decide if the CompuTrekker is the right bag to get for that purpose as normally, if I am walking around the places, I would lock the laptop in my large luggage, and just walk round with the gear in the Urban bag. It serve it's purpose but since it's a backpack, it's quite difficult to get the gear when you want to take any pics. Somehow, the pros of the bag still does not tempt me enough to decide to buy. Am still looking at other brands of bags for this purpose. The other bag that I saw was this Thinkphoto bag which is not available locally so that's out of the window - just that it looks good...
As for the Tarmac, well, i had tried to stuff it with the same gear and tested the bag out. Thanks ot J316, I did not have to bring my gear down, instead, since they have stock - except for the 75-300mm len which is no longer produced and had to subsitute with another lens that is about the same weight; I stuff the bag there and tested it out. At first I have to say it feels good, at least I don't feel the drag, but as time goes by I had a feeling that it may be an issue similar to the shoulder bag but this bag has the waist belt that can be tucked away. So the jury is still out on this bag - but I heard quite a fair bit of people are now looking at this bag.
Of course the other thing on my list is the wide angle lens - I definitely cannot afford the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens or even the 12mm one, which means I have 2 other choices - 12-24mm f/4 Tokina (which I am still eyeing) and 10-20mm Sigma lens. Having said that, the forums or reviews of the Tokina seems to be a 'ok' lens and nothing fantastic about it... So I am still undecided, however, with the new purchases, like the camera bag and other stuff, I seems to be putting this in the wish list rather than the to get list.
Finally, since I am not willing to pay $600 just for a Gitzo super lightweigth CF tripod and a ballhead, I had to find other methods to ensure I could take photos at a lower speed, like 1/4 of a second in places where I would normally use a tripod back home. The one that I was looking at was the 345 Manfrotto tabletop tripod. Like the 12-24mm lens, this is on a back burner. Still undecided yet.
Oh well... I guess another trip there next week is in order before leaving for Germany.
The Lowepro one is nice, with lots of room and space for the gear (which contains a D70, kit lens, 50mm prime len, 75-300mm len, SB600 and other smaller stuff like the omnibounce, etc) as well my wallet, PDA and house keys. However, the only issue I had with it is that it's a shoulder bag, so one side of my shoulder is overloaded, and had to get a waist band to ensure the bag does not bounce that much against my side when I walk. This is also not the bag that I would use when I travel overseas.
The Urban one I got is the one that I uses during my travel trips, and I just bought it recently. The old bag that I was using was getting old and felt a bit unsecure using it. This allows me to carry my laptop and camera on board the plane as a hand luggage. Only thing with this is, I don't carry my 75-300mm lens with me for this - it will not fit. This bag will do fine if I am just bringing the D70 with kit lens and flash.
So now... I am looking at CompuTrekker (so that I can bring all my lens and laptop as hand luggage) and the Tarmac Velocity 9 (this is more of a "replacement" for the SR400). I still could not decide if the CompuTrekker is the right bag to get for that purpose as normally, if I am walking around the places, I would lock the laptop in my large luggage, and just walk round with the gear in the Urban bag. It serve it's purpose but since it's a backpack, it's quite difficult to get the gear when you want to take any pics. Somehow, the pros of the bag still does not tempt me enough to decide to buy. Am still looking at other brands of bags for this purpose. The other bag that I saw was this Thinkphoto bag which is not available locally so that's out of the window - just that it looks good...
As for the Tarmac, well, i had tried to stuff it with the same gear and tested the bag out. Thanks ot J316, I did not have to bring my gear down, instead, since they have stock - except for the 75-300mm len which is no longer produced and had to subsitute with another lens that is about the same weight; I stuff the bag there and tested it out. At first I have to say it feels good, at least I don't feel the drag, but as time goes by I had a feeling that it may be an issue similar to the shoulder bag but this bag has the waist belt that can be tucked away. So the jury is still out on this bag - but I heard quite a fair bit of people are now looking at this bag.
Of course the other thing on my list is the wide angle lens - I definitely cannot afford the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens or even the 12mm one, which means I have 2 other choices - 12-24mm f/4 Tokina (which I am still eyeing) and 10-20mm Sigma lens. Having said that, the forums or reviews of the Tokina seems to be a 'ok' lens and nothing fantastic about it... So I am still undecided, however, with the new purchases, like the camera bag and other stuff, I seems to be putting this in the wish list rather than the to get list.
Finally, since I am not willing to pay $600 just for a Gitzo super lightweigth CF tripod and a ballhead, I had to find other methods to ensure I could take photos at a lower speed, like 1/4 of a second in places where I would normally use a tripod back home. The one that I was looking at was the 345 Manfrotto tabletop tripod. Like the 12-24mm lens, this is on a back burner. Still undecided yet.
Oh well... I guess another trip there next week is in order before leaving for Germany.
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