Insomnia

~blogging on the road~

You can beat a good many things but you can never beat the clock. The clock always wins. Any sense that you have an advantage over the clock is highly illusory. 

There are times when I simply am too keyed up to sleep. This is one of those times. It's not because there is a bad situation afoot. I suspect that it's because there is too much going on and I know the alarm will sound at 3:30 am for me to "wake up" - shower and head for the airport through metropolitan traffic to catch the first flight out. I may have drifted off to sleep for a moment here and there as I listened to music but not for any meaningful slumber time.

Being "on the road" means that sleep doesn't come very often.

Book Review: Assegai

~blogging on the road~

When you're sitting on an airplane or have to wait for meetings, it's always fun to crack open a new book. Assegai is the latest book by Wilbur Smith. I've been a fan of Smith for a long time and this book did not let me down. While a positive outcome at the end of the story never hangs in the balance as you read, it's an entertaining way to spend time.

The book transports the reader to the early 1900's and follows the adventures of Leon Courtney in a historic novel/espionage thriller in the run up to the First World War. Great reading while sitting in airport terminals!

who dares wins

~blogging on the road~

Strategy and tactics in business sometimes require a methodical approach. Sometimes one must disrupt the status quo and seize the day (carpe diem). I often talk about people. Some are tigers and some are not. There is an essence of assertive action blended with strategy that makes some successful while others in similar situations are not.  

I spoke to a man on the phone today who I have known for some time who has a problem with a business he's engaged in. I suggested the solution. He said, "It sounds so easy when you say it." Sometimes you simply have to ask the right questions to get to the heart of the matter. 

The British Special Air Service Regiment has a motto: 

Who Dares Wins

It's difficult to win if you don't dare.

Beyond the Orange Curtain

~blogging on the road~

I don't know if I'm the only Eagles fan on this blog - but I love the Eagles and their music. One of their all time greatest hits is "Hotel California". You can check out anytime you like - but you can never leave. One of the reasons the song was such a hit and remains popular is the underlying truth in the lyrics. As I type this, I'm listening to the live version from their Hell Freezes Over album.

When I left "The Surfline" where I live, a couple of days ago, (see my blog profile), I took an umbrella as an afterthought. "Better to have and not need than need and not have," is a mantra of mine. When you live in endless summer, rain is the last thing on your mind. Sunscreen is important, an umbrella is not.

The Orange Curtain is a local joke referring to Orange County, California - a political subdivision along the beaches south of Los Angeles. People who live there are said to be attractive, wealthy, intelligent and politically conservative. The Beach Boys sang about the girls there when they crooned, "they wish they all could be California girls".  I'll let blog readers comment on that since some of them live behind the Orange Curtain. My daughters can comment too because they read this blog and live in the same environment. It's a conservative in enclave in an otherwise generally liberal Southern California.

But it rarely rains - other than the "scheduled rain days" that make the news a dozen days or so each year when the sun is blocked by storm clouds. And here I am outside the Orange Curtain in the rain, happy I brought an umbrella, wishing I thought to bring a rain coat...
"Living it up at the Hotel California... Mirrors on the ceiling - pink champagne on ice." Funny how when you live behind the Orange Curtain, you stop thinking about things like rain.

executive jets

~blogging on the road~

No, I'm not traveling in an executive jet (below). If I had been, my luggage would not have been delivered a thousand miles from where I landed. However, having traveled in the unabashed luxury of an executive jet, sitting in cramped quarters on a regional aircraft is worse than if you hadn't experienced the alternative.  For part of my journey, I was seated on a small "regional aircraft". They don't have a first class section no matter how much you're willing to pay for a comfortable seat and pampering. The seats are about 2/3 sized in the hopes that passengers booking flights on these small aircraft would shrink before boarding.

I'm unlikely to be able to afford to travel the way I prefer to on any regular basis throughout the balance of my life.  Oh, to have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth rather than a recycled plastic one...

bad hotel food

~still blogging on the road~

I'm not saying that the Hyatt Regency Hotels all serve sub-standard food because I haven't eaten at every Hyatt Regency Hotel.  Neither am I saying it's food a goat or a vulture would reject.  

What I am saying is that it's more or less flavored cardboard, served cold at impossibly inflated prices. 

In my small world (perhaps a world of my own devising) it isn't too much to ask that the food they serve at a five star hotel be worth eating. Frying things to death and covering them with sauce that is doubtless made, frozen, thawed, frozen and then thawed again before being microwaved and then glopped on the fried road-kill is not my idea of cuisine. Maybe I'm being too subtle in my description? I hate to be obtuse. 

In the military they call what I had SOS (shit on a shingle). However in the rarified atmosphere of the Hyatt Regency Towers executive suite, it's room service.

Lost Airline Luggage

--blogging while on the road--

I flew to a US City today for meetings. Instead of sending my luggage on the airplane I rode on, Delta Airlines sent the luggage to Atlanta.

It's been worse. About four years ago my luggage was sent to Morocco. In each case it was returned -- in time. However it's embarrassing to show up to a meeting where everyone is a suit but "you".

The airline lost luggage people were civil. I was too. It arrived at my hotel 14 hours after I arrived. Better late than never. Better on the airplane landing with me than in Atlanta.

The worst experiences with I've seen with luggage hell is at Charles De Gaulle Airport where baggage handlers have the baggage area of the airport fill with luggage - and in order to clear the room(s), they put your bags on the next airplane - to wherever.