A night on a flight

We left SF about 1-30 am. I’d already changed my watch to Hong Kong time, which was 4-30pm. The problem with flying across the Pacific is not just the long flight but that your biological clock gets thrown out of whack as well. Given it was another 2 hours to Houston time from SF this means I’m 11 hours out when I land.

Unlike the trip the other way where you tend to stay up as long as possible then go to sleep, on the way back you try and sleep as much as possible. It will be 6am when we land, so the 1-30 to 6am “by the clock” night is about 13 ½ hours long.

Fortunately Cathay has installed the new business class sleepers on this plane and I was again in the upstairs cabin. Each “seat” is more or less a J-shape and the seat folds back to horizontal. A bit better than the Qantas capsules. I was able to get about 8 hours sleep and then and other 2 or 3 where I was lying down with my eyes closed, hopefully getting a few naps in. I still feel like crap and, amazing but true, couldn’t even eat all my breakfast. I have had a mild but persistent headache, which doesn’t help. Unlike Qantas, they didn’t supply us with PJs and it was too hot with my jeans on so I took them off. There was no one up on my occasional trips to the loo and my T shirt was fairly long anyway.

The seat has a quite large LCD screen – the biggest individual screen I’ve seen on any plane so far. It’s about the same size as this laptop, which is 15.4”. It seems a shame not to have watched more movies, although I did watch a couple of TV show episodes over breakfast. They are calling us to turn of laptops now.

We landed on time and there was virtually no queue at passport control. However for some reason the guy checking mine called his supervisor to check something. It was OK in the end but it took a few minutes for the process. My bags were off in the first couple of dozen and were put through the X ray machine by security. I didn’t see whether they were doing it for all westerners or random people but some other passengers had walked straight through.

This is my first time in the new airport and it is very clean modern and efficient. I took the MTR train to town, which is very smooth and fast. They even have a row of lights in the arch over the passageway showing you your progress. The sun was just coming up and there was mist on the hills. The new airport is on a different Island and we passed through several tunnels under the harbour on our journey, which took 24 minutes. They security mess on the windows interferes with taking a good shot unfortunately.

A taxi ride to the hotel cost about $3 and fortunately they were able to check me in early. The room was stifling – nearly 30 degrees and I stripped off and got the aircon working. The room is (shall we say) compact. There’s not much storage space and the bed fill most of the floor space. The bathroom is also a model of efficiency (ie small).

It does have a decent sized TV, with heaps of movies to choose from, with 5-speaker surround sound. I just put the TV on, lay day on the bed and had another 4 hours sleep. It’s now 2 and I have had a shower, called my Mensa contact who will hopefully have an email for me later with details for dinner, checked emails and updated the blog. I suppose I should get out and do some sightseeing, shopping or whatever.

A bridge too far

I finished the last blog entry which was written in the hotel lobby and packed up my pc. I left it at the front desk and went across to the chemist to get some drinks and nibbles to take to the games night. When I got back I thought I'd try too call Mum and Dad. I collected my case and laptop and set up up again and decided I'd call Kathleen who was picking me up to tell her what I was wearing. When I got through she siad she was at the front of the hotel so I had a quick repack of the computer and went out to meet her. It was just before 6-30 and she asked if there was anything I had got to do because of lack of time or transport.

In the end we decided we'd actually go across the Golden Gate bridge which I had just looked at earlier. On the way we passed through the Civic centre which she said had some impressive buildings. The city offices look like a state capital building and just behind it was the Ballet Theatre with the opera house a bit further away.

Our next stop was by the site of the World fair from early 1900's or thereabouts. That's the Greek temple looking building. After that it was across the bridge to the lookout on the other side. I took a shot of the city centre which again is obscured by the fog. This is caused by the warmer air from the bay mixing with the cooler air from the ocean and not caused by pollution.

We then headed further inland through Marin county and eventually across the Richmond Bridge back towards Berkeley and Oakland. This bridge is 4 to 5km long and has the lanes for the opposite direction on top rather than alongside the ones we were on.

It was a rather large detour and after the better part of an hour I saw a sign that said were were 2 1/2 miles from where we started. I just checked with Google Earth and it seems we went 35 miles to get back to that point.


The games night was well attended with 25 or so people there. Several boards games were in progress by the time I arrived. We had some snacks and then joined in a game of 20 questions in the bedroom. There were really too many players for this to flow smoothly and a lot of the questions were rather America-centric so I had no idea who the people were, as well as being bought in 1988 so the references were some what out of date.. I tended to do better with places and things but was at the end of the scores rather than the front. Eventually someone won so we could stop. I chatted with a few people but it wasn't too long before we were heading for the airport, this time crossing the Bay bridge and arriving a bit after 10pm.

Check in was very quick with hardly any queues at the business class counter or at security. I checked into the BA lounge which is used by Cathay passengers and connected to the net. I talked to Dad for a bit and now have about an hour left before we fly off, so I guess boarding will be a bit before that.

A Day round the Bay

I awoke far too early this morning after a late night. I guess my getting up was still on Houston time (2 hours different) even if my going to sleep wasn't.

I stayed in bed and watched some stupid film for a while and then gave up and got up. There were a number of emails from Mensa people offering various levels of assistance but one girl who lives South of the city ( and the airport) offered to pick me up from the hotel, take me to the games night and then drop me at the airport afterwards. I called her to accept her offer and got an answering service but she called back later and gave me some advice on getting an all day pass and places to see.

I had to check out by 12 so I decided to do it before I went out so I didn't have to worry about coming back. It was about 10 when I got under way.

I picked up the pass at the chemist across the road and then tried to get on the cable car to Fisherman's wharf. By the time they were getting to the stop by the hotel they were full and someone in the queue said she'd been waiting 30 minutes already. I cleverly walked down hill to the previous stop and then a couple more (down hill is easy) till I got to the start. There I saw queues 100's metres long. I consulted my map and took the street car up Market Street instead. The first one was only a few minutes and was fairly empty. This took me to the ferry terminal and a tram took me the rest of the way along the piers to Fisherman's Wharf. I wandered aound Pier 39 for a bit taking photos of the areas, the seals and Alcatraz. Unfortunately it was slightly hazy so the distant shots are as clear as I would have liked. I then had an early lunch at a nice restaurant at the end of the Pier with a view over the bay. I had the Crabs 4 way, which was an appetiser size meal with some cold crab legs, a crab cake, a hot crab dip and a crab spring roll.

From there I walked along FW. There were various museums, a submarine and sailing ship amongst otehr boats in the various harbours and even some kids doing rap dancing on one street. I then wlaked along the bay towards the bridge and over the hill past Fort Mason. Once I'd climbed the hill I could see the Golden Gate Bridge but once again the haze prevent a clear picture of it. I got to the bottom of the hill and jumped on the 28 bus, which took me to the bridge and then South to the Golden Gate Park.

I got off there and walked with a couple, daughter and grand dad that I'd talked to on the bus. We walked past the Rose garden and through the park to the Japanese Tea House where they met up with cousins. There was a bridal party having photos taken in by the tea house who proved that you just can't have too many brides maids. I continued on through the Botanical gardens.

Once I left there I wandered for a few blocks and then jumped on another tram thinking it would take me to the Haight Ashbury district which borders the park. However I was disoriented and it was in fact taken me a right angles to where I thought I was going. It did however return me more or less to my starting point. Thsi had taken me about 3 hours.

This time I waited at the second cable car stop and got on the first one which would have taken me all the way to Fisherman's Wharf again. It does go up some very steep hills and the intersecting roads are also very steep - typical of the ones you see in the SF car chases in movies. I got off a bit before the end and caught a bus back towards China Town. I was pondering on the need to look at this area given my imminent arrival in Hong Kong and in the end found that the stop I got off was only just before the street the hotel was on. I went back there and had a rest for a bit. I then got a vitamin drink and went to union square where I sat in the sun and drank it. I wandered through Macy's and Victoria's Secret but wasn't really interested in buying anything so I've come back to the hotel to check email, up date the blog and kill the last 90 minutes before I'm picked up.

Carnivores Rule OK!

Last night at the Brazilian restaurant was a real experience. It was also the first place I’ve eaten that was not part of a chain. It is a gaucho style restaurant and vegetarians need not apply. There is a fairly extensive salad bar in the form of a buffet and we all loaded our plates up with our choices. But the real emphasis is on the meat.

Waiters circulate around the restaurant stopping at the tables to offer various samples of meat from long skewers. It is very good quality too. To help them to know when you are ready for more you have a card the size of a drink coaster that can be red or green side up to indicate if you want more.

The choices included sirloin and flag steak, fillet mignon. Bacon wrapped chicken and steak, lamb chops, chicken legs and also some pork and salmon, although I didn’t get round to having the latter 2. I’m not sure if we were even offered salmon.

Like any barbeque where you can have repeated servings it is easy to eat a lot more than you would if you were limited to a single serving but it was excellent. I also had a couple of Mojito cocktails. I think the cost per head is around $50 but it is an entertaining evening and the 4 of us had an enjoyable time. I suspect it wouldn’t be much fun on your own or even as a couple.

It was about 10 when I got back to the hotel and I had to put through a load of washing. This took about 1-½ hours so it was quite a late night.

This morning I woke latish and by the time I’d packed my case it was about 10. I took a quick trip to the supermarket to buy some more of the hair product I use, which is less than half the Australian price here and a book to read on the plane.

Once at the office I prepared an invoice for the month and sorted out the expense claim before revising our working documents with the notes from yesterday. I then drove down to the sub place to pick up lunch and adjusted the expense claim to include that.

It was about 1-30 when we started our final round table discussion, really finalising and clarifying the points already raised and getting some idea of the priorities. The plan is to release a new customer version once these enhancements are completed and some of the more complicated or less well-defined enhancements will have to wait. We already started talking about some new stuff that is definitely not going to happen in the short term.

It was after 4 when I left and the GPS predicted arriving just after 4-30. This turned out to be fairly accurate and with a shuttle bus leaving soon after I’d returned the car it was just before 5 when I checked in. This was an hour be fore the flight time. But the time I’d passed through security and got the gate they were already boarding so being first class I just walked on. It was still a half an hour before we were due to leave and they served us a pre flight drink. We left the terminal right on time but I was surprised to note that it was 25 minutes from then until we actually took off.

We will land in about 40 minutes and I had accidentally pulled the power cord out of the socket during the meeting so the battery is getting low.

It has only been in the last couple of days that I started getting a decent night s sleep which fits in with the rule of thumb that it takes a day per hour of time difference. Now I’m about to reverse the journey. At least this will be in stages rather than in one 30 hour trip like the journey here. Also the last leg from Hong Kong to Perth won’t involve any time change.

It is one of the facets of modern air travel that you can travel so far in such a short time. It takes a while for the reality to sink in and you realise it may be years before you came back to the same place again, if at all.

I am now in my hotel in San Francisco. The flight landed about 8 and I swapped seats so I could sit by the window as we approached the airport. There was fog hanging over the city itself and along parts of the peninsula but not at the airport. There was a bit of a wait before our bags starting coming out. Fortunately mine was about the 8^th one so I headed up a couple of flights of stairs, and across the bridge to the air trains. These go in a loop in both directions connecting the terminals, parking lots, BART (train) station and rental place. Both trains left just as I arrived but this gave me a chance to get some warmer clothing out of my bag. I was just wearing a polo top and skorts as it had been 107F in Houston. However it was much cooler here. The easiest thing to do was to grab my Qantas PJs and put them over my existing clothes. There was a queue to get tickets at the vending machine and then it took a while for me to work out how to get a ticket. I hadn’t pushed the note into the slot far enough the first few times. I made it to the train with a couple of minutes to spare and had an uneventful trip to Powell street station. My Google maps print out gave me directions to the hotel from there. It is only a block from Union Square but it is mostly uphill from the station so I was quite hot by the time I arrived.

My room here is somewhat old fashioned, with a wooden chest of drawers and desk. The bathroom is quite tiny but there is a walk in robe that is probably just as big. An incongruously modern LCD TV sits between the 2 doors.

I had not heard from the Mensa lady who was going to show me around so I looked up the contacts on their web site. My first call seemed to indicate I’d got the wrong number but I then called the local president. He confirmed the number was correct and told me of some events on tomorrow. My second attempt at the other number got me someone who at least knew who I was after and got a message to her. She called the hotel number and apologised but she’d been called out of town and wouldn’t be back. Alan, the President, however is contacting other members to see if anybody can meet me during the day. In any case, he will probably take me to the games night from the local Bart station and then back to the station in time for me to get to the airport.

By the time this was sorted it was nearly 11 so I decided against going out for a look around tonight.

MALLS <> SMALL

I realise my previous post probably didn't convey the sheer scope of shopping here. The Woodlands Mall is on a block approximately 1 km in length and probably 2/3 of that in width. It has a ring road that goes around the main mall area which has the speciality shops as seen in the photo below plus 4 department stores and a Museum. This shot is taking from just over the ring road of part of the mall.

In addition, there are several large stores at the front of the main entrance and 6 or so restaurants. On the outside of the ring road, but still within the same block are numerous restaurants and a large electronics shop and a jewellers.

Just across the road to the North is another shopping precinct. This follows the style more familiar to us say along Leach Highway or Scarborough Beach road. Where the shops are along a strip with parking in front. Again there are at least half a dozen restaurants in the area as well.

To the West of the Mall, is market street, which is the Subiaco/Claremont type area with upmarket shops and again a multitude of restaurants.

The photo with the statue and horses in it is in front of another of these strip shopping centres across the other side of I-45 which is the main interstate highway between Dallas and Houston. This has 5 lanes each way on the freeway part in the middle with 3 lane frontage roads either side. My journey to the office is along the frontage road heading South. I come back through the back roads since I would have to got further south to get to the other side of the freeway before heading back North to an exit near the hotel. This photo is typical of the tree lined back roads in the Woodlands.

That particular strip had a sports store where I found a pair of Reeboks of the same model as I was wearing - on special for $30.

Every restaurant seems to be part of a chain, even ones that look like they might be privately owned.

Tonight we try yet another different cuisine - a Brazilian restaurant. So far I've had Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Australian (allegedly), Mongolian and an variety of American options.

Today we had another long session finishing at 6-30. There is no doubt in my mind or the minds of the engineers that we have achieved breakthroughs in defining enhancements that would have been difficult if not impossible to do via email or even over the phone. As long as we can make the money people understand that.

The other day, Richard once again mentioned going to Beijing and suggested November might be about the right time.

Time to get ready for dinner. I've definitely been putting on weight this fortnight.

The second week

It was back to work again on Monday. I’d woken up at 2 am with an idea of how to speed up plotting of raw data. It was 4am before I got back to sleep. When I got to work I thought of a variation of this to sample auxiliary data as well.

It was quite busy today with a couple of engineers in from the field, both of whom I’d met in Perth. We all went out to lunch, again at the Indian restaurant. That evening Patrick – one the engineers - and I went to A so called Australian restaurant called the Outback. It was as Australian as apple pie. Apart from a liberal sprinkling of Australian terms one the menu – Kookaburra wings, Tassie prawns etc, it was the same food you’d get at any number of other food chains. Having said that I did have a nice steak.

Tuesday we had a big meeting from late morning till late afternoon. They ordered in Mexican so we could keep working though lunch. That night Tony, Lisa, Patrick and I went to a Sushi restaurant. Lisa has food allergies so there was a lot of discussion with the waiters to make sure she didn’t get anything that could affect her. I has the surf and turf. This was unlike the similarly names dish you might get in an Aussie pub. ie a steak with a couple of prawns on top. My meal was a full lobster tale with a small piece of steak.

My cold took a turn for the worse this week and I had to get some cold tablets. This did seem to get me through the night on Monday and again last night. Today I worked through some of the bugs and enhancements we discussed yesterday. Lunch was at Vietnamese Noddle bar. After work tonight I drove around the area taking some photos of different buildings and other sites. I went back to the mall and bought a scarf for someone back home and then picked up some crab and salad for dinner.

On the Panther Trail

I had a lazy Sunday morning. I got a load of washing done and watched a bit of TV. I tried to call Tony to see if he could play golf but didn’t get through, so went to the super market and bought a salad for lunch. I tried Tony again later and he said he wasn’t feeling up to it so I headed off by myself.

This time I played the other course – Panther Trails. It is shorter but a lot trickier. I continue to be impressed with this course. They even provided free range balls for driving practice as well as the balls for the chipping and putting areas. The carts also have a couple of towels and a handful of tees provided.

This course really does need a cart, as there are a number of occasions when the next tee is quite a distance from the last green.

I was supposed to play with someone at 3 pm but he’d already hit off by the time I got there. A father and son pair arrived before I’d hit off so we joined up and we caught the single on the 4^th tee and he joined us as well. Apparently the singles in front of him had all joined up so this slowed everyone down. In the end it took 4 ½ hours for the round.

Robert and Robert Junior were playing of the black tees and I started on the whites but changed to the blues when we caught up to Fred since he was playing from them. I had a 42 going out but a 50 coming home. Again a number of lost or unplayable balls was the problem. I did manage 1 birdie on the par 5, 9^th after hitting the green in 2 with a hybrid 4 from 208 yards out. Mine is the closer of the 2 balls in the photo above.

The final hole seen below has an island green. My shot landed on the slope just short of the green and disappeared into the water not to be found. The side shot shows that you can't even play safe by deliberately playing long and chipping back.

It was hot and humid again today and if you were in a place where there was no wind, eg because of the trees it was quite stifling. I also seem to have got a decent tan over the 2 days refreshing my golfer’s tan lines. Well tanned on the arms to sleeve length except for the left hand due to the glove, and legs between the hem line and the sock line.

Once back at the hotel, I raced out to JC Penney’s to pick up more bras, while they were still on special and the went to TGI Friday’s for dinner. By then my supply of US$ was getting low but I had enough for some spareribs and salad.

I was asleep by about 10 but once again woke in the night, this time I worked on a speed up routine for plotting.

Actually, Houston - we don't have any problems

I didn't get back to sleep this morning. It was 6-30 by the time I'd finished updating the last blog entry so it hardly seemed worthwhile.

I left for the Space centre about 9 and it took the better part of an hour to get there. Once I arrived I took a quick look around the museum cum kids playground part and then headed for the tram for the tour of the actual space centre. Outside it is particularly un-extraordinary. Not much different than a university campus or modern business park. Essentially just a lot of buildings with car parking and a bit of landscaping between them.

Our first stop was the building that contains mission control. In fact there are 3 different control rooms. We sat in a theatre arrangement overlooking one of them and had a 10 minute presentatio0n. It was quite interesting. Lots of computer screens etc.

The next stop was the space vehicle mock-up building where they have full scale models of different space vehicles and structures for training purposes including a full sized shuttle and two part shuttles. We were fortunate to see the actual lunar rover - new version with 12 wheels and it was taken outside for some testing so we actually saw it in action.

The final stop was Rocket park which has an actual Saturn V rocket in side. It was for Apollo 18 but the mission was cancelled so it was never used. It is huge but the capsule at the end (top) was so small. It wasn't much bigger than a 4WD car.

That tour took 1 1/2 hours. I decided to skip the theatre presentations but wandered through the mock up of the shuttle flight deck and through the museum. I also stopped in the shop and bought some NASA caps. I particularly liked the one that said "It's not Rocket Science (Oh wait, yes it is)"

It was just after 12-30 when I left and my GPS predicted a 1-40 arrival back in the Woodlands. I called Tony who told me he'd already dropped his clubs at the hotel. Once I got back I put one of my camera batteries on charge, since both were flat, picked up the clubs and then headed out to a nearby shopping area where I picked up a chicken salad and smoothie for lunch. By the time I'd finished there was enough charge to take the camera with me.

I headed or the golf course and was told I could go right on. There was no-one else booked so I couldn't join up and that the last group had hit off 40 minutes earlier. After getting the cart organised I had some putts and chips. They actually just have dozens of balls on the putting green and chipping green. So you grab a handful and use them and leave them for the next people. Can't imaginer that working in Australia.

The course was in very good condition, especially considering how much rain they'd had. Cart were strictly on the paths only but the greens were very dry but still quite soft so you throw the ball right at the green.

Tony's set consists of Taylor-made irons which I quite liked. Callaway hybrids which were ok as well, some weird wedges which I didn't like much. Ditto for the fairway wood. A Wilson putter which I got used to after a while and the Callaway FTi 9 deg Driver which I absolutely loved, once I figured out how to hit it.

I had a 91 which is 5 over my handicap. More than acceptable with borrowed clubs on a strange course and to be honest the extra strokes were probably putts while I was getting to used to the greens and the putter and a couple of balls in the water. I lost 2 balls in Water hazards and 2 in the rough - 1 was a provisional anyway which I didn't need. While looking for the second one, I found 6 other balls.

The course is very picturesque and in excellent condition. I could not believe that a public course could be so good and yet so empty on a Saturday afternoon. I caught up to one group of 3 one the 10th tee who waved me through. I hit my drive over the sand trap on the right, cutting across the dogleg and put my second on the green for a par. Don't you love doing that when someone calls you through. It took me about 2 hours 45 to complete the round. I could probably have played the other course and still taken not much longer that a normal Saturday round back in Perth.