Short Europe Trip

Just after noon here in Mechanicsburg, a partly cloudy day with periods of sun, but still bloody cold, its 1°C today and the overnight temp tonight (although I won't be here is -8°C. I do have the apartment warmed up to 22°C so its pleasant indoors (so you know where I am).

I am off to Frankfurt, Germany today for a few days of meetings and on my return via London I link up with my wonderful Lis and we come back home (read US of A) together.

I leave here about 2.45pm and drive the 195km to Philadelphia airport, drop off the hire car I have been driving for the last three weeks (three weeks has gone pretty fast) and up up and away to Frankfurt via London. I have a 3.5 hour layover in London but the lounges in London are very nice (especially the new ones in Terminal 5).

The forecast for Frankfurt during the week is slightly warmer then here in Harrisburg (I will at times use these two place name interchangeably) with Monday 4°C, Tuesday 3°C and Wednesday 2°C, then it's outta there and back to London for an overnight stay and then Thursday morning, get to the airport, find Lis and head home.

It was nice to see the photos from the outing you had last week for Lis and well done to Greggie for the photography work. It looks like everyone is now very accustomed to the camera with your striking poses (after years of practice you're in the swing of it).

It did snow yesterday and left a cover of snow this morning but it has mostly gone already. IF its going to be cold I want it to snow. Having said that I am sure at some stage it will wear off, and when it becomes slippery on the roads and difficult if not dangerous to drive then that time will be here. Until then let it snow.

I get back next Thursday afternoon so it's not a long trip. Oh, I get the new car on Thursday night (if the plane is on time) - pics will be posted shortly after.

Cheers.

Radio, BO, Car & Lunch (mix of topics)

Well I thought I'd share with you all a few things -
Radio - I have a satellite radio in the car and there are only a few hundred channels to select from and I found this one guy John 'Someone' who reckons that the American system isn't broken and that capitalism will triumph even if it means a load of people suffer in the short term. He went on about how if we continue with the bail outs we'll be turning all socialist like and will be the laughing stock of the world for not up-holding the ideals of capitalism. Afterall we have been scorning countries like France for its socialistic framework for years. These guys really believe in this stuff, its amazing (bewildering) to listen to if not just a little entertaining.

BO - There's talk about how the hell did Obama win - and his shaping cabinet only lacks Bill himself - so much for hope and change. "If you voted for change then you didn't get it don't you feel ripped off already" - that will be the question going forward for a little while now.

Other lines such as, "We are still the power house of the world and we need to show great leadership in this time of uncertainty" and "Other countries will learn the American way and finally get there one day".

Enough of that stuff, down to some good old American consumption -

Car - I test drove a car on the weekend and hopefully will have it this coming weekend but maybe it won't be ready until Monday or Tuesday next week. Anyway when it arrives I'll be sure to post a nice little pic of it for you to see.

Lunch - Now for something a little more light hearted .. The picture below is my lunch time hang - Francesco's. They do great wraps but I am staying away from the hot buffet they offer (no thanks). It ain't the RemCafe but it does the trick. And the coffee at work is far from the normal standard, Eddie I miss you! And the normal cafe on Sat morning on Darling St, well it seems half a world away, wait a second, it IS !! (And BoBo you're a master barista (relatively speaking of course). While the definition from Wikipedia is - "In English jargon, the term "barista" refers to one who has acquired some level of expertise in the preparation of espresso-based coffee drinks. Within certain circles, its meaning is expanding to include what might be called a "coffee sommelier;" a professional who is highly skilled in coffee preparation, with a comprehensive understanding of coffee, coffee blends, espresso, quality, coffee varieties, roast degree, espresso equipment, maintenance, latte art, etc" the term barista may seem a little high for our Bobbin head friendly server of less then ideal cafe on Sunday mornings but he has a level of expertise, exactly the level I am not sure. The company on those Sunday mornings more then make up for it though.

I am still looking for the cafe that makes it 'properly' - no i dont want cream, don't you just have real milk?

The Lunch House.... This was covered in snow last week..... And i am sure will again real soon.


Cheers.

Snow - More Snow

Today was coolish day in Mechanicsburg - technically I travel from Mechanicsburg to Lewisberry (burgs and berries everywhere over here). 

I took a quick sweep of the balcony view this morning as there was a different colour outlook compared to the one i posted on Nov 15th. 

And a few happy snaps too

        

The red wagon looking car is my current hire car and I had to clear the snow.  Its kind of fun (at least for the first day).  The snow was quite dry so it mostly brushed straight off using the special brush like implement that was in the car (its like they knew something), until you get to the actual windscreen which has a thin layer of ice which needs to be scrapped off.  And, the windscreen wipers are frozen to the screen so they don't work for a little while until the screen gets a little heat form the de-mister.  I am sure I'll get the hang of it by the time winter is over in roughly 3months.  3months doesn't seem that long.    

On my way to lunch today I walked up to the corner sandwich shop through this.

And then on my way back to work the same view looked like this.

Well the follow up video won't load BUT the idea was to show you how the weather had changed as the sun was shining on my way back (technology great when it works).

From the videos (which tok a stupid long time to load into the system) you can see the difference between before lunch and after lunch which was only 45 minutes or so.  These shortish snow falls are referred to as flurries.  Flurries are quite common around here and their frequency will be on the rise in the coming months.  In fact I think flurries simply turn into day long snowing.  

Well its fun for now until it becomes a pain in the butt.  

I hear from the guys at work, once there is a little more snow, its out into the car park at lunchtime for snow ball fights.  The teams are all the US guys vs the Aus guys.  And at the moment there is 65 people in the company and there are 2 of us Aussies, so it should be fun when it starts.

Well, another day in the USA - if we figure on a 3 year period, which is 1095 days, i have already done 7.  What could possibly go wrong?  

Cheers.

SNOW

Let the fun begin. 

Today was rather chilly.  I think the temperature was 29F this morning, that's or (-1C) - Chilly Dog........(as opposed to Mexicana...........)

The first little bit of snow.....  This pic was taken tonight when I left work around 6.30pm.  There was very light soft snow falling during the day but melted on landing.  However, when the temp dropped into the evening a light sprinkle was left on the cars outside.  Its not alot but its still bloody SNOW...

Its only late Nov and winter not started yet.

Cheers

The Journey to the US Continues

Last Blog was from Hannover. I tell you what, up in the north of Germany there are an incredible number of wind turbines. I never got the shot I would have liked showing the farms of these huge machines but there are hundreds of these things all twirling around making electricity (here are a few which were close to the road).

Well I got an earlier flight from Hannover to Frankfurt with a hope to get an earlier flight from Frankfurt to London and not wait 6hours and get to London at 11pm. I got to Frankfurt and asked at the British Airways (BA) desk if I could possibly get an earlier flight - they couldn't find the ticket number in the system and insisted that it was a Lufthansa ticket and I needed to go back to the other terminal - the terminals are connected by a SkyLink which is a monorail type train which takes about 5minutes between stations (after you have gone up several sets of escalators etc). So I did go back and asked at the Lufthansa desk to be told this was not correct and I needed to be at the BA. SO, back I went to the other terminal and was greeted by a gentleman who knew what he was talking about. He found my ticket number and got me on an earlier flight, saving me about 3hours.

So off to the lounge I go to wait my 3hours. During this time I got a text from Kev. He was flying back from Amsterdam and was landing at Heathrow just 20minutes before me so within a few more texts we arranged to meet and have dinner at the airport hotel where i was booked in. Kev had his car at the airport so drove around to Terminal 5 and off to dinner we went. Noice stroke of luck there. Twas great to catch up Kev.

Overnight stay in London and back to the airport in the morning for a 1pm flight. The Galleries lounge at Heathrow craps on many other lounges at other airports i can tell you (Frankfurt is hopeless).

Flight to Baltimore was on a BA 767 and I was in seat 1B - although the layout on this plane had half the people facing backwards, strange feeling when you put the hammer down for takeoff. Bloody BA and their on-demand in-flight entertainment system, I demanded and got nothing back. Off to sleep then.

So I land at Baltimore (touching down at 4.17pm on Friday 14th Nov.) and had to go through all the questions at immigration and customs (why are you here?, how long will you stay?, what company do you work for?, what is your job title?, is this your first visit to the US?, when were you in the US last time?, how long did you stay?, what are the samples you have?, what are they for? etc etc). By the time I get to the Baggage collection most other people had already been cleared, collected their luggage and on their way home. I see my bags, grab the first and then the next, hang on a second. That's not my tag. Oh sh*t!!! Someone had taken my bag which looked the same. So I go to the desk and explain the situation, they take information and can see the Hamster look-a-like bag belongs to someone who had 3bags - So at this stage we hope they return the bag.

Well overnight I got an email from the person who mistakenly took my bag and I am hoping it turns up over the weekend. Thank goodness.

Next - off to the Hertz desk to collect the car (Ford Edge AWD) which had been booked. Finally get the Sat Nav and tollway gadget sorted out and it was time for the drive north to Harrisburg in the rain. Arh, my first traffic jam already. I did manage a quick snap.

The Sat Nav lady did a great job guiding me home. Off to sleep, it had been a long day.

Saturday 15th - the first day in our new home.
FOOD - Down to the shops to get some brekkie and lunch. I went to a supermarket called Wegmans (about 5miles away) and loaded up on some groceries. I also managed to become a member of the Wegmans Shoppers Club, yippee.

Its raining outside so I thought I'd sit and write this entry

Here's a view from the balcony.........

An indoorsy kind of day. Good day for a rest.

Cheers, Hamster

testing Blog entry via Blackberry

This is a test to see how posting an entry from the Blackberry works. I am currently sitting at the airport in Hannover Germany about to fly to Frankfurt.
Cheers

Italian and German Factory Tours

Factory Tours - I now know a bit more about glass then i did a few days ago.. I spent a day looking around a commerical glass manufacuring plant where they convert glass tubing into all sorts of things - well that was actually in Italy near Venice (figure that a glass manufacture in all places Venice). It is quite amazong how they form glass by the millions of parts.

Leaving Venice they stung me for excess baggage, i had to pay for an extra 15kg which was kind of OK since I reckoned I was 22 over and they didn't way my carry on (allowable weigt of 7kg) I reckon I am carrying approx. 15kg - two laptops, power supplys and work papers etc sure add up fast.

Well I am seeing an array of new factours, airports, differnt taxi systems and varying standards of hotels. Here's a picture looking out my window from the hotel we stayed in whilst in Venice (it was actualy ~20km NW of Venice. It was quite a nice hotel as long as you wanted to carry all your luggage up the multiple sets of stairs and see the stone front court yard, while it makes a lovely crackley sound swhen you drive over it, bags with small roller wheels find the terrain a little tough to negotiate, so I generated a wave of stones behind me until i gave up and carried them to the front door (then to be conforted by the STAIRS).

I have also registered the new BLOGs from both Kev and Greggie - well done fellas. Keep up the good work and log down a few activities.

Cheers.

New Hamster Blog

Lets start again. The OLD blog which I cant access any more can be found at

http://hamsterelli.blogspot.com/

and I will try to keep this one going a bit better then my last effort where the blog entries died away rather quickly.

Relocation to the USA

Hi All,
Well the move is underway, I have departed the shores of Australia albeit not directly to the USA. I have 4 days in Europe first visiting some suppliers. The first day (Monday) will be in Italy where I currently am (just arrived in Venice - Marco Polo airport), then the next 3 days will be in Germany. When the visits are over it's then a flight from Franfurt to London (stay overnight) and then fly into Baltimore the following day - I will have arrived :-)

Lis will hopefully be not too far behind me in getting across to the States.

The farewell bash thingy was a great way to see so many of my dear friends before leaving for a little while and I thank them for making the effort in coming along. Thanks goes to my wonderful Lisa who had a large part of making it happen.

I have just read the Langles BLOG (see link on the side) and hope that I will meet expectations on more frequent entries so you can see how much Phun the US of A is.

Cheers.