a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
It rained this morning and so Marlien and I went to check out some book stores and to have coffee. I can buy books here off the shelf that I would still not be able to get through Amazon in the USA : those from local publishers, or those in Afrikaans. (There is a South African website that offer these for sale on-line, though. They will ship it overseas, but of course at an additional cost, and it takes 6 to 8 weeks).
I made a run to Cape Town 
International Airport today to pick up my friend Marlien that arrived to visit me for the weekend. A sales poster inside the arrivals hall of the airport advertised shark cage diving. Will it cost me an arm and a leg? No, it’s US$ 135 per person. ‘Free trip if no sharks were seen’ and ‘Boat maintenance is pre-scheduled and done regularly’ says the operator’s website. But no, I still think I will pass it by!
So what do South Africans do on Boxing Day (officially changed to the Day of Goodwill in 1994)? They relax, put away the left-overs (food and wrapping paper) from Christmas Day, and go to the beach if they are lucky enough to be close to one of the beautiful beaches here. I watched a lot of BBC News yesterday, and I see that Boxing Day in the UK is a very, very big day for shopping there.
I did a little Christmas shopping on Tuesday here in the town of Stellenbosch where I stay with my family. I am still adjusting to the new time zone and the summer temperatures!
With the students from the University of Stellenbosch gone for the summer break, there is less traffic and a lot more parking available. (The academic year in South Africa runs from February through November).
We left an hour late for Cape Town on Sunday, but made it in just fine on Sunday afternoon. I was so warm and sweaty in Johannesburg that I replaced my heavy jeans with lighter pants .. and I stuffed the heavy winter jacket and scarf that served me so well in Iceland into one of my suitcases before re-checking it. It is summer in Cape Town and here in Stellenbosch with temperatures at 81°F/ 27°C.
We have landed in Johannesburg. One more leg on my journey to make, to Cape Town. I cannot write more; I have to run to the gate!
I am at London-Heathrow airport’s Terminal 1, a little bleary-eyed. It sounds great in theory to have a hotel room to catch a full night’s sleep but then there is jet lag, and rowdy young Icelanders at all hours outside the hotel at a popular all-night hot dog stand. Were they celebrating the winter solstice? I wondered. Or just a Friday night celebration? With the daylight time so short, the distinctions of evening, night time and morning are completely blurred. Even so, I did get a few hours of sleep in a very comfortable bed. Then at 5 am, I went downstairs to check out and get on the bus that picked me up.
Well, I made the best I could of a very short day here in Reykjavik! We arrived at Keflavik International Airport around 7 am local time. It is a 50 min bus ride into the city, and the bus driver dropped me in front of the Radisson Blu hotel in downtown. NO TIPPING in Iceland, said my quick look-up on my phone : everything is expensive and includes gratuities. So after breakfast I set off with my Cossack-styled head cover, scarf and gloves. I needed it! The was a chilly breeze driving the freezing temperatures down. I think I did well, getting a really good impression of the city, eating a meal at Cafe Loki, and buying a Tintin book in Icelandic for my collection. Mission accomplished, right?
I made it to Sea-Tac airport, and checked in, through security. I have a flight just under 8 hrs ahead of me to Reykjavik where I will sleep over one night. Then on to London and South Africa. I get to Reykjavik on just about the shortest day of the year, with the winter solstice upon us. At this time the daylight in Reykjavik lasts all of 4 hrs and 7 mins! The temperature is around freezing (0°C/ 32°F), so not ‘too cold’. Still, I picked a hotel in downtown so that I don’t have to venture too far in the cold to see some of the city.
I’m home from Denver .. a crazy day at work it was, squeezing in as much as I can before caught the cab downstairs. At Seattle airport at 7 pm the cab driver gave me a big smile; he finally made it to the front of the line after he started his shift at 6 pm; so I was his first passenger for the night. (Man! At least I don’t work the night shift, I thought). He dropped me at The Chieftain pub on 12th Ave, and in I went luggage and all to join Bryan, Gary, Steve and Ken for their Wednesday night beer, and just to say hi and good-bye to everyone. I leave for South Africa on Thursday with a stay-over in Reykjavik.
I see the Fed said it would start to taper their bond-buying to $75 billion a month from $85 billion. And in the waning days of 2013, the US Senate approved a tiny two-person (Paul Ryan and Patti Murray) budget deal. First time since 2009 the USA actually has an approved budget. There is a ‘doc fix’ in there : postponement of a nearly 24% cut in Medicare pay for physicians from Jan 1 until April 1 – in fact, they get a 0.5% raise during that period. I guess we have to pay the doctors, right? But extended unemployment insurance benefits are set to expire December 28, which will leave 1.3 million people without benefits and hit another 800,000 in the coming weeks. Not good, but for how long should one get unemployment insurance? More than 6 months? This budget deal also has military retirees chip in a little bit of their existing benefits. Is that fair? Life is full of tough decisions.
It was so nice outside tonight that I went for a walk instead of sitting on the stationary bike in the hotel’s gym. Here are some pictures, of the Colorado Convention Center here in downtown Denver, and of the Denver City and County Building, dressed up in Christmas lighting.
One last Monday to get up early, and then that’s it for 2013, I thought this morning as I got up. And maybe TSA at Seattle airport knew that : they made me stand in the regular security line today (gasp) : the one where the traveler has to take his/ her computer and liquids out of carry-on bags, and take jacket and shoes off. (Usually I get to go through the Pre-check line, where that it not needed .. but that designation has to appear on one’s printed boarding pass). At least it has warmed up really nicely here in Denver. The forecast calls for temperatures in the 60s here (15+ °C) on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ada’s Technical Books and Cafe has opened right here on 15th Avenue, so I went to check it out this afternoon. The place has a nice geeky vibe, with electronic gadgets and puzzles on display, and for sale, as well. I wanted to buy one of the puzzles on display but alas, it was sold out. They will get more of the handmade puzzles in by next Saturday, they said.
Bryan made sloppy joes and tater tots for Gary and me on Saturday night. (It was very yummy. Check out the Wikipedia entries below . both are classic American ‘dishes’). And then we watched ‘Man of Steel (2013)’ with Henry Cavill as the latest incarnation of the Superman character created 75 years ago by DC Comics. I liked it, and thought the scenes between Kevin Costner as the dad raising young Clark Kent, were well done. But I see there is criticism as well from long-time fans : there is an awful lot of destruction in the film and Superman (gasp!) kills the archvillain, general Zod in the end. Apparently that is not in character for Superman as superhero. The movie’s costume designers also did away with the ‘trademark’ red outerwear/ underwear over Superman’s blue costume. Oh well : the times and fashions change even for a superhero.. or not?
(It is Saturday as I write this post). With the Friday the 13th drawing for the $425 million Mega Millions jackpot prize failing to produce any winner lucky enough to claim the fifth-biggest jackpot ever, officials raised the amount to $550 million for Tuesday’s drawing. Nine people did nab $1 million prizes for matching the first five numbers. I guess I will keep my head down and work and not even go buy a ticket. Is that what Samuel Goldwyn meant when he said ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get’? South African golfer Gary Player said something similar in his quote from long ago : ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’.
I felt right at home as we arrived into a wet and foggy Seattle tonight. No snow, no ice, and 45°F/ 7°C. My flights from Denver to Seattle are not too long, but sometimes I get ‘cabin fever’ and I cannot wait to arrive so that I can stretch my legs. And gone are the days that there is even one open seat on the plane (at the times of the day that I fly). There have been dramatic changes since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was signed into law.
From Wikipedia : In 2011, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (who worked with Senator Kennedy on airline deregulation in the 1970s) wrote: What does the industry’s history tell us? Was this effort worthwhile? Certainly it shows that every major reform brings about new, sometimes unforeseen, problems. No one foresaw the industry’s spectacular growth, with the number of air passengers increasing from 207.5 million in 1974 to 721.1 million last year. As a result, no one foresaw the extent to which new bottlenecks would develop: a flight-choked Northeast corridor, overcrowded airports, delays, and terrorist risks consequently making air travel increasingly difficult. Nor did anyone foresee the extent to which change might unfairly harm workers in the industry. Still, fares have come down. Airline revenue per passenger mile has declined from an inflation-adjusted 33.3 cents in 1974, to 13 cents in the first half of 2010. In 1974 the cheapest round-trip New York-Los Angeles flight (in inflation-adjusted dollars) that regulators would allow: $1,442. Today one can fly that same route for $268. That is why the number of travelers has gone way up. So we sit in crowded planes, munch potato chips, flare up when the loudspeaker announces yet another flight delay. But how many now will vote to go back to the “good old days” of paying high, regulated prices for better service?
Wednesday was a tough day for me, and I was very glad to get out of the office. We are pushing hard to get our methods and tools in place for the SAP ‘house’ (system) that we have to build next year. Here and there a ‘window’ is still in the wrong place, and a ‘door’ may have to be moved (adjustments to the design). We also have to finalize the reviews of the project plan.
It’s warming up here in Denver from the deep freeze, but by Tuesday the day highs still had not reached up to freezing point (32 °F/ 0°C). The streets and sidewalks are free of snow and ice, for the most part .. but I still watch carefully for ice as I walk to around. Ice is very, very slippery, and the table of ‘coefficients of friction’ shows exactly that. (The coefficient of friction is an indicator of what horizontal force is needed to move one object over another, or one object resting on the surface of another).
I made it in to Denver on the very early morning flight. My colleagues from Dallas had to wait until Monday night to travel out, due to iced-up roads and runways.
From flydenver.com : Cloudscape has been recognized by the Public Art Network as one of the top sculptures installed in 2010. The clouds, which are hollow structures made of corrugated metal and cellular plastic, range in size from 16 to 40 feet, and are mounted on a steel base along the western side of outbound Peña Boulevard to greet people arriving in the Mile High City. Lavery took his inspiration for the sculpture from Colorado’s vivid sky and sunsets.