Acrop(olop)olis

This week was a trip to Athens in Greece. Somewhere I'd not been before...stayed in the Hilton and this picture was taken from the rooftop restaurant. Its the acropolis...I didn't get an opportunity to have a look around unfortunately but I think its definitely somewhere I'd like to return to.

Saudi Arabia/Bahrain

Just spent a week in Saudi Arabia. I flew into Bahrain, stayed with a colleague on the Friday night, then travelled over the causeway into Saudi the next day.

What an odd country...incredibly hot (47 degrees C) and no alcohol! I stayed in a place called Al Khobar as I was giving a presentation at ARAMCO (based in Khobar) on the Monday evening

http://isasaudi.org/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=22

I stayed at a Holiday Inn (where else) for 3 nights. The weirdest thing was watching the British Lions vs South Africa with a whole load of South Africans in a "compound". This compound was previously a British Aerospace facility and the security was incredible. It was also the only place you could get alcohol being brewed on site. Unfortunately there was a rite of passage of a chilli vodka shot...not great in the heat...and the Lions lost...

Saudi is an odd place really. On the one hand its somewhere that is a really interesting place to visit, on the other its somewhere I was quite glad to leave. Not many people get the chance to go to Saudi - they don't readily issue tourist visa's and so I feel quite luck to have been. What was weird was the shopping malls. First shop I saw was Debenham's followed by Marks & Spencer! How strange is that!

Jo'burg

Flew into Johannesburg on Saturday night for a week over there with our distributor. We were attending the S.A. Process Expo show and we also had some visits at a few customers. Its the middle of the SA winter akthough you wouldn't know it. Stayed at the Hilton. Was very nice. There's a lot of building work going on in to make the country ready for the 2010 World Cup. This is particularly evident on the roads as virtually every junction is being remodelled to make them more efficient.

Overall I was a little disappointed with Jo'burg - I never felt really safe and to me, the city had few redeeming features. Apparently Cape Town is where to go.

One thing that was nice though was the food and drink - the steaks were absolutely amazing, easily the best I've tasted, whilst the wine was on a par...

Achema

Just returned from a show in Germany...ACHEMA. This is one of the big German chemical shows and we had a pretty big stand there. My first time to this particular show but was interesting. Quite a number of visitors despite the current financial climate...

Czech two times

An unexpected trip to Prague for work....it was one that I had not banked on, nor had I really wanted to go...still one can't refuse I suppose...

This was for two nights only, flying in and out of Luton. The only flight available was Sky Europe and I must say, this was the hardest landing I've ever had...we literally bounced along the runway...

Oman, Oman

Abu Dhabi - Take 2

Have spent the last week or so in the Middle East - Abu Dhabi and Oman. I flew in to Abu Dhabi on Friday evening, then travelled by car (7 hours) into Oman on Saturday. Quite an interesting border crossing...no problems if you're a Gulf National but everyone else goes round the back of the hut. Also interesting was the attitude difference between UAE & Oman...Oman being much more friendly. In fact, Oman was a very nice place - hot as hell but pretty westernised. Only problem I had was that for whatever reason, I could not get a phone signal...

Rotterdam or anywhere...

Flew to Rotterdam on Wednesday. We had some meetings at Shell. Flew with Transavia...someone I'd not flown with before but they were pretty good..strange colour scheme though...purple and green

Edinburgh...just Edinburgh

On Wednesday I flew from Heathrow on a BMI flight to Edinburgh. The intention was that my colleague would pick me up at the airport and we would drive to Aberdeen where I was due to give a presentation in the evening. It was a bit of a busy day already as the Lloyds TSB and HBOS thing was going on, I had a load of work to do and I could have done with being back in the office later in the week, which due to this trip meant I couldn't be. Anyway, I landed in Edinburgh and SK picked me up. We got as far as two islands out of the airport and the car died...it would turn over but not fire. We called the RAC and two hours later, the guy turned up. He pronounced it dead on the scene, thinking it was a timing belt failure. As the hotel we were due to be staying at were in Aberdeen, I had no choice but to head back to the airport (about 200 yds) and try and get another flight back. I managed to get on the 18:25 BMI flight back to Heathrow so I had a couple of hours to kill, but what a waste of a day...The flight eventually left at 19:00, so I arrived back home at 10:30pm, having achieved precisely nothing for my days work. To top it all off, the hotel had a cut off at 12:00 which meant we also lost the money on the rooms! Terrible day all round really...

I did manage to register for the new IRIS scan at Heathrow though. This is the new system of immigration which scans your retina when entering the UK at Heathrow (and some other airports). I should now be able to get through customs much quicker than previously.

Travelling

I've added a new label to the blog - "travelling". This is to try and keep track of all the countries I'm visiting both for fun and for business. In the last 12 months, I have been to:

Norway - Oslo

New Zealand - Various

Australia - Various

Israel - Haifa, Tel Aviv

Belgium - Brussels

Cuba - Varadero, Havana

Germany - Munich

Holland x 2 - Amsterdam, Arnhem

UAE - Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali

By the end of this year, I should also be able to add Hungary and another trip to UAE to this list as well...

Dutch Renaissance

On Sunday evening, I caught the train up to Luton Airport and caught a flight to Amsterdam. Another work trip, this time I was attending a conference on cyber security. The hotel was the Renaissance Amsterdam and was nice but undergoing a lot of refurbishment - so much so they had no entrance! The conference was organised by SANS. It was quite interesting...lot's of practical examples of security incidents and will be very helpful with my job. The place itself was weird though...the conference was given in a converted church! Very nice all the same...



I stayed until Tuesday evening and then caught a BA flight back to Gatwick. I then got a train to Blackwater and eventual taxi to Camberley, Surrey. I was staying at the Burwood House Hotel for a night as I was presenting locally the following day. I found this place on Google and it was really, really nice - very welcoming and homely. I would recommend wholeheartedly.

Edinburgh

I came back from UAE on Thursday night and caught the train from Manchester to Stafford as SJ had the car (she was due to come up on Friday). On Saturday we caught a coach trip up to Edinburgh for the Military Tattoo. This is something organised by R & J and they go every year. SJ had been before but I hadn't. We traipsed over to Shareshill for 9:30 on Saturday morning and then caught the coach to Edinburgh. We had a couple of stops on the way - Tebay services where we all had a bit of a picnic and then Moffat where it was pub time. We finally arrived in Stirling (where we were staying) around 17:30...it's a long trip on a coach. We were staying in a Holiday Inn Express so it was OK - always clean and modern. We headed to the pub opposite for some tea before heading into Edinburgh for the Tattoo.

The Tattoo itself was really good and the castle was lit brilliantly. They have bands from all over the world and then a firework display at the end. We had to queue for ages in and out of the arena - this is the price we now pay for extra security I guess, but we made it back to the coach and finally (after a brief diversion) back to the hotel.



The next morning it was back into the city to do a bit of exploring. I'd not been before so was interested to see the sights and sounds of the Fringe Festival which is also on at the moment. This really was amazing, the performers were excellent. A special mention I think to Juzzie Smith who redefines the term one-man band, and also the Aluminum Show - fantastic!

M and I climbed the Scott monument which was surprisingly easy, despite the steps being very narrow - not for the claustrophobic I'd suggest!

We headed into Stirling for a meal at Italia Nostra which was excellent and well recommended.

Sunday we headed back onto the coach for our very long trip back down to the Midlands. All in all a good trip but I think next time it would be better to drive. You just spend too much time on a coach for my liking...

Abu Dhabi

On Sunday I flew to Abu Dhabi for a few days. I flew out of Manchester via Etihad Airways. I had tried to get a flight from London but they were all really bizarre times. Etihad was recommended to me by our guys in the UAE. They're the national airline of UAE which I actually thought was Emirates. Anyway, they were very good, really smooth flight, good service, food etc.

We landed in Abu Dhabi around 20:30 - the temperature was 40 degrees!! I go tpicked up by the taxi and taken to my hotel - the Al Diar Capital Hotel. This was OK...nothing special. I ordered some room service and went to bed. The next few days were taken up with work and I travelled to Jebel Ali on Wednesday. This is about halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. On the way I noticed a sign saying that they're building 70km's of new coastline!! I must say that the building work in UAE is phenomenal. They essentially extended the coastline in Abu Dhabi to make a new motorway and promenade area called the Corniche. This is also the area that apparently Top Gear closed to film three Bugatti Veyron's along it. I think this is to be broadcast in the next series.

The temperature was very hot and interestingly, apparently pretty humid. This surprised me as I thought being a desert it would be dry, however not so in the summer I gather. An =other intersting fact is that of the 4 million or so people who live in UAE, only around 800,000 are Emiratians. The rest are migrant workers, particularly Indians.