Thursday, August 09, 2007

The Passenger's Bill of Duties

BusinessWeek's "Ask the Ethics Guy!" column: The Passenger's Bill of Duties

Should be mandatory for every person that flies on a commercial airline.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Seen while driving down my street today...

The 15 year-old in me couldn't resist taking a picture.



In my defense, Katherine was giggling with me.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

The people I'm working with...

Chris and I.



John and I.

Outer Wall of the Forbidden City

If I get a few hours off before I leave I intend to go inside. (I was told that I need 3-4 hours to actually tour the interior.)



The Great Hall of the People

We had a day off on Sunday. One of the things we did was visit Tienanmen square. Here's some pics:



Saturday, June 09, 2007

Only 2 problems with Beijing

As I see it, the city only has 2 real problems that need to be fixed before the Olympics: pollution & traffic (in that order).

Weekday morning at 6 am, lots of smog and lots of cars:




Sunday at 11:00 am still smoggy, but less traffic:



(Sorry for the aggravating reflections on the window.)

Flowers

The hotel is very nice. I have flowers on my desk:



And flowers in my toilet bowl:



It's very nice.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

blocked, or just not working?!

Hi. I have been trying to see this blog but I can't seem to access
it. Going to try to log in via GE firewall.

(Posted via e-mail).

jay

Not a very popular store

International Broadcast Center

We've been pretty busy and I've not had a chance to post much (as you can tell). However, yesterday we visited the "Olympic Green" and had a chance to visit the IBC (our temporary TV station and HQ while at the Games). IT IS HUGE and very "under construction".











Suspended particulate?




Wally...


Dust control

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Busy, sorry.

Sorry about the lack of updates / pics. I've got some stuff but have been too busy to sit my laptop.

I hope have some time in the morning (next 7 hrs), before nmy new days starts.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Lag

I am really feeling the jet lag now, which is a good thing. I'd rather feel crappy now, early in the trip, than later when things are busier and everyone else is "on schedule". I couldn't stay awake during the car ride back to the hotel (from our last location survey of the day) and went right to bed when we got back home around 5 pm. I was smart enough to set my alarm for 7 pm. If I hadn't, I'm sure that I would have slept until midnight or 1 am and then be completely awake during the middle of the night.

On second thought, it's not that I am smart to set my alarm. Rather, I am dumb / unlucky enough to have completely messed-up my schedule on past trips overseas. Being completely awake at 3 am for a few days in a row can be torture.

My body/brain thinks it's the middle of the night and really does NOT want to be awake, but sitting in the drafty AC is waking me up. If I can just stay away until 10 pm, I should be able to get back to sleep and stay in bed all night.

Time to grab a shower, a bite and a beer.

"Old(er)" vs. New

This is the stadium that was built for the Asian games back in 1990.



That was then, and this is now:





These photos were taken from the roof of the Beijing International Convention Center, where the NBC News "bureau" will be located up to, and during the games.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Update - Tuesday morning

It's 9:20 am here in Beijing and things have started smoothly. The flight on Air China was easy and the food was good. I was able to sleep for 4 or 5 hours and woke up about 90 minutes before landing.

The arrival was amazingly quick. We were the only ones at immigration, our bags were first off the belt and the trip to the hotel took less than 30 minutes. I've been told not to expect this on future trips (in other words we got very lucky).

Based on the quick drive, Beijing doesn't feel much different than any other major metropolis. Nothing jumped-out as being shockingly different, yet. But a trip from the airport to the hotel is hardly a good measure of any place.

We had a few (several) beers in the evening and I went to bed around 0030. I thought for sure I'd sleep thru the night. Of course I woke up at 4 am!! I managed to sleep another hour and now I fell pretty normal. I'm told that the real jetlag hits tonight and tomorrow.

Breakfast was "typical"...if you were thinking of London! Eggs, crispy bacon, sausages, fried tomatos and baked beans!!! The coffee was super strong and now I have a serious headache.

The real fun begins at 10am. Our first meetings/surveys begin right next door at the convention center. Hopefully I'll get a better sense of "life in China". I'll bring my camera and hopefully have something to share tonight.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Stow everything

Ok. the lights are dimmed and flight attendants are starting to stow everything. Looks like we're off. I don't understand Mandarin, but I'm familiar with the process of starting a flight.

Time to shut down.

Bye for now.

Seated

Its 4:30 and we're just a bit behind schedule, but that's ok. Seated up front in business class seems pretty comfortable. The "new" seats etc. that the airline is advertising are certainly no longer new but still pretty good.

I'm on CA293.

jay

And were off! (II)

I was picked-up at my appartment at 1:45 ET to get to my 4:30 ET flight at JFK. The travel clock is ticking...

And we're off

This is a test of the blog-posting via e-mail system. Did it work?