I travel quite a lot for my job. Fortunately this job entails me to travel within Europe most of the time so unless it is unreasonable to travel by car I will do just that. I have a small van. This means I sit nice and high, plenty of legroom, I can get out once in a while for a walk and take a break.
So whenever I need to be in the UK, or Spain, or France, or Poland, I will take the car. Once I get there I am usually asked why I didn't take a plane since it is so much faster. This is where they are usually wrong. When I travel by plane, and sometimes I must, then I have to arrange transportation to the airport, be there 4 hours in advance for all the paperwork etcetera, arrange transportation from the airport to my final destination, and all these things even planned to perfection in any of these countries I mentioned, my top nett time profit is 6 hours.
When I take the plane to Spain, by the time I am at the airport, in the plane, and on my way to Barcelona, I am well on my way in France without breaking any speed limit and taking a break on the way.
So in short, whenever I need to go somewhere, I genuinely prefer to drive there unless I have no alternative.
Que the president of the company I work for. Our company sells specialist chemicals such as additives for paint to stop fungus from growing on your painted wood, or to make paint flow easier when you administer it without forming hangers. We also manufacture specialist oils like for sewing machines and guns. The company is based in the US, and is privately owned by 6 shareholders of which the main shareholder is the president of the company. This means that whenever the president of the company says "I have an idea", this translates into "this is what is going to happen". And then it is up to us to make this idea happen, no matter what the consequences may be. Now to be fair, his ideas are usually based on some good business making decision criteria, which have saved the company from bad economic situations before so I am not saying he is a bad president.
But this president, had the plan to gather all members if IT together from all over the globe and form a IT convention in the main office in New Jersey. For 2 weeks we were going to hear all the presentations of the different branches in IT within this company, from the I5 systems (AS400) to the website department, and from IT in Europe to IT in Asia. So my first instinct was "Is he nuts? 2 weeks in NJ while I can't afford to be gone for 2 days in Europe?". Then I started to look at the travel arrangements and though I like to drive, going to Russia and take the ferry to Alaska to drive to New Jersey does seem a little too much of a good thing.
So there I was, sitting in a economy seat, from Schiphol to Newark, after which I wold be picked up by a limo and brought to a hotel in East Hanover. I hate traveling like that. I truly detest it. the Boeing 767 has 3 columns of seats, 2 columns of 2 seats on the side, and a column of 3 seats in the middle. Everything is cramped, everything is build for guys 2/3rd the size of me. I am fat, but not as fat as a lot of Americans I have seen so how on Earth those people would ever fit in those seats is beyond me. And then there is the smell. Oh my FSM, the smell. 8 hours long all passengers bunched together eating and sweating and farting. As I sat at the isle, all my hopes to be able to stretch my legs every now and again got seriously smashed literally when a cart or another passenger crashed or kicked or stepped on my feet.
Needless to say I was not a happy camper. But I somewhat was excited about seeing the US for the first time so I took it all in my stride. After the long long long passport procedure (Adrian has told you about this as well so I will skip that part) I got in the limo, and tried to get a glimpse of "the garden state". Well whoever is in charge of keeping that garden clean, he or she is doing a rubbish job. There is more thrash on the sides of the New Jersey highways than I have ever seen in any country. I was very sleepy already, as I hardly had any sleep on the plane and it was midnight for my biological clock, so I was glad to be in the Ramada Hotel in East Hanover. I unpacked quickly but for a change made good use of all the closets, as it was going to be my home for the next 14 days.
As I arrived on Saturday so I could explore the town a little on Sunday, the first thing I noticed is that I couldn't find a sidewalk anywhere. So I kept away from route 10 as much as I could and checked out the industrial area and the stores that were open like Targets and Bust Buy (I had to buy an plug adapter since my laptop power supply does support 110V but doesn't have the correct plug). I walked by a lot of houses, and a lot of churches, of various denominations, quite often just across the street from each other. As I walked through this town as I have walked through many towns in many countries, this was the first time where as time passed, I more and more got the feeling "This is not the kind of place I would want to live". I don't know, it had a feeling of detachment I have never had in Sosnowiec or Gooreind or any small town in the UK.
Every morning I was taken from the hotel to the main office of our company in Florham Park, which is a 10 minutes drive. During that time the whole of NJ was packed in snow and ice, and all the gray of the buildings combined with the gray of the slushed roads did not give me a sense that the feeling I got that first Sunday was wrong. It was however great fun meeting in person people who you have worked with for many years over the phone and email. In that aspect, the president of the company was right again. What we also learned in those 2 weeks as the economic crisis progressed, that our department was one of the few departments that was not going to get downsized. This mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a lean and supertight budget and delivering our promised result for over 4 years straight. Our pay rise however is being reverted though, so next month I will get 2% less than last month. As much as I don't like that, it is better than being out of a job.
The rest of the 2 weeks were pretty uneventful. We were treated to a department dinner at the expense of the Company, as a thank you from the president for our effort.
Yesterday the whole song and dance of traveling back started all over again. The noise, the smell, the only upside was that I could watch 3 episodes of House MD back to back.
I am glad to be home. I hope I haven't bored you all to tears.
So whenever I need to be in the UK, or Spain, or France, or Poland, I will take the car. Once I get there I am usually asked why I didn't take a plane since it is so much faster. This is where they are usually wrong. When I travel by plane, and sometimes I must, then I have to arrange transportation to the airport, be there 4 hours in advance for all the paperwork etcetera, arrange transportation from the airport to my final destination, and all these things even planned to perfection in any of these countries I mentioned, my top nett time profit is 6 hours.
When I take the plane to Spain, by the time I am at the airport, in the plane, and on my way to Barcelona, I am well on my way in France without breaking any speed limit and taking a break on the way.
So in short, whenever I need to go somewhere, I genuinely prefer to drive there unless I have no alternative.
Que the president of the company I work for. Our company sells specialist chemicals such as additives for paint to stop fungus from growing on your painted wood, or to make paint flow easier when you administer it without forming hangers. We also manufacture specialist oils like for sewing machines and guns. The company is based in the US, and is privately owned by 6 shareholders of which the main shareholder is the president of the company. This means that whenever the president of the company says "I have an idea", this translates into "this is what is going to happen". And then it is up to us to make this idea happen, no matter what the consequences may be. Now to be fair, his ideas are usually based on some good business making decision criteria, which have saved the company from bad economic situations before so I am not saying he is a bad president.
But this president, had the plan to gather all members if IT together from all over the globe and form a IT convention in the main office in New Jersey. For 2 weeks we were going to hear all the presentations of the different branches in IT within this company, from the I5 systems (AS400) to the website department, and from IT in Europe to IT in Asia. So my first instinct was "Is he nuts? 2 weeks in NJ while I can't afford to be gone for 2 days in Europe?". Then I started to look at the travel arrangements and though I like to drive, going to Russia and take the ferry to Alaska to drive to New Jersey does seem a little too much of a good thing.
So there I was, sitting in a economy seat, from Schiphol to Newark, after which I wold be picked up by a limo and brought to a hotel in East Hanover. I hate traveling like that. I truly detest it. the Boeing 767 has 3 columns of seats, 2 columns of 2 seats on the side, and a column of 3 seats in the middle. Everything is cramped, everything is build for guys 2/3rd the size of me. I am fat, but not as fat as a lot of Americans I have seen so how on Earth those people would ever fit in those seats is beyond me. And then there is the smell. Oh my FSM, the smell. 8 hours long all passengers bunched together eating and sweating and farting. As I sat at the isle, all my hopes to be able to stretch my legs every now and again got seriously smashed literally when a cart or another passenger crashed or kicked or stepped on my feet.
Needless to say I was not a happy camper. But I somewhat was excited about seeing the US for the first time so I took it all in my stride. After the long long long passport procedure (Adrian has told you about this as well so I will skip that part) I got in the limo, and tried to get a glimpse of "the garden state". Well whoever is in charge of keeping that garden clean, he or she is doing a rubbish job. There is more thrash on the sides of the New Jersey highways than I have ever seen in any country. I was very sleepy already, as I hardly had any sleep on the plane and it was midnight for my biological clock, so I was glad to be in the Ramada Hotel in East Hanover. I unpacked quickly but for a change made good use of all the closets, as it was going to be my home for the next 14 days.
As I arrived on Saturday so I could explore the town a little on Sunday, the first thing I noticed is that I couldn't find a sidewalk anywhere. So I kept away from route 10 as much as I could and checked out the industrial area and the stores that were open like Targets and Bust Buy (I had to buy an plug adapter since my laptop power supply does support 110V but doesn't have the correct plug). I walked by a lot of houses, and a lot of churches, of various denominations, quite often just across the street from each other. As I walked through this town as I have walked through many towns in many countries, this was the first time where as time passed, I more and more got the feeling "This is not the kind of place I would want to live". I don't know, it had a feeling of detachment I have never had in Sosnowiec or Gooreind or any small town in the UK.
Every morning I was taken from the hotel to the main office of our company in Florham Park, which is a 10 minutes drive. During that time the whole of NJ was packed in snow and ice, and all the gray of the buildings combined with the gray of the slushed roads did not give me a sense that the feeling I got that first Sunday was wrong. It was however great fun meeting in person people who you have worked with for many years over the phone and email. In that aspect, the president of the company was right again. What we also learned in those 2 weeks as the economic crisis progressed, that our department was one of the few departments that was not going to get downsized. This mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a lean and supertight budget and delivering our promised result for over 4 years straight. Our pay rise however is being reverted though, so next month I will get 2% less than last month. As much as I don't like that, it is better than being out of a job.
The rest of the 2 weeks were pretty uneventful. We were treated to a department dinner at the expense of the Company, as a thank you from the president for our effort.
Yesterday the whole song and dance of traveling back started all over again. The noise, the smell, the only upside was that I could watch 3 episodes of House MD back to back.
I am glad to be home. I hope I haven't bored you all to tears.
Best regards,
Leo van Miert
Horsepower is how hard you hit the wall --Torque is how far you take the wall with you
Leo van Miert
Horsepower is how hard you hit the wall --Torque is how far you take the wall with you
odcast:: 
