We arrived in Paris after 7 weeks in Geneva. It was memorial day here and we had a perfect view of the ceremony from the hotel. The TGV was the perfect way to travel and we missed the strikes that seem to happen each November. Here are some photos we posted...
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Leukerbad for the weekend
Monday, September 04, 2006
First Surf Lesson
Although I was born in Hawaii, today was my first ever surf lesson and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to Learn to Surf Noosa.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Noosa
We are having a nice weekend away in Noosa. This was taken in Nooseville at the Noosa Pacific resort.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Brisbane in the morning
It is a little pleasure to be working away with such a nice view in the background. I am not sure it makes the code any better but it certainly is nice to glance at from the keyboard to refocus the eyes every so often.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Being stalked by click torrent girls
In the past few weeks, I have been in Dublin Ireland, Cork Ireland, London UK, Bad Homburg Germany, Dubai UAE, Sydney Australia and Brisbane Australia and have connected to a torrent web site in each location to catch up on my shows.
I know it is probably not the best way to get TV shows, as is shown by the quality of advertisers that support their site. However, click torrent has to take the cake here.
In each of these location, it has show the exact same girls as "in my area" that want to meet me. Same photo, same clothes, same girls - just the names and locations change. If I didn't know better, I would have thought these women are traveling around the world stalking me under different aliases. For instance, in Germany, they had German names and were staying in the same place "Bad Homburg" - a small town near Frankfurt that has one main shopping street and not much going on (sorry but the toscana pizza place is very nice mind you).
However, how dishonest can this advertising get and how ignorant do they think the male population is? These girls are not in my area, are not wanting to meet me, and have nothing to do with the shows I am downloading. I am not the biggest fan of the google adwords but at least I am not getting totally lied to in a spam like manner.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
5 countries in a week
We have arrived in Australia now and hope to stay for a while. In the last week we have been in Bad Homburg Germany, Dublin & Cork Ireland, London UK and then Dubai UEA on the way to Sydney Australia. It will be good to be a little more settled and less "homeless" for the release of ProjectLounge Lite. We go to Brisbane this weekend and hope that will be the last of the flights for a while.
Having, just complained about flights, I was really impressed with Emirates for their service. Coming back to Australia did not really feel "proper" by not getting on Qantas. However, the combination fare from travelmood could not be beat on price. The economy sector from London to Dubia was only 6 hours and I did notice the extra 2 inches leg room over BA/QF. They even give out hot towels. However, when it came to the lounge in Dubai and the Business service to Sydney I was very impressed.
If they can keep up the prices, I am not sure I would fly anything else on long hauls to Australia. They even had an espresso machine on board to get me going before landing - they really thought of everything.
Having, just complained about flights, I was really impressed with Emirates for their service. Coming back to Australia did not really feel "proper" by not getting on Qantas. However, the combination fare from travelmood could not be beat on price. The economy sector from London to Dubia was only 6 hours and I did notice the extra 2 inches leg room over BA/QF. They even give out hot towels. However, when it came to the lounge in Dubai and the Business service to Sydney I was very impressed.
If they can keep up the prices, I am not sure I would fly anything else on long hauls to Australia. They even had an espresso machine on board to get me going before landing - they really thought of everything.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
gzip for your bedroom
I have been packing away some bedding using a vacuum bag system. I always thought these systems were a bit of a joke but they really work well on bedding and pillows (and we certainly have a lot of pillows). Anyway, I recommend a vacuum pack system for anyone who is moving. It really feels like gzip for your bedroom... now if only I could store these things on a sftp server somewhere while we move.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Geocodes are better than an address
After playing with google maps, I see now that the geocodes are far better than just an address. For instance, in the local TV station, many people find it hard to locate within the high school. However, with the proper geocodes GLatLng(42.4473, -71.3469) instead of the address one GLatLng(42.447601, -71.342077) it was possible to get the marker right at the door to the studio. Anyway, if you are finding it hard to find CCTV, then I hope you find the geocoded map at http://www.concordtv.org/site/index/directions useful in your search.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Looking forward to some Sun
We are in London now until the 21st when we go back to Concord and had a good week of rain and clouds. It is really amazing how a little bit of sun goes a long way in the winter. Coming from Brisbane, you really took the sun for granted where here and in Concord you notice it and try to make the most of it. All said, I could really use a few sunny days here in London and hope for the best.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Cash is king - not miles
I have to disagree with a recent WSJ article "When It Still Makes Sense
To Take the Miles". I agree that their might be some point when it makes sense to use miles over cash back, but not based on the numbers they present.
I am not sure their "discounted" trans-atlantic flight is that discounted. The table gives an example of $900 as a discounted fare. I have personally never paid that much and am pretty picky when I fly. I like the morning flight out of Boston on BA so that I avoid the night flights that give you 3 hours sleep (maybe) and get you there at 5am in the morning.
Also, the example for a business class ticket from AA, at $6700 does not factor in two real points.
1. AA does not really have a proper business class (no bed), and
2. It is not too hard these days to get a decent discounted business class or economy plus flight.
In fact, recently, BA had a $199 each way economy plus ticket available. That is a discounted seat that is 7" longer.
The other missing point with points tickets is that you still have to pay for taxes and fees. Once you factor this into the table, I think you will find cash is king and I will stick to my Blue Cash card from AMEX.
Sorry WSJ, but I suspect you have written about this without asking the real question you need to ask and that is for the amount you pay (not the price advertised).
To Take the Miles". I agree that their might be some point when it makes sense to use miles over cash back, but not based on the numbers they present.
I am not sure their "discounted" trans-atlantic flight is that discounted. The table gives an example of $900 as a discounted fare. I have personally never paid that much and am pretty picky when I fly. I like the morning flight out of Boston on BA so that I avoid the night flights that give you 3 hours sleep (maybe) and get you there at 5am in the morning.
Also, the example for a business class ticket from AA, at $6700 does not factor in two real points.
1. AA does not really have a proper business class (no bed), and
2. It is not too hard these days to get a decent discounted business class or economy plus flight.
In fact, recently, BA had a $199 each way economy plus ticket available. That is a discounted seat that is 7" longer.
The other missing point with points tickets is that you still have to pay for taxes and fees. Once you factor this into the table, I think you will find cash is king and I will stick to my Blue Cash card from AMEX.
Sorry WSJ, but I suspect you have written about this without asking the real question you need to ask and that is for the amount you pay (not the price advertised).
Monday, October 10, 2005
In-Frequent Flyers Programs by the numbers
We all know it is damn near impossible to find an available award seat on QF, BA or CX for any most routes that people want (to Europe, USA, etc). Why else would it have this page show it is impossible to find any flights to these locations (Awards Available). Also, using ExpertFlyer.com I have seen no inventory for as far as I could go (U0 is a familar code on that site let me assure you).
I thought I would sit down and do the numbers from information available on the Qantas web site to see if it makes sense. Here is a quick summary of what I found:
* Just over 3 Million Seats awarded in 2004 (Awards Given)
* and they carried 27Million (Traffic Stats)
So, a little over 11% of seats are award seats (not sure what % of revenue is attributed towards FF program as it is not in the report).
It is possible to earn points every 1.6km (Earning Points)
Total revenue km is 76Million (traffic stats report) and thus about 47Million points could be issued. We know that they are not all issues but that is a staggering number. It also does not factor in the points given out with credit cards, car rentals, hotels, etc (Partners).
So, looking at a middle point zone 6 flight = 36,000 points (Points Table), this works out to be a possible 4.7Million zone 6 economy flights. So, it seems clear that they are issuing more points than they are giving out - if they published the frequent flyer points as a liability on the annual report we would know for sure but I could not find it.
An alternative way to look at it, is how long does it take to accrue a zone 6 economy ticket. Given that the ratio of award to revenue flights is 3:27, it seems that it should take you about 9 flights to get one. However, it only takes you about 7 zone 6 tickets to earn one free flight. So the odds are against you from the start and that does not factor in any bonus points flyers with status get (Up to twice as much).
To me, this does not makes sense in any way when you do the maths - the system is fundamentally flawed as they are trying to pay back a 14% bonus program at 11%.
I thought I would sit down and do the numbers from information available on the Qantas web site to see if it makes sense. Here is a quick summary of what I found:
* Just over 3 Million Seats awarded in 2004 (Awards Given)
* and they carried 27Million (Traffic Stats)
So, a little over 11% of seats are award seats (not sure what % of revenue is attributed towards FF program as it is not in the report).
It is possible to earn points every 1.6km (Earning Points)
Total revenue km is 76Million (traffic stats report) and thus about 47Million points could be issued. We know that they are not all issues but that is a staggering number. It also does not factor in the points given out with credit cards, car rentals, hotels, etc (Partners).
So, looking at a middle point zone 6 flight = 36,000 points (Points Table), this works out to be a possible 4.7Million zone 6 economy flights. So, it seems clear that they are issuing more points than they are giving out - if they published the frequent flyer points as a liability on the annual report we would know for sure but I could not find it.
An alternative way to look at it, is how long does it take to accrue a zone 6 economy ticket. Given that the ratio of award to revenue flights is 3:27, it seems that it should take you about 9 flights to get one. However, it only takes you about 7 zone 6 tickets to earn one free flight. So the odds are against you from the start and that does not factor in any bonus points flyers with status get (Up to twice as much).
To me, this does not makes sense in any way when you do the maths - the system is fundamentally flawed as they are trying to pay back a 14% bonus program at 11%.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
I'm over it now - Australia lost the ashes
I don't really follow the criket and didn't ever get past being a very poor wicket keeper. However, when I was in london last it was hard not to get into it. However, the first time I followed the Ashes it did not work out so well for the Australia - sorry to all for that.
It was a really good series to follow and seemed to really push the game's following along in the UK so it is probably all for the best. Well done England!
It was a really good series to follow and seemed to really push the game's following along in the UK so it is probably all for the best. Well done England!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)