Lost Horizons

The Lost Generation

posted by Luke @ 5:05 PM 1 Comments

Went out for a smoke and got caught up in a demo

Outside our office this morning there is a demonstration against all the banks, from what I can tell.

posted by Luke @ 11:12 AM 1 Comments

An Assualt - post-script

Returning to Central Station this morning, I noticed that the floor is really dirty. I am sure that it's not particularly more dirty than any other day of the week, but, shocking pink does tend to show the dirt up rather a lot.

This can't be doing much good for Coach Leatherware's image, after all they promote themselves as a luxury leatherware company. In my opinion, they must be trying to promote the grunge look.

Marketing campaign? Definitely a miss!

posted by Luke @ 9:12 AM 0 Comments

An Assault

on my senses. My normal journey to work each morning, involves a trip mainly done on autopilot, where I just have to avoid colissions with various pedestrians, who seem to be expert at stepping into your path. Usually, I can complete this journey without to much effort on my brain, which can be left to its own devices.

However, this morning as I descended into the bowels of Central station, I was greeted by a sea of vomit inducing fuschia. The blood red tiles of Central were still there, but the walls and floor had been taken over to promote Coach Leatherware.

The floors were pink, and most of the walls were black and white apart from pictures of garish shocking ping handbags and purses. In this light everyone's skin took on the complexion of a blancmange.

Fortunately, once I reached the station proper the colours returned to normal.

posted by Luke @ 10:53 AM 0 Comments

Holiday

With a financial tsunami rushing through the commercial world, what could be better than to take a short holiday and get away from it all? So that;s just what I am going to do. I am off to Phuket for a few days, so adios amigos.

posted by Luke @ 5:32 AM 0 Comments

Flight of the Valkyries

OK there I was in Singapore and due to fly back to Hong Kong. Knowing that there was a storm brewing, I checked the internet and was grateful to see that my flight was scheduled to depart on time, so I hussled my bootie out to the airport and checked in.
At 8.11 I received a text from Cathay saying my flight would depart at 10:15, and that the weather in Hong Kong was thunderstorms, 24-28C.
We boarded the flight on time, and got settled. The ground staff departed, they closed the doors and showed the safety video. Then the Pilot told us that our take off slot was in an hour and a half. Groans all around. Switched mobile phone back on, got out my lap top, had a beer, switched on the in flight entertainment, had another beer. At 11.02 I received a text from Cathay saying my flight would land at 14.02. Craned my neck to see if airbus had retrofitted RR Olympus engines from an old concord or something. Had another beer. At 11L47 I get another text to say we would land at 15.40, which seemed a lot more realistic. At 11.48 I get another text saying we would depart at 11.50, which was only about fifteen minutes out from our time we pushed away from the stand.
The flight towards Hong Kong was uneventful, as much as the food was unappetising. Once we got within about 60 miles of Hong Kong we just went into a holding pattern. People were getting tetchy, because they had connections and no information. I was getting tetchy because on the info they had us disembarking at gate 0, which I took to mean that we would be bussed to the terminal.
When we finally got on the ground, we did go to a gate, number 68 about as far away from anywhere as you can get; but, of course we had to wait half an hour for the airbridge operator to turn up. To give them, their due the airport was coping pretty well with the chaos. Going through the luggage reclaim, there were so many flights landing that they had this huge projection screen with the flights and their belt numbers. After that everything went smoothly, got to the airport express three minutes before the train arrived and got to Central where there were plenty of taxis and no queues. Got home and it was in one piece - no food in the house, so I headed out to get something to eat.

posted by Luke @ 5:58 AM 2 Comments

A quick visit to Singapoops

Had to come here for a day or two - we will have to see how the typhoon heading towards Hong Kong fares. First time I have travelled economy on Cathay for a while, and its a shame that the flight isn't half an hour longer, because i do prefer CX business class on their regional flights.
Met a guy at the airport waiting by the ATM machine who had flown to Singapore from London, via Hong Kong. It seems the grand prix is making the direct flights too expensive. Getting to the hotel was hassle free, and they have upgraded me to the garden wing. Its a non-smoking room, but no hassle because I have a balcony.
Because I often stay at Shangri-La hotels there is normally two bottles of beer waiting for me in the room. Nice touch here in Singapore they are in an ice bucket (Shangri-La Hotel in Dalian, please note, I like my beer cold). The only problem is there isn't a bottle opener to be found anywhere in the room. I suppose I could have called reception, but that would have been a hassle; then I had a eureka moment - the slot you put the chain in to secure the hotel door should do the trick. OK so its a little bit bent now, but I can enjoy a cold beer on the balcony with a cigarette.

posted by Luke @ 9:43 PM 0 Comments