Chris Tomkins’ Blog

When I travel on business I tend to take internet access in the hotel for granted nowadays - it doesn’t have to be wireless but it seems to be becoming the norm. But how much should it cost? I guess it depends on the class of hotel, but the £15 for 24 hours I’ve just been charged by the Holiday Inn Ipswich Orwell seems excessive - especially as my home broadband costs less than that for an entire month! The alternative was £6 for an hour or £75 for a week - not exactly a great choice. Most of the hotels I’ve stayed in recently have had free wireless (even some of the B&Bs I’ve stayed in have free wireless) so £15 for 24hrs is definitely a bit steep.

What do you think?

This morning was my first day back at work after the Christmas break, at least it was supposed to be. I had planned to go into High Wycombe today, not because I had any specific meetings there, but I like the social side of being in the office and as I plan to spend much of this month working from home just in case Shelley gives birth a bit earlier than the 23rd January due date.

So I set off this morning at my usual time of 6.45 and the traffic seemed pretty quiet on both the M27 and the M3, as expected as a lot of people won’t return to work until Monday. Just before junction 5 on the M3 (London bound) the traffic alerts announced there had been an accident on the slip road at junction 4a but that the main carriage way was unaffected so I chose to continue. Shortly after Fleet services the whole carriage way came to a standstill and the traffic alerts announced the M3 was closed between 4a and 4 and that a diversion was in place from 4a. After about an hour and a half in the queue of traffic I made it to junction 4a and by this time it was gone 9.30. With the prospect of at least another hour to get to High Wycombe (I had only travelled 45 miles in 2 and 3/4 hours!) I decided it would make more sense to turn round, head home and spend the rest of the day working from home.

It turns out, the accident between a car and a lorry (as reported by the radio traffic alerts) was actually caused by the body of a woman being found on the carriage way (read more) - the second time such an incident has happened on the M3 in the last month (read about the first incident).

It looks like snow is forecast tomorrow, so might be another day at home for me. My thoughts go out to the woman’s family.

Well its finally coming to the end of my week in Silicon Valley on my New Hire Field Training at BEA’s headquarters. All in all its been a good week - I’ve learnt lots of stuff and most importantly met lots of really great people. I’ve got to take a peek at all the main products - a really impressive line-up - and got to meet many of the key folks in the various teams, plus I’ve got to see the existing BEA headquarters before they move to their new home in downtown San Jose.

My time at the DoubleTree hotel has also been fine in terms of the room and staff, however last night was my 3rd false alarm fire bell in under a week - slightly excessive. The problem is they don’t announce on the tannoy it is a false alarm and so you end up going down stairs and back round to reception before you find out - definitely a bit annoying at 11pm like it was last night.

San Jose and the surrounding area is OK too - nothing special - but nice nevertheless. If you are looking for some restaurant recommendations - check out Sino (an Asian restaurant on Santana Row) which serves a great mix of Asian food and McCormick and Schmick’s which serves excellent fish downtown.

Lets hope air traffic control at San Francisco airport are a bit better than when I arrived so I make it home before work again on Monday!

As I had today free before my course starts on Monday I thought I would go and do some exploring. Walked 2 blocks to catch the VTA Light Rail train to down town San Jose (about 3.5 miles away). Learnt my first lesson - never pay for train tickets at the vending machine with a $20 bill (I had no change) - got $15 in quarters - it was like playing the fruit machines!

The 15 minute ride down there was good - it gave me plenty of opportunity to take a look round the bay area and the heart of San Jose. Walked round the down town area for a while and watched some of the veterans parade (a bit God Bless America for my liking - although good to see so much support for the armed forces who give up so much to protect us) before deciding to head into The Tech (the museum of innovation and technology) which was currently hosting the Body World 2 exhibition. I felt the $22 entrance fee was a bit steep but the Body World exhibition was definitely worth it (although it wouldn’t be for everyone). If the only human anatomy you have seen is a skeleton in the school class room then you should definitely see this in my opinion. Just about every organ from the human body is on display and they are pretty much all real, preserved using the controversial plastination technique invented by Dr Gunther von Hagens. Not only are healthy individual organs on display, but examples of un-healthy specimens too - e.g. a smokers lung, an arthritic knee, cancerous organs etc. as well as the stars of the show - the full human bodies in very recognisable poses including the baseball player, the ballet dancer, the skateboarder and even a pregnant woman. There are also unborn foetuses and embryos from women who died before they could give birth. The accompanying audio tour gave a useful commentary to the exhibits but I found it a bit long winded at points and so gave up about half way through.

The rest of The Tech museum was designed mainly for kids and included areas on the environment, silicon, the internet, robots, ideas for the home and a few more things which obviously had a great impact on me Other than the Body World exhibition the highlights were the dust room where you could dust off your clothes and see how many dust particles were on you (over 6000 in my case!), a robot which picked up wooden blocks to spell out your name and a section on text speak (where else could you see lol, brb, afk, etc. in a museum!). A good idea if you have kids, but if you don’t I wouldn’t bother apart from the Body World exhibition.

The rest of downtown San Jose wasn’t very awe inspiring - perhaps that explains why its the safest city in the US (supposedly)!

As I’d bought a day pass for the light rail I decided to go to down town Mountain View (the north end of the valley). On the trip I passed numerous company headquarters (or at least sizeable buildings) including Cisco, Yahoo, eBay, BEA, Sun Microsystems, Canon, Motorola, Lockheed Martin and even the NASA Ames Research Center which looks like it has 2 garages for space shuttles! Down town Mountain View is much nicer than San Jose - much more cosmopolitan with some nice looking restaurants, shops and coffee shops. After taking a walk down the main street (mainly in the shade to avoid the incredibly bright sunshine) and grabbing a drink I headed back. I got off the light rail at the  metro/airport station, grabbed a fajita burrito to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill (highly recommended - plus check out their very flash web site) and then headed back. All in all a good days exploring.

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Yesterday I arrived in San Jose in preparation for my New Hire Field Training course at BEA headquarters. I have visited California before on my round the world trip, just over 5 years ago, when I visited San Francisco and LA but this is my first time in Silicon Valley - the home of many of the worlds top internet, software and telecommunications companies (check out the Silicon Valley link for the full list).

I was told travelling to San Jose via London was a bit of a pain and everyone flew to San Francisco and then made their own way down to San Jose (about 40 mins away). The trip started well: I’d checked in online and printed my boarding pass the night before for my BA flight; my taxi arrived a few minutes early to collect me and we made great time down a pretty empty M3 (if only it was like this when I commute to High Wycombe). Things then started to get worse - first I realised I had forgotten my mobile (no problem really as I can only use it in the UK) and then I was told I was too early to drop my bags off (oh well, better than being later). After grabbing a tea to kill the time things started to improve: I dropped off my bags; made my way through security; had a good look round the shops and got on my flight on time.

We left a few minutes late and the journey was good (BA’s touch screen entertainment system keeping me amused for the 11hr flight) until we got to San Francisco. We started to descend and couldn’t have been long from the captain lowering the wheels when we pulled up (not too sharply but enough to know something was wrong). The captain came on the tannoy to tell us San Francisco air traffic control had brought us in too close to the plane in front - the heavy rain and tail wind meant hadn’t helped the situation and the plane on the runway was pretty slow - so we had to circle.

A few minutes later we were told we didn’t have enough fuel to circle and we would be landing at Oakland airport (the other side of the bay from San Francisco) where we would refuel and then fly back to San Francisco as BA didn’t have any ground crew at Oakland. On landing we were told to stay in our seat in case immigration wanted to come and check the plane (you can just imagine the commotion - a large plane landing unexpectedly at an airport in the US post 9/11) - luckily there were no spare walkways so immigration wouldn’t have been able to get on anyway

After just over an hour we took off bound for San Francisco and came in to land again, only for the same thing to happen - we were brought in too close to the plane in front. The co-pilot announced over the tannoy this was only the 4th time this had happened to him in 10 years of flying including the twice on this flight! This was followed by the cabin crew director announcing it had only happened to him 3 times before this flight in 33 years and the captain saying this was one of the worst pieces of air traffic control in his 38 years of flying and he would be making an official complaint as soon as we made it into the terminal building!

On our next attempt we landed, made it quickly through customs (even with having to have my photo and fingerprints taken as is now customary for people visiting the US), and then to baggage reclaim. After 10 minutes waiting at carousel 7 (where the screens said our luggage would be) we were told to go to carousel 8 instead where after another 10 minutes or so my bag finally arrived (luckily I wasn’t one of the few people who’s names were called out whose bags had been lost/left in London - how hard can it be!). I then made my way to the shuttles and managed to get one to my hotel - the DoubleTree, San Jose, although had to wait for about 25 mins before we left the airport in order to get enough passengers. Then after a tour round much of the valley (taking 4 other guests to their hotel) we finally made it to my hotel - just over a full 24hrs since I’d got up!

After finding my room, sorting out the free internet connection, chatting to Shelley and the customary flick through the TV channels I headed to bed - a really long day but I’d eventually made it to the valley!

I am currently in Copenhagen on a customer engagement and have been here since Sunday (only found out I was coming on Friday so didn’t have much time to find out what to see and do while here). This is my first time here and I have to say my impressions so far are mixed.

My hotel, the Norlandia Richmond, is pretty average to say the least. On the plus side it is only a short distance from the centre of Copenhagen and the main train station and the staff are pleasant and helpful, but on the down side it is dated, internet access is not free (and was down for almost a day), there is no wireless, there are no coffee/tea making facilities (can’t remember the last time this happened to me at either a hotel or B&B), there is no free food other than one small piece of chocolate (which was only on the first day) and the plug in my sink only just lifts up to let the water go down!

The centre of Copenhagen has a nice mix of shops and restaurants and there are some impressive old buildings but generally I feel it is a bit grey and unimpressive as cities go and there is quite a bit of graffiti. Restaurant wise I have eaten at:

• Rosie Mcgees - a pub/come restaurant serving good tex/mex food which had a really nice atmosphere and really friendly staff
• Vesuvio - an Italian restaurant serving very good pizza but with staff who just didn’t smile

Cost wise it seems fairly comparable to the UK, although beer is very expensive (I don’t drink but was in the pub watching the football last night and saw someone order 2 pints which cost about £10!).

In terms of tourist attractions the only places that I have noticed so far in the city centre have been Tivoli Gardens and Museum Erotica but due to work commitments it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to do any sightseeing anyhow

On impressions so far, Oslo was probably nicer.

Some time ago I wrote about What makes a good bed and breakfast and came up with a list of 4 key qualities:

• Clean and well decorated
• Furnished to a high standard
• Excellent food using local produce
• Something that made them unique

After my experience the other week at a bed and breakfast in the Cotswolds (Lower Field Farm before anyone asks) I have decided to add something else to my list:

• Friendly owners

The place was pretty clean, well furnished and the food good but our lasting impression will be the reception we received. The door was answered and we introduced ourselves - the owner said Hi and then just walked off. After a few moments we worked out she expected us to follow. She then came back with a key and said “I’ve put you by the door as you’ve got a dog and breakfast is at 8.30″ and that was about it. No “Did you have a good trip?”, “Any plans for your stay?”, etc. etc.

On a separate note - good to see that some bed and breakfast owners actually pay attention to what people think - check out Jo’s comment on my previous post. Next time we go to Cornwall we may very well try out Jo’s new bed and breakfast - good luck with the new business Jo!

Well, I have now been here in Oslo for 5 days. The customer engagement seems to be going well and I feel I have learnt a lot (see SOA Tips ‘n’ Tricks for some of the things I’ve had chance to write up).

So far I’ve spent pretty much all my time either at the customer site, the hotel, or walking between the two and so haven’t had chance to explore really.

The weather has also been pretty miserable - wet most days, heavy snow this morning (really big flakes) and bright and sunny the other day (at least for a few hours).

The other thing I seem to have been doing a lot of is eating - what with breakfast at the hotel, food at the customer’s canteen and then a restaurant in the evening. So far, me and Ashok (the IBM colleague I am here with) have been to:

The Red Mill - a reasonably priced restaurant serving a pub style menu which has the benefit of being about 50 yards from the hotel! I had the pizza which was pretty good.

Egon - obviously a chain of pub come restaurants since there are several in Oslo alone. We went to the one next to the central station. Nice food in a pleasant environment - wooden beams, open fires, etc. and reasonably priced.

Papa Sigolo - a Turkish restaurant not too far from the city hall which had really nice food (I had the chicken breast stuffed with garlic, feta and olives). A little on the pricey side - plus we got stung for about £2.50 each for storing out coats in the cloakroom!

Xich Lo - a very nice Vietnamese restaurant (its name refers to one of those 3-wheeled bicycles come rickshaws) just off the main street, Karl Johans Gate. A very modern restaurant with a really nice feel about it. The food, a lamb pineapple and coconut curry with sweet potato served inside half a pineapple was really good - nice and spicy but creamy and mild at the same time. Not too pricey either.

Tomorrow is the weekend and we are planning to do a tourist tour of Oslo (we can’t do the Norway in a Nutshell fjord tour unfortunately as we will have to sleep on the night train and then go straight to the customer site on Monday morning - not a good idea!). May come back with Shelley and do the tour another time.

I’ve just arrived in Oslo in Norway for 2 weeks on business. This is my first visit and so far my first impressions are good - the flight on SAS Scandinavian Airlines was fine and on time, getting through the airport was quick and easy, the high speed train from the airport to Oslo was clean, quiet, and of course quick, and the hotel (only a few mins walk from the station) The Radisson SAS Plaza seems excellent. It is also nice to see some proper snow - although there isn’t much in Oslo itself there was plenty to see on the way in on the train.

The only down side so far is that the whole place is a bit grey - fair enough it’s winter but many of the buildings are grey and there doesn’t seem to be much greenery (I suppose it is a city afterall). My room makes up for the greyness a bit as it is pretty colourful and has a good view over the city (plus free highspeed broadband and wireless!). Hopefully I’ll get to post some more during my 2 weeks here.

So, I’m back from Salzburg after a really enjoyable week. The conference was very good, my talks went well and I even got a day out to do a bit of sight seeing. Salzburg (the birth place of Mozart - you’d never guess ) was a very pretty city and I’d definitely recommend it for a weekend away. A wide, fast flowing river runs through the centre of the city, there is a fortress overlooking it, some very attractive buildings and a few snow capped mountains in the distance.
However, I did find living in a hotel for a week a bit boring (definitely don’t fancy doing it that regularly). Although the room was nice and the staff pleasant, the lack of free food in the room (you can’t beat a free shortbread biscuit) and the lack of good TV channels makes a hotel room a pretty boring place. Free wireless access in the hotel room did take away some of the tedium though.