Lost in transition

A weekend in Berlin turned out to be another mini nightmare, continuing my tradition of an unusual event/incident in my recent trips. A S-bahn disruption from Berlin city to the Schönefeld airport ended up me missing my flight back to London, resulting in another night out on chairs that are obviously not meant to sleep over. Having to get another ticket home was encountered with 'not very friendly' ground staff from Globeground Berlin, who insisted that I have to 'check on the internet myself' if I want to book another flight other than Ryanair even though they handle both airlines desk bookings. She was even able to look me in the eye and said that she was unable to check on her system (I thought those airport terminals were the 'know all' machines that can check every single airline that exist in this world, other than the supercomputers quietly churning away data for the preparing for the next particle collision at CERN). So much so for German technology advancement, which I think it partly what you get for flying with a crap service like Ryanair, who has just charged me another EUR75 for missing my flight and putting me on the next flight back. Thanks Mr O'Leary!

Week in review

Another 10km in the bag from the BUPA Capital Run in Hyde Park this morning. Struggled a fair bit but was quite pleased that I came within a whisker of my target of under 40min - I put it down to the excuse of not able to get over my loss. Not really looking forward to the week ahead on the tube, I might try to walk to work instead.

Off on a complete tangent, read that Emirates airlines is going to ban all paper on their flights (including inflight magazines, safety instructions, etc) which is taking up 2kg per seat, and there are an average of 500 seats on a flight. 1 ton of weight saved for every flight - what a brilliant idea to combat the increasing fuel costs!

What is wrong with this city?

It was meant to be an enjoyable night out celebrating John's last night with the company but ended with a terrible bad taste for me when I walked out of the Thai restaurant in Covent Garden only to discover that the lock to my Specialized bike was literally cut in half, and my bike was nowhere in sight. I am really upset as I liked my bike alot and only had it for less than 4 months. Did not even bother to report the incident when I walked past a police station on my way home since I did not have any insurance and the police will not be doing anything. Will be making a trip to Bethnal Green this weekend (won't be surprised to find it there although I am sure there is nothing I can do) but I doubt I can convince myself to get another bike in this city.

Another row entry in my life

ITV4 broadcasted the 23rd Marathon des Sables earlier this evening showcasing a few of the runner pairs who were flying the British flag proud. I came to know about this event earlier this year when a colleague told me about some bloke that he knew who trained for 2 years prior to it, and 2 runners losing their lives in 2007. Frankly I am quite proud of my London marathon achievement this year, although it was easily eclipsed by another friend who is part of the elite 50 mile (80.4672km!!!) club, but Marathon des Sables is seriously crazy when you actually watch it in action - 156 miles across the Sahara desert, across flat plains, 1000m mountains and sand dunes, in 6 days. To make it even more challenging, all runners are to carry their personal belongings and food throughout the course. Some of the 800 runners from 32 countries are probably professionals, but the obviously highlighted very ordinary people like myself. Suddenly the BUPA 10km run next weekend and 10km NIKE run in Aug seems ordinary to the extreme. I feeling ashamed but I am really considering...if this is going to be my ultimate challenge to my limits and endurance...I am seriously contemplating...

On a similar note, there are still places for the 2 above, do join me if you can.