Tag Archive for 'Travel'

British summer…

Published
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Tryphoon
on July 21, 2007
in Tryphoon
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Yesterday was the day I  was meant to use my visit to London to attend some of my best friends’ wedding…

All stars seemed to have aligned correctly… Work was done. Shopping for Sarah and Thia was done… Even my timing was good (even has planned for an extra hour contingency plan)…

One thing I hadn’t planned with was a huge thunderstorm and a close to total failure of the London Underground… 

So here I am, shortly before 12, bags on my shoulder, leaving our Hammersmith office, having checked tube maps (and possible issue on the network) & the Stansted Express timetable, just about to get out of the building to get on the Hammersmith & City line… and then I see a major thunderstorm above London, streets are filled with water, cars are stopping and I hear that one of my former colleague has had to leave in a hurry because his house might have been flooded! 

So I rush to the tube station, only to find out that the Hammersmith & City line (pink) is closed due to flooding. I am then advised to cross the road and hop on the Picadilly line…

No stress…

Timing is still good and I have extra time built in… Only issue at this point in time, the rain is so strong that my blackberry got totally wet and seems to have died as a result of that forced shower! 

Once in the tube station, I am told that the eastbound Picadilly line platform is flooded and that I have to go westbound for one stop and change train to come back. No biggie! I hence find myself going towards Heathrow, planning to change in Acton Town and resume my route towards Liverpool Street… The only problem is that once in Acton Town, we are told that the Picadilly line is flooded as well and are told to get on the District Line… The slowest line in the world… So back towards Hammersmith and hopefully Earl’s Court. Arrived in Hammersmith, we are instructed to abandon the District Line and go on the Picadilly again. A train is waiting there for us. I board the train and off we go… and stop… Time is getting tight but I have faith!Next stop, we are once again told that the Picadilly line is now totally dead and that we need to go back on the District line!!!! About to lose my temper but hey, I am going to Caro and Momo’s wedding!

And then the best part of it… Earl’s Court is now closed to all trains and the next stop is Gloucester Road. Great!Until our train simply stops between West Kensington and Gloucester Road and remains there for well above an hour… Signal failure, flooding, track failure, despatch gone silent (resulting in our driver using the track telephone)… The full monty!

Over 2 1/2 hour to finally having ended up only 2 tube stops away from where I initially started! Result: Flight at 3:00PM, 45 minutes are required to get to the airport from Liverpool street. Need to be there an hour in advance, or in my usual case, 30 minutes… and it is now 2:30PM… so even if I can travel at the speed of light, I have missed my check-in window and hence my flight!

Time for Plan B!

Once in Gloucester Road (actually where my hotel was), the driver strongly suggests to us to change train. We are then told that anyways, the District Line is shut down past Gloucester Road and the same applies to the Central Line… Leaving me with going back to the Picadilly Line… Horror!

Well, the Picadilly seems to work OK at that point in time! Decision in made to stop at Green Park (very central location), find a Starbucks and try to book some other method of transportation to reach Nantes… Only issue with that… One way ticket, late booking, etc… Fees are ridiculously high and the best option would left me stranded in Nantes (France) at approximately midnight, with no place to stay and the next available ferry to the “Ile d’Yeu” 40 miles and 8 hours away all that for a whooping $600 on top of the $500 I already paid for my missed return flight, not even including the 2 nights at the local hotel.

So call made to Sarah at home, Jef, Caroline (the Bride) ; all of these courtesy of Skype ; and the new plan is to stay with Jef until Sunday and fly home, simply passing on the wedding!

I am totally and utterly gutted to say the least, being so close and still unable to make it! I guess I won’t see Caro, Momo, Kate and Alexis, flown in from HK and many other friends from either Paris or London this time…

So plan C is now going back to Jef’s place and flying back home on Sunday (well, today’s flight HAD to be fully booked) 

Back in London!

Published
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Tryphoon
on July 20, 2007
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After 5 months spent in the US,  I am now back in London, in our Hammersmith office, for the week. I would lie if I’d say I wasn’t delighted to go back east for a week and see my old home but once arrived in town and passed the first few hours of hysteria, I started to realise that somewhere deep inside, I was now “visiting” London and not really going back home. Home is where the family lives so for now it is Southern California!

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But this didn’t prevent to try to see as many old friends and old places as time and business schedule permits and my first day on the ground was split between shopping with Mike in Chelsea, a brief visit to the office, the local pub attached to it, my own local and our old cantina (The Salisbury Tavern). No need to say that with the help of jet lag, I was dying in my plate of food around 10pm and went back to my hotel…

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Tuesday: Jet Lag: 100%… Lunch time food coma included! The highlight of day 2 has been a proper evacuation of the Soho House, where we were having the usual “last 1, 2, 3 for the road”. Out of the blue, the waitress kindly asked us to leave the premises as the Police had detected a car bomb in front the renowned place… So Chris is walking downstairs while finishing his drink, already accustomed to the British , while Dan is trying to get his credit card from behind the (now abandoned) bar, Mike is taking pictures from the street and I am taking pictures from the 3rd floor… Once outside, we noticed that a large portion of Soho was getting evacuated and the arms police was being deployed… So we simply decided to follow the advice and bugger off! 

Wednesday: Well, still can’t get over my jet lag and lunch time is the time of another food coma for me!

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Thursday: I finally have a bit of time and I am meeting with my little bro Jef tonight, for a little 1-2-1 in South Ken. Usual pick up in Hammersmith, quick drive around and we finally end up in a little French place on Old Brompton Rd…

Friday: Please see next post!!!! Started well… All in all… Rain… Loads of rain… Missed flight.. Can’t go to wedding… Staying with Jef… Couple of pints and a curry… A proper Friday night! 

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The funny thing about this trip (apart from the couple of problems we might have encountered) is that I couldn’t help but noticing few  things that used to make me smile when I used to live in London, some of them being things that my US colleagues mentioned as well in the past and that I used to simply take for granted.

The first thing is obviously the “driving on the left” part of the road experience. That did not took long to fade out but now that I am a kind of qualified driver (at least in California), the size of the street terrified me… Oh my, oh my! I personally would be close to unable to drive around London, unless I could get some training beforehand… I spent most of the week in a fear for collision (especially when driving with my Jef)… I guess I am used to the 12 lanes freeways and the 4 lanes streets and not a 2 way streets with cars parked on both sides of it, so big that it would fit in a  single lane of the 5 freeway! :)

Then, the Tube! Mike and I spent most of the week using public transport and I realised how much I forgot about rush hours, riding the Picadilly line. Which leads to another typical London view: Working girls in perfect working suits, wearing trainers and a little carry bag for their high heels shoes. Sweet!

While we are on the subject, the fashion over the pond seems to still include full visibility of G-Strings while wearing hipsters trousers (for girls only). That I didn’t miss!

So all in all, this trip has been bitter sweet. Really happy to see some of my friends (sorry to those I didn’t manage to meet, but we were on a very tight schedule), really happy to see my old home, but in a way, feeling already so distant of it… Sarah is next and shall visit Britain in November at the latest… I guess we’ll have a full report then!

We have arrived in California!

Published
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Tryphoon
on February 6, 2007
in Californication
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What a day!!!

We are in California, finally, totally exhausted, but safe!

It has been a long and emotional day. Actually, the best way to describe it is rather traumatic than simply emotional!

This morning (London time) started with a surprise when Jef shown up at our door, wishing us goodbye. I couldn’t help it but knew he would do it, but this was so great of him. Tears were in every eyes and parting from my buddy was really difficult (I still can’t read the Goodbye note written on a 606 program).

We then rushed to the airport and managed to move our 2 trolleys of luggage to the check in desk. Everything went in and we did not reach the maximum allowance. Lucky us.

We both then decided to call our respective mums and this proved to be another difficult moment. Re-tears.

Take off and Thia can’t help it but plays “Little Einstein” and taps-taps-taps-taps until take off (Blast Off!)

Flight… well, long… Thia luckily (and with the help of medicine) slept for 5 hours in my arms and spent the rest of the flight being a little angel. Let’s admit it, we were pretty lucky.

After 10 1/2 hours of flight, we land in LAX and rush to immigration, filling the white immigration form for the first time and get out without problem. We even managed to go through customs with a couple of cakes and my mum’s chocolates that we totally forgot about. Our bags came out first (courtesy of United and mainly due to the amount of them. 12!) and within minutes we were in our car in the direction of Burbank and our temporary house.

This new place is lovely, right at the back of the studios, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining room, living room, sitting room, office, kitchen, garage, garden at the back and we can’t help but feel at home. Thia loves it and runs in circles. See pictures in the “Our Pics” section.

The next step proved to be difficult. collecting the rental car. As Sarah wasn’t sure about driving straight after the flight (can’t blame her, I am not sure I could have done it even if I knew how to drive), we managed to get our car booked from the Burbank airport, 15 minutes away from “home”. We then hoped on a cab and went to pick the vehicle. We hoped. We then faced the first glitch of the day. A grumpy, helpless, dumbass guy at the car rental desk, doubled by the fact that A: the rental was booked for the following day B: I don’t drive and the car was in my name C: a total failure of his computer system. We then had to try to rebook the car (twice) in front of him, while the guy was passing information via walkie-talkie to “Vlad” his manager. This took only an hour, while Thia (still not asleep and coping like a queen) was screaming for food. Sarah was close to poke the guy in the eye and I had images of hanging him at the first palm tree and let him rot for a couple of months…

Finally, we got the car (A nice Buick) and we went for our first shopping at the local “Ralphs”, totally jet lagged, exhausted, etc. No need to say that the cart was filled with non matching items and that we’ll have to go back to fill our fridge!

9pm, we finally made it back home, fed Thia and simply collapsed in bed, shattered, full of mixed emotions.

Tomorrow will be once again another day and see the beginning of our relocation program.

Bye Bye Great Britain!

Published
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Tryphoon
on February 6, 2007
in Californication
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It is 11:15am and we are taking off!

Emotions, emotions…

See you on the other side of the pond!

 

PS: image sent to “Tonton Jef”

What if? (I’ll have a double)

Published
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Tryphoon
on February 1, 2006
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Altitude: 34000 feet. Distance travelled: 1196 miles. Tail Wind: 26 mp/h…

Here I am, riding the big bird again, overlooking Greenland, on my way to sunny CA for a couple of days and a long list of back to back meetings…

34000 feet… the best place to start reflecting…

Why here, why now? Well, simply llistening to some good old Soundgarden (following Audioslave’s live DVD) gets me back in the early years…

I was recently reading an article about basic physics around time and the single direction of its vector arrow (INTERLUDE: “please fasten your seat belts” says the anonymous cabin voice). This article triggered many thoughts about now, tomorrow and simply life in general, especially when looking at my baby daughter and the speed at which she is growing. One day she can’t turn from lying on her back to lying on her front, the next day she sits and the following one, she is crawling from room to room… All these precious moments are only there inside their own singularity, to be appreciated at a precise point of time and remembered, but never to happen again (well, at least until we decide start working on Thia’s little brother or sister).

Then today, music gets me back in the early 90’s and in the same way, makes me wonder…
Would I have ever predicted back then, that 15 years after 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s up”, I would be here, not healing at least 20 patients a day, married to an English Rose, father of the 9th wonder of the World (I have been told by my bro that his partner may have given birth to the 8th one, a year before Thia), stupidly frequent flyer, on my way to L.A. in the same way I used to go visit my parents 200 miles outside of Paris or even blogging in English when German used to be my second language…

And then, the inevitable “What if?” set of questions pops up! And the first person that comes up to my mind is Douglas “Doug” Rainey…. Boss at the Monte Cristo in Paris, alcoholic friend (and owner of the “double Jack’n Coke in separate glasses please”) , English teacher (mainly cursing) and special advisor when we had time…. I have been trying to get back in touch with Doug for some times (especially when in Las Vegas, his former home town) but he seems to have simply vanished from the surface of the earth… So what if I would have carried on working as a bartender with him, doing night shifts and drinking our bottle of liquor a night? Well, I would already be the owner of a lovely cirrhosis, that for sure!

What if I hadn’t had drinks one night with Christophe G in Paris, and decided to become an associate in his company (Tribe) and visit New York the following week? Well, I surely wouldn’t have found my job at Disney, thanks to his partner at the time…

What if I hadn’t joined Sarah once at our office local and had several drinks and shots with that old friend of hers called Keith B? Well, I surely wouldn’t be on this plane today and wouldn’t write this post…

So this place wouldn’t exist… so you wouldn’t read it…

Anyways, seems that the common link in most of my life changing moves or decisions in my life is pretty constant and is related to some form of bar/spirit/liquor trio… Sad sad sad!

“Flight attendant? I’ll have a double please!!!”

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