#9 - Sporty pyjamas in England

Beautiful Tower Bridge

I participated a seminar in London and stayed at a hotel next to the Oxford Street. That is close to the Hyde part, which is one of my favourite places for a morning run. Because it was winter time, I decided to pack long underwear, cap and cloves in addition to my sneakers. Later on I realized that such a decision was crucial.

Hyde Park was beautiful in the morning and the first seminar day was interesting. It was time to go to bed. I had difficulties to sleep because the hotel room was so cold. None of the adjustments to the radiator helped and the room service was helpless with the problem.

The next day I was pretty tired. No morning run, but I managed to stay awake the whole day. For the second night the room service gave me a hot water bottle. That felt warm, but I was still feeling cold. I could barely sleep when I dressed the long running underwear and sock on.

For the last night I made a clever move. I filled the hot water bottle, used two blankets, wore the running jacket and running tights on top of the long underwear. That helped a lot and the next morning I was fresh again to give my speech at the seminar.

We Finns feel cold inside and outside in England. We will never get used to that.

Lessons learned:

Dress warm if you travel to England.

Innovativeness is a virtue.

Paddington knew to dress warm in England.

#8 - Deep dive to British driving

That was my first visit to England. I travelled with my boss Mr R and his colleague Mr R; one junior and two senior professionals. The ranking order was made clear to me from the very beginning of the trip. When the aeroplane took off, it was time to decide who will enjoy the beer, wine, and cognac and who will drive the rental car. For some reason, I was the lucky winner of the driver’s role.

The worst part was the roundabout next to the Heathrow car rental area. It was difficult to drive first time on the wrong side of the road. The next roundabout on a highway entrance was already a bit easier. However, after driving over two hours on a highway towards Bristol I started to feel like a professional British driver. That was my British driving school - a real intensive course.

Heathrow-Bristol - Why are all the other people driving on a wrong side of the road?
Source: Here.com

Couple of year later I needed to drive a rental car from Heathrow to Ipswich. I was well prepared, because I was driving alone and needed to read the map while driving. I knew that the best route was taking the M25 circle road northbound. Taking the opposite direction would be about 20 kilometers longer. There I was driving my rental car, reading the paper map and trying the take the right exit to the M25. I was circulating the roundabout on a highway entrance about seven times, but never understood the signs in order to pick up the right direction. I needed to guess, and of course I made a wrong choice. No worry; both routes led to Ipswich.

The implementation. Source Here.com

The plan. Source Here.com

Lessons learnt:

Just do it attitude is a key of success.

Modern technology may help you, even in the familiar situations.

It is not all about the destination, but also how to get there.

#7 - Wanna make some dishes

After spending a day at the cost of Galveston I and Mr J.  returned back to the hotel. It was time to pack the souvenir bottle of Californian Zinfandel wine in the suitcase and get back to home. I went to hotel reception in order to check out. However, that became difficult because my credit limit was already exceeded. How come, I thought? There I was in the middle of Texas solving the problem.

First I thought about making some dishes at the hotel, but it did not feel like a good choice. Then I called my credit card operator, but they could not fix the problem. Luckily Mr. J was an experienced business traveller and had his walled filled with all sorts of credit cards. He was kind enough to pay my hotel bill and we were ready to get back to home.

After a couple of sport exercises at home my stomach started to normalize again. I also got clarity to my credit card problem. The hotel had reserved the cost of one week stay at the time of check-in and during check-out they were trying to make another reservation for the same cost. The credit limit of a junior professional was not high enough for two weeks stay at an expensive hotel. However, later on I was able to pay my debt to Mr. J. who saved me from making dishes.

Houston and Galveston area.
Source: Here.com

Lessons learnt:

Real colleagues are also lifetime friends you can always trust.

Reconsider seriously the risks if you have only one credit card (with low credit limit).

#6 - 28 oz

Next morning I woke up very early in the morning. When I had made my packing at home, I had thought that south of Texas should be warm in November. The reality hit me during the morning run. Shorts and T-shirt did not protect me against the morning frost and frozen lawn. The following morning I had learned my lessons, i.e. running with white collar dress shirt felt much more comfortable, even if I felt myself a little over dressed compared to other sporty early birds.

All the meeting days were productive, as well as the educative social event arranged at the Houston space center. After 20 year I am quite surprised that the deployment of the new Internet Protocol technology (IPv6) that was hot topic in the Houston meeting is still in early phases of commercial deployment. Major technology transitions take time.

It was time to relax after a productive week in the meetings. Mr J promised to offer me a Texas style dinner. We went to a nice Texas steak house. I felt rather full after eating a big bowl of salad for a starter. It would have been good time to stop eating, but we continued. After a big bowl of soup I felt even fuller. However, the main course was already ordered, so we continued. The main course was a 28 oz (794 g) Texas style T-bone steak. Because we had had the lengthy discussion about how good we have been eating, none of us wanted to give up.  The dinner had changed to a tough competition. Both of us were able to finish the tasty, but really over sized, steak. It was time for a dessert. I was really scared to look at the menu, but thought that it is not good to give up. Then I found a perfect dessert for me; i.e. “the smallest sundae in Texas”. Two spoonfuls and it was done, but so was Mr. J. as well. The result was a tie, but both of us felt like winners. My stomach was harder than a football. I did not dare to ask how was Mr. J. feeling.

For some reason, both of us decided to skip the breakfast next morning. It was Saturday and we had plenty of time before our flight back to Finland. We went sightseeing, driving through the cost of Galveston watching the ocean. Around three o’clock afternoon I felt a bit hungry, even if I thought that it will take another week or so for my stomach to digest the tasty T-bone steak. So we stopped by Jack in the Box in order to have some “light breakfast”.

Eating Texas steak is endurance sports.

Lessons learnt:

There is no such thing as free lunch – but feel free to enjoy your dinner.

There are moments when it is better to forget your competitive attitude.

#5 - Sitting on a wrong airplane

I was sitting happily on my first transatlantic flight, credit card and US Dollars in my wallet. Mr J. was sitting next to me and we had a good discussion during the long flight. Both of us were keen on talking about our capability to eat a lot, as both of us had some sporty background. The flight was quite a lot late when we arrived at the Dallas / Fort Worth airport. Ground personnel were already waiting for us and directed us to the gate where the flight to Houston was departing. We run like sprinters to the gate where the air hostesses checked our tickets and directed us into the airplane.

We were sitting calm after catching the flight. After some more minutes we were still waiting for some other passengers. The flight was already 15 minutes delayed when the air hostess made an announcement; “This is flight 1234 to Houston ...”. I thought that the pronunciation is very different in the US compared to our English teacher’s pronunciation at school. After five more minutes the air hostess made another announcement. The numbers sounded so much different that I used all my courage to ask the air hostess about the flight details. She noted immediately that we were sitting on a wrong airplane. That plane was going to Houston, but unfortunately to another airport.

To be or not to be

There we were sprinting again at the Dallas / Fort Worth airport to another gate. Even if we were already 25 minutes late, our flight was waiting for us and soon we arrived happily at Houston.

Which flight to choose? Right or wrong.
Source: Here.com

Lessons learnt:

Have courage to ask questions – There are no stupid questions.

#4 - Hungry ATM

I was heading to a meeting in Houston Texas together with Mr. J, a senior professional who had been working with me for a couple of months. That was my first business trip to USA. I was quite busy with my daily work, so I decided to leave money exchange to Helsinki airport. In order to be on the safe side, I went to Tampere airport already 40 minutes before the flight. I thought that there is plenty of extra time, so I went to an ATM in order to withdraw some cash. Unluckily the ATM was hungry, so it ate my bank card which was also the only credit card I had. There I was at the airport heading to USA without money and without credit card. Not a convenient situation, indeed.

Visa - alive, not eaten.

I dialled the service number that was written on the ATM and heard that the machine has been eating credit cards the whole day and the service person who was fixing the machine had left the airport recently. I called directly to the service person who was just 20 minutes away from the airport. He promised to return back to the airport as soon as possible.

It was just a question of time if I would get the credit card before the departure. I was waiting patiently, i.e. I was pretty nervous. When the service person arrived, there was just about 5 minutes to before the gate was closed. He opened to machine and I got my credit card. No time to withdraw money anymore. However, I caught the flight and was one step closer to USA.

Lessons learnt:

Take technology risks into consideration.

Modern version of a hungry ATM.