Thursday, December 2, 2004

From foes to friends The plane is not very full at the moment: I am occupying three seats right now which is quite good. The three seats in front of me where empty, and one guy put a newspaper there before take-off to occupy it. KLM has a pretty strict policy on changing seats before take-off, they just send you back to your original seat if you try to change. So when the fasten your seat belts lights went out this guy quickly ran to [OE]his[base '] seat. However, another guy beat him to that, and they started an argument. I was afraid for a moment that a fight would start but that did not happen. None of the two gave in, so finally they decided that they would share the seats. One got the window seat, the other the aisle seat, and the middle seat would be left free. They shook hands, and both were happy. Now that we are a few hours into the flight they have become big friends, telling jokes, gossiping about their wives and girlfriends, and drinking beer together. From foes to friends within a few hours! 6:18:26 PM    comment []

Thoughts from the sky On an airplane right now, flying from Shanghai to Amsterdam, where David and I change planes to fly to Munich. We[base ']ll be in Munich for 3 days of discussions with bankers and lawyers about a real estate fund that China Bay manages. Not sure if Schiphol airport has any free hotspots to upload this, otherwise I have to wait until tomorrow to use the wifi in my hotelroom. KLM now uses B777[base ']s on some of its flights to Asia. This is the first time I am actually flying their new 777[base ']s, and I am quite impressed. The on-board entertainment is extremely good. Lots of movies that can all be played on-demand (20 of the latest movies, 45 classical ones, 16 local movies , and 26 family movies ). So no more waiting for a boring movie to finish or a new one to start. But not just that, it also feature a huge amount of TV programs, divided into categories such as Sports, News, Comedy, Drama etc., also all on-demand. And you can even rewind or fast-forward them. Then of course the computer games; as a kid I loved to play them (Commodore 64...), but now I just feel it[base ']s a waste of time. However, on intercontinental flights I love to play a game or two. That[base ']s why I always liked Singapore Airlines, for a long time they were not the airline with the most beautiful flight attendants, but they also offered many Nintendo games as in-flight entertainment. However, KLM definitively topped them with this system. Last night I loaded my iPod with some new CD[base ']s and the latest podcasts, but I don[base ']t think I[base ']ll be using it much during the flight. The entertainment system also has a CD jukebox that lets you make your own playlist. I have just selected about 30 songs, so I[base ']ll be OK for the next hour or two. This really helps to get through boring but unavoidable long flights. 6:17:07 PM    comment []