Month: January 2024

Other Travel Matters

That was the first time I booked Economy Premium. I fly business class occasionally when it is company-paid, or when I get an upgrade, but the latter one mostly happen when I travel within Europe. This time I knew I would have to work immediately upon arrival, so I needed some decent sleeping conditions, but I was not ready to purchase business class on my own.

Economy Premium is indeed right between Economy and Business class. In Economy, you sleep almost vertical, in Business, you sleep horizontally, and in Economy Premium, you sleep diagonally. My initial feeling was that it’s still not comfortable enough, but I ended up working for the whole day with no problem, so I guess it was not that bad. The seats are definitely more comfortable, however, the foot rest prevents from placing your backpack under the seat in front of you, so I had to put everything into the overhead.

The food is still bad. Since last year’s sharp decline in the quality of the in-flight food, the only decent meals are in business class. When I fly economy and it’s BA or AA, I try to eat in the lonuge and then sleep through the in-flight dinner. If I fly Finnair, it’s not an option, because the Finnair lounge in ORD is really bad and has virtually no amenities. This time, it was BA, but since the departure was at 5 PM, I had to leave the lounge by 4 PM, sort of too early for dinner. Besides, I was hoping that the food in Economy Premium will be better.

It was not, and also, they asked everyone to lift up their seat during the dinner service, so I won’t be able to sleep anyway. The only thing which was better than in the Economy was that there was a choice of meals, but by the time they got to my row they were out of chicken, and I didn’t like much the other two choices. We’ll see how things will turn out on my flight back!

One shocking thing on this flight was that there was a young woman on the left of me who spoke on the phone all the the time since she sat down, and through al of the safety instructions, and takeoff, until she lost connection and some point. Over an hour total!

While I was typing this post, I got a notification that our flight to Brussels was rebooked for a day earlier. I guess that’s the Universe’s response to my over-scheduled life!

Forgetting Things

The number of things I hav forgotten recently tells me that I am trying to do too many things. And that’s to what Boris reminded me about recently, and what I resolved to address.

The most recent things:

  • I signed up my mom for her COVID shot for the wrong location, and I had to find a new place right there on the spot.
  • I forgot the departure time of my flight to London, and only realized it the night before (and thanks goodness, I realized it not right before departure, but the night before, because it was 1.5 hours earlier than I thought!
  • And the last thing which prompted me to write this post: today, I forgot my iPad at the security checkpoint (yes, I had two laptops, an iPad, an iPhone and Apple watch, but still!

One more time, the FindMy app saved me: I spend some time wondering around in the duty free zone, then I went to the lounge, and when I got my breakfast and set down, I noticed the notification, that I left iPad behind. At first, I thought that it was one of those “I moved away from my bag,” but them I looked closer and saw the notification time was just ten minutes earlier, so I realized what had happened.

It was not so easy to find the way back to the security, and when I got there, I asked the personnel for assistance. Thankfully, they found my iPad and when I demonstrated that I could unlock it, they happily gave it back to me.

But it not for FindMy, I won’t realize that I do not have my iPad until I would be inside the aircraft!

Also, just learned that our flight to Brussels is cancelled due to the strike – we were hoping for th better, but unfortunately, that’s the case, and we still didn’t hear from Finnair what they can offer instead.

Weekend Working

I am leaving to ORD in less than 30 minutes, and all my weekend was work – all the things I didn’t have time to finish during the workdays. That’ not like somebody asked me, that’s what I felt I needed to finish, because it was important to show this work to others.

I think I am hopeless like this, and also, I can’t work as fast as I could before.

On Monday, my workday will start at 8-30 AM London time, so my weekend is gone entirely. And most likely, I will need to sleep on the plane, otherwise, I won’t be able to work. I actually feel better than it might seem from that post, because I was able to tight most of the loose ends both at work and otherwise, and I knew I won’t be able to address all of the outstanding things.

My New Year Resolution is not working 🙂

Walking On Ice

That happened on Tuesday. It was a horrible morning, in terms that it started to melt the night before, and then it was sharply cold during the night, and when I left the house, there was ice everywhere. Since I had to go to Milwaukee after work, I still needed to get to the Rogers Park train station, and I didn’t think it would be much better later, so I left my house at the time when I usually leave for work.

Just one fun fact that would be the best characterization of how icy it was. I walk fast, so usually, about 10 minutes into my walk, my Alle Watch asks me: are you doing an outdoor walk workout? Let me know if you want to record it! On Tuesday, it asked me: are you doing an elliptical workout?

😂

Thistlefoot – A Book Review

I do not remember where this recommendation came from, but the description looked intriguing, and I purchased the audiobook. And in the beginning, it sounded awesome: Baba Yaga died in Kyiv and left her House on Chicken Legs to her youngest female descendant 70 years after her death. An attorney finds the descendants in the US, and the House on Chicken Legs arrives in a container, stretches it’s legs to the horror of the witnesses, and the story goes on. Then, there is a mysterious Russian who tries to follow the House, and we are not sure what his evil plans are.
I thought, it would be a great story, but then, the historical inaccuracies start to pile so high, that it was impossible to ignore them, and the story becomes uninteresting. Baba Yaga suddenly becomes a Jewish woman who lives in the pale of settlement. I could live with that, but next, in 1919, there are “Russian soldiers” who are “protecting the tsar”, and simultaneously, there is an October Revolution, Denikintsy, the White Army, the ‘Russian soldiers” defending “the tsar and Fatherland” and the ”government sanctioned pogroms.” Yes, I understand that the book is about historical memory, and keeping history alive and so on, but when the history is so brutalized, it’s difficult to come to terms with “presenving history.”

I felt this reading as a completely wasted time. I still listened to the end, because I couldn’t believe “that’s it.” And there is a good idea at the end, but one paragraoh is a poor justification for a long book.

Uber

I wanted to post it here since it’s not often that you have to say something good about Uber, but today I have something.

I ordered Uber for 5 AM to get to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, and at about 2/3 of that trip, the driver noticed a pressure in a tire going down. It was going down really fast, but he said he would be able to make it to the station, and he did. Just now, I received a message from Uber:

Hi Henrietta‍,

We received a report indicating that your vehicle experienced a flat tire during a recent trip. We understand this was a frustrating experience. 

While I know it doesn’t totally make up for the inconvenience, we’ve fully refunded this trip which will apply to your original payment method in a few business days. You’ll also receive an updated receipt via email.

We appreciate you handling this challenging situation in the most professional way possible and we know it’s not always easy.

Once this information is received, we’ll be able to assist you further.

Thank you.

And if you think it’s not a big deal, and that’s what I should expect, I can tell you that several years ago, an Uber driver dropped me in the middle of nowhere when he had some car issue, and he didn’t bother to report Uber or send another car to pick me up, and I could even tell where w=exactly I was dropped. And although I complained to Uber, they didn’t refund this trip; the only thing they did was that they marked the driver for not even being matched with me.

So. Thank you, Uber. And I tipped the driver, even though they refunded the fare!

***

Anna’s surgery #2 went well; at least, we are hopeful. For some reason, I thought it would be shorter (it wasn’t), and I thought that I would have time to finish the unfinished parts of my presentations, which I was hoping to finish last weekend (and the one before last).

It didn’t happen either, and although I (sort of) took time off work today, I ended up working and finishing something work-related later in the evening. There is a lot going on with the conference, but the same as with work, this is confidential information, so I can’t rant about what’s going on.

All I can say is that I have many reasons to be upset, but I am not, and I am trying to figure out how I can use my internal resources in the best possible way.

Packing On Short Notice

When you go for a one-da trip, you don’t really need to pack anything. But when you are going for one day and two nights, then all of a sudden, you have to pack a lot!

My trip to Milwaukee was very spontaneous this time. Also, I was mentally preparing for my European trip, and didn’t have a Milwaukee list in my head. And also, I was determined to go without any luggage, just my regular work backpack and a tote (this proved to be a great idea because after the snowfall, the thaw, the rain and freezing again, the streets became unwalkable). On Monday night, I made sure I packed everything except for the toothbrush, which would be packed in the morning. Still, in the morning, I suddenly realized that I forgot my chargers (and since the latest iPhone is charged by USB C, I needed an extra cord!).

I was very proud of myself that I remembered about the chargers, and stuffed them into my backpack. And only after I arrived at the Rogers Park railway station, I suddenly realized that I left my work phone charging! (and without the work phone I won’t be able to work remotely, the work laptop requires two-factor authentication)

I am very thankful to Igor who saved me and brought the phone to my office!

Don’t Trust Amazon!

A couple of weeks ago, when I had to change a light bulb in the hallway ceiling light fixture, I realized that even my tallest ladder was not tall enough for that. I give myself credit for not pushing this task to “sometime later” but making myself do it “now.” Still, it as a stunt. I had to move the ladder closer to the wall and touch the wall with one hand while standing on the ladder landing. And to be honest, I needed both hands because I had to unscrew this thing in order to change the light bulb.

I have a very lightweight ladder which Boris and I bought in ACE Hardware shortly after we moved to Rogers Park, and I love it. But having the ceilings as high as mine, this ladder is not high enough. When last time an electrician came to fix my ceiling fan remote, I asked him to let me measure his ladder, and it turned out I needed two more steps (or two more feet).

First, I tasked Boris with finding a ladder that would be comparable to what we have now, just taller. The ladder I have now weights 6 lb., which is a record light, and I was hoping to find something around 10-12 lb. Boris researched it for a while but didn’t find anything. Then I researched and I couldn’t find it either. Then, I looked at “best recommendations,” and the vote came for a ladder that was 18 lb. Boris said: no way, and then took another look at Amazon and found the ladder, which was said to be either 9.5 lb (in the description) or 14.5 lb (in the product specs). I ordered that one, and it arrived, and… it weights 17.7 lb!!!!

Two conclusions:

1 – The “best recommendation” looks reasonable

2 – Never trust Amazon. With anything!

TIME Magazine: Less Social Media?

To be clear, the question mark is mine, not TIME’s. This is one of many new-year-resolution-related articles called “How to reset your relationships with social media?”

I keep wondering why people want to use social media less – I feel like I am not doing enough of it because I do not have enough time. Often (and this article is not an exception), the author would emphasize “meeting with people” and “communicating in person” instead of on social media. In my case, however, the only people with whom I communicate on social media are people whom I know in real life but who either live too far from me or have challenging schedules. This way or the other, it is not easy to regularly communicate in person, and I want to know what they are up to. I often feel that my very real friends are upset when I do not pay attention to their lives. And it’s not just “them,” I would love to be informed about what’s up with them. As for professional social media, it’s even more important. Firstly, I also know many of these people in person, and secondly, in my profession, it is vitally important to stay on top of what are the new things others are doing. I always feel like I am missing out on important professional updates (until somebody pings me explicitly).

Anyway, here is the article (and I am trying to do almost all the opposite of what they suggest!)

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Less Social Media?” →