Chris Saul's Blog

Monday January 28, 2008

Area 53, again

We had a great trip to Area 53 again a couple of weeks ago. Why Area 53 again? Because it's great fun to drive around!

I love this picture, courtesy of Mrs Saul, of Simon being de-stucked. Note he's attached to another stuck car. This is why you go out in threes....

Pete had a sticky moment too. Whilst we were digging him out before giving him a push, some helpful guys on quad bikes drove up and asked if we needed any help, which was very friendly of them. I declined as we were fine. 'Push him down the hill' was their helpful advice. Thanks chaps, I'd never have worked that one out.

Unusually we saw some camels right at the top of a big dune 'hill'. Usually they stay around the base of the steeper hills, but they were obviously feeling as adventurous as we were.

So far we've had some great drives this season. I'm that bit more confident and am happy to lead trips where previously I would only have followed.

Up and over.

Congratulations, Richmond Daily Photo

My father has just completed one year of photos on his daily photo blog of our home town Richmond upon Thames, near London.

One of the things I enjoy about reading blogs is 'listening' to people's written thoughts on subjects you wouldn't normally talk about, or, conversely, reading things people have written which you might normally have talked about with them. Reading people's thoughts and comments is quite different to having a chat with them - you get to see sides of a person you wouldn't normally see, or which you didn't know existed.

Keep it up, 'rooney!

Welcome to the US, scumbag

Let me make it clear from the outset that this post is not an anti-American rant. If I were anti-American, I wouldn't be working for the company I work for, or travelling to the US in the first place. What this post discusses is the impression made upon visitors to the US, when this kind of thing happens. In my experience, this does not happen when people arrive in the UK, or other countries equally concerned and affected by the current 'terror' situation. It is totally unnecessary and does nothing to improve the US' standing in other people's eyes, at a time when some positive PR would doubtless be a rather good thing.

Today's arrival at JFK was the most unwelcoming and downright insulting I have ever experienced on coming here.

On leaving the plane we were told that immigration officers would be checking passports. Fair enough, although I don't see what the point of this is when we're all going to be going through a 'proper' immigration check later anyway. Never mind, somebody supposedly knows what they are doing and thinks these checks worthwhile.

Posters from the US immigration control plastered around JFK claim that the organisation pledges to greet people cordially and explain processes clearly. Sadly the two officers who 'greeted' me and everyone else did neither.

Their supposed welcome made me feel as if I were a prisoner, disembarking from some kind of airborne prison transport vehicle, as opposed to a perfectly legitimate visitor to the US. I expect other people felt the same way. I also expect that US citizens probably felt even more annoyed than me, as everyone was treated with the same disrespect.

Officers Mo Ron and Half Wit stood at the end of the gate, checking passports. Whilst doing this we were subjected to loud shouts of 'get in line', 'form two queues', 'come on so we can get this done' and other semi-coherent, shouted grunting. There was no 'please' and no 'thank you' and their tone was distinctly condescending. There were no efforts to speak in clear English, despite the fact that it was English was not the first language of the majority of the passengers getting off the plane. I'm a native English speaker and I found it hard to understand what they were saying half the time.

After my passport had been examined and I'd been grunted at, I stood near the end of the gate, waiting for my colleague. At this point the officers seemed either to give up checking people, or had found someone they were looking for, as they were walking towards me with someone who had been sitting near me walking next to them. They were talking away at him in a hostile manner, again making no effort to speak clearly to someone who was clearly having difficulty understanding them. "Dintyouhearmesayyougottagetyawpassportout!??"

When they saw me standing at the end of the gate, one of them grunted at me loudly, saying something I failed to understand, not being fluent in New Yoik immigration officer grunt-speak. I asked him politely to repeat himself.

"Gowalkdownthecorridor, donstandthere!" was the shouted response.

"I'm just waiting for my colleague - he's right behind you", I replied.

"Walkdownthecorridernow! I told you to walk down the corridor!".

I shrugged and walked slowly down the corridor.

"Man see a man in uniform he supposed to do what that man say. I say it five times already, walk down the corridor but he don' do it!", went the general discussion behind me, obviously intended for my benefit.

What is the point of making people like this the 'face' of the US? Being secure doesn't mean shouting at people, being rude, being aggressive and being unwelcoming.

Palo Alto for the week

I have just arrived in Palo Alto, ready for a week's well deserved training in Sun's Menlo Park campus, staying in the Sheraton.

The marathon trek wasn't too bad and went more quickly thanks to having a colleague from Sun Dubai travelling the same route. The first time I came this way from Dubai I flew with Lufthansa the whole way via Frankfurt, with no in-flight entertainment, no iPod, jammed in the middle aisle, an experience it's not hard to improve on.

Minor irritations were the guy next to me on the Emirates flight from Dubai to New York and the stewardess on the United flight to San Francisco. Major irritations I will write about in another post.

Every twenty minutes after our 0230 take off, the chap next to me on the Emirates flight would shift position, delivering me a massive jab to the ribs in the process, making sleep impossible. After an hour of this I woke him up and politely asked him not to poke me in the ribs every twenty minutes, although I appreciated he was probably doing it accidentally in his sleep. He apologised and managed not to do it again. Whilst I was pleased that he didn't, I did wonder why he was doing it in the first place? Did he know he was elbowing me? If he'd been doing it accidentally, then surely it would have continued? Odd.

The stewardess on the flight from New York seemed to conform to all the stereotypes of bad service I've encountered on US flights, the overriding impression being that as a passenger in economy you are an irritation for the cabin crew and are simply to be tolerated for the duration of the flight. I'm always lead to believe that America is such a customer focused, service lead kind of place, so it always surprises me when I find exactly the opposite.

Relating the story of how she annoyed me sounds a bit petty written down here now, so I won't go into the details of how a simple misunderstanding over a glass with ice ended up with me fuming. Suffice it to say that it was totally unavoidable and bloody irritating.

Oh dear, this is a grumpy post. I'll leave on a high note - I'm really looking forward to the training I'll be on this week, particularly as I'll be meeting lots of people I either only know via email or who I've only had the chance to meet once or twice before.