Another flight delay experience, part 2

Next day:

09:30 This was when the coach was supposed to depart but it didn't until 09:50. Didn't matter anyway since there's absolutely no reason to go back to the airport so early anyway when the flight is rescheduled to depart on 13:15.

And to add to the potential trouble, the airline was scheduled to move to T1 on this exact date. Who knows what more trouble lies ahead of us...

10:00 You cannot believe how quick the re-check-in is. Apparently they have called in every single staff member available.

10:15 Then after security etc. at T1, we have to wait another several hours. As this is Heathrow, they won't tell you which gate it is until the last minute. In this case the electronic board sayid"gate opens 11:45".

There were a few laptop-friendly places in the waiting area - and when I plug mine in, nothing happened, and I was fearing the worse that the same adapter/fuse problem from last year happened again... Fortunately, everyone else failed, and it was just that the sockets actually gave no electricity...

11:45 The electronic board will usually only show two things: "Go to gate N"; or "Gate opens xx:yy". But at 11:45, our flight showed... "Please wait". Which can mean only one thing - delay...

12:40 They finally told us which gate it was.

13:15 Supposed take-off time and we were just beginning boarding.

13:25 Everyone was given a box of chocolates when boarding.

14:05 Plane finally started to move. A crew threw his fist to the air and shouted "yeah!". Come on, calm down, it is still on the ground...

14:40 Finally, the plane took off. Last night's hotel was just next to the runway!

Overall, my feeling is that they do all superficial things very well, like grabbing every single staff to stand around just to say good morning, and give you chocolates, etc. But they are extremely inefficient in actually sorting things out, and tried to cover up the true scale of the engineering problem until the very end.

Update: actually, I just realized my disaster in 2003 also happened in July...

Another flight delay experience, part 1

Perhaps I should have learnt not to fly in July. You may wish to look back my last year's experience first to refresh your memory before proceeding. This time I was flying to HK on a direct flight on Air New Zealand. And this is what happened. (All times approximate - just guessing from impression)

19:30 Arrived at airport, after a rather slow and confusing tube journey. As you may know, the same train platform can serve trains going to different destinations. As it turns out, the sign at the front of the train, the elctronic board at the platform, and the voice announcement inside the train, told me three different places.

I think I actually have never been to T3, and (perhaps due to some operations moved to T5) it seemed surprisingly refreshing. The check-in queue was almost non-existent and I was through within a minute!

21:05 Scheduled take-off time. Boarding was fairly normal and everyone was on-board.

21:40 After idling for 40 minutes or so, the captain finally spoke of some sort of "engineering problem", and said they were working on it.

21:50 Then they admitted we had to get off the plane first, but said we can get back "soon". I didn't believe it. We went back to the gate.

22:10 After even more delay, it was finally admitted that the flight had to be delayed until the next day. There was a fuel line problem and they had to wait for another plane to arrive on the next day. It was then announced that we will be given hotel accommodation; as you may have expected, there were some cheering from HK guys...

22:30 We were patiently waiting for the "logistics" arrangements, when they made an "unusual" decision. They realized it was too late in night, it wasn't possible for the hotel to provide meals... but wait, isn't the in-flight meal already here, huh? Brilliant, just ask all the passengers to re-board the plane to take the dinner!

22:45 I was eagerly waiting for having an in-flight meal on ground for the first time, when they made yet another disappointing decision that, at the end, they decided against that idea. But there was no other arrangements - we were supposed to be kept hungry until the next day. So we left the airport. First, we need to go through immigration without actually flying. Long queue as usual. And I wasn't sure what to write on the landing card... I mean, "departure port"?
I wrote "Heathrow"... and the arrival plane number... er did I arrive by any plane?

23:10 Next it was to collect baggage, without flying that is. The trouble didn't stop here - the conveyor belt didn't work, and we just walked around the belt full of luggage already scattered around (for some reason). Only after another 15 minutes they said they are getting "another engineer" to fix it. I didn't think it needed any fix - it just took someone to turn it on...

23:30 Finally we got the luggage...

00:15 ...and it took another hour or so standing in the street to wait for the coach.

00:20 It just took a few minutes to arrive at the hotel. But then had to wait another hour for checkin... At least this time round we were not standing outside in the street at 30 degrees Celsius in bright sunlight...

01:00 Finally found myself inside the hotel room.

...

Euro'08

Ok, so Euro'08 ended. I'm fairly happy to see Spain win, although I don't really care who wins as long as it is not Portugal or Italy. I feel that these two teams are just full of divers and liars, cheating their way through in recent competitions. So it is good to see them being knocked out in the last 8.

The French coach

Euro'08 isn't over yet, but this is bound to be one of the funniest thing. Clearly there is some problem with the French coach, not just the person but also the vehicle:

Legoland windsor

During the week 19th - 25th May (yes it's well past but I only have time to write about it now...) I've been to 5 cities (towns?) in 7 days. That's probably more than what I did in the past 7 months before it. But for various reasons I'm not going to describe all of that here, but only talk about Legoland at Windsor.

You would have thought that, as a Lego fan, I would have been to there long before. No, because there isn't actually much lego there and most of the stuff are quite silly and is targeted at small children. I mean can you imagine yourself going there alone, and stand in a queue with lots of 3-year-olds... Also the money could rather be spent on buying some half-decent sets. But this time round, we went together so it may look a bit less silly...

It turns out that this must be low season, with very little people and no queue anywhere. We finished rather quickly and didn't actually do much. What happened include: (1) seeing real ducks swimming leisurely in the rivers in Miniland; (2) unknowingly got on a roller coaster; (3) repeatedly taking a rather boring "train".

I'm a bit disappointed with the "big shop", it's not that big after all, and I was expecting to get hold of (literally; just grab it on hands, not buying...) some exclusive ultra-expensive sets, which there didn't seem to be any.

Elsewhere on the same day I had some fun with some other animals, including a cat which seem enjoy scratching its head with my jeans, and geese (or whatever water-birds they are) with me blocking their path...

A fully deserved relegation

According to Wikipedia, Leicester City is among a small number of clubs (with all others being big names) to have never played outside of the top two tiers in English football. This ends today when they are relegated to League One. A fully deserved result, sadly to say. I said previously how bad the performance on pitch was. When you look at the management it is even more ridiculous.

In early 2007 someone bought the club. You would expect him to spend lots of money to bring the club to Premier League, huh? He might have spent some money but I didn't notice him doing anything other than firing managers, and getting worse and worse ones. In 2007 alone there are 7 different managers including caretakers. I wonder whether he really knows what he is doing.

The latest manager is little better than a clown. He appears to have little or no footballing sense. Every time he appeared on TV or quoted or newspapers/websites, he said things like "think positive", "needs fans support" etc as if talking or cheering up can win you a match.
He is still in the manager position only because there were already too many managers fired, or maybe because no one want to pick up such a job.

Now that relegation is confirmed, may someone fire him? And if the owner is not interested, perhaps he can quit too?

World Snooker Championship Ding v Fu

This Tuesday I was at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield to watch the first round match of Ding Junhui vs. Marco Fu. The match was best out of 19 frames played over two sessions, and I was only in the morning session (you never know when the evening session will finish - well past midnight is not unusual, and you don't even know how many frames is going to be played. Moreover my only purpose of the trip is that now I can claim that I've been there.)

I have to get up rather early to go there by train. I just don't know who invented the complex UK train ticket pricing system. Not only two single tickets can be much cheaper than a return ticket, but also it can be much cheaper if you find some intermediate stops and buy two tickets separately (even though, in my case, the more expensive "single" ticket automatically produced by the system involved exactly the same station changes and same trains). Maybe next year I will set an algorithms exam question on that.

The match venue. It wasn't quite full, although it has rather few seats. In fact there's already more people than I expected. I mean who bother watching two Chinese players in a first round match on a Tuesday morning? I was allocated a seat at the "top of the mountain" at the corner. It isn't that bad, since (1) the top is only the 15th row anyway, (2) that gave me better legroom (yeah you have to sit there and keep quiet for time longer than many flights), (3) I can see both tables, and (4) I probably wasn't caught on camera.

The referee was Michaela Tabb, popular among fans for reasons I better not elaborate here. Fu didn't start too well, and went from bad to worse, trailing 1-5 at a point. But then all of a sudden he got 3 consecutive frames with two centuries. So it was 4-5 at the end of the session. For some reasons the British fans there (at least the few beside me) seem to be quite supportive of Fu.

At the evening Fu finally lost 9-10, but that's not too bad and it looks like he can get to top 16 next year.

Oasis airline

我由一開始就覺得這間公司很「奇怪」。I ｍｅａｎ，牧師開航空公司？起初也不敢搭，後來見沒有墜機，又沒有倒閉，正想一試，就在事發前一日，我剛在其網站找便宜機票，正想付錢，怎知網站卻「正在維修」．．．當時我還媽媽聲，原來逃過一劫．．．要是早了一天, 便已成為苦主了．．．

Leicester 0-2 Hull

I have never watched a football match for this city's team before, but I did it today, because (1) it is a holiday, (2) they are doing a promotion with cheap tickets, and (3) I don't like to watch championship matches but maybe next year it will be at an even lower level... So anyway I went, without knowing a single player.

The performance was, simply, awful. The other side wasn't playing very well anyway but ours was just plain bad. It looked more like a volleyball match; the ball was almost always in the air. Alright, this is "English football", but then they couldn't get their headers right - just standing there waiting for the ball to drop onto their heads when the opponents jump and get the ball. On the few occasions when the ball actually get passed on the ground, it was passed directly to the opponent's feet; almost every pass went wrong. I don't remember when's the last time I watched a match as bad as this for a full 90 minutes.

There are maybe two good players, including the goalkeeper which made brilliant saves including a penalty. Without him it would easily have been 0-4. But the rest is poor, the midfield almost invisible and I don't seem to remember any non-trivial shots on target at all. No wonder they are struggling against relegation. Just can't understand how this team can beat WBA 4-1 and Watford also 4-1...

Earthquake?!

It was near 1am in the morning, and I was on the bed and would have fallen asleep any second if not for that. Then there's some strange noise and my bed was shaking. Given that just one day before that was a burglar upstairs, I thought, "again?", but it didn't feel like so. The shaking was quite horizontal, and after going on for a few more seconds, I still had no idea what happened. I sat up (still on the bed), then it got quiet. I didn't bother to get up and look outside - everywhere was very quiet, unusually quiet that is. I then just tried to go back to sleep. Only after a few minutes I started to wonder, "Could it be an earthquake? But this is UK right, how can there be an earthquake?" It's only until the next morning that I knew it is an earthquake.

This is my first experience of an earthquake (that I can feel). Rather "interesting", actually (if no harm or damage is made)...

爆格

擒晚八點左右，屋企突然有人拍門，我開門一看，見係一個警察，我以為國際刑警真係黎拉我了，點知原來係樓上某單位俾人爆格，問我有冇留意到乜野。照計街上嘅人冇理由睇到二樓屋裏面有乜野，唔通佢random咁揀一戶黎爆? 如果佢不幸揀中我到就一定非常失望了，成屋冇一樣野值錢 (除左 D 絕版嘅膠... 不過應該冇乜人知呢 D 野值錢...)

哦，你這是學歷歧視！

周融:

「我唔可以畀一歧視呢拼搏精神 人得逞，所以而家我站起來，話畀大家聽，我今日正式通知獵頭公司，我申請做 廣播處長呢個職位！至於我得唔得，無 關係！因為我只要證明一樣，一個無大學學位的人如果肯去申請，敢去申請的話，證明一樣，就係呢個世界唔係學歷歧視，唔係話拼搏的人畀人藐視、畀人歧 視、畀人侮辱。
(明眼人一睇就知道係移花接木嘅疑似星島日報報道)

雖然概念略有不同, 不過我一見到呢單新聞就諗起N年前李天命已講過:

... 要是他們拒絕 我們的申請，我們就質問：「為什麼不請我？」他們說：「你沒有合資格的學歷。」我們抗議：「哦，你這是學歷歧視！」（眾笑）他們回應：「我們不 是歧視你，因為聘請條件上已經列明了這些標準。」我們反駁：「這並不證明你沒有歧視，你的聘請廣告本身就有歧視，那是學歷歧視，排斥沒有學歷的人，剝奪了 他們的『平等機會』呀！」

Intergalactic Customer Survey

Companies in a certain part of the universe run a survey called "Intergalactic Customer Survey". The suvey is completed by current customers, and this forms part of the input to the "league tables", and this is very important for the companies because future customers choose companies based on their position in the league tables. Well, they are not actually companies and customers in an ideal world, but effectively they are now.

Interestingly, it is to the advantage of the current customers doing the survey to make the score as high as possible, since this also affects their own reputation: "I joined such a good company!". However, customers in a certain department of a certain company do not seem to realize the importance of this "positive feedback loop" as much as other customers, and the department feels they should give some "incentive" to the customers: proteins, carbohydrates, and cardon dioxide.

It remains to be seen whether this is effective...

法律面前...

死啦，我而家好驚... 我駛唔駛返香港自首呢？如果唔係國際刑警黎拉我個喎... 我又係窮人，今次實要... (話時話，創作「法律面前，窮人含x」嗰位仁兄真係創意十足，言簡意賅)

實不相瞞，本人電腦內有大量相片。至於係唔係淫穢不雅呢... 這個也不大重要了，反正警察拉人之前也不會先揾淫審處評級。況且啊「有志者特警成」口講的就係法律，點知佢聽日又有乜野新法律?

認真，我覺得呢個政府經常借啲意企圖加強控制互聯網，以達致「中港融合」... 香港人必須時刻警惕...

First post 2008

So, haven't blogged for a very long time. Perhaps it might be a better idea to blog less frequently but to write something more meaningful every time. Maybe not this one though.

As the first post of 2008, I will try to turn complaints to some "positive thinking". Coming back to UK again (yes I've been to HK once again), at least I wasn't on the flight which crash-landed at Heathrow, so it's not bad. Even though it was delayed by a full hour for another reason. This almost made the pre-bought train tickets becoming useless, except that, rather miraculously, my luggage was one of the first few to come out. This by itself was not good enough, and so for the first time I got on the Heathrow Express to catch the train. Paying for that may be better than to pay for an almost arbitrary fare of a train ticket. And when I was back home, the light bulbs all worked properly!

witnessing a new record

According to this, I have just witnessed the longest-ever frame of snooker on TV last night by Marco Fu and Mark Selby (btw... this Mark Selby is from Leicester). My god, it is almost as long as a football match. Unlike some other very long frames which are very scrappy and boring, this one is actually of a very high quality and requires a lot of mental strength, just to watch it...

There can be no excuses

"There can be no excuses", said McClaren for so many times. Indeed, someone else threw such a lifeline at you and if you still lose, you can't blame anyone else. I don't know where to start writing about all these; in fact I am usually reluctant to write too much since it often appears that what can be said have already been said, in a better way. But since they won't play for quite a while, here is still something.

Formation. 4-5-1? (or 4-3-3, it doesn't matter) It has been proved so many times that England can only play 4-4-2. If someone is injured, just replace with someone else of the same position; don't mess with the formation to squeeze your star players in. But we all know this is exactly the thing that McClaren (and Eriksson) does. Comes to my mind again is the old joke that if McClaren has 11 star goalkeepers then he will put 11 goalkeepers in the starting lineup. (Or maybe this is a good idea, just for this match...)

Starting lineup. I actually think using SWP and putting Beckham on the bench is the right thing. Not too many people dare to recall Beckham just to put him on the bench. I think he is good enough as a substitute but perhaps not good enough to start.

Then the match started, and McClaren was holding an umbrella. At that moment, I knew it certainly isn't right, but I couldn't put it in words, until newspapers and others have now done. He isn't even prepared to get his hair wet? Afraid that fans throw objects at him?

After 7 or 8 minutes we have this, Scott Carson. You can't really blame him too much, he is so inexperienced, and it is this McClaren who put him out all of a sudden. I agree we should let go of Robinson, much earlier in fact, but I think James is a better choice. At least, he is used to these embarassing errors and will not be too shakened by them. Carson on the other hand is visibly shakened for the entire first half.

Wayne Bridge. No words are enough to describe how awful that is. Keep attacker onside for the second goal. Slow, slow, slow. Numerous errors. The other defenders ain't too much better either.

Tactics, if there is any. Peter Crouch alone up front, with everyone aiming the ball at his head. Again, it has been proven so many times that it does not work. It looks like nobody noticed he has two feet. Using Crouch is not that bad an idea, despite he is constantly being criticized. Alright, he is not a world-class striker - he will probably never be - but he can do something different. (Like bending the body and strike at unusual angles...) That is, as long as you pass the ball on the pitch. The next thing that happens after someone kicks the ball high up the air to his head is that they lose possession. You can blame the pitch, but Croatia is playing at the same pitch and they are passing the ball around.

The half-time substitutions are understandable - not much else he could do by that time.

Then somehow, they cheated a very soft penalty. The slightest shirt pull and Defoe fell down dramatically. Anyway, now back in the game, huh?

Next the Beckham-Crouch goal; this is more like it. I told you before, Peter Crouch has two feet. (And the ball is towards his chest, not his head.) Everyone says "see, Beckham is so important". Ok, you're right, but only because the other midfielders are so underperformed. Gerrard for example has been performing rather poorly for quite a while.

Then you lose one more goal, and then here comes Darren Bent. At that point there were completely no tactics - how are the three forwards supposed to do? Just randomly runs around and hope that something happens?

The next day, sacking of McClaren. Of course this is the right thing to do. But he is fired by the same set of people who recruited him, which from day 1 everyone knows that this is not the first choice. Why no one ever ask the people in the FA to take responsibility and resign?

淪陷區

果然不出所料，本人 (喺香港) 住嗰區，由於少了本人關鍵一票，喺今次區議會選舉中正式淪陷... 講吓啫，差成幾百票咁多。唔輸先奇，上屆只係 "fu look" 而已，人地 N 咁多年前，已混入業主立案法團做主席了，咁深謀遠慮，你跟本唔係嗰皮。人地仲有無限金錢屈機，政府偏袒，傳媒支持 (公信力第一??)，所以長線我係好悲觀的...

(另見一個熱血青年的一堆評論)

Euro'08 Qualifying

Poor Scotland. They played very well and could have qualified in any other group. Like the one where you need to rely on Isreal to beat Russia in order to have any hope...

And the freekick which gives Italy the last-minute goal - it is completely ridiculous.

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我都唔知香港幾時開始變成咁樣。點解用 press for 咁客氣？ 施壓有乜唔啱？我十分贊成的。杯葛也冇咩大不了... 其實施壓，促請，游說，實際上都冇乜分別，不外乎都係威迫與利誘而已... 唔通真係「曉以大義」咩？