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Test

Waiting for the bus home, Central Bus Station, Heathrow (view larger image in Flickr).

Back at Heathrow airport (view larger image in Flickr).

Going offline now until we get to Heathrow.

Airside (view larger image in Flickr).

I hope the car is well secured! (view larger image in Flickr).

Good grief! Peanut butter KitKat?! (view larger image in Flickr).

Between T1 and T2, Hamburg airport (view larger image in Flickr).

Back at Hamburg airport (view larger image in Flickr).

Spotted en route to the airport, and considered from an English speaker's perspective - a burger joint called "Hamburger Sparkasse", which sounds less than comfortable, and a shop of some sort called "Closed", which is just plain confusing!

Water cascade, pool and plants in the Grand Foyer, Elysee Hotel (view larger image in Flickr).

Nice, eh? Wouldn't mind something like this back in the office ...

I spoke to Dr Majid last night and agreed what we would cover in the presentation this morning. Got up early this morning to put some brief notes together. We'd agreed to meet over breakfast at 8.15. When it got to 8.30 I began to worry, then discovered I was in the wrong place! Whooshed round to the right place in time for another quick chat before things got started. Things were already running a little late by the time our session came round, so I truncated my 8 mins to 6. Surprised even myself at how much I was able to cover in just 6 mins! Not many people attending the session, but those who were there very interested, and made a few potentially useful contacts. Found myself temporarily promoted to "Dr Smillie" - almost everyone else speaking is a "Dr" so I guess the session chairperson was playing safe, as some people can be very touchy about their hard work in achieving a doctorate not being recognised. Now I need to go and check out, then I'll rejoin Dr Majid for lunch, sit in on a session dealing with aspects of intellectual property rights, then it's coffee, then I'll have to head back to the airport to catch the flight back.

Room service, Hotel Elysee style (view larger image in Flickr).

View from hotel room (view larger image in Flickr).

The tower is the Hamburg Television Tower, or Heinrich-Hertz Turm. Apparently it's 279.8 metres high. See http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~oberle/fernturm.html

Parrots! (view larger image in Flickr).

Not many hotels have an aviary in the lounge area. This one has two large parrots and a couple of love birds.

The hotel lounge and bar ... (view larger image in Flickr).

... with real pianist tucked away in corner providing real hotel lounge piano music. A few minutes ago we were treated to a hotel lounge style rendition of "Oh Danny Boy" which, sitting in a 4 star hotel in Hamburg, felt slightly bizarre.

Bathroom's pretty big and plush too ... (view larger image in Flickr).

How weird - found I could phone Chris OK, and then remembered that when I posted from the airport the phone could only get a GSM signal, so I just switched the phone from dual mode to GSM only, and hey presto - it connects and sends OK. Not sure if the problem is with the networks here or with my phone and / or sim card. But at least I've got a means of connecting, even if a slower one than I'd like.

It's kinda plush in here! (view larger image in Flickr).

This is the entrance to the room I'm staying in.

Have been having some problems with sim card in this phone - hope they don't persist!
Hotel is lovely (except that all the guest rooms are non-smoking, sigh!) - if I can sort out the problem with the phone I'll send some pics in a minute.
Have left a message for the person I'm meant to be meeting - just hope we manage to connect at some point before the presentation tomorrow ...

Arrived at Hamburg airport (view larger image in Flickr).

Well, here I am in the not currently very scenic bit outside terminal 2.

Had one of those weird bits of synchronicity that life often throws up. The only place in Germany with which I've got even the vaguest personal connection is Pforzheim, where my grandfather was held as a prisoner of war during WW1. And guess what the name was of the Lufthanza plane I was on? Yep - Pforzheim. Weird.

And they've only just started boarding, so got here with a few minutes to spare. :) Going to in offline now, until we arrive in Hamburg.

Nice and quiet at check in and security. Got held up because i forgot to remove the scissors i had in my bag. But flight not yet boarding so having a quick cig do route to gate.

Flying out this afternoon to Hamburg where I'm scheduled to give a brief presentation tomorrow morning. Was a bit later leaving the house than I'd planned, and then had wait for over 15 mins for the bus. Now I can only hope Heathrow terminal 2 is fairly quiet outbound, else I'm going to struggle to catch the flight, and I really don't want to spend the next 50 mins with my heart in my mouth!