Unlike most folks, I was lucky enough to be traveling again recently (jabbed, boosted, masked and social distancing, of course:) – this time to Dubai, one of my fave places on the planet, to which I normally get to at least once a year (during non-covid times). This year’s visit, however, was a little different…

First impressions upon arriving: another empty airport, just like others I’ve been in recently.

Second impressions: yikes – more deserted emptiness. A city seemingly half-alive – a bit like Barcelona in June of this year.

Third impression: actually, it’s not all bad; for example, going from the airport’s Terminal 1 to the business reception/meeting zone, I had a full long carriage on the monorail to myself! ->

And there were only one or two folks in the next carriage too…

Read on…

One of the unique natural phenomena of mid-Kamchatka is Severniy Proriv – Northern Fissure – a site where, as a result of a ‘fissure’, or crack, which formed during the 1975-76 big eruption of Tolbachik, three symmetrical cones of volcanic slag were left behind.

Such fissures are a rather rare volcanic phenomenon, but this one was predicted by volcanologists based on their constant observations of seismic activity around these parts in the mid-seventies: in 1975 the frequency of earthquakes around Tolbachik sharply increased – which meant that somewhere nearby there was lava bubbling up nearer and nearer the earth’s surface. So an expedition of volcanologists was dispatched there, who were lucky enough to observe the eruption from the very start. As a result this eruption was very well-documented and on the internet there’s a mass of information about it – admittedly, mostly in Russian. Today, the three cones formed by the Severniy Proriv – now collectively called Severniy Proriv (are you keeping up?:) – are still there, and they’re three mega-beauts:

Read on…

Last week, I was in the unusual out-of-the-ordinary European country called Liechtenstein. It’s a tiny nation state – and also a super-successful one. It has a population of just ~40,000, while the working population is… also around 40,000! How that works out is by ~51% of the working population commuting daily from Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Goodness!

Here’s the view from my room. Behind the hotel – the Alps (along the border with Austria); while these mountains in the photo are the Swiss Alps:

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It wasn’t all sad down in Turkey. It was also amazing. Plenty…

First amazement: it turns out that in Turkey there are around 150 ancient theaters! Some well-preserved; others – less so. I really didn’t know just how keen the locals here were millennia ago when it came to theater-going. Well now I do…

Read on…

Onward – down the volcanic spine of the Kamchatka peninsula…

Next stop volcano – Tolbachik, similarly A-list just like Klyuschevskaya Sopka, Avachinsky (near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky), and Khodutka and Ilynsky in the south. I’ve been all around it, up and down and across it on five occasions, and it’s always one of two things – OMG-beautiful, or an OMG-ruthlessly harsh experience (due to the weather). It’s like… Russian roulette – will you actually see Tolbachik in all its grandiose glory, or will you see… not much besides fog and rain (aka – Kamchatkan mirages), and fairly freeze while you’re at it.

I’ve been to the very top of Tolbachik tree times out of my five visits, but more on that later. For now, some photos of this distinctive, magnificent, monumental volcano:

Read on…

Flying around in a helicopter is always a pleasure; flying around in a helicopter in the fall – along a shoreline, in clement weather – that pleasure is multiplied several-fold. And that includes down in sunny Turkey…

Oh my glorious!

Read on…

There’s an extraordinary, rather rare, optical phenomenon that goes by the name of a glory, called so no doubt because of its resemblance to a halo. It’s caused by the shadow of an airplane (or some other object) on some clouds, which shadow becomes encircled by rainbow-esque rings – almost like a rainbow that’s perfectly round (which, actually, does occur, but only in very rare circumstances), but this isn’t a full-circle rainbow, it’s a glory. Confused yet?!

Curiously, the airplane’s shadow in the middle can disappear, leaving just the glory. You can get to see such an effect from a plane (if you’re lucky) coming in to land in cloudy weather if you sit at a window that’s not facing the sun. Which is where we were sitting; and this glory showed itself upon the dense cloud cover below us. I hadn’t seen this mysterious optical phenomenon at such a height for ages. This one was probably due to the air being relatively clean and fresh =>

Read on…

I’ll cut straight to the chase: herewith, a commentary on life today in international hub-airports, where there were always crowds of travelers rushing about here and there: many – tourists, some folks on business (like me), some going to another country in the hope of finding better work, others perhaps almost by mistake buying tickers to fly off somewhere – anywhere (not a strategy that should be laughed at – only the brave may even consider it, and who says it’s not the ‘right’ strategy re where one lives, stays, or migrates to or from around the globe?).

Wait… what was all that? And all in one long sentence too? And all I wanted to do was upload a few photos ).

All righty. What I’m getting round to saying in a very long-winded way here is that, last week, I ‘tested’ a full three international airline hubs personally (plus Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, which is also a hub, about which I can tell a great many tales. Maybe I’ll get round to that one day?)…

So. Airports…

First impressions: dismal.

London’s Heathrow Airport seemed to be up and running as per its usual busy self, but maybe I didn’t look round well enough.

Copenhagen Airport was also lively as a hub should be, or at least certainly getting there.

But my real astonishment came while waiting for a connecting flight in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport…

Read on…>

This brief fieldtrip report will be a short one, since I was in the Danish capital in all just two-and-a-half days, and was busy with work mostly: four public speaking appearances, a slew of meetings, a dinner with clients… oh – and there was also my 56^th birthday, which I managed to celebrate a little. As for micro-tourism, we’d two or three hours set aside for this in the itinerary, but, as luck would have it, it was raining cats and dogs and a gale was blowing at the allotted time: result – no micro-tourism; result of that – little to write here I’m afraid folks…

So let’s see. Ah yes – I’ll start with a few… curious photos of me up on stage during my first presentation:

My next speech was to a Danish CISO club. It was in a very swish, clearly very old, classic-imperial hall with Roman columns and wood-paneled walls adorned with grand old paintings depicting significant (probably local/national) historical events. Very impressive. Thing is… I don’t know the name of the place! So if there’s anyone among you, dear readers, who could let me know (by checking the pic below) – in the comments, I’d be much obliged. I’d love to read up on the place’s history…

Here’s the pic of the hall, taken from the back:

When I took that, in 15 minutes I’d be up on stage addressing the audience. So how did it go? Splendidly! I said what needed saying (geopolitics get outta here + some of our success stories), and I joshed a bit (as I do; I can’t help it:), and the crowd… they weren’t just smiling, weren’t just chuckling… they were roaring with whoops of laughter! So much for skeptical! So, like I say – splendid ).

Sorry for the poor quality photos. My fault – I took the wrong camera 😕.

After my speech, I noticed a wooden… contraption, which, I was told, was once used for ‘collecting dues for the army’. No complaints there: Russia and Denmark have never been at war with each other ).

Here’s me and a good journalist from a good magazine. Check out our expressions and body language!

Btw – you see the painting in the background? All those top-hatted gentlemen – in the very hall I’d just given a speech in… Didn’t politicians all dress like that 200 years ago? Hmmm – I think I’m getting warmer as to the identity of this place: a former parliament building? Maybe even the government’s former premises (surely not current)?… Ok, I’m warmer; but could someone please… bring me up to the boil?…

I’ll start off by reminding you (since it was quite some time ago) about one of my perennial habits: whenever I’m in London, I go for a walk along the River Thames. And I don’t mean a short stroll along the riverbank, say, opposite the Houses of Parliament near to the London Eye. No, no [eye roll]. I mean a quick march along a considerable length of an unwalked stretch of the famous Thames Path, the extraordinarily long – 300km! – footpath that lines one or the other bank of the river. And I add a new section every year or two (notwithstanding force majeure like global pandemics). I’ve already gotten as far as Hampton Court Bridge from where the path starts (or ends) – at the Thames Barrier. Time to go further!…

1) Previous portions of the route over the years – all here for your perusing pleasure.

2) The last time I walked a length of the Thames Path was in the summer of 2018; accordingly, a memory-freshener of the sights seen along the path so far…

Here’s what’s been covered up to and including 2018:

Segment 1: from the Thames Barrier to Greenwich
Segment 2: from Greenwich (and the Cutty Sark) to the Jubilee Bridges
Segment 3: from the Jubilee Bridges to Putney Pier
Segment 4: from Putney Pier to Richmond locks
Segment 5: Richmond to Hampton Court. We got lost! Still need to get to Hampton Court…

Next up (can you guess?!) – Richmond to Hampton Court!…

All righty. This time we’d got the route right, but it looked like we’d got the weather wrong: it was drizzling all day. Wait – we’re in London. Surely that’s ‘right’, as in – typical? )

The system of locks and weirs on the Thames is used for controlling the flow of water down the river, enabling boats to navigate along much of it. Old-school it sure is too (completely analog, with good security [no internet connection:]) – with its being documented as far back as the Middle Ages! However, the lock in Richmond is a relatively new addition, opened as it was in 1894 – 127 years ago!

Read on…