Unstuck in time

I have a watch on my wrist, I think its set to Shanghai time, I have my computer clock, I can't remember what time that is, but I think it's NZ time. I have a cellphone, it might be set to Shanghai time. I have no idea what time it is. Yes, I could simply check the timezone setting on almost all of the above (my analog watch sadly doesn't sychronise with any atomic clocks).

I do remember working out I have to stay awake for this flight, as I'll be landing at 7pm Germany time, and therefore I should sync my body-clock with local time. The meaning of "local time" sort of gets muddled up when crossing so many time zones. I'm just happy the planet isn't bigger, 24 time zones is enough (actually there are way more than 24 timezones when you take into account individual counties (and even counties!)).

So I'm somewhere... I don't even know on this flight, my inflight entertainment system is folded away (I'm in a bulkhead seat) and i don't trust it anyway - we apparently took off at 386m below sea-level... The Dead Sea is 418m below sea level. But that's as deep as you get. Actually, I just unfolded the screen and it helpfully shows a picture of the Earth, and I appear to be somewhere... somewhere over Russia.... Not exactly sure where.. I'm apparently at 36,000ft... Honestly, we could be on Mars for all I really know. It's dark outside. Probably are.

Ah yes, the ramblings on inflight tiredness. I at least acknowledge that this is a stream of consciousness blog.. Ramblings, I do believe that is the name of this blog, so it seems fitting.

On the inflight experience, well, obviously Wifi works, but at a cost of 12EUR, Emirates has it beat hands down. 1 second latency, about 20Kbps. I'm actually amazed at how well the Internet works in such conditions - I'm so used to 100Mbps and sub 10ms latency to all relevant CDNs. I suspect a Skype call would be out of the question though, not so much the latency as the jitter (around 200ms).

Anyway, I'm bored, watching movies on my laptop as the inflight entertainment systems selection didn't appeal.

Time: Unknown
Location: Unknown
Temperature: Unknown
Weather: Dark
Movie: The Lost Room (2006) - Miniseries - Very much worth watching.

Ireland! How I love thee!

I have arrived! I have arrived to a wet and windy Dublin, that my taxi driver assures me is typical of Dublin at this time of year. There was some fun and games with the taxi pickup as my NZ number couldn't reach me, and I was not able to dial out. Eventually a good ol' fashion payphone sorted things.

The hotel Google has me staying at is very nice, and so far have had a great experience.

I shall go in search of iPhone charger cables, as it seems mine has gotten damaged and now drains the phone rather than charges it (I fortunately brought with me a cheap $2 iPhone cable that barely works, but at least does charge it).

Local Time: 1321h
Temperature: 6°C
Location: 53.34˚ North, 6.25˚ West.

Dubai to Dublin, pt 2

Ah the travellers dilemma. Sleep now, and not be able to sleep later, or drag out the conciousness for as long as possible. The novelty of this much flying has worn out. It actually wore out about 30,000km ago, but now it well and truely has worn out.

The first hundred million years were the worst.

Location: Somewhere between Romania and Bulgaria.

Speed: 888kph (550mph)

Altitude: 36,000ft

Heading: 300

Temperature: -52C

Distance To Destination: 3,200km

Distance From Departure: 2,733km