Saturday 17 March 2012
I'm Back
This morning we returned from our big European adventure. I don't have time to write a lot about it here, at least not now, but want to let people know that I should be back to my normal schedule. Just a few quick stream-of-consciousness points about the trip...
Mozilla London and Paris offices were great. Met some old friends and some new ones. Thanks.
Got ensnared in a few crises while away --- Planet Mozilla, H.264, DRM. One a week probably isn't much above average.
Fantastic weather given it's winter over there. Only a few days with rain.
Enjoyed what I thought I'd enjoy. Ruined castles are fantastic. Near Lutzelbourg it seems like every other hill has a ruined castle on top.
Being in places where people have lived for hundreds or thousands of years gives me a thrill.
Movies on return flights:
- Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes: quite liked it.
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: loved it. Love the source novel(s), this is a great adaptation. Haven't seen the Alec Guiness mini-series, must track it down.
- Tower Heist: nonsense.
- The Headhunter: Norwegian noir-ish thriller. Quite good, let down by ending.
- Sherlock Holmes 2: surprisingly good at what it is: modern action-adventure in Victorian setting loosely inspired by Conan Doyle characters (I love the original stories). Like the first, enthralling set design ... loved the construction of the Underground going in the background.
- The Help: Read the book, thought this was a good adaptation and a good movie --- both generally moving in parts. Can't shake the feeling that the point of the book is a bit undermined by its author not being black herself.
Air France just about bungled our return trip, with our flight from Paris to LAX stuck on the ground for nearly two hours with a mechanical fault, causing us to miss our Air NZ connection from LAX to Auckland. But they made up for it by rebooking us on a Qantas connection to Auckland while we were over the Atlantic, without us even asking, and providing an assistant to push us through LAX with maximum possible speed to maximise our chances of making that connection --- who was happy to run with us between terminals. (Our incoming flight landed 1 hour 40 minutes before QF26 was due to take off, and just 50 minutes before boarding was due to start. We got to the gate in 45 minutes, which is certainly a record for me. We were just about stymied when, just as we reached the head of the "express" immigration queue, the systems supporting biometric checking went down, freezing admission for all non-US-passport-holders. After several minutes of confusion, apparently the "port director" authorized admissions without biometrics until the system came back up. Phew.)
Loved visiting Europe, but we're all so glad to be home. Had to climb a volcano today even if it was only Mt Eden.
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