Typical

As South African's we require visas for almost any country. One such country is Germany.

We booked a day over at the Sheraton in Frankfurt, after requesting a hotel within the airport terminals, explaining our visa predicament. Today, when we arrived at Frankfurt Main, we discovered otherwise. The hotel is outside the airport, and we need visas to leave. ARGH!

So, we headed back the way we came, after getting felt up by the passport control nazis. Only to discover AFTER being felt-up, that we couldn't enter back into the same terminal we just came from due to US flight restrictions. To make matters worse, trying to head back into the terminal, our bags were checked more thoroughly than when we left. Holds up anyone? Certainly some double standards going on, if I was in the US, I'd hijack a plane leaving the US cos the security is so useless when departing.

We finally found a business lounge on the other side of the airport buildings, and have been here for over 4 hours now. God bless showers, power outlets and even a little nook to catch some zeds. (err Zees?) Gareth has crashed after a hang-over induced drowsiness, and I've been tinkering on my PC, sucking on caffeine and the measly bar snacks.

The view out the window near my cubicle is just amazing though, and makes up for the crapness that is lack of understanding. I've got a great view over a runway and 2 terminals, watching the lufthansa boeings and airbuses taxi, take off and land. There are about 5 C-5 Galaxy's parked on the opposite end of the runway. NATO transport perhaps? The weather is crisp yet boring.

Decadency at forty-one thousand feet

The meals were superb on the Lufthansa flight here. Supper last night was Caesar salad, pancake filled with duck and melon, crisp rolls and FINALLY some wholewheat bread that actually tasted nutritious. The main course was a fat wad of beef sirloin as tender as fillet, potatoes au gratin and fresh satueed veggies. Desert was Haggen Dasz ice cream, dripping with caramel, bailey's irish cream and praline chocolates. Mmmm!

This morning we woke to fruit salad, muffins, omelette. Bliss this is!

Splashing out

Saturday, whilst waiting for Gareth to finish off his work, I learnt of an Apple store just up the road from the office in Natick. After following our camp counsellor Larry (heh, the office space we sit in feels like a concentration camp, and Larry is our trustworthy uncle, always looking out for us) to the mall, we walked into the Apple store. Apple stores are amazing things. I walked out with a 20gb iPod maxi (the new model) and a carry-case for $330. Pretty good. iPod's packaging oozes style and well-thought-full-ness. I'm still impressed :D

I've used 6 out of 20gb.

The US and cell phones.

1-800-456!. The US has such a backwards cellphone industry. They're in love with crappy flip-phones. You pay for incoming calls and SMS's. T-mobile in general just sucks. I made 2 local calls, received 1 international, received 5 SMS's and sent about the same, in the space of 2 months. At $50 registration, I've been totally ripped off. Saturday, when I wanted to call Kerry in Canada (long-distance) I found out I didn't have any air-time! Happy Days and Jubilation.

Yet, the demand for edocs' products is outstanding in the US telco industry. European countries are picking up pace, but the bulk of work for edocs has been US based.

Starting to feel it...

9 hours later, I feel bushed, even my bones are tired.