I have seen it countless of times:

After they wash and wipe their hands, (some) people don’t want to touch anything and it comes down to this.
What I do, and I suppose most people do the same, is open the flap with the tissue and then let it drop through the opening, but the tissue isn’t heavy enough to fall right away, so the flap catches it. Sometimes I do manage to fully put the tissue into the garbage bin, but it requires some effort.

Once, I saw something that seemed like the best solution: leave the door open – not very nice looking, but at least there’s no need to do all kinds of fancy moves to be able to put a piece of paper into a garbage bin.

However, it seemed it was an accident that the door was left open as it did not close properly so, in the end, they had to tape it shut and it was back to square one.

We can put a man on the moon but we can’t do anything about this!?!
To design and build an airplane is much more complicated, so this issue should be easy to solve. Have a pedal that opens the garbage bin or something else, I am sure there must be simple and effective solutions.

This is the label of a Lipton tea bag in Europe. It contains 22 different languages. No wonder Europe has so many problems.

Boarding on the Lufthansa plane to Frankfurt, I picked up the German edition of the Financial Times. I would have preferred the English version, but they did not have it. I can’t say I know German, but I can get by. Putin will run for president and the current president, Medvedev, is to be prime minister if Putin wins. I’ve always found it strange how, in 2008, he became prime minister after he could no longer be president after 2 consecutive mandates (8 years). He could have had a library named after him and, very likely, an aircraft carrier as well, but no, he had to stay in politics. It would be as if Ronald Reagan had decided to stay on as Secretary of State under his successor George Bush. And Putin can now stay on under a presidential mandate that has been extended from 4 to 6 years. They must have figured out that 4 years was not enough to crush any hope for a real democracy.

Another front page headliner was about the resignation of the UBS CEO as a result of a rogue trading scandal. A similar thing happened 2 years ago to Societe Generale. One would like to think that the banks will learn a lesson and these sorts of losses will never happen again, or, at least, not in the near future.

Of course, Greece couldn’t be missing from the front page of a financial newspaper, nothing new there. Greece’s default will start for sure a new economic crisis.
Western civilization began in Greece, will its end begin there as well?

As food, a sandwich (Italian-style chicken) was offered and I learnt something new and, very likely, useless, unless I ever take part in a quiz show and this happens to be one of the questions.

I sat in the 2nd row back from the business class and I noticed someone in front of me used the washroom designated for business class. I was tempted to do the same, but I decided against it: just because someone else does something and gets away with it, doesn’t mean I should do the same. I had to do the right thing; I was in coach so I should use the appropriate washrooms. And this is what I did.

Later during the flight, however, I needed to use the washroom again: the person that sat in the window seat was asleep (no one sat in the middle), and the flight attendant needed some help to collect his cans and glasses so I handed them to her. After that, I felt the urge to wash my hands – yes, I know, I am hopeless. But this time the flight attendant’s cart was blocking my way. I had no choice but to use the business class washroom (by the way, only one person was in business class).

And, big surprise, the soap dispenser was empty. It was Lufthansa the flag carrier of Germany, I could not believe it.
Now it seems not even Germany can save the Euro/Europe.

And I thought they only drank coffee and ate doughnuts.

From Wikipedia: Booster Juice is Canada’s largest chain of fresh juice and smoothie bars. The chain specializes in health-conscious smoothies composed of a pure juice, fruit sorbet or vanilla frozen yogurt, frozen fruit, fresh yogurt and ice. Founded in 1999 in Sherwood Park, Alberta, the company has grown to have 249 traditional and 36 non-traditional locations in Canada, 24 in India, 6 in the United States, 2 in Mexico, 2 in Saudi Arabia and 2 in the Netherlands. Further global expansion is planned, despite established competitors Jamba Juice and Smoothie King in the US.

The Icebreaker t-shirt was quite pricey (around $80) but what I had read made me buy it.

"I wore it for 40 days and 40 nights"

 A “40 days and 40 nights” vow: I wasn’t going to wear it for that long, but for a very long flight it would come in handy.

Also, the label said to type in the unique code to see the Merino sheep that grew the wool (actually the label said “meet”, but I suppose they meant “see”).

However, it isn’t true about being able to wear the shirt for so many days in a row. “Stink” would probably be too strong a word after wearing it for a 13-hour flight with a 3-hour layover, but it isn’t the wonder shirt I’d expected. I’m sure it’s true that the guy wore it for 40 days, but being in a salty and watery environment it was different in his case.

Also, I was highly disappointed after entering the t-shirt’s code. I thought I would see a photo of the actual sheep, but it was a list of farms instead, presumably from one of which my t-shirt’s sheep came.

I am still thinking of filing a complaint about the misleading label. The site clearly states, “Trace your Icebreaker’s origin”. The label should have said the same thing, too, not, “Meet the Merino sheep that grew this”. I was looking forward to it, only to feel that I was badly let down.

The Icebreaker t-shirt

Now, I rarely fill out a survey if nothing is given in exchange. For example, the last Air Canada survey offered 15 eUpgrade Credits at random to five participants so I completed it. Of course, I did not win, but I could have, and I trust someone has.

Time is one of the most precious commodities in the world, and they also say ‘time is money,’ so no more explanations needed.

I still remember the best ‘reward’ I have ever received. The survey was from a bank and the envelope included $2; real, hard cash, upfront, and of course, I gladly filled out the bank’s survey.

I had been staying at a Marriott for the past 3 months (some 4 or 5 days per week) and they were bombarding me with e-mails about ‘sharing my feedback about my experience.’ So I decided to complete the survey just to stop the e-mails. The survey was quite lengthy and, at the end, I received only a:

However, I knew there would not be any material rewards, and apart from stopping the e-mails about the surveys I wanted to write something in the input box they usually provide at the end for suggestions. My suggestion was to have in the room several recycling bins, or at least one (if the logistics would be too much), for things that can be recycled. Currently, there is only a garbage bin and everything goes in there.

Is anyone reading these suggestions? Will they do it, or at least provide an answer as to why it is not possible?

and other photos:

a bird in a tree

The photo was taken in Seattle and the tree is made of stainless steel I think.