East of Ealing...

...well, actually, so far East it's practically west. Taiwan is odd. It's weird to be sitting in a potential WW3 flashpoint, being told about the dreadful climate and the earthquakes.

It's also pretty much the most alien place I've ever been to (Barrow in Furness is very alien too, but in a different way). I can muddle through in several European lanugages (well, the important stuff like asking for a beer) but this place is completely off the wall.

For example; we got a Taxi back from a meeting today. "Grand Hyatt" I said. Blank look. "HIGH-AT" I repeat, in a traditional British manner speaking slowly and more loudly for johnny foreigner. Still blank. In the end I find the handy card from the hotel with the name written in Chineese.

"Ah!" says the driver, "HI-EUW" And off we go. Finding that the driver who took us there took twice as long as he did. Something I suspected but you can't really argue.

Then there are the funny weird things like my boss going for a burger (not a great food person) and finding himself being stared at by a bunch of school girls. There are westerners here, just not all that many in comparison and you do stick out. Especially as in my case where I'm about 50% larger in all directions that pretty muchy anybody else.

It is quite fascinating and the high technology companies are pretty impressive. I have a suspicion that I will be back here before too long. But I doubt if I'll ever go the long way around again.

Bugger...

It seems likely that the Columbia crew knew about what was about to happen, which is pretty crappy. Current data analysis shows that in the minute after radio contact was lost, the shuttle was probably still intact and entering a flat spin, probably caused by the left wing ripping off.

The shuttle got back into position for sending a last 2 seconds of data before the aerodymanic forces finally tore it to pieces.

We really do need to find a better way of doing this.

:-(

Personal best

And another interesting thing...

Well, not really, but it occured to me as something I'd want to put in here.

On the trip from the US to this place, I travelled faster than I think I ever have before.

According to the flight map, we spent most of the crossing from the US to Japan with a tailwind of around 120mph, giving us an effective ground speed of 671mph - this shaved almost 90 minutes off the journey time and had us on the ground more than a hour before we were due.