Goa team building trip, a set on Flickr.
Went to Goa with the Life Tools team I helped build here. Can't think of many better ways to get closure to my two years here professionally. It was my first visit to a north Goa resort and some of the scenery was pretty special too, which hopefully these snaps convey...
I've been a bit lost in terms of aerobic exercise choices now that we're back in Finland. There's no ice or snow trails yet so skating or skiing is out of the question. The trails have a thin layer of show and ice that makes running a very uncomfortable experience even without my history of calf muscle problems. The winter will be over when I get my bicycle here so I needed an outdoor activity for the typical neither here nor there winter weather that's so typical for Southern Finland.
Winter running has been gaining in popularity and there are more brands now selling shoes with metal studs in the soles. The nearby sports superstore had Salomon Spikecross 3 CS shoes on sale so I got these yesterday. I went to the store wearing pretty thick socks not to buy them in too small a size for colder conditions.
I went for a test run this morning and the first real challenge came almost immediately as there was a north-facing wet and icy downslope early on on the run that would've been impossible to even walk down with normal running shoes. I didn't even have to concentrate on each step - once I trusted the grip was there I could run completely normally. Packed snow that's turned into ice is still not a perfect running surface as it's uneven and very hard, but dealing with that is a lot easier when the grip is always there.
Otherwise exercising in the cold felt OK, but going out was a messy affair. I put too much clothes on for the zero degree temperature and kept remembering stuff I had forgotten as I was going out the door. This is a bigger problem with the metal spike studded shoes than normal, because walking with those inside will immediately kill the hardwood floors - you have to either crawl on all fours or remove the shoes and feel ridiculous either way :-).
I'm in Finland, but just had a very Kingfishery (an Indian airline teetering on the brink of bankcruptcy) no-fly experience with a local airline, Blue1. I arrived to the airport early, e-checked myself in, went through the security check and camped beside the gate 14A to fly to Oulu. The scheduled boarding time came and went, but I was much more alarmed when suddenly the gate label was changed from Oulu to Brussels.
I went to have a look at the departures board and saw that my flight was cancelled. Sure the weather was not perfect, but mine was the only red blinking island in a vast sea of green.
There are other airlines flying to Oulu every morning and my cancelled flight was the first one to go, so I went to the transfer desk to get a seat on either of those. Not much luck there, as you can see.
I went to ask the SAS/Blue1 lounge if there was anyone who could help me and they kindly told me I need to exit the airport area and go back to the Blue1 ticket office only to find that I was hardly the only person with the same problem.
The flights I could've taken took off well before the queue even inched forward for the first time. Blue1 took great care to make sure every person on their cancelled flight missed every one of those - of course this way they save money as their worst case scenario turns into a re-schedule to a later flight of theirs or full refund - a ticket on any of those competitor flights is undoubtedly the dearest option. They'll refund the flight tickets, but the lost time, groupwork and 90€ of cab money are mine and my employer's losses. I'm not holding my breath to hear back from them, but I've posted a link to this post to their feedback form in case they'd like to comment or compensate.
Companies nowadays try very hard to define an identity. Here's an excerpt of Blue1's lofty corporate goals, which financial realities seem to have thrown out the window:
Blue1's more than 400 employees are actively and daily involved in thousands of passengers’ everyday life. With Blue1 a new era of air travel is created of the courage and passion to our own work and importance in our customer-focused perspective.
I must say I'm pretty pissed off about the airline now - it's one thing to cancel a flight and at least make an effort to take of the affected passengers and another to cancel a flight and make absolutely sure no customer gets any help to keep their commitments.
