I’ve just landed in Vienna, in anticipation of the Plone conference 2005. Since my recent work for BlueOrange has been more zope-centric: The company somewhat eschews the majesty of Plone, I hope that this will be a chance to catch up with the Plone and Zope events that have occurred during the last six months since the EuroPython conference in Sweden.
My fight was uneventful; Heathrow was as bustling and overcrowded as usual. One moment of levity came from observing the near-arrest of a young girl and her subsequent argument with a police officer.
She was outraged at the police officer’s temerity to intervene in a family squabble that resulted in her assaulting another woman. I heard her outraged protestation of “But it’s my father’s girlfriend”. Of course that makes it all right!
Afterwards I found the same police officer diligently patrolling the area next door to the American Express foreign exchange desk (or was he trying to chat-up the pretty lady who worked behind the desk). I congratulated him on his policing methods - one cannot be too careful when intervening in such fights: These women know no respect for the law when enraged.
At the check-in, British Airways issued me with a £5 voucher with which to buy food, their outsourced catering company “Gate Gourmet” had gone bankrupt a month ago. I’m surprised that no other company has stepped in to fill this role, but on the whole I would rather grab a snack or two from the airport than eat what passes for food in the air.
Could this not be seen as an opportunity for cost-cutting? The lack of food did not seem to put people off travelling with BA (I could think of better reasons not to fly with them than the absence of a soggy sandwich). If food were not provided then tickets might be a few quid cheaper and we could all feed ourselves however we desired courtesy of McDonalds or “Caviar House” in the departure lounge. On second thoughts, that is perhaps not such a brilliant idea.
On the flight I began “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville - a most spectacular novel - and certainly not light reading. Once again, the inspiration for trading this text was Frank Key’s website. In a few of his stories he refers to this book (and at least one commentary on Moby Dick). I find Frank’s style of writing not all that dis-similar to melville.
I note with some glee that WiFi is free in this airport: I’m sat in an internationally branded coffee bar blogging this courtesy of Cisco who have sponsored WiFi access throughout the entire airport site. Now why cant they do this in London’s airports where T-Mobile and others routinely charge five pounds per hour for accessing a service whose wholesale value is nearly zero.
Anyway, more blogging shall ensure over the next week. In a few moments I expect Nate (Author of the Plone4Artists suite) will find me in this cafe. He’s come all the way from Boston. After a short wait for a third conference attendee we shall share a taxi into the city and see what adventures fate has in store for us.