Volcano Refugee

GBP reflecting our sentiments

volcano refugee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:21:51 +0000

Via Yahoo Finance

Flight board at CDG airport

volcanorefugee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:00:01 +0000

Photo by Joi

with a [lot of] help from my friends

volcano refugee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:21:20 +0000

Marchesi-Grandi at L'Agrume

I’m at my friend’s office in Paris as I type this, having just had a great lunch with her at L’Agrume. It was the least I could do having crashed at her apartment–intentionally for Friday and Saturday nights, but unintentionally these past 2 nights. It’s been actually a beautiful stay–remarkably easy to keep some work going, frustratingly difficult to plan other stuff (like other pending travel back home). And to be fair, I’ve had a beautiful set up–staying with my oldest friend, getting to see her mom (who I love dearly), walking and biking around Paris–so no complaints here.

The only fly in the ointment has been the multiple scenarios I’ve had to keep live–Paris to Washington via Zurich; Paris to Madrid via striking French National Rail or on overnight bus; Madrid to the US on Aer Lingus? But again, I’m lucky. I have a friend in Madrid so I don’t have to steel myself to cope all on my own there either.

I imagine doing this alone, shuttling from hotel to wifi cafe and back, obsessively consulting Twitterfeeds and researching bus stop locations and hotels and calculating costs. I can’t imagine. So finally, I feel fortunate in having friends everywhere. I used to feel bereft, having so many of my friends in faraway places. Sometimes it all comes together.

The ash has reached Canada 0300GMT

volcanorefugee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:08:37 +0000

via BBC

Where is Snake Plissken when we need him

volcano refugee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:38:20 +0000

I’m currently marooned at the Heathrow Hilton, which is a terrific place in the first two days, but starts to wear out after day three or four. Where indeed is Snake Plissken when I need him?

I have already imprinted on all the staff and I’m beginning to learn the faces of all the guests. The looks are amazing and I’m silently naming everyone – (1) ‘well at least I can drink too much safely’, (2) ‘I don’t really like work anyway’, (3) ‘why did I bring my fully-loaded laptop’ (this person looked yearningly at my MacAir – I cringed), (4) ‘I’m pretty much happy wherever I am’, (5) ‘I’m going to dress nicely everyday and look presentable no matter what’ (this is not me), (6) ‘are those people staring at me,… no they are just staring’, and the list goes on.

Seriously, everyone has to make their psychological peace in their own way, but now I’m beginning to imagine all sorts of outlandish relationships breaking out amongst otherwise civilized guests with the prospects of (potentially) another week (or more) of this. I can just hear the whispers now.

There is probably some kind of great insight that a neuroscientist should extract from the situation, but it currently escapes me… where indeed is Snake Plissken?

Operation Saltwater

volcanorefugee — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:41:49 +0000

Subject: Operation Salt Water
From: premal
To: people at the Kiva party in London on a Friday night
Date: April 18, 2010 12:20:20 AM BST

Guys – Meet at Tedx-Volcano at 6pm at the Hub London (see TechCrunch for deets) and we will have plot out final details for a group trip to a place where we can swim in salt water, get wi-fi and fly out eventually (e.g. Barcelona).

Thanks, see you tmrw at Ted-X and stay gold,
Premal
————————–
Sent using BlackBerry

Jeff Skoll’s volcano poem

volcanorefugee — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:24:54 +0000

This is an ode to the volcano
That sent our travel plans into the draino
I’m not really one to complaino
But this all hurts my little braino
Madrid, Casablanca, Amsterdam, Rejkavik on cruiseships
The trains will fail
All the escape routes that we planned
Are blocked by nature or by man
We heard the French trains may soon be striking
At this rate we’ll all be biking
With our luck we’ll all be struck by lightning!
This is all rather frightening
So better we all meet at TED
That is what I should have said
So thank you June and thank you all
Damn the volcano, let’s have a ball

Presented at TEDXVolcano, London, 4/19/2010

Are we pawns in a JJ Abrams experiment?

volcanorefugee — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 06:46:44 +0000

I’m stuck on an island with a bunch of people I don’t know, and there’s a big black cloud monster preventing us from leaving. Some people want to get off as quickly as possible, no matter what it takes. A few have decided to stay — they believe they were mean to stay on the island and are taking up residence in empty houses and people’s couches. Most are sticking together in clusters — ultimately, there’s power in numbers and maybe it’s better to be in it together than to go at it alone. People are starting to form alliances and choose who they should let on their boat, whom they should reveal intel to about what they believe is the best way to get home, no matter how abstract and uncertain that belief may actually be. Some of us are slowly starting to realize that we don’t really want to leave the island. And all of us are forming an indelible bond that nobody outside the crisis zone really seems to understand.

I started making the analogy to Lost in my head a couple of days ago, and ever since then my travel partner thinks I have just been making myself think that this scenario is a lot like the one in Lost. Is my real life being influenced by a TV show or is JJ Abrams a prophet of human behavior? This whole experience has been so surreal that I can’t really tell anymore. – LK