As we come to the close of the ‘Noughties’, it’s time to wish all my friends and family a happy New Year 2010.  I was reading the paper this morning, and I think this quote summed up the year perfectly:

“(2009 was) like shock therapy, where people really change when something bad happens to them,” said accountant Conrad Jordaan, 35, as he enjoyed cigarettes and coffee Thursday at an outdoor cafe in London. “It will be interesting to see if it changes peoples’ behavior long term.”

I was born in the seventies.  Gerald Ford was president, the Cold War was very much alive, and I remember Star Wars, the Rubiks Cube, and listening to the music that we call ‘classic rock’ today.  It was a transitional generation, moving out the troubles of the 1960s – racial tensions, the Vietnam war and a general feeling of rebellion, and into something different.  My parents owned a yellow station wagon with chrome bumpers and ‘woody’ side panelling, and my mother frequently dressed me in highly-flammable, brightly-coloured synthetic clothes.  I was part of the generation raised on Sesame Street.  The highlight of my week was eating sugary cereal and watching the cartoons on a Saturday morning, having transformed the sofa into a fort.

Roll on the heady 80s.  Hostile takeovers, shoulder pads, Reaganomics, dodgy hairdos and even dodgier music, this was the ‘Me, Me, Me!’ generation.  These were my formative childhood years, marked by some amazing inventions like the mainstream adoption of computers and the launch of the first space shuttle, but also by some big new threats: the escalating Cold War, the outbreak of AIDS, Nancy Reagan telling us to ‘Just Say No’ and the Columbia exploding and falling back to earth.  We bought our first VCR, and later, a CD player.  My mother bought her first cellphone, the size of a purse.

The 90s brought high school and college.  I left the US and moved to Europe.  I jumped on the internet superhighway in the early 90s when it was barely a two-lane road, and never looked back.  If I think about the inventions that had the most impact on my life, the internet is surely one of them.  I got my first job just as the whole world moved to casual dress Fridays.  I watched the Democrats get elected into the White House the first time I was old enough to remember.  I watched the US get involved in Iraq and OJ Simpson get acquitted.  The cellphone was still analogue, but it was now the size of a transistor radio.

I had just started my professional career as the ‘Noughties’ arrived, and everyone was looking for the next big thing.  Everyone you spoke to was an entrepreneur, ready to make a million on the internet. The stock markets shot up every day, and it seemed every idiot with a stockbroker was making a fortune. 

I was working in New Orleans on 9/11, and I saw the coverage of what was happening in New York from my hotel room.  I tried to call home to let people know I was okay, but the lines were blocked.  It was the first time I could remember having an overwhelming urge to jump on a plane and get straight home.

In my industry, we shed loads of jobs in the wake of the burst of the internet bubble.  Friends and family lost their jobs, but at least the payouts were good, severance packages generous.  People took six-month vacations and then picked up where they left off.  When the real estate bubble burst, more jobs were lost – but this time, without the generous severance packages and with unemployment rates still hovering near 10%, the short-term prospects aren’t great.

But we have our health and the prospect of a new decade ahead of us.  As we enter our ‘teens’, I think we’re due another transitional decade, influenced by the unbridled optimism of the 80s, the huge technical advances of the 90s, the geopolitical shifts of the Noughties, and the sobering reality and lessons of the last few years.  Each time I visit Asia, I’m aware that the world order is changing, and that the whole world is becoming more interconnected.

I’m excited by what the next 10 years have in store, and ready to face whatever may come.

Best wishes to you and yours for a very happy, health, safe and prosperous 2010!

It’s the first day of 2010, and that can only mean one thing to an intrepid traveller: empty frequent flyer accounts.  The terrible day when all the odometers roll back to zero, and the whole cycle of earning back the shiny cards starts anew.

All the clocks, rolled back to zero!

A single reprieve: one of the airlines that I fly uses a rolling membership year (with membership miles accruing and being calculated 12 months after they’re earned), so I’ve got nine more months before this particular mileage year starts again (and plenty of miles in the bank for the current year already).

Like a security blanket, at least one account hasn't rolled over yet

2010 is going to be a heavy travel year, but January itself looks very quiet.  My first scheduled trip right now isn’t until February, when I head back to India for a week.

Happy travels, everyone!  Best wishes for a safe, happy and successful 2010!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a chance to relax over the holidays. Though I was forced to cancel part of my Christmas vacation to support urgent client requirements, we were able to sneak off for a four-day minibreak in Berlin, leaving Aude’s parents at our place in Paris to look after the cats. (Reports are that Daisy was somewhat horrible to look after, not friendly at all. Some things never change.)

Berlin Television Tower

Aude was in charge of the planning…

The bus depot was one of the highlights of the trip to Berlin. Had to take a photo to remember the moment!

A little gluhwein to warm up in the sub-freezing temperatures…

Inside the church

Francois & Gratiane

Lost again! We seemed to spend a lot of time looking at the map. Not much fun in the cold weather.

Holocaust memorial

The Berlin Wall

A line indicates where the Berlin Wall wall used to stand. It runs around the entire city.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Francois & Matthew enjoy a couple of well-earned beers after a day of sight-seeing.

A section of the Berlin Wall, covered in grafitti

Aude and Gratiane make their mark!!!

So off we went to Berlin to see the sights. We rented an apartment in the Northeast of the city which turned out to be a mixed blessing. The apartment itself was lovely, bigger than our apartment in Paris, but the 10-minute walk to the metro was a nightmare as the temperatures plunged to -10. Next time I go to Berlin, it will be in springtime.

We hit all the major sites – Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall – and managed to squeeze in a few museums as well. We walked around a lot of the city, but the layout of Berlin is not conducive to walking – the scale of the streets and buildings means that everything is too far apart to walk between.

Highlights of our trip included a ride all the way around the S-Bahn on the first night (when our plan to go find a nice spot for a drink went wrong!), misunderstanding the bus driver when he ordered us all off the bus and ending up in the bus depot, freezing every time we went outside, and eating a lot of cabbage. I think I ate cabbage at least twice a day for the entire trip. You did not want the seat next to me on the plane home.