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| Malta "Honeywell EMEA Partner of Choice Meeting." |
Saturday 6th Oct 2007 |
Air Malta I
get a call from the product group asking me if I will go to Malta for
the EMEA Partner of choice meeting. I wasn't even sure where
Malta was. I knew it was in the Mediterranean but I
thought it
was near Spain. It doesn't really matter, I'm happy
to go
anywhere they ask me to go. It will be a long trip since I'll
have to change planes in Frankfurt on the way out and in London on the
way back.
I show up at the American check in counter and I'm told that they will not check my bags all the way through to Malta. The guy behind the counter tells me, "American doesn't have any kind of relationship with Air Malta." This really should have been a "Red Flag" to me since I know my flight just got a lot more painful. I didn't know how painful it would be. I assumed a little more painful than walking on hot coals but less than jamming a sharp stick in my eye. I knew I was going to have to collect my bags, go through customs two times more than I thought just minutes ago. I'll also have to wait through another ticket counter line to check my bag back in for the flight on to Malta. I only have a ticket for the segment from Dallas / Fort Worth to Frankfurt. I don't have a seat assignment on my flight to Malta from Frankfurt and what is a little more concerning to me is I don't have a ticket. I have logged into Air Malta's web site but it looks like they don't have assigned seats. I'm much less worried that I should be. Cheryl dropped me off around 1:00 pm for my
2:45 pm flight
which
translates to a 9:45 pm flight (Central European time.) I'll
land at
around 7:30 in the morning which should give me plenty of time
to
make my
10:15 am flight to Malta. I'm flying coach, in the
middle
seat for a 10 hour flight to Frankfurt. The movies are all
pretty bad
and I
have seen the ones that aren't really bad. That wouldn't have
matter anyways since the audio track is filled
with
such terrible static, it sounds like some one is holding
a Geiger
counter near a North Korean reactor. I have never been able
to sleep on a plane, especially in a middle seat in coach
so I
read the whole way. When we get into Frankfurt. I notice a Lufthansa baggage check-in counter right next to the American baggage carousal. It looks like I'm in luck. I was thinking maybe I could collect my bags from the American carousal and just hand it over to Lufthansa. The lady behind the counter doesn't really understand my questions and basically tells me to go away. She says that I should collect my bags and go up the stairs to the ticket counters and check in. They did play a video on the flight coming in that explained what to do when coming into the Frankfurt airport but I only saw the last 10 minutes because I had a hood over the screen and didn't notice it right way. I carry my bags up the stairs and immediately regretted not watching the full video. I don't know where the Air Malta's ticket counters are. I come up in Terminal C. I walk around aimlessly for awhile looking for the Air Malta's counter but can't seem to find it. The information sign says that it is in Terminal A. I walk over to Terminal A but still can't find it. I try the Lufthansa self service kiosk but it says that it doesn't have any information about a Thomas Hartman on Air Malta flight 2801. I go to the Lufthansa counter and the poor young lady that is trying to help me is stuck making three calls and being placed on hold for 10 minutes. She tells me that I should have a "paper" ticket. I assure her that I don't have a paper ticket but she finally has to give up on me. She tells me that I have to go to the Air Malta counter and have them process a "lost" ticket. I'm told that the Air Malta ticket counter is in Terminal C number 720. I walk back to Terminal C but counter 720 is an American not an Air Malta counter. It has a line that is way too long for me to make it through and still make my 10:15 flight. American was not all that helpful in DFW which is their major hub so I doubt I'll get a better result here in Frankfurt. I'm getting pretty nervous so I walk up to the the nearest empty window and ask, "Do you know where the Air Malta ticket counter is?" She replies, " Here." I'm a bit surprised because it is windows 710 not 720 and the sign above the window says "Horizon tours." I do notice a paper sign that has the words "Air Malta" typed on it. I explain my problem and she agrees, it is a problem. She tells me that I will have go to American and have them work on the problem. I have a few issues with this approach, first the American line is very long, second I did ask American about my flights in Dallas Fort Worth when I checked in and they couldn't seem to help me, so I kind of doubted that they would be more helpful in Frankfurt. The flight is an Air Malta flight and I'm standing at the Air Malta counter, after being sent there by Lufthansa which was operating the flight as a code shared flight for Air Malta. I assumed that I would have just as good a chance of getting this fixed by going to the Air France counter as going to the American counter. The agent then told me it was my travel agent's fault and I should call them. The time difference meant it was midnight back in Provo so I told her I didn't think I would have a lot of luck getting something done at this hour. She told me that the only solution was for me to buy a new ticket. That seemed very expensive so I called the emergency number for the travel agent. I had a a pretty long and fruitless conversation with the agent which ended by him telling me that I should buy a new ticket. I complained, but he told me he was just the emergency number and couldn't really help me. I assumed being stuck in Frankfurt Germany when I was suppose to be in Malta qualified as an emergency. It sure seemed like an emergency to me. He agreed that it might seem like an emergency but that the only solution was for me to hand somebody my American Express Card or find a hotel in Frankfurt, the choice was mine. I didn't have any kind of ticket yet and still needed to get through immigration and security all in the next 30 minutes. I thought about my options. I didn't even have a flight out of Frankfurt since I was going through London on the way home. I didn't want to have to find a hotel in Germany and I was pretty committed to be at the European product launch which wasn't in Frankfurt. I finally said to the lady behind the counter, "Alright sell me a ticket." We work on that for about 10 minutes. Three phone calls later she discovers that she couldn't sell me a ticket, at least not in time for me to make my flight which was leaving in 15 minutes. She tells me that I would have to go back to the Lufthansa ticket counter in Terminal A. I walk back to Terminal A. I am sweating so much from the stress and walking back and forth that I'm afraid airport security will think I
am carrying
a bomb or something. I thoroughly confused the Lufthansa
agent by
saying that I need to buy a ticket for a flight that I am already
on.
I also mention that it is now boarding. She wants
to
send me to the Air Malta counter in Terminal C since it is an Air Malta
flight. I explain that they can not sell me a ticket.
She
doesn't understand why and I agree that I don't understand it either
but I'm positive that Air
Malta can not sell me a ticket. She finally sells me a ticket
and then sends me back to the Lufthansa check in
counter, where this all started and where I have
already spent a couple of hours today. I hand the
agent my
newly
purchased ticket and she prints me out two boarding passes, one for
Thomas C Hartman seat 2A and one for Thomas Hartman seat 2C.
She
doesn't understand it and of course neither do I, but it is now 10
minutes past boarding time and I really don't want to miss this flight.
She walks me back over to the ticket
counter
where we both get a very dirty look from
the lady who helped me. The short answer is the boarding pass
is
only good if it is accompanied by a ticket and I only have the
one I just bought. I take my ticket
wave
goodbye to my bag which I hope to be reunited with sometime in the next
5 days and head off to security. I assume that if you buy a
ticket at the last minute in Frankfurt traveling alone to a foreign
location that you get a little extra attention from the Bundespolizei.
I just hope that they will have all the the time they need to
search my
bag
and still get it on the flight. I'm also happy I didn't bring
the
Honeywell demo kit with me it since it is full of electronics and
switches and I'm
sure it would have raised some questions. The security line is long but it is moving pretty quickly so I get through OK. I go to immigration and hope that I will not have to explain why I stayed less than three hours in Germany but I have a couple dozen German stamps in my passport so I get though without having to explain it. The flight has been boarding for awhile but I'm on my way to the departure gate B56, so I'm pretty sure I'll make it. I walk up to Gate B54 and look around for Gate B56, for some reason it is behind security. I feel like I'm in the last scene from the Matrix. I'm in an infinite loop. I strip down almost to my boxer shorts while waiting in another long line. The last time I went through security in Germany (about four and half minutes ago) my wallet and shoes set off the metal detector and since I can see the flight to Malta has just about finished boarding I decide that I am not going to do anything that might slow down the process. I get a few funny looks from the guy at security but I make it through just in time. I board the flight to Malta with my shoes tucked under in my armpits, my belt hanging around my neck and my wallet clamped in my mouth. The History of MaltaI assume that since I didn't know were Malta was a few of you might also not know much about this little island nation. As I mentioned already it is south of Sicilia so far south that is also southeast of Tunis, Tunisia. It was pretty famous in World War II mostly for getting the crap bombed out of it by the Germans and Italians. It isn't all that big but it is strategically located so while the British were posted there the enemy carpet bombed it. Its independence from Britain was achieved in 1964, after the Maltese people were awarded the George Cross for defending the island during World War II. Malta was the most bombed place on earth. More than 14,000 bombs were dropped, destroying about 30,000 buildings but Malta still fought on. More than 1,500 civilians were killed in Malta during the Second World War Forty years later it has become the smallest of the 10 countries to join the EU in May 2004. It is most famous for either the being the base for the Knights of St. John or maybe for the jewel-encrusted golden falcon, "The Maltese Falcon from the famous 1941 Humphrey Bogart film." The Maltese Falcon is almost entirely fictitious but may be based on the fact that one of the conditions attached to the handover of the island from Charles the V to the Knights was that the Order would send the King a live falcon as an annual tribute. Charles
V handed over the island to these Knights and for the next 275
years, these famous "Knights of Malta"
made the island their domain. They built
towns, palaces, churches,
gardens, and fortifications and embellished the island with numerous
works of art and enhanced cultural heritage. The Knights At first the battle looked like another Rodes when most of the cities of Malta were destroyed and about half the knights died in battle. On 18 August the position of the besieged was becoming desperate: dwindling daily in numbers, they were becoming too feeble to hold the long line of fortifications. But when his council suggested the abandonment of Il Borgo and Senglea and withdrawal to Fort St. Angelo, Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette remained obdurate. The Viceroy of Sicily had not brought help. Possibly the orders of his master, Philip II of Spain, were so obscurely worded as to put on his own shoulders the burden of a decision – a responsibility which he was unwilling to discharge because defeat would mean exposing Sicily to the Turks. He had left his own son with La Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to the fate of the fortress, and Malta in Turkish hands would soon have proved a curse to Sicily and Naples. Whatever may have been the cause of his delay, the Viceroy hesitated until the indignation of his own officers forced him to move, and by then the battle had almost been won by the unaided efforts of the Knights. On 23 August came yet another grand assault, the last serious effort. It was thrown back with the greatest difficulty, even the wounded taking part in the defense. The plight of the Turkish forces, however, was now desperate. With the exception of Fort St. Elmo, the fortifications were still intact. Working night and day, the garrison had repaired the breaches, and the capture of Malta seemed more and more impossible. The terrible summer months had laid many of the troops low with sickness in their crowded quarters. Ammunition and food were beginning to run short, and the Turkish troops were becoming more and more dispirited at the failure of their numerous attacks and the unending toll of lives. The death of Dragut, a corsair and admiral of the Ottoman fleet and skilled commander, on 23 June, had proved an incalculable loss. The Turkish commanders, Piyale Pasha and Mustafa Pasha, took insufficient precautions. They had a huge fleet which they used with effect on only one occasion. They neglected their communications with the African coast and made no attempt to watch and intercept Sicilian reinforcements. On 1 September they made their last effort, but all threats and cajoleries had little effect on dispirited Turkish troops, who refused any longer to believe in the possibility of capturing those terrible fortresses. The feebleness of the attack was a great encouragement to the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance. Perplexity and indecision of the Turks were cut short by the news of the arrival of Sicilian reinforcements in Mellieħa Bay. Unaware of the small size of this new force, they hastily evacuated and sailed away on 3 September. Cruise
I pick out a mask and snorkel and climb down the ladder,
a lot
of the other guys jump over the side but I'm pretty sure the resulting
wave from me jumping over the side would create a wave large enough to
wash back over the boat so I gently lower myself into the
Mediterranean I swim around for a while I wonder if the sound could be of them feeding but doubt
it.
I swim around some more and the sound fades as I swim away
from
the urchins. I keep swimming and I
The VenueThe I talked about my troubles getting to Malta and was a little disappointed when everyone laughed a little too hard when I complained, " Do I look like the guy who is going to be able to overcome the crew and take over the plane." I am always surprised when I look in the mirror and see a fifty year old, fat, balding guy looking back. I was thinking how I would have looked in full armor as a Knight of Malta but since I guess I wouldn't even frighten a 23 year old 105 pound flight attendant my combat days are behind me. The meetings end on Friday at around noon. I can not get a flight back to the States that afternoon. I have a 8:00 am flight out on Saturday, so I have the rest of the day free. I take a walking tour of St Julians harbor. I haven't brought my camera since it is too bulky to carry on the flight and too expensive to check. I have Cheryl's small digital camera which isn't all that great. I end up tossing away almost as many shots and I keep. The link to these photos are at Malta Photo Album. I am amazed at how expensive everything is. Malta uses the Maltese Lire which is the strongest currency I have ever seen. They are moving to the Euro in January 2008 which I assume will really help but I'm very disappointed when I convert $40 and get a 10 Lira note and some change back. An Orange Juice cost me 2.55 LM which works out to be about $10 bucks. The harbor is very pretty so I go for a long walk getting pretty thirsty but since I can't bring myself to pay $10 for a coke I stay thirsty. I do stop and have dinner on the way back to the hotel at a little restaurant on a side street leading back to the Hilton. I want to call it an early night since I have asked for 5:15 a.m. wake up call. This means I am walking up at around 10:00 p.m. Fort Worth time. I also set my Blackberry's alarm for 5:15 a.m. I never sleep well when I have to get up that early for a flight. I don't want to miss my flights so I crawl into bed. The phone wakes me around 5:30 I want to check my email since I went to sleep long before the guys in Provo quit work. I'm a little upset that I'm already running late and look accusingly at my Blackberry to see why it didn't wake me on-time. Daily Alarm : OnTime: 5:15 am Snooze: Off Active on Weekends: No I forgot that it's Saturday morning so the alarm has thoughtfully not gone off. I answer a few emails while I pull my shirt over my wet and uncombed hair. Time is slipping away and I have a Taxi waiting for me at 6:00 am. I get down to the lobby and must look so flustered that even the Taxi driver tells me to relax. We chat about a bunch of stuff, such as if the Euro will be a good thing. I have found that no taxi driver will ever tell you something is a good thing when it comes to money. I know that short rides are not good for them, of course neither are long rides, or early, late, or midday rides. I also know that whatever group I belong to are especially bad tippers, American's, Sales, Technical, Security, Computer, Military, Writers, Tourist, Businessman, European's, Canadian, no matter what group I tell a driver I'm with, he will always tell me, "I always hate when you _fill in the blank_ guys come into town because you guys tip so badly." I get out at the Malta international airport and of course over tip the taxi driver. The line is very long. They can not check my bag through to Dallas / Fort Worth so I know I'll get to see how long the line is in London when I land. I have a 10 LM note and some change. Really I have exactly $40 worth of Maltese Lira because I was too cheap to buy a ten dollar coke. There is no place in the airport to change the money back and I know that once I leave Malta the coins will be nothing more than very expensive play money. I buy a chocolate bar for 1.20 Maltese Lira. I have to show my boarding pass since I suppose $5.75 is too good a price for 2 oz of Maltese chocolate to allow just anyone off the street to buy it. To get this price you have to be traveling internationally. It is kind of funny since there is only one airport in Malta so if you are at the airport you are going to be traveling internationally. Maybe it is to keep the staff from black marketing chocolate. I bought it anyways because I wanted to get rid of my coins. We land at London and I have to fill out an entry card. I have done that a few hundred times so it doesn't confuse me until I get to the place where I have to fill in the place of temporary residence in the UK. I'm not sure what to write in so I put down, "London Gatwick Gate 63" I get to baggage claim and discover that one of the pockets of my suitcase must have opened. I see my business cards scattered across the carasol. I'm surprised a week or so later when I get an email saying, "Really enjoyed reading some of your stories on SymbioticPublishing.com. Some must be true, as I recognize the Malta pictures having stayed in the St. Julians area for 2 months back in 2000. You forgot to mention that your suitcase lost a bunch of business cards on the luggage belt in Gatwick…..so I got hold of one and Google did the rest." I was pretty surprised because I hadn't really published this story yet, I had just posted it up on my site so I would have a copy of it from any connected computer. I have only flown out of Gatwick a few times but never on Air Malta or American so I get a little turned around. I finally find my way to Terminal 2. I go to the first class check in, not because I am flying first class. I'm not even flying business, I'm in the middle seat in the back of the plane. I am Platinum Exec on American so they do give me a few perks like checking in at any counter I like. I'm pretty tired by now so I ask at if I can use some of my miles to upgrade. The lady helping me is nice enough to not laugh out loud. She smiles and says I could put you on the standby list but you will have to go to the back of that line to get another ticket. I look over at the very long line and she whispers to me, "You won't get on." I decide to stay with my crummy middle seat in the back. She does give me a "Fast Track" sticker and a one day pass to British Airlines First Class lounge. I take everything out of my carry on bag before going through security just to be safe. I'm surprised that I don't have to take off my shoes since I know they set off the metal detectors in Frankfurt. I notice that no one takes off their shoes, walking out of security I learn why. The British have a separate scanners for your shoes. I walk into the normal British Airlines lounge and the lady behind the counter kicks me out, sending me over to the First Class lounge instead. It is a nice place to spend the next hour. Of course I am reminded that Seat 22 H is not First Class, not even Business Class. It is close to Business about 4 rows back which is close enough to see what they are being served and that they get complementary Bose Headsets. I settle in next the annoying fat guy next to me and wonder why am I always next to the fat guy, I assume he wonders the same thing. I grab a taxi from the airport. The driver complains to me about how short the trip to Southlake is and how now he will have to wait in the taxi queue for the next four hours when he gets back to the airport. It's good to be back in the land of $3.00 dollar cokes. I overtipped him and smile. |
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were
well respected for their bravery so much so that the symbol that we use
for Fire Fighters comes directly from the Knights of St. John or the
Maltese Cross. This might also be because as the crusaders advanced
on Jerusalem, the Saracens pelted them with glass bombs full of naphtha
and then threw down flaming torches. Hundreds of knights were
burned alive while others risked their lives to save their
kinsmen from painful deaths. Thus they became the first
firefighters.
Their heroic efforts were recognized by fellow crusaders who awarded
them with a badge of honor similar to the cross firefighters wear
today. 
can't
dive too deep. This allows you to do it without becoming a certified
driver.
Since
you have a tank you don't have to surface so your ears have a
chance to
equalize which means that you don't get the pain that you do when you
dive down deeply
with a snorkel. The water near the boat is pretty deep,
much too
deep for me to dive to the bottom. There also isn't much on
the
bottom just some sea grass. I paddle around a bit then head
over
to the cliff. There are a lot more rocks near the cliff and
the water is
shallower. I see more fish and a lot more plant life.
I
also hear a funny clicking sound. I assume it is the pressure
in
my ears but it is increasing as I get near the cliff. I
notice
some sea urchins have cleared most of the vegetation off the
rocks
that they are sitting on. 
start to hear that
noise again.
This time I don't see any urchins so I'm sure the sound must
be
from something else until I spot a few urchins hidden under
some rocks. I really don't know if they make that sound but
it
fades when I swim away and gets louder when I swim near either group of
urchins. I see a lot of little fish and a few
bigger ones. I also spot a few jelly fish. They are
pretty
small but I'm not a big fan of snorkeling with jelly fish so I head
back toward the boat. The captain has told us that we will be
snorkeling for about an hour and a half so at an hour and fifteen
minutes I'm one of the last people to leave the water.
history of the Knight of St. John
play a large part of present
day Malta so it is only fitting that Honeywell has chosen their
fortress and hospital as the venue for the partner dinner. It
was built after the Christian victory. The knights continued to
attack pirates and Muslim
shipping, and their base became a center for slave trading,
selling
captured Africans and Turks and conversely freeing Christian slaves.
Malta remained a slave market until well into the 18th century. It
required a thousand slaves to equip merely the galleys of the Order.
We talked about the history of the place and of course being
one of the few Americans I was warmly kidded about our lack of history.
I told them that I was once talked out of buying a house in
Texas
because it was five years old and I was told that would be much better
off buying a
new house. I have lived in Europe for about six years of my
life so I am not normally overly impressed with old buildings.
The apartment I lived in Germany was built in the 1700's. It
did
tickle me that I was walking up the same steps that people 300 hundred
years ago had walked up, most likely talking about if those colonialist
would ever figure out that they have to pay their taxes. I
do have to admit though that having dinner near where battles had been
fought,
attacks on pirates planned, and slaves traded, sold and freed
was impressive even to a jaded American.