Par: Fill & Download for Free

Norway is really expensive. Norwegians think Sweden is cheap, no foreigner thinks that. Denmark is on most things slightly cheaper than Sweden, depending on currency rates.Norwegians are smug about their nature and oil fund; Swedes are smug about their global companies and organized society; Danes don’t really care, they just enjoy themselves.Denmark is tiny if you don’t count Greenland; Sweden is massive but no one lives in the north; Norway is in between but they’ve got the fjords, so they are happy anyway.In Norway, you can buy alcohol at Vinmonopolet (wine monopoly, beer is available in regular stores); in Sweden, it’s called Systembolaget (the corporation of the system, for everything except pretty weak beer); in Denmark, you can buy it almost anywhere.When Stockholm started calling itself capital of Scandinavia, Norwegians got annoyed while Danes generally ignored it.Norwegians eat rotten trout; Swedes rotten herring; and Danes eat tiny sandwiches with fresh herring.Norwegians buy their alcohol in Sweden; Swedes in Denmark; and Danes in Germany.Norway celebrates its national day with pride; Swedes wish they did; and Danes were too drunk to remember what happened.The Norwegian royal family is originally from Denmark; the Swedish is French; while the Danish is German.The most popular winter sport in Norway is skiing; in Sweden it’s ice hockey; while Danes stay indoors and play handball.

It does get boring. I flew 3–4 flights per week, each being an 8 hour flight for 7 years. Every month i also flew two 21 hour flights (with 1 stop).My routine was to minimize time at the airport by checking in no luggage and pack efficiently. I breezed through security and went straight to the gate. The lounge was used only when I flew to the USA as the security checks required me to be early. I flew business or first class exclusively so check in was usually without lines.At the gate I was always allowed to board first due to my airline status, PPS on Singapore Airlines and United Global Services on United. I flew Singapore in Asia and United to and from the US.I always picked an aisle seat or a single seat on the window if the plane was configured for it. I don't want to wake someone up if want to go to the bathroom. I really liked Singapore Airlines long haul seats.This is the United Polaris seat. I don’t care for it. It’s a bit narrow (I have broad shoulders) but that isn’t the biggest issue. The feet area is too low, and I find it hard to find a comfortable position for the feet (the height of the area is the issue):Once on the plane I check that the seat functions. Then I check that the entertainment system functions. If they push away from the gate and those aren’t working the crew can’t fix it in flight, but if I find out before they push off they can usually find a mechanic on the ground that can fix any issues. With my amount of flying there was usually something that was broken every 10–20 flights.Then I take out my noise cancelling headphones and put away my bag in the overhead. I used to like Bose, but they are biggish. The on-ear aren’t as good as the over-ear. I went for a while with the sennheisers because they pack into a tight package. Someone stole those in-flight when i went to the bathroom. Now I use the Sony W1000XM3. Superb sound and blocks out the noise of the plane better than anything I’ve used before. I use bluetooth and bring the headset with me to the bathroom.On United I almost always brought onboard a newspaper, on SQ I take one from the crew when they hand them out. Then I flip through it while I wait for takeoff. Once they taxi I usually fall asleep. Doesn’t matter which flight, I fall asleep.In the air I usually wake up an hour into the flight, usually when they start serving food. I get whatever they are serving and eat only what looks tasty. I never eat before I travel, I do this to get into my target timezone. I usually listen to channel 9 on united (air traffic control) but as this is become more and more rare I usually listen to a podcast on my mobile or tablet. Usually BBC news, or an NPR show. Almost never music. On afternoon flights I may have bloody Mary mix. But generally water is king. On weekend flights I may have champagne if its something special that I like.Then I fall asleep again, trying to get into the timezone. For a very long flight this works up to 5 hours or so for me. Then I usually wake up. If i can find something I haven’t seen on the in-flight entertainment.Before landing I get the landing documentation sorted, get my passport out and put it into my shirt pocket. Put away all other stuff into my carry on so I can deplane immediately and cut out the line at the airport.I never work on my laptop on planes, I may use a notepad and do work on it. Too many people read over my shoulders to see what i am working on, and industrial espionage is a real thing -can’t take the risk of leaking confidential information to a competitor.Then I land. Head straight to immigration. I use an APEC card to cut the line or if i’m in the US i use the global entry (and before that the mobile passport experiment). Some airport have special lines for first class that I’ve used.I head past customs and into the waiting area. depending on the city i take a taxi or there is a car waiting.And every week this repeats itself. I try to either get in the evening or early morning so I can work right away. If the evening I go to a business dinner. If morning I go to the hotel, freshen up and then head over to the office or a client.And then it repeats itself over and over.I got to know many of the flight crew in a first name basis. When I stopped traveling for a couple of years i got a nice letter from united asking me if I was well as they haven’t seen me for a while. I thought that was nice. I went back to travelling once a month in the last two years, I can’t say I miss the travel. Airplanes, hotel rooms and conference rooms was all i saw for many years, I did about 270–300 days of travel each year.If I travel with family I will use the lounge as we typically check in luggage. It is definitely enjoyable to go to the lounge with family, but when I traveled a lot I didn’t care for it. The best lounges are Qantas first class in Sydney, Lufthansa first class in Frankurt and SQ first class in Singapore. In that order.Worst travel is domestic in the US followed by inside EU in europe. Small planes, small seats and crowded airports. Long haul wide body planes was far more comfortable.I’m a gold card holder for life with United and Oneworld. The only perk I care for with that is that I don’t pay for luggage and I get to board early. And I cancel tickets I bought with miles for family without paying a refund fee (which I probably think is one of the best perks).Its a boring way to live life if you ask me, but the work I did was enjoyable in each destination. I’m typing this on a Friday evening in London, about to head home on a United flight to San Francisco on Saturday morning.I have become an expert in luggage. What to buy, what works, what doesn’t. But that is an answer for another question… :)

We never had a school counselor until when I was about 15. So, when she came in, everyone looked up to her like she was an angel who would save lives. We could go to her with all of our worries. How nice would that be!But the girls who were facing problems (it was an all-girls school) were reluctant at first. Eventually, a girl from my language class went ahead and spoke to the conselor about her problem. Now, this girl had rather strict parents, and they dictated her life. All went well, apparently.The next day, our teacher entered the class and began criticizing the “kids of this generation”. She said how it wasn’t appropriate to go against parents, and that they knew best. Nobody was disagreeing, and they didn’t know where she was coming from. Why was she talking about this particular topic all of a sudden?Over a period of time, the teachers and the students came to know about many other cases about the girls in our school (harrasement, abuse, disorders, etc.), but wouldn’t know the source.After about a month, we put two and two together and realized that our conselor was the rat.She would listen to a student’s problem and then talk to her teacher about it in the staff room in front of all the other teachers, without bothering to conceal the student’s identity.We came to know this when a girl from our grade walked into the staff room without knocking and listened to them gossiping for about 5 minutes.I think it’s downright offensive from the teachers' side.The counselor never got fired or anything, but the girls never went to her with their problems ever again, and whenever a new student would join our school, she would be informed as well.