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Up in the Air – flying in the very first row!

Published on May 25, 2010 in travel. 2 Comments


20100525-P1020036.jpg, originally uploaded by floho.

Sometimes, fortunate things happen to you when you least expect it. This morning for example.
After the AMAZING week in France (pictures and updates might be coming), the alarm clock at 5:30am to catch the first flight out was surely not the most anticipated thing in the world, and the shower that seemed to insist on digital operation (scalding hot or freezing cold – your choice!) did not make it better… so I expected this to be another dreaded tired and long morning commute. I called a cab, got outside, looked at my phone…

there was a new message from my best friend’s buddy Micha.

“Say, are you about to fly to Amsterdam?”
… well, yes, I am – but how does he….? Wait a minute – it trickled through my brain. He is a first officer for Lufthansa CityLine. My flight today is with a CityLine jet…
“Yep! Are you my captain?”
How exciting! I’ll be able to shake hands with him after the landing and I’ll be able to tell all my friends that a buddy flew me to Amsterdam!
“No, your FO. Wanna ride in the cockpit?”
Ha-ha, very funny Micha. Everybody knows that is forbidden in the post 9-11 world. Or is that only true for the US? Could it actually be that he is NOT pulling my leg? Is he super cruel or super cool?
“Are you kidding? That’s possible? Of course I want to!”
You’re not gonna get me, but if there is a chance – if there really is a chance for me to sit in the cockpit – I won’t miss it for my life!
“Then tell the Stewardess who you are at boarding. Which seat are you booked for?”
OK, this either is the real deal or he wants me to emberrass myself a LOT. But who cares, I’ll bite.
“9F. OK, I’ll give her a heads up.”

And that, my friends, is how it came to be. I made sure I was amongst the last people to get on the plane (limiting the potential for others to notice me making a fool of myself), spoke up to the FA, and sure enough: She greeted me with a smile, took my bag and my jacket, the cockpit door opened, and there I was – front row, big time.

After a quick hello to the captain (left) and Micha (right), I got settled in: The jumpseat gets pulled out from behind the captain, so I sat right behind and between the two with my back to the cabin door. Micha showed me where the oxygen mask was, in case of a loss in cabin pressure (they do not drop from the ceiling in the cockpit, and they are full-face masks that also have headsets installed). I strapped in to the five-point harness (feeling like a race car driver), and Micha gave me a headset, so I could talk to the two during the flight and listen in to the radio chatter. Wow!
With a huge grin/smile on my face (that did not vanish until long after the landing!), I shut my mouth and let them do their job, which is quite busy: From closing the doors to take-off, there is a number of checklists they work through, they talk to the ramp agent and the tower for take-off clearance, and of course before they had already familiarized themselves with the flight plan and fed the onboard systems with all necessary information.

Off we went – and let me tell you, it is so much more exciting from the first row of the airplane! Thankfully I have been reading up a lot on how flying a commercial jet works in “whoops there are two hours reading time gone before you know it”-awesome thread of a Delta pilot who encouraged people to ask him all sorts of questions about being a pilot and flying in general, so I could make sense of most of the things the two did without asking too many stupid questions. Most of the time I was enjoying it way too much to talk in useful sentences, anyhow :-)

If you want to know more, I’ll be happy to talk at length about the rest of the trip – just say so in the comments! For more pictures of the flight (including a very happy Florian with his headset on), click the picture of the middle console (which I was sitting directly in front of), or click here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to grin from ear to ear a bit more.

VACATION! Starting with the Pirates’ federal party convent

Published on May 16, 2010 in general. 0 Comments


20100515-P1010786.jpg, originally uploaded by floho.

I can hardly believe it, but since Friday, I am officially on vacation! This is, apart from a few single days, the first time that I have gone on vacation (in terms of “I planned it beforehand, and I left home). Good times! My girl and I packed the car with everything you could possibly need on our roadtrip that will eventually lead us to the Loire valley in France, where we plan on having the most relaxed time inbetween castles, wineyards and scenic landscapes.

Of course there also needs to be some action in every vacation, this is why we start it with the federal party convent (Bundesparteitag) of the Pirate Party Germany in Bingen am Rhein over the weekend. Lovely little city, and for two days now, it is filled with 1000 Pirates!

While the first day was filled mainly with the election of the national chairman (stayed the same) and his deputy (stayed the same), but the second day now sees a lot more real activity. For example, the Pirate Party Germany now is the first and only party in Germany that is going to introduce Liquid Feedback (http://liquidfeedback.org/), a Liquid Democracy tool, nationwide! That really is a breakthrough in terms of grassroots democracy, and it is exciting to be a part of it.

The picture I posted here is a view from the middle of the hall where the convent takes place. Great organization, and also: working internet for everybody… a charm!

Alright, gotta go now, and make my vote count!
You can see the rest of the pictures I took of the convention here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollender/sets/72157623946214823/show/

First stop: Munich

Published on January 5, 2010 in general. 0 Comments

Getting to Munich takes a good 6 hours under normal circumstances.
We had no normal circumstances. It was snowing, it was cold, and it was the last day of the holidays for many parts of the country… so the trip took 10:30 hours, which puts our average speed at something like 75 km/h. Not that satisfying, but as you can see from the picture, we were still in a good mood after arrival!
Had great dinner that day and a good nights sleep. Yesterday I went to Munich's center to do some shopping while Gwendy was at work. Found the most unbelievably crammed, narrow and downright stupidly planned underground parking ever. Survived it without damage to the car somehow. The day was beautiful – not too cold, sunny all over… so I took some halfway nice pics with the big camera, but the upload will have to wait until I am back at decent bandwith.
In the evening we went to two cool bars ("die Bank" and "Ksar") and finished the day with a "le Üwe" at the 'Bergwolf". If you know what that is, you know we had a good time ;-)

Today I drove over to Augsburg to visit Brandi. She already gave me a thorough tour of the city – I had totally forgotten that Augsburg is the town of the Fuggers! On a sidenote – I bought a book that I THOUGHT was about Consulting. Well, it is. But the German "Beratung" has, as the english equivalent, a very broad meaning…. the book is about counseling people with personal issues, not about management consulting. But hey, it was discounted, and one can always broaden the horizon, right?!

Now we're off to grab some mexican food, and then we'll hit the bowling alley. Tomorrow: Frankfurt!

Starting a trip round Germany

Published on January 3, 2010 in general. 1 Comment


Start of the trip, originally uploaded by floho.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, long time no see, etc.!

In a few minutes I’m starting a week-long trip throughout Germany to visit some of my dearest friends. First stop: Munich. I plan on blogging some pictures from every location.

Cool twist #1: I’m taking my new car (Bizzie, she’s called), which is sweeeet!
Cool twist #2: For the long trip to Munich, I’m taking Gwen, so it’s gonna be fun from the getgo. Also, she lives there, and I’m visiting her, so it makes some good sense.
Cool twist #3: Instead of delayed christmas presents, I’ll be taking some cool photos of everyone I visit. Which they don’t know yet. The car is stuffed with all my photo equipment, and It’ll be fun for sure!

Now off we go – come and ride along!

What keeps me from blogging – and what my “life title” is

Published on June 21, 2009 in holidays, ideas, inspiration, people and writing. 0 Comments

A long preface (or: What keeps me from blogging these days) My relationship with writing has taken a steep downturn since I started working. Not that I don’t write at work – quite the contrary. I write all the time – but the style required in consulting is quite different from what I write elsewhere, for example in a blog. It’s not prose – I hardly touch a word processor, so most of my writing has come down to concise half-sentences in bullet points on powerpoint slides. That’s an art in itself, for sure – making a precise argument in limited space… but I find it all the harder to get back to the keyboard and write a “real” text. That’s what keeps me from blogging. Looking back at how the syllables just flowed into the keyboards a few years back, especially during my stints abroad… I miss that ease of writing. To some point, the carelessness as well. The hurdle to just sit down and write has become higher, and most often, I don’t jump it.

Today, though, a late Saturday night – I’m trying again. This, as I am on vacation for the next three weeks, is one of the things I want to do right now: Get my fun and ease of writing back.

My life title You’ve been wondering what that “life title” thing is, right? Well, most people have a job title. I’m a “Consultant”. That says something – though not terribly much- about what I do for a living, and it describes that part of me… but that is not and shouldn’t be all there is to me. Over the last weeks, I have stumbled across two little things that came almost as a revelation to me. As most great things, they are terribly simple – almost mundane – but they have a profound impact on me.

Little thing #1: I read an article of the author/trainer/old school “management guru” Tom Peters, where he states:

Enthusiasm is the sine qua non of success … at anything. Hence, I command: The Very First Item on EVERY job criteria list shall hereinafter be: “Enthusiast.” Every. Job. Enthusiast. First. Period.

That rang a bell with me. That was me. An Enthusiast. I am at my best when I am enthusiastic about something, and I live for moments, ideas, people, things, plans, projects, visions to be enthusiastic about. There’s a good reason why I chose the saying by Charles Kingsley (which is often falsly attributed to Einstein) to be my motto in our graduation book:

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

That’s me: Florian Hollender. Enthusiast. But WHAT am I enthusiastic about? Is there a common theme? A denominator that carries all through life? I found it, that is…

Little thing #2: As I said, it is really simple, no surprise at all, but I never saw it in that light. Lying awake in bed one night (cheese, but not made up), I realized the common thread that spans through all my hobbies, all the things I carry a torch for: It is people, and it is technology. I love climbing, because it requires technique, technical equipment and teamwork. Same goes for diving. I love photography, because it enables me to a creative outlet through technology. I love computers, because they enable me to a whole universe of possibilities and activities, to connect and communicate in new ways. And so on, and so forth. Technology in itself is great, but when you put people and technology together, the world changes. Mine certainly does.

There you have it, my life title:

Florian Hollender. Enthusiast for people and technology.