Tech bytes for tea?

On my driving vacation in Europe, I’ll see how much of my digital lifestyle I can bring along, and how much I can live without.

It’s that time of the year again, when we uproot the entire family and squeeze ourselves into a four wheeler and drive around a new country. For this school holiday, we’d decided to visit Germany and Prague in the Czech Republic.

For our 16-day escape from the grunt of daily routine, we will be visiting the castles in southern Germany and the historic city of Prague. The romantic lanterns on Charles Bridge had left such a deep impression for my wife that we’d decided to revisit it again someday.

But would you believe it – for the longest time, we hadn’t hear much about Germany in the media. Then suddenly, just weeks prior to setting off, it started making its way into the news for all the wrong reasons.

Empty seats on the SQ 326 from Singapore to Frankfurt

First it was the ash cloud from Iceland that threatened to scuttle our plans. Fortunately, that blew away soon enough. Then it’s now the E Coli outbreak that is still plaguing the country. We’ve decided to stick to our plans however – I’m hoping to steer clear of tomatoes, cucumbers and other raw greens.

Right now I’m on flight SQ325 from Singapore Changi Terminal 3 to Frankfurt Rhein Main International Airport Terminal 1. We took off almost half an hour later than the designated 1355. I’m wondering if we’ll be on time to arrive in Frankfurt at 2040.

The economy class of the flight looks almost empty. I estimate at most 10% occupancy in the Economy class. There’s plenty of space for passengers to lie astride the three seats in each section of the Boeing 777-300ER.

Empty seats on the SQ 326 from Singapore to Frankfurt

I asked the cabin crew whether this flight was always this empty or was it due to the outbreak in Germany. She replied that it wasn’t due to the outbreak and that weekday flights during the day tend to be less full than evening flight – because vacationers prefer to take the night flight to save one day’s accomodation upon arrival.

Made sense – we too used to take night flights and start the vacation upon arrival. But the kids usually stayed awake throughout the flight playing games and watching shows and wifey couldn’t sleep well on board. So we’d decided to try the day flight, sleep on arrival and start fresh on a new day.

The business class looks 75% full. Guess there is less impetus for these passengers to save money for their companies.

Anyway, the movie selection seems really boring even thoough there’re more than 150 shows on offer. There seems to be a dirth of good flicks during this period.

This is the first time I’m typing on a laptop during a flight. The abundance of space makes it less painful to set up a laptop and there’s no worry that someone is peering at what you’re typing. The next passenger is a few rows to the front and behind.

There’s no Internet access while on board so I’ll have to wait till the next time I get access to post this. The stewardess mentioned that Internet access should be available soon in the near future. Good thing there’s a power outlet on the seat handle to plug in the laptops though.