Arrived in LA for the 2009 PDC

To Los Angeles by TGV

Ok, only the first few hundred kilometers were by TGV, the rest was by airplane. This year I booked my flight to LA with Air France, with a TGV transfer from Brussels to Paris. The main reason I chose Air France was because they offered the lowest price.

My expectations were low, mainly because a couple of years ago I missed a connecting flight in Charles De Gaulle. I somehow followed the wrong signs and ended up in the main entry hall. By the time I realised this, boarding for my flight was closed. When I explained my situation to the Air France customer services representative, his immediate reaction was 'Why did you go from Brussels to Paris by plane, you should have used the TGV'. So that's what I did this tme. I was extremely positively surprised by the way Air France integrates the TGV in their air network. I could check-in for my flight at the Air France desk in Brussels-South train station. The TGV ride was very good, there's a lot more leg space than in an economy cabin on a plane, and there are even 220V electricity sockets available in the train (didn't try them out though). Then came the dreaded transfer in Charles De Gaulle. Would I get lost again? I didn't take any risk an just asked somebody where the bagage drop-off point was. I was already too far, I must have missed those signs (again!). Anyway, after barely 10 minutes queueing at the drop-off point, I could continue to the gates. Next time I'll probably use the TGV/Air France route again, purely for the comfort of the TGV connection.

Nokia bh-905 Bluetooth Headset With Active Noise Cancellation mini review

I recently purchased a Nokia bh-905 headset. I listen to a lot of webcast, and with all of the background noise at home I thought it would be interesting to buy a headset with active noise cancellation. This headset can both be used as a Bluetooth headset or as a wired headset. The noise cancellation works very well at home (all repetitive background noise is almost eliminated, e.g. the noise of a dishwasher or of a computer fan), and now I have tried it out on a plane. On my flight, the noise cancellation made the difference between barely being able to understand the conversations on the movies on the entertainment system, or getting a very clear sound. Also listening to music was much better thanks to the noise cancellation. Only when the music is very silent, the background noise of the plane is still very disturbing, but normal volume music is very good.

There is only one small disadvantage with this headset (apart from its price, which is rather high). The volume knob on the headset itself only seams to work when using a Bluetooth connection. When using a wired analog connection, the source input volume controls need to be used instead.