New Years Celebrations in San Diego

We finished off the year in San Diego.  Celebrated twice.  First at the 6pm children’s countdown and fireworks at Logoland, and then when it actually closed in the Pacific time zone, four hours ahead of the International Date Line.  Looking back, we used 2008 well - spent a lot of time with our kids, kept to our promise of six plus vacations – Florida, Mexico, Hawaii, Yellowstone, Palm Springs, New Zealand and San Diego, and saw our parents and friends and family a lot throughout the year.  Here’s looking to 2009 !

Yet another new airline

We flew Virgin America to San Diego with the kids.  I have travelled extensively on Virgin Atlantic, and find them to be very strong on the SFO – LON route, great on meals, exceptional on their club rooms (particularly at Heathrow).  Conveniently, they partner with SQ for mileage credit, who are a great partner for them.  This was my first experience with Virgin America though.

In a nutshell, a very positive experience.  Cool (literally – see mood lighting on aircraft above), hip (very new century convenient – purchase, check-in, bags check etc is all self/internet enabled) and just right (no idiotic frills, and wide choice of options).   There were 50 plus programming options to choose from, which the kids promptly managed to get their Mom to figure out and order programming with her credit card.  There were some 10 menu items all orderable from your in seat console and delivered right away upon ordering.  In both cases we paid for what we wanted but got exactly what we needed –didn’t have to see our kids eat high sodium pretzels and get erroneously exposed to the Simpsons !

Mumbai, after 11/26

I just returned from Mumbai - my first visit after the recent events. Much has been written up on these events and one of the most common criticisms has been that this event compared to others from the past got a disproportionally higher level of media coverage since the targeted establishments were more frequented by the affluent section of the Indian society. I suspect this is true, and in its own way it is good. I find that the more affluent Indians didn't have much of a use for or daily interaction with the government. Sure you still need a passport to travel but most affluent Indian homes make their own basic or incremental arrangements for education, medical care, utilities and security. As such there wasn't a sense of real accountability of the elected officials and government bureaucrats - the educated and economically active Indians didn't ask and the economically deprived and uneducated Indians just accepted what they got. I see this starting to change as more and more affluent Indians are starting to ask the question. What have you done
for me recently ?

Eight years ago we were hiring software engineers in Delhi and I could see for the first time these men and women truly internalized the fact that the world is their oyster. This fundamental shift in the thinking of the youth to a "I can make it happen" mindset fundamentally changed the course of events from the previous fifty years and put India on a growth curve third to none. A similar paradigm shift is in the making - one hopes will result in a truly accountable democratic government, not just the largest.

South Island, NZ

Our vacation was, as it were, a years worth of pure, absolute, total and complete delight crammed into a week. The South Island of New Zealand is an breathtakingly beautiful part of the world. And its pristine, relatively uninhabited, and pure. And given the global economic environment, NZ was actually a great value. The interest rate arbitrage game is now over as their central government reduces rates to ease the credit crunch and as a result the currency has eroded significantly. If you are into the outdoors, NZ is probably the best value today. This photo of Fjorland was taken from a low altitude aircraft close to Queenstown.