Tuesday, June 2, 2009

At the Bonn Climate Talks

Had to come to Germany for about 4 hours (though with travel time gone from home Mon afternoon to Thu afternoon). The Climate talks are going on in Bonn. ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization) has a side event. Have to speak at it. On alternative fuels. I guess aviation (and shipping) are really getting beat up because the "bunker" (international) component is not under the Framework Convention so everyone thinks they get a free pass. The intrigue .....



Got booked into a hotel in Cologne (which somehow advertised itself as an airport hotel). Had some difficulty with the train -- but sorted it our eventually. Was 15 mins late ... but that's OK as our meeting went on and on and on. Here we are sitting outside planning our side event. I hope it goes well -- I cut some charts from my presentation.

I left "early" (around 10) and caught the 10:32 train. Walking through the dark alley to get back to the hotel was scary .. but a taxi isn't going to drive you 300 meters!

Managed to jog 3.5 km in the gym. As the side event does not start till 1 (although I am leaving here at 10 -- I am NOT chancing being late!) I will be able to jog tomorrow and get some practice for the Komen race. On the way over to Munich started thinking about Mark's Grandpa Scheible and how he died after Mark finally "won" and was able to pay a dinner bill at the dog track. I was actually tearing up over meeting my fund raising goal and getting Mark into the pink shirt. And then getting 30 yes voted so he has to wear it to the Nartional Mall on Saturday. But today I discovered the source of my emotions -- will be looking for a drug store in the morning .... And Mark will look glorious in his pink shirt. Maybe Sydney will accompany him.


I better go get some sleep. There was a lot of turbulence so I got nervous because of the Air France accident. Watched two chick flicks and one scary one. Did get a nap ..... but I kept getting calls to sort some work issue out. And now I have the IPCC report to write and a Congressional briefing to get ready for on Friday. At least there is no Facebook as I cannot use my work computer to access ...... amazing how much time it can waste