Skopje, Macedonia 11-01-2008...

Afternoon,

So, it's only the beginning of January and I have already got my first trip under my belt. On the 8th of January I made my way to the capital of Macedonia, Skopje. There I did a Thermascope commissioning for Titan, which is the largest cement producer of Macedonia.
I had been to Macedonia before but at that time it was called Yugoslavia and was communist under Marshall Tito...

This time they are independent but they are dirt poor. They are NOT in Europe so they have great difficulty doing trade with the rest of Europe. The people however are great. The rep out there from our company Nenad Vasic helped me out a lot. Mainly by dragging me to every good resatuarant and bar in the twon centre hahahaha!

This is Nenad on the roof of the cement kiln trying to get the chiller cabinets to work. It was minus 8 degrees C and blowing a gale and being up on that roof was very verrrrry cold...
This is the view from the roof to the pre-heater towers of kiln 3 and 4. The camera itself, after we cured the problems with the chillers, worked a treat and the customer was happy with the result.
This is the line 3 camera in action.

I flew to Macedonia with Austrian Airlines which was a pleasant suprise after suffering the customer care from Air France and KLM for the last two years. I have now started a new Star Alliance membership so that I can dump that bunch of froggie and cloggie bastards. They have made my life hell for the last few years with lost luggage, missed flights, crap service, rude cabin staff, rubbish food and all other sorts of irritants that a traveller can suffer.

Here is another example of the very helpfull way KLM/AirPuke treats their high revenue customers. I had gotten 300.000 airmiles together last year. I am a Platinum member so I was expecting to be able to make an easy reservation with my airmiles. I tried to get a business classticket to Thailand for february... After countless phonecalls, emails, texts etc I finally ended up with a business class ticket for the 3rd of september. Can you believe that?!?!? No tickets for any Bangkok flight with AirPuke nor KLM??? Oh, yes, I can get a flight if I am willing to BUY open air miles! Scum. That is what they are. I have had to suffer sitting in their shite economy seats for 300.000 airmiles and when it comes to giving me a ticket for my hard earned miles they are not home. What a bunch of tossers. I hope, and I mean this sincerely, that both of them go belly up as soon as possible. They just do not know what customer service is...
So, if any of you out there are thinking of joining a Frequent Flyer program be smart and do not join Skyteam. They are only there to tie you to an airline and they do not value your support. All they want is for you to spend your cash on their crappy airlines. A waste of time. If you want a decent one, get one that is member of the Star Alliance. OK, rant over.

Cheerio,

Alex.