There is no avoiding it, you’ve landed the job, bagged the big project or been invited to the conference and you need to travel across continents to be there. Inevitably, you’ll be shifted out of your time zone and end up feeling exhausted, disoriented or just plain out of sorts.

Jetlag can be a true pain, you want to be on top of your game, but you need to get back in sync. After a week here in Seattle – 8 hours behind my body clock, I thought I’d jot down my tips for overcoming jet lag.

• Charge up the sleep bank – before you fly, make sure you are rested, if you are going to lose sleep it helps not to be tired before you go.
• Hydrate – don’t drink too much on the plane, however tempting the red wine is in business class – it doesn’t do you any good. Switch to water after your meal and stay well hydrated. Avoid the caffeine though, juice and water are the best.
• Keep the blood flow going – if it is a long flight, get up and stretch, stand up for a little while and keep the blood moving. Most long-haul flights recommend some stretches you can do in your seat, take advantage.
• Adjust your watch – I always change my watch immediately on take off (also on my PC if I am going to work on the flight) – this minor act can get you mentally prepare for your destination timezone.
• Daylight – on arrival, try and get some sunshine on your face – or at least natural light – it will help your body adjust, you could even combine that with the next suggestion.
• Exercise – 30 minutes light cardio – maybe a gentle workout or even a walk, is the most potent weapon you have to get the blood flow going and help combat the fatigue.

Hopefully these tips will help you avoid medication – which I’m not a fan of – I try and follow some of these, I’m not always successful and I find myself awake at some early hours – but if that happens, I try and embrace them a little bit and enjoy the quiet time at the start of the day.

What are your tips for avoiding jet lag?

I was 20 years old, Black Box were number one with Ride on Time and we just recently had cable TV installed at our house. I remember watching the news on the evening that the wall was breached, and realising that something really momentous was happening. The morning after, I watched the coverage in awe at the change in Europe.

Since then – I’ve travelled to Moscow and made good friends, and when I walked across Red Square with an American, we both remarked at how this would have been unthinkable before the fall of Communism and the changes in Europe.

This amazing article at the NYT has some interactive pictures that you can see before and after shots of landmarks in Berlin. The BBC also has great coverage.

What were you doing when the Berlin Wall fell?

They say that ‘Hell is other People’, and at no time is that more true than when you spend 9 hours on a plane. Here are some of my tips that might make that trip bearable.

• Smile & talk to the people around you – you might make a great contact
• Make sure the Zune or Ipod is fully charged
• Bring a great book – good fiction can eat the hours away (more on that one to come!)
• Be polite to the cabin crew – it will pay dividends
• Charge those batteries – laptop/DVD/MP3 – you want your toys!
• Bring a big bottle of water
• Bring something to take notes – great ideas happen in the air
• Don’t dismiss the movies – there is always something you haven’t seen
• Smile – it will be over soon, and you’ll be in a new exciting place, meeting people that you enjoy being with

What are your tips for making flights more bearable?

And I wake up this morning – to this feeling…

…great news – well done America!

Fantastic Banksy and Colossal Media collaboration in New York – another reason to plan a trip to Gotham. (Spotted via Gothamist)

I was sitting looking out of my window in my Hotel room (I know, I know…still not at Inbox Zero either)…and I thought that I should stitch together a pano of the lovely view I have from the 11th floor.

Photosynth is even better to show someone a view – here are 26 photos (100% synthy) from my room, stitched together with the wonderful PhotoSynth.

I was watching the Sky Sports ScoreCenter, from the hotel in Bellevue, WA this morning… and it was serving me up French banner ads… how strange!

Just before I left for Rome, Microsoft Live Labs officially launched the Photosynth tool which allows you to arrange and share your photographs in a completely unique way and explore those photos as if you were looking at the detail of the real world.

It is kind of hard to explain – so explore my first synth of the Arch of Titus in Rome either by clicking the embedded version above, or the full size version over at Photosynth. It is really easy to explore, just click away and watch how you can zoom into details of the arch.

Back from 5 days in beautiful Rome – it is difficult to put into words how beautiful the city is, even after a couple of days back in the UK I’m struggling to write a blog post – so I thought I’d right a list of my most abiding memories:

1. Take comfortable shoes, ones that you can walk A LONG WAY in – I took some Spring Court shoes, very comfortable – but after two days of walking, they (and my feet) were wrecked. I ended up buying a pair of comfy Nikes for the last few days.
2. Take lots of storage cards for your camera (or a laptop/hard drive to download each day) – you will take a lot of photos. Here are a selection of ours.
3. Eat away from the main tourist areas – we were given some great suggestions of places to eat, and they were ALL away from the main tourist squares and ttrations. This saves money, but most of all increases your chances of finding fantastic food.
4. Find ‘Sant Eustachio il Caffe’, and order cappuccino there – you will not be disappointed. It is here on the map.
5. Allow good time for the Forum – there is a lot of it, and lots to see. To me, much more enjoyable than the Colosseum.
6. Visit Trastavere and the Porta Portese market on Sunday morning – there are some great finds to be had in between the usual market fodder. I bought some beautiful old postcards which I’ll show here soon.
7. Find a bar – and sit outside, people watching in the evening. Rome is so busy, you’ll need to relax and there will be plenty of people to watch.
8. Eat late – a few times we spent longer doing number 7 than we anticipated, and ended up eating at 9.30 / 10.00 pm – it was worth it, the restaurants are busy, buzzing and full of interesting people.
9. Plan your days and get extra value. Tickets for Palatine Hill, Forum and Colosseum are ‘all in one’ – 14 euros per person, but they must be used in 48 hours. Don’t buy them at the Colosseum, buy at Palatine Hill for less queues (we did). The Vatican Museum + Sistine Chapel is free on certain days – check this out in advance (we didn’t – but the fee was worth it).
10. Take your time – Rome is a busy capital city, but so beautiful & romantic that it deserves you slowing down to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells and tastes.

A selection of my photographs…

[flickr album=72157606997034758 num=12]

I mean – how difficult is it? You come home, get a fingernail under the cellophane wrapper and then pop open the jewel case to get your new shiny silver disc out – and away you go… right?

Wrong – not in the US, because here – they put ANOTHER sticker, with a barcode over the top edge of the CD – like in the picture above. This is a different kind of of wrapping to get access to…after 3 minutes trying to lift an edge up with my non-existent mans finger nails, I then resorted to a pen, which promptly broke. I ended up making a tear in the sticker with my nail-clippers and then painstakingly peeling the sticker off.

How BLOODY stupid is that extra sticker – why do you need two layers? Grrr…

I daren’t open the Lizz Wright CD pictured above, in case I lacerate myself and bleed to death in the Hyatt.