Things I may never be again, a list:
- Completely Warm
- Completely Dry
- Completely Clean
- Camping in Ullapool in September
More details once I’ve had time to relax and recover.
September 23, 2007
A list
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September 19, 2007
Cold
Summer appears to be over, the nights are drawing in, and it’s suddenly turned cold.
So, what am I doing this weekend?
Camping.
In Ullapool.
Current forecast, pretty much the opposite of warm and dry.
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April 29, 2007
The Sound of Silence
Wow, no posts for three weeks — a new record.
Why so quiet? Well I’ve been in Moscow for work the week before last and the rest of the time I’ve been somewhat busy catching up with all the other things I was supposed to do over the last month.
Preparing for the trip was interesting, it was all very short notice and it’s been a while since I’ve had to work with a proper drop-dead deadline, and it’s been ages since I’ve had such a tight schedule to keep. In the end it all went as smoothly as I could have hoped for — even if our software isn’t as easy to use as I would have liked (particularly since I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to improve exactly that).
I was pleasantly surprised by Moscow, considering my last visit to was marked by close encounters with scam artists and dodgy policemen. This time everything was quiet, no scams, no police, not even that many strange looks. I did manage to get hopelessly lost by getting off at the wrong metro stop and not realising for an hour, and I managed to sleep through my stop on what I thought was the last train of the night (fortunately there was at least one more train going back the other way).
I found a couple of really nice bars that I’d go back to (and a few that I wouldn’t recommend). This is easier said than done as Moscow’s street layout and numbering is somewhat odd. I also found myself, pretty much by accident, back at a bar I’d been to with the Vodkatrain lot, these dudes were playing (sorry for the shaky video):
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
I have more videos but the embedded player doesn’t seem to play nice with multiple videos.
All in all a fun, and worthwhile, trip. Now I just have to decide where to go next.
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April 4, 2007
Short Notice
For the last few months my boss has been toying with the idea of sending me to a inter-company testing thing, basically a lot of companies get together and check that their software can all talk to each other like it should. I’ve been to one before and it was quite an interesting and fun diversion, but I’d pretty much written off all hope of going to this one as there weren’t a lot of other companies going and the higher-ups didn’t sound convinced.
However, at the last minute, they’ve decided that I should go, we may as well take the chance to find problems in a friendly setting like this rather than have them crop up in the middle of a demo in front of a real customer.
So the upside is that I’m going to Moscow in 11 days, I’ll get a bit of a break from the normal routine of work, I’ll get to meet some new people, and I’ll get a weekend in Moscow after it’s all over.
The downside is that I’m going to Moscow in 11 days. Eeek. That’s going to be cutting it a little close for comfort. That means that, as well as getting the software running on the (slightly flaky) team laptop, I’ve got to sort out accommodation, transport and a visa. Most of that I can do, but it’s going to be really tight to get the required paperwork together for a business visa, particularly with Easter this weekend.
Ah well, that’s what I get for thinking to myself that work had been getting a bit dull lately.
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February 28, 2007
Progress …
Progress time again:
People Visited: 11 (2) [Jan: 5/1]
Places Visited: 5 (2) [Jan: 2/1]
Countries Visited: 5 (2) [Jan: 2/1]
Again the numbers in brackets are ‘new’ people/places/countries (see the rules below). February has been a nice busy month a lot of travelling and visiting people, so much that I’m exhausted and poor at the moment. It’s a great start to my resolution but it’s going to drop off now in March and April.
The rules (to keep me honest).
For places and countries the numbers are the number of unique places/countries I’ve been so far this year. The number in brackets indicates the places/countries I’ve never been before. Passing through somewhere due to connecting flights or transfers doesn’t count. For people it’s the number of people I’ve travelled to visit (counting people in Edinburgh only if I make the effort to visit their home). The number in brackets are people I didn’t visit last year and/or would have been unlikely to visit this year if I hadn’t made a resolution to do so. Partners and family members don’t count extra unless I know them separately and “accidents” don’t count, I have to be deliberately going to see the person.
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February 26, 2007
Bad Idea in Berlin
Pub Crawl?
Free Beer?
Free Vodka Shots All Night?
With my reputation?
None of that is that a bad idea, in fact I think the New Berlin Pub Crawl is a fantastic idea, good value and great fun.
The bad idea was that Absinthe. After which it’s all a bit … hazy … dark …
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February 15, 2007
Off travellin’
I’m off travelling again tomorrow, London, Berlin and then Oslo to see Dave.
After my last trip I’m going to attempt to do it all with carry-on bags and online check-in. In theory I should breeze through the airports. In practice my bag is just inside the size guidelines (which are smaller at Stanstead for some reason) so it might be … interesting.
In any case I expect there to be even fewer posts than normal over the next ten days or so.
Hopefully I’ll have something to post about when I get back.
But don’t count on it.
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January 22, 2007
Weekend away …
It’s been a interesting, if somewhat hectic weekend.
I’ve not really got a lot to say about Dublin, I wandered around visited Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral and learnt a wee bit of viking history. All good places to go, and cheaper than comparable places I’ve been to elsewhere. It does remind me how little I know of both the ancient and recent history of the British Isles. There are, as expected, lots of pubs — but a fair few of them were very much your new style commercial chain pub rather than the old style boozer I was looking for. I found a few to my liking tho’ — not sure I’ll be able to find any of them again.
The travel was interesting, thanks largely to the stinking hangover I had flying out on the Saturday. This was thanks to this fiend:
I’m pleased to say airline security doesn’t seem to be holding stuff up much any more, no one more than glanced at my carefully bagged tube of toothpaste. I flew back — with less of a hangover, but early enough to have me up and about at 5am — on the Monday and actually made it into work earlier than I normally would have. Which is pretty impressive since I started the day in another country.
I wonder how far away I can wake up and still get to work on time …
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January 13, 2007
Going Places
Last year I went to five new countries (I think) and ten new places (although I might be missing some that are closer to home). That’s not even one a month. Certainly something to aim for this year, maybe I’ll tack it onto my new years resolution.
The last few years I’ve gone on holiday in February, it gives me something to look forward to during the dull days of January. This year is no exception and so I’m sandwiching a few days in Berlin between visiting friends in London and Oslo.
I choose Berlin because it has cheap flights at reasonable times from and to the places I need to be and because I’ve been advised that there’s “lots to do”. I’m not entirely sure what to do, but I’ve got a month of work to surf various travel sites to find things. Suggestions are also welcome.
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November 24, 2006
Up North
I’m off up to Aviemore for a week of rest and relaxation (or something like that). I’ll be pretty much ‘off the grid’ again, so I’ll have an excuse for not posting anything for the next seven days.
Unlike the last seven days, where I have no excuse for not posting anything.
Hopefully I’ll return inspired and full of tales to relate. But don’t count on it.
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