Tonight I am staying in Bristol doing a software install with a client. Will be here for a couple of weeks, and then on and off for a while.
Easy drive up to Bristol, then 45 minutes of hell getting across the city. Next Monday must find a new route. It’s been suggested driving around Bristol to Portishead and then into the office which is near by. Typically Google did not suggest the route.
Another Google complaint, getting to the hotel, I searched for the location using its postcode. Google located it, but threw away all the postcode other than BS1, and sent me to some where near the hospitals. Could not find the place at all, rang the hotel and they gave me directions. Over two miles away I found the hotel. The guy I spoke to at the hotel phone, said they had emailed Google several times about this postcode problem.
Ah well, next time I shall use the complete street address. At least I now know where the hotel is. Now to find some nice eating establishments.
Another three days at Bristol and this time more people from the company with me. This is odd, working at a customer site, and people I can go out with for a drink and a meal. Very unusual indeed.
The weather, must talk about the weather. Yet again sunny and no rain. I shall soon expect to hear the farmers and water companies complaining about the lack of rain.
Finished the install, most of the stuff working, though some issues with the command SET CURRENT SQLID=xxxxxx which seems to be issued by our software, and is not always liked by DB2 systems. Ah well, I am sure it will be resolved in due course.
Restaurants, I ate at an Indian restaurant. It was near the waterfront, but not on it. Unusual, not the normal run of the mill Byrianis and Vindaloos, but more meaty dishes like lamb shoulder or lamb hock. Wish I could remember the name, but alas I don’t have the bill to hand.
Lovely run back home on Wednesday night, left the drive back till 7.00, and was soon home. No queueing on the M32 or at the Oxford M4 interchange.
The bank wanted me for a couple of days urgent work. So up to Edinburgh on the Easyjet from Luton. Bit of a problem at security. I had to take my belt off, no problem I always collect it as it passes through the xray machine. This time they wanted to test my toothpaste as well. Never had this done before, so in total confusion I left my belt at security. Only realised this several hours later as my trousers fell to the floor.
It was wet and miserable in Edinburgh. Rained the whole time I was there. Stayed at the Apex in Grassmarket, so a short walk to the Mussel and Steak. Had a good meal of tuna cooked to a lovely pink colour inside. Even early on a wet Monday evening the restaurant was quite busy.
Flight back was a breeze, left on time and arrived back in the clear skies. Collected my belt from lost property.
Flew to Edinburgh for a short meeting with a pension company customer. The meeting was at 10.00, so had to fly from Birmingham. Rather early flight so bad night sleep. Met our Sales person in the Cafe Nero at 9.00 for a cup of coffee.
I seem to have been rather lax in doing any postings is recent weeks. I suppose that is because not alot is happening at present.
Since visiting Edinburgh, and having a long weekend in Edinburgh, I have been working from home or working in the Aylesbury office on various support issues.
The last visit to Edinburgh culminated in the project teams Christmas party on Thursday lunch time. This went on till late in the evening. Next Rosemary arrived and we had a weekend in Edinburgh. She is due to write that up today.
Since then Christmas has come and passed. The weather has been variable, rain, frosts, sun, wind, but no snow. We now have sheep again in the field at the back, who are wading through puddles.
Well today I am in Aylesbury, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing hard. Time to make a cup of tea and start some work.
Well I am back in Edinburgh and staying at the Radisson. I have actually been in Edinburgh quite a bit recently, a couple of days last week, and the whole of the previous week. I had been staying down at the Holyrood and eating at the Mai Thai. So far, this week looks promising. The weather is good, the sun is out, well at least for a short period as head for the shortest day. Makes a great change to the weekend, when it rained and blew hard all the time. Let us hope the benign weather stays for the weekend when Rosemary joins me at the Radisson.
The weekend trip was rather fraught last week, when I discovered I had booked the hotel for only the one night. When I tried to book the next night it appeared the hotel was full, but thankfully as a Gold Points card holder, they found a room for the second night. Hopefully Rosemary has forgiven me.
This must be the end. I am here supporting the UAT testing, and making those changes, which seemingly always crop up on the last day. Once that is over, I will be back in Aylesbury and my trips to Edinburgh will be finished. I do not see any more work coming my way here, but then I said that 4 years ago.
Well I finished the week in Chicago, and arrived back on Saturday. Looks like I won’t be back for the conversion weekend. That day was delayed and now coincides with my holiday.
Had a week in the office doing some support for the Polish, since then £ signs always seem to display as some other odd character on my PC. Must look at my keyboard mappings. After a nice week going home every day I felt rather spoilt.
Weekend at home, meal with John, Carol, Anne and Chris (& their two dogs). All stayed over night.
Monday back up to Edinburgh for a final bit of development. The Mai Thai restaurant was closed, the chef was taking a four week break back to Thailand. So I went elsewhere to eat, the Siam Thani on Broughton Street. I am afraid it was no cheaper, and the food was not nearly as nice as Mai Thai.
Ate one meal at the Petit Paris. Have not eaten in the Grass Market one for a long time. The waiter commented on not seeing me for such along time. Had a nice meal of duck and lentil casserole.
Met Ed and Jo for a curry at Zest.
The past week the weather has been pretty good. Sunny, but was quite cold in the evening.
This week I am in Chicago, working on an United Airlines project. I was definitely looking forward to coming out here. A nice city, good food, and blues bands.
Of course I seem to have ended up in the suburbs, miles from anywhere with no transport, and not particularly good restaurants. The hotel is in Itasca, and the office in Wood Vale
Met up with Fred Giacoma. He works not so far away from here, so he took me to a mall, where there were some reasonable restaurants. The place was Italian, all the items on the menu had half portions. We even had a half portion starter shared between the two of us, and that was ample. I ate a clam linguine, half portion of course, and still left some.
Well I finished my last week in Edinburgh. Packed my bag which had to go in the aircraft hold because it had a bottle of Champagne from the Mai Thai resturant.
Just as I was leaving, the Bank asked if I could have another week in Edinburgh to do some further changes. Ah well it seems I will be back there quicker than I expected.
It is already Thursday. I have been staying at the Holyrood Hotel. I have eaten in the Mai Thai three nights running. I really must go and find somewhere else to eat for a change. It is though so easy to go there and eat. Good food, and the Carlsberg Special is only £2.50. (Do you hear that, Jake, £2.50!) Free Internet access and a friendly bunch who run it. Last night football was on, and some celebrations from the Scots who won their game. Hey and so did England, smashed the Russians 3 - 0.
Well I thought this might have been my last week here, but it does look that I may be here for a couple more weeks. Should be good for the bonus.
Weather wise, the sun has shone every day, no rain. Today is the worst day, a bit on the overcast side. Some of the thousands of Americans packing out breakfast and being their usual painful Americans selves, commented that it was going to rain in Glasgow, and might make it to Edinburgh. Hope not as I walked into work in short sleeves. Ah, and North Bridge was closed, I assume by another jumper, so had to walk down into the rail station and out the other side.
Tried to log on to the site selling Led Zeppelin tickets, http://ahmettribute.com, does not seem active yet. Little chance I will get one of the 20,000 tickets priced at £125. But I will give it a go.
Been here three days now, flew up on Monday. Funny flight, the captain took us to 38,000 ft where there was thin cloud, and it was rough, so he had to drop 2,000 ft and it was smooth flight, but a 120 mile an hour head wind. Took off late, London air traffic control, but we are in Luton, miles away fom London, and you don’t see any other aircraft. They obviously need more advanced systems that can figure this out.
Staying down in the Hollyrood, so I have breakfast every day, and the Mai Thai for supper. I wish I was logical and had eaten my way through the menu in order. Instead I dither and pick and choose. Now I have no idea which menu items I have not eaten.
Managed to eat in the Mai Thai every day. Wonderful food, brilliant ambiance. And good Internet access.
Not so good going home, bit of a delay on Easyjet. Flight was a little rough, and coming into land we were in cloud with the spoilers on for over 5 minutes, and the occasional 360 turn. Probably going deaf now because I had to turn the MP3 player up loud to counteract the noise from the vibration caused by the spoilers. I really must catch an earlier flight home. Getting home at 9 on a Friday is a pain, especially now it is getting dark.
Back up in Edinburgh, starting my third day now. Travel up was easy, plane left early, arrived early and in the office by 9.30
Not staying in my usual hotel but down in the McDonnald by Holyrood. That means I will be eating at the Mai Thai, and will be eating breakfast as well. Breakfast is included in the price of the room. Not included means I go hungry, included means I eat. Been eating fish for breakfast, loading up on healthy omega fats.
Last two evenings in the Mai Thai. I have now updated their website, changing their menu and updating the gallery. Just leaves the reviews to do, and maybe add a special news page. The site had not been updated since it was created over a year ago, and all that time it says, ‘Taking bookings for Christmas’ Ah well.
I also complained about the Plough and Anchor website, how that was never updated, how they should be changing the menu when the menu changes, how they should announce all the bands on the site as soon as the booking is made. Maybe they should have a review section with some pictures etc. I think they thought I was looking for business.
Oh the food at the Mai Thai was the usual Very Good. First night I did not order duck. This choice was commented on by the Thai waitress. Not the usual duck, sir
Had a quick trip to Edinburgh for the day to do some presales work, selling my body. Slight detour on the way to Luton, found Dunstable was closed with some gas pipeline work, so had to detour almost back to the zoo. Weather was bad both in Luton and Edinburgh.
Had some time to spare, so visited the bank and said hello to the iBuy team, and picked up a few items I had left in my desk. Had a successful meeting with the insurance company and then flew back home.
The National Art Theatre in Princes Street is doing an Andy Warhol Exhibition and had decorated the facade in suitable style.
Met Mike at the Monument for a walking tour of Newcastle. Wish I had taken my camera with me, there were some good views of the Tyne and the bridges which would have made some good photographs.
Of course the tour included visits to a number of pubs and the trialing of a few ales.
A walk across the Millennium bridge to walk through the Sage Centre, which alas was closed.
Friday was the drive back home. Not a bad drive, except for sections of the A1, where trucks insisted on doing their slow overtaking manoeuvres. Back home in around 4 hours, only hold up was on the M18 as we join the M1 caused by some road works.
