Category Archives: work

Posting relating to my work

Edinburgh and Bradford

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It’s been a busy week using up my carbon credits; up before six to catch the Easyjet to Edinburgh to start a project with my favourite client.  I was back in their office in Dundas Street where I had started consulting for them more than six years ago.  The office has been renovated and was very smart, with a great canteen.

Evening I tried the Mussel and Steak on Grassmarket, where I had a memorable steak, and some red wine to wash it down.

I had forgotten all the hills in Edinburgh, and my recent sedentary life caused a certain stiffness to the legs in the two days I was there.

On Wednesday I flew home on a late flight arriving home at ten in the evening, quick nap in bed, and up at 4.45 in the morning to travel back up North to Bradford for a days consultancy.  Home again at ten in the evening.

I definitely feel retirement coming on.  Hopefully less travelling next week, or at least not having to rise so early in the morning.

Bradford Curry

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I spent two days in Bradford, one night.  I did not sample the Bradford curry.  I am told they are very good in that town.  OK I did have one for lunch in the canteen of the uni.  It cost £3.90, and was a mixture of several different curries.  Not hot, but very much better than the normal curry sold in a pub.  Rice was not Basmati, but for under £4.00 can;t expect the world.  Alas having that curry at lunch meant I was not hungry for tea, hotel restaurant was closed for Christmas party, so ended up with a takeaway from Tesco.

No matter will be back there another time, so will do some Asian restaurant reviews.  Now is Bradford better for a curry than Birmingham.

On my way to Bradford

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Sitting here on the train to Leeds, the countryside looks so beautiful as the sun rises.  Yes the sun is shining.   Just about to pull into Leeds station on time, so better put away the laptop.  Then a quick trip to Bradford, where I shall spend a couple of days at the uni there.

Commuting to Broxbourne

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Last couple of days I have been driving around the M25 to Broxbourne.  Working on applying some modifications to a system there.  I find it amazing how you can be in a quite leafy town just a mile off the rush of the M25.

Its also amazing how that at rush hour the M25 is pretty free flowing with no delays.  I expect that though won’t last, but I will be away up to Bradford for the rest of the week.

Wet weather

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The wet warm weather is back.  I drove to Bristol on Monday in the most appalling weather.  Windy and wet.  This was just a day visit to check out the customers user acceptance system, making sure all the modifications had been correctly customised during the copy.

They should be going live in February with their upgraded system.

Arrived back  quite late at 9.45 just to have supper and go to bed.  What a coincidence, cottage pie for lunch in the canteen, and cottage pie back at home for supper.  Ours though was traditional proper cottage pie made up from the left over roast from Sunday.

Back in the office

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I had another night in Bristol, Tuesday night, all on my Jack Tod.  So off I went to the Lock Fyne restaurant and partook of the £15 meal with a glass of wine.  Came to more in the end, when I added an extra wine and coffee at the end.  Even so £15 for a good quality three course meal is still pretty good.

The waitresses were attentive, and when I complted the comment form I left the comment The waitresses were gorgeous.  Of course I over-tipped them. Hope I will win the 12 bottles of champagne.

Back home on Wednesday night and now I am in the office.  Working from home you do lose the the human contact, and it can be quite cool.  Meanies that we are no heating allowed before 16.00.

Now it’s Bristol

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Monday I set off early for Bristol.  Worked all day trying to get Loadrunner work with our application.  Loadrunner is as testing tool which can be used to emulate thousands of users.  It is used to load an application to see if it will support the required number of users.

Well there was success, but it is not going to be very easy to set up the data.  Ah well, that’s not my problem.

In the evening went to the Hole in the Wall, local Bristol gastro pub and had a Duck Leg confit on beans.  A cassoulet of sorts.  Was quite good, quite enterprising.

Newcastle

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One moment you are not so busy, thinking the recession has hit, then suddenly everything changes and you wonder if the jobs will be done before the Christmas break.

On Thursday I let the Train take the Strain and travelled to Gateshead to start on some short bespoke projects for a number of clients.  Good journey and the battery in the PC still had 50% life left at the end.

Next day I walked in from the hotel to the office.  Set off in the dry, but by the time I was near the office a storm had brewed,  It was dark, the wind blew and snow, hail, sleet and rain fell, making the last few minutes a bit miserable.

Finished up early and caught the train back, this time I made use of the Internet connection on the train.  It was often slow and unpredictable, but was able to read my emails.

I have to admit the train is quite civilised, better than the 4 plus hour drive in the dark on a busy Friday night.

The last month

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I realise I have not written anything in my blog for a whole month. Well I have been alive and awake, but not doing a great deal. Work wise it has been a bit quite, some trips to Bristol, and a couple of days at Sheffield Hallam university helping them with their system.

The weather has been appalling this September, with rain and more rain, though it did clear up towards the end of the month and allowed us to go to the Cambridge University Alumni bash in brilliant sunlight. Rosemary has copious notes of what went on there, so I am always hopeful she will write something for the blog. We even visited the Vet school out on the West site. They have just installed an Xray Radiation machine for cancer treatment, to replace their old aging one. The facilities look so good I would be well pleased to be treated there. Another thing I learnt at the Cambridge vet school was they use two cat wards, the ward is used for two weeks, and then the second ward is used while the first is disinfected, cleaned and rested. Maybe this should be done with human wards instead of closing the spare wards for good.

We have been to a few National Trust places, and I will be posting some pictures on the web for that, and for the alumni weekend.

Ah well I hope work picks up for the rest of the year, though I do seem to have several holidays on the horizon. We have the usual week in Guernsey, and a longer week in Spain. Looking forward to both of the holidays, but worried about the lack of Internet access in Spain.