Malta

I've just recently returned from 11 days in Malta. Photos here.

It was a relaxing holiday, the weather was variable, but with enough nice days to be not too disappointing.

The main stories of the holiday are the travelling.

I was due to fly out with Alitalia via Milan. I checked in nice and early and was halfway through my breakfast when I heard my name on the tannoy..... My flight to Milan was cancelled!!!! I had to got back through immigration and collect my luggage before queuing up at the Alitalia desk..... Much to my delight, as I was a transit passenger, they re-booked me on the direct Air Malta flight, and apart from the frantic dash from terminal 2 to 4, it was excellent as I arrived two hours ahead of schedule... two more hours to my holiday.

On the way home I was flying via Rome and Milan. Plenty of lost luggage opportunity there! The first two legs were fine, then for the last leg I was bumped up to business class!! Result!! We then sat for an hour on the tarmac at Milan as they had one more passenger on the plane than they had seats! Eventually they persuaded someone to get off.

When we arrived at Heathrow, so did my luggage!! second result!!! As a final quirk to the holiday, on the luggage carousel was a large pink suitcase from the previous flight, very noticeable. Imagine my surprise when I got to my local tube station, there waiting for the bus was the guy with the pink suitcase. He then proceeded to get on the same bus as me and off at the same stop!! That was a big coincidence.

Posted at 19:48 | Comments (0)

The End of Blogging

As you will have noticed, I haven't blogged for a while. This is for a couple of reasons. One, not a lot of major import has happened, and two, I am working long hours at the moment.

I'm not complaining about the hours I work, because I love the work I do, it's just that given my position, it is not appropriate that I journal even some of the things at work. And what with work being the majority of my time, that leaves very little else to blog.

Another factor is that the majority of readers of my blog were (or are) family and friends, and the vast majority of these are now on Facebook, where it is a lot easier to stay in touch and keep up with all the goings on.

I don't intend to shut down this page, but rather keep it for major announcements etc. I will continue to publish my holiday pictures (and others) in my album, so there will still be plenty to see here, and I will leave the archives here of course. Oh, and the WebCam stays too.

Posted at 21:12 | Comments (0)

New Trousers

I have had to buy some new trousers.

Why is this news? It's new because the new trousers are a 34" waist!!

Those of you who know me in person know that I have never been the slimmest of people. However, for the last year or so I have resolved to loose weight and set myself a target weight of 11½ stone (161 lbs). Last week I achieved that weight!

So to encourage myself to keep to this weight (or loose just a tad more) I have bought new trousers that just fit.

Posted at 19:37 | Comments (3)

Hurghada

I have just returned from my annual diving holiday, this year in Hurghada.

This is my first visit to Hurghada, all my other Red Sea diving has been in Sharm el-Sheikh.

How does it compare? As a resort, Hurghada is just hotels.... Very nice hotels, but it does lacks the character and atmosphere of Sharm/Na'ama Bay. If you want a holiday in the sun with lots of sitting by the pool, then it's fine. But apart from the water sports and diving, there is not a lot to do.

The diving....... The diving is excellent!!! All the dive sites are off shore, so haven't been destroyed by land based tourists like in Sharm.

Two items of note about the diving.... First, on one dive we encountered a small school of dolphins while we were underwater. There were five altogether, including a mother and child that I managed to get a picture of. and second I did two dives with a Semi-Closed Rebreather, which is a device that recycles exhaled carbon dioxide. The advantages are much longer dive time and less/no bubbles to frighten off the wildlife.

All my pictures are in my album here.

A big thank you to Euro Divers and Sublime Diving and Tours for organising a fantastic holiday.

Posted at 15:48 | Comments (0)

Soooo Old.........

My knees hurt, my joints creak when I move, I'm getting old......

45 today to be precise.

As with past tradition, I took the day off work to do my own thing and ended up with a nice meal at my parent's house.

Not a lot more to say, except that I'm starting to feel as old as I am.........

Posted at 23:35 | Comments (0)

Gone to the dogs...

I've lived here for nearly 21 years. Not very far away is Romford Greyhound Staduim, and I've never been there. Tonight my company was sponsoring 6 races, so I went along (all expenses paid of course) and had great time.

I've always heard how much fun going to the dogs is, and now I can add my voice to it too. The facilities are excellent, and the food was great too. The only down side was that I ended up out of pocket (bet £24 and won £5).

Oh, and yesterday was exactly one year since I started this job.... how a year flys by......

Posted at 00:01 | Comments (0)

Snow

In case you didn't know, it snowed here today, the "worst" snow for ten years or something. Well it was about 3 or 4 inches. It was no suprise as they have been predicting it for several days.

So, why if its been known about for so long, was the main road here (the A12) not gritted? Why also did so many people take the day off? The roads were empty as were the trains. Why also are the schools all closed? They never used to be when I was I kid. I remember being at junior school and having to walk all the way to school thhrough the snow when it was too bad for cars...

Rant over ...

Posted at 21:58 | Comments (1)

Happy New Year

Wishing all my readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May 2007 bring you all you wish for.

As I look forward to the New Year I can only guess how it is going to turn out. We will see the end of the 'Blair era'. Something I wont regret seeing the end of. When he came to power he promised so much, but ended up as an autocratic leader sucking up to US at every opportunity. Lets hope that whoever or whatever replaces him is a) less autocratic and b) has more of their own mind when it comes to international politics.

End of rant .......

Posted at 13:51 | Comments (0)

Relaxed

I've just got back from ten days of holidaying in Mallorca.

This was a total relaxation holiday, doing nothing. The special thing about that, was it was the first time I ever wanted such a holiday! In the past I have always wanted activity/sightseeing holidays.

Anyway, after a couple of days I got over the guilt of not doing anything and just relaxed. The hotel had an excellent spa, which helped. I took six books with me and read 5½. I had a full-body massage and a reflexology treatment.

I am now totally relaxed.................... Until tomorrow, when its back to work.........

(a couple of pictures here)

Posted at 13:45 | Comments (0)

Why I've been busy...

Over the last few weeks I have been extremely busy at work, not leaving until 8 or 9pm each night.... Why?

We have been rebuilding our main studio at talkSPORT. The timetable was extremely tight as we couldn't start until after the World Cup, and had to have it finished in time for the start of the Championship season yesterday.

This was my first major project in my new job, so I was extremely nervous about it being a success. Well... we made it, and I'm very happy about how it turned out, and the users of the studio have been very complementary about it too.

Posted at 12:31 | Comments (2)

I've been a bit lax

I've just noticed that I didn't make any entry in this blog during April. That's the first time I haven't made at least one entry a month since I started blogging in March 2003.

Why haven't I blogged? The simple answer is that I have been so busy. Regular readers will know that I started a new job back in February, well things have just been so hectic, that when I get home of an evening, the last thing I want to do is sit at a computer. That and the fact that I also tend to pop into the office most weekends means that there hasn't been much time for anything to happen (except the car breaking down).

Anyway, I promise to make up for it by blogging a bit more often..... I hope.....

Posted at 18:14 | Comments (0)

Car makes expensive stop

What a bummer.....

This morning I decided to drive the car to the station, instead of taking the bus, as I was going to go to my sister's for supper tonight. Halfway to the station the engine dies and wont start.

A phone call to the AA and I get the usual "we will be with you within 60 minutes". Oh well.... I'll just read my book. Two minutes later and the AA man was there!!! Luckily he was literally only a mile away when he got the call. He quickly diagnoses the problem as a broken cam belt. Bugger!!! that's expensive!!! He tows me home as my favourite garage has ceased trading and I don't know where to go.

A few phone calls later, and I find another friendly local garage who comes out to look at the car. He points out that I am unlucky as the car has done 76,000 miles and the cam belt isn't scheduled to be replaced until the 80,000 mile service. Anyway, he tows it away with the warning that the worst-case scenario could mean a £1000 bill. Such is life......

Posted at 18:10 | Comments (0)

This guy is good

The BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year is a guy called JP Trenque, who takes pictures underwater like me. That's where the similarity ends.

When I look at this guy's pictures, I just think I should give up! He is good!

Posted at 22:38 | Comments (0)

Plus One Equals 44

Today is the day I look back on the past year. Today is the day I add one to my age! Today is the day I turn 44!!

What a year..... Didn't start off too well with my long-term relationship ending, but ended on a high with an excellent holiday and starting a brilliant new job (I'll write more about that in a future entry).

In the last 12 months I have been to Egypt, Budapest, New York (twice), Los Angeles and the Maldives. In fact, I think I have travelled a greater distance in the past year than in any previous year.

I'm not going to try and predict whats going to happen in the next twelve months, that's tempting fate, but lets just hope it continues like the past year has ended.

Posted at 01:35 | Comments (2)

Maldives

Back from a week of scuba diving in the Maldives........

Yet another excellent holiday organised by Sublime Diving & Tours. What can I say? WOW!! doesn't sum it up enough. I swam with sharks in their natural habitat (no contrived situation like bait etc), I swam with manta rays, saw hammerhead sharks... In fact we saw everything we possibly could, except whale sharks, which was unlikely in the first place.

How does it compare with my previous diving in the Red Sea? In general the reef life was very similar except there was more of it by several orders of magnitude, and the marine life let you get a lot closer. i.e. shoals of fish just let you swim right through the middle, and only moved out of the way if you actually tried to touch them.

The highlight was definately the manta rays.....

Photos are in the album already, and I will be adding the captions in the next few days. There are quite a lot of pictures of moray eels, this is because a) there were a lot of them and b) morays stay still enough to have their picture taken!

Posted at 18:53 | Comments (2)

Reflections

As I end my employment with WENN, I look back on what I have learnt while working there......

Yes, I could talk about how I have shown that Open Source software can work in a commercial environment, of how a heterogeneous environment of Windows and Linux works effectively etc etc, but thats not what I think about when reflecting on the last two and a half years.......

What amazes me is the public's apparantly insatiable desire for celebrity gossip and pictures. Surely the level of obsession that fuels the demand cannot be healthy? Ok, so this desire for all things "Celeb" has been paying my wages, and it doesn't seem to be abating, but I can't help wondering where it will all end........

Posted at 21:35 | Comments (2)

Big News!!

Yep, I've got some big news.....

Yesterday I handed in my notice at work. I've been offered a fantastic new job!

I am to be the new Technology Manager at TalkSport Radio.

For those of you who have read the About Me link, you will know I started my working life with 17 years in radio broadcasting, now I'm back! This time I'm combining my experience by running both the engineering and IT sides of the business.

Oh, and Happy Holidays etc to you all.....

Posted at 16:57 | Comments (3)

... and how did it end?

Got home today.... Landed 8am, in the front door at 11, asleep at 11:01.....

So what was the end result?

The equipment that arrived in LA after I left is not working properly, I can sort it remotely, but it will be a pain, which is why I wanted to be there to install it.

In New York I got done everything that HAD to be done, 95% of the things that OUGHT to be done and about 10% of the things it would have been NICE to do.

The boss arrived on Thursday morning and seemed quite satisfied with what I had achieved, so thats something.

And now? I plan to sleep for three days solid!

Posted at 22:26 | Comments (0)

The trip so far......

I haven't posted anything here or to the MoBlog because I have been far too busy...

The trip started off on a bad note, when I got to Heathrow I didn't have a ticket! Apparently the travel agent hadn't paid the airline. That was sorted by me phoning the company admin director and getting her out of bed early on a Sunday morning...

In LA I had three days to do what I needed to do. At lunchtime on the first day the Internet connection went down because some telephone engineer in the building cut some wires he wasn't meant to touch. It was 24 hours before we were reconnected. Then some equipment that I was going to install didn't arrive...... until 5 minutes after I left on the 3rd day!!

New York didn't start off much better... I arrived at 6am in torrential rain to the hotel that said they didn't have a room for me until after lunch. A bit of pleading and they kindly lent me a room for 4 hours to get some sleep in.

When I arrived in the office the Internet connection wasn't working and the phone lines weren't connected! Thankfully it only took half an hour to get the Internet up, but they say the phone lines won't be ready until Monday (they were due to be installed on the 10th), and the telephones have arrived with the wrong power leads!

It can only get better...... Can't it??????

Posted at 23:52 | Comments (1)

Wizz wizz wizz

On Sunday I am flying out to Los Angeles for work.

I will be working in LA on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday night I fly to New York.

I will be working in New York on Thursday and Friday... I'm told I will have the weekend off... Then working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before flying back on the Thursday.

Look out for some MoBlog pictures (yes I know the MoBlog archive is broken), otherwise I doubt I will have much time to post anything.

Posted at 17:19 | Comments (0)

New York, New York

A funny thing happend on Tuesday night.... My boss phoned me (He is currently in New York) and said "I need you in New York before the end of the week!". You could see the joy (NOT) in the faces of the admin staff when I told them on Wednesday morning.......

So today, Thursday, at 3pm (New York time) I find myself in a meeting on Madison Avenue in the heart of New York City!!!

Talk about jetsetting...... Well it's more exhausting than anything. I had to be up in time to catch the first tube of the day (05:20 London time) in order to get to Heathrow on time. When I got to New York I had to find accommodation. It was impossible to do it from London as there is a UN conference on and hotel rooms are like gold dust. I got to my hotel at 2pm (New York time), just in time to freshen up and get to my meeting!

I have at least three more meetings tomorrow, but get Saturday to myself before flying out at 08:30 in the morning (New York time) on Sunday to arrive back at Heathrow at 20:00 (London time). And yes, its into the office as normal on Monday.

Don't let anyone tell you that business travel is glamorous or fun!!

Posted at 23:21 | Comments (0)

Budapest II

Home now and entering the post-holiday blues. I have uploaded all my pictures and captioned them here.

I can only re-iterate what I said in the last post, Budapest is a beautiful, cosmopolitan and very relaxing city to be in, and, according to others I met it, has yet to be "spoilt". In future, if I am looking to a weekend away somewhere relaxing, Budapest will defiantely be considered. It's only 2 hours flying time and Easyjet do return flights for under £50.

Posted at 14:54 | Comments (0)

Budapest

I've now been in Budapest for a day, what can I say? This is a very beautiful city, very clean and very laid back.

This is exactly the sort of place I need to relax. There is plenty to see and do and an excellent public transport system.

I have already posted the pictures I took today here. I will add the captions later. The first and last (16th if you are reading this after I have added some more) pictures are taken from my hotel bedroom window. What a fantastic view I have!

And yes, I have had goulash......

Posted at 19:55 | Comments (2)

All made good

Just a quick note to draw your attention to the MoBlog picture.

They have finally re-built the refuse cupboard I destroyed back in March

It took then less than a day to do it, I just wonder why it took almost three months to organise.........

Posted at 17:51 | Comments (2)

Next Holiday

I've just booked myself another holiday! In just over six weeks time I'm off to Budapest for a week.

Don't ask me why, I just fancied it. So I had a look around the Internet and came up with a fantastic deal from Expedia. 7 days B&B for under £400 all flights and taxes included.

This will be my first trip to Eastern Europe, so I am really looking forward to it.

It is nice to be travelling the world on a whim once again...

Posted at 23:02 | Comments (1)

Back Home

Back to reality after what ended as a most excellent holiday!

The photos are now available, the captions will appear over the next couple of days.

My favourites are this one of a Lion Fish and this one of the Hawksbill Turtle I saw at Ras Ghazlani. And yes, there is one of the Leopard Shark at Yolande Reef.

Many thanks go, once again, to Sublime Diving & Tours and their staff for organising the trip and making it most enjoyable.

Posted at 11:58 | Comments (0)

Shark!!!

I have to tell you about the last couple of days...

Yesterday (Thursday) started off bad. When I kitted up for the first dive, two clips on my equipment broke and I ripped my wetsuit. The the first half of the dive was bad as there were so many divers in the water, you couldn't see for bubbles. The second half of the dive was better.

On the way between the first and second dive sites we saw some wild dolphins, and the captain slowed down and circled so we could watch them for about ten minutes.

The second dive of the day was FANTASTIC!! It was a drift dive where you just go with the current, and we had a 5 knot current just wizzing us along, we got to cover so much ground for zero effort, and then I just glanced away from the reef into the 'blue' and saw two silver tipped sharks just swimming by!!! (sharks are notoriously difficult to spot). Slight dissapointment after the dive when one of my hoses failed (£20 for a new one).

And then last night an excellent night dive with lots of lionfish, a stone fish and a sea snake.

Today we did one of the top dive sites in the world, Shark and Yolanda Reefs. Everyone will tell you that, despite the name, you never see sharks there.... Well not today!!!!! We saw a leopard shark just sitting on the bottom. Our guide, who has over 2500 dives in Sharm, has never seen one so big or so docile, we were so priviledged... Wait for the photos to prove it!

Then to cap off the weeks diving we had another excellent drift dive where I spotted a lovely Hawksbill turtle.

Posted at 17:43 | Comments (0)

Sharm El-Sheikh

Here I am on my annual diving trip to Egypt...

So far the weather has been good, but the diving had a small setback, there was a conference of African Presidents here and they shut all the local diving site, so we had 350 boats trying to use the ten remaining open sites..... Very crowded.

Anyway, today they opened up the local sites and the diving was excellent!

I am currently writing this using some free Internet access time I got by showing the guy in the hotel how to set up his wireless network!

Anyway, pictures will be posted when I get home, although this year I am not taking many as I find I enjoy the dive more when I am not trying to take pictures all the time.

Another good crowd of people are making trhis trip very enjoyable...

More to come next week when I'm home.

Posted at 18:31 | Comments (0)

Crash Update

Just to let you know the latest......

The car is an insurance write-off, they gave me £800 for it (less excess).

The building repairs will cost just under £1000 (the insurance will pay for this).

A replacement car has cost me £2500.

Posted at 22:37 | Comments (0)

Crash, Bang Wallop!!!

I had a nasty experience this afternoon. I was reversing my car into a parking bay outside my block of flats when suddenly the engine started screaming, the throttle stuck full open and I shot back at high speed.

I collided with the bin cupboard before I could throw the car into drive (yes, it's an automatic) and finally kill the engine.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but now I have to sort out the damage to the building and start looking for a new car.

Posted at 18:07 | Comments (3)

Its' Over

It is with great sadness that I have to announce that Jan and I have decided to split up.

It is not appropriate to discuss the reasons here, but I will say it is as amicable as it can be.

We have been together for nearly three and a half years, which is the longest relationship I have had. We have done a lot together including holidays in Paris, Rome, Canada and Egypt.

I wish her and her kids all the best for thefuture.

Posted at 14:55 | Comments (1)

Do Nothing Day

Today is the one day a year where I promise myself that I will do exactly what I want!

This year I want to do nothing!!! And so far (It's now nearly two in the afternoon), I have been astoundingly successful! During the week I leave the hosue at 7 in the morning and don't get home until 8 in the evening... so I am usually knackered.

Soooo....... To sum up..... For my 43rd Birthday I am doing nothing..... Jan and I are going out for a meal this evening, but apart from that it's slob-out time.......

Posted at 13:53 | Comments (1)

Whatever Next?

First of all, Happy New Year to you all.

I recently upgraded my mobile phone to a Sony Ericsson K700i.

With this phone I can browse the web and do my email (It supports multiple accounts), it is also a VGA digital camera, a digital video camera, a MP3 player, an FM radio, a personal organizer with calendar alarms etc, I can remote control my PC via the Bluetooth and the 3D graphics on the games would have been amazing on a PC only a couple of years ago! And all this fits in the palm of my hand......

So what will they do next??

Posted at 20:04 | Comments (0)

Old Friends

I've been a bit lax.... This happened a couple of weeks ago.....

An old school friend, who I haven't seen for twenty years contacted me by email and said that another old school friend, who lives up north and who I also haven't seen for twenty years, was going to be in the area and we should meet along with another friend (who I saw ten years ago) and go out for a meal.

The four of us were always going out together in the sixth form at school, so I readily agreed.

After the initial shock of seeing what twenty years has done to each other apperance, and the usual round of finding out what we had all been up to, it was as if no time had passed at all. How I now regret loosing contact with them. Anyway, we agreed to stay in touch.

Then to cap it all, a few days later I bumped into one of them on the tube.....

Posted at 20:14 | Comments (0)

Harry Benjamin Jones

Today my friends, Katie and Gareth, celebrated the christening of their youngest son Harry in Kew, London.

Katie & Gareth live in Canada, so it was a rare opportunity to get together face to face. Also it was nice to see some people I haven't seen for years (Sarah and Ade), and meet some that I have either only spoken to on the phone (Katie's Auntie Kay), or heard about (Michel's wife Anne-Marie).

KT, G, thank you for inviting us, it's an honour to be included with your closest friends and family, Jan is upset that she was unable to make it. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Some picture are now in my album.

Posted at 21:33 | Comments (1)

If it's Tuesday this must be Berlin

Off abroad again! This time to our office in Berlin.

An hours worth of work in the office, an excellent lunch thanks to Heiko, and then an afternoon of walking round Berlin in glorious sunshine.

Sights seen include the Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and bits of the wall. Watch out for the pictures in the photo album.

All I have to do now is persuade the boss to open up offices in all the places around the world I want to visit!!!

Posted at 17:07 | Comments (1)

Not Home Yet.......

Still in LA....

Last night I tried to do an online check-in at the British Airways website and it kept telling me it couldn't find my booking. Eventually I phoned them only to be told that my flight had been cancelled due to "Operational Issues" and the next available flight out of LAX was the 19th!!!!!

They offered me a flight out of San Diego on Tuesday, and according to them this was a "reasonable alternative", and as such they wouldn't pay any additional costs (accommodation, travel etc).

Anyway thanks to Rachel and Jackie at my company, I am now booked on a Virgin Atlantic flight out of LAX tomorrow, only five hours later than originally scheduled.

Don't worry BA we WILL be claiming costs from you!!!

Posted at 23:09 | Comments (0)

Hot Hot Hot

It's that time again.... In Los Angeles for a week on business. The temperature has been HOT, near or over 100F (38C), it's a shame I have to work and can't go out and enjoy it.

This time I have had no time available for sightseeing as I have been installing new servers and upgrading the internet connection here in LA. Still, it's a change from the London routine, and a sort of break, even though the 11 hour flights are very tiring.

And now there is a possibility that I might have to stop off in New York on my way home to sort out problems in the NY office......

It's a tough life!

Posted at 23:28 | Comments (2)

Rome

We had a lovely couple of days in Rome. As predicted the weather was HOT!

I was last in Rome 25 years ago (August 1979) and it was interesting to see what has and what has not changed.

They still haven't finished building the Colliseum ....

Seriously, the sites themselves are pretty much as I remember. the Sistine Chapel was closed, so we couldn't see the restored ceiling.

There are a LOT more tourists than 25 years ago, for example I remember being in the Pantheon and there was hardly anyone else there, this time there were hundreds of tourists.

I don't remember there being a Metro system 25 years ago. And I remember the Pope had only just been elected..... Times change.

Photos posted here, captions to be added later.

Posted at 21:19 | Comments (0)

All roads lead to Rome

This afternoon, Jan and I are off to Rome for the weekend. It's my birthday present to her for her 40th birthday.

According to the weather forcast it is going to be HOT! But then what do you expect for Rome in the middle of August!

How do you see everything in Rome in two days? You can't... But we will make a good attempt at seeing as much as we can.

If I can find a suitable mobile network, keep an eye on this page for some instant Moblog pictures.

Posted at 08:09 | Comments (1)

Back Home (again)

Back from Egypt straight into the chaos of work!

It was another excellent diving holiday courtesy of Sublime Diving. Special thanks to the instructors Matt and Rani.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I took and passed the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver qualification. Now I can dive to 30m/100ft.

I have uploaded my photos, but the captions will take a bit longer. Look for them over the next few days.

Sorry this entry is a bit brief, but I was at work until 9pm tonight and I'm a bit shattered.

Posted at 23:55 | Comments (0)

Diving in the Red Sea

It's that time of year again. I'm currently sunning myself in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt while on a diving holiday...

This year I am on my own without Jan and the kids as David has his GCSEs coming up :(, but it has given me the chance to take my advanced diving qualification.

So far the diving has been excellent as has the weather. Lots more skills learned, lots of fantastic marine life observed (photos will be posted when I get home), and the rest of the group have all been good fun.

One amazing coincidence, it turns out that one of our party and I first met on the Internet (technically it was MSN Classic) back in 1995. We lost touch a year or so later. It's a small world!!

More news and photos when I get home...

Posted at 22:03 | Comments (0)

Back Home

Well... It's back to the cold and grey of the UK after the sunshine of Los Angeles.

Despite the fact that I was out there on business, I did manage to do a fair bit of sightseeing. Rather than list everywhere I went, you can take a look a my photos.

Highlights
1) The bicycle ride from Santa Monica to Venice Beach (and back)
2) The walk up Runyon Canyon
3) The Massage Chair I saw (and tried) in a shop.

Things that suprised me...
1) Mobile Phones. They seem to be several years behind us. I could only find two GSM networks, and only one of those had GPRS.
2) Nutters. There seems to be a rather large number of (mostly harmless) nutters about. Standing on street corners ranting and raving. I don't know if it's drug related or just mental illness... But they tell me "That's LA".

Heres looking forward to my next business trip...

Posted at 22:48 | Comments (2)

Los Angeles

Life is terrible...

The company I work for has an office in Los Angeles, and I have had to come out here for a week to see how things are in the LA office.

Flights are cheaper if you stay over a weekend, so I HAD to fly out on Friday, which has given me the weekend for sightseeing... what a pity....

What do I think of LA? The first thing that struck me is the weather, It's March and its in the mid to high 20s (80s F), I can handle this! The second impression is, it's just like on TV and the movies.

Here is my first sight of the Hollywood Sign, and here is a view of Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Look out for more pictures as the week goes by. I know I'm here to work, but I'm sure there will be plenty more time to see some sights.

Posted at 00:45 | Comments (1)

Twenty Years On ...

Today I had lunch with a friend I was at University with, we haven't seen each other for twenty years.

Anyway, Sharon found me via this web site... Wey Hey! It DOES have a use!

So what do you talk about when you havent seen each other for so long? Well we did a lot of "Do you remember so and so?" and "Do you remember when we did .....?" And we had a fair chat about "So what have you been doing since...?". I haven't been much of a person for keeping in touch with friends from school and uni, but I did really enjoy our chat today.

Thank you Sharon!

Posted at 19:46 | Comments (0)

New Phone

I've bought myself a new mobile phone!

I've had my trusty Nokia 7110 for over three years and it has served me well. I haven't upgraded before now as I haven't found a phone that does everything the 7110 does with the same ease of use and has the extra feature I want, i.e. Bluetooth, GPRS and Tri-Band.

Anyway, I took a look at the phones available on upgrade from Orange and the Sony Ericsson T610 seemd to fit the bill. A quick call to Orange and they said I could have it on upgrade for under £30!!

Well I received the phone yesterday and it's brilliant! It has some really cool features, like the Hands-free is truely hands-free. You just say the "magic" word and then the name of the person you are calling, and it dials without having to touch the phone at all. Great for use in the car. Possibly a but freaky if you are wearing a Bluetooth headset.... But as I can't afford that yet...

The only critisism I have of the phone is the calendar function. It looks good, is relatively easy to use, BUT, it doesn't do repeating entries. It even has an entry type called "Anniversary", but all that does is change the icon, you would have thought that it would have at least repeated an "Anniversary" entry each year!

Posted at 20:34 | Comments (0)

Brrrrrrrr

As the temerature drops, guess what happens?

Yes, the central heating pump fails! Last year it was the boiler.

Just been to B & Q and bought a new pump for £56, but none of my spanners fit!!!

So its going to be a couple of more days without heating until I get the chance to buy the necessary tools.

Posted at 17:00 | Comments (1)

Oh Canada (Part 2)

The holiday continues........

We have been up the CN Tower, where everyone stood on the glass floor and to the Toronto Zoo where Jan fell in love with the tiger triplets... Toronto Zoo must be classed as one of the better zoos, it is set in beautiful (especially at this time of year) surroundings, and the animals have plenty of space.

(Video clip taken from the 'Skypod' of the CN Tower)

Yesterday was a quiet day with just some shopping.

Today the plan is to visit a Pumpkin Patch before heading off to the airport.

I can't thank Katie and Gareth enough for putting up with us, they (and Dylan) have been extremely tolerant of being invaded by us.

Look out for the photos, I will post them as soon as I can.

Posted at 14:18 | Comments (2)

Oh Canada

On holiday in Canada.

It's been two years since I was here last, and it's good to see my friends Katie and Gareth again. Their 4 year old son, Dylan, has grown so much and developed such a Canadian accent!!

The countryside here is glorious, the trees have leaves of every shade possible. We certainly picked the right time to come to see nature at its best.

Jan, myself and the kids have been having a nice time. Yesterday we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake followed by Niagara Falls, where we just missed a bit of excitement.

(Video clip of the Falls)

Today was a trip to the Ontario Science Center, which is a button-pushing paradise for young and old.

Posted at 22:42 | Comments (1)

Getting Better

Just a quick update on the Bell's Palsy.

Last Thursday (exactly a week after it came on) I noticed that when I tried to smile, the corner of my mouth moved a millimetre. Not much, but a millimetre more than for the past week.

Since then it has been getting better slowly. Each day a little part of my face starts twitching, and each morning another bit moves a bit more.

At this rate it will be at least a couple more weeks before it approaches anything like normal, but I'm thankful that it appears to be a relatively quick recovery.

Posted at 21:45 | Comments (2)

Half a Face

I woke up this morning and the whole left-hand side of my face was paralysed!

A quick check of all my other parts showed that everything else was in working order (phew, not a stroke), but absolutely no movement whatsoever on the left side of my face. Full feeling, but no movement.

Not what I want to do on the fourth day in a new job, but I called in sick and hightailed it down to the local hospital.

To cut the story short, I have Bell's Palsy. Not uncommon, not life threatening, nothing to worry about (so they say), and above all, it will get better on its own. It's just that it may take a while.

So what's it like to have half your face paralysed? Weird! I can't eat properly, I dribble my drinks (unless I use a straw) and my speech is slurred. Oh, and I look lopsided!

At the moment I'm quite upbeat, I suppose it's the new job etc, but I can't help thinking that I ought to be more upset/depressed about this than I am. But if I got upset at everything that life threw at me, I'd have given up ages ago...

Posted at 22:46 | Comments (4)

Last Day/First Day

Friday was my last day at my old place of work (London Met. Uni.) and today the first at my new place (WENN).

On Friday I was very busy right up until the end, so didn't get much time to think about the move. It was really nice as not only did I get a card signed by the whole department, they also bought me presents!!!! (A clock and a game). I will miss it as they are a good bunch of people and the atmosphere was really good.

The new place is quite different, not least because the size of the organisation is totally different, but everyone is so friendly and the atmosphere is very relaxed. Another nice thing about the new job, is that the person I am taking over from is staying on until the end of the month, so there is plenty of time for a decent handover.

Posted at 19:55 | Comments (1)

F*ck*ng Computers

Two months ago my hard disk died, now my motherboard has given up the ghost!!!

I think I'll just give up and throw the machine out the window.

Do I try and find one quickly on eBay, or do I wait until the weekend and go and buy a brand new one?

I'm sure I'll let you know what I end up doing...

Posted at 23:24 | Comments (3)

Internetless (nearly) in Oxford

I am currently away on a four day course with UCISA at Keble College, Oxford.

The course (Professional SKills for Advisory Staff) is interesting, the company is good and the food is excellent. But there is no Internet access!

In this day and age, at a modern university, on an IT related course, having no Internet access available, even if it is only in the evenings, is almost unheard of. If I want access I can either walk into the town to use an Internet Cafe (there are two, almost always full) or, like I am at the moment, use my mobile phone as a 9.6kbps modem... Which is SLOW.

Anyway, rant over, time to go and get ready for dinner in the "Great Hall", which looks exactly like the dining hall at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.

Posted at 18:19 | Comments (2)

Work Frustrations

Last year when I was offered my current job it was on a temporary contract for eleven months. After four months of being without a job after redundancy, it was very welcome. Little did I expect to still be here at the end of the contract, but the IT job market is in a bit of a depression.

At the end of the eleven months my employers (London Metropolitan University) extended the contract by three months. Great!

Well, that extended contract finished last Friday and I haven't got a new one! Why?

I've done such a good job that they decided to make my post permanent. After a lot of paperwork that was all agreed. So my boss says "We can just appoint Neil to the new post". "No" say HR, "You can only do that if he is already doing the job", "He is!", "No he isn't!". Yep, wonderful HR, for some unknown reason, had me listed under the wrong job title. So now I'm turning up for work without a contract, under the promise that when this mess gets sorted out my permanent contact will be back dated to Monday. Grrrrrr...

Posted at 11:28 | Comments (7)

New Gizmo

I've got a new toy!

It's a mini Digital Video Camera. It is not a full-quality camera like those that sell for £1000+, but it takes small (320x240) videos that are suitable for watching in a window on your PC, or posting to the web. It takes standard MultiMedia Cards for storage.... What more could you want in such a tiny package?

"Where did you get it from?" I hear you ask. From "I want one of those", a catalogue that advertises itself as "Stuff you don't need... But you really, really want".

Here is a quick demo I recorded outside my office at lunchtime.

P.S. The WebCam link has been removed from the page as the camera died. It should be back in a few days.

Posted at 14:39 | Comments (1)

Backups to the rescue!!

Less than two months ago I fitted a new hard disk to my main PC at home. Guess what? It's died!

Well I assume it's died. My machine goes through the normal boot up sequence and just as the GUI loads there is a 'clunk' from the hard disk and it 'blue screens' on me.

Ok, I know the disk is under warranty, and my supplier is very good with replacing faulty goods, but it's the hassel thats annoying.

Once again the daily backups will prove their worth.

But then again, with full backups available and the ever increasing size of hard disks, I never have the opportunity urge to have a real clearout of the system, a fresh O/S installation and only install the software I need. Maybe one day, when I have the time ...

Posted at 09:58 | Comments (1)

Calendar Rant

I have three calendars, a personal one on my webserver, a work one provided by my employer and one on my Psion Revo.

"Lets see if I can synchronise them all" I think to myself.

1) I find a program that will import and export to/from the Revo in vCal format.
2) The work calendar imports and exports in iCal format, which is a superset of vCal.
3) My personal calendar doesn't do import or export, but I have the source code so can probaly write it myself.

The program for the Revo does exactly what it says. Despite all the references saying that "Any application that supports the iCal format should also be able to support the vCal format" our work application doesn't! And to cap it all, if you export a recurring item, it doesn't make use of the "recurring" feature of the iCal (or vCal) specification, it exports it as individual events. So If I have an event that recurs every working day, it exports 260 different events per year instead of just one!

Grrrrrrrr................ So bugger the work calendar, I think I'll just write a vCal import/export program for my personal calendar.

Posted at 11:30 | Comments (0)

Holiday Photos

One replaced and restored hard disk later........

I have now uploaded my holiday photos. This year I have been a bit more ruthless in selecting which ones to post, as a lot of the pictures look similar to those I took last year.

My particular favourite is of a clown fish coming straight out of an anenome to attack the camera.

I will be adding captions to the pictures over the next few days when I have got my notes together and can identify species and locations.

Posted at 10:54 | Comments (1)

Bummer

Less than ten minutes after posting the last entry, my computer died!!

It looks like the hard disk is trashed. The machine is usually left on 24 hours a day, but I turned it off while I was on holiday, so I suspect it is thermal shock that killed it.

I have a full backup (once bitten, twice shy) but I have to arrange obtaining a new disk first, so the uploading of the holiday photos will have to wait a while.

A whole week without touching a computer, email etc and this happens as soon as I do!

Posted at 09:47 | Comments (0)

Holiday Report

Back home from a week of scuba diving in the Red Sea at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The weather at the start of the week wasn't the best. Cloudy and windy, but hot. The temperature was in the middle to high thirties all week.

The diving was excellent! This year, as a fully qualified Open Water diver, I was allowed to 'do my own thing' (with a Buddy of course), which was a very liberating feeling, and made me develop my navigation skills!

Some of the picture I took are quite good (I will post them later this week). And I finally got to see an octopus in the wild!

David got his Open Water qualification and Leanne had a try-dive and wants to take the sport up. Jan and I made some new friends. All in all an excellent holiday and many thanks to Sublime Diving for arranging it all.

Posted at 11:20 | Comments (1)

April Fools and stuff

Well, I'm away in York for a three day networks conference/workshop organised by UKERNA, and so far it's been very interesting, as well as relaxing. It's nice to get away from the office now and then.

Today being 1st April, the usual crop of April Fools pranks are around. These are three of my favourites this year......

The Dalai Lama announces Yellow Hat Linux.

A RFC defining a new 'Evil' bit in the header of an IP packet. The RFC require all malicious programs to set this bit so that firewalls can filter them! (For those who don't know, RFC's are the documents that define how the Internet works).

A "George Foreman USB iGrill" for your iMac.

Posted at 22:34 | Comments (0)

Holiday

Just over two weeks to go until our holiday.

We are due to go to Egypt, to Sharm El Sheikh for a week of scuba diving in the Red Sea. At the moment the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website still says it is safe to go, but we are keeping an eye on it.

If the holiday is cancelled I will be LIVID! Due to my redundancy last year, it is 12 months since my last holiday and I desperately need one now. Steve, boss of my dive club, was in Sharm during the last Gulf War and he says Sharm wasn't affected..... lets hope it's the same this time!

Posted at 22:52