Sweeties, Pies and Ginger

I'm currently sitting in a Montana's Cookhouse at Calgary Airport, when in fact I should have been in the air for just over two hours. They over booked my flight and I was one of the unlucky ones, even though I checked in over two and a half hours before departure. Evidently it's Spring break and there were a couple of large groups on the flight and since my flight was booked really late I didn't have a confirmed seat.

The downside of it all is that I'm now flying back via Toronto, the red eye leaves at 00:20 and gets in a 06:00. I then have a three hour wait until the London flight at 09:00, which gets in at 21:15; so I'll be eleven hours late when I land. The upside is that I'm flying the whole way in Executive class, so I'll get a large comfy seat and newspaper; I also get a $500 voucher off the cost of Air Canada flights, which is valid for a year.

I'm in a bit of a daze at the moment; I must admit I'd rather be asleep in coach class rather than sitting in a fake America Wild West Diner. Especially as the Veggie burger looked amazingly like meat, although it was pretty tasteless. The burnt exterior and BBQ sauce were really the only things I could taste. I did have to recheck the menu to reassure myself that it did say non-meat.

I think I'll probably have another beer, read my book for a bit and try and kill the four hours. I would plug the lappy in and do something, but I packed the power supply in the hold baggage, as I didn't think I'd need it. I think I've got enough power in the battery to enable me to finish my CV though...

Update: Turns out I can't do my CV as it's in Open Office 1 format and I forgot to install Open Office while I was over here. Doh!

I'm currently sitting in a departure lounge at Toronto airport, waiting for a connection to Calgary. Unfortunately the direct flight was fully booked, so I get an extra six hours worth of travelling. This normally wouldn't bother me, but I was feeling terrible for the last six hours of the eight hour flight.

I'd woken up at four o'clock and felt a bit off colour, but nothing to worry about. When I got to Heathrow, I had some breakfast and got on the plane, everything was still okay. Two hours into the flight and my stomach starts doing somersaults and I start to feel really nauseous. I managed to last for four hours before I had to get one of the air stewards to help.

The two ladies who looked after me were great, they gave me some tablets, dunno what they were, but they were blue and tasted of mints; they didn't have much effect though. I managed to hold on for the remaining two hours and we landed without incident in Toronto.

I'm now feeling really dodgy as I've not had anything to et for ages, as I think it'll just bounce. I was really after a fresh smoothie, but the airport seems to be lacking in this department, which is a shame.

The connecting flight is in just over an hour and a half and last for four hours, hopefully this one will be easier...

Went to Prague over the weekend for works Christmas party and have come back have broken with a stinking cold. Not only have I managed to do my left shoulder again, I strained my right calf running away from a bunch of rampant Scottish women, who were trying to look up my kilt and I fell over in the hotel (long story) and thumped my left hip.

On the plus side I managed to get to a couple of good brewpubs, one of which claims to be the oldest in the world. I bought some beer from them both and intend to have it on Christmas day, so I'll post a report them then. On the negative side, I couldn't find any Budvar Dark and even had an argument with a Czech bloke who claimed they only did light beer. So I'll just have to try and order some over the web or something...

I've had a serious case of brain fade since the youngster was born, if my head wasn't screwed on I'd forget it. I had an appointment at 10:30 this morning to register the birth of Finlay, except I totally forgot to tell work. So I had to pitch up, let them know, read some email and then leg it.

Microsoft Outlook has to be the worst mail client on the face of the planet, bar Outlook Express. I've got in the region of 5000 emails waiting for me as I subscribe to a load of the Apache mailing lists, I started to try and download my mail first thing this morning and Outlook just hung for hours for no particular reason. I restarted it a few times and eventually it's started downloading my mail. It's been going for over an hour and has only got half way through the backlog. Thunderbird would have had it all done and dusted by now...

I'm back at work today as my paternity leave has run out. A bit of me is glad to be back at work as I was starting to get cabin fever. However, the vast majority of my wishes I was anywhere else but here. Maybe it's time for a change...

Work took us to Barcelona for the weekend for the company Xmas party. We were delayed flying out of Stanstead due to fog and had to divert to Luton on the way back, again due to fog, other than that it was the usual beer soaked company trip. I didn't see much of Barcelona as I want to go with Karen and explore at some point in the future, but I did see some of the sights. Photographic evidence that I didn't spent all my time in the pub will arrive shortly...

It was a beautiful dawn that greeted me this morning as I left work around quarter past four. The sky was lightening up with only a few wisps of high cloud that turned from grey to a magnificent fiery pink orange during the trip home. Once I’d turned off the A10 and driven through Landbeach parts of the road to Cottenham were obscured by patched of ground fog. I slowed the car right down as I went passed the Point-to-point race track and drank in the beautiful vista. While it didn’t make up for being in the office till the early hours, it did mean I drifted off to sleep with my soul feeling happy and uplifted.

Went karting with work last night to Red Lodge Karting, which is just off the A11 after Newmarket. I was really looking forward to it as the only karting I've ever done has been on the toys ones at the Avimore centre. I really didn't know how quick they'd be, or what it would be like running on a track with seven other teams.

For some reason I ended up getting there first, which I was quite surprised about, so it gave me the opportunity to have a look at the layout of the track. It didn't look very wide, but some of the corners looked quite challenging and it looked like it would be fun to drive.

After everyone else turned up, we got handed overalls, helmets and gloves to wear. Once we were all in our gear we had the obligatory safety briefing and then it was time for practice. When it came to my turn I didn't really know what to expect and I was quite surprised at how difficult the kart was to drive.

The kart seemed to want to pull to the right all the time and with the track being anti-clockwise most of the turns were left handers. This meant that to start with I was really fighting the kart round the corners which resulted in me going sideways on a number of occasions. My times in qualifying were pretty bad but I put that down to the fact that I've never done this before.

The race was to last two hours and with three to a team that meant we'd get 40 minutes racing each. We decide to break that down into twenty minutes blocks so that we'd each get two sessions in the kart. As it turned out most teams did this and I think for a beginner's point of view it was the right thing to do.

My first session was a nightmare, I didn't have a clue how good the breaks were, so I was breaking far too early and thus loosing too much speed through the corners. I couldn't figure out why everyone was so much quicker than me until I someone passed me like I was standing still. I decided that I'd try and follow them and take the same line to see where I was going wrong.

It turned out that you could go flat out round certain parts of the track that I'd been breaking like a maniac on; I'd also been taking the wrong line into most of the corners as well. So I started to experiment and try going flat out round a few of the corners and what would you know it worked! So then I discovered that the brakes were a lot better than I'd thought they were, so I could keep going a lot later before standing on them.

Round about the same time I discovered this it was time to come in a pit, so in I went and our first driver went out again. During the next fifty minutes I managed to grab a veggie burger and a drink and have a wee chat with a few of my colleagues. I also managed to get some tips from the chap doing the food about how to take some of the corners, which was quite cool.

Soon enough it was my turn again and I was on until the chequered flag; quite cool to finish the race I thought. We were sitting in fifth place one lap behind the next car and only around 12 seconds in front of the car behind. Obviously these changed with the pit stop, but everyone else seemed to make one around the same time, so it all evened out.

This time around I was far more confident in the ability of the kart, I was breaking later and taking more speed into the corners and trying to go flat out round more of the circuit. It seemed to work as I was only over taken once, while I managed to over take quite a few people. All too soon though it was the end of the race and I had no idea where we were sitting with respect to the other teams.

As it turned out we were still in fifth place but I had managed to un lap us from the people in front and was only 20 seconds or so behind them, which was about half a lap. I don't know what my fastest time was as one of me team mates set the teams fastest and you only get to find that out. It's a shame not knowing how fast I went as I can't compare how good I was with anyone else.

All in all it was a great evening's entertainment only spoilt by the hand gestures of a colleague who was taking far too seriously. I'd definitely do it again though; half of me is even wondering about just going along and having a go, yet another expensive hobby I could get into...

On the way home from work at 03:40 this morning I saw two foxes. I've never seen a real live fox before, only dead one, so it was quite exciting. The first one was just trotting across the road with out a care in the world; I thought it was a big cat at first until I got closer. I then saw another one by the side of the road a bout a mile further away. I was quite surprised at how small they looked, I always though foxes were a bit bigger, they looked really beautiful though.

Yes, it really is nearly half past four in the morning, so you might be asking why the hell I'm posting to my blog at such an ungodly hour. Well, it's due to the small matter of a big demo tomorrow morning and an even bigger one on Thursday. I hate nigh on impossible deadlines...

Off to Bergen for three days on works Christmas jolly. Back on Monday.

We have The Addams Family pinball machine at work, but ever since I joined back in June the display's been broken. Until today that is, some one has given the machine a once over and it's like playing a different game! There's flashing lights, new rubber on the flippers, the glass is clean and best of all the display works! Now I can finally find out how many points I get for everything. I can tell I'm going to get addicted...

It's twenty to midnight and I'm actually at work and what's worse is I've been here since midday! Luckily I've just finished what I had to ruin my weeked for so I can now go home and collapse in a gibbering heap on the floor...

Work very kindly gave us all the afternoon off yesterday to go punting and have a bbq. So while everyone else was cooped up in stuffy offices we were punting our way down the Cam in ridiculously high temperatures. It all ended in disaster though as I fell in while punting and lost my glasses and knackered my mobile phone.

Just to make sure I didn't get Weil's Disease I then drank far, far, far too much alcohol and am really suffering today as a result. It was really quite nice to get out of the office yesterday and one local weather station had the temperature at 38.3 degrees Celsius, that's 100.94 degrees Fahrenheit!

Today's job, apart from trying not to be sick, is to call the insurance company so I can get a new set of glasses and a new phone.

I've pretty much had no life for the last week or so as I've had to work extra hours at work. This is seen my work all weekend and late into the evening, culminating in a session that saw me leave the office at 01.35 this morning. Such is life when there is a deadline...

I've just finished my first week in my new job and it's been a bit of a topsy turvy ride. It's unlike anywhere else I've ever worked in terms of office layout and mentality, so it was always going to be a challenge. What I wasn't expecting was to get dumped into a team doing C++ when I've been doing Java for the last six years. Now I enjoy a challenge as much as the next guy, but having to re-learn C++ overnight is not my idea of a fun challenge.

Overall it's been a bit on the stressful side as I've been trying to build the product in a development system I'm not familiar with, using out of date build files. It took my three days to compile one quarter of the product and most of that time was spent adding header files and libraries into the relevant parts of the build files. I did get it all working by Thursday though, which was a bit of a relief. So now I've got to do some modifications next week, hopefully I'll have a better understanding of what's going on by then.

Today is my last day working for Accelrys, I'm getting made redundant due to the new Presidents dislike for bespoke software development. I'm quite happy about it though as I start a new job on the 30th of June, which is located just round the corner. So Accelrys are paying me a stack of money to walk into what should be a more interesting and varied job, I'm quite happy with that.

The rest of this week will be taken up with gardening and chores round the house and then come Saturday I'll be heading back to Scotland for a week. I intend to do a bit of hill walking and photography and generally chill out before starting my new job. So it's off down the pub at lunch to start celebrating...

I decided that since Karen and I are off to Malta for a weeks holiday and a wedding, that I'd try and find out what's happening to me at work. My reasoning was that they could ponder on my future while I was away and give me an answer when I got back. So when I got into see the head of HR, there was my "confidential" envelope waiting for me. So I'm out of a job again as of the 16th of June. Anyone need a highly skilled Java/J2EE programmer...? I will be consoling myself by drinking Maltese beer and frying on the beach. See you in eight days...

It's my departments xmas meal tonight at a local fish resturant. I'm just hoping I don't make too much of a tit of myself...

It had to happen sooner or later, but I had to install a load of Oracle database software on my computer at work. I've even had to write a couple of SQL queries. After years of studiously avoiding having anything to do with the spawn of Satan, I now have to get into bed with it. Arse.

We’ve got a table football table at work and there is a competitive ladder for those that want to take part. I joined the ladder at the end of my first week and until this morning I’d played 15 games without loss. I had a bad feeling about this mornings match and true enough I was absolutely, totally and utterly thrashed within an inch of my life.

I meant to write about this yesterday, but forgot. I was driving into work and because it was quite bright I put the sun visor down in the car. Imagine my surprise and utter terror to find one of them big abdomen garden spiders staring me in the face. Certainly woke me up...

I HATE Windows with a passion...

It feels like ages since I wrote anything for this blog, it's probably due to the fact that I'm keeping my head down at work, so I don't do it there and I can't be bothered to switch the computer on most nights. So I haven't been up to much over the last week or so, since I started the new job, I'm trying to get in to a routine where I get there and do work all day and then come home to do other stuff. I think that's where I went wrong with my last job, is that let everything else intrude into work rather than keeping my head down and getting on with it. I don't want to make the same mistake again.

Karen and I were watching that Faking It programme on the telly last week and it just rang a few bells. Most of last week, it felt really alien in the new office, it really did feel like I was a fake and that I shouldn't have been there. I don't have any commercial experience of the stuff I'm doing, so I felt like I was on a training course and was going to be out on me ear the next week.

It felt a bit more real today when I went in, although I'm not sitting in the best place to interact with everybody else, so it's going to be quite hard to integrate for a while. The work is really enjoyable and I'm happy that I'm finally learning some new shit after all this time. I've even stopped myself from reading the web and doing other stuff and knuckled down to getting some work done. It's a really satisfying feeling going home at night knowing that you've really earned your pay.

To sort of celebrate the fact that I've got a job, I took Karen to Dojo, a noodle bar in the centre of Cambridge. We went there for my birthday last month and it was really good, not particularly expensive and I wanted to go back and try some of the other stuff on the menu. It was a shame it was slightly ruined by a mix up with Karen's spring rolls, which had meant and prawns in them, she still doesn't like the taste of chicken...

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good...

The contract is signed, it's been sealed and it's been delivered. All being well, I start Monday. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

The wheel turns... I’ve been offered a new job. The wheel turns... My old colleagues at Tarantella wait to hear their fate. The wheel turns...

"When will this cycle end?"

Maybe soon...

Last weeks rush is over, it’s now back to the usual constant plodding monotony. Only the though of buying more darkroom equipment keeps the thoughts from turning morose. When will this cycle end?

What I day I had yesterday, I was in the office at 08.30 and didn't leave until 19.30, I'm a temp for god sakes, I shouldn't be doing 11 hour days. It was a major deadline for ESF co-financing applications and since I'd been off ill for two days, there was a stack of stuff to go through. I was running on a bizarre adrenaline mixture that left me feeling quite happy as I left the office, a situation that was completely the opposite from lunchtime.

I really wasn't feeling too feel when I got to the office and really wished I'd taken the day off. I decided that I really needed some stodge, as I just couldn't face the energy salsa that I had left over from last night. By the time I'd walked to the chip shop they had literally locked the door in my face, I was well pissed off.

I ended up vegging on the sofa watching vaguely interesting telly, I was just too tired to do anything. I don't know what to feel as I also got a phone call about the job interview I had on Tuesday, it just seems a bit too soon for feedback. I'm not holding out much hope, I just can't be arsed anymore.

I was off work today as I've caught the cold Karen had last week. It really piled on yesterday evening, just as I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to get it. Still, it's given me some time to swot up on stuff for a job interview I've got tomorrow.

It feels like I'm in a washing machine at the moment, one moment I'm the right way up, the next I'm upside down and I've got no control over the cycle. I was majorly pissed off this morning, the work I'm doing is shite and all the jobs I went for last week are just evaporating into thin air. The network went down, which meant I couldn't do anything, as it's all on shared drives. So I went for a wander to try and clear my head and stretch my thigh muscles.

I wandered into the centre of Histon and was immediately cheered up as one of the newsagents has big Irn Bru signs on it. Fantastic I though a can of Bru is just what I need to pick me up. They only had a couple of can of diet Irn Bru, I should call trading standards, what a let down. So I get back to work and phone Karen, who's at home ill, and it turns out a company I had an interview with back in June have been in touch again. So suddenly from nothing, I've probably got a job interview next week.

Round and round we go, where we'll stop nobody knows...

Evidently I need to do a Swot analysis. Supposedly it will help me to focus on my key areas and thus help me find a job I’d actually enjoy doing. Whether it works or not only time will tell.

Argh! Much more of this temping shite and I'm going to loose it big time. I'm really beginning to loath this office and the absolute shite I have to do. Everyone keeps telling me that it's paying the bills and all that crap and while I know it is, it's no comfort when you have to do some mind numbingly dull work all day. I've got a fucking degree for Christ sake, why the hell can't I get a new job...?

I’m sitting here at my desk at work, it’s Friday afternoon and I’m bored with nothing to do. I could go and ask for some work, but even that seems like too much of an effort. I’ve spend most of today and all of last night hacking at a Perl script that produces shockingly bad XHTML and I’m beginning to think it would be saner to just write my own. I don’t even have much to look forward to as there’s no beer in the fridge for when I get home, life just couldn’t get any better.

I used to work for a company called The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) and while I was there the company went through many restructurings. One of these was to divisionalise the company, in other words make it easier to get rid of unwanted bits of the company. So it came to pass that we sold two of the three divisions to Caldera, a Utah based Linux company.

Imagine my surprise today when I received an email telling to go look at the Caldera website. They’ve kept the same colours and even the old SCO surfboard tree logo, although there has been a change of font. I wonder how much Doug Michaels got paid for that then...

It's Friday afternoon and my brain is feeling like it's been put through a blender. I’m starting to get one of those dull headaches that only comes from being intensely bored and having nothing to do. I’ve been sitting at my desk all day doing nothing much in particular, mostly surfing and answering the odd phone call. I was told when I got this job that there’d be loads to do, but every time I ask for stuff, no ones got any.

I really need to get another dev job…