Frequency of blog posts is inversely proportional to how busy I am...
My last post had me in Cardiff getting ready to head back to Newcastle (Feb 22). I flew back on the UK version of Airtrans... known as Air Wales... or as the locals in Newcastle pronounce it "Air Wheels". My team decided that we should meet in the lobby of the Hilton at 0615 to catch a cab to the airport... our flight was at 750a. It took us 20 minutes to get the airport, then about 10 minutes to check in. We sat down for some breakfast at about 645a and watched the flight status board tell us that our flight was delayed for the next 3 hours. We finally left at about 1000a. We arrived back in Newcastle after 1100a and were back to work by noon. The rest of the week was filled with meetings and other "exciting" work events.
The weekend of Feb 26 and 27 was uneventful. We had a new person join our team here. Gina Turner... not Tina... flew in from California. She's been living in the desert (near Fort Irwin) for the past 18 years and has been working at NASA. She reports to the same boss as me in San Francisco. She's joined us here to help sort out some of the ongoing project and technical issues that continuously surface. Anyway, Gina arrived on the 26th. I was charged with picking her up from the airport and was given the keys to the company sports car... a 1.6L Ford Focus... it's a right hand drive, 5-speed manual... which means shifting with your left hand... more difficult than it sounds. I managed to make it to the airport and back without any major incidents. I handed the keys back to Art the next day and decided that I could live without a car for a bit.
On Tuesday 01 March, our team traveled by train to Scotland for another round of site visits. Our luck with delays continued... our train was delayed by about 30 minutes... when a train showed up, we got on. We learned a few minutes after it departed that it was the wrong train. Our train was actually the next one on the same track. Fortunately, it was easy to fix the situation... we jumped off in Edinburough, Scotland and got on the correct train. We arrived around 9:00 to Dundee. Since we weren't sure where the hotel was, we got in a cab. It took us across the street from the station and dropped us at the Hilton... total fare £3. After checking in (which only took 5 minutes for all of us), we met in the bar to chat... Art ordered a shot of whiskey to sip. The glass they gave him was a standard 6 oz glass with about 4 oz of whiskey... that's the biggest "shot" we'd ever seen! It took him about 2 hours to sip his way through it. Afterwards, he retired to the McDonald suite. The rooms were nicer in Scotland than Swansea, but Art got the giant suite on the top floor. He had a walk-in closet, living room, huge bedroom, and a giant marble covered bathroom... the rest of us had the standard rooms (although I had a bottle of wine, a bottle of Scottish orange marmalade, some truffles, and a few other snacks in mine that nobody else did). I guess they decided to give me some goodies instead of the upgraded room.
We conducted our site visit on the 2nd, then got back on the train for Newcastle. This time we got on the correct train and got back as expected. I spent the evening packing up and getting ready for my trip home. At about 2:30a I was awaken by people making a ton of noise outside. Turns out it was snowing quite a bit. By morning it was pretty messy. My cab was 20 minutes late picking me up... I was starting to get concerned and was about to walk over and jump on the Metro to the airport when the cab finally arrived. I made it to the airport with plenty of time since I wasn't checking any bags. The flight to London was uneventful, as expected. I spent a little time in Heathrow checking e-mail and doing a little shopping. I think it was about a mile from where I came in (Terminal 1) to where my flight left out of (Terminal 4).
I arrived back in Denver around 3:30p on Thursday the 3rd. Russ picked me up and we went directly to ESPNZone where we both had steaks. We stopped into Costco on the way home and picked up a few things, then headed back to the house. I took a short nap until about 2:30a when I had to get up to drive to Co Springs airport to pick up Athena.
I spent a few hours in the office on Friday then we all took off for one of the things I'd been missing while in the UK... Mexican food. There were 3 main food items that I couldn't get here... steak, root beer, and Mexican food. I suppose I could add Chinese food since I have not had any that was any good yet. On Saturday, Athena and I went to the Booz Allen holiday party... Co Springs has their party in the spring because the landlord of the building throws a big party for all of the tenants around the holidays. So, we had a casino night party. Athena and I had a great time. We got to see a bunch of my co-workers that I barely know... I was only there for a total of about 6 weeks since I moved. On Sunday, D. Acton came down to visit. We drove around Co Springs and saw some of the local sights. We tried to go to Seven Falls but were told that it was 75% frozen and that none of the hiking trails were open... it also cost $8.25 per person... we decided that it wasn't worth it.
Monday we finished up our taxes... ouch! Russ and I dropped Athena off at the airport Monday evening, then went to Red Robin for dinner. On Tuesday, Russ drove me to the airport and I hopped back on a plane for the UK. I arrived back into Newcastle at about 2:00p local time.
Today, it was back to work as usual... I decided that I needed to get a car so that I could do some sight seeing this weekend, so I called up and ordered one. They (Budget) dropped the car off at the office at 3:00p. I came home and cooked my first full meal here at the apartment... pasta with tomato sauce and bread. Very exciting :-)
The latest and greatest counts and such:
- Drunk English men peeing on walls, cars, or in the middle of street in Newcastle - 7
- Times I've been told high-speed Internet will be available at my apartment "in a couple of days" - 5
- Days of actual high-speed service - 0
- Number of accidents narrowly avoided at annoying traffic circles - 2
Well, that about wraps everything up. Several people have asked for pictures of my apartment... I have attached 2 of the living room and 1 of the kitchen. These rooms are on the first floor along with a small dining room (behind the red walls on the right side in the living room), the foyer, and a powder room. The "laundry" is under the cabinet in the kitchen. The spiral staircase leads upstairs to the 3 bedrooms and the 2 bathrooms... sorry no pictures. I'm still waiting for the phone line in the master bedroom to be hooked up so I can use my computer up at my desk.... another "delay".
I hope all is well in your parts of the world! If anyone wants to visit the UK, just let me know! I have plenty of room for guests!!
Steve
New Living Room 1
New Living Room 2
New Kitchen
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