UK Days 3-5 (6 Feb - 8 Feb)

Hello from Cobalt... the name of the building where I'm working.

 

I've learned the level of priorities here in the UK.  The attached picture shows the size of various drinks... a can of Coke (150mL), a bottle of Coke (200mL), a bottle of water (330mL), and a bottle of bear (550mL).  The funny... or not so funny thing is that they all cost about the same amount.  That could be why there aren't so many overweight brits... and so many alcoholics??

 

Sunday was spent wandering the English countryside.  I went to lunch with one of the guys that's been over here for about 6 months (Art) and his wife.  We went to a new pub (it only opened in 1901)... the old one's have been around since the 1600's.  We had "Sunday Roast".  I had the chicken with mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, Yorkshire pudding, some type of mashed squash, and boiled onions.  The cost was 5 pounds and the plate weighed about that ;-)  After lunch, we went back to his flat (apartment) so that I could see what accommodations look like.  He has a 3 bedroom place with underground parking.  Around 3:00p we went back over to the hotel to meet up with some other folks working on the project here.  One woman (Sara) had just arrived around 2:00p... I think she learned that 1 day is not get rid of jet lag.  Anyway, we sat and chatted for a bit and then went our own ways for dinner.

Monday was my first day at work.  The day started with a comedy of errors though... one of the other Americans here (Kate) decided to stay at the Hilton because her apartment was without electricity.  We had agreed to meet at 8:00 in the lobby.  Well, at 8:00 Sara and I were standing around waiting.  I decided at 8:10 to call her room... evidentially her 6:00a wake up call never happened, so she was still sound asleep.  20 minutes later a very frazzled Kate arrived and we took off through the very heavy traffic towards the office.  On the way we took orders for Starbucks and ended up walking out with 7 drinks and several sandwiches and some muffins.  I spent the rest of the day reviewing numerous documents and trying to get up to speed on everything going on here.

Today is now Tuesday... although I had intended to submit this yesterday, it just never happened.  Anyway, today again filled with documents and a meeting that seemed like it would never end!!  I left at 3:00 to go look at apartments (flats).  I found a great one... but more about that later.  Anyway, I'm off to dinner.  We're headed to an Indian restaurant that is supposed to be great but will make your clothes stick like curry for a week.

Until later!!

Steve

 

Additional Picture

The picture of the sage was not attached to the blog... see below...

UK Days 1-2 (4 Feb - 5 Feb)

Hello all!

Well, after a full day in England, I have some useful information to share...  I've also been keeping count of the things I've seen.  So far:

• Bad British Hair - 10
• Bad British Teeth - 54
• Scots in the Hilton looking for beer at noon - 4
• Cute British Girls (from behind) - 3
• Cute British Girls (from front) - 0
• Scary British Girls - LOTS!!

Anyway, the flight from Denver to London was pretty good (left around 610p MST).  It was about 9 hours, of which I spent the first hour trying to sleep... in business/first class they are busy trying to serve you every 5 minutes during that first hour so I finally gave up.  After a snack, several beverages, and a warm towel, we started our dinner, which was pretty good.  A nice salad and some grilled prawns to start, then a chicken breast with risotto, and asparagus.  For dessert, I had an apple and cherry flan.  During and after dinner I watched "I, Robot".  I managed to get a few hours of sleep after the movie  and woke up around 1200a MST/0700a GMT.  I "raided the larder" or in American, "got a midnight snack."  They started serving breakfast around 0800a GMT so there wasn't much time for more sleep.  We landed in London at about 9:20 GMT and sat on the runway for a bit since we were pretty early.  We found a parking space (no joke) about 20 minutes later and then took a bus from the plane over to the terminal.  I wandered Heathrow and found my way from Terminal 4 where we came in to Terminal 1 where I was to depart.  British Airways had a nice lounge next to the outbound gate where I was able to wash my face and get something to drink (150 mL of Coke)... FYI: if you like alcohol, fly business class... I also checked my e-mail and sent out a quick message to a few people. 

 

My flight from London to Newcastle left at 1245p GMT and arrived around 145p.  I got my bags (75+ lb suitcase) and then got a cab to the hotel.  The Hilton in Newcastle is pretty nice but pricey.  It's about L105 ($200) per night.  Internet access is $30/day.  I will be looking at apartments next week.  I hear they have some pretty nice ones for about L375/week... YIKES!  For this week, I can be reached at the Hilton Newcastle.  The number here is (44) 191 490 9700.  I just checked with the hotel operator...  The country code is 44. Supposedly the rates on Vartec are $0.03/min with a $0.39 connect fee.  To dial, use 10-10-297 + 011 + 44 + 191 490 9700.  This seems to be a reasonable rate.  There are some calling cards that you can buy online that have a $0.005 rate... yes, 1/2 cent per minute.  As a comparison, Verizon direct dial is $.95/minute if you sign up for the infrequent use plan... if you sign up for the "Choice Plan", it will be $4/month + $.08/min.  I'd say Vartec is best (www.vartec.com).  With Qwest (Colorado), the rate is $4/mon and $.07/min.  Anyway, if anyone wants to research some more and find lower rates, please share!

I went to bed last night around 900p GMT and slept soundly until about 330a GMT.  I couldn't get back to sleep so I gave Athena a call at 430a GMT (830p PST).  After we talked, I was planning to go the gym, but discovered that is didn't open until 700a.  I ended up reading for a bit and then went back to sleep until about noon.  I got up and decided to walk around Newcastle.  I had lunch at an Italian place over on the other side of the river.  The Hilton is on the south side of the river with the main town on the north side.  I walked across the Gateshead Millennium Bridge (see attached picture).  There is also a new music hall called the Sage (also attached picture).  I walked through the shopping district to the north end of town where I stopped and grabbed the worst starbucks I've ever had and took a few pictures of the St. Thomas church (see another attached pic). 

 

As many people have said, the cars here are somewhat unique.  There are a lot of models you never see in the US.  I've seen 2 Honda S2000's though.  One popular car is the Nissan Micra (see attached picture of that).  As the name implies, it is a very small car.  I think the tires are actually 12 inches in diameter.  There are plenty of Fiats, Peugeots, and Fords.  I've seen a few BMWs and Porsche's, but I think those are "out of towners". 

 

Tomorrow I'm supposed to get together with the guy in charge of the work here.  He and his wife are living over here now... they moved from Kansas City about 4 months ago.  The plan is to do some sight seeing and then meet up with another person who is flying in from DC tomorrow.  I will start "working" on Monday... although I'm told as a business visitor I am not allowed to do "productive work".  I'm not sure what that means, but I guess I will find out!

 

That's about all for today!

 

Steve

 

 

Gateshead Millenium Bridge


The Sage Gateshead


St. Thomas Church


Nissan Micra

Into London

Hey,

I arrived in London about 30 minutes early. I managed to navigate through Hethrow (NOT an easy task) and find my way to the other terminal and to my gate. British Airways has a nice lounge for business travelers... again, for $6000-$1000, I'd hope you get something free. In the airport a 1/2 liter of Coke is £2 ($4). The cans they give on the plane and here in the lounge are 150 mL, about 4 oz... very tiny, but probably the correct amount to drink at one time.

Anyway, my flight to Newcastle leaves at 1245p... it's 1148a local time now. I managed to get a few hours of pretty good sleep on the plane... it made the 9+ hour flight seem shorter. As expected, they had a choice of steak or chicken... since the steak might have been from here, I went with chicken. It was pretty yummy. The appitizer was grilled prawns with a salad, which was also good. It might be hard going back to any domestic coach flights after this experience :-) (especially Southwest, the "no frills" airline)

Well, that's about all from here!! I'll try to e-mail from Newcastle!

Steve

T minus 30 Hrs

I'll be on a flight to the UK in just about 30 hours! I will be leaving around 6:00p Thursday and arriving in the UK Friday around 1:00p... 10 hrs from Denver to London... that'll be fun! I'm trying to get everything ready to go... not only do I have to pack for a month but I need to find all of the appropriate power converters for phones, laptops, etc. Anyway, things are a little hectic today... It's time to run out and grab some lunch, then get everything else done that I need to do.

Russ arrived to a snowy Colorado on Sunday... he's getting settled in and should be back online in the next day or two.

Later!
Steve

Off to the land of drizzle

Well, it seems that England is a go. I will go to CA this weekend... to get my passport :-) I will probably leave Feb 2 or 3 and plan to be back March 3. I'll only stay home for a few days, then head back over for about 6 more weeks. It should prove to be interesting work.

Funny that Russ will arrive just as I'm leaving.

Back on the home front, I picked up my 2005 Toyota Tacoma 4-dr Sport Edition truck on Saturday. I drove it up to Denver for a welcome home party for Dave A. He is finally home after being in Florida for the launch of Deep Impact... he is one of the systems engineers on it and has been very busy working on it over the past few years. He can now sit back and relax a little and hopefully enjoy the show on July 4th when it smashes into comet Tempel 1.

Well, all for now... time to get home and have a steak!!! (I'll be a vegetarian in England.)

Steve

Inauguration

So yesterday was an interesting and bizarre day. Jeff and my friend Diffle who both work on Capitol Hill got us tickets to go to all sorts of events celebrating inuguration. First I was able to sit in the seats close to front for the actual swearing in ceremony. nothing special there though, it was cold. Then we went to a preparty event with many congressmen and women and free food and drink! Then we went to Inaugural Ball number one which was the one sponsored by Florida. it was kind of lame and had bad music, so we went on to the Independence Ball which was sponsored by VA and MD where the music was better and there we started to meet people. I met Ashcroft (he had a polkadotted bow tie on) and The house whip, Roy Blunt, former governor Gilmore and a whole host of other congressmen. The president and VP make an appearance to each one but it's really not that special. Then we went on to the biggest event which was an after party sponsored by DC101 and others where 3 doors down was playing. Apparently if you buy tickets to this thing, it costs 2000 a person! But Congressional staffers often get leftover tickets if they dig around, and we didn't pay for a thing all night. The cheapest ball was $150 a person we think. Anyhow, it was fun, but i got home at 2am, and boy am i dragging at school today!

If Steve goes to England, he should take me with him, I've always wanted to go:)
Good Luck Russ! I hope you find that this is the place for you, although I'll miss having you guys around. It's nice to have family representation at my parties!

Meredith

On The Road Again...

Well I'm off. And as Steve so brilliantly pointed out, I am in fact leaving on JANUARY 21st. Oh well. Most people won't even notice. So the BLOG will have to wait until I get to Colorado...though I wish I had set up the Voice Blog feature...put that on the to-do-list. Just can't wait to get on the road again...

Hanging out in San Fran

It's day 2... or 3 here in San Francisco. I came here for a 2 day class known as "Fundamentals of Business Development". It was an interesting class. I didn't necessarily learn a whole lot but it was good practice.

Yesterday I got several e-mails from a guy I've worked with in the past. He asked me to come to England for a few months to help out with some work there. It's a tempting idea that I might actually do. I don't know if I can handle 2-3 months though. I'm thinking a 3 week stint, then home for a long weekend, then back for another 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately, it would mean delaying my involvement fully with our work in Colorado. With Russ on his way out... FYI, he is leaving tomorrow (Friday the 21st) to start his trek to Colorado. His e-mail was a little off... he said Friday December 20th... I'm not sure which year he meant.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on any trips to England!

Take care!
Steve

New Format, no new posts

Hey out there...

Why isn't anyone posting anything? Could it be because the editor is a P.O.S.??

Anyway, I'm finally situated in an office in Co. Springs. I have a desk, a phone, and even a building pass. I got assigned parking today... it's three blocks away. I guess I will get a morning and evening walk out of it. If I passed a Starbucks or something it might be worthwhile. Unfortunately the only thing I will be passing is a pawn shop... oh joy! Any e-mails I send will have my new office number and my new cell phone number attached. If you want home numbers, etc, just send me an e-mail and I will give you all the details.

The weather has returned to a more hospitable temperature here. It was in the -5 to 10 degree range for a few days. On Saturday it was very windy. At about 2:00a the wind was blowing so hard that the house was actually shaking. One of my neighbors (also a coworker of mine) had some large chunks of their shingles blown off the house. BIG FUN!!!

All for now!
Steve