England in Brief: Part 3

Friday:

Friday was a short day. We were hoping we wouldn’t have to go in so that we could head over to York and look around, but there was enough that still needed to be done that we ended up going in. We wrapped most everything up, though, said hi to some people, and got taken out to lunch at the Queen’s head again. I had my other favorite beer from last time, Black Sheep Best Bitter, and the Queens burger, which was huge, juicy, and delicious.











Here's the royal bath house, where that pub was.

We didn’t have time to go to York after that, but we did end up walking around Harrogate, which I liked because I hadn’t gotten to see much of the City last time I came out. We stopped off at various shops and I picked up some chocolate for Jess. (We’ve gotten into the nice habit of eating dark chocolate for dessert, so we’ve been trying lots of different types). I also found the local video game store, simply named ‘Game’ and had fun looking around in there. We ducked into a coffee shop to dodge a downpour of rain and walked around a bookstore. I took pictures of books I wanted. Then we turned in a little early and went to a really nice Italian restaurant for dinner. Then hung out in my hotel some more, chatted with Jess, and packed up all my stuff.

Saturday:
HOME! The car came to pick us up at 6:30, and I slept some on the ride down. We got to Manchester airport plenty early and then started the day-long process of waiting in lines and sitting in chairs that would eventually bring us home. The check-in line for the flight was quite long, but moved at a good clip, and there was no wait at all through security. Then we had the LONG flight from England back to Chicago. This time against the jetstream. It was a bit over eight hours. I totally wore out the battery on my PSP and spent a lot of time on the DS as well. I thought I was getting sick at one point, but I think I was just tired of being on a plane.

Upon landing in Chicago, we had to first go through customs, then pick up C’s bag, then drop it off, then find our next flight, then go back into security. *Then* I was able to call Jessie. We talked for a while and got all excited about how we’d be together soon. I got some dinner, too, a sandwich and a couple of fruit smoothie drinks. For some reason I was craving them. Then it was on the (comparatively short) flight down to Austin and back home to Jess! We gave each other many, many hugs and kisses at the airport, then came home and I went to sleep early and slept late.

And that’s England.

-N

England in Brief, Part 2

Early for us meant that we met at 5:00 AM. We picked that time because that’s when the McDonalds opened. Plus, we figured, as long as our sleep schedule was going to be temporarily mucked about, we might as well get some work out of the deal. So we got in and started chipping away at our work. It was slow going, but we did find some useful stuff.


Hey, check out the hotel. Posh, eh?

At 11 we went back to the hotel to pick up our boss, B, who had flown in the day after us. She was feeling off from the flight but after some lunch was up to staying awake and working with us. We went to dinner at the Queen’s head, the Pub at which we had stayed last time, and had some of our favorite Old Peculier. Good stuff.

The next day was the long one. We met up at 5:00 AM, took an hour off for lunch so that C could take a nap, and then didn’t leave work again until, I think 9 at night. We were supposed to be demoing some software of ours, and for some reason we were having a horrible time finding anything that worked. We found several bugs, I eve n helped figure out that it wasn’t entirely our software that was on the fritz. It was one of those sets of problems where the question wasn’t “why isn’t this working?” It’s “why has this ever worked before?” We were supposed to be demoing in the afternoon the next day and almost nothing was working properly.

On the way back from work, we closed out the kitchen at a pub because we were hungry and wanted to make sure everything wasn’t going to close before we got food. I also had an appointment with Jessie. We had agreed to meet up on Google Chat at 10:00 PM my time, 4:00 PM hers, to say hi. I was a bit late, but we did manage to chat several times throughout the week.

Oh, and on that note, the hotel charged 12 Pounds for 24 hours of internet access, bandwidth-limited. Unlimited internet was 18 Pounds a day. That’s ludicrous. I almost considered not buying any until Jess informed me that work would reimburse me for it.

The next day was the demo, so I put on my slacks and black shoes and even a tie, so you know it was serious. We managed to do some more bug searching in the morning, but we mostly just put together a suite of data that showed what our software did (when it worked) and some slides about the history. B did the slides and C did the technical demo where we ran the software live. It worked, thank heavens, but it was all on data that we had carefully screened. We would have liked to have just run it on real stuff, live, but the system was too flaky for that.

Still, we did manage to show off our prototype code and no one came down on us too hard for having a sub-optimal demo, so congratulations were had all around. In the afternoon we showed on of the local workers how to run our software so that they could check it out, and then we went out for celebratory food and beer.

The celebratory food was at a Thai restaurant. I just got Pad Thai, which wasn’t particularly adventurous, but was really good. Then we went back the pub with the Beer Festival. The pub was actually in the old Royal Bath House in Harrogate, a very pretty venue. I had 6 beers...all 1/3 the size of a normal beer. But I got to try out a lot of good stuff. There was a rasin flavored beer, an ale with 8% alcohol, one brewed by a japanese master brewer specially for the festival, and even one called Banana bread, that, yes, tasted like bananas. I liked that one just for being different.












Beer!


Tired, we turned in relatively early, and then came friday.

England in Brief

Well it is my tradition, when I get the opportunity to travel outside the U.S. to do a great big series of posts that catalog my various adventures (and gets my post count up closer to Sandlin’s). Unfortunately, Not a whole lot of interest happened while I was over there. Mostly work, so splitting it up by day would be disingenuous. So here, then, rather quickly, is my week in england.

Sunday
I met up with a guy that I work with at the airport. We’ll call him C. We both showed up at the same time but while I generally prefer to put everything in a backpack and just carry it on, he had some actual luggage, so I stood in line with him and we dropped off his stuff. The first leg of our flight took us from Austin to Chicago, and we had several hours of layover there. We got some lunch and then walked around the terminal, both to burn time and because Work is having a charity event (as it does every year) where if you strap on a pedometer and get 70,000 steps in a week, they will donate some money to a charity of your choice.

Well as we were sitting there, we got called up to the front desk. It turns out they had overbooked the flight and so because we had paid so close to full price for our ticket, we got bumped up to business class. Nice! That’s definitely the leg you want it on, too. Flying east is the worst. We got on the plane and spent about half an hour just cataloging all the cool things in our area. We had video on demand, a lengthy dinner service, free alcohol and our chairs folded down completely flat and nearly horizontal. Great for sleeping.











Check out our seats!

So we had appetizers, salad, main course, and dessert. I even had some courvoisier because I’d never had it before. It’s a type of cognac. Strong, as it turns out. After dinner (and finishing off my first book) I stretched out on my luxurious business class seat and caught a few hours of sleep. Much better than regular seats. I skipped breakfast because they were going to serve it 2.5 hours after dinner, and I wanted sleep more than I wanted food.

Finally we landed, on Monday, and took a car from Manchester, where we landed, to Harrogate, where we would be doing our work. We took a car service up from the airport, which is nice because I got some spare Z’s on the ride up. After that, we checked into our Hotel, dropped off our stuff, and went right into work.

The first day of work after an international flight is, as you might imagine, pretty rough. We mostly just managed to get some paperwork taken care of, check out some basic stuff, and then call it a day. We had dinner at a place called Betty’s and kept ourselves awake by walking around the town. We discovered a place that was having a local ale festival and so I got to try Three 1/3 pint glasses of several different types. My favorite way to drink beer.

Finally, sleep caught up with us at around 6 or so, and we made plans to wake up early the next day.

On my way home from England

Greetings, ladies and gents.

It's Saturday morning (early morning) and that means I'm on my way home! Jess and I have been chatting a lot online and we really miss each other, so we're both really excited. It'll be a long day for me, though, lots of flights. Luckily I have my portable games all charged and ready to play.

England was pretty nice. The weather wasn't as oppressively miserable as it could have been, nice and crisp and only a little overcast most days. I even got to see the sun a couple of times. Our demo went pretty well, but it was a lot of hard work. I haven't calculated the hours yet, though, so I can't tell you exactly how much work, but on one day we met at 5:00 AM and didn't leave till 9:00 PM, I think. Course, we did take a lunch break, but it was mostly so that one of my coworkers could take a nap.

Anyway, more news when I have more time to write it, though not much touristy-things happened. I'll try to get un-jetlagged and write more soon.

Cheers, mate!

-N

Fast English Post

Hey,

I gotta be quick. It's 8:30 here now but we're meeting up at 5:00 AM tomorrow, after doing the same thing today, which is 11:00 at night where I usually come from...which is bed time...so I have to go to sleep pretty soon.

But yes, I am in England, though most of my time is spent working. We've hit a few pubs briefly after work, but there's little time for relaxing. Luckily we won't have to do anything on friday, most likely, so I think we're going to head over to York to Check it out. I come home Saturday.

Everything here is so old, and it's all made out of stone. Imagine living in a house where you'd need a masonry drill to hang christmas lights, and installing cable for your internet could involve low-yeild explosives. The permanence is impressive, but a little overwhelming for this flighty American.

-N

Going to england!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that next week I'll be going to England for work! It's mostly just hanging out in someone else's building and working on software, but the travel is nice, and we usually hang out in pubs afterwards and drink really good british beer.

I may be incommunicado for the most part, but I'll try to post something from a foreign country. With the power of the internet! I've been over there for work before, but this time we'll be staying in a different place, closer to the main city, so we can walk around and see more stuff besides cute little lambs, who had just been born and were wandering around the green fields when we were there last time.

Jess has Ratchet and Clank to keep her company while I am away, which is her favorite game series in the world. I've been watching her play some, and not only does it look like a lot of fun, the graphics are *gorgeous*, both technically and from an art direction perspective.

Also, as first-time homeowners in a neighborhood with kids, we get to officially hand out Halloween candy for the first time ever this weekend. We plan to hang out in the front and hand out candy and maybe meet some neighbors. I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm traveling on Sunday morning and I don't land until Monday, so it may be a bit before I'm fit to communicate with other humans.

Loves!

-N

England, sorta

From England!

A very English road sign.

So yes, I’m back from England, hale and hearty. The trip was, overall, not a whole lot of fun. We flew out on sunday afternoon, and arrived monday morning, and you know no one sleeps well on a airplane. Our work was in Harrogate, up in Yorkshire. Sheep country. We spent a few hours on monday getting forms filled out and accounts set up, but jet lag set in pretty quickly and we went back to the hotel to sleep.

From England!

Our Inn deserves special mention, though. We stayed at the Queens Head in Kensington. A very british experience. They’ve got a pub downstairs with beer and other preservatives, and they sell lots of delicious, huge, bad-for-you food. We spent most of our off-time there, eating and drinking Old Peculier. Yes, that’s the way it’s spelled. Peculierly. It is a favorite beer of Jim, one of the guys I went with, and I have to admit, it’s really good beer. Smooth and sweet. Reminds me vaguely of apple juice.

From England!

Oh, and you know how I've been buying cups to represent all the countries I've traveled to? Well, maybe you don't, but I got a bamboo cup from Japan and a hardwood bowl from Costa Rica? Well I got a couple of Theakston pint cups from England, one from the very pub I spent all my time drinking in. The owner gave us each one. I also got another from the brewery, you can read about that below. Nice souvenir.

Well, that was most of the week, right there. We went out a couple of times to different places, and I got to try fish and chips and blood pudding (both pretty good) and stuff myself with beer and food. Say what you will about the american health food movement, at least it means you can get a salad every once in a while.

From England!

Theakston's Brewery

Well that was most of our week, right there. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come back, eat, sleep. Saturday, though, we did get to check out some breweries. We went up to Masham to check out the Theakson’s brewery and the Black Sheep brewery. Theakston makes the Ol Peculier we had been drinking all week. That place especially was interesting because they have been brewing for roughly 175 years, and all in the same, gravity-fed, ancient process. They added some electric motors and the occasional pump, but other than that, the process was unchanged.

From England!

Black Sheep Brewery

Black sheep was far more modern, and started by one of the Theakston sons when their company was bought out by a national chain. They also turned out a series of very tasty brews. We got to see their huge vats, brewing away. Smelled like bread. We also got to try a whole bunch of different types of beer. My favorites were generally called ‘Best Bitter.’ I dunno, maybe bitter means something else in beer parlance. I just thought they were quite smooth.

Sunday, we flew back, and I was so homesick for Jessie that we stood and hugged for a good long time before heading home. I missed home very much. It was really nice to be able to sleep next to my wife again.

England, overall, was pretty fun, even though I didn’t get to see that much of it. There’s a good chance I’ll end up going back again, which is sort of a pain, but at least It’s another stamp in the passport. I’ve got a lot of traveling to do to catch up with Jessie.

Oh, and here's the Picasa album where I posted all the pictures. Enjoy!

-N

I'm in the Queens Head

Well, we've landed in England, short and sleep and long on jetlag. We're staying in a proper pub near where we're going to be working called the 'Queens Head'. I'm in the Victoria room. It's quite lovely. Pretty soon now we're going to be trotting of to see if we can get some work done before our bodies tell us it's dinnertime and time to catch Zs.

So far, it reminds me a bit of Seattle, but with MUCH OLDER BUILDINGS. Green and a little overgrown everywhere, but there are some buildings here that truly qualify as ancient. And then I feel asleep in the car, so further impressions will have to wait.

Cheers and pip-pip.

-N

Burnout: Austin/Pittsburgh

He he he.

I’ve been on a bit of a video game bender recently which, if you’re me, is a lot of fun. And yesterday Matt and I got together on Burnout Paradise and tooled around there. I learned a couple of things:

1) Matt doesn’t have a headset, which means they can hear me, but I can’t hear them. I assume it’s like playing a video game with an announcer coming over your speakers. “This is DJ Noel, for Crash FM”.

2) I am so much better than Matt is at Road Rage events.

3) Matt is way better than me at Showtime Events.

4) I need to get Matt a Bluetooth headset for his birthday or something.

In other news, it looks like I’ve finally been locked into travel to England. The dates are March 8th to March 15. It will be mostly work, so little time for me to look around and sightsee, but It’ll be another stamp on my passport and I’ll get to work on my hideous English accent. It sounds like we’ll actually be staying at a proper tavern, too. Just outside of where we’ll be working. Pub downstairs and everything. I’m going to Harrowgate, I believe. Which is two hours outside of Manchester, by car. If anyone wants any, I dunno, horrible food or something, just let me know and I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Return of micro-news!
Jessie’s sister will be visiting us for Jessie’s next game and bringing along her sons. Our first guests! After that, we get Sandlin, Kelsey, and Jessie’s Grandma during the same week. And finally, in October, the parents come visit. How cool! Got our brakes replaced on the car, so the Protégé is definitely up to spec. Whenever we stand up on the landing above the entry and call down for the kitties, Nagano starts meowing. Also, Sandlin's last entry marks this Blog's 200th post! Hooray!

Cheers, old, bean!

-N

Also wants to travel!

Well, with regards to travel, I'm actually tasked with figuring out my 'personal travel' list pretty soon. Japan was my pick, and Costa Rica was Jessie's. Jess is gung-ho about China, which makes me a little wary unless we could get some sort of guidance, either professional or a friend, to take us around (we totally could). But it's my turn to pick a place, and after Japan, my list is pretty much empty, so I'm watching everyone's list with interest. I've never really done the 'Europe' trip, which could be interesting, but I don't know what I'd do at most places, and 'seeing old buildings' could get old after a while. So I've been tasked with figuring out where I would like to go on vacation this year, and soon. Thanks for all the suggestions, then!

Though I may end up getting a bonus free trip to England. For work! The details are still rolling in, but it sounds like Ticom wants to send me to England for a week to help support one of the projects I'm on. I don't have all (read: any) specifics yet, but it sounds pretty fun, and Jess is determined, if I go, to fly out with me, for at least part of it, and have ourselves a discount bonus England vacation. Whee!

Jess and I have had a pretty busy week, actually. Jess did a lot of roller derby practice to make up her requirements of 8 a month, and she got a pretty spectacular bruise on her rear end when they were practicing with a partner and her partner kept her skate in the wrong place and Jess landed right on the wheel. Ouch. We've taken some pictures, they'll just need to be...carefully cropped.

We went out shopping this weekend for random stuff and I ended up in Best Buy checking out various home theater systems. I had found one I liked, but the price was a little more than I was hoping to pay. Jess came up as I was thinking and told me 'well we use it all the time, you should just buy it' and then proceeded to buy me a preposterous amount of A/V gear for the home. So in short, I have the best wife in the world. I've stuck the speakers on the wall and even routed the wires all sexy and hidden-like, so before long we'll be listening to Rock Band MUCH LOUDER.

Of course, in exchange for all my audio gear, I bought her a tree! We wanted to put another tree up in the backyard for privacy and because Jess really likes trees, especially ones she can climb. We got a Burr Oak and had it delivered over the weekend. Three burly dudes did the big work of delivering the 100 gallon tree (that's the size of the pot it was in) and digging a hole for it. They had to bust up some seriously big rocks to do it. But no granite, so it went okay. They piled up some mulch and layed down some fertilizer too, and put in some posts to keep it upright. Seriously professional job. I'll put some pics and videos of that, and the rest of our house, pretty soon.

Brief notes!: House is coming together, we really just have to figure out our entertainment center and assemble a master bedroom. I've discovered that I can bike to Wing Tsun pretty easily, so we can put off buying a second car for a while. The front door blew open while the tree was being delivered and the cats got out of the house. I found Tigger in the garden, and Nagano came back when I called. I've turned Jess onto the joys of NPR for our morning drive to work, we get to listen to 'All things considered' and the Austin Music Minute. Jessie has officially changed her last name, or at least started the process.

Consider yourself updated.

-N