Today I was headed into work, and after that as we were meeting up with friends in Woking for the evening, with today being New Year's Eve, I had carefully arranged to meet Chrissi in Woking and then proceed from there.
This dedicated research included planning routes on Google Maps, even using the Street View (which I am fast falling in love with) to check as to exactly what the exit sign says so I knew what exit I was coming off at. I would meet Chrissi at Woking Station at precisely 6ish, and then we would proceed from there. All well and good.
This plan immediately disintegrated around 1:55pm - just when I was thinking to myself "I've pretty much done everything I had planned for today, how am I going to fill another three and a bit hours", and the ops manager came round and said to everyone that we were closing the office at 2. So I happily left, drove home and sit here writing a blog in comfort, preparing to go out again later - this time no meeting or planning really necessary!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Backlog Clearing
The other thing to update from yesterday is that we caught up with the Molloys, who are down for Christmas - this had long been planned but only actually came to fruition on the Friday evening that we finalised plans. We'd planned to meet for 1pm and then head for lunch - by virtue of our speedy drive down south we had plenty of time to go home first, drop off all our bags (it's surprising how much you take with you when you have the space), and then head on out again.
I was doing the drive over to Woking as I knew the roads slightly better, which was in part the reason why we swapped drivers midway back. It was strange driving on roads that you know very well but haven't driven on for 9-10 years, if at all.
The main event was obviously seeing Mark and Sophie, which was very nice - we decided not to break with tradition or be adventurous, so ended up at the Bridge Barn (see 'Badger Rib' entries from many years ago) for a spot of lunch - which was pretty decent. We then returned to theirs - well, to Mark's parents, as it really is now - and played a couple of games before heading on as they were already booked up for the evening! We will be seeing them again tomorrow night for New Year's Eve, so will have a chance to see them again before they return back Northwards post-Christmas.
I was doing the drive over to Woking as I knew the roads slightly better, which was in part the reason why we swapped drivers midway back. It was strange driving on roads that you know very well but haven't driven on for 9-10 years, if at all.
The main event was obviously seeing Mark and Sophie, which was very nice - we decided not to break with tradition or be adventurous, so ended up at the Bridge Barn (see 'Badger Rib' entries from many years ago) for a spot of lunch - which was pretty decent. We then returned to theirs - well, to Mark's parents, as it really is now - and played a couple of games before heading on as they were already booked up for the evening! We will be seeing them again tomorrow night for New Year's Eve, so will have a chance to see them again before they return back Northwards post-Christmas.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Homeward Bound
I tried to think of a band or song to equal the use of 'Journey' for the trip up to Chester, but failed. Although considering the multitude of bands that exist somewhere, to resort to cliche like I have means you're still fairly likely to stumble across one by accident.
Today's journey back was interesting to say the last. We left early, a little after 7am, to make the most of roads mostly free of traffic. It was raining as we left, but just as we started to get onto the motorways it was heaving down. Visibility was ridiculously low - you could barely see in front of you - and it was not very pleasant driving! Luckily everyone was being sensible about the driving and were all tucked in, leaving huge distance and not going more than about 50-60mph.
I had said to Chrissi that there were services in 5 miles, and if it continued like that I was going to pull over there and have a break - that weather couldn't last too long, and it'd be sensible to wait it out for 10-15 minutes as opposed to keep driving in that. As it was, within 5 miles it had cleared up and was only heavy rain (which now seemed laughably straightforward). I drove the M53-M56-M6-M42-M40 leg, and at the first services on the M40 we stopped for a stretch of the legs and breakfast.
From there, Chrissi drove the rest of the way back home (M40-M25-A3 leg) - including the M25 not being entirely ground to a halt, a near miraculous occurance. We made it home at a little before midday, which was a decent effort.
Today's journey back was interesting to say the last. We left early, a little after 7am, to make the most of roads mostly free of traffic. It was raining as we left, but just as we started to get onto the motorways it was heaving down. Visibility was ridiculously low - you could barely see in front of you - and it was not very pleasant driving! Luckily everyone was being sensible about the driving and were all tucked in, leaving huge distance and not going more than about 50-60mph.
I had said to Chrissi that there were services in 5 miles, and if it continued like that I was going to pull over there and have a break - that weather couldn't last too long, and it'd be sensible to wait it out for 10-15 minutes as opposed to keep driving in that. As it was, within 5 miles it had cleared up and was only heavy rain (which now seemed laughably straightforward). I drove the M53-M56-M6-M42-M40 leg, and at the first services on the M40 we stopped for a stretch of the legs and breakfast.
From there, Chrissi drove the rest of the way back home (M40-M25-A3 leg) - including the M25 not being entirely ground to a halt, a near miraculous occurance. We made it home at a little before midday, which was a decent effort.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Return Leg
Tonight should be an early night, due to an early start in the morning - we're due to drive back home (and depending on traffic may well detour and head directly to Woking). We are scheduled to meet Mark and Sophie for lunch at 1pm, so if the journey is taking longer than expected we may abandon the plan to return home first and instead drive directly to Woking to meet up with them.
I'm still pencilled in for the drive back - considering the first paragraph of this blog was written before we ate and this paragraph was written having just come up to bed, the time should suggest that I failed miserably with the opening sentence! More on this tomorrow.
I'm still pencilled in for the drive back - considering the first paragraph of this blog was written before we ate and this paragraph was written having just come up to bed, the time should suggest that I failed miserably with the opening sentence! More on this tomorrow.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Working Remotely
Today I was working again - which wasn't particularly exciting, as you don't get the interesting work stories to fill the blog with when you're in a little office of your own a couple of hundred miles away. The day passed without incident and without significant achievement (some progress on documentation but nothing to write home about).
This evening Rachel joined us, having travelled up by train. Her journey provided a frustrating contrast with ours - while typically train is more straightforward and less time consuming (but more expensive) and car is slightly longer but less constrained and cheaper, particularly for two - Rachel's journey up did not demonstrate this. She took a little over six hours to make it having had a mess with her ticket printing, a signal failure, another delay and then failing to make a connection. All rather ridiculous, and throws the train vs car decision into sharper relief - at least you never have to worry about not having the right tickets for your car or not having printed them correctly!
This evening Rachel joined us, having travelled up by train. Her journey provided a frustrating contrast with ours - while typically train is more straightforward and less time consuming (but more expensive) and car is slightly longer but less constrained and cheaper, particularly for two - Rachel's journey up did not demonstrate this. She took a little over six hours to make it having had a mess with her ticket printing, a signal failure, another delay and then failing to make a connection. All rather ridiculous, and throws the train vs car decision into sharper relief - at least you never have to worry about not having the right tickets for your car or not having printed them correctly!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Rained In
Today is December 26th, or Boxing Day as it is known here in the UK. For my non-UK readers, which make up at least 50% of my audience, perhaps more, this is a bank holiday and so the second of our days off (we don't have Christmas Eve off).
Today has been marked by ... so far very little. We had planned on going out for a walk - the idea being that some fresh air and a bit of exercise were probably overdue following our eating the previous day. However, the elements conspired against us as the rain fell continually - at some points it was perhaps bearable, but it never eased up long enough for it to become a serious prospect. [Considering the flooding taking place in some parts of the country, it seems a little churlish to complain about the rain affecting our potential exercise plan!]
We instead sat around, ate a little, played a game and as you can tell, then retired to our respective entertainments - I am currently writing my blog for the day, and wondering whether to cheat and put one in place for tomorrow already.
Tomorrow I'm not quite blessed with as much free time as I'm officially working again. Once more I'll be working remotely, and hoping to avoid the issues that affected me on Monday, which should be straightforward enough as long as I steer clear of the caps lock button! I have a few things to do for work tomorrow, but failing that it gives me the opportunity to start on many other things that I'd like to do but never find the time to do it in. A couple of days of isolation may be just what is required for this.
Today has been marked by ... so far very little. We had planned on going out for a walk - the idea being that some fresh air and a bit of exercise were probably overdue following our eating the previous day. However, the elements conspired against us as the rain fell continually - at some points it was perhaps bearable, but it never eased up long enough for it to become a serious prospect. [Considering the flooding taking place in some parts of the country, it seems a little churlish to complain about the rain affecting our potential exercise plan!]
We instead sat around, ate a little, played a game and as you can tell, then retired to our respective entertainments - I am currently writing my blog for the day, and wondering whether to cheat and put one in place for tomorrow already.
Tomorrow I'm not quite blessed with as much free time as I'm officially working again. Once more I'll be working remotely, and hoping to avoid the issues that affected me on Monday, which should be straightforward enough as long as I steer clear of the caps lock button! I have a few things to do for work tomorrow, but failing that it gives me the opportunity to start on many other things that I'd like to do but never find the time to do it in. A couple of days of isolation may be just what is required for this.
Christmas Blog
My dedication to a blog-a-day effort has extended as far as to be blogging even on Christmas Day. I thought this was the first time that I'd done so, but a quick check back through my archives revealed that I'd also spent a little of my Christmas in 2007 making a post.
Five years later, here I am again making the effort once more. Today has been a pleasant day - spent with family, relaxed and not too much really required. Some nice gifts were exchanged, but it was more about the enjoyable company than anything else particularly. We also had the rare achievement of balancing out a Christmas meal which was at a sensible size - I say we, as if Chrissi and I had some part in it, but the cooking this year was handled by Dad.
One thing we were remiss on - amongst all the relaxing and eating, that we didn't actually get to watch Doctor Who! As in Chrissi's mind this is one of the key events of Christmas Day - and in fact how she got hooked on it in the first place when she watched it here several years back on Christmas - this is quite surprising. We have enough time over the next few days to catch up with it though!
Five years later, here I am again making the effort once more. Today has been a pleasant day - spent with family, relaxed and not too much really required. Some nice gifts were exchanged, but it was more about the enjoyable company than anything else particularly. We also had the rare achievement of balancing out a Christmas meal which was at a sensible size - I say we, as if Chrissi and I had some part in it, but the cooking this year was handled by Dad.
One thing we were remiss on - amongst all the relaxing and eating, that we didn't actually get to watch Doctor Who! As in Chrissi's mind this is one of the key events of Christmas Day - and in fact how she got hooked on it in the first place when she watched it here several years back on Christmas - this is quite surprising. We have enough time over the next few days to catch up with it though!
Monday, December 24, 2012
Working Remotely
So today I was working from home - or rather, working remotely, as instead of working from my own home I was working from Dad's home. This should have been straightforward but I did have a minor hiccup in the morning.
Having got up, got my laptop set up and connected to the WiFi, I had issues hooking up on the VPN into the work network. Of course, the problem of this is that all the FAQs, instructions and even the helpdesk number is all stored on the intranet. Which I couldn't get into, as I was unable to connect to anything - from either my laptop or from Dad's computer, which I appropriated to test this.
I had to call into work, to speak to someone and then get them to pass me the service desk number for me to call up. It turned out that my account had been locked at some point during my failed attempts (I'm suspecting due to a caps lock issue having entered the WiFi password in ALL CAPS) - and on none of the subsequent efforts to enter my password did it bother to inform me of this! Having got my account unlocked and got in, the work day proceeded without any significant incident!
Having got up, got my laptop set up and connected to the WiFi, I had issues hooking up on the VPN into the work network. Of course, the problem of this is that all the FAQs, instructions and even the helpdesk number is all stored on the intranet. Which I couldn't get into, as I was unable to connect to anything - from either my laptop or from Dad's computer, which I appropriated to test this.
I had to call into work, to speak to someone and then get them to pass me the service desk number for me to call up. It turned out that my account had been locked at some point during my failed attempts (I'm suspecting due to a caps lock issue having entered the WiFi password in ALL CAPS) - and on none of the subsequent efforts to enter my password did it bother to inform me of this! Having got my account unlocked and got in, the work day proceeded without any significant incident!
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