.. consumed over the weekend. Met up for breakfast at Automat in Mayfair. 10:30AM perusing the menu and I noted 'Brisket sandwich with fries' - of course anything else on the menu after that point didn't seem at all appealing. Yes, 10:30AM and having a full lunch. I liked Automat, American style diner. Upon first arrival the place was empty, strange since I had asked for a table at 10:00 but told they could do 10:30. Anyways, generally friendly service and nice environment. Recommend (save for the fact that you are likely going...
... that's the insult I received from 3 yocals yesterday upon driving out of Cambridge Station car park. Actually I was rather happy at that, certainly beats "Scottish {b******, f*****, w*****}" which is the usual way I am referred to by the local community.Simple task of reversing out of a parking space complicated by the fact that the car park actually serves many purposes (car park, taxi rank, public thoroughfare, total annoyance). Rather than get out of the way, three male youths (about 17yrs old) decide to be difficult...
Just like the sun will rise in the morning (not that we'll necessarily see it!) some things are highly predictable...A ticket machine at Cambridge Station won't be workingYes, this one really is as predictable as the sun rising ! This is getting repetitive, but the obligatory picture is below. Note the variation this time on the theme- no longer a rough paper note typed by someone who doesn't know how to format correctly in MS Word, but...
Hectic week. Nothing interesting to report. Spent 3 days working at home to avoid distractions, solid in Powerpoint working on presentation for Asia beginning September. I'm doing a keynote speech in Taiwan and Shanghai so felt I had to make a real effort on this one- especially since I know some of the other presenters and they are really good. I was hoping to take a half day today and head into London, but didn't make it (instead working on a single diagram for about 3hrs !).Tomorrow I'm meeting up with 2 sets of Scottish...
Finally finished after a day in PowerPoint. I feel as though the past few weeks have been Outlook and PowerPoint with nothing else. I bought a copy of Illustrator last weekend for the purpose of trying to do better diagrams, but haven't got around to it y...
Some things you just shouldn't do when you've had a few drinks. I know there are apps out there that prevent you from texting people, calling ex's etc. Sadly there isn't one that prevents you from make public representations to the Cambridgeshire consultation on "Gypsy and Traveller DPD" when there are plans to site a traveller site in your village when you're going through frustration trying to move to a new house but unable to buy it due to planning policy. I reviewed my comments and they weren't that bad thankfully and well...
Saturday trip into London. For various reasons, it was a late afternoon trip (against my better judgement).Ticket Machine - Broken Again Got to Cambridge Station to buy a ticket, no surprise:No change since Thursday night (Engineer obviously on holiday or strike). I do particularly like the ecologically friendly approach National Express take by re-using the 'Out of Order' posting (note the stray paper on the bottom 'tape).Noisy TrainGot...
Several years ago on a trip to Japan I spotted what I would call 'Postman Pat' cars- those that looked identical to the van used by Postman Pat. Fairly simple to describe - imagine the drawing you would make of a van - rectangular box with wheels at the bottom !Anyways, a few months back I discovered an exhibition of Japanese cars on at the Science Museum. Like any visiting exhibition you get your hopes up and expect a huge number of exhibits....
Short trip this week. Fairly late flight over. Air Berlin is actually really good service. One of the Air Hostesses had a fairly typical attractive German look about her (difficult to describe, not Gaulosies Blonde), I had a chuckle when at one point she was getting something out her handbag from the locker above and I noticed that all the businessmen adjacent to me we all gazing at her !Arrived late at Dusseldorf airport. What a superb...
Arrived back at Stansted Airport tonight with 40mins to kill. I was hungry so went to Burger King for 'dinner'. Queuing I of course got stuck behind a set of people wanting to buy something difficult. Burger King... they sell Burgers not Ice Cream !. As I was frustrated a girl serving on another counter called me over. Of course there was 'Mr Essex' already in the queue so he kicked up a fuss. What irritated me was that he was being a total asshole to her (easy option I guess) - good thing was she ignored him ! Eventually she...
Stuck in the lounge and lady on reception having issues with this guy who obviously doesn't speak English. Of course she does the usual British thing- talk slowly and of course he'll understand. It was so annoying I decided that Babelfish needed to come to the rescue !...Την πτήση σας καθυστερούν στις 20:50. Η κυρία θα σας πει πότε είναι έτοιμο να επιβιβαστεί στην πύλη 13 - που είναι πολύ πλησί...
..en route to Dresden. There isn't a direct flight from London to Dresden (I made a joke to people that the people of Dresden are still nervous about UK 'planes flying over them). So, sadly need to travel via Dusseldorf and then stay overnight at the airport. Not bad - 4 flights/4 countries and a customer meeting within 23hrs ! Sadly don't get to stay at a nice hotel or have a nice dinner (I love German food).Sitting in the lounge at Stansted Airport. Thankfully with a long distance carrier going bust there is a much more luxurious...
Dinner at Peking last night, twice this week (although once takeaway so doesn't really count). As I walked in to the restaurant, I spotted a couple of young Cambridgeoids (my new name for Cambridge people I find irritating)- full dictionary definition to follow in a later post. In this case, it was the young couple, child (ca. 4 years), and the mother of one of them. Mother clearly had far too many package holidays in Spain (the sun really isn't good for some people).Dinner was fantastic (of course), but the atmosphere was ruined...
Arrived last week. I got back from Prague at 10PM, had to go to the office for some calls. Finally left the office at 2AM with iPhone that had been delivered to the office whilst I was away. I had to get up at 6AM the next morning, so what did I do ? yes, configure the new iPhone.Well, it was worth it. Thankfully 32GB of storage now to store all of my playlist music (I ran out at 16GB). The device feels way more responsive than before. I've yet to test the camera. I love the digital compass function- great for someone like myself...
Last week was totally horrible in terms of workload and travel (about 4hrs sleep each night), hence the lack of postings. A hectic week with a meeting in Prague (ended up out of the country for just over 24hrs). My only tourist attraction in Prague was the Subway across from my hotel (as I needed to grab a sandwich really quickly). Did the same to Malta last year.I've posted a few things below written somewhat retrospectively....
England has this really dumb rule about Sunday opening hours- it's only been in the past decade or so that shops (major chains) are allowed to open on Sundays- but only for 6 hours maximum. Scotland of course has a more pragmatic approach to opening and is far more flexible.To get around the issue of only being allowed to open for 6hrs, many big chains allow people to browse for 30mins before the tills open (therefore maximising the amount...
I've previously described Cambridge as a culinary desert in the past and last weekend confirmed just how bad places really can be...Carluccio'sLast Friday decided to have some pre-dinner snacks since eating later in the day. Against better judgement passed Carluccio's, it didn't look at all busy, so decided to grab a table. I've never been a fan of this chain- the restaurant they have in Fenwick in London is fine to grab coffee/snack whilst...
Housing BluesWe're now ca. 6 months down the line and the silly covenant on the house I want to buy has yet to be lifted. Yes, only in the UK could you be in a situation where there is a restriction imposed on a property that says it can only be sold to someone of retireable age or has a disability - a property that clearly isn't designed for old people nor people who are disabled. Still, that isn't really the planning departments problem.I ended up calling the council this morning to figure out what was really going on- only...
