Thursday DQOTD and London update

So I'm starting to get used to commuting to the office. I have about a 5-10 minute walk to the train station, take the train for 2-3 stops (depending on which train I catch), then there's a free shuttle bus from the Feltham station to the office. All very cool, takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes.

The variance in times is mainly due to having to wait for the train and/or wait for the shuttle bus. While many people here seem to have a system that allows them to walk from the house straight onto the train, and that train arrive just about a minute prior to the shuttle bus, I haven't. So I usually wait at one or the other, or sometimes both, places.

Well I went to the depot, I never got there on time
Went down to the depot, never got there on time
Well that train's rolling down, she's rolling down the line

Food in Europe – part 1

I’ll start a multi-part entry here on food in Europe. Let me state clearly up front hat I love it! It’s different, tasty, and hand crafted. You never go to a restraint in Europe and get your food within minutes. Everything is cooked to order and, generally speaking, wonderful.

Most of the people who have ever told me they don’t like Europe have done so because it’s different. DUH! Of course it’s different.

So I’ll talk about some of the food over here as I run into it, and, as often as not, try it. You guys know that I’m like Mikey, I eat anything J

First thing is wild game. Many European restaurants serve wild game on their menus. In Munich, I had Wildgoulasch, which is a spicy stew made from wild boar. Very, very good.

In Spain, I ordered a deer steak. This was not your normal Bambi on a spit. The deer is more like an Elk. I have this nice, very lean, very rare steak that was tender and wonderful!

Another dish I saw in Spain was roasted shoulder of kid. Now, I’ve seen some kids I’d love to roast for a while, but my guess is they’d still be tough and bitter. However, this is a baby goat, roasted and served up very nicely. I didn’t get it, as they had a clam dish that caught my eye, but I took a bite and it was delish!

Barcelona

One of the comments I hear a lot from people is “You go to such wonderful places; I want to go with you”. The first part of that is accurate, I’ve been fortunate enough to go to a lot of very neat places around the world. However, it’s business travel.

Let me try to frame it properly. Barcelona is like New Orleans to the rest of Europe. Unique culture, the language is heavily accented Spanish, the weather is warm and lovely, and it’s full of history.

I was there for 6 days. The cultural highlight of my trip was a 2 hour lunch in the old city on my way to the airport. The rest of the time, I was working. No site seeing, no long afternoon strolls down the Ramblas in the sunshine. More like 2 minute breaks to catch some fresh air between standing on a concrete floor for 8-10 hours a day.

Some of my colleagues flew their wives in and stayed either the weekend prior to after. That’s the only way to see these places, and the company doesn’t pay for your weekend. All you really do is get 1 r/t flight for free.

That said, it is a lovely city, though with a real danger element. The old city is full of tiny, narrow alleys that, even at noon, are very dark. Everyone warned us about pick pockets, though I never saw any.

I do want to go back and enjoy it one day …..

Late January Update

Well I’ve been off the blog for a few days, due to business travel and not having broadband access from my house in the UK. Still waiting for BT to deliver the service.

Have spent the last week in Barcelona, Spain working our big annual customer trade show. I’ve worked the US variety several times, but this is the first internationally. A couple of interesting observations.

First, it’s a pretty awesome feeling to stand on a trade show floor and hear every language in Europe being spoken around you. Some guys walk by speaking french, while 2 Germans talk on the other side of you. A guy walks up speaking heavily accented English and you see from his name badge he’s from Slovenia (how many of you can find that on a map!).

Second, the team I’m in over here has some Brits, a couple of French guys, a Russian guy who lives in Poland and speaks fluent Polish, a German, and a swedish dude. It takes about 3 minutes after the show doors open for each of them to find a customer who speaks their language and go talk to them.

We do all of our technology briefings in English, and everyone who comes here must have a pretty good comprehension of the language, but they slip ito their own very quickly. I feel a bit left out.

So now I’m back home for my second weekend in our house over here. It’s a bit boring and lonely here by yourself. Next week is my first week living here and commuting to the office, then Diana is coming over for the weekend. Very excited.

I was NOT on the BA plane that crashed at Heathrow!

Many of you have probably seen the news that a British Airways 777 crashed at Heathrow today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/world/europe/18heathrow.html


While it has impacted the commute to/from the Cisco office here at Bedfont Lakes, I was not on it nor would I have been. It was flying in from China.

Imagine, a 14-18 hour flight, then landing like that. Luckily it looks as if no one was hurt!

james

A little bleary, worse for wear and tear ...

A line from Mick Jagger "Far away eyes" describes it pretty well. Left RDU Saturday evening, flew into London Gatwick Sunday morning. This is always fun, as it's a non-stop flight, but then you have to get either into London or to Heatrow.

The Heatrow trip I took was a 1 hour bus ride (I HATE BUSES!), then on a hotel shuttle. Went to the wrong hotel, so grabbed a taxi. Finally got to my hotel about 11:00. Had paid for Saturday night, so checked in and went to bed.

Monday morning, caught a bus to Heathrow for a flight to Munich. Been here for 2 days now and starting to get my sea legs again. Munich is wonderful. Tons of good food and beer, if I stayed longer I could weigh 300 lbs! I did find this German lady in my bathtub :) She made me feel right at home



Back to the UK tomorrow evening. My calendar is filing up, seems like I've done little but coordinate travel and book it since I've been here. Have trips booked to Barcelona, Amsterdam, RDU and San Jose. Looking at Dubai, Warsaw and Dublin.

To a wonderful husband

while here it goes my first blog entry. If I can stop crying enough to do this, I may can finish before I go to work this morning. I could not sleep so this will be tough. James had to do a very hard thing yesterday in taking Shane our baby to the vet. James did it by himself I could not do it. James is such a wonderful husband. We had a quite evening loving our other boys. The days are numbered now. James got his work visa and passport back today so he will be leave saturday for eruope. James has worked very hard in getting everything in order before he leaves. So that I don't run into any problems. I can't love him any more than I do now He is my love and my whole world. Well I need to stop this and get to bed. I will try to up date the blog when James is traveling after I figure it out. diana

Time waits for no one

Especially these days. And my time in the US is about gone. I received my Visa on Tuesday and now I leave on Saturday to move to the UK. I'll arrive in London on Sunday morning, then I have to be in Munich, Germany on Monday for meetings.

We started this process in August, so it's been a long time coming. However, now that it's here, I feel like I'm leaving a bunch of things undone.

I've come to the realization that I'm fortunate in many ways. One of which is to have many great friends and colleagues. As this assignment nears, we've had the chance to spend a lot of time with many of those friends,and have not had the time to catch up with others for various reasons. For those we have been able to spend time with, thanks for the time and friendship. For those we haven't, I really regret we weren't able to do so, but still thanks for the friendship.

I'll be pretty much on the road for the first 2-3weeks I'm in Europe, with current bookings in Germany, Spain,Scotland and Ireland. I'll post some updates from those places as time allows.

Since I'm posting this on a Thursday, it's my music quote day. A couple of things come to mind, but this one won:

The wheel is turning
and you can't slow down
You can't let go
and you can't hold on
You can't go back
and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you
then the lightning will

To all, I hope to see you in London soon.

Loss of a dear friend

While sharing the good times, we thought we should share one of the worst. This morning, we had to put down our beloved friend Shane. I'm writing with tears in my eyes. Shane has been with us for over 14 years and has been a wonderful, loyal friend through it all. With all of the traveling I've done, he always made Diana feel safe and comfortable.

We had planned to have Cassidy adopt him when we left for the UK, but his health declined way too far for that. The hardest decision I've ever had to make was to take him to the vet this morning.

Rest in peace my friend, and thanks for everything.

However, we've got the other 2 doggies that are going with us, Darkstar and Elijah. They too are great companions and we're looking forward to having many adventures with them in Europe.

ON another happy note, Cassidy adopted a kitty from Second Chance Pet adoption this weekend. The picture below is called "Cassidy falling in love". I don't think she's named it yet, but I'm sure she'll get a lot of companionship from it.

Home is where the heart is

Now after moving in NC, it's time to move to London.

We were able to go to London and do some house hunting. The relocation company was awesome and we looked at about 20 properties in 2 days. At the end we found a great place in Richmond Upon Thames, a London suburb close to where James will be working. It's 5 minutes walk from the train station, same from 2 supermarkets. And, best of all, there's 3 pubs between the train station and home :)

Since we're taking our 2 poodles, we wanted a house as opposed to a flat or apartment. We also wanted a yard, or, as the English say, a proper garden. The garden not only gives us a small area that's private, but also is a place the doggies can be and Diana can dig in the dirt.
Richmond has both a tube station (for the London Underground) and a train station. James will be riding the train to work daily, while the tube can have you in central London in about 30 mins.

The house also has what is known as a conservatory. We'd probably call it a Florida Room here. This room has glass walls and ceiling so we can enjoy the lovely weather in London :)

There are some more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/nourider60/UKhouse

While we're talking about our doggies, we get a lot of questions about whether they need to be in quarantine. the answer is NO. We wouldn't do that to them.

There is a very specific process, however, that must be followed to avoid quarantine. It has a 6 month clock, and that's why Diana will not come over until the end of March. If you want more information on the Pet Scheme, take a look here http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/index.htm

Moving in mysterious ways

So as part of this relocation, we did a local relo first. While we loved our home and especially our neighborhood, we couldn't see leaving a 45 year old house empty for a year or more. Also, we were really getting tired of the maintenance associated with this house.

Here's a pic of our old house. More pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/nourider60

Everyone told us the market was soft, mortgages are hard to get, and we were silly to try to sell our house. Well, our realtor, Kathy Evans, www.HomesinRTParea.com felt differently. She thought we could sell it pretty easily in 30 days, and she was right! We had 30 showing in 30 days and 2 offers.

Anyway, we sold it and moved into a townhouse in Cary. Now we've got a brand new place that we're pretty comfortable leaving empty, and it has no external maintenance.