Okay so I am back from India and am feeling like *crap* right now. I arrived back at about 13:00 Friday and after a shower and change of clothes I hit the pub for some drinking. I didn’t fair to well and by 20:30 was in a taxi and on my way back to bed. Saturday I mainly spent lounging around the house feeling rough. I think I might need a few months in hospital (Man Flu). Today I got up about 10:00 and I must admit to feeling a little spaced out. This morning was good and I got some stuff done, but now I don’t really trust myself to do anything.

I’m therefore going to publish this and get my head down for an hour and see if that helps. More later!

So tomorrow I return to India and I must say I don’t really want to go back. Not for any really negative reasons, but just because I have so many things going on back here at the moment. I am enjoying my new job, despite it being extreamly busy, and have just started making arrangments to sort the work on the house out. Taking two weeks out now is just a pain in the backside.

I fly tomorrow morning at 10:00 arriving at 23:00 IST tomorrow night, after being Duty Manager all weekend. I am looking forward to catching up with the team again and saying goodbye properly but it’s going to be difficult managing my now UK based diary with the time difference. The saving grace is its only for two weeks.

On the home front it’s been really nice catching up with family and friends again after so long, and the sun has been out which has made doing things possible. It’s been really nice on the weekend sitting in a beer garden putting the world to rights before tucking into some good old English food. What’s been even nicer is the peace and quiet when I get home from work. No horn’s sounding, no dogs barking!

Tags: Family, Food, Friends, Travel

Okay so like most of the planet my music collection lives in iTunes, together with my podcasts, audio books, and home movies. Now being on the move a lot I use my 5th Generation 80GB video iPod to listen and watch the varied content, but what happens if I am away for more than a few days. Well, usually I have watched / listened to the podcasts and tend to rely on my audio books and music. I do however take advantage of the duty free shops at London Heathrow on a regular basis, collecting CD’s and DVD’s, or services such as audible.com to download more audio books . The problem you ask? Well getting them onto my iPod means coping them to my local iTunes library, which means when I get home I have multiple iTunes libraries that I need to keep synchronized.

Well, the answer it would seem is an application from SmithMicro called “Tune Ranger”. Tune Ranger allows you to keep up to 4 Mac’s/Windows machines and / or iPods in sync with each other (You obviously need at least one Mac or Windows machine running iTunes) and better still gives you complete control over what it is you are synchronizing. You can synchronize by play list, genre, artist, file format, the list is extensive. You can also choose to replicate one way or another overwriting the destination, or being overwritten. You can merge one way, both ways or even allow it to duplicate. You can set it to avoid items you already have, items that are orphaned the list just goes on.

The killer thing is that they don’t have to be all your Mac’s. Husband, wife, 2 kids, all with Mac’s / PC’s / iPods? Synchronize the lot, better still synchronize the items you want. Don’t want the wife metal working podcasts, or little Jack’s “Bob the Builder greatest hits” filter them out.

Now I wonder if there is an iPhoto version?

Tags: Apple, Music, Technology

So after I got the Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air setup and configured I hit a problem I was all to aware of, keeping the informations synchronized. Now Apple has always had the iDisk for quite some time now and the .MAC service which allowed you to synchronize your mail, calenders, bookmarks, etc. With the Launch of the second generation iPhone Apple announced the new name for .MAC and some additional features, including “Push” email. MobileMe arrived along with the 3G iPhone, but the arrival was marred slightly as MobileMe struggled under the load, inevitably leading to outages. In fact three weeks later some people are still struggling.

However for me it worked and proved to be exactly what I needed. Now which ever Mac I am using, or indeed if I am out and about I have access to my email, calendar, contacts, and bookmarks. If I add, delete, or modify any one of these items it’s almost immediately replicated to all the other devices. Better still the information is all available via the MobileMe website which means I can effectively access the information via any internet enabled device, where ever I am!

Now for the issue of documents and data! Apple’s iDisk is a little bit like Microsofts offline folders in as much as it allows me to have a folder located on a server and synchronize it for offline use with my Mac. However Apple’s iDisk actually lives in the cloud, my which I mean out on the Internet, and it allows me to actually connect to it from multiple Mac’s and the MobileMe interface. So any documents that I place in my iDisk are within a short period of time, available on any of my Mac’s and via any Internet enabled device via the MobileMe website.

Now I hear what you’re saying, is that safe? Well, I had the same question, and to be honest up until now I remain unconvinced. So for now I have only placed what I would call reference information on my iDisk.

The next step is to figure out how I do the same thing with my sensitive data, music, and photo’s.

That however is another story.

Tags: Apple, Technology, Music

Okay so one other thing I have been doing over the last couple of weeks is reviewing my computer usage and home network setup. About six month's before I went out to India I made the move away from Microsoft Windows and over to Apple and OS X with the purchase of a 17” MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro, while I have been in India, has been a real life saver and has not failed me once while I have been away. From day one my experience of Apple and the Apple product line has been excellent, as many people have said before me everything just works, and it was because of that I purchased a Apple AirPort Extreme and and an Apple Time Capsule.

Now since I have been back in the UK I have realized that my needs have changed slightly. The main thing is I spend a lot of time commuting, about 4 hours a day, and this is time when I could actually be doing stuff that I usually end up doing in the evening when I should be relaxing. Now my iPhone (first generation) allows me to do certain things, like replying to email and basic web surfing but things like typing up this blog entry are just not practical. So after a lot of should I, shouldn't I, I took the plunge and payed out for a MacBook Air, and I must say I am glad I did! This with a 3G USB modem means that I can read and respond to my email, catch up on my favorite web sites, and update my blog while I am on the train, time I would normally spend ruining my brain reading the Metro. I still have my iPhone which is great for when I am down the pub or out shopping, but having something that allows me to do everything else means that I do actually get to have an evening, and more importantly an evening that doesn't require sitting in front of a computer when I have been doing that all day. Now I haven't got rid of the MacBook Pro as there are some tasks that are just easier on the bigger screen and need the extra power, but they are generally weekend tasks like putting together movies etc.

So then came the issue of what I was going to do with these free evenings where I could relax and chill out. I probably can count on one hand the number of hours I watch TV a week, but when I do sit down I want to watch what I want to watch and not necessarily what the schedule lists. Now I have been researching all of this for some time, so before anyone says anything it's not that I just went out and blew a pile of cash on a bunch of new toys (Well that is actually what I did do) but I have been planning this all for quite some time now and the last couple of weeks have been the first stage of putting it all together. So I thought what do I actually do in the evening. Well, I actually either read, listen to music, or watch TV and usually from the comfort of the couch. So I purchased a Mac Mini and have set it up as a home entertainment system. So far I have connected it up to my sky dish via a USB EyeTV Hybrid which allow’s me to record to disk the actual TV shows that I actually enjoy even while I am away for viewing when I am in the mood. I have also moved by iTunes library from my MacBook Pro to the Mac Mini together with my iPhoto library. As I said this is the first stage, and my next step is to get everything syncing so I can access all my information from the Mac Mini, the MacBook Air, or the MacBook Pro. The first thing is to get MobileMe and iDisk up and running.

That’s for another update!

Tags: Technology, Apple

Okay so I have been slack again with updating the blog. It’s not an excuse but I have been so busy since I have been back I haven’t even had time to catch my breath.

So the last time I blogged was the day before I went back to work. Well it was straight back in at the deep end. The first thing I had to do was catch up on the status of where my new departments were, and it was obvious to see the answer was not where they should be. So the first three days were really catching up and identifying key area’s that needed focus. Come Friday night all I wanted was a few cold beers and to veg out in front of the TV.

The Saturday was supposed to be a shopping day, so after a lay in I ventured in to town and started working through my list. It got to lunch time and I thought I’d grab a sandwich and chill out sitting in the sunshine when I got a call from the office advising that w had major issues with one of out largest systems. I managed to finish my sandwich as I headed back to the car and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone sorting the issue out.

Saturday evening was my cousin Jennifer’s 21st and Dad volunteered to drive so they picked me up about 17:00 and we headed out on the road towards Reading to a place called Longbridge Mill. It was good to catch up with the family again, and they were all interested to hear how I got on in India and what my plans were now. The issue at work was still bubbling away and the evening was slightly mared by the odd phone call.

Sunday was a chill out day and about 13:00 I headed up to Mum & Dad’s as they were doing a BBQ. However by 15:00 the clouds still hung in the sky to we decided to cook in the tradition fashion.

Monday it was back to work and before I knew it it was the weekend again. This weekend is the last free one I have as I am duty manager next weekend and fly back to India on Monday so I elected to chill out and sort some things out around the house.

That’s it really! Boring! Well I kind of knew it would be like this this time back but I am only back in India for 9 days so it should be easier after that. Maybe I can even start to have a Life?

Tags: Beer, Birthdays, Fun, Party

Okay so I arrived back in the UK Friday afternoon and was met on time by my taxi for the 40 minute run down the M25 / M3 to Basingstoke. Walking through the door I felt I could finally relax and kicked off my shoes and through myself on the sofa with a cold beer. I chilled out for about 30 minutes before I grabbed a shower and changed my clothes which made me feel about 10 times better, but I still couldn’t face unpacking so resigned to leave that until Saturday. I grabbed another beer and through myself back on the sofa. I managed to last until about 19:30 before I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and headed for bed. It was so nice being back in my own bed with big soft pillows I fell straight to sleep.

Saturday morning I was awake at 04:00 and ready to go. I had a bunch of shopping to do and Williams 3rd Birthday at 14:00. Then I remembered that the shops didn’t open at 04:00 so settled on unpacking my case. Now one thing I am not going to miss about India is the dust and dirt. This time around I brought the majority of my electronic equipment home. However before I could set it up I had to wash everything down as it was coated in a fine layer of dust. This is made even more fustrating when your an apple fan and most of the kit is white, well was white when I brought it. Once I had done this I needed to let everything dry off so I laid a big towel out on the landing and set everything up so it could dry.

At 09:00 I headed into town as another side effect of being away is that I have lost a lot of weight and none of my clothes fit me. So after buying a couple of new suits and half a dozen shirts I was feeling a little peckish. I headed to nearest cafe, where I found Mum & Dad just finishing lunch and joined them for Sausage, Egg, Chips, and beans. After lunch and catching up with the folks I had the energy to finish my shopping so headed back into the crowd and cringed everytime I handed over my credit card. It’s going to take some time getting used to spending in pounds again!

13:00 Mum & Dad picked me up and we headed to Katrina & Rob’s for Williams 3rd Birthday party (Photo’s here). Katrina & Rob had setup an big marquee and laid out sandwiches, crisps, and a variety of sweets. The kids all had fun playing with Williams toys and playing the party games that Katrina had organised, while the adults enjoyed a few beers and chatted. About 16:00 we set off as I was feeling knackered and Mum & Dad had things they needed to do. I got back home and had a couple more beers and contemplated how I was going to try and stay awake. I ended up washing down all the electronic’s equipment again as it all still looked dirty. I managed to stay awake until 21:00 but once again had no problems getting to sleep.

Sunday I managed to lay in until a respectable 09:30, and actually felt a little more human. I finished unpacking my suitcase and set about setting up my electronic equipment. I then set about catching up on my personal email and sorting through my post. By 13:00 I was about 50% of the way there but decided to head up to Mum & Dad’s as Mum was cooking Roast Beer and I thought it would give us chance to catch up. We had dinner about 15:00 and then were joined by Clive & Sue (Friends of Mum & Dad’s). I walked home about 17:00 feeling tired but mainly because I had eaten a big meal and enjoyed a few beers. I set about finishing sorting out my email and post and then sat and watched TV for an hour. I lasted until about 21:30 before I felt my eye’s straining to stay open and decided it was better to not fight it.

Monday I woke up at 08:00 and headed into town as I had realised that I needed a few more bits and pieces. I was finished by 10:30 and decided to take the car for a spin as it had been sat there for a while. I headed home for lunch and enjoyed my first salad since coming back. It was paradise! I spend the rest of the day sorting out the house, and a few personal things with the bank and insurance companies before chilling out on the sofa and watching a couple of films.

Today I woke at 09:00 and feel that I am back in the mix. I had a few personal things to sort out and it was nice to have the extra days to do them properly. It’s back to work tomorrow and I am looking forward to being back in London, if not the commute. It’s going to be slightly strange going back and picking up my new responsibilities, espcially now that former peers are reporting to me. I think the saving grace however is I know they are professional people and honestly don’t believe they will have any issues, as they are as eager as I am to see improvements, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tags: Beer, Birthdays, Family, Food, Friends, Party, Shopping

So another busy week that finished with the announcement of my promotion and return to the UK. It’s now official I will be flying back to the UK on 11th July and taking up my new position as Senior Manager Systems Support. I will be sharing my time equally between the UK and India for the next month or so until my replacement starts, so expect to be even busier than normal, if that’s possible.

I have really enjoyed my time in India and have learnt a lot and made some good friends but I am looking forward to the new challanges ahead. I haven’t really missed anything about the UK until now, but with my flight booked I can’t help think about a nice roast beef dinner and a few beers with friends and family.

Tags: Sickness, Travel

Okay so today I spoke to my banks (Nationwide) fraud department, and a really helpful and informative guy called Steve. He took all the details and then told me what I wanted to hear. He told me that I was fully covered and that the money would be refunded in the next couple of days.

He went on to tell me how this problem is quite prolific in Asia and one of the biggest markets for stolen card details at present is Austraila. Now I am not 100% sure how true that is, but he is the man in the know and I have no reason to not trust him.

Tags: Travel, Money

Dam....Dam....Dam....Well it’s happened to me! I am now officially a statistic. Checking my bank account today, like I do on a regular basis, I noticed a rather large transaction that I know I didn’t make.

20 June 2008 Crazy Johns SOUTH YARRA. 2,516.00AUD at 2.07 £1212.80

Now I have never been to Australia, although in the last Month I have been in India, Thailand, India, the UK, and India again, and have used my bank card in all three countries. I always try to take as much care as possible, and have a dedicated credit card I use abroad to avoid such occurances, but it looks like I have come unstuck this time.

I have phoned my bank, who have suspended my bank card and are going to issue new ones, but it means I am going to have some fun getting access to money for a while. The real pain is I have to wait until Monday before I can speak to the fraud department and start the process to reclaim the money.

In the meantime I have contacted the company concerned (http://www.crazyjohns.com.au/) and spoken via there online helpd to a BenN. He was very helpful and promised to send all the details to his fraud department.

Why did I contact the company concerned? Well the thing about theives is there generally not as clever as they think they are and often try to use the same company again and again. More over as this company deals in Mobile phones that is even more likely as they are easyily distrabuted and often in demand. The theif can offer them below market rate (Well they didn’t cost him anything) and the client, while suspecting its too good to be true, often can’t resist the opportunity to get there hands on the latest phone at a reduced price.

Tags: Travel, Money

So while I was waiting to board the ferry from Koh Tao to Koh Sumai I made the school boy error of checking my BlackBerry. I had an urgent mail stating the I was needed (Work) back in the UK. So after arriving Sunday night I went into the office on Monday morning to say hello to everyone, pick up my plane tickets, and then say goodbye again.

I flew out of New Delhi Tuesday afternoon and arrived about 19:00 BST that night. It was about 20:30 by the time I got home. By this time my body didn’t know what time of what day it was, or if it was time for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I resolved myself to get something to eat and go to bed.

Wednesday morning I woke up about 04:30 and got ready for work. It was lovely being in my own house with all my own stuff around but reality set in as I drove to the train station and tried to find a parking space. After finding one the horror set in as I realised it was now £6 per day to park. I purchased my train ticket and (another horror) and boarded the train. It felt kind of strange but I did enjoy seeing the lush countryside whisk by. I arrived at Londaon Waterloo and boarded the drain to Bank and then walked the 10 minutes to the office.

All the time it felt kind of strange, as if I was a visitor or maybe even a tourist. I arrived at the office and said hello to the guys and girls I haven’t seen in a year and then went into three days of meetings.

By the time Saturday arrived I was just getting used to the time zone but was dreading the flight back and adjusting to IST again. I decided to worry about that when it came and met up with friends and family. The last time I had seen my niece she was only a week old and she had grown quite a bit. My nephew was the monster I had left behind and some, although he didn’t need anytime to get used to me this time.

It was great to see everyone again and as I left for Heathrow on Sunday I was aware that it was only two months until I return home. As I arrived a New Delhi IGI I felt strangly comfortable. I would go as far as saying more comfortable that I felt arriving at London Heathrow.

The last two weeks have been work, work, and more work, with a duty manager shift last weekend. This means I hadn’t had a day off in three weeks. So yesterday I took a day off. I needed to get my foot checked as I had cut it while diving and I think all the walking around London had opened it back up to the point where I have spent the last two weeks hobbling around the office like a 90 year old man. The doctor gave (well sold) me some cream and bandages but told me to keep it open to the air as much as possible and told me to stop wearing shoes until hit had healed more. The rest of the day I spent shopping as I have been living on takeouts and fast ood for the last too weeks and really need some wholesome food, and catching up on personal stuff.

I have a bunch of work todo before Monday, and am going to do a couple of hours today before going for dinner and then the cinema with Laurence. Tomorrow will be a work day.

Tags: Beer, Family, Food, Friends, Travel

Wow, it has been over a month since my last entry but at least I have something to blog about. Well that’s not quite true, I actually have a lot to blog about! Now the hard bit is deciding where to start.

So in my last post I was Duty Manager and trapped in my apartment in India planning my trip to Thailand, so let’s start there. Well on the Monday Chris Gothard, a collegue from the UK arrived in order to meet the team and discuss a few organisation changes. It was a great week and Chris enjoyed putting names to faces and catching up with people that he had only spoken to previously via the phone and email. It was a busy week with a lot of stuff to cover but we got through everything and even resolved some long outstanding issues. Sometimes its just so much easier when you can sit down and discuss things. Friday was Chris and Sandra’s last day in India before they flew back to the UK so there was a big party to see them off. I think most people from the team in India made it along at some point and judging by the fact you couldn’t get on the dance floor I think everybody had a great time.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling a lot better than I expected to given the amount I had poured down my neck. I love a free bar! Karan was prompt as usual and after manhandeling my suit case into the car we headed for Delhi’s IGI Airport. I arrived with plenty of time to spare but I was in holiday mode and didn’t care as I sat there listening to my iPod watching the world go by. We boarded the plane, and my backside struggled to get use to the economy seats. Thankfully it was only a three hour flight and after few beers to top up Friday nights quota I was soon asleep.

We touched down at Bangkok’s International Airport about 20 minutes late and disembarked straight away. I sailed through passport control and my bag was on the belt waiting for me. Perfect! I headed out and grabbed the first taxi I could find and gave him the address of the Hotel and we set off. As we drove the 40 minutes to the hotel I answered the normal question on where I was from, how I was here on holiday, and yes I liked beautiful women. I looked out of the window at the high rise skyscrappers and felt very much at home even though there was palm trees everywhere. We arrived at the hotel and I checked in, grabbed a shower, and changed my clothes. Unpacking would have to wait as I had spotted a McDonalds across from the hotel as we arrived. As I walked in through the big glass doors I am sure I looked insane with the smile I was wearing, as I ordered I must have looked like a raving lunatic. As I approached the counter thoughts raced through my mind, how many Big Mac’s did they have in stock? Would I be allowed to order them all? Would they deliver to India? I approached with caution and ordered a large Big Mac meal. I don’t remember the next 3.6 minutes as I was in a “Happy Place”. As I liked my fingers and drained my full fat coke I could only think of one thing. A Cheese Burger Meal! So back at the counter and then back to my table and the “Happy Place”. After eating I just felt really tired, but knew if I went to bed to early I would be awake early hours so I went for a wander. It didn’t take me to long to find a bar and as I walked in I was welcomed by 3 or 4 very beautiful girls. I sat at the bar and ordered a beer and two of the girls sat down with me. They asked me the same questions the cab driver had asked me and made general chit chat. By the time I finished my beer one of the girls was sat on my lap and the other one rubbing my shoulders. I made my excuses, well they weren’t really excuses as I was totally knackered, and headed back to the hotel alone. I grabbed a quick drink in the bar and then headed to bed.

Over the next few days I enjoyed laying in, usually until 10:00 before venturing out to for breakfast. After breakfast I would do a little shopping and generally look around before heading in search of Lunch. Lunch usually focused around beef in one form or another. After lunch I would head back to the hotel to drop my bags off and would then spend a few hours by the pool. Around 15:00 I would generally doze off and wake a couple of hours later ready to eat. I would grab a shower and change, not that it was really worth it as I within 30 seconds of leaving the hotel I would be sweating profoundly. I would then enjoy a few drinks and make small talk with the girls. They tried to teach me Thai and laughed at my mispronunciation.

Tuesday night I caught the night train from Bangkok to Champon. It was very similar to the train I caught from Mumbia to Goa although there were less bunks per carriage and a lot more space. I arrived in Chanpon about 04:30 Wednesday morning and was meet at the train station by the company that runs one of the ferries between Champon and Koh Tao. It was about a 20 minute drive from the train station to the ferry terminal and then we had an hours wait until the ferry left. Luckily there was a cafe which sold coffee and snacks.

The ferry took about 3 hours and I got talking to one of the deck hands who spoke very good English which passed the time. We reached the island of Koh Tao about 11:00 and it was a short walk along the beach to the dive school. Once at the school I filled in the paperwork and checked into my room. The room was quite basic, bathroom, double bed, TV, but it would do. I grabbed a shower and then headed off in search of some lunch. It wasn’t hard as there were only two main streets and every other building was a resturant which sold good old English food. It was fantastic sat in shorts and t-shirts looking out at the beach eating Sausage and Mash. After lunch I headed back to my room and grabbed a few hours sleep. I woke up and headed to the bar grabbed a drink and got chatting to the other people that would be on my course. We all had a few beers and then headed off for dinner.

The second day we all met up at 09:00 and headed for the class room and a morning of video’s and tests. We finished about 14:00 by which time I was starving so headed in search of lunch. The afternoon was spent in the swimming pool running through some of the basic skills. Over the next few days we headed out to sea a practices our skills before diving the various reefs and huntng down different fish, stingyrays, and turtles. The last dive of the PADI Open Water exam was a night dive, which was in my view one of the best. We headed out about 18:00 and arrived at the dive site just as the sun was setting. We entered the water, turned on our torches and desended. It was amazing as there seems to be a lot more around. As we surfaced we all looked up and the stars seemed so bright. We bobbed around for about 10 minutes just staring at the sky before returning to the boat.

The next day we started our advanced course, and more book work. Luckily it was just the morning and in the afternoon we headed out to do our first two dives. The first was fish ID, which as it says was all about identifying underwater sea life, whilst the second was navigation, and I think my sailing helped a little as I was familiar with a compass and found the tasks no problem at all. When we got back I elected to do another course, NITROX, which allows you to dive on a mixture of Oxygen and Nitrogen rather than air. The benefit of this is that you can stay under for longer periods. There was another exam but it was basically algothrims so was pretty easy.

The folowing day was the last two dives of the advanced course and probably the most fun after the night dive. The first was the deep dive, which basically sees how you are affected by Narcoisis. We reached just over 30 metres and nobody showed any signs. Quite disappointing really. The last dive I did with a Dive Propelled Vehicle. This allowed us to cover an awful lot more ground and use a lot less air as we weren’t expending as much energy. As I had completed the NITROX course we completed the last two dives on Nitrox we were down for about 40 minutes on each dive and still came up with enough for another 20 minutes, but had to surface as others were low on air. That afternoon we completed all our paperwork and recieved our tempory certificates.

The following day was my birthday so I decided on a different type of sporting activity, namely drinking until I fell down. I was accompanied by a number of the Dive Master and Instructors and got to bed about 01:00 the following morning after basically crawling my way around pubs all day. I was surprised when I woke up at 10:00 the following morning with only a mild headache, which was quickly resolved after a visit to the NITROX tank building. That afternoon I signed up for two last fun dives. We went back to places I had seen before but it was a lot more fun as we didn’t have to practice all the skills and I was put with an experienced diver. We were on air for both of these dives but were down for over 50 minutes each time. When we surfaced I still had enough for another 15-20 minutes. That evening I went for drinks with some of the Dive Masters and long term visitors who just couldn’t bring themselves to leave.

The following morning I packed, ate some lunch and then headed for the ferry port as my time on Koh Tao was over. As I sat there watching the ferry pull in I checked my BlackBerry and saw an email saying that I was needed in the UK as soon as possible. I made a couple of calls to find out what was going on, and then returned to my holiday. The ferry ride took about two hours and when I arrived at the ferry port in Koh Sumai I was greated by GIANT. No kidding you this guy was about 40” Tall and like 18 tons. Okay maybe not quite but you get the picture. I swallowed hard when he held up a card with the name of my hotel on it. I wanded over and said “Hi!” He introduced himself as Vince and lifed my suitcase, which by now did weight at least a ton, cleanly onto his shoulder. I followed him to the minibus, where he loaded my case into the back and then waved goodbye. It was about a 30 minute ride to the hotel and I was pretty knackered. Koh Sumia according to everyone is very touristy, and that’s the impression I got as we drove through what looked like little spain. We arrived at the hotel, which was right on the beach and I checked before grabbing a shower and change of clothes. I went for a short walk, but there wasn’t much about, apart from the normal gift shops. I headed to the hotel bar and order a drink and something to eat but struggled to finish them both, so called it quits and headed to bed.

The following morning I woke up about 10:00 felling a lot better but didn’t really have time to do anything as my flight was at 15:00. It was only 15 Minutes to the airport so I opted for a morning by the pool. I arrived at the airport on time, and enjoyed the whole experieince. Seriously I have never seen an airport like it. You felt as if you were on the beech. They even had free fruit juice, fruit, and pasteries.

We departed on time and 2 hours later landed back in Bangkok where I repeated the actions of my first day and grabbed a cab to the hotel. I had a 18:00 flight the following day but a 14:00 checkout and 3 hour airport checkin, so I grabbed something to eat and then hit the bars for one last night in Thailand, and the last steak for a while. I got to bed about 02:00 and woke about 11:00 the next day. After showing and packing I had a quick brunch and then checked out and headed back to the airport.

I arrived back in New Delhi at 21:00 Sunday night and was met by a very happy Karan. He couldn’t wait to tell me the good news about he and his wife having a baby son. I got back to the apartment about 22:00 and unpacked. Well I think most of the clothes walked to the laundry basket themselves. Then headed to bed.

See the Thailand Photos.

Tags: Beer, Birthdays, Family, Food, Friends, Fun, Holiday, Party, Photography, Shopping, Travel

Well it has been two weeks since I flew back to the UK for a short break and time has really flown by. I have spent most of my time catching up with friends and family, eating, drinking and generally relaxing. I did manage to get down to Boscombe Beech and took a few pictures, and I also managed to get into the office one day and meet up with a few people, although I didn't take any pictures there as most of them would of just been people drinking.

Well now it's time to do some last minute shopping and pack my case before I fly out on Sunday. Its been nice being back, but I have missed the sunshine. It's a little over four months until I return to the UK permanently and have quite a bit of work and travel to do before I eventually return.

Tags: Beer, Family, Food, Friends, Photography, Relaxing, Shopping

Would you spend 16,000 on a set of headphones, well I did and no I am not mad! First things first, when I say 16,000 I am talking Indian Rupees which is about £200, and the headphones in question are the Bose QuietComfort(R) 2 Acoustic Noise Canceling(R) headphones.

Now I was introduced to these by a friend of mine who loves traveling but finds it hard to sleep on a plane. I'll be honest and say I have never paid more than £30 for a set of headphones in my life, but I tell no lies when I say if I lost these tomorrow I would be back at the store with another £200.

If you travel regularly and travel internationally crossing time zones, you will understand what I mean when I say "You grab sleep where you can!". Well these things are just fantastic. The sound quality is excellent and they come with all the cables and connectors you need including an extension cable, and the dual pin adapter loved by some airlines. What is even better is the cable disconnects at the headphones themselves so once you have watched an inflight movie and numbed yourselves with a few bottles of red wine, you can unplug yourself and fall asleep without the noise of the aircrafts engines, small children, and the constant ding that emanates from those people summoning the attendant for more red wine because they can't sleep, knowing that you aren't going to strangle yourself.

Now I did look at the newer QuietComfort(R) 3 Acoustic Noise Canceling(R) headphones, and while they were lighter I didn't like the fact that they sat on my ears rather than around them.

Next time you pass a Bose shop, stop and take a look.

Tags: Technology, Music

Okay so after tidying up my website I thought it was about time I tided up my MacBook Pro. I have downloaded a bunch of applications and tested them only to throw them away later and everything was starting to feel a little sluggish. I was also starting to have problems getting certain applications working, and suffering from the odd hang here and there. I therefore resolved to test my backups and go through the process of trying to rebuild my MackBook Pro only using the equipment I travel with. I was surprised how simple it was and how well prepared I actually was.


So here is my setup

1) 1x MacBook Pro 17" plus power supply
2) 1x Lacie 1TB Firewire 800 connected Hard Disk Drive (3 Partitions, one containing a bootable copy of Leopard, one TimeMachine, and the last a scratch disk)
3) 1x 250MB USB connected Hard Disk Drive
4) 8GB iPhone
5) 80GB iPod Video G5
6) Neoprene wash bag filled with cables & connectors

So I first of all rebooted the MBP and made sure that no programs had started up. I ran a Time Machine backup and then a SuperDuper backup, and synchronized mybookmarks, email rules, notes, etc with .MAC. I then opened Tunes and de-authorized my audible account and my computer. I then restarted the computer and choose to boot off the Leopard disk on the Lacie drive. I then went through the installation selecting the erase and install option. I did a custom install and removed all the stuff I didn't need like printer drivers, foreign languages, and fonts.

Once the installation was complete I connected to my Wireless network and downloaded all the updates from software update. After rebooting I opened up time machine and pointed it to the partition on my Lacie drive that I was using for Time Machine backups. I choose not to enable backups at this point, as I just wanted the Mac to know that this was the Time Machine drive. I then fired up Time Machine and restored the contents of my home folder. I selected to restore;

1) The "Documents" Folder - My personal documents.
2) The "Downloads" Folder - Audible Books / Applications
3) The "Library/Mail" Folder - My Email
4) The "Music" Folder - My iTunes Library
5) The "Pictures" Folder - My iPhoto Library
6) ...and a couple of other folders that I store graphics, and my development projects.

Once that was done, I configured my system preferences and synchronized with my .MAC account. I then opened Mail.app and it imported my mailboxes, everything was where it should be. I opened up Safari and once again everything was as I left it. I then went through reinstalling my applications. I store everything I download in the downloads folder and have all the license keys in my email.

4 hours after I started the process, and that doesn't allow for the time I wandered off to do other things I am back up and running. I plugged my iPhone and iPod back in and after re-entering my account details and syncing I can't see anything untoward. All my documents, photo's, Music, and audio books are there. The machine is snappy, and quick again.

I think I am prepared. What have I missed?

Tags: Technology

Well for those that didn't know I converted to the Mac (MacBook Pro) about a year ago. On the Mac I use RapidWeaver from RealMacSoftware to keep my personal website and blog up to date. Now I love RapidWeaver as it's easy to use and extremely versatile, but one thing that does annoy me is that it doesn't seem to like publishing a lot of files over a slow link.

Let me explain a little, while the man from Jaguar goes off to find me a new car battery. In India I have a 2 Mbps DSL line. Now when I say 2 Mbps line what I really mean is I have a line that at some point in the future might actually start to offer 2 Mbps transfer rates and I might at some point be able to get an upstream rate that is marginally quicker than a fax machine. Not that that is really RapidWeavers fault, but I recently decided to tidy up the site a little, area's like the Photo Gallery where becoming a little cluttered and I wanted to simplify the structure a little. So I set about creating an archive area and moving some pages around, all of which was very easy using RapidWeaver, but when I came to publish the site there were over 3000 pages that needed to be re-published. So I clicked the publish button and RapidWeaver started to weave its magic. The only problem was that it never got beyond the first few hundred pages before it through up an FTP error.

So frustrated I kept hitting the publish button and RapidWeaver went through the motions, but I was never quite convinced that it was doing what it said it was doing. So last night I decided to take the plunge and after checking everything was where I wanted it to be and saving the site project file ten times I cleared the publishing cache and marked all the paged as changed, I FTP'ed to my website and deleted the entire contents. I then went back to RapidWeaver and clicked the publish buttons. RapidWeaver went through the export phase, and then advised me that 5134 pages need to be uploaded, and off I went to bed (with a doubt or two in my mind).

I woke up this morning to find that every single page had uploaded and not one error was encountered. I thanked my 22 Mbps Internet line and the Internet gods. I checked the site and everything seems to be there, even my newly implemented Google Analytics code and FavIcon.

What's does that mean to users of the site? Well not much really, but what it should mean is that there are no broken links (Google Web Tools showed four) and that everything is a little less cluttered. If you have bookmarked anything other than the home page you might find those links don't work as I have tidied up the file structure a little too, but everything does feel a lot more ordered; to me at least.

If you do have any problems let me know via the Contact Form. Otherwise enjoy!

Tags: Technology, RapidWeaver

Okay so the week dragged, mainly as all I could think about was my trip home, but Thursday came before I knew it. I left the office and headed back to the apartment for a little lay down before grabbing a shower and a change of clothes. Karan picked me and my luggage up and we headed off to Dine Estey, where I met up with Laurence and Vikram for a few beers. I headed over to the Crown Plaza as I needed to see a friend of mine there, and there were a bunch of COLT people staying there who were on the same flight as me. I bumped into them just as I was leaving for the Airport and met them again in the check in queue.

After checking in and blagging a pass to the Business Lounge we had a few more beers before clearing security and boarding the plane. We took off on time and I had just enough energy to consume a few bottles of red wine and watch a film before passing out. I woke up about an hour from Heathrow and had enough time to have a coffee and a quick wash before we landed.

We landed on time and it all went pretty smoothly as I cleared immigration and collected my case. I exited the terminal and had about 10 minutes until the Rail Air coach arrived which was just enough time to get my nicotine levels back up to normal. The coach trip to Woking, and then the train trip to Basingstoke was straight forward with no waiting about and I was back at home about 10:00.

I grabbed a quick shower and changed, unpacked my bag, and then headed round to Mum and Dad's to say hello. Katrina and the kids dropped round about an hour later and I got to say hello to everybody. By the time lunch time arrived I didn't really know what planet I was on and decided to take a walk into town to get some fresh air. It was certainly fresh, so much so that my teeth chattered as i walked, but after I got going I warmed up a little and soon started to feel comfortable.

I walked around town not really looking at anything in particular, although I did stop off at Jessops to take a look at camera's before walking home via McDonalds and a large Big Mac Meal. I got home and laid on the couch watching TV, but could feel myself drifting off so decided to settle in the study and sort some of my post out. I got about 80% of it done, and realized that I needed a clear head to focus on the rest so started to take a look around the house and asses the work that needed doing.

The kitchen waste water system has fallen to pieces, and the garden fences came down in the storm a few weeks ago. The freezer had defrosted but thankfully Mum and Dad had thrown away the contents and installed 5000 air fresheners to get rid of the smell. The driveway and patio need weeding and cleaning, but otherwise things were in pretty good shape. The kitchen has needed redoing since I purchased the place, but has been usable, but I know that I will need to gut it and redo it completely when I return in August. Time to start saving!

So this morning (I think it's Saturday today) I woke up at 06:00 and thought I would take the car out for a run as it's been stood for a while. My suspicions where confirmed when I got in and tried to start it and the battery was flat. So I rang Jaguar and am now waiting for the man that can to turn up and sort it out. Once that's done I think I will take a drive to the supermarket and stock up on provisions. The only real plan after that is to meet up with Dad for a few beers.

Tags: Beer, Family, Food, Relaxing, Shopping, Travel

Okay well it's all confirmed and my flights are booked back to the UK for this Friday. I leave new Delhi on BA 0142 at 03:25 Friday 21st March and arrive at London Heathrow at 07:25 also on Friday (You got to love Time Zones some times), and I return to New Delhi on the 17:20 flight on the 6th April which gives me pretty much 17 days at home.

I am really looking forward to seeing everybody again and catching up on all the news and gossip, together with the odd home cooked meal.

Tags: Family, Travel

Okay so it's nearly time to fly back to India and I must say I am looking forward to the sunshine, but am going to miss my family. The last few days have been fairly hectic as I always leave things in my personal life until the last minute, that is if I do them at all (I haven't got a suitcase yet).

So what have I been doing. Well here are the bits that I can tell you about without compromising myself to much. Wednesday I finished off my Christmas shopping before heading up to London to meet up with some friends for a few drinks. It was good to see everybody again and they were all as busy as when I left. The thing I did notice this time however was how many more people there were in the office. After catching up a few of us headed out to one of the many bar's and enjoyed several beers. I'll admit by the time I thought of taking the camera out I was a little to foggy and the "Vegas" rule kicked in. We had a good chat however and most importantly arranged the next time we would meet up (drinking session).

I was supposed to meet up with some other friends later that evening, but couldn't raise any of them on the phone so I decided to walk back to London Waterloo stationalong the south bank. It was nice seeing the regular sights, and I must admit I probably took more notice of them that evening than I have done for the last seven years. I got home about midnight and had no problem getting to sleep.

Thursday was a farce. I got a phone call about 09:30 advising me that there was a problem with my Visa and that I had to attend in person. So after canceling a bunch of things I couldn't / shouldn't really of canceled I made my way to the office. I picked up my paperwork and was in and out in the space of 15 minutes. I then grabbed a taxi down to India House and stood by the little "door" waiting for "the man". Now you have to understand India to understand the importance of the "little man", but I'll attempt to explain.

Every place you go there is a "little man". He is never taller than 5 ft and is usually softly spoken. He is however "the man". You give him your paperwork, and he vanishes. That's it; It really is that simple. What goes on when he vanishes I like to think of as magic. I imagine that he immediately reads through the paperwork and follows the processes set down by the Indian Government, and if and only if, you meet the criteria he approves it. He backs this up with the latest in computer technology and makes several phones calls to secret government agencies.

This is what happened. I stood by the "door" with about 6 other people. The "little man" came out and looked at one lady then her paper work, said NO you need a bank statement and sent her away, she tried to protest but she had been dealt with and there was no appeal. He looked at me and then took another ladies paperwork as it was thrust in his face. He looked at it, at her, at the paperwork again, and then me. I simply said "Employment Visa". He took her paperwork and then my paperwork and closed the door. About 15 minutes later he appeared again with the ladies paperwork, said no, said something about Tax and told her to wait in another queue. He then handed me my paperwork, which he had scribbled something on that i couldn't make out and simply said counter 5. The looks I got made me feel like I knew the secret and I all I could say was, "It's a simply renewal", smile, and walk towards counter number 5.

As I got to the counter a lady was waiting (Yes I think everybody sends the wife). Just as she was about to pass her paperwork over the young lady behind the counter closed her cash tin, and simply said "After my Lunch" and left.

ARHHHHHHH 13:00 and the Indian Lunch Hour.

Another thing to note about India, and I quite like this one. Nobody misses their lunch (If they can help it). We are terrible working on through our breaks. In the UK it's quite acceptable (expected) for you eat at your desk while working on.