Mark Dalton

Well somewhat of a different start to the holiday season this year when I decided last minute to join a bunch of online friends in Liverpool for what is affectionally known as a TweetUp. I have been chatting to most of these people for a while now and when the chance came up to meet them face to face I thought it was a great idea and a brilliant way to start of the festive season.

I worked from home on the Friday as I didn””t fancy doing the commute in and out of London to then drive up to Liverpool and it was a good job I did as I woke Friday morning to a dusting of snow. I set off late afternoon and made good time only stopping a couple of quick comfort break””s and was checked in, unpacked, and in the bar by 19:30.

The weekend was spent chatting over beer, food, and the odd cup of coffee, about a variety of subjects from emerging technologies to Christmas plans. We did manage to get out and about a little bit and see a few of Liverpool””s landmarks but it was very cold and we did tend to break the touring up with beer breaks on a regular basis, so didn””t cover quite as much as we could of, but we did make it to the Apple store.

I also managed to meet up with Don McAllister the host of ScreenCastsOnline and The Mac ScreenCast Guy. Don was just as nice in the flesh as he is online and had some great insights and views on upcoming technologies. I also manage to meet up with three of my oversea””s contacts, Jane from Australia who was visiting family in the UK for Christmas, Paul Shadwell who flew in especially from Zurich who is very knowledgeable on Virtualisation and hosted services, and David Allen who also flew in especially from Barcelona, who run””s amongst other things the Mac 20 Questions website.

A great time was had by all and I think its fair to say that some good friendships were cemented in the process. Not to mention we all got a ScreenCastsOnline cap Most people left Sunday morning but I had arranged to stay another night, which in hindsight wasn””t such a good idea, although it did allow me to do a little extra Christmas shopping and see a little more of the city.

Monday morning I checked out and headed for home and made good time until I hit Newbury where it had been snowing and snowing pretty hard. As I came down the A339 it was bumper to bumper traffic and nothing was moving. It took me 7.5 hours to get from Newbury to my home in Basingstoke, 5.5 hours of that was spent crossing Basingstoke itself. I have personally never seen anything like it, and Basingstoke made the national news with 2000-3000 people affected. It took 3-4 to clear completely but luckily I didn””t have to go further than my parents around the corner, which was safer to reach on foot. I was lucky however as poor Paul Shadwell got to Manchester airport on Sunday to find it shut down, and finally made it back to Zurich on Wednesday after travelling down to London””s Heathrow airport.

So with the number of jobs starting to mount up at home and winter just around the corner I decided I needed to take some time off work and generally catch up.

Well it hasn’t been an exciting two weeks per se, but I have managed to get most of the jobs that needed doing, done, and even started planning some of the big jobs that are on the list for next year.

It hasn’t been all work however and I have enjoyed a few long lay in’s, long lunches, and a few beers here and there, including a few with Gary Clarke, an old school friend who I hadn’t seen for 10 years. It was a nice evening picking up more or less where we left off and catching up with the latest gossip. It turns out that we have been working around the corner from each other for several years now and hadn’t bumped into each other.

I also managed to catch up with the jobs I had promised others I would do including building a Windows 7 tablet for my sister and finally setup a wireless network at her house that I have been meaning to do for months. I also managed to setup WiFi for my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin, and configure an old NetGear SC101 NAS box for my parents as a backup device for there two Vista laptops.

I feel rested and ready to tackle the world again next week, safe in the knowledge I only have six weeks until I have another two weeks off over Christmas. I still have a few little jobs to do but these involve shopping something I think is best done on a nice day when I can walk into town and finish in a pub.

So following on from last weeks Duty Manager shift I had this Friday off so a nice short week. Of course that is a good thing but not without its own problems, as I still have the same amount of work to get through. The evenings therefore were pretty much a write-off as I just didn’t have the energy or the inclination to do anything more then eat and vegetate in front of the TV. The thought of a long weekend however kept me going.

Thursday night I met up with Chris Scott, and Leon, part of the crowd I went to Mumbia and Goa with. We had a few beers at the Globe on London Wall. We chatted about the Mumbia and Goa trip, and the time Chris and I had spent in India. We talked about there plans to climb Kilimanjaro this year, only teasing Leon a little about some of the nasty things that could happen. The guy’s tried to persuade me to join them, but I managed to change the subject (Lucky Escape).

Friday, after a little lay in, I got on with tidying the house up a little and caught up with some paper work. I finished running the new Cat 6 cables in the study to the new Gigabit switch and finished tidying up some of the cabling, although I am still not 100% happy and will need to do this again once I have picked up some cable ties.

Saturday I had arranged to meet up with Dave Birkett for a few beers so walked into town. I have been looking for way’s to hook up with Sony SR7E HandyCam to use as a web cam with my iMac so headed into the iStore and the Sony shop to see how I could do it. The guy’s in the iStore seemed to think it could be done via a simply USB connection but didn’t know what cable I would need so I checked with the guy’s in the Sony store. They explained that the camera couldn’t be used in that way as it didn’t support it, but did say it would be possible with some form of external device that allowed you to take the feed straight off the sensor and encode it in real time. So back to the drawing board on that one. Feeling dejected I set off to meet Dave and lets just say several hours later, and a lot worse for wear I made it home.

Today is another house catch up day with a bit of relaxing mixed in before work tomorrow. Next week however I really have got to start on sorting some of the bigger jobs out at home.

So we have two new additions to the family/friends circle this week. Lisa gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who has been named Sam, and Anna Birkett gave birth to Molly. Congratulations to all!

Saturday afternoon I met up with Dave Birkett and had a few pints to welcome Molly into the world. A good time way had by all, and I decided to be sensible and call it a day about 17:00 waking up this morning felling great. Going by the various FaceBook posts however I am not so sure everybody else faired as well.

Okay now I will acknowledge Christmas! I mean the shops have been selling Christmas related items since September but being the miserable old git I am I have refused to acknowledge it until now.

I must admit I am really looking forward to it this year. Last year I was in India and I must admit I missed home. Not that I wasn’t looked after, but home is where the heart is.

Work has been pretty hectic as everybody tries to meet the end of year deadlines whilst at the same time staff motivation starts to drop off in anticipation of the holiday season.

Wednesday evening the boss took us out to dinner at the Roof Garden in Kensington. It was a very nice restaurant (Well done to our party coordinator) and a really nice meal. It was a great opportunity to meet the wives of colleagues and just chat. The only negative was that we all had rather long journey home.

Next week is bound to be just as busy, but I finish up on Friday until the 5th January, so I just have to stay focused for a little longer. I’m looking forward to the time off although I don’t have any big plans apart from Christmas day.

Christmas Day this year will be spent at my little sisters, with her husband, two children, and dog. My parents are also going to be there so it should be complete madness.

So it just remains to say season’s greetings to one and all and remind you that I am available for personal appearances for the price of an open bar and sausages on sticks.