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.

Unfortunately for me it is the last day of my holiday and tomorrow it is back to reality. At least I am returning knowing that I have achieved something, and feeling that I am once again on top of things. It’s is also nice to know that it’s only 6 weeks until I break for Christmas.

November 2, 2009 @ 8:24 PM – Suddenly just realised it’s just 6 weeks until Christmas. How the red winged albatross did that happen?

The weekend didn”t fail to disappoint! Saturday was wonderful and I sacrificed getting completely hammered Friday night (called it a day after three glasses of wine) on the promise of sunshine. The boy did good! I didn”t rush up, but awoke leisurely at 09:00 ish, burbled around, and then headed out. I had most of my to-do list done by 11:00 and then took the car for a run. I do like a drive to nowhere session when it”s sunny and you can turn the music up and wind the window”s down. I popped by Mum and Dad”s to say hello and even jet washed the car (Not doing it again — that”s a rant). I am not quite sure where the rest of the day went but all I know is I didn”t stop until about 19:00. Saturday night I decided to chill in front of the TV but a million sky channels (another rant) and I still couldn”t sit still or find anything worth watching. So even though I said to myself I wouldn”t I ended up in front of the computer. I decided I still need to do *something* useful so I set about scanning more of the old family photos. I decided to concentrate on some of the ones that Mum had shown me, and as “Mothers Day” was on the horizon I couldn”t say no. It was actually quite cool as these were old black and white photo”s of my Nan and Grandads family, so as well as being interesting they gave me a chance to play as most of them were very faded and some were damaged.

Sunday morning I was awake with the birds, I did the few job”s that I had and then headed to Mum & Dad”s. I hadn”t been their long and Lisa and Andy turned up, closely followed by Katrina, Rob, and the kids. Coffee was the first order of the day and a good catchup. It wasn”t long and we started on the vino and hops. We sat around, chatted, and generally caught up. It was a very pleasant day but a little chilly and we moved between the garden and the lounge. We all enjoyed a fantastic roast beef dinner, cooked by Mum (Guilt) and sat around chewing the fat, before finally conceding to the real world and heading home to ready ourselves for work on Monday morning. Dam these weekends get shorter!

You can find the Photo”s here.

Well, doesn’t time fly I mean 2009 already. Looking back 2008 was a busy year for me, but generally good. What 2009 has in store I have no idea but I have quite a few plans and goals, so no doubt it will be just as busy.

This year I spent New Year’s Eve with my family at my sisters house. It was pretty quite, but good fun. It was also nice to spend more time with my Niece and Nephew. We all had a really nice dinner and then got into the drinking. We all got up New Year’s Day a little misty and tired, but a good old fashioned cooked breakfast sorted out everything but the tiredness.

The last few day’s have been spend catching up with stuff at home and generally resting before going back to work tomorrow. I’m kind of used to laying in until 10:00 now and getting up and 06:00 doesn’t appeal to me in anyway, shape, or form. Add to that the fact that it’s so cold at the moment there is a permanent covering of ice on the car, and it just becomes depressing.

Mum & Dad went down Christmas Eve and I drove down Christmas morning just in time for breakfast. William and Eleanor had been up since 06:00 and had already opened all there presents from Santa, but there were still plenty of presents under the Christmas tree.

William was very excited and really didn’t know what to play with first. Katrina cooked a wonderful Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and we all ate far to much as usual.

After dinner Rob played Santa and handed out the Presents from around the tree and in traditional fashion we took it in turns to open them. William was exhausted by about 17:30 and headed off to bed. We eventually finished up about 19:00.

After supper we sat around talking and drinking until about midnight. William slept right through until 08:00 Boxing day morning and was almost the last one up.

Boxing day was an opportunity for William and Eleanor to open the remaining presents. William was still very tired, but so were the rest of us. We all enjoyed the traditional Boxing day dinner before heading home. Check out the rest of the photo’s here.

More pictures are available as usual in the Photo Gallery!

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.

It was a really nice day as we all got to catch up and everybody got to tell me off for not updating my blog.

Anyway the photo’s are currently uploading to Flickr and should be available in my photo stream or via the gallery by the time you read this.

[Updated] Photo’s now in the Gallery and on Flickr

I must say though, India almost seems a million year’s ago now and I feel well and truly back in the swing of things. The worst part of being home if I had to pick would be the commute up to London and back each day. I kind of got used to having a driver pick me up 15 minutes before I needed to be at the office, but even that is somewhat more pleasant than it was before I left. It’s only really after you haven’t had something for a while you really miss it. For me sitting on the train in the morning and evening used to seem like a complete waste of time, but now it’s time to reflect on the last year as I look out at the lush green fields and notice the different greens in the trees, and livestock in the fields (where they belong). The commute has also allowed me to get back into something else I love, albeit in a slightly new form; reading!

Before going out to India I would read two books a week. In India 15 minutes over bumpy roads with your eyes closed as large trucks, rickshaws, and elephants, came from all sides wasn’t really conducive with relaxing and reading. I did still read in the evening and at weekends, but there were other problems such as storing them somewhere, figuring out how to get them home, not to mention the fact India is generally a noisy place. However while in India, after listening to a TWiT podcast I found Audible and the audiobook. I must say I haven’t looked back. Having a story read to you is very relaxing and helps block out the noise. So I have diligently been working through my bag catalog and am nearly finished with Michael Palins “New Europe”, which I will write a review of as soon as I finish it.

So this weekend I decided it was time I started to catch up on the “Personal” stuff I have neglected for 13 months. Friday night I met up with an old friend Gail who I used to date for a few drinks. Gail is what might be known as “dizzy” but is crazy in a nice, non-bunny boiling way. We talked about India, work, and what we had both been up to and by about 21:30 were both drunk and inevitably started to discuss why we had broken up. Luckily I still had a least a few brain cells firing and reminder her that I, in her words, “had commitment issues”. She laughed and said, yeah and added she also had a crush on some guy at work. Which made me feel slightly weird, especially when she added she couldn’t remember his name. Anyway we eventually realized neither of us had eaten and stumbled down the road for a pizza before getting into taxi’s and going our separate way’s. Gail sent me a text Saturday morning saying and I quote “Ouch!”. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Saturday morning was kind of slow. However Saturday afternoon I remembered this was my “Do something, do anything” weekend and tackled my paperwork and then generally tidied the house up. Today I started out with a run to the supermarket and followed it up by weeding and spaying weed killer over the drive way in preparation for it being power washed and sealed. Tonight well I am updating the blog and then need to sort my study. This is another one of those tasks I started before I went to India and now just need to get back on with.