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.

05:00 and I am wide awake, could it be the excitement of returning to work? I don’t think so! Something to do with the bl**dy car alarm that has been going off every hour since 02:00, not really! The overwhelming desire to watch the sun come up? In Basingstoke, are you kidding me? If I analyse it deeply I think it had something to do with the fact that I was rested, relaxed, and in bed by 10:30 last night, and maybe the slightly weird dream I had about ducks! All I will say is that my first job tonight is to adjust the timing on the heating, dam 05:00 is cold.

So I hit the override button on the heating control and after a cigarette and glass of orange juice went back and laid in bed, waiting for the heating to kick in. I didn’t doze back off which I fully expected to, but when the alarm went off at 06:00 I was laying there trying to remember what I had watched on TV that would encourage the duck dream. Showered and dressed and still none the wiser regarding the ducks I stuffed the laptops into the bag and headed for the car. Once outside I really noticed how cold it was and getting into the car I felt the need to test the heating on HIGH and make sure the heated seats were fully functional.

I had to renew my train ticket and luckily my early start paid off as while there was only one guy serving he was the one with 90% of the brain cells and powered through the queue. Even more luck when I pulled into the car park and the car in Bay 1, yep the golden bay, the bay right next to the exit, was pulling out. Parked, smiling, and still cold I headed for the station and then I realised the shorter walk didn’t allow me to finish my smoke before entering the station, so I had to either stand with the private school students who had all been kicked from Dad’s Merc into the cold or ditch it. I ditched it and headed for the coffee shop.Then it happened, Yes I had the quick queue, yes I had the gold parking spot, but the coffee shop was closed! I nearly gave up then and there but figured I could wait until I got on the train. Then it happened, the 06:51 was delayed by 4 minutes due to slippery tracks. Now most people would shrug and say four minutes, what’s the fuss? After 10 years commuting however I saw the look in the other commuters eye’s. The rules now change and the shuffle starts. You take the gamble you take your spot and you pray to the great train god that the doors will open in front of you. If they don’t, your screwed, and there was no chance of the much needed coffee elixor. There will be 10 people to each seat, and it will be elbow warfare. In my relaxed state of mind I was no match for them, and with low nicotine levels and zero caffeine this was a fight I was not ready for. So I hung back and watched the chubby cyclist squeeze in between the suited guy and the rather sleepy goth bloke and decided it was better to save the fight for another day.

As the 12 coach 07:17 arrived I smiled, the train gods had respected my peaceful, non combative stance and rewarded me with an empty train, and as I boarded I thought to myself “Don’t get to smug, it can all go so wrong”. We arrived at London Waterloo on time and intact, and without seeing one duck.

Then it started….the working day. I can’t really say I got into it or really took any notice of what transpired but as I packed up I thought, what was with the bl**dy ducks? The journey home was uneventful and the golden parking bay position paid off as I pulled out of the car park in poll position.

Arriving home, showering, and changing I felt that I had won. Maybe not the war, but certainly the battle. Logging on to check my email I noticed a post from my little sister and remembered I hadn’t caught up with her after her Halloween party. After hearing about her day and my niece Eleanor not being well I logged into her laptop remotely, using the free LogMeIn service and installed the Adobe Reader software for her, and set up a separate account for her husband, so he could use the laptop without messing up anything she was working on.

So now I am ready to sort the heating timer out, grab something to eat, and then chill out in front of the TV. I hope tomorrow goes this well, but you never know the mood of the train gods!

Okay so we had a great afternoon with Katrina, Rob, and the kids on Sunday. It was really nice to catch up with everybody and see how much the kids have grown. Eleanor is now crawling and is a little happier with the world, although does still like a good cry.

Now for a change I didn’t take any pictures but instead opted to take the HandyCam along, so over the next couple of day’s I will put together a little montage of the footage I shot.

Monday was back to work and it was cold and miserable. I also forgot to renew my ticket on Friday, so spent 30 minutes queuing which inevitably meant I was late to the office. I got home last night and just felt rough. Nothing life threatening, but just the winter sniffles. I had a lousy nights sleep as I just couldn’t breath through my nose, and kept waking up covered in sweat and shivering. This morning when the alarm went off I was laying there waiting. I knew I would be useless in the office today so dropped the boss a line advising that I wouldn’t be in. I then drove to the chemist and purchased every cold remedy they had, before returning to the warmth of the sofa.

I feel a lot brighter this evening and will head back to work tomorrow as there is just so much going on. I’m also duty manager this weekend so want to know what I am in for, as much as anything else. One thing i will be doing however is digging out my scarf and gloves.

Okay so one thing that drives me nuts is poor customer service. So on my recent trip to Criccieth in North Wales, a trip that was difficult to start with as it was for my grandmothers funeral, I booked myself into what looked a good hotel, The George IV. My experience however was a nightmare. On checking in they claimed to have no booking for me, when I stated I had booked it over the phone and received email confirmation I was told that this was impossible as they didn’t have email. I pulled out my iPhone and pulled up my email and showed them the email I had received, oh they said yes she does have “the email”. They then asked how I would like to pay, I once again showed them the email and how it stated that I had paid in advance.

After checking in I was advised that the room wasn’t ready and it would be an hour or so, my mind being else where I asked if I could leave my luggage. They agreed I could leave it in the room, and sat there and pointed me in the direction of the lift. Well, I should have known at this point that I was in for a bad experience but as I said, my mind was elsewhere.

The lift looks like it was very much an afterthought and was more representative of a broom cupboard than anything else. I opted to struggle up the two flights of the stairs and found my way down the narrow corridors to the room.

The room was basic, but I didn’t intend on spending much time in it so I dropped off my bag and then made my way to my Nan’s house.

Later that evening I made my back to the hotel and was in desperate need of a beer and headed for the bar with my laptop to catch up on email. I was just settling into my second pint when I felt a drip on my neck. Before I knew it the staff were running in with buckets as water started to pour through the light fittings.

I quickly grabbed my laptop and placed it in its case. I asked the staff what was going on and they simply shrugged. I asked to see the manager and this disheveled Italian man appeared. I asked what was going on and if it was safe and it assured me that it was a small leak and suggested I go to bed and not worry about it. I told him that I wasn’t convinced and that water and electricity generally didn’t work well together and asked him to reassure me that it was safe. At this point he lost it and ordered me to go to bed. I wasn’t persuaded but headed to my room. When I saw that not only was water dripping through the light fitting in my room, but it had gone all over the suit that I was due to wear to the funeral I completely lost it. I collected my belongings and left.

I checked myself into the Marine Hotel and I received a lovely welcome. I explained what had happened and they looked knowingly at me. I had a fantastic stay there and the couple that run it were very pleasant and accommodating. The hotel itself was lovely and clean, and the rooms were very homely and comfortable. The price was significantly less that the George, and breakfast was included.

Okay so it has been a while since my last post, but it has been a hectic couple of weeks, and I haven’t really felt ready to talk about it until now.

So after Eleanor’s Christening my parents took my Nan home to Wales. On arriving she wasn’t her normal self and it became apparent she wasn’t well and the doctor was called. The doctor quickly identified that she’d had a stroke and she was taken into hospital. Over the next few days she had a couple more strokes and generally went down hill. On the 27th September 2008 she passed away.

Needless to say it wasn’t a particularly easy time, and all I could really focus on was work and the forth coming funeral. We buried my Nan on the 7th October 2008 in the Village that she was born in with my Granddad who dies several years ago. As you can image it was a very emotional time but it was a nice service that focused on the lady she was.