Mark Dalton

Wow it was hard getting up on Monday morning. I mean I knew it was going to be, but when the alarm clock went off I just wasn”t expecting it. It was almost as if the alarm clock was mocking me. I got to the train station and had forgotten to renew my ticket over the weekend, so had to stand in the queue which isn”t great at the best of times let alone the first working week of the new year. There was such a demand for tickets the system kept crashing meaning that they could only issue weekly tickets. So I brought the ticket and stood with all the other happy souls on the station platform waiting for the train. Monday flew by after catching up with everybody and before I knew it I was homeward bound with several hundred emails to still wade through. The only problem with taking time off is that the work just waits for you to return.

Tuesday night it snowed and snowed hard so by Wednesday morning we had 6-8″ of snow on the ground and the roads were impassable, this continued all week so I worked from home. Luckily with technology today this is not a problem and I can access all the systems I need to, but I do miss the social interaction and by the weekend I was starting to suffer from cabin fever, and a distinct lack of food.

Saturday I tried to venture into town but the roads were still very slippery and the car parks were closed, so I decided to pop down to see Katrina and the kids as it was Katrina”s birthday on the Friday and I hadn”t given her the iPod that I had brought her.

Katrina was equally frustrated as the schools had been closed and the kids were also starting to show signs of being cooped up to long. We had a cup of coffee and complained about the weather like good British citizens, while the kids climbed all over me, but it was really good to seem them again.

Sunday it was still to risky to go to far but I dug the car out and cleared the drive somewhat and made it to the train station and renewed my ticket. I just couldn”t stand the thought of doing it at 06:30 Monday morning. After doing that and getting some shopping I walked up to Mum & Dad”s for Sunday dinner. We chatted about the snow as they hadn”t made it out too far either and then moved on to holiday”s to try and brighten up the mood.

I walked home slipping and sliding all over the place and then settled in for the evening with a rented movie.

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.

Okay so after being Duty Manager last weekend I was due to be off Friday, but I had arranged a meeting and felt it ride to cancel so switched my day off to today. I thought I’d pop into town, do a little clothes shopping and pay some cheques into the bank.

Well, curve ball! I woke up about 05:00 must be getting old as this is becoming a regular habit and thought it was a little cold. The heating was just coming on so I didn’t think anything of it. I returned to bed knowing that I didn’t need to get up and promptly fell right back off to sleep.

08:00 I woke up again, why is it when I have time off I can’t lay in? Any how I thought Mmmm that’s cold, so did the scientific test to confirm. Foot out of the duvet and Brrrrrr cold status confirmed. Stretched my foot to the radiator, OUCH HOT!

Something was obviously wrong. So I had to investigate.

So plans out of the window I settled on the sofa, turning the heating up (bugger the cost, I don’t do cold) and commenced watching unemployed TV. Twenty minutes later, mind suitably numb I settled on getting on with some paperwork.

About 15:00 I wandered (read stumbled trying to look dignified) up to Mum & Dad’s house to find Mum, Dad, Katrina, and the kids all snuggled up in the lounge. Nobody had been able to get to where they needed to be.

You can check out the rest of the pictures over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdalton/

So the first week back at work after the Christmas break and boy was it hard work, even if I did only do four days. Last Sunday I was a good boy and went to bed at a quite respectable 23:00 but didn’t sleep particularly well at all waking up at 02:00, 04:00, 05:00, and eventually at 06:00 when the alarm went off. Of course when the alarm went off the last thing I wanted to do was get up. I forced myself out of bed however and got ready for work. It wasn’t until I had showered and dressed that I opened the curtains to see about an inch of snow covering everything. As I opened the front door the coldness hit be like a freight train. As quickly as I could I got in the car and fired up the heating. The car was frozen solid and it was a good 5 minutes before I could reverse out of the drive way and make my way to the station. Standing on the platform as the wind howled, I suddenly found myself thinking back to my time in India.

Monday was probably the hardest day in the office as no matter how much I tried I just couldn’t get back into the swing of things and found that my mind kept wandering. The rest of the week was pretty much the same, not wanting to get up, cold platforms, and general apathy but thankfully Thursday was the end of the week for me as I had booked Friday off.

Now normally a day’s leave is a good thing, but Friday was a sad day as I said goodbye to the Jaguar. It’s a decision that I have been mulling over for the last 6 months but an inevitable one nonetheless. I simply am not doing the mileage to warrant the running costs of the Jag and the with the type of journeys that I do am not getting the mileage, which hurts when you’re paying over £1 a ltr.

However the pain was eased today when I picked up my new VW Golf. I have always wanted one and don’t really know why I brought the Jag when I did, but thats life I guess. I brought a 2.0 TDI GT Sport and I must say having taken it for a good spin today that its quick. It’s not a Jag, but is very comfortable and as it’s considerably lighter than the Jag feels a lot more responsive.

Tomorrow I am off to Mum & Dad’s for a Birthday dinner for Katrina. More tomorrow, with photo’s!

Okay so after 13 months in India I may be a little sensitive but I came down this morning and there was a polar bear and two penguins sitting on my driveway, both wearing Parker jackets. Honest!

Global warming, my *** Seriously it’s been dam cold. That said it’s reassuring to see that the village idiot count hasn’t decreased. There are still those that insist on fashion over comfort. Now I couldn’t take a picture, the law is kinda funny over that these days, but the only thing that made a very attractive woman, dressed in a very nice dress with a lovely pick cardigan, look unattractive was her blue lips together with the noise emanating from her teeth chattering. Now see did have a very nice tan, so I can understand (I can’t really) her wanting to show it off, but seriously is hyperthermia really worth it? Okay I admit I am turning into my father!

The point of this post? I have no idea! It is cold though!