O' Canada

After a pretty lacklustre start to the week, it is now starting to pick up some momentum (tomorrow being Friday now, of course). My sniffle has reduced to a snuffle and I'm feeling somewhat more back in the ballgame.

I did, however, manage to keep myself up for an extra hour last night, with an infuriating tickle down the back of my throat. If I'd tried harder to ignore it at the outset, I probably would have been alright, but it was annoying me - so I decided to annoy it back!

Lying in bed, late at night, trying to get to sleep with a tickle down the back of your throat, is pretty infuriating and a damn hard thing to itch, to boot. After a few unsuccessful rounds of clearing my chest, exhaling sharply and generally coughing, I had cleverly managed to make it a lot worse.

After sooking on a Strepsil for a while and wondering how badly I would choke myself if I fell asleep and got the lozenge got stuck in my windpipe, I drifted off to sleep. Today, I'm feeling heaps better and have been getting back up on the pitching mound.

A couple of weeks ago I had made up a list of jobs that I had to do before I could get on 'the' jetplane, in early December, to head south for the winter. A lot of furious scribbling later and I had filled in 4 sheets of A4 with jobs ranging from the critical to the obtuse. Then, while still in my administrative frenzy, I made up a calendar with target completion dates, for certain key tasks in the coming couple of months.

Inching towards the end of October, I now need to decide how I'm going to route the flight and, very importantly - I also need to actually buy the bloody ticket!

I have a number of options available, with 'my' standard return journey being to fly JAL (Japan Airlines) to the Antipodes, with a stopover each way in Tokyo or, more specifically, Narita airport (a long & expensive train ride from Tokyo).

There is nothing special about the flight or the routing itself, except that on the way back they stop for the night in Tokyo (or, more specifically, Narita Airport - a long & expensive train ride from Tokyo). You get in at about 6pm and don't leave until 10am the next morning, but the good bit is that they put you up for the night in JAL's airport hotel - all as part of their standard airfare!

I don't know if you've ever done the trip from Aus/NZ to London but it is a long haul, especially in one flap. The journey can take up to 26 hours and you arrive back into Heathrow at about 6.30am, proceed to clear customs etc, and gleefully arrive back in London at about 8am - just in time for the manic early morning tube crush! Not what you need when you're beside yourself with tiredness and are carrying a whole pile of significant life possessions on your back.

So, with the stop in Tokyo (or, more specifically,...) you have a nights kip (in the worlds smallest hotel room), eat some unusual food and pay about £10 per beer - but it is heaven after 1/2 a day cooped up in cattle-class (on one of these journeys, due to various connecting flights, I had to endure Lilo & Stitch 3 times - painful Trev, painful)! The haul back to London is only about 14 hours and you arrive back in London feeling moderately compus mentus.

This time, though, I'm thinking of doing a round the world trip. Mainly because it would be nice to do something different (I've done the JAL thing about 3 times) and I would really like to go to Canada. I've never been there before and I find most Canadian folk nice, easy-going people.

I did actually stop for a night in St Johns in Newfoundland once, but I was quite sick with the flu at the time (seems to be the theme of the week eh!) and couldn't bring myself to go and view anything of the city - it was already pretty dark when we landed at about 5pm. Somewhat wimpy you might say, but when we had landed the air temperature was -22 deg C and there was another 20 deg of wind chill factor, to add to that (or subtract, as the case may be).

I tried to get myself inspired since I had been wanting to go to Canada for a long time (still am), but with a screaming head cold, the 5 mile journey into town in, -45 deg C weather, was just a bit too much.

So, now, I need to decide if I make the extra effort (and cost) and go and visit a bit of Canada this time round (finally). I'd really like to go to Vancouver, but from my research so far, it looks like I'd have to route via America to get there (LA or San Fran).

But, to put it bluntly, I have no interest in going to America while it is ruled by that infernal idiot George W Bush. No offence to our American friends out there, I've been to America a number of times (staying in Denver once for a couple of months) and really enjoyed the country & the people I met, but I have no interest in going there while that idiot is still in charge!

So, I've got some serious pondering to do over the next week before making a solid decision and coughing up some money (shit, did somebody say 'cough')...

p.s. I've never been to Tokyo either...

p.s. I might be back blogging next week with a grand plan for a road trip from San Francisco to Vancouver, via Seattle - 3 well-overdue places that are high on my list to visit!

the sniffles.

Well, it's not quite what I need at the moment, but I've cleverly caught a cold...

I did have a couple of late nights at the weekend, but I can't imagine either of them did it...

Having said that, I did go for a bit of a harder run before going out on Friday night, over a none-too-small hill that sits near to my flat. When I did eventually get to the pub, I was feeling rather 'low' and would happily have gone back home, but it was one of 'those social occasions' where I needed to attend. So, perhaps, the chilly night air caught me out there?

A few days later and this is where the glossy 'self-employed brochure' would tell you that as Master of your own Ship, you can just lay about on your couch, blissfully wallowing in self-pity.

Blatant false advertising if ever I've seen some, since my phone (which I still love) and e-mail inbox, have been blasting, beeping, ringing and generally haranguing me all week long so far.

Actually, if the truth be told, it is a mere sniffle and barely worth a mention in a blog, let alone its own entry, but it has given me something to write about.

Oh well, 6'ish weeks and I might be sitting in some real sunshine.

rainy days & mondays...

Actually, it's just 'overcast & saturday', but the Carpenters' song title sounded a lot better for the blog title...

What a busy wee time eh? Well, you wouldn't really know would you, because I ain't really been blogging recently, have I!

As it all stands, I have just about, finally, got the major components of one job sorted out and am now just in the 'tidy & wrap it up' phase of it. Meanwhile, I'm left with an absolute tonne of other jobs / contracts that now just 'have' to be sorted out... most of which I've been tactically fending & parrying off for the last couple of months.

Importantly, on top of all this, there is one other key factor relevant to all this present & imminent activity...

A flock of birds captured it all for me the other day, which, in a moment of frantic photography, I managed to capture a record of. The birds never did actually make it to the right position that I wanted them in (backdropped against the Mediaval skyline). So, in a manic last minute SAS-type roll & dive manoeuvre to the floor, I managed to fire off this one burst, capturing this remarkable picture ('remarkable' meaning 'crap', in this case).

So, the end result of what you see (or don't see, as the case may be) is a picture of 1/8 of the birds who were flying past in 3 huge 'V-wing' formations, now handsomely contrasted against my cheap plastic guttering.

Anyhoose, the reason for the picture and general inspiration therein, was that on this chilly October day, 100's & 100's of birds were making their way south for the winter. When I initially spotted them in the sky I thought to myself "what a jolly good idea" (yes, my subconscious mind may very well babble to itself using such literary fossils as 'jolly').

The point being that, in 2 months time, I need to be doing the same thing myself. Yup, time to climb on a jetplane for the Antipodes for a 3-5 month trip (business & pleasure). I haven't booked anything yet, but I plan to this month. From past experience, I know I need to get out of the UK by the end of the first week in December, since flight prices go through the roof after that - as folk clamber home for Xmas, or to catch the Antipididdlin summer.

So, there is a hell of a lot that I need to do between now & then. Naturally, i'm quite looking forward to it - living in Europe is great, especially when you can bugger off to the other side of the planet for the winter part of it. Having said that, Winters in Europe are great if you're in the right situation - I tried to drive to Kitzbuhel (Austria) once, to become a barman at the home of what is probably the most dangerous FIS Downhill ski racing slope in the world (Hahnenkamm, they say racers accelerate to 100km/h faster than a Porsche). That would have been a good winter, sadly the combi never made it past Munich (from Berlin)... but that is a story for another day!

A number of things have been happening in preparation for the trip already. After 2 years of being eligible for an upgrade and now waiting 11 months while Sony Ericsson fluffed around launching this flagship model, I finally got myself a new phone.

It is the new Sony Ericsson P990i and is, currently, rocking my world.

It is effectively a laptop in a phone (in fact it has about 2/3 of the processing power of my first ever laptop, called 'Larry'... as in 'Larry the Laptop', which I bought a very distant 8 years ago) and the key reason why I've waited and now bought the new phone, was for its wireless capability. It can not only log 'itself' onto and use the Internet (via WiFi or 3G/GPRS i.e. via Hotspot or a cellular phone network), but can also share that connection with a laptop (or PC/Mac) which, therefore, effectively use it as a modem (via Bluetooth or WLan), allowing 'them' to gain access the Internet. The speed is not fantastic (384 KB/sec), but it's good enough.

Naturally (he says, ever so casually) apart from being able to surf the 'net, it is also a camera, video camera, mobile office (Word, Excel, PDF's & others), media player (music, podcasts, videos etc), radio player, but it has other hot items like handwriting technology and updateable software (I've already installed a German dictionary and am looking at turning it into a GPS platform, where I can use map facilities like an in-car SatNav system). Oh and it makes phone calls too (radical).

I've had dreadful problems in the past on trips to Aus / NZ with their miserable Broadband network and the typical problems associated with borrowing people's connection i.e. "sure you can use it, but my... mouse, phone, keyboard, harddrive, scanner, printer, monitor, camera, USB port, brain don't work... could you fix it for me?".

In all honesty, in over 3/4 of the houses that I went into belonging to friends/relatives on my last trip 'Downunder', within 5 minutes of getting in the door I was on my hands and knees round the back of their computer, crawling through the dust and debris of their lives ('detritus' is probably more accurate) - fixing their farkin' machines. This time, I'm bringing the Internet with me - hence the requirement for the Star Trek phone!

As mentioned briefly, I went to a wedding on Thursday which was a great day shared with a number of friends that I've known for over 10 years. It was a really good day, finally wrapping up at 0615 at my flat with peppermint teas (the damage was well & truly done by that stage).

I've picked one picture to include since it shows the view from the restaurant where we had the reception. As you can see, it is quite a dramatic setting and affords one of the best views of the castle that I've ever seen.

So, finally, I've achieved a bit of a longer blog. On some personal notes (what's all this crap been about, if we're now getting to the personal bit?) congratulations to all the folk who've had babies recently (it's been the season for it, was there a bad night on telly back in January?) and those who've got married. Additionally, great to have caught up with some good friends recently from all around the globe, some of whom who I have not seen for a very long time.

An hour later and in hindsight, I realise that the title of this blog bears absolutely no relation whatsoever to the actual content of it. Excellent, I can go away and relax in the knowledge of another job well done!

Meanwhile, I'm gonna go and cheer Michael Schumacher along for the F1 Japanese qualifying, since he's only got a couple of weeks left to go in his magnificent career. I've always been a fan of his, not just because we were born in the same decade, about 6 months apart (wait until you get a bit older, you'll find yourself starting to support 'any' older sportsperson still active in their sport), or because I once lived in Aachen & he comes from just up the road (about 40km away in Kerpen - you pass it on the Autobahn to Cologne), nor because he is German.

Well, actually, they might all be the reasons - but , he is also one of the most dedicated, effective and successful sportsmen that I have ever seen in my lifetime (to my mind only Michael Jordan & Wayne Gretzky are in the same league).

not mine...

going to a wedding in a Castle today.