Sightseeing weekend with the parents

My parents arrived in London on Thursday (14th). Alas I had to work that day and Friday too. I saw them in the evenings though. On Thursday night, I cooked dinner. On Friday night we went out to eat and ended up with very lousy pizza (soggy base).

On Saturday, Genevieve and Damien were yet to return from their 14-day tour of Europe (about which Gen posted all of twice on her blog). So, there were just three of us. Mum and Dad have hired a car, so we made use of that and drove to Oxford. We didn't drive all the way into town, but rather made use of the park and ride service. This is where you park your car (for free for up to 3 days) and you just pay a couple of pounds to catch the bus into town. Not a bad deal, especially since there was a traffic jam on the way into town.

After Oxford we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We didn't have a huge amount of time so we decided to just visit Shakespeare's childhood home, and not any of the four other buildings or sites of Shakespearean significance.

On Sunday, Mum and Dad and I met up with Gen and Damien and their friend Mark for our visit to Buckingham Palace, our "Royal Day Out" as it were. It included the Queen's Gallery, the State Rooms and the Royal Mews. Some pictures:

P.S.

For those people who read my blog who also know people at Imagination Technologies, I would appreciate it if you didn't mention to them my impending departure. Noone except my boss and his superiors know at the moment, and I'd like to keep it that way for a while. It just gets awkward when people know you're leaving and you have to answer all the "when", "why", "what next" questions. I'm still here for another two months and it's too soon for all that. Thanks.

Enough is enough

This week's big news is that I've told my boss that I don't like the job and I'm going home. That's right! After a pitifully short time over here, I'm running away. Allow me to explain.

When I took on a permanent job, the plan was that it would be a relatively long term commitment and as such Simon would come over here and join me. Though that was always conditional on my enjoyment of my job. I have to say that debugging the software team's work via RTL simulations and repeatedly finding the same bug after they have supposedly fixed it (about half a dozen times now, but who's counting) is not my idea of satisfying work.

Admittedly, I was a little unfair on my boss. In the past I have always made it my policy to give a first warning that I'm not enjoying the work to give him a chance to fix things. I know from experience this has never worked, so this time I figured "why bother?"

It's not just the job though. All in all, Australia (yes, even Sydney) is a better place to live than here. You get more for your money back home so you can afford to live a better lifestyle. Also, Londoners are a reasonably rude and self-centred bunch and they are seriously lacking in an environment conscience over here (they want to put everything into a plastic bag).

As for the idea of using the UK as a base for travelling in Europe, that didn't really work either. As I learned during my trip to Paris, travelling by yourself is not all that much fun (well, not for me anyway).

So, the plan is as follows. I'm going to keep working up until mid November, at which time Simon is coming over. He booked his flights today! We're going to do a bit of travelling together before we head home on the flight I was originally booked to come home on (even though I paid extra to get a ticket I could change, oh well). We'll be back in Sydney on December 3.

Rollerblading and a swim

Today was just a little less frantic than yesterday. I slept in until almost 10am, at which time Genevieve called me from Dover to let me know they were about to catch the ferry over to France.

I was due to meet with friends near Hampstead Heath at 2pm, so I decided I would take Gen's rollerblades out for a spin before meeting them. I left home at around 1pm, and rollerbladed to the designated meeting point. However, it was only 1:25 when I got there, so I then rollerbladed to the Heath itself, where I figured I would find paths I could skate on. I found paths, and all was going fine until I found myself going down a hill. It wasn't a terribly steep hill, and probably would not have been a problem for a more experienced blader. As for me, having only rollerbladed once before in my life, it was a problem. I felt that I was going too fast, and I was only going to get faster. I attempted to steer myself on to the grass where I figured falling wouldn't be so bad. Alas, I didn't quite make it on to the grass before my stack.

I fell over backwards, my backside, hands and elbows hitting the ground. Thankfully, I was wearing wrist guards. They're Gen's too, and I gave them their first scuffs. Sorry Gen! I wasn't wearing the elbow pads however, but I probably should have been, as evidenced by this. (I have just put a link to the picture, rather than putting the picture itself here, for those people who'd rather not see it). It's not so bad, though it stings a little.

After the crash I made my way on to the grass. I decided to change the rollerblades for my sneakers as there was still more of the hill left to go down. I then walked back to where I was to meet my friends. I still had time to spare, so I went and bought a bottle of water, for drinking and cleaning the wound. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. My friends were late. They arrived about half an hour late. Well, two of them did, Sarah and Kate. It turns out that Natalie, who told us to meet at Hampstead Heath station (which is an overland train station) had actually meant Hampstead tube station, so that's where she was. She didn't actually know about the overland station. Anyway, all of this waiting, etc, was only a pain for me because I had previously arranged that I would be home from 3:30 to let in one of my housemates when she got back from her holiday. By the time we all met up, it was close to 3pm.

I got a call from my housemate to say she probably wouldn't be home until around ten to four. That gave me an extra 20 minutes. I chatted with my friends for a bit and left them queuing for crepes.

Going home wasn't so bad, because it wasn't all that far away and it gave me a chance to ditch the rollerblades and get my togs. It was a lovely day today, being quite a bit warmer than it has been lately. Yesterday it was overcast and a bit rainy, but today the clouds were clearing. Also, I worked up a sweat while rollerblading, so I was very keen for a swim at one of the Hampstead ponds. After letting in my housemate, I went and met my friends at Hampstead Heath. They were already most of the way to the ladies' bathing pond when I found them so we went there. They were kind enough to wait around while I took a quick swim. Like last time, it was a bit chilly when I first got in, but then felt fine after I'd been swimming around for a bit.

After that, we walked back across the heath so the others could catch a tube home. Although I could have gone straight home, I went with them to Belsize Park station and after seeing them off, I wandered around for a bit, just checking out what was around my local area. It was really nice because, like I said, it was a lovely day today.

Busy day

I have just now come to the end of a very busy day. This was the day that saw Genevieve and Damien moving out of their room at the house in SE16 to embark on about two months of travelling. Their stuff will be stored in the garage of the house, but it all had to be packed up and the bedroom cleared out for the new tenants.

I had been going to go to a picnic, but it was postponed, so I was therefore available to help with this momentous packing effort. I was at Genevieve's service all day. Some of the tasks assigned to me included backing up her laptop (which alas didn't work because the damn DVD burning software didn't feel like working), a couple of trips to the supermarket to get bits and pieces, packing boxes, packing camera gear into the new camera backpack (it is truly a sign that Gen trusts me that she had me do this or just a sign she was REALLY running short on time), vacuuming and generally being a gofer. I also have yet some tasks to complete: backing up the laptop successfully and returning a rental DVD (just have to post it, too easy).

So what do I get out of this? Well, I got various food items that won't last in storage for two months, I got the loan of a few things (including the table I have my laptop on as I write this and Gen's rollerblades, cool!) and the satisfaction of knowing I helped out my sister.

To me, the day was very successful, in spite of how close Gen, Damo and Mark (Damo's friend) came to not making it to the hostel they're staying in tonight before check-in closed at midnight. They were all very stressed that they might not make it, but they did. They're staying in the hostel tonight because their tour leaves from there very early in the morning. For me, however, they day was truly successful because Gen and I didn't fight. There were a few words expressed in frustration, but no arguments. I don't think Gen and Damien fought either, though again, there were words. This, for us, in such circumstances, is quite an achievement!