Wow, long time since last posting. So much has happened. Adam and his partner Geri were here for a long Easter weekend visit. They managed to catch the most miserable weather of the year here - sleet, freezing cold, snow. Hopefully they enjoyed the holiday trip anyway.

Then Andrew came over at end of April for a week or so during spring break. We had a ball - he lucked out with generally warm and sunny weather. The last full day of his visit was gloriously warm and sunny and Asti, Andrew, and I left at 6am for a day trip to Bruges. Fast drive down to Dover, the P&O ferry across the English Channel, then another quick drive and we were sitting back, basking in the sunshine, drinking excellent crisp pilsner at a street cafe by the T'zant plaza in Bruges. Lovely little place where we had grilled steaks with Bearnaise sauce and sizzling fites.

It was a really excellent day. We dragged Andrew to our favorite chocolate shop and loaded him down with some goodies to take back to NYC.

At work, I finally completed the dread London Disaster Recovery Test. Nightmare! Four weeks+ for what should have been simply an intense 5 days. That's what happens when you neglect your DR environment for over a year, possibly close to 18 months. I ended up expanding an EVA into a 2ndary cabinet, reconfiguring another EVA, building our first DR ESX system (a descent into IT hell!), and building 14 replacement servers for ones that could not be repaired with simple parts replacements. Ugggh! I just finished the Gantt tiimeline chart and the Issues matrix on Friday and handed them in just before the bell at 4pm.

On a lighter note - I found this website sweet - http://colorwar2008.com/submissions/youngnow?page=1

In 9 days we fly to New York for Andrew's graduation from CCNY. He's getting a Research Honours BA in Chemistry and even won a prize. He's been accepted into the Chemistry PhD program at CUNY so school resumes in the fall. We'll all be at Capsuoto Freres Friday night celebrating after the commencement.

I'm looking for a new contract this week. My contract with A&O finished a month ago and was extended but it was only covering a secondment of the regular DR guy so now it's finished. Such is life for the IT contract worker.

Ringing changes at Bishops Square, Spitalfields

Going off to Oxford tonight after work to meet Alan at the annual ACCU conference. Tonight's the "Speakers Dinner". As usual the food will be utterly horrible and generally inedible and offend meat-eaters sensibilities with their uncanny ability to turn protein into reinforced cardboard with extra carbon on top. And to add insult to injury its £50. Ouch.

Tube to work

Amazing, a gentleman on the Tube offered me his seat this morning. An
almost unknown custom in the UK these days.

I'm so sick of gray skies and winter. I need sun!

So, sketching in the most recent void of silence, in no particular chronological order but more that of importance to me and interest:
1. Andrew will graduate from CCNY on May 30
2. Andrew was admitted to the CUNY PhD program
3. I'm working (yes, I know I mentioned this previously). So I'm still working - for an International law firm. Doing Disaster Recovery work - planning and testing.
4. Asti has a new job with a prestigious EU agency
5. Adam is flying to London with his fiancee Geri on Thursday night for a long Easter weekend visit.
6. Andrew will fly to London for Spring Break in April
7. Alan and I (and Asti, too) will fly to NYC in May for Andrew's graduation
That's all the good news
On the minus side, I'm going completely nuts in our small apartment. Gotta move, no choice. Seriously, seriously awful tiny place.

Boulogne

Finally made it to Vicomtesse Jeanne's home town!

The end of week 1 at my new job. What a relief to successfully complete the first week. My timesheet is signed and ready to be sent to the agency and hopefully produce a salary deposited into my checking account next Friday. I really like this job and I think I'm settling in and producing some value for them already.

Well, Happy New Year! I didn't realize I hadn't posted here in a month. Main reason is, my contract at work wasn't renewed and I think I sort of freaked. Thing is, it wasn't renewed for the worst of reasons. It was due to some nebulous corporate push-back in Houston. Nothing to do with me, gov. I got work ratings of "superb" from my manager and director. My manager was actually in tears when she told me. They even managed to get me an extra week to run my work up till Xmas by sheer balls and deceit. I know, I know, that's what contracting is all about. But, I was still shocked. Everyone I worked with sent me emails at my personal address asking to keep in touch, inviting me to meet them for drinks, etc. But still, I went off to my Xmas hols feeling miserable.

So, a week in Vienna at Xmas - Alan's idea, not mine believe me. I like to be home for Xmas but if I had to be away it would be someplace warm and sunny. We managed to have a good time in Vienna and I'll eventually post some photos.

So the new year starts and I started job-hunting. If you know me, you know how soul-destroying I find job hunting, Hence the absolute silence here.

But, voila, the silence is over. I have found a new job. Bigger and better! And I start on Monday. The people rejoice. Solvent again. The proverbial wolf chased away from the door.