Powered by Lemsip

So, after a very early night and some extra strength LemSip (you know you are ill when LemSip tastes nice) it was up bright and early and off to the bus stop. Lucky old us live on the very tail end of the bus route, which means that the journey to London took around six hours. That includes a stop to take on water. And another to get rid of it.

London was busy, bustling and, just after we arrived, very wet. However it settled down to slightly better weather and I toddled off to the first of my two appointments, leaving number one wife in the restful surroundings of Oxford Street. First up was to get my Gizmondo upgraded at the Gizmondo shop. This is a very posh affair on Regent Street full of Good Looking People (tm) who stand around looking cool and sell hi-tech gadgets to nerdish types like me. We will never be as cool as them. But they'll never know how the gadgets really work. So I guess it levels out.

Anyhoo, the man upgraded my Gizmondo with a couple of muffled oaths and an SD card and I bought a couple of games. I would have bought a case too, but they had sold both of the ones they had in stock....

Then on the tube down to the Microsoft House. This is a house full of gadgets and therefore a magnet for people like me who try to achieve cool by buying them (see above). Actually, gadgets are becoming the in thing in a big way. We got on the coach this morning and the first thing I saw was the girl in front of me start replaying video calls from her 3G phone. Then the lady to my right pulled out her digital camera and had a long discussion with her friend about how she was going to transfer the pictures onto her PC. Next a bloke right at the front gets out his portable DVD player and fires up a film. I had to work very hard to resist the temptation to pull out the Gizmondo, my media centre and the SPV phone and shout "Look, I'm the gadget daddy on this bus!". But I didn't. And I bet some of them on the coach blog as well.

Anyhoo, the Microsoft House was very cool. All in the shops too. Just need the money now.....

Then on to Harrods to meet up with number one wife and eat some scones. Splendid. On the way back we found that they had closed a tube line in our honour and so we arrived late for tea. But the nice people at the hotel put a special meal and, with half a bottle of wine in me to keep out the cold, all should be well for the night.

Cold War

Arrgh. I hate having a cold. Head full of snot and no brain. Try to string two thoughts together and end up with one and a half wrong ones. Never try to mark anything when you can't remember the start of the sentance as you are reading the end. Or you can't stop things pouring out of your nose and heading for the report pages....

And the funny thing? The really funny thing?

Tomorrow morning I must rise at 6:15 am to get on a bus and go to London for a weekend away.

Well, at least nobody threw darts at it...

Poster was quite well received. Even got some questions about the content. The presentations themselves were also interesting. About the best one was from a guy who had actually bested Steve McConnell in an argument. I was a bit surprised to find that not everyone in the audience about a conference concerning teaching programming had read the seminal work "Code Complete". In my opinion this would be a bit like your driving instructor getting in the car and going "Really must read that Highway Code thing some time".

But at least the lecturers at Hull have read and applaud this great manuscript. (I was recently talking to a chap who runs a software development company. His first question to potential hires is "Have you read 'Code Complete'?". If the answer is no he finds a polite way to bring the interview to a close as soon as possible.) Actually I'm being very unfair here (but it is my blog). I taught programming for years before I happened accross a copy of this book in Borders one fine day. The good news is that everyone wrote the name down and seemed keen to take a look.

Of course if you have not read this book then you should find it, buy it, and then read it asap. And then have a policy of getting it down once every few weeks and re-reading one of the chapters.

Anyhoo, back to the plot and my little poster (which I have put here by the way). Everything went well and I got back into the hire car to drive home. Nice car the Mondeo. A little too easy to find reverse in my opinion (apologies to the scary way my reversing lights came on at that busy junction Mr. Bus Driver) but fun to drive - once you figure out that the thing on the steering wheel is not the on switch for the radio, but cruise control (that was kind of scary too). Things got even better when I found the switch to lower the seat to a "head not stuck in the roof" kind of position.

And then home. Still got a horrid cold though.

"Look at the size of that thing...."

Got my poster printed today. Just as well, since tomorrow I'm presenting it at a conference. Hats off (if I was wearning more than one hat) to James for doing such a sterling job of printing out 1 x 1.5 metres worth of poster magic. I daren't look at the thing (of course) because as soon as I do I'll see the massive spelling error in letters two inches high.

Then it was into the hired car and away down the motorway to Oxford, my precious cargo in a cardboard tube specially stolen from Rich..

Becoming Unwell

I'm coming down with something. My throat seems to have been lined with one of those rougher grades of sandpaper. As obtained straight from the budgie's cage. My tones have become not so much dulcet as sub-basement.