Getting Ready
Posted: Fri 21 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Slowly but surely I’m getting ready for the new contract starting Monday…
- Train Tickets – Booked
- Accommodation – Booked
- Location – Well, I know where I’m going, and all that
- Travel – I know how I’m getting there, even checked Underground etc.
- Essential Software – Loaded on a USB stick, just in case they don’t have it already
I’ve still got a couple of things to do though
- Pack bags
- Last-minute shopping bits
- Find that fucking A-Z – I don’t want to buy a fourth one…
And that’s it.
So I’m just about ready to return to the maw that is “Working in London”.
Weight Balance
Posted: Tue 18 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Health, Own Business, Thoughts, Weight Loss, Work-related | Leave a comment »This week, I haven’t lost any weight, for the first time in six weeks. Mind you, I haven’t gained any either, so it could’ve been worse.
I knew I hadn’t done well this week, what with one thing and another – but I was still thinking I’d have lost something.
I know that sometimes this’ll happen, but still, in some ways it feels like I’ve let myself down somewhat by not losing any. Stupid, I know.
In some ways though, I think it’s also a good thing, because it shows me that I am actually serious about wanting to keep on losing it, to get down to where I want to be.
The next few weeks are going to be slightly more of a challenge, with the London contract, but we’re looking at ways to get that more sorted too, so I think that I’ll be OK with that, too.
We’ll see, anyway.
Contractual
Posted: Thu 13 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »So yes, as I alluded earlier in the week, I’ve got a new contract starting a week on Monday.
It’s not a long-term one for the moment, and is currently “just” for a month, but will be based in London, so I’m going to be going back to my old ways of leaving on Monday and coming home on Friday.
I *could* go down by train every day, but I’d be homicidal by about Wednesday. In addition, bizarrely it’s cheaper to stay down near the office in London than it is to get peak-time train tickets on a daily basis. It’s £78 for staying down there, vs. £91 for a train return – and the loss of (at least) four hours, assuming the trains are all on time. (We will only briefly touch on the fact that the trains would also be packed like the Black Hole of Calcutta) Travelling off-peak is cheaper by far, but would mean being home even later, and not getting into the office on any day until at least 10.45 or so, which is kind of frowned-upon.
Driving down would most likely drive me crackers too – the office is South of The River, so I’d likely be looking at at least 2.5 hours each way, plus fuel and [swearwords] Congestion Charge.
Which means that staying down there is actually the best (or at least the most sensible/fiscally responsible) option. Herself’s not so sure of that, for obvious reasons.
So I’ll be down in London for a month during the week. We’ll see how things go from there.
D4D™ will of course continue to be updated – although I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be able to do so during office hours, I’ll have plenty of time in the evenings, I’m sure.
Locational Errors
Posted: Tue 11 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Creativity, Own Business, Travel, Web Development, Work-related | 4 Comments »Checking out some information about the location I’m going to be based in over the next month or so (from a week on Monday) I had a look at the dreaded Tesco website to see what stores are close to the places I’ll be working/staying. (And in this case, the answer is pretty much “fuck all”) I’ve also looked at the locations for other supermarket-type places, and will obviously wander around the area a bit too, see what’s around that isn’t easily web-findable.
Anyway, while looking at the map on the Tesco site, I noticed this…
Yep, there’s notation for “Waterloo Strain Station”…
NOTE : You can find the same thing by typing “SE1” into the store locator.
Numbers of Days
Posted: Tue 4 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Web Development, Work-related | Leave a comment »A silly reason that I like databases, and SQL…
Herself asked me “How many days between 1st January and August 10th?” – for reasons beyond comprehension.
Normally, something like this would involve figuring out how many weeks, or counting weeks/days in a diary or whatever.
In SQL, it’s a simple “SELECT DATEDIFF(‘2009-01-01′,’2009-08-10’)” and lo, you have the answer. (221 days, if anyone cared)
Big Mileage – Part Two
Posted: Wed 15 July, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »So, yesterday’s drive to Brighton and back went fine. There were a couple of ropy sections of the M25, as usual, but other than that it went well.
It took me three hours dead to get down there, and then another half hour just to find somewhere to park. How is it that the manufacturers of sat-navs still can’t add the facility to find the nearest car-park to your destination?
Still, the interview went OK – should find out today, all things being well.
And today I’ve got a meeting at home with a new website client, and then back on the road, down to London and the O2 to see Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction there, which I’m really looking forward to.
Big Drive
Posted: Tue 14 July, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Driving, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Today’s another day with a big drive involved – this time it’s for a contract down in Brighton, of all places.
So it means a trip of roughly 160 miles each way on this occasion – all told, it’ll be about seven hours driving, and that’s assuming that traffic doesn’t turn to shit at some point in that drive. Which, in the case of the M25 is quite an assumption, needless to say.
If I get the job, it’s a bit of an easier drive, because I’ll be going down on the Monday and coming back on the Friday, rather than doing the entire thrash in one day.
All the same, it means there won’t be any other updates here today. Them’s the breaks.