David Morris – brassedoff.net

I’m home. It’s the last time I travel Continental to the US. Crammed in on a plane better suited to shifting holidaymakers to Benidorm (an old 757). Next time, I’m going to investigate going by Philadelphia instead on US Air. Our corporate office also apparently insists we use a particular travel agency despite the fact that I reckon I could have saved over £200 on the tickets purchasing on Expedia.

I’ve also downloaded Oracle JDeveloper 10g for a play – I suspect it may have to the IDE of choice going forward. It seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to JBuilder 2006 in places (is the IDE engine the same I wonder). I’ve got a couple of books coming from Amazon on JDeveloper and J2EE… guess who’s got some bedtime reading to do!

First run in on the bike today and I get two near misses and a fright. First one, this morning, a foreign lorry driver – I felt the wind from the exhaust as he passed me too close on Retford Road this morning. Another near miss on the Parkway roundabout below the Handsworth ASDA as a guy in a yellow Gullivers Heating and Gas transit failed completely to see me as he pulled out off the sliproad and the last was climbing up to the same roundabout from Darnall. This was a fright as the lorry in the outside lane (I was in the left-hand lane – no other traffic) set off and spun the back pair of wheels in rather an alarming (and loud) manner. There was nearly a skid mark somewhere else!!

Eee, it’s great to be back home… and to cap it all, it’s raining!

Were nearly half way through our trip to the US. It’s not been as bad as I expected. Once you’re on the ground it’s not too bad. I suppose it’s the travel that’s the worse bit.

We’ve had some great food whilst we’ve been here. Monday night Tim had a hankering for a steak so we went to The Outback on I74 and we both had the 12oz Outback Special steak. Medium rare, bigger than the palm of my hand and about 3cm thick, I had mine server with sweet potato with butter. I’ve never managed to bring myself to go for the cinnamon and sugar version although it’s probably nice for a dessert!

Last night we went out with a couple of the guys from the Monroe office to a seafood restaurant – the Bonefish Grill which Steve had recommended. Top marks, Steve!

The Bang-Bang shrip was an excellent starter. I followed with shrip and scallop served with something akin to creamed sweetcorn and wild rice. An excellent meal was rounded off with one of the worse espresso coffees I’ve ever had. It just goes to prove you can’t have everything.

Lunchs have been interesting. No-one seems to go for “packed lunch” – at least not as far as we’ve seen so far. Because there are so many fast food places on I74 within 5 minutes of the plant, there’s a fantastic choice of places to nosh. On Monday, it was teriyaki chicken and rice. Yesterday, the Subway was crowded with workers from the nearby hospital, so we adjourned next door to the Chinese fast food and I had chicken and cashews. On Sunday, Tim and myself went to QuizNos Subs. The chicken Caesar I had with flat bread was really good, if you can get over the (forced or otherwise) pleasantries from the servers.

I know it’s polite and customer service and all that, but I’d rather people said nothing to me rather than something forced or scripted.

Have a nice day now…

What’s the title about then? That line appears in the disclaimer at the start of South Park, and by some coincidence, that’s where I was yesterday. South Park Mall, Charlotte.

It was Sunday, there was little else to do. I didn’t fancy going to church, although thousands upon thousands did. In fact, that many that some of the church car parks were in to overflow parking.

There are a lot of churches around here, most of them seemed full. Some of the churches are immense. This was a drive-by bagging…

I remember flying over this on the way in to Charlotte because of its distinctive shape.

Back to South Park.

Most shops were locked up and closed when we got there around 10. We expected it, in what often appears to be a materialistic society to be open and busy, if not at 10 when we got there then at 11 which is when Meadowhall springs to life. Instead, it was another hour before the great switch-on, presumably to give all those who;d been crammed into the car parks time to get out again. By noon, it was all open. Don’t ask me what time it closed.

the Mall struck me as the ‘refined’ end of the shopping spectrum; why it allowed us in there is another matter. Marble floors (not unlike Meadowhall), several big depertment stores (another tick for us), designer jewellery (cross there), fancy homewares (pass on that one).

I promised Daniel a picture of the car we’ve got on rental…

…taken in the mall car park at 1:30am. Note the lack of cars.

After the mall, we decided to go for a little explore (it’s much easier when there’s one to drive and one to navigate!), eventually ending up at Wal*Mart between Matthews and Monroe on I74. A few provisions were purchased, then we had a drive down to find the plant for later this morning.

A quiet evening was had in the local bar watching the (American) football and the big rounders (baseball) game, retiring early, which is probably why I was wide awake at 5am again.

Ah well. I’ll no doubt have got the hang of this sleep lark by the end of the week.

Thanks for reading.

Well, it’s around 7am local time and I’m awake (obviously). I arrived in the US of A yesterday. I (if I slip into using ‘we’, I’m referring to the fact I’m travelling with Tim, a work colleague) left Manchester at 7:30 UK time onSaturday morning after a 5:30 start and a taxi trip over from Sheffield.

Parts of the flight over from Manchester to Newark were clear, and we especially had a clear view as we flew over Ireland (where ironically mark and Amanda are currently at the races)…

Despite being a little late leaving, we were early in to Newark, New Jersey. I’ve flown in to Newark before and I don’t like it. I know the immigration people have a lot to deal with, but basic politeness costs nothing. It’s the first impression most people get of the country they’re visiting on business or for holiday, and to be faced with an arrogant jobsworth is not a good impression. Despite the claim that “we pledge to treat you courteously and with respect” on the “our pledge to you” posters in immigration, there was a guy a couple of booths down who, whilst “being processed”, turned to speak to a travelling companion. Jobsworth got on his high horse:

J: “Sir. I’m talking to you”

Traveller: “I’m just talking to a friend”

J: “Sir, I’m the one dealing with you. Face me please”

Young J had a particularly nasty, arrogant tone of voice. This from a person with a gun on one hip and a rubber stamp on the other (I kid you not). The recipient of all this had previously been using his mobile phone in a restricted area. No-one had spotted him doing so, this despite warnings on the plane not to use it, so I had him labelled, but no-one deserved that treatment. If I’d have been at home and had to face that treatment, I would have turned on my heel and walked out, but it’s not an option having just flown 3,500 miles. Pity really.

Anyway, back to the plot.

There’s no transit baggage facilities at Newark, so luggage has to be recovered, carted across the airport and placed in a seperate area. this always leaves me feeling that I may never see it again. I’ll be back on this thread later…

We travelled the monorail to the departure terminal and checked the departure board. Flight delayed. Great.

Coffee was procured and with the distinct lack of places to sit, we decided to go through to the gate anyway. An earlier flight to Charlotte was boarding, and once the queues had diminished, I went to ask the attendant if she knew how long the flight was likely to be delayed by. She asked how many were travelling and whether we’d got any checked luggage. A quick phone call established that all the Continental luggae bound for Charlotte, regardless of flight was on the plane just boarded, there were spare seats available, so we’d managed to inadvertantly blag our way onto to an earlier flight. Never in England!

An uncomfortable 90 minute flight saw us into Charlotte, and amazingly, our luggae was on the carousel… which made us both quite pleased we’d been on that flight, because if not, our luggage would have been going round and round for another two hours. Hardly very secure…

We sorted out the rental car, got lost, got found again and got to the hotel. It’s nice enough – cool (it’s warm here but the rooms have AC), and on teh recommendation of the front desk, after showering, header for the nearby Deli Pub where we had a pleasant meal, a few drinks and an excellent conversation about sport ‘n’ travel with a group of locals. It’s one of those times when being a fan of a certain American Sport, i.e. ice hockey, has significant advantages!

Last Thursday, Caroline and Daniel were out when I got in from work. I wasn’t unduly worried because I knew they were planning on going to the Butterfly House. When I eventually checked the answering machine at home, it turned out they were at Rotherham A&E. Daniel had fallen at school whilst playing at lunchtime. He was in pain and unable to put any weight on his leg, so Caroline had taken the prudent approach and gone to get it checked out. It turned out that he’d fractured his tibia near his ankle.

So, two days back at school after the holiday and he’s potted up and off school for at least a week.

The crutches he’s got from the hospital are too long so he’s a danger to himself and everyone else around whilst trying to get around. They’ve been back to the hospital today because the cast was trapping his little toe and giving some grief. He’s got some shorter crutches, but they’re still too long. On the plus side, Caroline’s managed to borrow a wheelchair from the local Red Cross, so at least they’re not now confined to the house.

Seeing as he’s being such a star, we’ve treated him to a Nintendo DS console to help him pass the hours on. He’s now alternately busy trying to train Lucky the Corgi and battling with Pokemon.

We bought a new three-tier cage for the guinea pigs (Laura and Tewksebury) at the weekend from the new branch of Mr Jollyes which has opened at Meadowhall Retail Park and both pigs have eventually got the hang of the ramps to get between the levels. Tewks was a little slow to catch on but got there eventually. Laura was up and down like a rat in a drainpipe. Daniel was concerned about them falling off in the dark, so we’d been lifting the first ramp up at night. This morning, I found the ramp lifted out of the way and Tewks on the first level, heavens only knows how. Perhaps we’ll leave the ramps down tonight.

Finally, I’ll be sparing a thought for the families and friends and all those who lost loved ones in the World Trade Cent{er|re} disaster five years ago. In fact, almost to the minute as I type the last few words of this entry.

I’m also off to the US next week – to sunny Charlotte NC for the week. Business, not pleasure, but I’ll try and update from there.

I had a strange email yesterday. Yeah, I know, everyone gets strange emails… but this one was different.

It was from a guy at a Danish publishing house. Apparently, they’re in the process of producing a childrens’ text book about chemistry and science and they want to use one of my pictures from the geograph project – this one (there are two different links there!).

Its a picture of Harry Brearley – the guy who, back in 1913 discovered stainless steel. The story goes that Harry had been playing about with different metal chemistries. He noticed in a pile of stuff thrown out and exposed to the elements something bright and shiney – something that hadn’t corroded along with the rest. He recovered and analysed it, and found out it had a high chromium content amongst other things and stainless steel was born. This entry on Wikipedia tells the story in more detail. Coincidentally, the entry also includes my picture of Harry which I had nothing to do with. Funny how things get around, innit?!
Strange really that something now as common place as stainless steel has been around for less than 100 years. I wonder if we’ll all have a party in 2013 for stainless steel?

In the meantime, I must dig out the high-res image for our Danish friends!

As a postscript, my good friend Mark has started to put together a web site with some of his landscape images from Derbyshire. Have a look…

I was out with the band today. We were playing at Wetherby on the Bandstand next to the river. Things are seldom straight forward. On the way up on the A1, I passed a car and caravan facing south on the north-bound carriageway. Looking at the skid marks, they’d swerved towards the central reservation then across the carriageway and ended up on the hard shoulder facing “wrong road”.

I got a call from one of our cornet players whilst I was wandering around Wetherby sussing out to geograph photo locations. He and his son (who was conducting us that day) were delayed behind a lorry fire on the A1 and looked like they were going to be some time. “Not to worry” I said. “Ah, but…”. Our solo trombone was next to them in the traffic queue and he had the music stands in the back of his car. Oops.

We hastily arranged some more stands, courtesy of Wetherby Town Band and ended up conducting two thirds of the first half until Chris and Jonathon got there. It made a pleasant change for me.

This shot was of the second half, so I’m blowing my cornet somewhere.

In the background is the River Wharfe, higher and browner than usual after some heavy rain. Indeed, it only stopped raining just as we were about to start.

All in all, a very pleasant afternoon, plus a new first geograph.

Geographing has suddenly got so much easier since the purchase a couple of weeks ago of a Garmin GPS60 and the Northern England 1:50k OS (pink) maps. Now, when I’m out, I hit the “mark” button on the GPS when I take a photo and when I get home, I’ve got a map with lots of little dots on it that represent where I was when I pressed the shutter release.

Cool!

Also, the mapping software lets me print out in full colour the appropriate 1:50k map for the area I’m in, potentially saving a fortune on printed maps.

Double cool!

It’s Saturday and it’s raining, so Daniel and I have been doing a bit of geographing! We’re having a coffee in Meadowhall at the moment. I’ve just bumped in to John Batty, FD of where I worked 14 years ago. More later!

Ever had a (business) day with no email?

We had a business morning yesterday.

Our mail servers are hosted in the US (don’t get me going on that) and yesterday morning, we had no email. A few frantic phone calls revealed that our US office in North Carolina had suffered at the hands of tropical storm Ernesto. Lightening strikes had knocked out the local power, but worry not – they had a back-up generator.

…a backup generator that after a few minutes running overheated and cut out due to insufficient coolant.

All credit to them, we got our mail back around lunchtime, but what did we used to do before email?

Ah. I remember, we used to write memos to each other and talk to one another. One of our sales guys expressed some surprise that we don’t seem to talk to customers that much any more – it’s all done by email, and we saw a couple of glaring examples of our inability to communicate effectively yesterday.

I decided, rather than having 30 or 40 people ringing up every ten minutes for a status update, I’d put something on our Intranet and have my people ring around a few people and let them know about the status page.

A bit later, I went in to one ofthe office blocks where I knew my guys had rung. “Did you hear about the status page?” I asked? “No” was the reply. I even got that reply from the person sat behind the one with whom the status page phone conversation had taken place.

Thank god we’ve got email to rely on.