tuesday 1, london – up and packing to fly to london and see john, feiertag in germany, but had a confcall first thing which was ok, then set about tidying up a little, sabs and katie came back from walk, was able to say dutiful goodbyes before rushing for s-bahn and the flight before 6pm
arrive at john’s around 9pm, usual pile of papers to wade through, fix the curtain rail until 11pm
make some jokes about his dad’s army videos
wednesday 2, london – working from city office then back to john’s for supper, we rustle up 4 veg sausages and veggie burgers which actually tasted ok with boiled spuds and carrots, that after massive effort together to clear up kitchen
thursday 3, london then skipton/clitheroe – again back at the city office then off to kings cross to meet with john and train to skipton via leeds; then picking up hire car and visit mum and giving john a game of chess, before moving on to clitheroe
forget glasses on the train from london, hopeless attempt to recover over the coming week, numbers used
friday 4, clitheroe – couple of meetings builder and howdens and a few jobs done in terms of absolutely finalising spec, which got finished off actually sunday am, not ideal as knew i had to get this done as priority – principally marking up socket and light switch positions
go to bank with john to sort out a few jobs
drive over to see mum again, then on to swimming at skipton baths, meet the usual friday gang but too much to do to go to pub afterwards
saturday 5, clitheroe/skipton – start marking up first floor a bit then head off to skipton to install dsl at pete’s dad’s which goes reasonably well then off to elm tree for one of the best fish and chip meals i’ve ever had, then made way up to baths to catch up with josh and john who’d gone swimming
few goes on the slide then an hour’s swimming
then go over to bring josh to citheroe town bonfire, cold and hopeless for getting food on the site, so go to bawdlands for some heavily focused battered meals before going back for end of fireworks, buy josh a flashing blue sabre after doubling back as he wouldn’t be put off:
“but I am a child”
brilliant riposte!
took him back in the car, leaving still a few marking up jobs to do in the morning
sunday 6, clitheroe/skipton – up at 6am for said jobs, rushing round to finish in time and slightly late for church at baptist
chat with chris’ wife over coffee:
joanmurray.co.uk
maybe gives some interesting ideas to show sabs
see following john denver tribute artist giving concert at the parish church:
chrisbannistermusic.com
for margaret’s treat, meet up at dales cafe behind rackhams to be served by leah – was a good meal all told, albeit i only had time for soup and tea before dashing off to station for train to airport and fight to lisbon
monday 7, lisbon – go swimming at the nearby health centre, with an impressive 25m pool and manage 800m
great course first day with mike and meal at restaurant opposite the hotel with hosts, mike and anna
katie texts to say she has fallen after the snowfall in the wet untergeschoss at marienplatz
tuesday 8, lisbon – more role plays in 2’s and 3’s, then meal out at a restaurant on the coast in our group of 5, go down to cliff edge, expensive at 50€ a head but tasty
wednesday 9, lisbon – “shock” victory for trump, pete had called it right on Saturday and a quote in the graun or was it the beeb said:
“the plural of anecdote is not data”
call katie at the sana klinik in solln
Mohammed Ali quote/rephrased: hated every minute of training, but said to himself, “keep going, don’t give up and you can relax knowing that you became a champion”.
the john chambers made an appearance in the office to inspire the whole office and hold an interview and town hall meeting, we are able to catch some of it, very inspiring, he’s treated like a rock star and they’d had a band practising since yesterday and various warm-ups with the crowd
have great meal at fish restaurant opposite the group of restaurants we’d been using for lunch, this time get a 6,8kg sea bass, which at 50€ per kilo, pushes the bill into the 60€ per head bracket, we were 12 from mixed groups
thursday 10, lisbon – go swimming and manage 900m
the other john takes over for the training and after the intro, we have 3 great role plays over the 2 days with chances to practice in our groups, which exposes some tensions in the group dynamics, but big opportunities for learning and growth
call margaret
our group and hauke’s take cabs to restauradores centre of city to look around and eat – we find a good restaurant near the elevadores, crap food compared to what we’d been used to, i was impressed with the vinho verde from casal garcia until the guy at the airport the next day, mentioned it was a nice wine to get tipsy on quickly as it was easy drinking although 9.5% alcohol
walk down with few of us to the waterfront and then cabs back, last drinks with hauke – amaretto and maccaghlans, nice mixture, andre from our group and stephane
friday 11, lisbon – get chance to go swimming from 6.45 to 7.15 – manage 1250m as follows:
16l – 3 breast, 1 crawl
8l – back legs
16l – 3 breast, 1 crawl
8l – back legs, breast and crawl
2l – badewanne
course is continuing the role plays and learnings!
have lunch on my own at the bakery and get some cakes boxed up as treat, the wonderful rosinenschnecke or caracol with crystalised other fruits like limes and the delicate custard pies or pastel denata
work from the services area of the office, meet joad again who’d helped with the role plays, also sarah from mArtin’s team
say our good byes and then uber taxi out and saw an interesting poster near the airport:
“this is not the new berlin, we’ve been innovating since the 16th century”
quite apt, as the week had also seen the web summit taking place in lisbon and hotels were quite full as a result, in fact there were quite a few coders on the plane going back with
went shopping in the airport with jorge as there was plenty of time to kill – spend about 100€ on perfume, wine and a CD
very impressed with lisbon and it’s quite easy from munich, check flights from:
TAP
transavia
easyjet
vueling
saturday 12 – day catching up on stuff at home and nice meal at home in the evening, watching strictly
sunday 13 – got class on sunday, so tell about portugal, the schnecke, share the custards and have a mini chess tournament, since the world championships had started
went out for meal at paulaner brauhaus with jenny+alistair, kathy+graham
monday 14 – have the mixing+mastering course from 5pm to 10pm, feel a little out of it all, particularly when trying to make small talk at the breaks
tuesday 15 – second evening of the course, strike a conversation with the chap next to me, so it goes a little better and get a lot of tips, as it starts to make sense overall with the objectives
wednesday 16 – went to guitar and then to bed early
thursday 17 – early flight to duesseldorf for big meeting, then flight back, too tired for swimming though
friday 18 – studying Peter Hinssen and how he does key notes:
had band practice then went for beer with graham and scott, great service by one of the waiters who takes us into the back and into a kuschelige ecke, where we chat as if we are a real band – alistair had asked if we’d got a regular pub going and we kind of had with this one, but now it really feels as if we have a special place in the pub as well now!
saturday 19 –
sunday 20 – back again at sunday school, this time completely ueberfordert and it doesnt run so well
monday 21 – went to office, then a ship in the night experience as i travel back on the sbahn as katie travels out
had the linsen curry and rice for tea
girls working on the dining table doing their homeworks
tuesday 22 – made pizza for tea after going round to get shopping for tomorrow – via the kebab shop and also rewe, then made a pineapple and raspberry upside down cake and some custard, which we eat around 8.45pm way too late and i sit next to eve as she and saby are doing their homework, she’s struggling with some maths so i offer to help, she wants saby to help who is too busy, so i throw in a line about what K is in the sine/cosine waveforms she is analysing and lo and behold, she admits it wasn’t too far off the mark!
wednesday 23 – guitar course and only 2 people, so chance to work more on notes and some easy, but still difficult pieces, good reminder that these could be a basic practice session:
scales
bass note piece
preledium in C
mond ist aufgegangen
+/- some stuff from fridolin
sabs has got the oven on ready for the kaeseborek, zuchinnipflanzerl, falafel coupled with oven root veg, carrots, parsnips and courgette, mm the last one maybe not a root veg and also given the pflanzerl maybe could be swapped for something better in future
thursday 24, flying to london – fly into LHR and since lufthansa is on strike, we arrive slightly early, take bus to bedfont lakes and have a productive day on a bug scrub, getting from over 100 to around 20 by the end of the day, after a purple patch in the afternoon, spurred on by tea and shortbread biscuits
then take bus to john, via a mistake to feltham
we meet at the bus station as it is by this time late and I’m cold, have meal at the royal oak which was very mediocre
friday 25, london – didnt sleep so good but into the office in reasonable time, 8am.
Wendy Bahr’s advice, specifically for women in technology, on how best to advance:
“First, don’t be afraid to step into a role in which you only have a portion of the required skill set. I believe sometimes, especially as women, we are very worried about being immediately competent and overly concerned with how much experience or skill we need to succeed in a role.
Second, I encourage women to raise their hand for special projects. If it’s something you’re passionate about, you should trust your instincts and go ahead and step into those roles in which you may still be learning on the job.
Just be confident that you’ll get there. So taking some risks is important in professional advancement.”
went for lunch at a quirky cafe round the corner from the city office:
thekittyhawk.co.uk
go to julia fordham concert at union chapel at highbury&islington
wonderful setting, have a meal at the start and drinks at the end, meet andrew and lorraine out on a night out and away from their 2 year old son
chat with grant mitchell before leaving and ask about the music for hope, prayer and time and the river – to work out chords should be easy he says!
concert review:
less is more, jazz in the chapel, a lady in her element
falling forward (guitar) – guitar not mic’d up for good 30s and voicing a little shaky on the first few notes, but excellent starter
ingrid and humphrey (guitar) – story of her parents at their wedding, chorus is about them, 1st verse her sister, 2nd her brother and 3rd her, an unwanted blue-eyed blonde-haired girl
girlfriend (guitar)
swept – drummer simply using a pink stick and shaker
cocooned – drummer uses a timpani set
she chats about their journey from bristol today passing the 3 places where she lived before the final one in islington and arrival
east west
your lovely face – she uses a shaker
few too many (guitar)
procelain (guitar)
towerblock with the line “i ask you where do we go from here” (piano and voice)
interval
chats how she came to write next song – father was stuck in the war mindset and sung “pack up your troubles” as the children toddled off to school,
skipping under the rainbow (piano + voice)
behind closed doors (piano + voice)
(love moves in) mysterious ways
love
makes references to SA and US as intro to next song, how she was writing it originally about herself, turned onthe TV and saw Nelson Mandela talking about the situation and realised her selfishnesss, re-wrote:
happy ever after
makes comment to someone recording and possibly uploading to youtube, she has fears about being photographed from certain “angles”
following song was left off porcelain:
manahattan skyline (guitar)
next a song which jackson brown had told her was his and it’s her personal favourite:
stay (guitar)
encore
announces that she has found her venue here!
where does the time go?
gives intro to next song as tribute to terry wogan, who gave her a chance to appear on the program (if) she has a ‘party piece’, which fortunately she did in:
loving you (millie riperton cover, piano + voice)
someone has beaten me to it:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/julia-fordham/2016/union-chapel-london-england-7bfba2bc.html
setup for grant mitchell:
kawai piano (recall elton john prefers these over steinways for onstage sound – check source was it the mixing course?)
roland a49 non top
apple logic pro and monitor speaker
saturday 26, london – get up a little later than normal and go to john’s church to sit with his mates and have tea and toast, actually our breakfast, at around 10.30am
we mess around, not getting up to much then take the train in to south kensington to visit originally the V&A, but then switch to get lunch at the science museum first, wander around the exhibition on data there, as well as energy and making of the modern world, then go back to the V&A where we give on the originally intended exhibition at £16 and look around on the first floor at old paintings, a glastonbury section and the wonderful library there
we take the tube up to embankment, visit the royal festival hall, discussing and showing the situation with finances together, then take the bridge further down river towards the coal hole for fish+chips, john with fishcakes
not bad, we sat at the same table as last time in the corner, but maybe would like to try the lyceum pub on the opposite side of the strand or for fish+chips we really should try that place near where we were staying in covent garden
sunday 27, flying back from london – go to 9.30am service with john, cup of tea, then to tescos for tea and crumpets to take back, plus potato cakes!
take bus in good time to airport and find a quiet place in LHR at the north end of the terminal, there are about 10 seats in total at 2 locations which i found which actually face the runway and offer some peace away from it all
flight is a little late getting off, in a big 767 and in the middle seat between someone who looked like they were writing a novel, me reading a novel and someone reading a newspaper, 3 gents in their 50s
sbahn home and catching the strictly results show
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