Thursday, October 11, 2007
Photos
Well I uploaded some pictures of Camp Jules but in other picture news I've been looking through some myspace photos and came across a truely great photo that highlights how far I let my beard go. Check it out:
London
I went down to London for the weekend. Matt GA was having a leaving do on Friday because he's getting shipped out to Iraq in the next few days, I haven't seen my cousin since before he got married earlier this year and I organized myself an interivew for Monday. So I headed down on Megabus on Friday and went straight to Matt's house. It's been about two years since I last saw him because he's been stationed in Germany so it was good seeing him and all his family again. Dave was also there since he's come over to England to work. Again, I haven't seen him in ages and since he only got to England right when I was leaving at the end of last year I didn't have time to catch him then. So it was reunions all around and good fun. I knew about half of the people who came for the leaving do from running into them over the years while hanging out with Matt so I wasn't totally lost but they definitely were not a group of close friends. The whole night was good with the highlight of the evening occuring around the piano. Rory (I think that's his name, sorry) was banging out the flight of the bumble bees and doing it very well. I was listening with Mackey from the beginning and halfway through Matt's mum comes in to listen behind us where Rory can't see her. Then after finishing he turns to us and says "It doesn't half tire out your wanking muscles." as he shook out his hand. I don't know if it went straight over Matt's mums head but she didn't bat an eyelid. I crashed at Matt's house for the evening and stayed the ext day to watch the England rugby match. We beat Australia and it was brilliant. The ozzies where out. As it turned out the French also beat the kiwis so it began to look like we might have a chance. All I know is that the England v. France game this weekend is going to be good.
In the evening I headed across town to meet up with my cousin and his wife, who had not even met yet. I ended up being half and hour late. It was partly my fault, I didn't leave enough time to get across London, but I was also delayed in leaving Matt's house. Anyway, it was quite similar to the last time I met up with my cousin in London when I was coming from Matts house again and was more than an hour late. So next time I'm going to have to be extra careful to ensure I arrive early. Anyway, we had a couple of drinks at a bar. I was just looking around and Mike Fitzpatrick walks in with some friends. A completely random encounter but we caught up a bit before he went off to join his friends. After a drink or two we headed for some dinner at a great Moroccan place. It was really nice to catch up with my cousin and finally meet his wife and we had a great time talking away over dinner. I ended up crashing at their place for the night and after some breakfast in the morning I headed down to meet up with Jules.
On my way down I had a stop at London bridge and had a look around to see where my interview was and then kept going to Jules' place. We just chilled out for the evening, cooking a Sunday roast chicken and playing Wii all night. On Monday I headed over for my interview. Now after the shocking performance last time round I was a bit apprehensive as you might imagine so I was going to do my homework. I called up a friend who works for them and asked what to expect inthe interview. He said it would primarily be on my work in my PhD so I was ready to study up on my thesis. The problem is that my computer has been dying lately. I think it has an intermitent hardare problem with the memory, but I'm not exactly sure since I've run the hardware test and it came up with an error the first time but not the second time I ran it. In any case, every now and then it just crashes. I get a message that pops up and says "You must restart your computer" and I have to shut it down. Then it doesn't always want to start up again ... sometimes. So I've been soldiering on and until it has a predictable fault I'm going to leave it (since I don't really have the money to replace it). Anyway, before the interview my computer started acting up. I didn't have enough space in my bag for a hard copy of my thesis so I was relying on my computer. I know this sounds silly considering that I should have brought a hardcopy to study for the interview but I didn't find out that tehinterview would probably cover my thesis until I was already down in London. Anyway. the bottom line was that my thesis was on my computer, which didn't want to start up, and I wanted to read through some of it. Not the best situation. Finally I convinced my laptop to play nice and I got a couple of hours looking through my thesis. As it turns out, this wasn't as necessary as I thought. I went for the interview and just talked with the business manager. I would have a more technical interview at later date and also an interview with the MD of the company. So it was quite alright after all. The interview went well this time around. The company is a consulting company so after the usual this is what we do, tell me about yourself, we discussed a few opportunites that might be a good fit for me. It was quite strange because he was talking as if I already had a job at teh consultancy. Saying things like "We've got this and we've got that. Here are some things that we think you'll fit in quite well with" and going on about it also saying "Well if this isn't exactly what you want to do then we can wait for something else to come along." Which all sounds great but at the same time I didn't have a job yet and I didn't work for them. I guess he was just good at his job. He was making me feel really good about the company and giving me all sorts of positive options to keep me interested in the opportunities that they had. Trying to reel me into the company. But it was all quite strange, like meeting with a recruitment agent but being in an interivew instead. But I guess thats what a consulting company is, some sort of recuitment agency. They have to fill their books with good qualified people and keep them on the line while they also go out and find jobs to match them. In any case there are a couple of interesting jobs going and it went pretty well. I might even be back down in London fairly soon to meet some clients to see if I fit what they want. Then I might actually have a job.
I've been thinking about it a bit and it's not the dream job that I've been looking for. It's not working on racing cars. But at teh same time, consulting work is quite interesting. You get to work on a bunch of different projects and gain a lot of experience. And if you want to push your career in a particular direction then you just have to push for those projects. Also, if something better does come up then its fairly easy to get out of in between projects. So it does look pretty good and since I don't have anything else on the table right now then it looks really good. So the interview went well and I crashed at Jules' place again on Monday before heading back up to Leeds on the Megabus on Tuesday. I must say I'm quite happy with Megasbus. Last time I used them they had normal double decker buses but they were using proper coaches this time so the trip was pretty comfortable, especially since I managed to get the double seat to myself. So I'm back up in Leeds now and playing the waiting game again and I'll let you know if this job comes through.
In the evening I headed across town to meet up with my cousin and his wife, who had not even met yet. I ended up being half and hour late. It was partly my fault, I didn't leave enough time to get across London, but I was also delayed in leaving Matt's house. Anyway, it was quite similar to the last time I met up with my cousin in London when I was coming from Matts house again and was more than an hour late. So next time I'm going to have to be extra careful to ensure I arrive early. Anyway, we had a couple of drinks at a bar. I was just looking around and Mike Fitzpatrick walks in with some friends. A completely random encounter but we caught up a bit before he went off to join his friends. After a drink or two we headed for some dinner at a great Moroccan place. It was really nice to catch up with my cousin and finally meet his wife and we had a great time talking away over dinner. I ended up crashing at their place for the night and after some breakfast in the morning I headed down to meet up with Jules.
On my way down I had a stop at London bridge and had a look around to see where my interview was and then kept going to Jules' place. We just chilled out for the evening, cooking a Sunday roast chicken and playing Wii all night. On Monday I headed over for my interview. Now after the shocking performance last time round I was a bit apprehensive as you might imagine so I was going to do my homework. I called up a friend who works for them and asked what to expect inthe interview. He said it would primarily be on my work in my PhD so I was ready to study up on my thesis. The problem is that my computer has been dying lately. I think it has an intermitent hardare problem with the memory, but I'm not exactly sure since I've run the hardware test and it came up with an error the first time but not the second time I ran it. In any case, every now and then it just crashes. I get a message that pops up and says "You must restart your computer" and I have to shut it down. Then it doesn't always want to start up again ... sometimes. So I've been soldiering on and until it has a predictable fault I'm going to leave it (since I don't really have the money to replace it). Anyway, before the interview my computer started acting up. I didn't have enough space in my bag for a hard copy of my thesis so I was relying on my computer. I know this sounds silly considering that I should have brought a hardcopy to study for the interview but I didn't find out that tehinterview would probably cover my thesis until I was already down in London. Anyway. the bottom line was that my thesis was on my computer, which didn't want to start up, and I wanted to read through some of it. Not the best situation. Finally I convinced my laptop to play nice and I got a couple of hours looking through my thesis. As it turns out, this wasn't as necessary as I thought. I went for the interview and just talked with the business manager. I would have a more technical interview at later date and also an interview with the MD of the company. So it was quite alright after all. The interview went well this time around. The company is a consulting company so after the usual this is what we do, tell me about yourself, we discussed a few opportunites that might be a good fit for me. It was quite strange because he was talking as if I already had a job at teh consultancy. Saying things like "We've got this and we've got that. Here are some things that we think you'll fit in quite well with" and going on about it also saying "Well if this isn't exactly what you want to do then we can wait for something else to come along." Which all sounds great but at the same time I didn't have a job yet and I didn't work for them. I guess he was just good at his job. He was making me feel really good about the company and giving me all sorts of positive options to keep me interested in the opportunities that they had. Trying to reel me into the company. But it was all quite strange, like meeting with a recruitment agent but being in an interivew instead. But I guess thats what a consulting company is, some sort of recuitment agency. They have to fill their books with good qualified people and keep them on the line while they also go out and find jobs to match them. In any case there are a couple of interesting jobs going and it went pretty well. I might even be back down in London fairly soon to meet some clients to see if I fit what they want. Then I might actually have a job.
I've been thinking about it a bit and it's not the dream job that I've been looking for. It's not working on racing cars. But at teh same time, consulting work is quite interesting. You get to work on a bunch of different projects and gain a lot of experience. And if you want to push your career in a particular direction then you just have to push for those projects. Also, if something better does come up then its fairly easy to get out of in between projects. So it does look pretty good and since I don't have anything else on the table right now then it looks really good. So the interview went well and I crashed at Jules' place again on Monday before heading back up to Leeds on the Megabus on Tuesday. I must say I'm quite happy with Megasbus. Last time I used them they had normal double decker buses but they were using proper coaches this time so the trip was pretty comfortable, especially since I managed to get the double seat to myself. So I'm back up in Leeds now and playing the waiting game again and I'll let you know if this job comes through.
Camp Jules
So the other weekend I headed back up to Camp Jules. I got a lift up there with Jules' parents on Thursday night and Jules was coming up from London with Colin and the two Chris' after work on Friday. I spent Friday poking around the boats for a while playing with my new digital camera. I was taking a bunch of arty shots of the rigging on the 14 and playing with the depth of field. Check out the pictures at my picassa site. After enough playing with the camera I realised the wind was up and time was ticking away so I rigged up the laser and went for a spin. I got on quite well and sailed up to the sailing club and then had a run back down the lake (the wind was coming from the north which is a bit unusual). I was doing alright but it always felt like there was more speed in the boat given the wind conditions. I just wasn't quite getting it. Maybe I was sailing too hard up into the wind or maybe I didn't have the sail properly set for the wind. What ever it was, there was something not quite right, which is always a bit frustrating but oh well, I had a good sail anyway. Jules and everyone else got into camp a bit after midnight and we looked forward to teaching the two Chris' how to sail.
Saturday came and the wind wasn't really blowing. There was enough movement on the water to get the boats around but not much more. So we rigged the two merlins and got Jules and beardy Chris in the new boat while I took out vegy Chris. Colin jumped on the laser and had a little float with us. We managed to beat up to the sailing club again but the wind was dying. We turned around before it got too calm and started heading back. We had to jump from one patch of wind to the next, getting caught in flat clam in between. Colin was just sitting out in the middle of the lake going nowhere. We put up the spinaker and tried to catch a bit more wind with the extra sail but just ended up going round in circles as the wind floated around with no apparent direction. At least we did better than Beardy Chris who was helming the boat when Jules dropped the spinaker pole. The pole went with the excellent auto-retrive rigging and shot straight back into Chris's forehead. It was a perfect shot. On our boat, I lost the spinaker pole once but thankfully it didn't have quite as good aim and missed Chris. So we all got back to camp after a bit of a float. Adey had made it up for the weekend but not in time for a sail so we all went for a wander through the woods. It was really nice and calm in the forest. It was full of trees and moss that really deadened the sound and gave it a great sense of peace. It just looed amazing with all the lush green in the late afternoon light under a cloudy sky. It reminded me of why I enojy being outside so much. After getting a bit hungry we headed back to camp for dinner then cruised into town for a pint in the pub.
Sunday was even worse than Saturday for sailing. There was almost no wind. We ended up taking the tents down and cleaning up camp a bit. Then in the afternoon it looked like a bit of wind was picking up. I rigged the new merlin and went out with Colin to gauge the conditions while beardy Chris got ready to sail the laser. As it turned out the wind didn't pick up, it died quite quickly which left Colin and me floating around in the middle of the lake and Chris just sitting on shore watching us with Jules. So the weekend was a bit of a failure for sailing. I felt bad for the Chris' who had rented a car and come all the way up from London expecting to learn how to sail. As it was they did get out on the water but it wasn't like it should have been. I remember my first weekend up at the lake and the brilliant sailing we got in, racing away in the 14 by the end of it. But I guess they did get out of the big smoke and had some fresh air and countryside, which they really did seem to enjoy. So it may have been worth it for them but knowing what it could have been with some good wind, I still felt a bit sorry for them.
Camp Jules
Saturday came and the wind wasn't really blowing. There was enough movement on the water to get the boats around but not much more. So we rigged the two merlins and got Jules and beardy Chris in the new boat while I took out vegy Chris. Colin jumped on the laser and had a little float with us. We managed to beat up to the sailing club again but the wind was dying. We turned around before it got too calm and started heading back. We had to jump from one patch of wind to the next, getting caught in flat clam in between. Colin was just sitting out in the middle of the lake going nowhere. We put up the spinaker and tried to catch a bit more wind with the extra sail but just ended up going round in circles as the wind floated around with no apparent direction. At least we did better than Beardy Chris who was helming the boat when Jules dropped the spinaker pole. The pole went with the excellent auto-retrive rigging and shot straight back into Chris's forehead. It was a perfect shot. On our boat, I lost the spinaker pole once but thankfully it didn't have quite as good aim and missed Chris. So we all got back to camp after a bit of a float. Adey had made it up for the weekend but not in time for a sail so we all went for a wander through the woods. It was really nice and calm in the forest. It was full of trees and moss that really deadened the sound and gave it a great sense of peace. It just looed amazing with all the lush green in the late afternoon light under a cloudy sky. It reminded me of why I enojy being outside so much. After getting a bit hungry we headed back to camp for dinner then cruised into town for a pint in the pub.
Sunday was even worse than Saturday for sailing. There was almost no wind. We ended up taking the tents down and cleaning up camp a bit. Then in the afternoon it looked like a bit of wind was picking up. I rigged the new merlin and went out with Colin to gauge the conditions while beardy Chris got ready to sail the laser. As it turned out the wind didn't pick up, it died quite quickly which left Colin and me floating around in the middle of the lake and Chris just sitting on shore watching us with Jules. So the weekend was a bit of a failure for sailing. I felt bad for the Chris' who had rented a car and come all the way up from London expecting to learn how to sail. As it was they did get out on the water but it wasn't like it should have been. I remember my first weekend up at the lake and the brilliant sailing we got in, racing away in the 14 by the end of it. But I guess they did get out of the big smoke and had some fresh air and countryside, which they really did seem to enjoy. So it may have been worth it for them but knowing what it could have been with some good wind, I still felt a bit sorry for them.
Camp Jules
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