dave-smith.co.uk

So no real postings of note recently, not that any of the post postings have been that note worthy...

So yesterday was my first visit to LHR in 2008 and what a joyous visit it was, a quick trip to Madrid.... the airport was fog bound, and flights were delayed, mine eventually boarded two hours late, therefore the work I was going to complete that evening ended up dragging on quite late into the night, on the plus side I had some online company and of course a server to beat into submission, also as the only person in the office I had full access to the available bandwidth which was hand for the various M$ patches that you have to apply (38 patches, 4 reboots, plus a further 2 reboots when joining the server to the domain - MAD PDC is now live!) overall the trip was a success in technical terms with the only sour note being the inevitable complaining by the office manager about the cost of my visit being charged back (I suspect my cheapo economy fare and hotel room are a bit cheaper than the 30K Eur it would take to have full IT help on site for the 4 people in the office...)

So first trip this year, not bad for 8 weeks in, last year I was at LHR 8 hours into the year, got a few more trips coming up, before (hopefully) another protracted stint at home. (Dubai / Hamburg / Stockholm)

Work / Life balance, now there's a tricky one, I've had a few evenings where the laptop has stayed firmly away in its bag and have read instead, not sure this makes a difference to me being actually "there" however it does mean that Octavia does have to put up with the *tap* *tap* of the keyboard or me swearing at the stupidity of an email I've just received.... even when I'm just surfing or doing non-work stuff I still can't seem to break the habit of checking my email.... maybe I should use one client for all my work stuff, and then switch to a different client for my personal email - will have to think about that one.

Iona continues to amaze, she's walking around 95% of the time now, the other 5% being split between falling over or the occasional crawl, which is very cute, but with being so used to her walking also seems a bit odd. Memorably the other week when Mike and Claire were over for the 5k she tripped on the front door sill as she was coming into the house and managed to blow a raspberry at Mike as she landed on her padded backside, the indignity of it all ;-) Iona is still subjecting us to sing and sign DVD's however at least "Hop little bunnies" is quite such a waste of time, and she certainly seems to enjoy the hopping around that goes with that particular song, she now signs "More" "Mouse" "Rabbit" "Car" "Sorry" (just once, and not to me) "Where" "Bee" "Zebra" so some more useful than others, but it is nice that she can sort of communicate. Iona also understands what we're saying (probably a lot more than we know!), so if there is a spillage on the floor you can ask her to clear it up, and she will toddle off to the kitchen, get a cloth and then clear up the offending spillage... well trained!

My training (unlike Laras) is going pretty well, doing a lot of base work which I'm hoping will pay off later, it's hard "running" whilst keeping to an average pulse of 150 - especially when you are overtaken by other runners. Swimming is going ok, I get down about my swim, but considering this time last year I could only manage about 50m before having to rest I shouldn't complain that an average swim session for me is now 1300m, not fast, probably not that pretty, but certainly improving. I probably need to change my training a little bit as I have a half marathon with Mr Cook in a few months time, but then for me my aim is to get around (and any time I do will be a personal best) not be injured training for the event. m I've changed my philosophy to training this year, all purely time based work (well running and cycling anyway) and training smarter, I'm also recognising that I need to rest, if I wake up and don't feel like training that day, I bin the session and don't worry about it, it's my body's way of saying "take a rest"....