Day 1
Uneventful check in and to the Sky Club lounge in SLC, it was packed, i took what must have been the last seat in there. Some author was sitting across from me, they were quite funny, although i don’t remember what they were talking about. I attended a work call from the lounge, was quite interesting. Flight to Atlanta was fine, i worked most of the way, catching up on emails and the like. Got to Atlanta and immediately set about exploring where the planes fly to - this time it was Johannesburg, Dubai, Buenos Aires, Milan and Baltimore. Mmmmm Baltimore. Flight was nice, watched flight of the conchords, read a bit of the 50 marathons in 50 days book. Didn't sleep a wink on the plane unfortunately, so arrived at Dublin at 7am, which is midnight SLC time! Immigration is nonexistent - all they asked me was 'when are you leaving'. Rented a car which has turned out to be a bad idea. Traffic is terrible, it's raining and dark. Roads are narrow and scary. Wont be doing this again. Lots of meetings through a sleepy haze today, had a nice coffee though which helped. A senior manager here asked straight up 'you guys hitting the piss tonight?', we answer no we're tired, so he says 'well, give me a call and i'll join you if you are'. We are indeed in Ireland. Steve and I had dinner at the Mermaid which was ok, very very expensive (95 euro for 2 of us), and now back in the room for bed. It's 9:10pm here ... or 2:10 in SLC. i've been up for 31 hours straight, go me. I'll try to email like this everyday, let's see how i go.
St Patricks in Dublin
Day 2
European breakfast! Turkey, ham and salami to start the day, with sides of banana, rockmelon, croissant and coffee. Yummo. Then an hours drive to the office through the traffic. Not so yummo. Forgot, slept so well last night, like a brick, couldn't ask for better. When you come over, consider staying up ALL night and day, then you'll sleep extremely well the 1st night. Then again, i'm about to go to bed for the 2nd night, which is usually the hardest. Let's see if i spend the night sleepless and staring at the ceiling. Work was good, met some amazing people that are clearly sharp, passionate about fraud and want to make a difference. Took them through some of the work we do, sold the team a little and explained how it all works. This really helps us a better relationship with them, which also means they give us more meaningful ideas, which also means we're all better at doing what we do. Dinner @ the Bank, a 115 year old bank converted into a very nice dinner/pub place, couple of guinness with steve, very nice, Now, i am very tired and in need of a good nap. Tomorrow we're going for a run in the morning around Phoenix park, visiting the Guinness brewery, then watching Ireland vs Italy in a pub somewhere. That's the plan, i think we'll do 2 of 3 of these.
Dublin coffee in the hotel bar.
Day 3
The 2nd night is always the worst - and it remained true once again. Woke up at 1am, couldn't sleep till 4, then missed my 7am alarm and awoke at 9.45. First up was a quick breakfast, meats, fruit and juice, followed by a 6 mile run with Steve. From the hotel down to the river, over to Phoenix Park, all over the park and back. There was some cross country race going on there, lots of people running in the mud. Didn't look like that much fun, we enjoyed ourselves on the path/road. I haven't run for the last week, have been focused on stretching the IT band daily, but it didn't work. Right now the left knee is hurting like crazy and i'm afraid i wont meet my goal of a marathon in April. Everything feels fantastic (heart, muscles, most joints), but the left knee is killing me. Guess i'll be seeing the doctor when i get back :( Back to the hotel for a break, then we walked to the Guinness storehouse (through a local market on the way). Fun place, interesting history, nothing like signing a 9000 year lease on a brewery! Free beer at the end was fantastic, i uploaded the pic to facebook. Back to the hotel for a break, read for a while, checked work email, then we went to an Italian place for dinner. It wasn't so nice, but what can you do, we were in the tourist area. I had an Irish Coffee to finish dinner, and whoa, it was strong. Now am back in the hotel and ready for bed again. It was a lighter day activity wise, but i think i needed it. Already packed for tomorrow's flight to London, i'm quite looking forward getting over there. I want bangers and mash, maybe a boddingtons.
Phoenix Park, Dublin
My Goodness My Guinness
Day 4
Terrible night sleep! Finally nodded off around 3, then up at 6.45 for breakfast. Today was the trip from Dublin to London. Fantastic breakfast of cold meats, croissants, fruits, juice and coffee (we need to start eating like that), i also realized that 'coffee' here is sometimes americano (espresso + hot water). Not sure how i feel about that. Checked out of the hotel, drive to the airport. Seems simple right? Nope. First, the GPS is dumb, got us lost. Then Dublin airport is under heavy construction right now, which the GPS also does not recognise. There are two car hire returns (both have signs that say the same thing), so obviously we went to the wrong one. There's no one to greet you when you drop the car off, then you can to take the GPS back separately. We joked that we could make a lot of money in Ireland by just copying what everyone else does around the world, talk about inefficient. Flight was on BMI, part of Star Alliance. Was quite nice. Heathrow is impressive, easily the biggest airport i've ever been in. Just the Ireland section alone was the size of Hobart airport. Cab was great, very well designed. I now understand the Black Cab Sessions, there's plenty of room. Richmond Hill Hotel is nice enough, small room, i can hear the music from the restaurant. Not much happened today, been zonked due to lack of sleep. I'm now watching Top Gear, and going to bed. First day in the London office tomorrow, should be interesting.
View from Richmond Hill, right next to the hotel.
Day 5
Good day. Had a fantastic sleep last night, 10 to 7.20, just what I needed. Breakfast was a bit crap, they forgot my peanut butter, oh well. Walk to work was nice, the office is this really nice old building tucked in a side street-you'd never guess a major company was back there. Reminds me of ebay in the early days, lots of enthusiasm, long hours and the sense of doing something new. It would be quite nice to work there-although the workload would be quite high. Lunch at Wagamama! Nice dinner at an Argentinean steakhouse, service was over the top, tasted like pub steak and chips. Meh. I dropped by an espresso bar on the walk back to the hotel, you know, cause I have all this monopoly cash in my wallet and it's fun. Now back in the room. Got my laundry back, they stapled tags to my undies! Gross for them. Tomorrow have my big day, hope it goes well. See you in 2 days!
The office (sorry about the blur)
Day 6
Good day! Woke up, had another crappy breakfast . Met a lot of people today from all over the world, no idea on names but i spoke with people from Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Australia, USA, Poland ... It felt like the eBay i joined in 2002. My presentation went pretty well, i think. After work we had a night out in London! Train to Waterloo (Watermaloo? Abba?), then walked to the Thames and we had a private carriage/capsule on the Eye of London. It was quite good, great view from up there. I have no idea how much it cost, but i don’t think it was cheap. We then walked to a place overlooking the river than reminded me of the Cargo Bar area in Sydney, we had the best tables in the restaurant. Dinner was ok, red wine was flowing, i had soup/sea bass/creme buele. Lovely, small portions, although USA has massive portions, i'm now confused whether i'm Australian or American . I like both, but both have their good and bad points. Train back to the hotel and went to sleep. I'd like to work with this group one day, they do a lot of interesting stuff.
The eye
Day 7
Quite a day, very rewarding in the long run. Woke up a little later than normal, the day didn't start till 10am which was a nice change of pace. Skipped breakfast in the hotel due to previous days crappola, and found a little cafe with coffee and cappuccino. The summit was good, some interesting products and ideas came out of it. Met up with a bunch of people-including phuong and jenny for beers after work, lots of fun. Then dinner at some hole in the wall place for fish a chips. Great night, met some great people that I'd love to work more with (move to denmark?) And overall very educational trip. Mich arrives in the morning!
England has milkmen!
Day 8
Now I've lost track if the days. Yesterday started with me wondering when michelle would arrive. I figured she would call when she landed and if meet her at richmond station 90 mins later. Not so, her phone didn't work! I went for breakfast at Paola's, then went for 2nd breakfast at starbucks before mich called at 920 saying shed been there for 30 mins. Bah! Dropped her stuff at the hotel then went into town to tate modern. Great museum, lots of 'important' artists, stuff you see in the textbooks. Dinner at a local pub was awesome, bangers and mash! That was it, very happy mich finally joined me, and now on to the vacation part of this trip!
See, we went to Tate Modern. It was free (donation)!
Bangers & Mash
Day 9
Long sleep in, maybe 945 before we were ready to leave the hotel. Mich was very tired and slept like a rock. Breakfast at paulos again, fantastic! We did the train/tube from richmond to earls court then transfer to edgeware road for our next hotel. Don't really recommend that with a lot of luggage, although the oyster card system is fantastic. After checking in went straight to the home of cricket, lords! Great tour, highly recommended. Saw the ashes, lots of cool memorabilia, paintings, the changerooms and stadiums, lovely place. I would never be allowed into that place normally, they still require trousers and jackets. Blah. Next was Piccadilly square and Avenue Q show! Very funny and incorrect show using puppets, swearing and sex. Loved it. Finished off with dinner (+bottle of wine + free glass of wine) at an indo/malaysian place near some strip clubs, and a beer at the hotel bar. What a perfect day!
Michelle at Lords
Piccadilly (I think)
Day 10
Completely lost track of days! Great nights sleep, the day started at Trafalgar Sq where there was a massive screen for the olympics. Quick trip through the national art gallery was great, some of the oldest paintings I have ever seen-they were quite smitten with baby jesus back then. Walked to buckingham palace just to take a look, quite by chance saw the changing of the guard, lots of pomp, little light on anything entertaining. Pub lunch then spent the afternoon at tower of london. This was an exhausting day, spent our whole day in tourist places, I was ready for a break after this. Spend all day at the tourist traps, you don't get to know the real city! Dinner was with Sharon, Varun, Kenny, Samantha and Savannah at a great indian tapas place in notting hill (Urban Turban). Great long day, tomorrow I'm hoping will be a little quieter than today. Goodnight!
Trafalgar Square
Day 11 and 12
Last day in London, woke up (very late) on Valentines Day to the sound of 1000 people all trying to get free breakfast in the hotel restaurant at the same time. We were ushered into a massive conference room where they had set up hundreds of tables and were serving breakfast. Interesting, but effective. Nice work Hilton. First up today was the Museum of London, very interesting view of the city over the last few thousand years. Romans, fires, plagues, bridges, invasions ... this city has it all. Stopped by St Pauls for a peek, there was a service on, so technically, i went to church last Sunday. This was followed up by a beer at a local pub to watch England vs Italy in the 6 Nations rugby (England won, but not convincingly). Stroll through Covenant Gardens was crazy, thousands of people, street performers, stalls. Back to the hotel, then dinner in the sports bar and drinks in the lounge (yummy Lagavulin-had this scotch once in Seattle in 2002, been looking for it ever since). Finished by watching Apocalypto - surprisingly good.
To close this trip out, we slept for 3 hours before waking at 3.30am to get a cab to Heathrow. Flew to Paris, then took the CDG>SLC direct flight. This flight started 2 years ago and ever since i thought it would be cool to be in Paris, and see a sign for SLC. Now i've done it! The terminal was shared by flights going to Rio, Lagos and Hong Kong, now SLC can count itself as a world class city too. The flight attendant was the guy from the Delta safety video! The one with the smile and spark from his teeth. Long flight, now back in SLC (after a surprise bump into Jacqui at the airport) and ready for a very long sleep.
Paris airport
Until next time, here’s me next to a mini dr who box
