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Javapolis, day 2

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For some reason, I keep waking up really early in the morning. I sleep ok, but I just wake up early. Meh, no biggie. Today was good.

I wasn't able to smuggle out pastries for Katy yet cause we didn't find any shops that were open and sold tupperware on our ramblings last night. We might play hookie tomorrow morning, so I might be able to do a spot of shopping and get her some frorm thursday or friday :) I have however, liberated some waffles for her cause they're individually packaged and won't cream the inside of my bag.

The day's sessions were really good. The morning one was all about tips and tricks on how to optimize java for performance and how to investigate bottlenecks. The afternoon session was about Adobe Flex, which is a codebase that lets you write flash applications that are uber sexay. I'm thinking of adding that to my arsenal. I think it might have marketing potential for my CV for future use.

The amount of stuff they give away in the exhibitor hall is truly shocking. Without trying really hard, I walked away with 6 tshirts, a mug, a tuque, a deck of cards and a pair of boxers. I'll see what sort of goodies I can plunder tomorrow :)

The plan for tonight is pretty much like last night, except with better weather. We're all meeting in the hotel lobby at 7 to go for dinner. I'm still euro-less because of the crap banking of last night, but hopefully a guy here will lend me some and I'll pay him back in pounds when we're back in the UK. It's just more annoying than anything else – I have money, I just can't get at it… Note to self for future travel plans, I guess.

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The weekend, and then Belgium!

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Saturday was a good day, and it wasn't. The rover was booked for its yearly MOT so we drove in to Saffron Walden and, after a few turn arounds, found the garage. The mechanic had been recommended by someone at work and he was going to have a look at the brakes, which had been mentioned at the last MOT, and then test the car. While that was going on, we went window shopping in town and had breakfast at a decent little greasy spoon called Mocha.

The MOT didn't go according to plan at all. when we called the dude to see if he was done, he told us that the car needed work done. a lot of it. It needs a complete new exhaust, two back tires, break pads in the front and possibly shoes in the back. Parts and labour in upwards of 500 quid. That's the bad news. The good news is that he's going to try and give us a good price for all the work that needs to be done, as well as a full service and have it all done by next monday. [In retrospect, that was optimistic as hell as it turned out to cost upwards of 850 quid, which is probably more than the car is worth at this point in its life. Still, according to Katy, it's like driving a new car right now, so at least some good came out of it]

We had plans to have dinner with Phil and Caroline, but it was now rather difficult to get to their place. Being cheeky, I asked Phil for a lift so we were still on for dinner. It was a nice evening, with lots of food and lots (and lots!) of wine.

Another bit of bad news was that we found that it's physically impossible to get a taxi at midnight on a saturday night in the middle of nowhere, unless you've pre-booked it. We hadn't, so after a dozen futile calls, we resigned ourselves to sleep on an inflatable mattress in the middle of the sitting room and Phil would drive us home tomorrow morning in time for me to get my cab to Heathrow and for Katy to go to work.

The morning was rough. I did something incredibly stupid which was to go to bed drunk without rehydrating myself and my head let me know just how silly that was at 5am. Lots of water later and a few advil, my headache cleared and the trip to Heathrow and subsequent flight to Brussels was routine. Once we'd landed, we got our kit and took the train to Antwerp. Hotel check in went surprisingly smoothly and we went to get some food. We found an italian restaurant close by that had good food but a truly weird italian landlord that was just… well weird.

The food was good and plentiful and reasonably priced, so I'm willing to put up with eccentricities. We chilled at the hotel for a bit then went to the conference center to pick up our conference packs and get dinner. We actually skipped dinner cause we were too full from our late lunch, so we only had hot chocolates at a little cafe near the venue.

I'm looking forward to the conference as it promises to be really, really interesting. at the same time though, I wish I was back home giving comfort to the katylady. She's feeling rough physically and low mentally. Her job is stressing her our and putting her in a bad place. A hangover and a dodgy stomach really aren't helping today either. as much as I'm looking forward to the conference, I'm looking back to being back in cambs to be with her :(

The first day of the conference went well. I had a decent night's sleep, given the fact that the bed is smallish, and the duvet doesn't cover me completely. Still, it was ok. Had breakfast at the hotel and we decided to walk to the conference center. We thought it would only take about 10 minutes, but that turned out to be closer to 25. It was a miserable, grey day too. Fun fun fun. The good news though is that the pastries they serve for breakfast at the conf center are simply sinful. I mean… I had 3. I'm a bad bad man, but I couldn't help myself.

In my defence though, it was a good thing because I had to skip lunch because they only served pre-packaged sandwiches with no ingredient labels on them. With all the sugar I had in the morning, I have to say that I really wasn't very hungry by lunchtime.

I managed to snag a Duke stress ball and a raffle ticket from Sun (it's a classic gimmick, they throw the stress balls in the crowd and the people who catch them can enter a prize draw – except that the speakers forgot to throw the thingies during their talks, so I just walked to one of the speakers at the end of the session and simply asked for one :D)

We got back to the hotel and chilled again before going to dinner. With my lack of lunch, I was feeling ravenous. The evening was a bit disappointing. Our guide was a typical man, who was convinced he was leading us to the promised land of good restaurants. After 20 minutes of walking in the rain, we settled for the first one we could find where we could all eat. It was ok. Decent food, but pricey and it took a solid hour for us to get the food after we ordered. When it was time to go back to the hotel, we decided to go for the cab option. It took another 20 minutes for the cabs to arrive. Sometimes, I really, really miss Taxi Co-Op…

Then there's the bank saga… I didn't have time to get any euro before I left the UK so I've been bumming off people here as I only have pounds on me. The night manager told me that there's an ING cash machine “nearby”. It took 15 minutes to walk there in the pouring rain for me to realize that it won't accept either of my cards. I was not a happy camper walking back to the hotel. My coat and jeans are currently hanging up to dry. They should be fine by tomorrow and I'll try again at other banks if I can find any.

I also found out that the hotel wireless network is extremely wonky. For some asinine reason, I can log on correctly the first time I get a new daily access code from the lobby, but if I hibernate my computer, I need to stop the DHCP and DNS client services on my laptop, flush my DNS cache and then turn everything back on before I can connect properly *. Still, it works – which is more than I can say for the wireless at the conference center, which was abysmal. It's almost pitiful, given the fact that this is an IT conference…

Ah well, off to bed now.

* Having said that, it might honestly be my laptop. It seriously need a complete reinstall. It's starting to act truly bizarrely at times…

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[Recipe] Steak & Veg pie (hmmmm, pie!)

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This is one of those spur-of-the-moment recipes.

I had an extra block of defrosted ready-made puff pastry, so I just made a pie lining and cover.

To make the filling, brown 1 pound of lean ground beef in olive oil. Season with thyme, parsley, tabasco, salt & pepper. When the beef is browned, add two diced onions, 3 small diced carrots, half a punnet of quartered mushrooms, one head of broccoli florets and add a bit of water. Cover and let the veg steam until tender (about 8-10 minutes).

Add the ingredients to the lined pie dish. I reused the frying pan to make some thick instant gravy (Bisto granules) and covered the veg/meat with it. Cover with the second half of the pastry and seal well. Brush with beaten egg and cook for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200C, then lower the heat to 190C for another 25 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes and a bit of salad and you have a quick, simple and very tasty meal!

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Parcelfarce…

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We shipped a box to Canada containing xmas prezzies for the folks and the sproglet. It makes me giggle that even though I sent it using Parcelforce, I can't track it from their website because they don't offer tracking for the service we used. However, if I go to the Canada Post website, the tracking information comes up just fine, thank you very much.

Go Canada!

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My memory is becoming truly appaling!

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I almost gave myself a coronary this morning.

I know my memory is getting bad and I tend to forget stuff on a daily basis, but this morning was the straw that broke the camel's back. I need to do something about this situation. If things are not in their place, I don't know where they went.

Case and point: I've been keeping a pair of show tickets I bought for Katy's birthday in my bag. They've been there for the past 3 weeks. This morning, while looking for something completely unrelated yet very important(i.e. a tax refund cheque I got last week from the Canadian gov cause they over-charged me), I realized that I couldn't find the tickets anymore. I had visions of tearing up the coffee table and the home office and having to tell Katy that I'd lost her birthday present… Not good. In fact, they were simply filed away in the back pocket of my filofax. I remember now that in one of my document purging sessions, I thought it made more sense for them to be there than to be kept in a loose enveloppe.

Damn, I'm getting old…

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It only took him 2 days

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You know the xmas tree I mentioned in a previous post? The same post where I put recent pictures of our monster?

Well, it only took him 2 days to destroy it. Ok, ok, so I'm being overly dramatic here, but we got home last night to find the tree fallen on the floor and baubles strewn everywhere in the living room and in the kitchen. I was not amused.

Still, no major harm done. The tree is a bit worse for wear, but it's now solidly anchored to a wall. I'm still picking up stray baubles in the morning, but I guess there's no avoiding that.

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[Recipe] Bacon and Egg Pies

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Makes 12
Ingredients

6 rashers back bacon, derinded
3 large eggs
about 4 fl oz (120 ml) milk, plus a little extra for brushing the top of the pies
salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the shortcrust pastry:

6 oz (175 g) plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting
a pinch of salt
1oz (40 g) softened lard
1oz (40 g) softened butter

You will also need a 12 hole patty tin, each hole 1inches (4.5 cm) at the base, 2inches (6 cm) at the top, and inch (2 cm) deep, well greased, plus a 3inch (9 cm)and a 3 inch (7.5 cm) pastry cutter.

Begin by making the pastry by sifting the flour and pinch of salt into a large bowl,
holding the sieve as high as possible.

Now add the lard and butter, cut into smallish lumps, then take a knife and begin to cut the fat into the flour. Go on doing this until it looks fairly evenly blended, then begin to rub the fat into the flour, using your fingertips only, and being as light as possible. As you do this, lift it up high and let it fall back into the bowl, just long enough to make the mixture crumbly with a few odd lumps here and there. Now sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water in, then, with a knife, start bringing the dough together. Then discard the knife and, finally, bring it together with your fingertips. When enough liquid is added, the pastry should leave the bowl fairly clean. If this hasnt happened, then add a spot more water. Now place the pastry in a polythene bag and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Alternatively, store-bought shortcrust pastry works just as well.

Next, hardboil 2 of the eggs by placing them in a small saucepan and adding enough water to cover them by about inch (1 cm). Bring the water up to simmering point and put a timer on for 7 minutes. Then, when the time is up, cool the eggs rapidly under cold, running water for about a minute, and leave them in cold water till theyre cool.

Meanwhile, grill (or fry) the bacon gently until the fat begins to run and pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 400(200Roll out half of the pastry, on a lightly floured surface, cut out 12 rounds using the 3inch (9 cm) cutter and line the patty tin. Now peel and chop the eggs quite small and chop the bacon fairly small, too, Then divide the egg and bacon among the pies and season with freshly milled pepper and a very little salt. Beat the remaining egg together with the milk and carefully pour the mixture into the pies, allowing it to settle as you go. Dampen the edges and roll out the rest of the pastry to cut out the smaller rounds for the lids.

Make a small hole in the centre of each pie, brush the tops with milk, then bake for 10 minutes. After that, reduce the heat to gas mark 5, 375(190and cook for a further 25 minutes.

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weekend update

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This weekend saw us going to town to get a few more xmas presents done, send a bunch of then to Canada (though overseas shipping is a bitch!) and go buy our dishwasher, woohoo! it was delivered earlier this morning, and just needs us to plug everything in tonight.

We were in town for a solid 8 hours, which was extreme, to say the least. I'm glad I'm almost done with my shopping, because I can't take many more weekends like that. I hate shopping when it's so crowded you have to shove your way through crowds to get from store to store.

We got back home on saturday evening and put up our xmas tree.


The cat is having a grand old time destroying it. Every morning, we need to pick up the baubles that have been knocked off and strewn across the living room. Surprisingly, he hasn't knocked it down yet. Having said that, it's still early days.

Speaking of the cat, here are some more recent pictures:



He loves that cat bed, but he can't be comfortable sleeping like that…

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