Notes from a bemused canuck
I’ve updated some of my online picture galleries:
http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/irina/ : tons of new pictures of the kitties
http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/cambridge_kings_jun2008/ : pictures from inside Kings College Chapel in Cambs
http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/bobbles_canada_may2008/ : our last Canada trip pictures
http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/hupo_amsterdam_aug_2008/ : pictures from my trip to Amsterdam
This past weekend was a busy one for Katy and I.
I’d taken Friday off so that we could be in Leicester early in the morning. Mel had rented a van so that we could go to Ikea and buy some nursery-related stuff and a new bed to keep in Leicester. The futon we were using in Leics is now too low to the ground and Katy can’t get in and out of it easily these days, so we decided to get a proper bed. The plan was to go to do a Leics – Ikea run to get the stuff, dump the bed out in Leicester, load the futon and some other things that needed selling, bring them down to Cambridge to dump them at our house, then drive back to Leicester and go build the bed. It was a looooooooong day :) I’d already sold the futon and Katy’s old television to people at work, so that’ll help cover some of the costs. We also got an insurance refund for the vet fees from last month, which will also help.
It’ll still be an expensive month though, cause we spent £400 at Ikea, and another £450 at Mothercare. This past weekend was when we really kitted out the nursery. We bought the crib that we’ll be using for the first few months in the bedroom, as well as a mattress, some sheets and two sleeping bags. We also bought a bottle kit with sterilizer, bottles, brushes, teats and a bottle warmer. That’s going to live in the kitchen. We bought some bath and bathroom stuff and some towels. We got a travel cot for when we come to see Katy’s folks. The only thing that we wanted to get but didn’t was the car seat. We’d originally wanted to get one that would be big enough to last for the first 4 years and, though the website said that it should have fit in the Corolla, it didn’t. The seatbelts were just a bit too short to secure it properly. This is a known thing with the car model because there are so many variants of it and they’re all just slightly different from one another. Blergh. We ended up just buying a 0-9month car seat that will double as a carrier. We can get the bigger one later. It should fit correctly when it’s forward-facing.
All in all though, I’m happy with our purchases. We’ve made judicious use of our coupons and we’re actually under budget for what we wanted to get. It really hits home though that we have absolutely no idea what we’re doing. We spent about 30 minutes in the bedding section looking things over and wondering what we should get, and how much of it. How many blankets does a baby need? I don’t know!!!!! (5 exclamation marks, a sure sign of a sick mind!)
Seriously, it’s starting to get a bit overwhelming. Katy stops work in just over 6 weeks and the Peanut is due in less than 3 months and we are so, so clueless as to what will happen and how we’ll do it. We keep saying to ourselves that as long as we’re together, everything is going to be ok. Usually, when one starts to freak out, the other steps in with the mantra. Hopefully, we never need to find out what happens when/if we both freak out together :)
I’m rather annoyed with Katy’s parents at the minute. It would seem that they think our house is a tip at the moment. Katy’s dad said that to her mom after dropping the stuff off on Friday. I resent him saying that. We aren’t in the position they are. He’s retired and spends an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping the house to a stupidly high level of cleanliness that I not only wouldn’t want to maintain but actually find oppressing at times. These are people who rinse out every pot, pan, plate and cutlery item before it goes in the dishwasher. We’ve actually seen them wipe down the inside of the dishwasher – BEFORE they put it on. So yes. I’ll grant that our house is cluttered, it needs a good vacuuming to get rid of the cat hair on the carpets and there are dishes in the sink. So what? There’s nothing suspicious growing in dark corners slowly evolving towards sentience. There’s dust, but there’s no dinge or dirt. It’s nothing that a good day’s cleaning won’t sort out. But you know what? Between the pregnancy and all the associated stress, all the stuff we need to do and our desire to spend time together, keeping house is relegated to the bottom of the todo list and I don’t want people nagging us and passing judgement about it.
On a brighter note, I got my picture taken for my new passport on Saturday and I’m happy to report that I actually look good on it! For once, if all goes well, I will have a photo ID where I don’t look like I’m a serial killer recently escaped from a mental institute!
I got this in my email last weekend:
Zoom Airlines sincerely regrets to advise its customers that it has suspended operations with effect from 18:00 UTC on Thursday 28 August. All flights scheduled to depart from have been cancelled and Zoom’s aircraft have been grounded. Both Zoom Airlines Inc and Zoom Airlines Ltd, the Canadian and UK airlines, will be filing for insolvency proceedings in their home countries today.
The collapse of Zoom is a result of matter beyond our control. Only last year Zoom Airlines made profit, but that turned into a loss in the last year due to the unprecedented increase in the price of aviation fuel and the economic climate. The price of oil resulted in our fuel bill jumping by nearly $50 million in one year and we could not recover that from passengers who had already booked their flights.
That’s just pooey. I liked Zoom. For the price of a cattle-class seat on Air Canada, you could get a premium economy seat on Zoom that would give you 4 more inches of leg room. For me, that makes a hell of a difference, comfort-wise. I’ve never had a bad experience with Zoom (the most annoying thing was an hour-long delay on the last flight). I mean, come on, they even let Bobble fly a plane once!
It would seem that times are tough for everybody. On the day that Diddy wails that oil prices forced him to ground his private jet and resort to travelling with the unwashed masses in commercial flights (albeit in Executive First Class), a good company needs to close down and lay off all its staff.
I have had my picture taken for my new passport today. I maintain that I look like a serial killer and I always wonder why people let me into the country.
I have just attended a seminar where the speaker made upwards of 75 “uhhhh” sounds in a 9 minute talk. This works out to one annoying pause every 7.2 seconds, on average. This impressed me more than the content of the talk.
We have just received the tickets to the Bill Bailey show in London, next October. This makes me happy.
I was going through the stuff I brought back from Amsterdam and came across this. It’s a snippet of conversation I had after smoking along the banks of the Gentlemen’s Canal with Michel:
Me: We’re like one big cliché here. It’s like a bad mix of When Harry met Sally and Thirtysomething: two old friends, on a trip to Amsterdam, get high and reminisce about all the times they had and their fears for the future.
Michel: You write it up, you sell it to Hollywood, you make millions.
Me: Who would you get to play you in your movie?
Michel: Forrest Whittaker.
Me: The big, black guy???
Michel: yes.
For some reason (besides being high), I found this hilarious. Still do :)
I made it back from Amsterdam in one piece and no drug-related incidents. I was mildly concerned that there might be dogs and they might have objected to some lingering scents from my clothes (oh come on, this is Amsterdam we’re talking about here!) but we made it back home with no problems. In fact, it was probably my easiest customs clearance in Stansted in memory. There was no queue. The buggers did change the layout of the landing card though, which made me waste a bit of time, having to read it.
I worked from home on Thursday and took Friday off sick cause I had a lingering headache that took its sweet time to go away. Yesterday was a bank holiday so all in all, it was a 4 day weekend. I could use more of those, even if Katy and I did spend it watching waaaaaaaaaaay too many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yes, we are sad. Yes, we know it.
We did get some grown-up work done; laundry and groceries and the such. We’ve started buying nappies and baby wipes. One of the books mentioned that if you start buying that stuff before the kids are due and you’re still on full pay, it can really help ease the burden of low maternity pay. We stared, slack-jawed, at the wall of diapers in Tesco and we kept asking ourselves which ones to get and if more expensive really is better. In the end, we went for a brand name that was on sale. We’ll get more of the same in the following weeks. This mildly freaks me out.
We also managed to get some fun stuff done though. We had a BBQ on Saturday where we went completely overboard on the sausages. We went to Cafe Rouge on Monday, just for the hell of it. We wanted to catch a movie as well, but Katy was feeling a bit tired. The last few weeks have been emotional for her and it seems to have caught up with her. There’s the whole Rita issue, for one. She’s decided – and I support her decision – to simply cut all contact. Drastic, but it’s at the point where she’s getting more negative than positive from the whole thing and it’s time to call it quits and move on. I had something similar happen with Seb, years ago, so I do understand where she’s coming from. People change…
The plan for the next few days is work, work and work and then Ikea. I also need to start going back to the gym again. It’s been way too long and I’ve gotten in horrible shape. All the good work that I’d done for the wedding is long gone. I’ve not gained too much weight, but the muscle turned to flab and must be dealt with now. Blergh. Don’t wanna, but need to. Such is life.
TSA Snafu Damages Nine Planes at O’Hare Field – Pilots Furious with Misstep
Nine American Eagle airplanes were grounded Tuesday after a TSA inspector, conducting an overnight security check, used sensitive instrument probes to climb onto the parked aircraft at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. A TSA official confirmed the incident.
The TSA agent, as part of spot inspection of aircraft security, climbed onto the parked aircraft using control sensors mounted on the fuselage as handholds, according to a TSA official.
“Our inspector was following routine procedure for securing the aircraft that were on the tarmac,” said the official. The TSA agent was attempting to determine if someone could break into a parked aircraft, according to the agent.
Pilots were furious at the TSA misstep.
“The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to the operation of the onboard computers,” one pilot wrote on an American Eagle internet forum. “They decided this instrument, the TAT probe, would be adequate to use as a ladder,” the pilot wrote.
Another pilot wrote the TSA agents, “are now doing things to our aircraft that may put our lives, and the lives of our passengers at risk.”
The TSA has been conducting such overnight spot checks at airports around the country.
Source: ABC
I had really weird dreams last night. I don’t really remember them, but I do recall that they were weird.
I woke up to the usual noise. The Dutch builders are very punctual and assiduous in their work ethic.
I checked out of my hotel and brought alll my bags to the conference center. My tram was delayed on the way so I missed the opening keynote. Le poo. The auditorium is… huge! Having said that, I can happily report that my talk went very well. I didn’t swear or say anything inappropriate (always a fear). I don’t remember anything of what I said – that tends to happen a lot when I give a talk in public – but the feeling I have and the confirmation from my colleagues is that I came across very well. I always think that I talk too quickly, but at least it comes across clearly so I can live with that.
I managed to find a chhicken salad that didn’t look like it would kill me (and as I’m writing this now, it would seem that it won’t) and it was actually rather tasty.
The plan now is to hang around here until 4:30, when we’re scheduled to break down the stand and pack everything up. I’ll accompany the other people that are also leaving tonight and we’re taking a cab to the airport. The flight is scheduled for 9:30 local (and we land at 9:35 BST, imagine that!) so we’ll probably eat and shop a bit at the airport. If all goes well, I should be home by 10:30.
That last thought makes me happy.
My plans were thwarted when I arrived to find the bagel place closed. Shops close very early in Amsterdam, apparently. This did not make me happy, as I now had to go scavenge for food. I came across a deli that looked promising, but the only meat that seemed Richard-friendly at first glance had a mixed spice rub so I didn’t really want to chance it. Luckily, I have noticed three things about the Dutch.
They love bicycles.
They love to smoke (everything!).
They love steak.
Never in any country – including the US of A – have I seen a higher concentration of Argentinian steakhouses. I counted 4 visible from a single intersection – two being of the same chain and across the street from one another. So I didn’t starve, but my diet is still shit for this trip. I would have much preferred the bagel, but what can you do.
I did manage to make it back to my hotel at a decent time and the rest of my evening pretty much went according to plan.
I woke up with a mild hangover this morning, courtesy of Amsterdam’s finest. The construction noises didn’t help either. Breakfast was, if possible, even worse than yesterday and I didn’t stop burping it until close to noon.
Michel and Isabelle dropped their luggage off in my room while we went for a canal cruise this morning. It was a nice, easy way to wake up and then we parted ways. They picked up their luggage and took the train to Rotterdam to continue on their merry holidaymaker ways and I took the tram to the conference to see all the fun I’d been missing there.
Apparently the food here is horrible too (though I had no plans to sample it). I chatted a bit with the booth folk, uploaded my presentation to the speakers’ presentation system and then took in the poster sessions and the exhibitor hall. A few posters caught my eye and I found out that a company working in Victoria is planning a massive hiring spurt for software developers so I could have a job in Canada in the next few months if I wanted one. I’ll have to keep them in mind when my contract is up because, were I to come back to Canada post-EBI, the two places that I’d consider are Montreal and BC. The exhibitor booth is shockingly barren of good schwag. Everybody is only giving away cheap-looking pens. T-shirts, people, t-shirts! My preferred conference remains Javapolis, but I don’t think Ben will allow me to attend this year (and it was my turn on the rota too!)
The plan for tonight is to be a good boy. I’m going to go grab a bagel from the shop I found yesterday and then head back to the hotel. I want to go over my talk a few times and have an early night.