Category: Tagebuch

We’ve just returned from a week in England. The seats in the rental car we picked up at the airport weren’t adjustable enough to support Mary’s back properly, and there were no other cars of the same category available, so we had to upgrade. I gulped when I heard that the only upgrade available was a Mercedes, but when I heard that it only cost an extra £8 per day, there was no question… I have now joined the ranks of the Mercedes drivers (and yes, the road does belong to me 😉 ).
We spent the first few days at Helen and Heinrich’s place near Canterbury, preparing for a camp we’re teaching at later in the summer. Due to minor misunderstandings, our visit turned out to be a surprise – they were expecting a visit, but didn’t know when! We had a good time talking, and managed to get the main points of our seminar nailed down.
From there, we headed across the country to Hereford, to visit my parents. We saw Dad for an evening before he left for the USA, and stayed at my Mum’s place, which was rapidly emptying as she was selling furniture before her imminent move.

On Saturday, while heading back East for our flight on Sunday, we dropped in to visit my aunts and uncle, who we hadn’t seen in several years. We had a great time catching up, and have resolved to visit more often! (Tony, we believe you’re not a football lout, honest…)

Today was a quiet day at work, as I try to organize the next project I’ll be working on. Quite in accordance with Proverbs 22:13, I suddenly realised that there were lions outside my office!
OK, so they’re only Dandelions, but isn’t that dangerous enough?

I’ve been looking for a new digital camera for some time now. Every time I looked at a new camera, I decided that the improvement over my current camera (an old 2 megapixel Olympus!) wasn’t worth the money. Mary-Anne decided to buy me a new camera for my birthday last week, but didn’t know which one to choose. We went to a camera store, where the owner advised me. I wanted something with a good zoom range and good picture quality, and expected to buy a digital SLR. The store owner convinced me to buy a Lumix DMC-FZ30: 8 megapixels with a 35-420 Leica zoom lens. I’d heard that the Lumix cameras had a rather ‘noisy’ sensor, but the owner showed me some photos he had taken, which looked good. I was convinced, and walked out of the store with the Lumix.
My first photos were something of a shock. Continue reading “Looking for a camera”

Today is my Dad’s 70th birthday. He’s currently somewhere in the US, probably enjoying the sun and golfing while we’re freezing here in Switzerland.

Congratulations, Dad!

Tomorrow is my last day officially working on the UBS project I’ve been involved in for the past 4 years. It has been an interesting time; I have learned a lot about banking processes, medium-sized project teams, and some new technology too. The time has come for a change, though, and I’ve been working part-time on a project for the local government in Basel for the past two months. From Wednesday, I’ll be working full-time to prepare the prototype for a presentation mid-March, at which point we hope to win the contract to integrate several systems under an intranet UI. The switch has been hard, because we’re using a promising 3rd-party framework with too little documentation and a significantly different structure to the framework I’ve been using for the past 4 years. Things are looking good, though, and I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to present a convincing prototype. Working in Basel would also mean 3 hours less travelling every day, which I would certainly appreciate.

Reading Marc’s and Alexander’s reports from South Africa doesn’t make me jealous. Really. I mean, who wants to go to South Africa, of all places, and meet a load of interesting people? I’m glad I didn’t have to go.

Is our car an accident magnet? The year started with a young woman riding her bike into it. Last week, someone rear-ended Mary-Anne as she slowed down at a give way sign. She wasn’t hurt, thankfully, but the car is in the workshop for the second time in two months. This time, it’s more than just scratches – I haven’t seen the damage, and the garage owner says it’s not so bad, but Mary’s description makes it sound dramatic.

This weekend, I laid a new floor in the dining room – ripped out the old carpet, laid insulation and a flooring laminate. Laying the laminate today was a major effort; it was the first time I’d attempted something like that, and I underestimated how much work it would be. The floor is done, and I am done in! I still need to put in the skirting board, but that is hopefully not as much work as the floor…