Musings From New York

Musings From Dallas

I flew into Dallas last night. I thought to myself, "Hey, Texas has to be better than snowy New York!" Was I ever disappointed. It's 50F here ... stormy, too!

I'm staying at the Westin Park Central ... and by my reckoning, it's been about 10 years since I stayed in a hotel better than Days Inn. Frankly, as long as I have a clean room, comfy bed, and a TV to doze to, I'm not really bothered about how many stars a hotel has :-) ... Nonetheless, I was tripping to the extreme to be staying in a hotel like this!

I also went to Benihana's for the first time last night. Unfortunately, we didn't get any entertainment out of our table's cook. He looked like he was auditioning for the part of Oscar on Sesame Street. The food was alright - I had the Marina dish, and suffered a fish-overdose. I should've taken the Shrimp/Chicken combo.

I'm meeting up with Sachin tonight. Marriage doesn't seem to have changed him much - he told me to come to Dallas in the summer to see the real sights. ;-)

Expanding The Office

We've taken on additional office space here ... a little 12ft x 12ft (I guess!) alcove just around the corner from the main office. It's going to be a project management room, leaving the main office for the sales staff.

Guess who needs to setup the IT services? :-p

Well, it's fun - I've never worked on a Sun Solaris machine before (that's a new file server)

The Last Photos of The World's End

The Magical Leaf: While I was in bed with a fever, I noticed this leaf outside my window. You'll see that there aren't any branches around it - it seems to be suspended in mid-air. At first, I thought it a fever-induced hallucination! I suppse it's held up by some cobweb.

 

Duck ... or Grouse!!: The entrance to the cottage is a little low-beamed. I guess people notice this when they're entering the house, but not when they're leaving. The sign is classic British humor, what? (for those who don't get it: a grouse is (a) a chicken-like game bird (b) a complaint or grumble. Work it out from there.

Home Alone 5: The English Countryside

The front of the home/office

The back of the home/office - behind me is the clubhouse & the swimming pool.

Definitely looks like the setting of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, doesn't it? :-)

The End of the World's not so bad

This place is definitely better than the Port Solent apartment I stayed at last year! I spent a couple of hours in the "clubhouse" at the back of the grounds last night ... playing pool. Apparently, there is a Sky TV (satellite) hookup, but noone knows how to get to it. The clubhouse also has a gym, a jacuzzi, and a sauna - do people get any work done around here? ;-)

On the downside, I don't seem to be able to connect to BitTorrent seeds - so there go my hopes of watching episodes of Simpsons & South Park.

I've taken a few photos, but can't figure out a way to transfer the photos - my desktop came with a memory card reader, and I've lost the USB cable that came with the camera. Gotta ask around to see if anyone has a spare cable.

At The End of the World

Yeah, this place is actually called "World's End". Doesn't look like the apocalyptic dystopia that I'd imagined. Shows you what too many bad Hollywood movies will do to you.

The office is in a converted house ... waaaaaay out in the English countryside. A 6-bedroom house, that looks like the setting of an Agatha Christie book ... a Jane Marple perhaps. Can't imagine Poirot in a setting such as this.

I'll post photos soon.

It's Official ...

I'm travelling to the UK on Thursday (11th November) ... and I'll probably be back around New Year's. I guess that means I miss Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years. :-( ... but I think I'd rather miss all of them, and be back once and for all, than to keep shuttling back & forth.

I'll be checking in on my cellphone's voicemails every couple of days, but e-mail is the best way to get a hold of me.