OK - finally made it into Aberdeen proper this evening. Met the guys from cynosure for a beer and chat about what we are working on. Turns out I have guitars, cars and slrs in common - nice. Back to the hotel and I ventured out to a recommended Thai where I had green curry and jasmin rice - was nice. Am now back in the hotel with nothing to do - seriously nothing - am so bored I have Big Brother on in the background....running out of webpages to visit...
I am in Aberdeen this week. Sounds exciting but right now I am in the hotel restaurant with my laptop :) So - what does one do with one's laptop in a restaurant? Easy - chat to the wife back home and update facebook :)
It has been raining non-stop for 2 days now. I was meant to go and see Mom for lunch today but she called just as I left to say that the roads were flooded and the rain as heavy as ever. Reluctantly I cancelled and came home again. Not only is the rain bad but we have gale force wind. It has blown over some plants in the garden and even dislodged the rose at the front - which is now blocking my webcam. What miserable weather!!!!
Mr.C and I were in the local pub last night enjoying a few glasses of Guiness when the landlord sauntered over. "Evening chaps", he said, "you in for the night? Got a special surprise coming soon". With that he sauntered of with a smile on his face. Intrigued, Mr.C and I sat back and waited. About 30mins later we noticed 3 Police cars and a riot van turn up. The Police then raided the pub - for real! People were made to stand still as they bought a sniffer dog in looking for drugs. Other Police guarded the doors to make sure no one escaped. You have to understand - this is VERY exciting for a small village. In then end the dog sniffed out 3 people but we later found that they were all drug-free when searched. Quite an exciting evening really.
K has left for a long weekend in Sweden today - I had to get up at 04:30 to drive her to Stansted. Mornings should not be legal that early! This reminds me of a very strange thing - since we have been living together I have only spent 1 night here on my own (it is usually me going away for work). By the end of this weekend I will have more than trippled this number. Feels odd.... I find myself moping around the house not knowing what to do. As such I have pre-packed as much of the weekend with things to do as possible. For starters I am working from Sat afternoon through to Sun afternoon (that's 24 hours gone). I have lunch with Mom on Mon (that's another half day). As for the rest...well, there is the Monaco Grand Prix on and I am sure the boys fancy a beer at some point. Am off to dig out the heavy-metal cds I can't usually play :)
Stu and K got married on Sat and we all went along for the celebration. I won't go into detail - but let's just say that most of us spent all of Sunday recovering. there are more (sensible) pics at my flickr page...
I picked up a new Canon 430EX Flash today along with the off-shoe cord 2. Been practising heavily all evening trying to get good enough to take some good shots at a wedding this weekend. The cats made my unsuspecting models for the night. More shots on my flikr.
My MINI was in the shop again today having the door cards replaced (to fix a rattle) and for them to look at my 'soggy' clutch again. They found an unsecured hydraulic pipe and also bled some air out of the system - hopefully it will now be back to normal but only time will tell...
Some good friends are getting married this weekend so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to buy a flash for my 400D. I went for the 430EX as the 580EX is both too big and too expensive. It should be here on Wed :) Whilst in the store I also picked up the BG-E3 battery grip. This allows me to put two batteries in at once and even revert to AAs in an emergency. It also adds a nice grip to the camera which makes larger lenses far more comfortable to use and the extra buttons mean all the controls are to hand in portrait mode - write up on Richie Boys Toys.
I learnt two important lessons today at the same time. The first is that a Smart Roadster in the wet will step out quite easily and the ESP will allow you quite some room to play. The second is that you should never take your wife's car sideways at 40mph with her in it...oops!
I am in Milan today for the annual technical meeting. Highlights include 5L kegs of beer (you can see me enjoying below), possibly the best gorgonzola I have ever had and a great evening at a Sardinian fish restaurant. It even turns out that most of the demo pics they are using on the system are of my MINI :)
L and M came to visit this weekend. Had a great night and even opened the Tiki Bar briefly (it was a bit cold).
Can you believe it! After years of absolutely no damage to any vehicle I have ever owned I crunched K's new car into a lampost. The problem is I am used to reverse sensors now - and, well, I didn't actually bother looking behind me much as a result. When I heard the noise my first thought was that I had grounded it...
So - there was MUCH appologising. Driving privileges were immediately withdrawn and I have been trying to make it up to her ever since. I did try and polish it out - with some success (see pic below of before and after) but you can still notice if you look closely. I spent this morning cleaning and polishing the whole car and even bought flowers.
How gutted am I? TOTALLY!
