Tim's Blog

Tucson, Arizona

2012-01-17T14:36:00.000Z

The view from my balcony :-)

Tucson

2012-01-17T01:32:00.000Z

So, my bizarre work trip continues with this next and final stop at Tucson, Arizona. We are staying at a golf and spa resort in the desert in these mini villa type rooms.

This fire pit is just outside my room door :-s

The Grand Canyon

2012-01-16T17:23:00.000Z

What can I say other than I agree with it's status as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. I clearly hadn't thought about it much but of course to have this big a hole the rim has to be pretty high. So high in fact that the ski resort we go to (Les Gets) would fit inside with the tallest mountain still being several hundred metres from the rim!

Leaving Las Vegas

2012-01-15T13:56:00.001Z

An amazing landscape. An amusing sign (check out the byline of the Bail Bonds sign) and the sign on the bar door in our hotel!!!

Downtown Las Vegas

2012-01-13T16:40:00.000Z

The Venetian

2012-01-12T15:44:00.001Z

It shouldn't be good but it is strangely impressive...

Lots of Car Manufacturers at CES today

2012-01-11T01:34:00.001Z

Vegas baby!

2012-01-10T12:39:00.001Z

So it's 4.30am and surprise surprise I'm not asleep despite being exhausted!

Anyway, what better time to share the view from my hotel room. Whilst not classically beautiful there is something impressive about the general scale of this place and I'm looking forward to some more exploring tomorrow after the conference, if I'm not asleep that is ;-)

Hello Dallas!

2012-01-10T02:01:00.001Z

Well it's something like 1am really but only 8pm here in Dallas and we still have a three hour flight to Las Vegas :-s

The Admiral Club lounge is helping but the reality is that the journey sucks!

A lovely winter morning in London

2011-12-15T08:04:00.000Z

and relax...

2011-12-03T12:46:00.001Z

..it's holiday time :-)

Well I had to travel to London in something ;-)

2011-11-29T18:17:00.001Z

Good Architecture

2011-11-23T18:06:00.000Z

I am enjoying the architecture and views that are integral to my new job. It's a really nice balance with more rural setting of Norwich.

Cringleford Fireworks

2011-11-06T21:26:00.001Z

A great night at the fireworks with Jon and Laura despite my grumpiness after working late and so getting home late :-( The mood was lifted greatly thanks to a particular young Scout who managed to find me the very last of the bbq'ed sausage for my dinner.

Good morning London

2011-11-01T07:35:00.000Z

Classic!

2011-10-27T17:53:00.000+01:00

Just built an awesome Scalextric track and fear not, the true spirit of this timeless classic lives on, within 5 mins of building it Evan asked, 'Shall we build another track now' :-D

'Yes Evan, yes we should' I replied.

The only problem now is that I don't think we have enough track to go from the Lounge to the Hall, to the Kitchen, then Dining room and then back into the Lounge as per our ideal design ;-)

Gressenhall Apple Day

2011-10-23T18:11:00.000+01:00

Mmmm, BBQ Chicken in October :-)

2011-10-16T19:04:00.000+01:00

iCloud

2011-10-13T21:56:00.000+01:00

All updated and so time to see if this really is the future.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

2011-10-06T08:40:00.003+01:00

Great vision, amazing leadership, definitely an inspiration

Heritage

2011-09-30T11:22:00.001+01:00

I have to admit that I do like some of our older meetings rooms ...

Not the most relaxing weekend

2011-09-19T20:27:00.002+01:00

Had to drive to Peterborough to pick up the van which should have been in Norwich. Nice to find it was brand new though :-)

Arrive in Derby to find the building rubbish was never cleared by the contractor

Spent a couple of hours in a very cramped loft space, super insulating the water pipes

Cleared up all the rubbish after buying a Mega Hippo Bag to put it in

Drove home via IKEA making Sunday a suitably long day too

Oh dear!

2011-09-16T22:07:00.001+01:00

This is about to open and it's only 50 metres from my office :-s

Note to self: Silverstone

2011-09-11T09:12:00.000+01:00

When you next go to Silverstone see if you an get tickets for Abbey, a few rows back, in the middle of the stand. Excellent view of the start finish straight and the first corner.

Mmmmmm....

2011-09-06T18:13:00.000+01:00

.... holidays :-)

Finally...

2011-09-06T09:25:00.001+01:00

...got round to giving the Smart the recognition it deserves. I wonder if it was having the entire braking system replaced which reminded me of the Nurburgring trip?

How to Jail Break the ATV2 and add XBMC and iPlayer

2011-08-31T12:05:00.001+01:00

After much gaffing about this is set of steps worked for me...

ATV Jail Break, XBMC Build and iPlayer Install

Tips about Connecting via SSH
Step 1 - Jailbreaking using Seas0nPass
Step 2 - Install XBMC but not the latest official version
Step 3 - Turn off updates
Step 4 - Install XBMC Plugin for IPlayer
Step 5 - Update Sources.xml for NAS

Home at last :-)

2011-08-12T17:56:00.000+01:00

I'm back from the crazy streets of York (see last post) and most importantly I'm staying here for ten whole nights, something which hasn't happened for two months :-D

A nice change of pace...

2011-08-11T08:17:00.001+01:00

As I walked into the centre of York this morning there was a disturbance on the streets, how topical you might think, but in this particular case it was actually a gaggle of geese waddling up the road. It certainly made me smile :-)

Hurrah, it's raining!

2011-08-04T09:59:00.000+01:00

The reason this is particularly exciting is that we are camping and a) it's been chuffing hot all week and b) we are in our new tent which has windows :-D

Much better than most Monday mornings...

2011-08-01T09:25:00.001+01:00

Mmmmm

2011-07-15T22:28:00.001+01:00

Whilst I don't like working away from home...

2011-07-06T21:24:00.001+01:00

... I do quite like my walk to and from the office here in York

Getting there but will the builders finish today as tenants arrive tomorrow :-o

2011-06-30T09:00:00.000+01:00

Round 2 of the Derby Refit...

2011-06-25T07:06:00.002+01:00

... Now all we have to do is get it to Derby and build it all :-s

Big thanks to Mr and Mrs Brandham for all their help.

Big thanks to IKEA for enabling me to get everything in one place!

Round One of the Derby Refit

2011-06-25T07:03:00.000+01:00

Hurrah! I 'think' this means we're going to the Olympics :-)

2011-06-25T06:56:00.002+01:00

Aaaaaaargh!

2011-06-24T06:05:00.001+01:00

Boom!

2011-06-17T18:59:00.000+01:00

Fully hooked up for Video and Audio streaming from two iPhones, an iPad, a MacBook and a NAS to the Kitchen or Living Room. Thanks Mr Jobs :-)

Oh and apologies but I have Jail broken them as I wanted the iPlayer.

Final Scores on the Doors

2011-06-15T12:43:00.000+01:00

Shock horror! I realised that I didn't finish my scoring for the last leg of the journey from Norwich to York and so here goes...

Just after the lovely bacon roll, we stopped and were told there would be a 60 minute delay and so in all a major negative. Just after that another trolley came through First Class with a complimentary lunch including wine. A very nice offer and well timed after the delay announcement but I declined, well, I had an Apple.

20 minutes later we were back on our way and so a delay but nothing major. Overall I have decided to go for 8.5 out of 10. Pretty good then but lets be honest, it was still a train and there were still other people on it and so it wasn't ever going to be a 10 ;-)

Next trip I'm going to give driving a go to see how it compares.

Travel Tip #1

2011-06-14T18:30:00.001+01:00

Always ask to see more rooms if you're not happy with the one you are initially allocated, or just feel like a nose about. I've just moved from a horrible, pokey, roasting hot room to this lovely, cool, quiet and spacious double double :-)

Breaking News!

2011-06-14T11:36:00.001+01:00

A complimentary Bacon Sandwich! Now that's what I'm talking about!

Things are looking up...

2011-06-14T11:20:00.001+01:00

...the extra £1.50 for First Class was well worth it :-)

Travelling to York

2011-06-14T10:36:00.001+01:00

Let's hope the next 'leg' is a little betterI'm just starting a new piece of work which will see me in York a fair amount of the time and although I have been before today is my first trip to York from Norwich in ages!

I've gone for the train option and so far my review would be as follows...

Train from Norwich to Peterborough - 5 out of 10
Peterborough Station and the 45 minute wait - 6 out of 10

Yep, that would explain why my wrist has been sore...

2011-05-27T17:04:00.000+01:00

Everybody's Shuffling :-)

2011-05-22T08:37:00.001+01:00

Exciting times...

2011-05-21T13:35:00.001+01:00

How cool is this...

2011-05-11T17:18:00.000+01:00

We're pleased to announce that...

FERNAUT is officially a member of the team that holds the Guinness World Record title for the most people running a 100m sprint online.

Anything...

2011-05-07T11:05:00.000+01:00

... called the Fury 3 with Rage Technology has to be good, simple as that :-)

200 Saxophones all playing together...

2011-05-06T17:54:00.000+01:00

Not quite ready to let then...

2011-04-28T13:22:00.000+01:00

A productive Good Friday

2011-04-24T11:09:00.000+01:00

All if the units from a friends kitchen ripped out by 10am - love it!

Thanks Apple

2011-04-06T10:01:00.001+01:00

I'm just dropping off my MacBook at Apple so that they can fix the cracked case for free :-) For all you Apple haters, that's on a MacBook which is at least 4 years old :-o

A birthday MINI adventure...

2011-03-25T09:46:00.000Z

Skiing - Done!

2011-03-11T17:25:00.001Z

BOOM!

2011-03-11T12:28:00.001Z

Day 7 - Market day

2011-03-10T16:52:00.000Z

After Poker until 2am it was time for a quiet one today including a trip to the market and a stroll round Les Gets

Day 6, continued...

2011-03-10T00:54:00.001Z

... a great end to a great day, BBQ and Poker. I didn't win :-(

Day 6

2011-03-09T16:04:00.001Z

What a way to recover, blue skies...

... and pb's...

The main event...

2011-03-09T10:26:00.000Z

... I can't obviously share any details as what happens on ski stag stays on ski stag, but we all survived until 4:30 and much fun was had by all.

It's 00:25 and Ski Stag have found a dart board :-)

2011-03-08T23:25:00.000Z

Day 4 - Stag Prep

2011-03-07T21:55:00.000Z

Great day, nailed my first box on skis and got some much needed ski stag points for buttering (even if I did take out a small child in the process)

In more important news, the best man (Ady) has launched his new range of Stag wear, just in time for our Stag to model all day tomorrow...

Day 3 - Hangover Central

2011-03-06T22:21:00.001Z

After a very long day of driving what better way to prepare for the slopes than stay up late drinking and playing poker - doh!

Good effort all round though and a solid 2800m descent day just to get the legs warmed up. Glad to report we are injury free and have also had the first BBQ of the year.

We made it :-)

2011-03-06T12:18:00.000Z

Disaster!

2011-03-05T09:24:00.000Z

The French must have known Ski Stag was underway, we've been split up at the first opportunity! One car on the 9:20 and the other two still in the UK :-(

Day 2 continued...

2011-03-05T08:08:00.000Z

... OK, so whilst that looks like a train, the more observant of you will see that it's in fact a cafe and we are going nowhere for a currently unknown period of time, booooo!

Day 2

2011-03-05T06:22:00.001Z

All up early 5:45 for room 59, to reload the precious cargo of boards and skis before we head off to the tunnel...

Ski Stag is Go!

2011-03-04T17:36:00.000Z

Day 1 - MINI loaded and about to set off for Folkestone

Christmas trees make excellent kindling

2011-02-27T18:00:00.000Z

Tada!

It's all in the preparation

2011-02-20T14:36:00.001Z

Under two weeks to Ski Stag and the Mini is all good to go. Snow chains adjusted for fit and Roof Box switched to the new roof bars :-)

This is one quiet airport!

2011-02-16T03:23:00.000Z

Goodbye Vancouver

2011-02-16T02:45:00.000Z

It's been amazing and emotional...

The jelly fish at the Vancouver Aquarium :-)

2011-02-14T22:33:00.000Z

Ahhh Bisto, Ahhh Cha Ching!

2011-02-14T00:12:00.000Z

I've just been to the butchers shop with my sis to buy some meat for a Sunday roast. Luckily we didn't need any Bisto as this tub was £10!

The beautiful, but rainy, Deep Cove

2011-02-12T20:34:00.001Z

Oh how the Jolly continues...

2011-02-11T11:34:00.001Z

... Toronto at 5.30

Loving the Hockey

2011-02-11T02:13:00.001Z

A nice way to end another long day, room service and hockey. Very oddly, it's the two places I've stayed in the last week that are playing, New Jersey vs Toronto.

Cultural learnings II

2011-02-11T01:52:00.000Z

People wait for their lifts inside when it's -12 outside...

The joys of business travel

2011-02-10T15:32:00.001Z

I'm absorbing so much local culture here in Toronto...

...for example, things I've discovered so far are that the plugs are different but they use tables and chairs for working just like us in the UK ;-)

Mmmm, Tim Bits

2011-02-09T19:28:00.000Z

Day 3

2011-02-09T11:55:00.000Z

Suitably exhausting day today. Up at 5:30, driven from New Jersey to Hertford in a monster van (max fuel economy was 9.9 mpg). Straight into 5 hours of back to back meetings then flight from Hartford to Toronto.

Beautiful views as we came in to land and then a welcoming blast of -12 when the airplane door was opened ;-)

Checked in to the hotel at 8:15 and then went over the road for a high brow dinner of wings and beer :-)

The view from my hotel...

2011-02-07T14:08:00.001Z

... tie chilly here in New Jersey

Mmmm...

2011-02-06T23:39:00.001Z

I'm off on my travels...

2011-02-06T09:08:00.001Z

Norwich->Amsterdam->New York->Hartford->Toronto->Vancouver->Amsterdam->Norwich over the next 10 days.

For the flights I am taking The Sunday Times, two books, three magazines, a personal DVD player and collection of movies, Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk and all my work documents and email. I've also found quite a nice way to pack it all ;-)

Beautiful morning here in Perth

2011-01-18T08:17:00.002Z

Oh, and yes I may have arrived a little early. The walk was quicker than I thought.

Yep, they're still painting it...

2011-01-17T10:49:00.000Z

Just arrived in Scotland and on my way to the Aviva office in Perth for 4 days of Commercial Lines Roadmap fun.

Lovely weather at the moment and so a great flight, let's hope it stays that way.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T19:03:00.000Z

A massive thanks to my wonderful wife Ellen who gave me this as part of a very special case of wine after we got engaged :-)

Photo of the Year?

2010-12-30T22:02:00.000Z

Sent from my iPad

Finally!

2010-12-30T15:31:00.003Z

After much deliberating I have finally come to the conclusion that it is not extrvagant for me to pay for a Microsoft Exchange service. It's been bothering me for ages as you can get close to the functionality for free using Gmail but it's not quite the complete package.

The justification hit me today when I realised that pretty much everyday I use a very wide range of devices and operating systems...

Macbook running MacOS
iPhone running iOS
HP Tablet running Windows 7
iPad running iOS

...there is then of course my work Blackberry and Windows Laptop, and also on occasion my home PC running Windows 7.

So there we go, justification for having a premium email, contacts and calandar sync service :-)

I left out the Media Centre PCs in the Lounge and Kitchen as I don't email from them ;-)

Rocking the Panto with Evan

2010-12-23T18:54:00.000Z

My cycle to work this morning was...

2010-12-07T11:49:00.000Z

... picturesque but at the same time, chuffing cold ( -5) to be precise!

Getting there...

2010-12-05T14:43:00.000Z

Grouting to be done tomorrow evening after work but it's starting to look like a finished bathroom at last, which is good because I am well and truly broken after two weeks of 6:30 starts and 10-12 hour days.

Getting there...

2010-11-30T18:23:00.001Z

One bathroom ripped out...

2010-11-27T17:15:00.000Z

... now I just need to put a new one back in.

Snow in Norwich

2010-11-27T09:19:00.000Z

Just a dusting really but it still looks good.

Check out my Chilli Harvest :-)

2010-11-20T09:37:00.001Z

Half of these were grown from seed and the other half came from a single plant which I bought at the local village fête. I feel rather proud.

Friday night and I'm out in the City

2010-11-19T19:19:00.000Z

It looks like it's going to go off tonight ;-)

Every holiday home should have one...

2010-11-05T16:03:00.000Z

Why don't I have a boathouse :-(

2010-11-04T12:09:00.000Z

The birthplace of Trans Atlantic wireless communication...

2010-11-01T14:05:00.000Z