Denver (business travel)

Was in Denver Colorado this past week for work. Stayed in a different hotel. That Hampton Inn on Capitol Hill. It was more of a neighborhood than either The Curtis or Sheraton that I have stayed at before.

The Colorado Capitol building down the street from hotel.

 I went for a short run in the neighborhood. There were lovely homes very similar to Minneapolis and St. Paul type homes. And neat little restaurants amongst the houses.

An event center. I think it used to be a Masonic temple.

Other corner of the same event center building.

The project team went out to dinner a couple of times and had a really fun time. We went to the Adrift Tiki Bar and Grill... a tiki themed restaurant and bar. Lots of fun... fantastic drinks and appetizers.
The bar had these light fixtures made from blow fish. I am not sure if they are real (look like they are) but I am totally wanting these to hang in my backyard.

Tiki Bar light fixtures.

I did have a hotel first (that I can recall). The fire alarms went off at 10:50pm Tuesday night. The hotel was evacuated. I was on the top floor (6th) and walked down. It looked like everyone took it seriously.

The fire engines showed up. Water starting pouring into the lobby. A sprinkler sensor had been activated and set off the sprinkler. Fortunately the sprinkler heads are activated individually, however, there was a lot of water.

We were allowed to go back to our rooms after the all clear even though there was watering pouring into the lobby from the floor above.  The Hampton Inn staff handled the situation very well. The manager was still there in the morning making sure everyone got through the lobby mess okay.

Also this week my alma mater, Vanderbilt, was in the College Worlds Series. It was a best out of three series Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I got to watch most of all three games including the final innings. Vanderbilt was playing against the University of Virginia and Vandy won! This was our first men's NCAA national title EVER!

Hursley - IBM Facility

IBM has a very large (huge) facility in Hursley which is near Winchester - southeast of London. One of the chaps from the project needed to go to Hursley to pick up his repaired laptop and I asked if I could tag along.

I took the train from Waterloo station to Winchester. The SouthWest trains are much nicer than the First Capital Connect trains I took to Welwyn Garden City. The ride to Winchester was about an hour. I enjoyed looking at the country side and even saw the canal which I walked along my first weeks here.

I arrived in Winchester earlier than the agreed to meeting time and so headed into town. I was following the signs to the cathedral - Winchester Cathedral -- everyone sing along. As is typical, the signs stopped pointing the way to the cathedral and I still couldn't see it. I headed in one direction and, of course, it wasn't the correct one. That was okay. I ended up at the Great Hall and some old Norman castle ruins right in the town.

I headed back to the train station to meet Lakshmi Shankar, my guide for Hursley. I hopped in his car and off we went. Hursley is a tiny little village. Besides a wonderful pub is the IBM facility. It is a campus really. There is a main manor house that is mostly used for offices and meeting rooms.

Some three thousand people work there. Almost all in software design and development and research.

Lakshmi did a great job showing me around and introduced me to IBMers that could be of help in my job.

Almost over

Well, a decision has been reached. I'm finished. Done. Thank you, buh-bye. Cherrio. Tata.

The feeling is that the project is not going on and there is nothing else for me to work on over here so I am to go back to the United States. And this after they finally got the accounting stuff figured out!

To be honest I'm ready. I miss my Frankie and Uno. And I miss my friends.

I just switched my return flight from May 17 to April 15. In the meantime I don't have much to do work-wise (I still get paid don't worry) but my Mom is coming on Wednesday for almost a week so will have freetime to do more siteseeing with her. And maybe I'll go to Paris next week for a couple of days.

It has been quite the experience. Three months alone though has been tough. There's a whole 'nother story there.

A "pause"

The project I was brought over here for is officially on a "pause." For now this means I won't be working on that project. I have a meeting on Monday with the resource manager over here in England to discuss what, if anything, they want to do with me.

My Mum is coming over for Easter and gets here on Wednesday. We have Easter Friday and Monday off - bank holidays. They get a lot of holidays here and tonnes more vacation days. I hear the French get even more.

The client has said they need until 16 April to make a decision on whether to proceed or not. Not sure what is going to happen. I still get paid and I still get expenses reimbursed. It all just gets more complicated.

First Day at Work

I made it to Welwyn Garden City fairly easily and to Roseanne House (IBM office). I actually passed right by Platform 9 3/4 for those of you who are Harry Potter fans. I will try to take a picture on my way back to hotel.

Martha, the directions were spot on for getting to Roseanne House from the train station.

I chatted with the project manager who is working from home today. Don't think there is much I can do without him around. You can read some frustration into that if you would like. No one to great me here. The receptionist is very nice.

It appears my IBM id badge is old. Hello, I've only been with the company a little over two years! Apparently it won't work over here. They are looking into getting me another I think.

Found out some more information on Welwyn Garden City. There are several "Garden Cities." They are planned communities created 20 or so years ago.