okay, okay; so there have been no updates while i was in denver and i have been a bit scanty with the personal diary stuff of late (especially cat-oriented stuff to satisfy the likes of brad and the other feline-fans) so let’s try and make up for it a little.

weekend before last comprised gardening – reengineering the rockery to be an ordinary flowerbed, planting out potatoes, and enjoying the birdlife that was flitting around for company, picking up bugs and other food, notably a couple of goldcrest whose tinkling i first misidentified as goldfinch. the goldcrest (and its cousin the firecrest) are britain’s smallest birds, and always pleasant companions.

ironically i managed a complete weekend of heavy gardening without harm or grief, only to pull a back-muscle the day before flying out to cec, by taking out the trash.

so, how did the denver trip go?

wednesday

got up early and travelled to heathrow with richard (my boss) leaving the car at work; by virtue of bumbling charm and hanging out with a silver-card holder, i got upgraded into business-class bathtub-sized bedseats, which made the outward flight much more enjoyable.

movies? oh, there were some. watched the most recent james bond, and channelhopped quite a bit.

land, disembark, get breathless chasing after richard in the mile-high thin air, clear customs, taxi, hotel, shower, and have dinner with richard and other work people.

thursday

up early for a confcall (took notes by hand on paper, gasp, must write them up) thence off to the meeting. bailed out around 5pm with bart and glenn to go to starbucks and get a dose of network connectivity; having wireless on the ibook saved my back at least three times during the trip, for file transfer and general internet access. it was an interesting learning experience.

we also learned/proved that the ibooks have got very clever ethernet nics, that you can link two machines without requiring a crossover cable. this also proved very useful.

i got back to the hotel to find my new roommate laszlo (a very nice hungarian chap) had arrived and was asleep; i suspect that i may have startled him with my entrance, by the way he bolted up out of bed like the secret police had just crashed into the room. (sorry, laszlo)

friday

up at 7-ish for an early start with stale bagles and yet more discussion. more geeks arrived, and more communication and caffeine deprivation mandated a return trip to starbucks and use of the ibook as a inpromptu wireless router via the crossover cable. it’s a pity that i didn’t have a hub with me.

saturday

get up at 0650 to go to the big meeting (4000 headcount) – paired up with laszlo and the others in the hungarian contingent, then the opening sessions and the breakouts.

yet more wireless fun, exporting the contents of a compactflash card over the airwaves to mikael’s linux laptop, which was having trouble reading the card directly.

bailed out at 1800 to have a pre-crawl planning meeting and dinner, and then at 2045 wandered over to the hotel to pick up the computer security pub crawlers. we set off with between 35 and 40 people, lost a few early and picked up a few more later. inclement weather forbade use of bagpipes, and eventually we got so comfortable at our second stop the rock bottom brewing company (occupying most of the pool/snooker hall) that we stayed there.

until 2am. 😎

it was an extremely multicultural, multilingual evening, as exemplified by the hour-long five-way, five-language conversation between:

• pedro (portugese, spanish and english)
• domenico (italian, spanish and english)
• gilberto (italian and english, at least)
• alec (english and schoolboy french)
• wences (english, spanish, portugese, italian and tequila[1])

…which proved to me that (1) i am less scared of spoken non-english languages nowadays than i have ever been before, and (2) more of my french comes back to me when i am mildly drunk, but i am still incabable of forming extended sentences.

last orders was called at about 0200, so i accompanied some colleagues back to their hotel for one of those late-night student-like “chats on the sofa” in which too many secrets get shared. andrew and i, sober but totally exhausted, propped each other up and walked back to our hotel. bedtime at 0330.

sunday

woke at 0728, from the induced dit-dit-dit dit-dit-dit of laszlo’s phone upon the AM radio; gradually my exhaustion from 4hrs sleep faded, until i worked out that (1) this was probably the only chance in my life i’d ever get to hear gene kranz speak, and (2) i was awake enough to not be able to justify not going.

so:

sod it, i’m going, “failure is not an option”
out of bed 0733
assemble clothes 0736
in shower 0741
out shower 0747
dressed 0752
elevator, walk, and into conference centre 0801

…and spend an hour listening to the man, with a packed hall of 4000 people, the entire geek (and some non-geek) contingent of the attendees utterly rapt, watching gene talk and essentially re-living some of his life on stage. This was the best keynote talk of the entire conference, though probably more for the history of man’s aspiration for spaceflight, and the feel of their organisation, than for the inspirational aspects that were probably intended.

as one listener commented:

there’s no way that you can honestly compare selling a computer, to parking three guys on top of an thousand-ton firework and setting light to it. great talk, though.

then in short order: a latte with angie, a snooze at the hotel, an extended chat with lazlo re: hungary, supermarkets and european languages; then laundry, swimming, and more conference.

then walking up to the evening dinner/disco with markus the aussie, whist making sheep noises (“careful! you might excite the kiwis!”) and messing around with laptops and apple stuff.

dinner at the wynkoop brewing company, with elk steaks, then bed.

monday

0700 start; what to say? more conference, breakouts, some incredibly exciting work stuff, and then the last talks of the day.

hotel, swim, jacuzzi, steamroom, swim, jacuzzi, steamroom, swim, jacuzzi, steamroom, fudge brownie frappucino, bus, airport, bootsniffing by the customs people (great job for a foot fetishist, no doubt) talk talk plane whoosh ugh sleep-in-chair sleep-in-aisle thud taxi office email car home.

sleep. sleep. and more sleep.

thursday

wednesday didn’t happen, except for suzi having a mild fit and requiring showering down[2]. I think this one can be written off to stress.

now it’s the weekend.

the throat infection which took hold after my return is prosecuting war; it’s not pleasant, but decongestants help and so did the #3 romeo y julieta cuban that i had after dinner – a vice that i partake of extremely rarely, but find of medicinal benefit and some sensual satisfaction.

one or two a year won’t kill me, and one certainly renders me incapable of feeling a sore throat, when it is pleasantly smoked, instead.

gradually i am getting back into life/work; this week must be a documentation week, as i have several presentations to give in the near future. ah, were it not for so much work, i could get so much more work done.

mmmm… hot, spicy ginger cordial and a teaspoon of honey help the throat, too.

they’re re-running the original three tenors concert on the tv, so i am having a sumptious evening: big steak, nice salad, cigar, music… i’ll lay off the booze in deference to the pseudoephedrine, that’s the only thing that spoils the full complement of the evening.

and a little bit later, some present wrapping.

[1] tequila is a language with only two words, both nouns: tequila, salut! – it is learned easily, but dangerous to one’s constitution.

[2] tip: when showering a cat, use warmer-than-human water; a cat’s body temperature is typically higher than yours, and they seem happier getting soaked with stuff that’s nearer their blood heat. tip c/o