Samhain summary...
Nov. 1st, 2003 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyberspiceWell this last week has been interesting, eventful and in some cases damn hard work.
Last Saturday I drove down to spend Saturday night at my sister's place in north London. We had a nice time chatting, drinking too much red wine and watching movies. On Sunday we headed out to Camdem and due to my lack of funds nothing was bought (although some New Rocks were drooled on). Then on Sunday evening I drove out to Reading to stay with a friend.
I took Monday to Wednesday off work. My first bit of vacation time in a long while. I took it because my Reading friend and I have a mutual friend who lives abroad but was making a one night stop over in London on the way through on a return journey far off climes to home. We had decided to show her some of the sites of London. So on Monday after collecting her from the airport and then dropping her luggage off at her hotel we headed for a coffee house near Soho Square for some much needed caffiene. We then headed to Tate Britain for lunch and a look at the current Turner exhibition. Below is my favourite painting from the exhibition.
Towards the end of the afternoon we took the new Tate to Tate ferry down the Thames to Tate Modern. The current installation The Weather Project is amazing. For something that is in someways very simple the way it affects the visitors is incredible. The generator room of the old powerstation is virtually empty except the roof is completely mirrored. At one end is a yellow half-disc comprising of hundreds of monochromatic sodium lamps. The mirrors turn it in to a disc. Water vapour sprayed in to the space form clouds. Every one there was happy. Some sat on the floor, others lay on the floor watching their reflections. Many children held hands forming patterns on the floor. If art is supposed to make people react then this worked.
We finished Monday off with a nice meal.
Tuesday morning was spent in the Great Court of the British Museum. This space, designed by Sir Norman Foster houses the reading room of the British Museum was voted Britain's favourite new Architecture and is very impressive. We spent the morning chatting and having tea in the cafe there before viewing the marbles. Lunch was spent back in a coffee house before going to Trafalgar Square, walking St James Park (and trying to spot spys) and having afternoon tea in the crypt of St Martins in the Fields. We then returned to Heathrow to see our friend off before returning to Reading.
Wednesday was spent driving home and then in the gym.
Thursday I returned to work to find that our "customers" (other teams within the company) had been moaning behind our (my team's) backs but not to our faces. Lots of company politics emerged! Horrible. I felt really quite depressed on Thursday and didn't get much work done. Friday morning was spent in a very long meeting where we were explaining who we are, why we are and what we are doing to a team which is fairly entrenched and isolationist. I think it went very well. One individual, who I consider a twat, showed himself to be one during the meeting but others recognised this so his credibility is even more eroded than it was before the meeting. As we didn't break for lunch and it being POETS day we left at 3.00 for the pub and a nice long chat in "Brown lab". A nice way to end the week and not a bad Samhain.
Friday was payday and I got a bit of a bonus which allowed me to spend today hunting down a replacement PS2 for my dead one. I will probably get the old one repaired so I was looking for a PS2 with an i-link port as the new cost downs don't have them anymore. They have an IR receiver instead but I wanted the i-link for older multiplayer gaming. Well I found one in a deal with the Eye Toy camera and a cheap game so this evening I've been playing with the camera plugged in to my Linux PC to see what it is. I can't get the camera to work but it's built in microphone does. There is a Playstation 2 Linux driver coming out for it so it may be that that can be ported.
Bright Blessings...
Last Saturday I drove down to spend Saturday night at my sister's place in north London. We had a nice time chatting, drinking too much red wine and watching movies. On Sunday we headed out to Camdem and due to my lack of funds nothing was bought (although some New Rocks were drooled on). Then on Sunday evening I drove out to Reading to stay with a friend.
I took Monday to Wednesday off work. My first bit of vacation time in a long while. I took it because my Reading friend and I have a mutual friend who lives abroad but was making a one night stop over in London on the way through on a return journey far off climes to home. We had decided to show her some of the sites of London. So on Monday after collecting her from the airport and then dropping her luggage off at her hotel we headed for a coffee house near Soho Square for some much needed caffiene. We then headed to Tate Britain for lunch and a look at the current Turner exhibition. Below is my favourite painting from the exhibition.
Towards the end of the afternoon we took the new Tate to Tate ferry down the Thames to Tate Modern. The current installation The Weather Project is amazing. For something that is in someways very simple the way it affects the visitors is incredible. The generator room of the old powerstation is virtually empty except the roof is completely mirrored. At one end is a yellow half-disc comprising of hundreds of monochromatic sodium lamps. The mirrors turn it in to a disc. Water vapour sprayed in to the space form clouds. Every one there was happy. Some sat on the floor, others lay on the floor watching their reflections. Many children held hands forming patterns on the floor. If art is supposed to make people react then this worked.
We finished Monday off with a nice meal.
Tuesday morning was spent in the Great Court of the British Museum. This space, designed by Sir Norman Foster houses the reading room of the British Museum was voted Britain's favourite new Architecture and is very impressive. We spent the morning chatting and having tea in the cafe there before viewing the marbles. Lunch was spent back in a coffee house before going to Trafalgar Square, walking St James Park (and trying to spot spys) and having afternoon tea in the crypt of St Martins in the Fields. We then returned to Heathrow to see our friend off before returning to Reading.
Wednesday was spent driving home and then in the gym.
Thursday I returned to work to find that our "customers" (other teams within the company) had been moaning behind our (my team's) backs but not to our faces. Lots of company politics emerged! Horrible. I felt really quite depressed on Thursday and didn't get much work done. Friday morning was spent in a very long meeting where we were explaining who we are, why we are and what we are doing to a team which is fairly entrenched and isolationist. I think it went very well. One individual, who I consider a twat, showed himself to be one during the meeting but others recognised this so his credibility is even more eroded than it was before the meeting. As we didn't break for lunch and it being POETS day we left at 3.00 for the pub and a nice long chat in "Brown lab". A nice way to end the week and not a bad Samhain.
Friday was payday and I got a bit of a bonus which allowed me to spend today hunting down a replacement PS2 for my dead one. I will probably get the old one repaired so I was looking for a PS2 with an i-link port as the new cost downs don't have them anymore. They have an IR receiver instead but I wanted the i-link for older multiplayer gaming. Well I found one in a deal with the Eye Toy camera and a cheap game so this evening I've been playing with the camera plugged in to my Linux PC to see what it is. I can't get the camera to work but it's built in microphone does. There is a Playstation 2 Linux driver coming out for it so it may be that that can be ported.
Bright Blessings...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2003-11-02 03:29 am (UTC)Company politics.... one of the main reasons I chose to be a skint student. Good luck.
no subject
on 2003-11-02 03:43 am (UTC)