journal for 2002-10-15
the last eating i will ever do
I am disgustingly full. I’m at that stage where a nice little burp makes me feel better, because it means the contents of my esophagus can settle. I got this way by eating lunch too late and too much.
I skipped breakfast this morning. More accuratley, I had a handful of dry cereal for breakfast. Then, my meeting-filled day was suffled around so that by 1400, I’d been in meetings all day and hadn’t had a chance to eat. I asked my 1400 meeting to wait an hour and went to the pub, where I had a (tasty) steak and ale pie and some fries. It was good, especially given the weather. It was blustery and rainy, and generally miserable. I like miserable weather, but it’s been like this for a few days.
After work, Matt dropped me off at John Ryan’s. John is a friend of my father, and my dad has been telling me that I have to go visit him. I was happy to visit, and I’d really meant to do it last time I was here.
We sat around and chatting a bit while I had a beer, and then we headed out to a pub. I had a small Caesar salad and a very tasty plate of chicken Arrabiata and two more beers. By the time they were asking if we wanted dessert, I was full, but John encouraged me to try one of the puddings, and it sounded pretty interesting. I ordered bread and butter pudding. It was a lot like cinnamon bread with raisins, buttered and put in a bowl of hot custard. It was really good, but I was really full, and I couldn’t finish it. By the time I got to the last sip of my beer, I had to work hard to get it down. I think John thought I was just sick of hanging out, or that I didn’t like the food, but I was just entirely stuffed.
John and I sort of ran out of things to talk about; we hadn’t seen each other in ten years, and I barely remember it, and I couldn’t tell him much about my dad’s local rugby friends, because I don’t know much more than he does. So, we had a good night of it, but I think that a second night out would have been a bust.
John’s son, Mike, was around when we got back to John’s, and we talked for a while, too. Mike is going to the big soccer game tomorrow (Wales v Italy) and told me where I could meet him afterward for a drink. If I get down to the game, I will do my best—but I think it’s unlikely. The impression I get about this game is that “extra tickets” are not easy to come by.
So, I got home from that and watched the last episode of the first season of The Office. It was good; I’m going to try to watch the episodes I missed. I’d buy the DVD if I had a multi-region DVD player, but I don’t want it enough to get a multi-region DVD player for it.
work
Work continues to be so-so.
Our timeline called for me to have a spec before I left the US, but that didn’t happen. I didn’t even get one once I got here, despite lots of nagging. Finally, I met with some people here whom I thought could help. In talking with them, we uncovered some bigger issues, and the whole project plan is being revised. Fortunately, I did get enough information to produce a spec, which I should be able to send out tomorrow.
I get the impression that my presense here has been a catalyst for some things happening, but as far as doing the job I came to do, I think it’s a bust. I’ll say what I’ve said before: I’d love to see a simple diagram describing how our business works. I want to see what group does what and how work flows through the system. That would make my job easier. Unfortunately, I don’t expect that to ever happen.