journal for 2004-01-06

mis-dating

Ok, this should be dated Jan 5, but I already had an entry and I haven’t bothered making it clear that a given day has received a new entry. So, cope.

work

I expected Godfrey at about 08:30, and I knew I needed to check out, so I left my room at about 08:25. Little did I know that checking out consisted of handing my key to the clerk, who waved me out the door. Of course, the five or ten minutes until Godfrey arrived weren’t bad, but I felt a bit silly standing out on the front porch of the inn. We got into work, and I was happy to find that I could still find my way about. I had a Tango and chatted with Godfrey for a while before Duan showed up and introduced himself. He didn’t look at all as I’d expected, but I wasn’t very tied to my expectations.

Duan and I chatted about this and that, and I moved my things over to his and Rahm’s area. The day went pretty well. I talked a lot about Perl and why it’s the best thing ever. We got lunch at the pub, where I got my long-awaited steak and ale pie. It was almost as good as I remembered. They no longer serve half and half (half rice, half fries), which is sad, but they still have two-for-one meals, which is good. Later, Godfrey told me that he’d been banned from the pub, which is funny.

We’ve agreed to spend half of our day, each day, going through the items in our pseudo-agenda. I think that’s good, but I wish we could just focus entirely on that and stop only to fight fires. I don’t know enough about the workload over here, though, to say whether that’s realistic. It’d just be nice to focus on getting the train on track; if that means pulling it to a halt, first, so be it.

After five, I stuck around for about an hour doing a little reading and work. When Duan left, though, I left too. I didn’t have any way to lock the office behind me, so I had to. I suppose I could’ve hung out in the canteen and hoped for the wireless signal to reach, but that would’ve seemed pretty pathetic. Also, I didn’t think of it.

smellons

I walked to the hotel in the mist, along a very dark and narrow road. The cars on the drive seemed to speed up when I came in view, but I survived the trip up, and so did my bag. Checking in was painless, and I came up to my room and put my things away. I’m fairly certain this is a room I’ve had before, but I suppose they probably all look similar. At most, I was one door down.

This hotel is the Saint Mellon’s Country Club, and all the Signs read “StMellons.” The “t” is in superscript, and at first glance I always mistake it for an apostrophe. In my head, this place will always be S’Mellons. I sounds like a name for a scented bra, which seems an admittedly unlikely product.

My room is fine. It’s two or three times the size of my room at the Travel Inn, and seems to be in generally better shape. On the other hand, the bed is even softer than the already soft bed at the other place. I’ve been seriously considering sleeping on the floor. I’m getting pretty exhausted, though, despite catching a second (or third?) wind, and I might just crash on the bed and leave the contemplation of floor-sleeping for tomorrow.

I ate the shortbread and drank a cup of cocoa for dinner. I’m not sure, yet, whether I want to go over to the gym in the morning. I think I’ll see how I feel then. I think I may put it off until the evening, tomorrow, but if I’m awake enough and bored enough, I’ll go do an hour or so on whatever equipment they have.

My goal tonight is to make it until ten o’clck, but I think I may give in after nine. I’ve been watching TV. First I watched two episodes of the Simpsons, and now I’m watching the finale of last season’s Enterprise. It’s pretty lame and uninteresting. Next up is this season’s season premire of Enterprise. My excitement level is low.

I’m beginning to feel completely incapable of keeping my eyes open, so I’m going to brush my teeth, turn off the lights, and see if I can sleep until sometime reasonable, like six.

Written on January 6, 2004