Lost In The Library Of Life

The Kitchen Fitters From Hell

We’ve just had a new kitchen put in, and I can’t think of a more annoying experience. At the end of the day we were just victims of the trend for sub-contractors to sub-contract, but it left a mess. I suppose we should have known better, especially when they started ripping out the old kitchen with crowbars, leaving gaping holes in the walls – but they were the fitters, so they must know what they were doing…

Two and a bit weeks later, we finally got the manager of the company in to see what state things were in. With a replacement set of fitters the undoing and redoing took just 5 more days… Including completely redoing a whole section of worktop and sorting out the wall that the fitters from hell had started to demolish…

With just a few minor bits left to do, we’re starting to fit the contents of the cardboard boxes that had filled the lounge and hall into the kitchen again. There’s plenty of space in the new cupboards, and the huge carousels in the corner work well. We’ve also spent a week Danish Oiling the new beech block worktops, so we’re only just coming down from the fumes!

You’d think after an experience like that I’d be a convert to the way of DIY – but I’m not! In fact, at the moment we’re having a new bathroom put in…

The 1998 UK Computer Technical Journalists Tour Of US Airport Terminals

The beginning of October brought a nice surprise. Microsoft were offering to send me to their 1998 Professional Developers Conference. Unlike previous Microsoft events I’d attended, this was to be the other side of the Atlantic – in the Mile High city of Denver, Colorado.

I suppose we should have suspected what was going to happen when we saw the itinerary. Instead of flying direct to Denver, we were heading first to Chicago, for a tight connection to Denver. Head winds across the Atlantic got in the way of things, and we had less than an hour and half to clear immigration at O’Hare, collect our luggage and recheck in on the early evening United flight to Denver. Fortunately luck was on our side, and the speedy airport train took us across the expanse of O’Hare and a quick dash onto the waiting plane.

Denver is a surprisingly nice city. With a skyline of mountains to the west and an attractive smattering of buildings at least a century old, it was an excellent place for an extremely technical conference, and the Colorado Convention centre would be an ideal place for a Worldcon! As we were over 5000 feet up, altitude sickness was an ever-present threat, and affected most of us at one time or another during the week.

We arrived late on the Saturday, and had the Sunday free before the sessions began on Monday with a freak show appearance by the world’s richest man. Five of us hired a car, and headed off into the Rockies (via a big out-of-town Walden Books!). The Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been – huge mountains rising up into clear blue skies, and deep dark lakes nestling in aspen forests that were turning autumn gold. We drove deeper and deeper into the park, and higher and higher, until our hired Ford Taurus (that’s a Mondeo, folks!) reached the peak of the road at just under 13,000 feet. Permanent snow was all around us, and we could see for miles in every direction.

Back down the mountains we entered a deep valley, full of beaver lakes and herds of elk. There’s something about the presence of elk that makes you realise just how big they are – and how wide and sharp the bulls’ antlers are!

A week of heavy technology passes by very quickly – especially when interspersed by book shop trips and meals on the Microsoft AmEx card… I found an excellent bookshop, which I since found out has a reputation as one of the best in the US. The Tattered Cover is a friendly place, with an excellent selection of books and magazines – and a decent coffee shop. Sitting down with a copy of the Whole Earth and a vanilla latte is a pleasant way to spend a half hour.

It was on the return journey that things started to go wrong. We were due to fly to Phoenix in Arizona to pick up a BA jumbo to Gatwick. The flight over the southern deserts of the USA was a pleasant ride over cities and towns in the clear night, and Phoenix airport was a pleasant enough place for an hour or two lay over. The 747 came in from San Diego on time, and we got on board for the 10 hour flight to London. Unfortunately it wasn’t to happen… As we accelerated down the runway, the number 1 engine failed, and we had to abort our take off. We sat back in the terminal and watched them take the engine apart.

At 5 am they finally checked us into a hotel. Things could have been worse – at least there was a swimming pool, and October in Arizona means that the temperatures only get into the high 80s. Then we found out that we’d be stuck at least another day – and would have to fly back via Denver! Luckily we were able to get on to the red-eye to Newark that night, where we could pick up a Continental flight back to the UK. Sleeping across the USA is an unusual experience, and as we landed in Newark the sun was rising over the skyscrapers of New York…

We’re planning on getting tour T-shirts printed, with a list of all the airport terminals we visited…

Heathrow – Chicago – Denver – Phoenix – Newark – Gatwick

Books Read

Lots and lots! Including a complete run through the complete David Weber Honor Harrington books (anyone else spot that the duel in the recent ITV Hornblower was matched rather neatly by the one in Field Of Dishonor?), as well as all those books I bought on my trip round the States…

Out of space and out of time…

Putney, November 1998