My company has sent me to our Seattle office to work on a project that requires support by someone in the same time-zone as our customer in South Africa.
I'm staying in Bellevue, the office is in Kirkland and about the same distance away to the NE is Redmond, home of Microsoft.
So far I've only really seen shopping malls and fast food restaurants, but hopefully I'll explore downtown a bit at the weekend.
I did a very bad thing.
I forgot about a double nurse appointment at the local NHS clinic.
In my defence, I have just been told that I have a week to get prepared for a month in Seattle away from my family, and suddenly have to plan our four week holiday in South Africa this week. I'm very busy and am not very well organised. I admit I was wrong.
HOWEVER...
I received a phone call this afternoon by someone who seemed to think they were my mother. Now, I wouldn't presume to tell my mother how to talk to me, but anyone else in the world... Presidents, Prime ministers, Popes, Spiritual Gurus, Teachers, etc., do not have that luxury.
'Do you know that you had an appointment at eight forty this morning?'
'oh... um, oh s- f-, I'm really, really sorry. I completely forgot.', says I.
But that did not satisfy the almighty and clearly perfect entity at the clinic, my confession was not yet over. She explained to me how they were always over booked and my missing an appointment meant that other people may not be able to get one.
I felt suitably humbled and replied, 'I appreciate that and I am truly very sorry indeed.'
Still not enough. I was told that I would not be allowed another appointment for a new patient screening, although I could see a doctor.
Hang on...
Surely to waste a doctor's time is even worse that wasting a nurse's? Does this mean that I can never use the NHS again unless I have been hacked in half or run down? I shall put being-hacked-in-half on my To Do list immediately (which thankfully doesn't work very well as you will have already understood).
I felt that by paying approximately £300,000 over my planned lifespan toward the NHS, I really shouldn't be barred for life for missing one appointment. I've visited the doctor about four times in my adult life, each time with little pills to sort me out (often antihistamines), so I hardly think I've put an unnecessary strain on resources.
I tried to ask what I was supposed to do now, but the nurse curtly said "goodbye" and hung up on me (making Anne Robinson sound polite and friendly). I was stunned.
Now it strikes me that the person on the phone was venting her anger about the government's lack of NHS funding, at me. I don't mind being told that I've been inconsiderate, but I really can't take the entire blame for the NHS being overloaded. I will happily pay the 40 minutes of Nurses' salary that represents the time wasted by my inconsiderate forgetfulness.
The NHS is a business that happens to be paid by the government out of our taxes. That makes me a 'customer'. In any other business, a receptionist who spoke to a customer as I was spoken to would be fired.
The problem is not that the customers/patients are bad and need punishing, but that the company they work for is badly run and under funded. My previous screening was cancelled by the clinic. The only reason I asked for the appointment was because the doctor told me to - I think I have better things to do with my time.
If it wasn't a monopoly that got my £300,000 pounds , I would go to a competing business who did not treat me so horrendously. If you want an example of why public run monopolies are bad for the consumer, just look at BT or British Gas before privatisation.
If I did go to a private health care company in protest, I certainly wouldn't get a refund of monies paid.
I thought I'd done a pretty good job of booking the hotel in Paris entirely in French (trois chambres simple pour un nuit). However, on arrival at 2200h - my colleagues and I were told at the reception of the Hotel Printemps that there was no reservation. Thankfully they had three shabby little rooms on the top floor available.
It didn't exactly set us up for a good meeting the next day and the train journey was sweltering. Fortunately, the village we went to was beautifully picturesque and within a few minutes of arriving, we felt relaxed and calm.
The second night was spent in the Quality Hotel in the business district. Usually the rule is that if something has to mention an attribute such as quality in its name, it will probably be trying to make up for a lack of that attribute. However, the Quality Hotel was indeed of high quality. My evening meal of duck with a garlic jus was particularly good.
The meetings went well and my return flight came far too quickly with not a moment of time available for sightseeing or shopping. Must revisit Paris soon for leisure rather than work.
Which brings me unpleasantly to something touched upon in the white book...
When pairing, it is essential to maintain a level of personal hygiene that befits the process of sitting very close to another developer for the whole day.
So far one half of our new recruits has proved to be somewhat less than satisfactory in this area. It's hard to know - as an Englishman and a gentleman - quite how to breach the subject, but breach it I must.
I have slightly more confidence in my point of view as I've had this opinion shared by a long standing colleague.
The drinking, however, is not within the scope of my interest, having not as yet had a detrimental effect on any project that I have a current interest in. These things are often over-emphasised in our company, since the drunken antics (several years ago) of one former employee.
Anyhow, three months probation should be sufficient to determine the validity of our choices.
I wish them both the best of good luck.
It's hard work breaking in new recruits. I've had a sore throat all week from trying to justify our existing code-base and customer relationships.
As hoped, the new blood is having an almost immediate positive effect. Irritations that had faded into background noise have been brought to the fore.
Someone without the tarnish of several years on the frontline can much easier see the atrocities that are committed in the name of Truth, Justice and the Extreme Way. Not that any blame should be attributed to XP - just to our slow deviation from the path of the righteous.
Son of a bitch! Gave him an 800 quid deposit (doh!) for a shed and he disappears without a trace. Apparently moved out of his house with no forwarding address. He sold his workshop and pickup truck to Dave of Wooden Buildings, who has quoted twice as much to do the same job.
If I had any idea where to serve notice, I'd small-claims his ass, but frankly for the sake of £800, it's hardly worth the effort as he'd probably just go bankrupt anyway.
You may infer from the above that this is not the first time I've been Royalled. However, previously it was my employer (Ian Powely) who did the dirty deed. Not before getting me to design the new corporate logo for the pheonix-like company that arose from the ashes.
I blame the parents - and the government - and anyone else who gets in the way!
Bought a black Nintendo DS Lite along with Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training and New Super Mario Bros. The idea was to get Penny into playing video games - she'd shown some interest in Brain Training.
It's a lovely unit, nice bright screens (about twice as bright as the old DS), though it didn't come with the strap and thumb stylus that came with the original. It's black and shiny like the PSP, but the build quality is nothing like as good.
New Super Mario Bros. is pretty much the same as the SNES Super Mario Brothers. The only new features are Giant and Tiny power-ups that make Mario about the same height as the screen or half the size of normal Mario respectively. The tiny power-up allows Mario to fit through small holes and reach otherwise inaccessible areas.
Dr. Kawashima is quite a phenomenon, breaking the usual mould for best selling games. I have already noticed an improvement in my mental arithmetic and it is particularly enjoyable playing with more than one user, as your daily efforts are comparable with your friends'/family's.
The DS is a great toy and I've spent a lot of this weekend playing Mario.
