October 24 - Visits, UAT and a Countdown

Hey folks!

Can you believe that in 59 days I will be back in good ol Canada!?!?!? I am both excited and sad about this adventure coming to an end but enough about that.

UAT went very well. I don't want to brag but I am positive that this is the best set of user testing this organization has ever been through. I'm proud of my team and the testers. Here's a pic:

(L-R: Front, Leonard (Ghana), Meike (Germany), Monica (Spain), Joan (Canada), Kabir (Bangladesh), Back, Helen (Ethiopia), Me, Nicki (ChildData Team) and Conor (doing the Blue Steel face as usual)

After my crazy visit from Sarena I was visited by Christie for nearly a week! It was amazing that everyone we saw (including the testers and the receptionist) all pointed out that we looked like sisters! We did the touristy thing up royally and I know feel satisfied that I could leave the UK satisfied with my site-seeing. Check out the photos:

Double-decker bus tour (seriously it was great!)

Haming it up at Buckingham Palace:

Nerds at the museum of Natural History:

What trip to London with Tina is complete without a musical?!?!?

And perhaps watching Rugby in a random pub?

And the addition of another 'world wonder' to my list for this trip...Stonehenge!

All with beautiful weather and great company! Thanks Christie!

October 16 - Sarena visit and GMT

Just a quick update that I had a terrific visit from Sarena this weekend. I showed her nightlife in Woking (I'll let her post her own judgement on that one) and we shopped up a storm. It was FANTASTIC. I think she took one or two photos so maybe I'll post one of those.

I also learned a new international phrase this week. Feel free to borrow it: GMT, meaning Ghana Maybe Time. It's an indicator that something might get done eventually if someone feels like doing it...just like most things in Ghana. hee hee

I'm still at work at 9:30 so should just finish my stinkin work and go home but I had to be a bit distracted don't I?

October 9 - Let the User Acceptance Begin!

Day two of User Acceptance Testing and so far so good. The team looks like they will do well and we have quite the international bunch including:
- Joan from Canada (clearly my favourite)
- Monica from Spain
- Meike from Germany
- Leonard from Ghana
- Hasinil from Bangladesh
- Helen from Ethiopia, and
- Amy from the UK
Looks like the system is ready to go so it should be a busy two weeks. Looking forward to Sarena's visit on the weekend to break it up.

A couple of congrats are due to Jen and Darren on wee baby Catriona and to Dave and Megan on their engagement. :-) So much happy news for my favourite Smiths!

October 6 - Everybody's workin for the weekend...nope just me

Hello all!

Just a quick hi from the office on this glorious Saturday morning. It's rugby-mania as England takes on the Aussies today in the World Cup but I am in the office with my Indian developers getting ready for User Acceptance Testing to start on Monday. YAY!

I wanted to post a couple more photos from India and the Taj trip as I have collected them from the others:

1) The team at the Taj (Paulina -Ecuador, Conor - ADP, Khalila - Kenya, Susan- Woking, Me and Marte - Norway)

2) The view of the Taj from the Red Fort in Agra

3) The train station in Mumbai

4) Conor on a camel...seriously!

Okay I should stop procrastinating now. I managed to get a replacement battery charger for my phone so more photos of my fun times to come.

Hope you all have a happy Turkey Day (for the Canadians of course). One of our testers is from the Canadian National Office. I can't wait to take her 'out and about' in Woking!

Go Australia!

September 27 - UK TV

I was thinking the other day that these blogs won't be so super exciting anymore (pretend with me that they were exciting before) now that I am back in the boring UK but then I realized that there are so many differences between here and there (insert your location here) that I may be able to keep up the fun for at least a little while longer.

I was thinking of this as I watched TV the other night. Much like with my bunny ears at home I only get 5 channels here so there's limited selection but there always seems to be something interesting on.

They love their investigative journalism and the other day I watched a program that tested several different alternative diets and their effect on health. Boring you think. Well one of the diets involved ranchers and probiotics (I won't go into details but there was pooh involved) and the other was an 'ancestral diet' where folks ate like baboons for two weeks to see what it did. Very interesting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/

They also love real-estate shows. There's always something on about renos or finding your dream home/vacation home. It's a neat way to see how people live not only in the UK but all over europe. The prices are mostly shocking (the cheapest place around here is about 200,000 GBP = $400,000) but the places are always so full of character. There is a lot of original architecture around which makes for personality abound.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/tv_and_radio/tbontb_index.shtml

The third big one is talent competition. It seems they cast most of the West End musicals using TV shows with Danny and Sandy (Grease), Joseph (Joseph) and Maria (Sound of Music) all having been selected by the public (and of course Andrew Lloyd Weber) on tv. I'll have to check out one or two of them live I think.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/joseph/

As for me right now...work is hectic. We are training the 'super users' right now and they are a demanding bunch which is causing us to change all kinds of plans and we are getting ready for User Acceptance Testing so it's going to be a full couple of weeks which is fine with me. Work, gym, sleep, work. I think that will keep me busy until the visitors start. YAY!

Enjoying a cappacino and thinking of all my coffee buddies (Gege, Phil, Martin). Have a great weekend everyone!

September 24 - Photos from India!

A day in Mumbai...

(sorry Mom!) Conor and the cobra (I was VERY far away at the time).
A typical Mumbai taxi...note: not a tuk tuk...

Trip to Agra...the team at the taj..

I'm not sure what was worse for traffic...cows everywhere or Conor driving a tuk tuk!

September 24 - Brushing my teeth with tap water!

It's true...I am actually brushing my teeth with tap water again and if feels soooo good. In 6 more days I will stop taking anti-malarials and the world will be a happier place (those things make you c-r-a-z-y)!

My journey from Mumbai to Woking was an uneventful one and I spent yesterday getting sorted and relaxing.

I have cried on two runs during this trip. The first was the day Jay left to go home when we broke up and the second was yesterday. This time I was happy. I love fall runs and I was so happy to be out in the sunshine and free to run where I pleased. Perhaps that's why I ran 10km which I was clearly not ready to do as my quads are telling me today.

I am settled into my new flat which is super nice (no bugs or little men sleeping in my kitchen) and have an address so if anyone wants to write let me know.

I'll post some more India pics now. Enjoy!