No Place like it

Wednesday 27th

Yesterday's flight was not too bad - 7 1/2 hours in the air. The check in clerk was perhaps understating the situation when he said there were free seats. The Busniess class cabin is split into 2 sections. I was in the rear where there are 4 rows of 6. There were on 5 of us there, almost outnumbered by the staff. Needless to say service was very good.

The plane was an A330, the same as used by Thai but the seats were much better. You couldn't quite lay horizontal but the seat did recline to almost flat. I'm not sure whether they were as good as the Qantas sky beds but they were not far off. The best I've had so far are still the Cathay 747s with the diagonal beds.

I watched Gran Torino, with Clint Eastwood. It has been available on every flight so I thought I'd better not miss it. Unfortunately this plane didn't have movies on demand, so by the time I foudn it, it had been running for a few minutes. I didn't try to watch anything else but actually had nearly 4 hours sleep. I was worried that this might have stopped me sleeping once I got home.

Passport and customs was pretty quick and I was soon in a taxi heading home. There was a fair bit of mail waiting and a bit of new email. I looked at the new Mensa crossword and figured out the grid before going to bed. I read the magazine till about 2am and then had a solid sleep through to 8 this morning. I then did most of the crossword before getting up

I'm sure it will be a few days before I've caught up with mail, messages, bills etc. and have got myself fully in sync with the time zone and can start working again. I have a hockey game tonight and a golf tournament on Friday as well.

I'm not expecting to be travelling again till end of september, assuming I go to the Vets Hockey Championships in Hobart. In the last 13months, May to May, I have had a total of 174 days away. This last trip has put me to Gold in the Qantas frequent flyer program.

Sleeping in the wet spot

Tuesday 26th

I had a decent sleep waking about 7 so maybe my jet lag won't be too bad after all.

It was still raining so there was no temptation to go sightseeing. A leisurely shower was followed by a long breakfast downstairs. Like many Asian hotels this was a buffet with a large selection of European, and Asian dishes plus a cook who did omelettes on demand and waffles. I read the paper, did some crosswords and generally filled in time.

I went backed to the room finished packing (I hadn't really unpacked) and checked out about 10-30.

I sat in the bar reading till they told me the Airport shuttle was ready. We left about 11:10 and had gotten to the end of one of the causeways when the driver got a phone call. There was another passenger. We went back through the traffic and again left on the same route, half an hour after the first attempt. There was one more hotel pickup of about 5 passengers and then we headed through the tunnel to the airport. Traffic was not as bad as yesterday but still slow till we cleared the Kowloon downtown area. It took about 1 1/2 hours all up. I took some photos and movies but again due to the drizzle and overcast skies, they are not as good as I would have liked.

On checking in, I found that my rebooked flight to Perth was yesterday but the plane wasn't full so there was no problem. I wandered around the airport shops for a short time. Upmarket and luxury stores mostly - Cartier and Tiffany if you needed some last minute diamonds, Gucci and so forth for clothes, bags etc as well as the usual electronics, alcolhol, cigarettes and perfume stores. I decide there wasn't anything I wanted or needed and you can't take bottles anyway.

I am now in the airport lounge. I had some noodles and a couple of sandwiches and a drink. They have nice little work areas here with power and plenty of desk room, so you don't need to balance your laptop on top of your lap and run on battery.

A long journey into night

Sunday 24th and Monday 25th

In a way Sunday disappeared, due to crossing the International date line. I boarded the just before 1 am on Sunday morning and got off about 6am on Monday morning. Last time I had a solid 10 hours sleep and recovered from my jet lag virtually straight away. This time, I had the meal, watched part of the movie "Twilight" and then fell asleep. About 3 hours later I woke up and never really got a decent amount of continuous sleep after that. I did spend a lot of time lying flat on my "bed" with my eyes closed but seemed unable to get to sleep again. I read a book and watched the movie "7 pounds" to fill in time. It is still a long way. We arrived a bit ahead of schedule and I was through passport control quite quickly. My bag took a bit longer than expected and then I still had a short wait for my clubs on the oversized baggage carousel.

Once through customs, I change most of my US dollars(60) to Hong Kong currency. I saw a counter for my hotel in the concourse and decided to take the Airport shuttle rather than the train. The main impetus for this was getting delivered to the door so I didn't have to lug my clubs around. Otherwise I'd have taken the train and a taxi or the MTR. There was a 40 minute wait and then it was rush hour so the traffic was slow. Also we stopped at 2 other hotels on the way so it was 9 before I got there.

I did see a bit more than you would normally in the train, although it was overcast and misty so distance viewing wasn't very clear. The new airport is on another island and you actually drive along some undeveloped hills for part of the way, before crossing a couple of bridges and then a tunnel to get onto the mainland. You then pass some shipyards and get into Kowloon before taking another tunnel to Hong Kong Island. It was in Kowloon that the traffic got heavy and we inched along the roads, as cars tried to change lanes before the next tunnel or clover leaf. At one stage I had a Deja Vu moment and realised I'd walked along the street that we were on, on my previous trip. Sure enough, a short distance further on I saw the hockey stadium.

I took a paid upgrade that gave me Internet and breakfast (and some other perks) and was given a "much larger" room on the top floor, in the Harbour Club. It is a reasonable size but not what I would call large by eg Australian, US or Thai standards. I'm glad I wasn't in the normal room. It even has a small cooking area with a hot plate and a microwave. Not sure how useful this is sicne there are no plates, pots or cutlery. My view is of the mountains, rather than the harbour but I found the window in the hall way gave me the harbour view, and to be honest, with the weather as it is, you could hardly see the other side of the water.

It was great to have a shower as you just can't help feeling a bit grubby after a long flight. The water was hot and the pressure strong. After changing into a skirt and top I headed out and found a supermarket nearby, buying some water, soft drink and chips. For some reason my email program decided to re- download all the mail since about the 20th April so it took a while before I could see if I had anything new.

I then grabbed my golf umbrella, since it was drizzling steadily and headed further afield. I took a tourist map from the hotel lobby, but it didn't cover the area where the hotel is located. (This is important later). I walked some distance towards the CBD (Central area) pooping into various malls for a bit of window shopping but I didn't intend to buy anything. I did stop for some Pad Thai for lunch. Eventually, I decided I'd gone far enough and came back along a parallel street and then on the other side of the road I'd started on. I saw a hairdressers (well lots of them actually) and decided to get my hair cut. The last time it was cut was in Bangkok about 8 weeks ago. It cost about A$11 for a shampoo, cut and dry.

You can tell a bit about the weather by how people handle it. Most buildings had a "device" at the front entrance. This held long plastic bags and you poked your umbrella into them pulled them out and your umbrella was covered and didn't drip everywhere. You don't have those in places where it is sunny most of the time.

Back in the hotel, I lay down on the bed and read a book. It wasn't really sight seeing weather. I dozed off a couple of times to be woken by the staff delivering my complimentary fruit plate. Went back to sleep again and woke up at 6:10. I quickly got dressed and headed out to my meeting with the Hong Kong Mensa group. I had planned to partake of the free happy hour included with the upgrade but it was too late for that. I caught the MTR (underground train) to Central and arrive a few minutes before the 7 o'clock rendezvous. I was clever or lucky enough to have picked the right exit and came up the escalator right next to Mrs. Fieldings Cookies, where Ruby was already waiting. It was a 5 minute walk to the University Alumni building and the restaurant where on of the members was already waiting. Another 3 arrived shortly after and we had a typical chinerse meal with soup rice and stir fry type dishes.

We then headed off for another 10 minute walk to a street cafe where the others had dessert. I didn't see anything that tempted me and the dishes they had looked a bit like tapioca. Although it hadn't rained on this little trip, it was quite warm and very humid out of the airconditioning. After that I headed to the MTR station with the group gradually going their separate ways. Thomas walked right to the station with me but caught a different train. It took less than 15 minutes to travel the 7 stops to my station but I came out a different exit than the one I went in on. I knew I was on the right road because the trams go down the centre but I wasn't sure where I was relative to the hotel. I use a bit of logic to work out where the mountains might be (it was dark by then), and the shape of the road and headed left. After 10 minutes I hadn't seen anything familiar and was looking at my useless map (ie not covering the area). Some one stopped and I got the direction of Central - back in the direction I'd come. 25 minutes after I left the station I was back there again and another 10 minutes walk got me to the hotel. I'm sure I've walked further today than in the entire 4 weeks in the States.

Tge maid had been to my room and turned down the bed and replaced the wet towels and bath mats. As I was getting ready for bed I discovered a little bamboo container with 3 chocolates in it on the bedside table.

I've booked the 11:20 shuttle back to the airport tomorrow. This stopover has really been just about the cheaper airfare, although it was nice to see the Mensa people again.

It's now midnight so hopefully, if I get a decent night's sleep, my body will be back in sync with this time zone, which is the same as Perth.

The final frontier

Saturday 23rd

This is written in the BA lounge in San Fransciso, so I am at last on my way home. It has been a good visit from both the work and play aspects but as always it will be good to be home again.

I packed most of my suitcase, layed out my travelling clothes and emptied the fridge before heading out. I decided to pick up some more of the hair care products since Tony indicated the golf would be on him and I had taken out enough cash to covber the green fees. I also had to return my library book and DVDs. As I left I noticed a "Friends of the library" shop at the front and picked up a couple of paperbacks for 50c each.

Today's golf was at the Tournament Players Course and this is the last of the Wooidlands Country Clubs courses that I have played. Apaprently way back when Tony first jpoined, the nomination fee was $5000 and the monthly fee was around $300. This was a "junior" membership since he was under 35. Ironic, Women become vets at 35 in Hockey. Anyway This was also the first course I saw since I drove through it between the hotel and office last year, so it was good to finally see those crossings from the opterh point of view.

If you notice a common theme in these pix, it is no surprise. There was water everywhere. The first 4 holes you either hit alongside or over water, also the last 4 and many in between. The course was the host of the Sheel Houston Championship for many years and as Tony said, those last few holes were designed to test the Pros and to give a spectacle to the crowd.

I played with Tony and Andy who played off the white tees and were walking - Tony with buggy and Andy carried his clubs, although he doesn't have a full set. I had a cart. I still played off the blues, one set longer than the whites. We were supposed to hit off at 12:09 but the field was running early - can you imagine that in Australia - we hit off a few minutes before 12 following a 2 ball. We were not held up at all and let anoterh 2 ball through on the 8th. WE finished in about 4 hours.

I started with my usual brilliance with 2 par s and a bogie then put 3 balls in the water on the 4th for an 8. After that my game followed a too familiar pattern of hitting good strokes but not getting good scores.

I did finish withn 2 pars including probably my best shot of the month on the 17th. My drive roll off the fairway and finished in the short rough on a slope just short off the water, with reeds close in front. The ball was about shin high and I hit a brilliant Gap Wedge to just of the green but only about 10 ft fromt he hole, for an easy par. The 2 pix above show where I hit from and to.

On the 18th another great shot from the rough put my ball on the green for another birdie chance that was another tap in par. You can see the mound behind this green where the gallery watches the last hole.

We had time for a drink and then I headed back to the apartment to finish packing. I noticed that one of the 3 bottles I bought in the morning was for a different product despite pulling them all from the same rack. I was ready to go at 6-30 so headed to the supermarket on the way and changed it over. Of course I had to open the case and put it in sicen you can caerry liquid in your carry on luggage.

It was a bit before 7 by the time I headed to the airport and by the time I returned the car, caught the shuttle to the terminal and checked in, got through security etc it was just after 8, so I had only a short wait before we boarded. I chatted with the guy in the seat next to me, a retured Patent attorney and then watched "Bride Wars" on the private screen. I got a short nap in before we arrived.

Only anoterh half an hour till the next boarding. Will upload the pics and then get ready to go again.

Houston, we no longer have a problem

Friday 22nd

Today was a fairly relaxed day. Most of the serious stuff had been completed and I tidied up the new function by allow different calculations to be turned on and off. There were a couple of bugs that came to light with other options and some minor improvements added. I also helped tracked down some user and data errors.

Tony was back in the office but so busy we hardly had time for more than a few words in passing. We will play golf together tomorrow so at least we will have a chance to catch up then. Ebi and Craig are off doing other things, so I won't get to play with them this last time but Tony's wife Lisa and Andy from the office will make up the 4 some instead.

I went back to the Thai restaurant for lunch. I checked out a Greek one nearby but thought it would be better to get there for dinner which I did.

Various people came to say goodbye as they headed home from work today. It is a long weekend here so nobody was staying very late. I left about 5 and was for once not one of the last to go. A couple of times I've worried that everyone had already left, since I do not have a key.

It has been an interesting 4 weeks here. As I wander around the office I see plot screens from the application that I have been working on for 15 years on most of the engineers screens, coming out of the printer as the bulk of 100 page reports and on posters and power point presentations. Everybody seems to be excited about this new feature which they expect will lead to more work for the engineers. It has been dubbed SPEEDE (pronounced speedy of course) and stands for SPecific Energy Engineering Design and (something starting with E). They used the principals and possibly some of the calculations on the current well and saved the client 3/4 million dollars, so the clients are happy as well.

I have had a discussion with Richard who suspects there may not be much more help from the Osprey group but I expect that, since the VB interface works we can set that up as the live interface and use it to populate a buffer that TAD can read. Not quite as transparent to the user but should do the job. The alternative suggestion from the Internet seem to require an upgrade to the development language and even then no guarantee it will work.

I've put a last load of washing on and will try and get some of the packing done. With a noon tee off time tomorrow, I should be back at the apartment to finish off with time to spare.

There will be more pix of golf course tomorrow but not sure when I'll be putting them up. Hopefully I'll have some time in the Lounge in San Francisco tomorrow night.

A final set of miscellaneous Pictures from the last 4 weeks.

Another view of the water way and boat shed near the Pavilion. A bronze staue of the founder of the Woodlands. He was actually at the concert and was celbrating his brithday so the conductor said a few words and most people stood up and clapped.

A typical over large truck on the freeway. Another shot from the floods from the first week.

A bit of culcha, doncha know.

Thursday 21st

As my time here (again) starts to run out, I am fairly busy tidying up the calculations so I can leave with a clear conscience. I again spend more time on the differential pressure, this time adding a flow correction, which has improved it and finally added the MSE and down hole calculations which is the point of the whole exercise. I was pleased to see these being calculated in "real time" at least in a simulated import. Still a bit of tidying up for tomorrow but otherwise I think we've done it.

I headed out to a Chinese buffet for lunch. for $9 as much as you like plus refillable sodas. Not sure how they make money. Food was pretty tasty as well.

I checked the exchange rate last week once my Visa advances had come through. I got around around 73c for each A$ withdrawn. My payment from Thailand was deposited yesterday - This cost 78c for each $A deposited. I checked the rate for buying US and that had gone up to 75c, so I lost quite a bit compared to getting paid last week. Shouldn't really complain, it was around 98c when I set the rates so I'm still way in front. Hopefully this will mean I get a few more HK$ for my money once I arrive there.

Tonight I went to a concert in the Pavilion in the Woodlands. This is a semi outdoor arena, with canvas sails providing cover. They have some big name Rock bands there as well, with Styx and REO speed wagon in a week and Lynard Skynard at the end of next month.

Tonight it was the Houston Symphony Orchestra with "Dancing under the Stars". I would not have even known it was on if Andy from the office hadn't told me and I met up with him and his wife Lesley. It was a bit over an hour and they played a broad selection of danced based music, mixing classical, Broadway, film, Latin and finishing with a Rock and Roll medley. There were also a couple who sang and danced and a high school troupe who danced to Westside story. By co-incidence or design they were from Westside High School. Speaking of names, in the program they mention the Ima Hogg scholarships. Poor Ima, she really must have loved Mr Hogg.

The Pavilion is set in park lands not that far from the Mall and has the water way running along one side. Parking was free and we crossed over this to get there. When we left the trees were all lit up with fairy lights. Unfortunately the lighting was such that the sails, which characterise the venue so much faded into the background sky. They are invisible in the shot above right. I took one under exposed shot and have made a composite to give a realistic view of it.

Under pressure

Wednesday 20th

It seems I did a lot of work today for little progress. The challenge was to get the differential pressure calculations correct. This is the difference between the pressure when the bit is of the bottom and rotating compare with actually drilling. One of the issues is determining when to take the off bottom measurement and we decided to use the flow rate as cut off. I ran the calculation multiple times trying to get a reasonable answer and realised the "old" incorrect calculated values were still there. Eventually it worked out but it was a frustrating day.

I also organised my expense claim which has lightened my wallet of a heap of receipts.

I had Thai for lunch and headed to the Crab places again for some more steamed crabs. I had about half there and then got a box to take home where I finished them off. I was able to clean them properly, wash of the hot spices and dunk them in 1000 islands dressing as well.




I watched the Phantom of the Opera DVD that I borrowed from the library the other day.

Her are some more pix of buildings in the strip mall where I bought my bikini bottoms (That amused someone for some reason) and shoes. The pic at the top is the shoe shop. All the building in this mall pay homage to a particular architectural style (ie they are cheap knock offs) complete with statues, fountains and so forth.

Pretty in Pink

Tuesday 19th


First a trivia question.

What is the building to the left?

Is it a Church?

Is it a Court House perhaps?

Maybe it's a museum.

Is it some government Building?





Today I sorted out the plotting issues with the live data capture. This is one of the main steps completed. I also add an option to calculate differential pressure if it is not available. Still haven't got a solution to the WITSML problem yet.

I Installed the latest version on Brandon Junior's laptop and we went through a few revisions until we had got all the files required to have a working version. He will be going to a rig in a few days so is a likely candidate for the first real trial.

I went out to get lunch on my own again today and decide to get a take away from the Vietnamese place on the mistaken assumption it would be quicker than eating there. It took nearly 30 minutes, so I wasn't impressed. The food however was very tasty. When I arrived back I found a T shirt on my chair. After few enquiries, Gina told me she was the one who got it for me, which was nice of her. The photo shows us both. You can probably see it's Garfield in "golf gear". The caption says - Three Birdies in a row and I'm still hungry.

After lunch I sat with Brandon senior to sort out a problem that has been an issue for several months. I think we solved it in half an hour.

Stayed in tonight, cleaned out the last bits of bread, avocado and tomato and ate the last Snickers ice cream.




And the answer is - it's a sport store, obviously.

paz-drav-lya-yoo s dnyom razh-dyeh-niya

Monday 18th

Over the weekend I did some fiddling on and off with the interface that was supplied on Friday. I duplicated a VB test program which was able to connect to the database server over the Internet and download data. Today I was hoping to be able to do the same things in Delphi. However, despite trying a number of different approaches I was unsuccessful. I have posted some requests for help on the net but not sure whetehr that will elad to anything.

I decided to change my focus to the updating and plotting features instead and got the filtering happening and some of the plotting but knock off time.

This came a bit earlier as one of the Russian guys had his birthday today. (The title is "Happy birthday" in Russian)We all gathered at the Ice house across the road from the apartments from about 5 onwards. There was beer and plates of finger food and then some shots of vodka came out. I decided to get a tomato juice and tipped mine in it.

I am also in the money. A week or so ago, there was some discussion about how much the engineers could improve the drilling on one of the wells they are working on. In then end they had a sweep to predict the Rate of Progress for the next drilling run. The winner was the nearest guess that wasn't over the actual value. Mine was purely a guess (with some strategy) but ended up the best 27 vs the actual rate of 28.9. Ewerybody put up $10 so it was worth winning.

Racking up a high score

Sunday 17th


I played the Palmer course of the Woodlands Country Club today. Tee off was 11am and I was there about half an hour earlier. It was drizzling a bit as I drove there and there was the potential for rain like we had on Saturday. Fortunately, though it was overcast and windy, it never actually rained on us. When I went to check in, I couldn't get a confirmation on the booking. As it turned out it wasn't in Tom's name, although I played with him again but in someone else's. A group of a dozen or so, who call themselves ""The Rack" for reasons that I never found out, play together most weekends and have an internal competition between them. Ebi and I joined them as Tom's guests. The 4th in our group was Lee, who seemed to be running the group. Kirk in the office said he knew him and he was the captain of one of the squads at the club. We were the last of the group to hit off as Ebi was a bit late - got lost I think - and followed a group of 5. We were waiting most of the day, yet still only took about 4 1/2 hours to complete the round.

Unfortunately this was my worst day since I've been here and I was pleased in the end to break 100 (97). My putting was a major problem and I just couldn't get the speed right. A couple of times I was on in regulation and 3 putted. I didn't even get a par till the 11th, after missing a 2 ft putt for my only real chance on the front 9.

The course itself is very good and so were the greens - I just didn't handle them. Again some lovely scenery, starting with a herd of deer walking across the fairway on the first hole while we were waiting to tee off. Lots of lakes with water birds and some sand traps, although I was relieved a couple of times to find I'd finished in grassy hollow rather than a bunker.

I got my drives working after a few holes, once I'd slow ed down and was hitting the ball well enough but just couldn't score - very frustrating. The 13th hole is a 500 yard par 5. I hit my drive straight down the fairway about 290yards as seen above. The second shot was across a lake or around it. I went for it and cleared the lake but missed the green then chipped on a 3 putted. Even going round the lake requires you to chip over it at the end.The movies at the end show this lake from 2 different view points. It continues down the side of the 14th to the green as seen below.

Ebi also had a shocker, his worst for ages so he said. However, he managed to get paired with a guy who played 4 under his handicap to tie for the money and picked up a skin as well. I didn't participate in their comp becuase of the difficulty of setting my handicap properly - good thing the way I played. It was again an expensive course at $86. I'm just paying up and enjoying the golf. I suspect I've paid a fair % of my annual fees back home for just 4 weeks of golf.

After th game we joined the rest of the group and had some drinks nuts and nachos. It was quite friendly and not unlike the sort of situation we had at Collier Park at the 19th. It was nearly 8pm by the time we left.

I was somewhat stuffed from the nibbles at golf so I skiiped dinner but had an icecream. Watched some TV and fell asleep on the couch again.

Early traditions

Saturday 16th

I hadn't arranged a tee time so when I got up a bit before 7am I went on the web site for Cypresswood. This club has 3 full courses and a golfer I talked to at Gleanloch a few weeks ago had recommended the Tradition course. The fact that this was more expensive than the other 2 seemed to confirm this was the best course. I was able to book an 8:20 time slot which I felt I could get to. The next slot was after 1pm. I was a bit worried about the weather being hotter later in the day.

I only had time for a few putts before heading to the tee. This involve quite a long drive down a road. When I got there I found anotehr car park, clubhouse and practice green there. There was also a huge group of people gettiing ready for a tournament. Our group was the last off the tee before the tournament started. I was the first to arrive and was told a 2 ball hit hit off before us, but they were already out of sight. My partners turned up shortly after that, 3 guys in their 30s or 40s. We seemed to spend more time looking for balls than in some of my other games, sometimes being for my ball but not always.

This course generally has tall pine trees along the edges of the holes with brambles under them. There are a lot of sand traps and I seemed to find quite a few of them. There were a number of lakes, some quite making spectacular holes.

I started with 2 pars and then another 4 on the par-3 3rd then had 3 7s in a row to go out in 47. I had similar start to the back 9 - 1 out after 3 but 46 in total. I left 4 or 5 balls on the course, some in the bushes and some in water. However, one advantage of not staying on the fairway all the time is the opportunity to find balls lost by others. On on hole we looked for 2 balls in the left rough, finding one of them and 4 others. Then I put my second into a steep banked, but fortunately dry, creek short of the hole. (This wa hidden from where my drive finished on the fairway) There we found another 4 and mine. I managed to hit out and still parred that hole. I probably found another 3 or 4 on other holes as well.

The 17th,(above right) is a short par 4 - 291yards over water. My drive finished inva bunker , safely on the left of the fairway but 2 of the guys drove the green. The 3rd had duffed his drive and put his second attempt on or over, so I decided to have a second shot as well. My ball was straight at the pin but didn't have the carry, so big splash. We had a very good run, finishing in just over 4 hours. . We were not held up at all, until the very last hole, when we caught the end of the torunament field that had hit off the 10th. We also got free (soft) drinks from the drinks cart, I think becuase they were free for the tournament players and nearly had our picture taken by some photographers until I told them we weren't in it.

There have been lots of squirrels on most of the courses we've played, and finally one was close enough and still enough to capture in a photo.

The guys headed straight off after the game but I went to the main clubhouse and had a hamburger for lunch. I did briefly think about whether I could crash the barbeque for the tournament players but decided it probably wasn't the right thing to do. As I was driving home there was a brief spot of heavy rain. By later in the day this had become a real storm so I ws glad I'd played early in the day. If I'd waited for the twilight fees to kick in I would have got soaked.

Ebi had called while I was playing, after I'd left him a voice message saying I'd organised my opwn game. I tried to call him back on and off all afternoon but since he was himself playing hadn't got through. He has organised a game for us at the Palmer course for Sunday.

I had a long bath in the afternnon, falling aslep in it. I got up in time to get to the library where I borrowed some DVDs. It was bucketing down at this time at the apratment but somewhere between there and the library I drove out of the storm into a dry warm day. I headed to some shops after that and was in a sports store (where I foudn a cheap bikini bottom) when the storm caught up. It was very heavy and we were all trapped there for 15 minutes or so. I also bought some ballet flats at a nearby shoe store.

I had dinner at the Red Lobster on the way home - a mixed dish with lobster tail, snow crab and cumbed and garlic prawns. I saw most of the"Princess Bride" on TV and managed to watch some of Saturday NIght Live before falling asleep on the couch.