I get bit crabby - a lot actually

Thursday 30th

A lot was achieved today. The MSE calculation, which was one of the main enhancements was completed, tested and loudly appreciated. Some other minor and more serious bugs were fixed as well. A group of 5 of us went out for lunch at a sub place and I learned from my last trip not to go for the large size. It was different being part of a discussion (mostly passive) that covered topics like trucks and guns.

I had told Bonnie about the lost phone and today she gave me a replacement. I'd better not lose this one! I also had a call from the Apartment management people about the Internet. I'd already managed to get connected but they gave me the name of the ISP and I can at last, reply to and send emails from Thunderbird, at least at the apartment.

After work I headed towards the new golf shop. It is officially opening tomorrow but has actually been open a week or so already. I noticed the sign early on in my visit and there was an advertising insert in the Sunday paper. I was looking at new putters and will probably buy one tomorrow. I tried out a number and really liked one of the new Odyssey putters - XG teron. At US$170 0r around A$240 it would be a bit on the pricey side. However they are having an opening special with 15% discount on most, but not all, brands and the first 100 people get a $25 voucher. If I get there before work and get that voucher, it'll be around A$170.

I'd spend a considerable time trying various putters and then different lengths of the Teron before heading home. I returned with my old putter to check the length and also compare the new and old ones. It was nearly 9 when I left and after visiting the Phone shop where I was again unable to get my Blue tooth headset linked to the new phone, I started looking for a place to eat. I stopped at a bar and grill called the 19th hole but only took 3 steps inside before turning around and leaving, it was so smoky. I eventually finished up at Crab Daddy's seafood place. There was a live band playing soft rock, which wasn't too bad.

I opted for the steamed blue crabs, which are similar but not quite the same as the blue mannas we get at home. The claws are a but chunkier and the "triangle" flap on the underside is very narrow. Still taste great and are just as messy to eat. For US$19 I got 6 small to medium crabs. It was described as steamed crabs with corn and potato, and strictly speaking that was accurate - one small piece of corn and one small potato were there. It looked like a lot but I managed to finish them all. It was nearly 11 by then, the band had packed up and left and most of the tables had their chairs upside down on them ready for cleaning.

A couple of bigwigs from Schlumberger are visiting tomorrow so we have been warned about dress standards. Still seem pretty casual to me. Brandon assured everybody they weren't visiting to lay people off.

I get booked

Wednesday 29th

It was 5 am when I woke up this morning. Still too early and too little sleep. It did however allow me to get a load of washing done and dried before work.

No rain today and most of the water from the last 2 days seems to be disappearing.

About 9, Richard and I head off to Schlumberger headquarters in Tanglewood. From the 18th floor meeting room, I could look across the road at the mansions. George Bush sen lives there and the head of some evangelical church I'd never heard of. These are in the $3-5 million price range I was told.

The meeting was with the group that handles the interface with live data feeds. They do the hard work so the rest of their software can plug in these modules when they need access to live data. It looks promising that we will be able to do the same. It was an interesting and useful meeting.

We headed back just after 12 and had to order in lunch as the afternoon meeting started not long after we got back. I wasn't directly involved in the discussions and my jet lag caught up with me. I was struggling to stay awake, let alone alert. After it was over I fixed a couple of bugs that had come up during the day, but other wise didn't do much programming.

After work I headed to the library near the Woodlands Mall and, armed with the letter from the apartment company and my driver's licence, joined the library. I borrowed a couple of SF books there but the one I wanted was only available at another branch. I headed there covering more or less the same route as yesterday at about the same time. The traffic however was much lighter and I had no trouble travelling along at the speed limit. The library turned out to be somewhat further than I had thought but I did get the book. From there I headed out to the other golf course owner by the company that owns Panther Trails and the Oaks. This was again further than I expected but I did book in for Saturday. The guy in the Pro Shop told me the other 2 courses were closed due to some tournament, so it was lucky I wasn't trying to get a game there.

According to the GPS its 17 miles from the course to the apartment, but my game is at 2pm so that won't be an issue.

On the way home I stopped for dinner at Landry's seafood restaurant. I ate there last year and had trouble finishing my meal so tonight I just had an entree - shrimp and crab fondue - and Key lime pie for dessert. I also had a Blueberry Mojito, since I'd enjoyed one there last time.

The cable Internet is now working in the apartment. The only thing I did was make sure the cables were screwed in tight. Mind you it could have been the fixed IP address problem that affected the office connection that was stopping it working on the weekend. I did a speed test and it is very fast.

Wet, wet, wet

Tuesday 28th

The storm that started yesterday was still dumping rain on the Houston area today. I heard some place had 11 inches and the TV news was full of reports of flooded streets and traffic delays. One of the K&M guys took 2 1/2 hours instead of his usual 45 minutes to get to work. Fortunately for me, it wasn't actually raining when I left around 8-30.

However, it did seriously rain later in the morning and the yard outside the office was completely awash with several inches of water. We headed to lunch around 1 and, although the rain had stopped by then, the water was still there. I went with Chris in his F350 truck. This is so tall you get a nose bleed just climbing into it, but it was the right choice for the conditions. As you can see, the water was several feet deep in parts of the road.

Chris doesn't do Asian food so Indian and Thai were out and we finished at a BBQ place, with a western theme. (Surprise! - it is Texas after all). The 3 guys in the photo - Chris, Mao and Brandon junior - are all new since my last visit.

I have been working on the new features as well as fixing bugs, trouble shooting registration problems for someone in Philadelphia and answering questions from the new guys.

Tony had invited me to dinner but we had noticed the road passing the office had bumper to bumper traffic for ages. Even at 6-45 when we left, it was still steady, although fortunately, we got out fairly easily. Once we got to a major road, it was bumper to bumper again for a long time.

Tony and Lisa have done up there back yard a bit since last time, as they'd only moved in a short time. WE had a couple of drinks, some cheese and crackers, roast lamb and then chocolate pudding. Conversation was free and easy. Tony seems to be holding his own with the cancer and despite having chemo earlier today stayed up till about 10, when I went home. They are off to Italy, then Aberdeen in a day or so and may not be back before I leave so it was good to catch up socially.

I still haven't found that phone. I bought my golf bag in and dialled the number to make sure it wasn't in it and have dialled it numerous times but it always rings out. A bit embarrassing really. I only had it 1 day. It seems more likely than not that it's somewhere on the golf course. If I keep ringing, someone may be close enough to here it some time. However it was fruitless today as nobody in their right mind was outside, let alone on a golf course.

Work begins.

Monday 27th

I was up about 7-30 after a reasonable sleep. I was ready for work soon after 8 but couldn't find my phone. I suspected I might have left it in the golf cart last night, so headed back to the golf course. They had a big tournament but I was able to locate my cart fairly easily. Luckily, I had made a note of its number -144. However there was no phone to be seen. I have also searched the bag itself without finding the phone. Nobody I talked to there had found it so I gave up and went to work.

It took a bit of time to set up. First I had to get a different cable to connect the extra monitor to my laptop. The office has docking stations in most cubicles but they are connected via a DVI cable and my laptop only has the VGA port. Then I couldn't get onto the network or the net. There was a computer tech working on someone's PC, so he was going to help me when he finished. However, I was soon in a meeting, starting to work through the bugs and enhancements. This continued through to lunch time when we took a break in our discussions and virtually everyone in the office (16 in all) had a lunch time meeting to discuss time sheets and expense claims. Earlier, we had been asked what we wanted for lunch as they were ordering in. I had a Chicken Caesar salad and some fruit.

Once that meeting was finished, we resumed our discussion till about 3pm when I started to work on some of the issues. The tech finally came and although he didn't fix the problem he helped me remember I had set a fixed IP address in Thailand. Once I changed that to automatically assigned, the network and Internet came up in a few seconds. Still can send emails from Thunderbird but at least I can get them.

It became very dark outside and then a heavy storm came through. It was still bucketing down when I left just before 6 and there was a lot of lightning about. I got a bit wet just getting to the car and then getting to the flat from the car park. The weather report on the TV is telling us there is a risk of tornadoes in the area and at one stage that there had been over 500 lightning strikes in the last 10 minutes. They are saying that most places have had 2 to 4" of rain and some over 5". I'm not exactly racing out to find some dinner.

There are quite a few people in the office that I hadn't met before. Some have come in from Schlumberger, the company that now owns K&M and others recruited from outside. A number of these had been in touch via email before so it was good to put faces to names again.

In the end I just had sandwiches for dinner and stayed in and watched TV.

3 in 1

Sunday 26th part 2

I headed out after lunch, going to a second hand book shop and a golf shop before arriving at the golf course. I didn't buy anything at either of them. I did find a putter that I was sort of interested in, but I'm not really convinced that I putt any better with it than with my current one that I've had for over 20 years.

This course provides free balls on the putting green, chipping green and driving range, so I deliberately arrived early to get some practice in. I had booked for after 3, because the price drops from $85 to $45 at that time. When I got to the tee, I was told I was on my own. I decided to play off the Gold tees today. This course has 5 different tee placements with gold being the second longest after black. I think I played off the blues, which are the middle distance, last time. This was the 3rd country in fact the 3rd continent that I have played golf on this month.

I started driving well enough but didn't putt or chip as well. By the 3rd hole I had caught up to the two young guys in front of me and a few hole later when I was waiting with them to tee off on a par 3 and they didn't ask me to join up, I waited for the pair behind me and joined with them, Eddie is a consultant drilling engineer and he was playing with his 12 year old son Scottie.

After a slow start, I had a run of pars to finish the front 9 with 46. I then had a birdie and another par to start the back 9. However, the last few holes had a lot of water and I seemed to find most of it including one hole where I putt 3 shots into 2 different lakes and a stream. The signature 18th with its island green took about the 4th ball that I put in water and couldn't recover. I did see a beaver sitting just by this green. I played most of the round with one of my fingers rubbing and although I put a band aid on it, that didn't last very long. It wasn't till I finished I saw how badly blistered it was. At least I had an excuse for my bad shots!!! I manage to break 100 but not by a whole lot.

Despite seeming to wait almost every shot, we actually finished in just on 4 hours. I guess with everyone using carts, you move between shots and between green and tee very quickly. They have daylight saving here so it was still still light after 7pm. The course was in fairly good condition but the sand traps all seemed to be or have been flooded and the ones that didn't still have water in them had a hard muddy circle in the middle. The greens weren't too bad for putting but were quite hard so you couldn't throw your chips at them and have them stick but had to allow for a bit of roll after landing.

The restaurant and bar at the course were closed by this time, so I headed back towards the flat. I decide to have Mexican for dinner and stopped at a restaurant on the way. While you wait for your meal, they bring you complimentary chips and dips as well as iced water. I had a fluata with refried beans, salad and rice, which was tasty and quite filling and a Daiquari. At home, I started watching TV but fell asleep within 30 minutes.

A drive to set up a drive

Sunday 26th part 1

I didn't have too bad a sleep. I woke briefly about 5am and then drifted off again before getting up about 7-30.

I had my cereal and checked the local news and weather - 20% chance of rain apparently. I went for a stroll around the complex. The welcome centre still wasn't open but I got some shots of the pool with its BBQ and outdoor dining area. The 3rd photo shows the welcome centre and the building where my apartment is located.

About 9 I headed off to the Woodlands resort to arrange a game of golf. The Oaks course, which I played last time is now private but I have booked for 3:19 on the Panther Trails course. There are a number of public courses around but I decided at this stage to stick to one I know.

I then headed to the Woodlands shopping area, which I am familiar with. Most shops didn't open till 10 but the supermarket is 6am to 12pm, almost like home (joke). I picked up some stuff for a sandwich, a paper and some of the Nioxin hair product I use. I'd bought some last time because it's $9.99 here compared with $27 at home. Even with taxes and exchange rates that's about half price. I also bought some ice cream, so I had to go home before doing any more shopping. Woudl you beliveit - they have Snickers ice cream cones (drumstick shape).

On the way home, I passed a scene out of so many American cop shows - a posse of cars with flashing lights, this time outside a bank. I say a posse because they were actually from the Sheriff's Department.

I checked out my car on the net earlier and its a V6. Its seems this is a full size car so it's actually 2 levels higher than the Corolla I ordered. The check in girl asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a larger vehicle for a few dollars more a day. I declined but I seem to have got the same car anyway. Wasn't that clever? I guess they are trained to ask those questions to try and get as much as possible from you.

It seems I didn't need the cable after all. I am connected via wireless. I suspect I may be jacking a neighbours connection.

Flat out

Saturday 25th part 3

I thought of the catchy title because I thought once I'd got to the flat, I'd be out like a light. It didn't quite happen that way.

The flight from LA to Houston was full, no empty seats in first class and I heard just 1 in economy. I had a window seat for a change, usually I like an aisle, so I can get up easily. The seat next to me was occupied by an elderly Asian man who managed to sleep most of the way, so when I did need to get up, it was a bit tricky. The meal was surprisingly nice - soup, shrimp salad and fruit. I also was able to take some photos from the plane, although they never come out as clear as what you can see yourself. LA itself is reasonably green but once you get over the Rockies the land is quite sandy, with some obviously irrigated green patches.

Houston is once again very green from the air, although it was cloudy which made it hard to get any shots. It was actually drizzling when we landed.

It was a particularly unsettled flight. I'd seen the movie that was playing and I couldn't concentrate to read my book for very long. However, I couldn't really get to sleep either. We again left late - just took so long to get everyone on board and seated but arrived more or less on time about 4:45. It took about 30 minutes to get out of the terminal, even though my suitcase was literally the first off the conveyor belt and the golf clubs followed soon after. It was not too difficult carrying all the stuff and it was a 5 minute wait for the Rental car shuttle bus. The driver helped us get our luggage on and off the bus - nice to get a bit of service.

I have a Chrysler Impala. I ordered a "Corolla or similar" and this seems a bit bigger so I may have got the next size up. It has more than enough room for case, clubs and laptop bag in the boot. I think I picked the wrong choice for "Route" in the GPS, trying to avoid the tollway. It keep telling me to turn off the freeway. I ignored this as I knew I needed the I 45 but when it told me to take the first exit, I pulled off and reprogrammed it. It was after 7 by the time I got to the flat. This was 6 am Perth time so it had been 32 hours door to door.

The flat is very nice and has one bedroom with a big walk in wardrobe, a bath room with a deep oval bath, a sitting area, dining area and kitchen on an open plan and a utility room with a washer and dryer. It's on the first floor and has a balcony that has a view of the balconies of the building opposite and the road between them. I guess you can't have everything.

There was a big snack basket waiting for me - chips, chocolate, biscuits, coffee etc. and a new phone. I was only planning to get a Sim card, but perhaps they aren't available here like they are in Thailand. There was also a cable modem sitting on the bench but no cord to connect to the laptop. I headed out to buy a network or USB cable and the GPS directed me to a supermarket. I think it just found the start of the road. Anyway, I bought some cereal and milk, soft drink and half a snow crab for dinner. I then was heading for Walmart where I was told I could get some cables, when I saw a Radio shack, so stopped there instead.

The Internet was up pretty quickly once I'd made the connection and found the right network. There was an email from Tony, welcoming me and inviting me to dinner on Tuesday. I call him up on the new mobile. By this time I was more than ready for a shower. I put on the Qantas PJs afterwards and had a brief stroll around the grounds. The gate to the pool was open and that area looks really nice. I then went to the Welcome centre next to it and found the door was locked. I tried to go back to the pool but that gate was also locked ( from that side, even though I'd been able to go through it out of the pool). I had to climb over the pool fence to get out. There is a small gym there as well.

Back in the room, I started to watched TV. There seem to be about 16 or so channels available so I channel hopped, watching bits of different shows for a while, then fell asleep. This happened several times before I got up and got the crab organised and had it for dinner. Further dozing then continued. I was trying to watch Saturday Night Live.

Its after midnight now so I am hoping that once I get to bed, I'll be able to sleep through and get myself in synch with the time zone. To say it's been a long day would be an understatement.

and a long day

Saturday 25th part 2

This is being written in a Ruby's Diner in LA airport. I have a bit over 2 1/2 hours till my flight leaves. There is an earlier flight leaving in 25 minutes but I was not able to get on it at check in, despite deliberately carrying my bags across from International, just in case. Once I'd got inside the terminal, the girl at the gate counter said I could wait list but my bags wouldn't get on the same flight. Last year, I was in a similar situation and when I arrived in Houston, I found my bags were already there.

The flight from Melbourne was long. It left a bit late but they caught up and we arrived more or less on time. It was still nearly 14 hours, leaving at 11 am and arriving at 7am the same day. Dr Who eat your heart out, Qantas can time travel too. Because you leave and arrive in the morning it really stuffs up your body clock. I watched 2 filmes and had lunch before trying to sleep. The films were Slumdog Millionaire and Transporter 3. After my sleep I watched The Curious case of Benjamin Button. I slept from about 3 pm to 7pm Melbourne time. This equated to 10pm to 4am LA time. So That's about 7 hours total sleep since I left home 24 hours ago.

I was upstairs again, which I prefer. It seems a bit more intimate and friendly. Also you are always in pairs. Downstairs even the business class seats are 3 wide in the centre section. It was a 747, so the seats were those capsule types that are standard on Qantas Business Class. They haven't upgraded to the diagonal seating that is used by Cathay and British airways and the new A380 isn't used on this route. Still you can lie stright, if not actually horizontal and get a more comfortable sleep than on the 330 such as on Thai or the flight from Perth.

Once again we got a pair of PJs and the usual tooth paste, socks and skincare pack. I took the skin care and tooth brush but left the rest. I have more than enough of those travel packs and didn't really need the extra stuff to squeeze into my bag. The meal was good, some tarragon chicken for entrée, rack of lamb for main and Ice cream for dessert. I also had some lindt chocolate and hot chocolate drink in the middle of the night once I'd given up sleeping.

Being in Business we were off the plane first and got through passport control with little queuing. Despite registering on line, we were advised by the staff to fill in the visa application anyway, since the on line system isn't always working properly. In fact it was the paper application that was processed. I suspect on the next trip the on line system will be up and running. My bags were off early and even my golf sticks arrived quite promptly.

It was only 11 degrees here so I kept my PJ top on but put the pants and my 200ml whisky bottle into my main case. That can be a bit of a trap. You can't take your duty free onto the domestic flight because its over 100ml, so if you don't repack, you lose it. I got a trolley and took my case and clubs across to the domestic terminal, as I said hoping to get the earlier flight. A young guy helped me check in but said the early flight was overbooked. He did carry my golf clubs over to the X-ray machine for me. I could have just put them on the conveyor belt at international, as it turned out.

The security here is still strict. I had to show my passport before going through security in the domestic terminal and you have to take of your shoes and put them through the x ray as well. However I didn't get the special search that happened last time so I was through reasonably quickly.

A first class ticket doesn't get you into the airport lounge here. You need to join the club or have a platinum Amex card. Hence my sitting in the diner. This has killed 30 minutes - only 2 hours to go.

While I was wandering around the terminal I noticed this vending machine that sells Ipod accessories. None of this bag of chips, chocolate or can of drink rubbish here.

A short night

Saturday 25th April (Part 1)

Here I am in Melbourne airport, on my way back to Houston for a 3 week stint. To get there from Perth you basically fly to one of the cities on the East coast of Australia and then to LA. From there you take a domestic flight.

The flights to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne all leave about midnight and arrive about 6 or 7 in the morning. You then have to wait till the international flight leaves at a time that gets it to LA around 7am local time. Whichever flight I took, I'd finish up on the same internal flight, so I opted for the connection that gave me the shortest stay in LA, since from my experience last year, I won't have access to an airline lounge.

This turned out to have one disadvantage. The overnight flight was only 3 1/2 hours and although I pretty much dropped off to sleep as soon as we were in the air, I've only had 3 hours or less sleep. The Brisbane connection time is longer but so is the flight so you could actually get more sleep on it.

I didn't do much work yesterday, although I did do some debugging for a local client. I had to get the washing done, update the laptop with all my emails and program changes for the last week I made on the desktop and organise money. I also bought a new laptop bag - one with wheels. And of course, I had to pack again. I had thought I might get to play in the Twilight comp at Gosnells but in the end I decided it was too hard, and the weather wasn't the best.

The kids came over for dinner, the first time we've seen each other since I left for Thailand over a month ago. They did meet up over Easter, which pleased me since it means I don't have to actually be here for them to get together. I decided to get some T bones and David cooked them on the BBQ. It was good to catch up and it'll be another month and a half before we do it again. Penny and her boyfriend leave for their US holiday the day before I get home.

They all left about 9 and my taxi arrived at 10. I estimate it will be 31 or more hours from the time I left home to the time I get to the apartment in Houston. Last year I stayed in a Marriott Residence hotel, which was a small suite with a kitchenette. This time they have booked me into a serviced apartment, which from the brochure looks ok. They have also bought me a local Sim. The idea was to leave that number on my answering machine, but I realise I have forgotten to do that. Ho hum.

With all those flights the lounge in Perth was quite full. We flew from Perth on an Airbus 300, which is the first time I've flown on that aircraft on a Qantas domestic flight. The Thai flights from Bangkok are on a similar plane and the seats on that plane are bigger and further apart than the Qantas one. It was still comfortable enough to get some sleep and the Business section was a bit over half full.

We landed in Melbourne about 6am so I have a 4 hour connection. I've had breakfast, at least I had a bowl of cereal. There's an array of food still available - Pancakes, quiches, pastries, toast etc. It's now coming up to * and the lounge is still pretty empty. There were only a couple of other people here when I first arrived.

I have prepaid for the rental car and this time I've deliberately gone for a smaller car - supposedly a Corolla sedan "or similar". One of the things I had to do in my brief visit home was to get last year's taxes done. I have been quite slack on this, normally I get them done in the first couple of months after the end of the tax year. However with my travels, it got delayed and then I started travelling again. It was quite urgent since my Super tax return, in particular is due before I get back from this trip.

One of the points raised in my discussion with Debbie, my financial planner and accountant, was that I should consider a new car. There are some government incentives to invest in plant and supposedly a new car qualifies plus my current one, although going well, is now 10 years old. I had thought it would be a simple enough choice - get a new Corolla hatch to replace the current one. I took a bit of time on Wednesday to look at the current models at the different car yards along Leach Highway. I had my golf bag and buggy in the car and one test was to make sure they fitted in the back of any prospective car and the lid could be close on the hatch. I was quite surprised to find that neither the current Corolla hatch or the equivalent models for other brands actually have a big enough boot. It may be that I have to buy a sedan to get a car that I can fit my golf gear in. Obviously a Corolla will be on the list so I will have a chance to test one out before I get home.

Back in the USSR (delete SR)

Friday 17th April

There had been some suggestion of a return visit to Houston,in emails earlier this year but the definitive approval came while I was still in Thailand. I arrived home Wednesday morning and within 10 minutes of unpacking my suitcase was at the travel agents at the shopping centre across the road. The only reason I unpacked first was so that I could drop my library books off on the way.

After a number of discussions and decisions I am heading off next Friday around midnight, technically Saturday morning. Saturday is Anzac day, taking to 3 the number of public holidays I've missed this month, with Easter spent working in Thailand. Because of that our golf course is closed Saturday morning so instead of travelling Sunday as usual, I'm heading over a day earlier and possibly will get a game in once I arrive, before buckling down to work.

In order to get the cheaper Circle Pacific flight, I have to return via Hong Kong. They have asked me to allow 3 weeks so my plan is to fly out at 9 on the Saturday 3 weeks later, getting to San Francisco about 11 and then straight on to Hong Kong at 1-20am. This is the same flight as last time but without the day in SF playing tourist.

I had discovered that Cathay, who are part of the one world group that I can fly with on the ticket, also has a flight direct from HK to Perth. last time I flew that leg with Qantas which is an overnighter. The Cathay flight is much better, leaving at 3pm and getting in about 11. This means you are not trying to sleep on the plane and also you don't have to kill so much time between check out and departure. Originally I was planning to leave Houston at 9 on Sunday morning and take a day flight from SF to HK but this did not meet the require 24 hour minimum stopover.

When I got the quote, the international flight was about the same as last time but the domestic cost had gone up dramatically. I was raising this with the travel agent who had noticed it as well, when we realised that the cost was US$ based and the difference just reflected the exchange rate changes since last year. That does mean, in US$ terms the rest of my expenses have dropped by a third. It was till around $15k on my credit card with insurance and car hire added in.

I have also been giving a fairly clear message that if we are to continue these trips in the future, we need to get the enhancements completed in a timely manner to justify the costs. It may be a busy time once work starts.

I also got advised that dress codes have smartened up in the office but that jeans were OK but not shorts. I'm a bit confused about what I need to take to wear. I have also received some info on accommodation which will be in an apartment rather than the motel where I stayed last time. It looks ok from the brochure I was sent.

I'm looking forward to catching up with the people I've met before anf\d there are some new people that have joined since then. Should eb an interesting few weeks.