Saturday, January 29, 2005
This week's trip to Scotland doesn't take in anywhere new but does re-visit lovely Troon and the nice Marine Hotel. I'll be going WiFi equipped this time so maybe I'll get to blog while I'm there (tue & weds nights). I have to drive up to Greenock on Sunday to be ready for an early start on Monday. It's not the greatest way to end the weekend but I get paid for a day's work so it's not too bad. Actually being in Greenock isn't that good though...
Question - should I pay £22ish to buy an upgrade to that photo storage website I've been using? The free account I've used has filled up in only a week. I could make my pics smaller for the next months (you get 10mb per month) but that's a bit of a hassle with my shite camera and lack of picture editing software. Hmmmn...*Nathaaaaan* (I usually consult Nathan on anything webby). We have to shout though cos he's in India now eating rice and Mangos whilst travelling on a rickshaw that's overtaking a van, that's overtaking an elephant on a blind corner at night.
No talk of 24 cos I may not get to see it until Thursday! It's gonna be torture...
Question - should I pay £22ish to buy an upgrade to that photo storage website I've been using? The free account I've used has filled up in only a week. I could make my pics smaller for the next months (you get 10mb per month) but that's a bit of a hassle with my shite camera and lack of picture editing software. Hmmmn...*Nathaaaaan* (I usually consult Nathan on anything webby). We have to shout though cos he's in India now eating rice and Mangos whilst travelling on a rickshaw that's overtaking a van, that's overtaking an elephant on a blind corner at night.
No talk of 24 cos I may not get to see it until Thursday! It's gonna be torture...
Friday, January 28, 2005
Thursday, January 27, 2005
This week's trip started off nicely and got tricky. It started with a 5 hour drive to Troon on Monday morning. Troon is a place I've only heard of in connection with Golf. I had no problem finding the place and went straight into the store and started doing my work. There were big changes to the plans I'd been given but nothing that couldn't be sorted. So at 4pm I was done and went to check into my hotel. It looked ok on the Internet but when I got there I realised I'd scored a gem. It was the bloody hotel on the Royal Troon golf course and thus quite posh. It's basically on the beach looking out over the golf course and the bay. My room was quite plush but I didn't get a sea view. I had a few hours to kill so I went out and checked out Troon. The place was very quiet with some nice quaint shops. I had a walk down the beach and took some photos that I hope to post later on tomorrow. As it was a posher hotel I thought I'd risk some fancier selections on the menu. The starter wasn't fancy (carrot and coriander soup) but it came with some fancy bread. I then had Teryaki seared Salmon steak on a bed of salad. This was very tasty although the salad needed more dressing in my opinion. For dessert (pudding) I had rice pudding. This sounds simple but it was done in an haute cuisine style with a sugar crust, apple sauce centre and exotic berries. Probably the best course and I'm not even a pudding person.
Tues morning I took the scenic coastal road (A78) up to Greenock. This passed through a small town called Fairlie which we believe is the origin of my mum's maiden name Fairley. I might have a proper look around if I get the chance on future visits to Troon or Largs. Greenock was a nightmare as I couldn't get anything to work for hours and the place was chaos with new starters being trained and things being changed left, right and centre. I finally got the kit working at about 2pm having been there for about 5 hrs but have since been told it's not working anymore and I'll have to sort it on Monday. Greenock isn't great as far as I'm concerned. If anyone from Greenock ever reads this I'm happy to give it a another chance if you want to show me the sights but the staff at a certain Greenock superstore are pretty dour and another major hotel in a neighbouring town also beginning with G are pretty crap too. There was no Burns night dinner laid on so I skipped the crap A La Carte menu and just had an £11 burger (rip off).
Weds was spent in the lovely town of Paisley, also part of my heritage I'm led to believe as my Grandad was from there and other past generations may have been from there and Govan. Things were equally bad here as the electrical work I had instructed the week before had not been completed and my IT contractors had arrived to install on the new equipment. A very nice chap helped me out and pulled a few strings to get an emergency electrician out and we got most of it sorted but it was a pretty stressful day. I spent the evening enjoying the comforts of Glasgow Airport Travel Inn, making the most of my food budget and watching the scum v the other scum. I actually quite like Chelsea now though...
Like I said earlier...hopefully I'll have some pics of Troon up later but as they're taken with the piss poor camera that work gave me they'll probably be shiiite.
Tues morning I took the scenic coastal road (A78) up to Greenock. This passed through a small town called Fairlie which we believe is the origin of my mum's maiden name Fairley. I might have a proper look around if I get the chance on future visits to Troon or Largs. Greenock was a nightmare as I couldn't get anything to work for hours and the place was chaos with new starters being trained and things being changed left, right and centre. I finally got the kit working at about 2pm having been there for about 5 hrs but have since been told it's not working anymore and I'll have to sort it on Monday. Greenock isn't great as far as I'm concerned. If anyone from Greenock ever reads this I'm happy to give it a another chance if you want to show me the sights but the staff at a certain Greenock superstore are pretty dour and another major hotel in a neighbouring town also beginning with G are pretty crap too. There was no Burns night dinner laid on so I skipped the crap A La Carte menu and just had an £11 burger (rip off).
Weds was spent in the lovely town of Paisley, also part of my heritage I'm led to believe as my Grandad was from there and other past generations may have been from there and Govan. Things were equally bad here as the electrical work I had instructed the week before had not been completed and my IT contractors had arrived to install on the new equipment. A very nice chap helped me out and pulled a few strings to get an emergency electrician out and we got most of it sorted but it was a pretty stressful day. I spent the evening enjoying the comforts of Glasgow Airport Travel Inn, making the most of my food budget and watching the scum v the other scum. I actually quite like Chelsea now though...
Like I said earlier...hopefully I'll have some pics of Troon up later but as they're taken with the piss poor camera that work gave me they'll probably be shiiite.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Blurredout.com (attention Walsh)
This weekend I have been on two bike rides exploring the downhill opportunities in Adel and Hawksworth woods. I think I've broken my bike too. My front shocks make a liquidy squishing sound that I don't think they used to. This could be expensive....Had some fun though, jumping off stuff and racing down stuff.
My project to steal the internet off my neighbours has failed. I discovered that there was a wireless network in my building when a friend with a flashy laptop visited. As I have a laptop for work I decided to buy a wifi card and attempt to steal it too as the aforementioned friend told me how to do it anonymously. However, when I finished installing the card I was getting no signal. Later on I did lock on to the network but the signal strength was only about 1 mbps or 2% of the card's max capacity and thus, the internet won't connect.
M'off to Troon tomorrow to check out a Safeway by the sea. Hotel looks decent from the Internet but I'll report back later. Then tuesday it's Greenock and Weds Paisley. Drive home on thursday.
My project to steal the internet off my neighbours has failed. I discovered that there was a wireless network in my building when a friend with a flashy laptop visited. As I have a laptop for work I decided to buy a wifi card and attempt to steal it too as the aforementioned friend told me how to do it anonymously. However, when I finished installing the card I was getting no signal. Later on I did lock on to the network but the signal strength was only about 1 mbps or 2% of the card's max capacity and thus, the internet won't connect.
M'off to Troon tomorrow to check out a Safeway by the sea. Hotel looks decent from the Internet but I'll report back later. Then tuesday it's Greenock and Weds Paisley. Drive home on thursday.
