Monday
Here we are again, on a red-eye flight from Edinburgh to London. It has been a few weeks since my last trip. In that time I have made some improvements to a Visual Basic ASP.NET 1.1 application and added Monte Carlo risk simulations to and existing C# 2.0 application (it’s now up to .NET 3.5 thanks to gratuitous use of LINQ!)

I am in London for two days, Monday and Tuesday. Oddly, I am unsure of the learning outcomes or what we might achieve from these two days – we have a software vendor visiting, so I guess we should tap him for any knowledge that he can spare us…

My usual cabin bag has been replaced for this trip, largely because I am flying into London City as opposed to Heathrow. Flights to London City make use of Avroliner RJ85/RJ100 aircraft – the overhead bins can be a lot tighter/compact on these types of aircraft. So instead, I am carrying a rather aged Microsoft .NET rucksack (hint hint!) and a leather laptop bag. Don’t tell anyone, but it’s not my laptop bag – I am returning it to our London office on behalf of its real owner. However, before you report me to the authorities hear me out! As luck and flight cancellations would have it, the real owner is actually sitting a couple of seats away to my left! Oh, wait, the intent to carry on a bag that was given to me by somebody else was there:doh! Guilty, take me away, lock me up and throw away the key!

Interestingly, the last time I travelled through Edinburgh airport with this partiucular Microsoft .NET rucksuck (the dark blue ones given out at an MSDN Roadshow circa 2000), a chap (MSFT accounts/sales chappie) tapped me on the shoulder and asked in I worked for Microsoft…that was in 2003/2004. Amazingly, whilst at London City’s DLR station *the same bloke* asked me the same question! What are the chances of that happening? Anyway, small world.

Sacrificing the laptop bag doesn’t mean I’ve left my laptop at home. No sir! I use a Targus sleeve to protect the D830 when it’s in my usual Tumi backpack bag – I’ve brought the sleeve along for the return journey. So, all going to plan, I’ll be traveling home rather light…makes a change.

Arrived at London City airport with the usual bang of what feels like a heavy landing but is actually fairly common with these aircraft. Of course, it’s a case of land and get off the runway as quickly as possible at London City, such is the length of runway and size of airport. Expansion work must have taken place as we had to walk a lot further than usual – “baggage handlers al fresco” was further evidence of the ongoing works!

Getting into Marble Arch involved taking the DLR to Canning Town then on to Bond Street via the Jubilee line – both were packed to the gunnels/gunwales (or overcrowded as I prefer to call it).

Tuesday
The return flight home was at 2005, the late one. There are two advantages to this. Firstly, it means that I can get a full day in he office, leaving at the usual time to head out to the airport. Secondly, Heathrow is not so busy after 1830…most of the time…which makes for rapid transit through security to the lounge.

Sadly the flight was delayed by one hour. However the captain boarded us before we knew of the delay. This is a cunning approach that often works – the captain sent air traffic control the “ready” message which gave us a chance at an earlier slot. It paid off as the delay was reduce by 15 minutes. You know, I am beginning to think that BA are my only source of fatty fish oils omegas – I was going to write “sole source”, but I fear @garyshort might shoot me down for bad jokes! Not whilst in-flight at least! Oh, there’s another one, doh!)

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday after a couple of trips to the dentist, it became clear that 15 years of check-ups, cleans and polishing had come to an end. I appear to have a minor infection in one of my left lower molars – the treatment is remarkably similar were it a major infection. Treatments, appointments, pain, suffering and a large bill to follow. I am not looking forward to it – the first treatment was meant to be today, Friday, however due to equipment failure it has been postponed. They say that you can be sure of two things in life, death and taxes. I would extend that to include dental work, despite taking great care to avoid it. C’est la vie I guess.

On the positive side of things, there’s only a week to go until the new Metallica release Death Magnetic:

Technorati Tags: Tumi, dental, London City, rucksack, Microsoft, .NET, ASP.NET, C#, Metallica, Death Magnetic