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Woke up with the sun; got up and chilled out.  Lazed around a bit, then tightened up the starboard lifeline, as it was dangerously slack (and it was something to do).  After observing the state of some of the rope ends, Dad and I have decided to acquire some whipping twine in Bequia, along with a sailmaker’s needle, and we’ll practice our ropework, and tidy up the ropes at the same time.

Ten-thirty rolls around, and Barefoot call on channel 68 – LIAT have found my luggage, and it’s waiting at the airport.  Mum and I go ashore, and rather than catch a taxi (30 EC), we catch a route taxi instead (1 EC/head).  It’s a bit of a tight squeeze, but it gets us there in the same amount of time, and we get some good music on the way.  A quick diversion to the supermarket for some proper ham (to replace the blech bologna), some cinnamon rolls (no longer made) and some fresh milk.  Over to the airport, and after 10 minutes in the wrong line, and 3 minutes in the right room, I have my baggage.  Back over the road, and wait for another route taxi back.

While waiting, we had a chance to watch a slice of island life go by:

• A route taxi with a 50 kg bag of rice, several other large bags and some rather large boxes of frozen meat,
• A dump truck with someone riding in the back – the truck was empty, the guy was standing up,
• A dump truck, fully laden, with someone firing a good sleep on the top of the load, face down.

The ride back was interesting, with a tale of 4 children gone missing in Dominica; all the churches apparently declared the Sunday to be a day of prayer for the children, and on Monday the man who did it turned himself in.  Somewhere in there was a bit about how children these days need to be closer to God, and how the man (or was it the children) had been skinned.  The conversation then moved on to how the woman (telling the tale of the 4 boys) had to pay $1.50 US for 3 green, rock-hard bananas.  Where that came from, I don’t know.

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Sailing holidy not off to an auspicious start – throat is sore, LIAT flight is 2 hours late.  There are 3 other passengers in the terminal, and a handful of staff.  Gorgeous sunny day though; I miss this warmth and humidity.

Good conversations last night at Alka-Hall, and plenty of shite talk.  Unfortunately, I was too tired to join in the D&D session – I hear it ran to 3 AM.  Now need to check Facebook to find a few people like Jason K and Chris C; it’s always good to keep in touch with people.  Amused that Jason works for Sunbeach, where I once worked.

Had a roti for lunch, contemplating getting some frozen skins and taking them home with me.  Have the curry powder already, and I could use the practice.

Tired fuh so; only got 7 hours sleep after 24 hours+ of travelling.  Should sleep well if I get to St. Vincent today.

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And now, the penultimate part of my tale – crackers, another dragging anchor and 20 foot seas.

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Continuing the vacation tale, I present you with Christmas in the Cays…

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It’s been a pleasant two week vacation.  Caught a train and a bus down to Heathrow on the 22nd, and crossed the Atlantic courtesy of British Airways after staring at an Asus EEE 700 series in Dixons (though I’ll wait for the 900 series with the bigger screen and 20 GB SSD).  Did my usual trick of pushing how late I stayed up, with the intent of resetting my body clock and avoiding jet-lag (which worked).  Spent the next few days imaging all of the LAN PCs for UberCon, and catching up on a bit of sleep.  UberCon ran from the 25th to the 27th, where I had the pleasure of being an attendee for once, instead of a staff member – though I still did staff-like stuff since I knew the answers.  Note to self, never go behind the desks at registration or help-desk unless I want to work.

Didn’t shoot too many photos, but got something like 30 of Mr. T. Zahn, so I’ll be checking those in Lightroom when I get home.  Hopefully there’s at least one good one we can use on the UberCon site.  I also need to get his contact details to see if he minds if I use them in my personal (online) portfolio.  Missed the tear-down of the convention by being a lazy sod and sitting in my room reading.  However, I helped pack the truck for the trip to the con, so I think I’m excused. continue reading…

I’m currently sitting in a Premier Inn room in Crawley, West Sussex – a few miles from Gatwick Airport. “Why?”, I hear you ask (or maybe not [and my English is failing me, is that comma right?]). Just to pick up a friend tomorrow – it was easier to do the 122 miles today in daylight, when the traffic is light, rather than in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow, when the M25 is bound to be gridlocked.

Internet access is via a non-encrypted wireless connection. I really need to sort out a VPN, either on this hosting, or on my DSL connection – I suppose I could VPN to work and set my default route through the VPN there. All the stuff that matters though (that I control) is protected by SSL, so there’s a modicum of privacy and security for some of my web browsing. There’s always a MITM attack, and I really need to work on testing that one day, just to work out how to attack a SSL connection without the browser noticing.

Brought Tzar with me, and some music CDs, but forgot that this laptop uses an external CD drive, so no Tzar for me tonight. Music has been sorted by a Last.FM installation though – the net access doesn’t block it (and appears to be a 1 Mbit connection).

No shuttle to the airport unfortunately, so I’ll have to scrounge up some change while I’m at the airport to pay for the parking.

Guess I’ll sit back, listen to the rock station on Last.FM and read Cryptonomicon.

My journey to the Netherlands on Saturday the 8th did not begin fortuitously – for a start, I mixed up my tickets for the train journey from Stoke-on-Trent, and thought I had to catch a noon train, not a 2 PM train. This however, had a bright side, for as I was standing on the platform, pondering the trains, I realised that I had left the Archos jukebox back in my house on the bed. Quick time, across the station, hail a taxi and make a very quick round-trip to pick it up from home. I then found out that my ticket allowed me to catch any train that was going in the approximate direction that I was going. This makes me wonder if I can travel to Manchester via London on a standard saver :) If I can, it’ll be a very cheap way to get around on the rail network.

The check-in for Jet2 was painless, if a bit tedious. They’ll only start checking-in for a flight 2 hours before the flight, and no earlier, even if the desk is open. So I had a pleasant stay in the line, waiting for them to close the Alicante flight and open the Amsterdam flight. Painless check-in though – present the booking ID and my passport, tag my carry-on and wander off to find lunch – which is how checking in should be.

If you ever travel out of Manchester Airport, and don’t mind spending a few quid over and above for lunch, find a seat at the Lancaster Brasserie in Terminal 1. The food is fantastic (especially for airport fare), the garlic bread was divine and the view is pretty darn good (right out onto the tarmac). The food quality was something I’d expect landside at a good restaurant in town, so 4 stars to the Brasserie.