David Currie

I followed in Andy’s footsteps today, getting the 10 hour flight from Gatwick to Las Vegas for the annual IBM WebSphere Software Service gathering. With only just over 3 weeks until B-day I’m trying to minimise my time out of the country but it means I don’t have much time to recover from the flight before launching in to the technical sessions tomorrow morning. The buffet dinner this evening was a good chance to catch up with some of my colleagues from around Europe and further afield that I have worked with over the past year.

288I was back up in Warwickshire again this week with a colleague and we gave Britannia Hotels a chance to redeem themselves by staying at the Bosworth Hall Hotel in Market Bosworth, close to the site of the Battle of Bosworth. As I suspected, there is actually no accommodation in the hall itself with the rooms in various buildings of assorted ages tacked on to the back. As I also suspected from the bargainous £55 per night, the hotel is primarily a conference venue (we were joined by the Wildlife Trusts).
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I’ve spent the past four days in Turku, Finland, on work. Unfortunately there are no direct flights which meant changing in Helsinki and 7 hours travel time door-to-door on the way out and nearly 10 on the way back. I arrived mid-afternoon on Monday to blue skies and a snow covered landscape. Sadly, by the time I came to think about exploring the city the following evening, the skies had turned grey and the snow was rapidly disappearing from the streets under continual rain. The combination of cold and rain was enough to confine me to my hotel room.

Things didn’t improve a great deal on Wednesday either. Only when it was time to leave on Thursday did the sun deign to show its face again. It was by then too late to visit the cathedral and renowned castle. Nor, despite being closer than our last Finnish trip to Salo, did I make it to Moominworld!

I was meant to spend the second half of this week up in the Midlands on work. Fortunately, on two grounds, I was only up there for Wednesday morning. Firstly, it meant I was safely back home before the snow arrived. Although the couple of centimetres we had here were gone by Thursday lunchtime it sounds like things were a lot more different further North. Secondly, it meant only having to stay one night in the Britannia Hotel Coventry. The hotel itself is pretty decrepit and the blurb seems to major on its proximity to the cathedral, conveniently not mentioning that the other end of the building is perched on top of the bus station with the road passing underneath. One to avoid in future!