When can I do the real work??

I'm not sure if it is supposed to work this way or not, but since I became a director (in the loosest possible sense of the word) it feels like I am in one incredibly long, never-ending meeting ... and I still have the developer work to do, too!

Monday saw me having an incredibly early start in order to meet my boss at Kings Cross at seven in the morning, which meant getting up before five and leaving my place before six.  I'll let those of you that know me get up off the floor before I continue...*

We were to travel together to Darlington for a meeting at one of our customer's regional offices.  First class, no less ... which basically means as much tea or coffee as you like, but if you want anything else then you have to pay extra for it; a bit tight considering how much the tickets cost.

The meeting was useful but as is usual, raised more questions that needed answering, some of which were answered in a follow-up meeting that I was asked to attend this afternoon, this time in Holborn, thankfully.

I've been to the Holborn office a number of times so you would think that I would know the drill by now.  Today, however, I decided to go for a Zones 1 & 2 ticket as I figured I wouldn't need a fully-fledged travel card and it worked out a fair bit cheaper.  At least, that's what I thought.

The reason the ticket was so much cheaper was because I had apparently selected a single instead of a return (I'm sure I selected return), which meant looking like a halfwit when I couldn't get through the gates and had to have it pointed out to me that I wasn't getting back out of London just yet.

So, off I trundled to the ticket machine, face glowing like a hot coal, to discover that a basic ticket to cover me getting to Euston was in the region of £5.60!  

£5.60?!  It cost me £8.40 to get into London and to Holborn in the first place!

Stuff that, I'd rather put up with the rain.  So I did, and ended up battling my way through the Brolly Brigade narrowly avoiding a new set of eye spokes on several occasions, and back to Euston where I hunted down a suitable ticket machine (why they can't all be in one place, I'll never know).

Any guesses on the cost of the return journey?  £7.50!  

All of a sudden, the cost of an off-peak travel card at £13.80 isn't quite so expensive any more...
* * * * *
Earlier this year, I succumbed to the temptation of the Apple and bought myself the little white wonder-box that is MacBook.  

So far, the use has been limited to typing blog posts, reviewing emails, tweaking photos and watching episodes of Doctor Who, Top Gear and The Owl.  Despite getting hold of a book that would help me get the most out of the system, I haven't really gone through it so I am still getting the odd ace bit of functionality pop up.

Today, I discovered that the Mail application will automatically recognise an address in an email and provide you with a series of options to create a new contact record or, get this, show a map of the area using Google Maps.  How cool is that?!

I wonder what other surprises it has up its sleeve...



* For those that don't know me, getting me out of bed first thing in the morning is akin to an octogenarian bump-starting a truck: its never going to happen.

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