Ports Thoughts

I had a great customer meeting today at IBM's Head Office in Portsmouth. I was helping the customer understand the IBM/Lotus strategy and why it made more sense than out competition. It was a open, sometimes funny and deeply rewarding meeting that reminded me why I love my job so much. So I was feeling quite smug as I drove back along the M3 in my lovely BMW 320d listening to some fine music by the excellent Kasabian. A quick flick through the onboard computer informed me that I had about 60 miles to go and only 30 miles worth of fuel. "No Problem", I thought, sliding into the next service station and whacking the tank up to the brim with 55 litres of the finest unleaded. 2.1 miles out of the service station I was flying down the motorway at a serious speed (actual speed withheld due to it's police man baiting magnitude) when I felt a loss of power. Realizing there was something wrong I carefully proceeded to the inside lane. But still the power was going down. Eventu...

Obviously, probably like you, I spend a lot of my time surfing web sites in The Lebanon. Well OK - that might not be true. But it might be about to change, because our top mate Lisa who lives in Beruit has started to journal her extraordinary life here . You would be a fool not to track Lisa's wonderful world. Expect teething troubles to start off with, then expect erudite analyses of the world and an unhealthy regard for karaoke.

Ali and I got back from a Pub quiz tonight to find that both our cars were covered in snow. So we had a late night snowball fight. Wicked. Obviously this picture is posed. Ali is really a dead shot with the snow ball. Ouch.

Last night the BBC promised that there would be loads of snow in the Midlands. Early this morning I had to drive from London to Lichfield which being just North of Birmingham couldn't be more Midlands if it tried. Cue Midlands joke: A guy goes to a job interview in Birmingham wearing a flowery shirt, flared jeans and platform shoes. "All you need now is a Kipper Tie", quips the prospective employer "Ta very much mate, two sugars", responds our hapless hero. Anyway, back to the snow. I like snow. In fact I love snow. It puts me in a happy Narnia kind of Christmas mood. As I drove up from London the radio informed me of the blizzard going on in the Midlands. As I got off the M1 onto the M6, the rain gradually turned into sleet. And then as I carried on oop North - it just stayed like that. I hate sleet. It puts me in a miserable cold kind of crap mood. No snowman for me :-( Fortunately, the customer meeting I had was very enjoyable as I explained to the IT Directo...

It's a funny thing, if England is playing in a tournament like the World Cup and they crash out (as usual in the semi's) most English fans will start rooting for any of the other British team that are still in the competition. Be it Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland or Wales. However, when our British cousins see their team knocked out they seem to support whoever is playing against England. What makes me ponder this? Well over the next two days four English Premiership sides are playing in the Champions League, Arsenal and Liverpool tonight and Man Utd and Chealski tomorrow evening. Having supported United for 30 years, I clearly demand that they win the Cup. And yet I'm currently watching Arsenal give Bayern Munich a run for their money and I can't help rooting for United's arch nemesis, even though they have just lost a second goal due to awful defending. But a combination of being the underdogs (now they are 2 goals down) and being Brits mean they get my suppo...

I was distressed to discover that my good friend Woody had been burgled a couple of days ago and during the course of the dastardly event his lovely dog Izzy had gone missing. I won't go into the debate about what should be done to scum who burgle people houses, breaking their trust in the overwhelming goodness of most people and making folks feel uncomfortable in their own home. That is too big and serious a debate to be held by angry people and cooler heads must prevail. But as Woody himself wrote in his Web Log entry on the topic, material stuff can always be replaced, but members of the family (two legged or four pawed) cannot. So it is with great joy that I heard today that Izzy has been found and that she is healthy and well. Welcome home girl.

I was overjoyed today to discover that my local supermarket has now adopted Chip and Pin. This is the system whereby you type in a ATM style number to authenticate your card rather than signing your autograph. They have been doing this for years in the States so it is a bit of a surprise that it has taken so long for Blighty to catch up. And can you remember the last time you signed your signature and the assistant actually checked if it was the same as your card? I can't. This really suits me because my scrawled mark seems to be very different every time I write it, especially when they ask you to sign in a really small space (e.g. back of a credit card) or they give you a fat felt tip pen and expect your signature to be the same as using a Mont Blanc fine ink pen. So imagine my chagrin when I got to the check out of the next shop and realised that the till monkey in the supermarket had forgotten to give me my card back and that in my high tech revery, as I skipped back to my car,...