Wednesday, 03 August, 2005

Well, I finally got my act together and booked tickets for California. I'm off to Toorcon. The flight cost me an amazing £351.00. I was totally blown away by this price! I did a "back of the envelope" calculation and it turns out that I'm traveling ten miles to the pound. This is probably the cheapest rate of travel I have ever achieved, although I appreciate that's a very nerdy thing to say.

The schedule is going to be pretty hectic. I take off on the 14^th of September, do the conference until Sunday. I fly home on the morning of the 18^th but due to the eight hour time difference I will actually land back home on the morning of the 19^th. The total time door to door is around sixteen hours but that figure is misleading because I have to change at Chicago.

To make matters worse, when I land on the 19^th, I have to go to work straight from the airport. I've gone to work on less sleep than I'm likely to get on the plane so I figure that while it will be a very tough day, it's the best way to break the back of the jet-lag.

As you can probably tell, I'm incredibly excited about this trip. I've always wanted to dip my toes in the pacific ocean and it appears that now I will get my chance - with American geeks no-less - It promises to be one hell of an experience and best of all I get to do it with my Canadian buddy, Tom St Denis. Awesome!

Speaking of pivotal moments in life, I have my driving test at the weekend. I've learned to drive by driving to work; I haven't taken any professional tuition. Despite this handicap, I'm quietly confident about my chances. At the end of the day, it amounts to nothing more than a £50 bet on my competence to drive a car, and if I fail, who cares? I'm not the kind of person who feels they need to prove something to anybody. I can just resit the test ad nausea until they're so sick of seeing me they have no option but to give me my license.

As a closing remark, it's early in August, so I thought I'd cast my mind back to the beginning of the year and see how many of those resolutions I'd managed to achieve. It's pretty clear that I've failed to meet some of these goals already but, even so, this year is already a damn sight more promising than any previous years.

And that's a sign of the times really. I couldn't be happier. I'm achieving what I want to achieve, earning enough to make my dreams a reality and have a girlfriend of exceptional quality. For the moment, at least, contentment is my middle name.

Simon