We’re back from our two week holiday to Yorkshire, East Sussex, Wiltshire, and Lancashire.
In those two weeks we clocked up over 2,115 miles in the car, and I dare say we added a good portion of those miles while going up and down dale and around in circles in spectacular Herriot country. We loved our time in Yorkshire and are already planning to go back soon.
East Sussex was great, that’s where I was born and spent my formative years, and is where the majority of my family is. I don’t see my family anywhere near as much as I’d like, so it was very nice to have a few days to visit. Even though we had 5 days in East Sussex, time seemed very short and I wish we could have spent more time there. Did however have time to get a new tyre for the car as somewhere along the way we’d picked up 4 punctures in just the one tyre!
We spent a glorious day at Longleat where we saw the fantastic house, Lord Bath’s amazing murals (an open mind required), and some wonderful wildlife in the safari park. The cheeky monkeys stripped off with my rear windscreen wiper rubber and ran off with the rear wash nozzle, so there’s yet more expense for the car. But they had a hard time getting to the sticker on the inside of the window!
It was then up to Liverpool, where we visited some family and friends in Southport and Crosby, but just like the rest of the holiday time seemed too short and soon we were enjoying a very pleasant last evening dining outside a restaurant in Liverpool’s Albert Dock as the sun set.
And so to Monday morning and my first proper day on the new contract, which has been very good and surprisingly productive, with all software installed, dev environment set up, source checked out and built and some time spent familiarising myself with the application. I also got started reading the requirements specification for the project, it definitely looks as though I’ll have plenty to keep me busy for the forthcoming year!
Now it’s back to trying to schedule my spare time to enable me to continue to develop CaseDetective as well as have some semblance of a family life and time to relax. I’m going to experiment with a few ideas on that front, I’ll post about it as and when I have time! 
Two weeks holidays?
I thought you just started a new contract, Ian! How does that work?
Posted by Gerard Hammond on July 13th, 2006.
I know, sounds strange, but my client said they’d wait for me to have my holiday and then I could get stuck in, although I did go in for a day before going on holiday to meet and greet etc.
My contract is for 240 days over a year or greater, basically they have the budget for 240 days and that’s what I’ll be doing for them, with delivery of the final product hopefully within a year.
Posted by ianmjones on July 14th, 2006.
[...] I started this release at the beginning of July, once I’d got back from holiday and had settled into my new contracting gig. From the start I followed a pretty punishing schedule, every week day I’d check my mail etc while having breakfast, then I did a full day of on-site 4GL development consultancy, and then in the evenings after getting home I’d have dinner with my wife and then spend the rest of the evening working on CaseDetective. I’d also steel the odd hour or two on the weekends if we were out and about. [...]
Posted by ianmjones.net » Blog Archive » Phew, CaseDetective 1.2 released! on October 10th, 2006.