31 March

Flew over to Sevilla, Spain for the third annual GUADEC conference. Met up with George at the airport and after somewhat of a struggle managed to hire a car to go on a 'viaje espanol del camino'.

After finding a hotel it was nearly 11pm before we wandered around trying to find something to eat. Eventually ended up finding a place where we ordered two plates of assorted cold cured meat. They were rather shocked when we ordered a litre of beer each. I don't think these Spaniards drink all that much.




30 March

Headed out to the quarry with Domhnall and Patrick. Unfortunately Domhnall decided that he should forget his climbing shoes so disappeared after an hour. I feel really weak and struggled up Exertion, to the extent of belly flopping like a big fat sealion half way up. I feel so ashamed.




29 March

TigerT created some great maps of Seville from some pdf's. Very useful stuff. Much kudos.




28 March

Decided to ditch the slides for the BOF. Tried to get Roman to edit boobjob and replace the text with something more GNOME oriented so I could say 'Look! What do we have to do to get this type of marketing?'. Completely sexist I know, but I'm guessing there was a vague hope of getting some laughs. [Apologies for recycled images]




27 March

I'm really looking forward to the whole Spain thing. I just wonder if they have pretty girls serving sangria while I sit out on the roof under the sun.




26 March

Started to think a little bit more about what I am supposed to be leading a discussion on at GUADEC. Even wrote a few slides but probably won't use them.




25 March

It's Katie's birthday while I'm in Spain at the GUADEC conference so I made an attempt to make some chocolate squares. I'm quite impressed at how they turned out despite having no scales to measure the ingredients.




24 March

I believe in code reuse [courtesy of http://www.nat.org].

24 March 2002


23 March

Oh I feel so shitty with the flu. Drugs are good...but sometimes not that good.




22 March

Okay, so I gave in and bought a pair of climbing shoes. My old ones were getting pretty smelly - almost a health hazzard. And for some unknown reason, they decided to give me two pairs for the price of one. I could almost kiss the shop assistant. Too bad he was male.




21 March

Wow, it is nearly time to do some patio gardening and buy a couple of barbeques. It's a shame our patio is about 5m x 2m.




20 March

I decided to scan in some slides this evening after spending the evening drinking beer with Domhnall reviewing our slide collection. I am so disappointed in the quality of the scan. I just haven't figured this machine out yet.




19 March

Touching the void.




18 March

The tension mounted for the start of a special day. But everything turned out good in the end.

My brother and his beautiful wife. My sister in law and her beautiful husband. Together with best man and matron of honour make wonderful moments...but sometimes very surreal.




17 March

Went to HotRock, Tolleymore. The Mournes weather deserted us again and we parted with peeling finger tips and pumped arms.




16 March

Just a wee dander around the mountains of the Mourne. It was good to feel alive once again.




15 March

It's not often you have a power cut in a pub. It's not often you also have a torch on your person. Climbers and cavers are a remarkably resourceful bunch.




14 March

I stared and stared at this picture and couldn't think of a comment to put on this picture. So I will leave it blank, up to your imagination.




13 March

There is so much hatred in the Middle East. This makes me sad. Just helpless.




12 March

"To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world".




11 March

Everyone gets frustrated...even me. A four week trip to Australia takes only hours to undo.




10 March

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight."




9 March

I have really good friends. They came over this afternoon with a vegan chocolate cake [thanks Katie!] and some paintings they made. I think that they will feature in my photojournal for the next couple of days.

"On our earth we are obviously much too small to clean out our volcanoes. That is why they bring no end of trouble upon us."




8 March

So Spring is finally here. So what gives with the weather?




7 March

So we had another abortion referendum in Ireland yesterday [yes, I got to vote on my birthday - how lucky am I?]. I'm happy to see the existing government and catholic church lose this one. I'm not normally either religous nor political but when I see so many uneducated comments it can't not make you really quite annoyed.




6 March

One year old today.




5 March

The Ha'penny bridge is now open again. Apparently they've tried to renovate it the same as how it should have looked way back then. Is it just me or does it look more gaudy now?




4 March

It's just a pain to be back. Even your photos don't look as good anymore.




3 March

In the Australian kindergarten where my cousins went, they got each person to draw themselves and put everyone in the class onto a tea-towel. I think this is a great idea. I guess it's a pity that they don't do it every year and see how the children see themselves as they grow older.




2 March

Wow, my life has turned a corner. Patrick temporarily moved into my room while I was in Australia and, as a way of thank you, he left 2 boxes of Roses sweets. Some legendary guy or girl in the marketing department have put their foot down and removed the ugly sweets [sickly strawbery creme, careful of that coffee creme, cant stand it coconut green thing]. You rock, thank you!.




1 March

It most a mostly uneventful trip home. Japan is such an intriguing place, but didn't enjoy it all that much. I guess I only really saw it from the hotel.

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