As some of you may know I’ve been shipped to the US for some training, not as much as originally planned, but at least I should get a decent grounding in the subject matter.
Shipped out Wednesday morning, or at least that was the plan. The usual horrible early start and SWMBO kindly gave me a lift to Heathrow airport and got me there well before 7am. Decided the company paid-for economy ticket was going to be too cramped for my liking and paid for an upgrade to premium economy. Through security (this week the laptops stay in the bags, and you keep your shoes on) and gently amble in the direction of a fried breakfast. After which I started on whichever tome of space-opera I’d thrown in the bag, with the occasional wander to the Dixons store to ogle at the Macbook Air they had on display. After a while I realised they’d not updated the gate-open time for the flight, one hour delay, which turns into 1.5 hours. And then suffer the ten hour tedium of the flight itself.
Arriving at SFO the weather turns out to be pleasantly warm compared to the UK and I conclude my decision not to bring a leather jacket was a good one. The car rental seems to have warped me into an alternate reality of opulence, either that or my decision to have all the insurance made his day. I got a choice of almost anything they had, and plumped for a Sebring convertible with 800 miles on the clock.
Top down, drive down the 280 and head into Palo Alto for some shiney Apple goodness. One SSD Macbook Air, and wired ethernet doobry, and superdrive, and 1TB Time Capsule later I feel suitably saited and pop to the office and find that the ID card we were issued in Farnborough this time last year on moving into the new offices there actually lets me into the office here at Mountain View. Organisation ? Who’da thunk it ?
And to conclude this missive, the view from the office facing East,
The odd roofline of the build on the left is the NASA Ames wind tunnel, the big grey lump with the black top is the old airship hanger at Moffett field, and the two green things behind are the existing hangers as occasionally featured in Mythbusters.
