I was up reasonably early today. Jilly had to be at work as dawn broke (7:00am) and I ended up being up and at 'em by just before 7:30. I looked outside to see the mist rising and the sun just trying to poke through. Grabbing my camera I headed down across the tracks to see if I could grab any decent shots before brekafast. The mist was already rising, but I managed to get a few nice shots done and succeeded in worrying a rabbit (all this before lunch!). Ironically, if I'd been up earlier I think...

P erhaps underestimating the jet-lag I decided to take a nap at around 4:00pm on Sunday and ended up staying in bed until around 6:30am the following morning. Normally you can't get me out of bed before 9:00am as I stay up until late, but things have largely been reversed since I got here... Jilly had to work on Sunday, but has had Monday and Tuesday off. Monday was largely a do-errands day, so nothing spectacular to report. At least... until the night-time. We were woken at about 2:00am Tues by...

I thought I might have jinxed myself, when sitting on the plane to Sioux Falls, the pilot announced there'd be a slight delay while one of the technicians examined a small possible fault. It had been going SO well.... Glancing out the window I saw all our bags being off-loaded - which I presumed would mean the worst. However about ten minutes later the pilot announced all was good and I saw the bags being reloaded. It's worthwhile mentioning that I saw my bags not so much being un/loaded as gamefully hurled/lobbed from conveyor belt to truck/plane as if it was an Olympic sport in danger of going...

So, I'm currently in Minneapolis airport and everything seems to be going swimmingly - if that's not the wrong description for air-travel. I got some sleep last night - heading to bed early and managing to get about 4 on-off hours - which helped with subsequent travelling. The parentals, planning to head off early for a day at the coast, agreed to drop me off at about 4:45am at LBA (thanks to them both!). Baggage checked with no problems there and the Amsterdam flight went off on time. Lovely sunrise just before we took off - ALMOST worth getting up for! BIG queue when I got to Amsterdam and...

So... after counting down the weeks then days the hours, I'm about 55 mins away from the first leg of my trip. Flying from LBA to Amsterdam and then onto Minn and Siox Falls. If the flights line-up as they're supposed to (IF) I should be there by 4:20 local time. As always I'll try to keep the blog updated while I'm away and anyone needing to keep tabs or contact should be able to do so via Blackberry, text (probably better given time difference and charges) or on Facebook. More soon.....

F or the last few weeks I've been developing a personal side-project which I'm finally launching into the public domain this weekend. What started as simply a fun way to keep my design skills sharpened - inbetween writing many, many, mannnnnny articles - needed to take on a life of its own if it was to warrant the time I was actually starting to spend on it. Therefore, with the barest imitation of a drum-roll, I now introduce you to THERE GOES THE DAY: THE STORE... Yes. I know. Contain yourselves....

I try to balance fluffy, silly and purely 'what I did today' posts with observations that I feel strongly about. Buckle up, this is one of the latter variety and it's a doozy. “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” - Sarah Palin. I can’t tell you how much that statement makes my blood boil. Really… on so many f*cking...

L ast night was a time for a bit of navel / star gazing. I joined Simon Hopkinson and Paul Beck for several drinks at the Black Bull, probably our first 'local' when we barely old enough to drink (and, even then, not quite legally). It used to be a real dive, but was a wonderful mix of all types - bikers, elderly gentlemen, businessmen and students all in dark, smokey rooms with more alcohol on the carpet than in the glasses. Yes, I know, I over-sell it.  It shut down at one point and opened...

J ust as the British summer seems to be swinging between gloriously sunny weather and torrential downpours on an almost equal basis, I'm finding that I'm caught in the 'Hurry up and wait...' event horizon where it's all feast or famine. Some days I'm rattling through several articles with a real sense of accomplishment and on other days - where there isn't such an imminent deadline - I'm lolling around bemoaning I haven't things to do. Neither is quite accurate, of course. In some ways the enhanced workload is self-inflicted and to ensure I have less to do while I'm in Iowa (two months'...