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Michael S. Hoenie
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"TRIPS - ENGLAND - JAN 2008"
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I was just informed this week that I will be attending the UK users group for the product I've been working on the last four years. This means flying out next Friday to London, and touring most of Southern England to different customer sites. I'll be gone for exactly two weeks - unless it requires a little more time for other meetings and details.
I'll have a nice laptop with me and my digital cam - so I will be posting images and details as I arrive and settle in.
I'm looking forward to seeing that cool country across the pond.
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We left Salt Lake City at 10am and arrived in Gatwick London at about 12:30am the following day. Of course it was 7:30am in Salt Lake (7 hours difference), so the end of our day was the start of their Saturday. It is an odd feeling watching the sun set from inside your airplane, and then just as you land, the sun is coming up.
Once we arrived and passed customs, we headed out towards Lewes by way of train.
There are eight sets of tracks, with two sets on each side with platforms. The trains go about 80 miles an hour in most places and some of the trains do not stop at every station. At this station, it is startling to say the least when a train would go through the station at 80 miles an hour with only three to four feet between you. I felt like the train was going to suck me in and thought that anyone with a four year old or younger had better keep a leash on them!
We traveled South on the light rail train and although I had not slept in over 20 hours, I was glued to the English countryside. It was everything that I imagined it would be from the countless hours of time I've spent watching and reading documentaries on the United Kingdom. Rolling hills of green that are patch worked with rows of trees and bushes. It is an interesting thought that even though people have lived here for thousands of years, it isn't like America where there is urban sprawl in every single direction. In places like Utah, sprawl is everywhere with strip malls, convenience stores and big box retailers in every direction. Here, it is quiet, beautiful, and serene.
Within a half an hour, we arrived at Lewes Station in England, and had a quarter mile walk from the depot to our hotel, the Pelham House. Built by John Cotmot, Church Warden of nearby St Andrews church in 1525, it has been retrofitted into a hotel. It is a typical British house, old and brick based. It is covered in large thick vines that I think would be absolutely beautiful if it were summer.
The rooms are incredibly small, probably 12 to 15 feet by 12 to 15 feet. The bathrooms are small little closets. You can tell it has been retrofitted because pipes are all on the outside. I find it interesting that typical things that you would find in the US like PVC pipe for toilet pipes in the US are plastic pipes here that are basically dryer vent pipes - plastic flexi tubes. The drains are all along the inside walls. I noted that the plug next to the sink was a 220 volt plug with absolutely no grounding or safety mechanisms. The light in the shower is a small 25 volt projector lens in a normal sheet rock casing. In the US, it would be absolutely illegal as it poses a hazard as it is not grounded nor encased properly. It is something you would never do in your own house because you are simply asking for trouble. It would be like dangling a normal light bulb down into your shower without regard for safety. I, have been quite careful.
Even so, it is quite comfortable, warm and dry. From the lobby looking out into a beautifully sculpted courtyard, the clouds and moisture stream by. In the distance, rolling hills of patchwork green fenced in by thickets and trees are in beautiful place with the blue sky above. It is strikingly beautiful here and being so close to sea level, the oxygen and moisture levels are in abundance. The weather here has been in the upper 40s F and low 50s F. I noted that crocus are in bloom, the daffodils are halfway up and the tulips are starting to poke through. It feels like early March in Utah and has been absolutely rejuvinating. It feels like spring while back home it has been 7 degrees F, cold as hell, snowy and dark. What a refreshing change!
The above is the view from the hotel lobby.
For me, Jet lag is like staying up all night long and then trying to face the day. Your body begins to get wired like you have had too many cups of coffee. For me, sleeping is quite difficult as my mind is wired and cannot rest. Last night, our first night here was perfect, I slept very well and I acclimated to the time zone quickly.
Unable to sleep yesterday due to the fact that it was morning and early day - and my body was telling me it was quite confused, I decided to head out and see Lewes. It is absolutely beautiful.
It is purely an English town, with narrow winding streets, brick buildings and compact cars. I walked a total of three miles, one and a half in each direction of the main street. There are little streets that curve around that only a compact car could get through. There were double-decker busses and taxies - and of course, everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road. Off the main road, houses line the beautiful green countryside.
Every half a mile there were old churches built centuries ago. One church ground I explored had graves going back into the 16th through 19th centuries, some above ground, some below. Some of the stones were broken, turned over or laying on their sides.
Here was a castle built in the 12th century - they offered tours for a modest fee.
I was amazed at all of the little streets that went in every direction. I pictured in my mind James Bond, chasing or being chased through the small streets.
It is interesting to note that in the US, everything is considered a fine. Fines for illegal parking or doing something naughty. Here, everything is a penalty, and many things are labeled as such.
Lewes is a beautiful little town in the South Eastern part of England. Little shops, pubs, antiques - my Mother in Law would be in heaven.
Early this morning (it is Sunday here, at about 9am that I am typing this), we were all to meet for breakfast. Everyone slept in quite late, and I am an early riser, was up and decided to try bubbles and squeak for breakfast. It was actually quite good with a few glasses of fresh orange juice and coffee.
Today we will explore Lewes a little more as our business does not start until tomorrow. I will take more pictures and post as I can.
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Today we had another day of rest before our business starts, so late morning after breakfast we decided to head out to the coast.
Taking a train from the Lewes Station, we headed south to Brighton by the sea. It is a 15 minute train ride South from Lewes to get there and is absolutely beautiful. I was once again glued to the window of the train watching the English countryside unfold.
Fifteen minutes later, we were in Brighton and stepped out of the train station and into a bustling city.
Brighton is far larger than Lewes and is along the coastline. The streets are bustling with people and cars. At first I was upset that I had forgotten to bring my sun glasses, but then as I walked, I realized that the vibrant colors of the place would have been blocked out.
There are lots of double-decker busses. I think it would be cool to be up in the top front for a ride around the town.
Once we ended up on the boardwalk, we headed over to the pier and walked out. Brighton is a large tourist attraction and has a lot of beach space. The boardwalk is amazing, lined with shops along one entire side and a well paved boardwalk on the other. It went on for miles.
The view from the pier was gorgeous.
When we were done with that we headed back to the train station and stopped into a little pub for some lunch.
I really enjoy the differences in being here between our two cultures. The places and things we do are identical, just named differently. I love the colors and textures of England - how the buildings are designed.
What a very amazing place.
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Today we spent about 9 hours in the PSIAM users group listening to the presentations by 9 of the UK ambulance trusts. It was extremely informative for me listening to each of the trusts talk about algorythm sets, reports and statistics and PSIAM concerns.
The PSIAM group met this time in Lewes England at the South East Coast Ambulance Service Trust.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a pub found at the end of town.
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Here is a picture of the front door of the Pelham House hotel where we stayed three nights.
It was amazing to see all of the users in the East of England, Surrey, Suxxex and London areas who use PSIAM talk about their day to day operations in the program. I was quite enlightened. There are pictures taken, but I did not take them and I will wait for Mal to send those pictures on to me.
Afterwards, we left Lewis and boarded the train that after an hour took us into London.
Wow, what an amazing city. I will post more pictures later when we are actually visiting London proper and I have a chance to be a tourist.
After hitting London, we crossed the train station and jumped on a train for East of England. After two hours on the train, we stayed in East of England, having a nice dinner at a restaurant called "The Rat Catcher". Wonderful. They had the most delictable kidney pie I've ever tasted.
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Today we visited the EAAS or East Of England Ambulance Service Trust. It was my second look at an Ambualance Dispatch Center. It was huge. The room was fantastic, lined with row after row of desks with monitors on it. Screens with maps and ambulance dispatch systems.
All of the ambulances in the UK are white with green and yellow square patches. All of the emergency lights are blue, unlike the US where they are pure red. Police lights here are blue, while in the US they are red and blue. Sirens in the US change all types, but here they are a single up, down, up, down. Pretty interesting.
After a few hours of being there I had helped them solve issues that have been around for months - and met with the director for their continuing infrastructure.
Once again we went to the train station for a two hour ride to London.
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After traveling back on a train for two hours to London, we checked into the Waterloo Holiday Inn, just 15 minutes away from London Ambulance Service - and only 20 minutes walk away from Big Ben and Paralment. Stowing our bags, we walked down to London Ambulance (LAS) and toured their control room. If you have never been inside a 911 (999 in London) dispatch center - I tell you it is a very unique experience. I stould behind a call taker who was taking an emeregncy call. I watched on their screens as their computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems pointed out the ambulances on a major on-screen map system. They could tell where any of their ambulances were at any given time. Very cool. I got to see the software that I have been programming on for the last four years in place.
Afterwards, we had some free time, and went into London and had a great dinner at pub. Thank's Mal! The guy always seems to know where the best food is.
Well, it is 7:30pm here, but 12:30am in the states, so I am going to turn in and get some extra rest.
By the way, I have been trying for days to get ahold of my wife, with no success. It is either busy, or nobody is home.
Lubly Jubly!
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Today we checked out of the hotel, stored our bags in a locked hotel "Cloak Room" (as they call it), and headed back to LAS.
Upon meeting the clinical advisors, they took us by car to London Bridge where we could meet with the CTAK (their CAD integration teams) team. London Bridge office of CTAK is directly under the London Bridge.
All went well. After 15 months of development they finally finished up codin gand got the CTAK/PSIAM interface working properly (well, as far as we could discern).
Here is a pic of me standing next to Patrick - their lead CTAK coder.
I may be smiling, but it was colder than hell.
After that, Eric and I boarded the "Tube" (their version of the Subway System) and rode to Waterloo Station (where our hotel is). Riding the tube was a unique experience. Crowded - busy, move move move. But it was quick - far quicker than riding in the car on the packed London Streets.
We came out at Waterloo and it was pouring rain, so we hopped into a pub and had a nice meal.
Later today at 4pm, we'll be hopping on a train and heading to the Southwest towards Bristol where we'll stay for a meeting tomorrow with a CAD company. Time to shine again, as I've lead most of all of these meetings with PSIAM. I've quite enjoyed myself and have learned quite a lot.
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After boarding yet another train at the London Paddington train station, we headed off to Bristol England - a 2 hour train ride. The Paddington train station, like the Victoria station or others that I have seen, are extremely large. Some of the stations have ceilings that are 400-600 feet high and they are as large as several football fields wide, and 5 to 8 long. They are amazing with several dozen train tracks leading off to all parts of England.
Here is a picture of the Paddington station.
Riding the train at night is boring as the light reflecting off the train windows causes a complete mirror. You can't see anything outside.
Before we borded the trian, we ate some lovely dinner at a pub. In Utah, Mormon Ward houses are on every corner as far as the eye can see. Here, the pubs are just as numerous, but each is absolutely unique. You can always get spirits to drink but I find the food is far more delectable! Yes, indeed, I never had trouble finding out "What Is For Lunch!".
Here is a cool picture of a little resetaurant in the Paddington train station. The cooks make up the little dinners, put them into little plastic bubbles, and put them on a moving conveyor belt. When it comes by you and you want it, you just nab it. Then you pay for it when you are done.
We spent the night in a lovely hotel called The Thistle and visited the Priority Dispatch Corporation (our parent company) the next day. It was a lovely walk through beautiful English buildings. The Thistle hotel was the nicest of all the hotels that I have been in so far. English Hotels are extremely small. The Pelham House hotel had a double bed, but it only had 3 feet around the entire bed, and a bathroom half the size of a standard walk in closet.
The architecutre of the buildings heading outside to the right of The Thistle was beautiful. We passed through the archway of an old church block and onto a busy street before turning down and heading towards the PDC Bristol offices.
At the PDC offices I directed the two hour meeting with a CAD company that wishes to integrate with our product. It went extremely well.
From there, we headed back to the train station and headed back into London where we booked into a hotel directly behind the Eye of London.
Tomorrow which is Saturday we will finally have a break and be able to rest.
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As I've been in England the last eight days, I have been observing the local customs. Can you believe that there are no hash browns over here? No hash browns at all. In fact, the standard English breakfast is pork and beans (without the pork) and sausage. Many forego the sausage and take a baked potatoes, slice it in quarters, and pour the beans over the top. Absolutely disgusting.
The standard English breakfast is one sausage, one tomato cut in half and lightly grilled, three to six small mushrooms, a half poached egg and two slices of back bacon. I can't tell you how terribly I miss two eggs, over easy with strips of regular bacon and a heaping mound of hash browns. I asked for hash browns and was asked, "Wot?" I said, take a potato, use a cheese grater to grate it, and fry up the grated potatoes in bacon grease. I was stared down and gave in.
Breakfast here is so light it is insane. They eat it early, and they eat "supper" late - starting at 7:30 and later.
Driving on the wrong side of the road is quite the experience. Our UK employee took us for a drive in his car from East of England to a pub out in the middle of nowhere. Twice I tried to get into the car where the driver's seat was, and he kindly offered to let me drive. I quickly found my seat in the "driver's seat", well, the passenger seat over here. Each time he drove and made turns, alarm bells went off in my head that we were heading down the wrong way and I had to force myself into relaxing. The streets here are incredibly small, but all of the cars here are also extremely small. Pretty much all of the cars are diesel powered engines and gasoline is a whopping $18.75 per gallon. They pay by the liter here. I have never seen so many small cars in my life, but then again, all of their streets are insanely small, so it helps to have something small - and something that gets good mileage.
Some things I have heard and seen:
- You do not yield, you give way.
- It isn't a truck, it's a lorry.
- A fanny pack refers to a woman's genitals, you must say "bum bag". Good thing I couldn't find my fanny pack although I wish I had it.
- It is not a car, it is a carriage.
- It isn't gasoline, it's petrol.
- Their plugs are twice the size (220v), so their power strips are huge.
- All of their tubs are a foot off the ground, with piping on the outside.
- All of their toilets have an extremely large hole with a slightly smaller bowl, compared to ours of large bowel, small hole.
- They are not vitamins, they are vit-a-mins.
- Places do not become filled, or toilets become plugged - they become "blocked up".
There are so many more. I can emulate a British accent with ease as I've worked on it since I was a child, but I could easily be picked out for not understanding the lingo. Even so, I have found them to be wonderfully helpful and extremely pleasant.
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After Bristol, we trained to London Paddington and rode a cab from the station to our hotel, the Premier. The hotel sits on the River Thames.
Behind the hotel is the Eye of London. Tomorrow I'm paying for a ticket to ride and taking a lot more pictures of the London skyline.
Around the corner and across the bridge, we came upon Big Ben and the English Parliament. It was very cool to hear Big Ben strike 11 o'clock AM. Bong Bong! You cannot see it in the pictures, but Big Ben is loaded with intricate architecture, including beautiful gold workings around the entire top.
From there, we headed over to Westminster Abby, the place where all of the Kings of England are buried. Also buried are William Shakespeare (although I think he has been moved) and many other play writes. They are buried in the walls and floors and above ground in great stone sarcophaguses. I actually stood on top of Charles Dickens's grave as he is entombed inside the chapel. What a beautiful experience it was to walk through this abbey, and to stand in the place where Princess Diana walked down to be married - and where all of the kings and queens succeed the crown. I would have pictures but they are strictly forbidden in all places inside.
The square outside of Westminster Abby is absolutely beautiful. The architecture, statues, gates and roads are all a site to behold. There is over a thousand years of history in this place. We spent over an hour inside, reading inscriptions, staring at architecture, and reading through history items on armor, shields, and royalty over the last thousand years. The stones within the abbey are large rocks weighing tons, but they have been worn down smooth with the hundreds of millions of visitors every year. Even the insides, the doors, frames, stone work and more are all worn down simply by touch and footstep. Many of the sections are now cordoned off to preserve them. I could have spent hours more but our time was limited and our plate full.
The streets at 11AM where bustling, but not as bad as later crossing the bridge back to the hotel - it was so crowded it was hard to get around.
After hopping on the Tube, we hit Bond Street. A posh street full of shops that I will never in my wildest dreams ever purchase from. Tiffanys, Gucci, Mercedes, you name it, the most expensive stores in the world were here. The streets were lined with expensive cars - Bentleys, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari - I just had to shake my head. The stores were lined with goods, and several guards were in each store. I looked at the watches and choked - $8,000 to $16,000 dollars for watches, clothing, jewelry and more. I looked at my $85 dollar watch and smiled - I'm content with what I have. It was 20 years ago that I thought all of the most expensive things were the way to go. Of course, reality takes over and you realize that even if there is a vast difference between a $300,000 car and a $25,000 one, the lesser one will do just fine.
Next we headed down to Piccadilly Square and Piccadilly Circus. There were shops everywhere and I found a couple of beautiful little red double-decker busses for my children back home and a collector spoon for my wife. This picture is just like New York's central marquees. All kinds of adds 24hrs a day flashing in your face. Busy as hell, but I soaked it all up.
Before eating lunch at a pub, we took a slight detour and walked up through Soho. A known "red light" district, it was full of triple X shops, titty bars, head shops and more. Not a place I would want to be during the day really, but not a place I would ever dare go to at night. I could never understand why any man would walk into a so called "theatre" where you go in a booth, put in your money and a panel comes up between you and a naked woman. There is glass between you and she does, well, whatever it is she does, and you have so many minutes before the panel goes back down. /Shrug. I mentioned I was hungry and we left almost as quickly as we walked through. It was the "You have got to see this..." deal, and it was up one street, across to another, and down through Soho and out.
Next we boarded the Tube again and headed to Harrods - one of the most expensive stores in London. The store was "posh" (as it is so called), but extremely expensive. This was a nice little place to eat inside with gorgeous colored tiles that filled the entire walls and ceilings. Outside there were two sets of protestors. One was PETA because Harrods sells furs, and the other was some English protesting group. Harrods is owned by Dodi Fiyod, the billionaire whose son was dating Princess Diana. Dodi has been stirring up memories of Diana by claiming it was a murder conspiracy and pissing off quite a few of the Brits.
After that, our last stop for the day was Buckingham Palace. We boarded the Tube and headed for Kensington.
The tube is amazing, and I will try to get a picture of it. It is just like the New York subway system. You purchase a ticket that is good for one trip from destination to destination, or you buy a "zone" ticket for one of the six zones. The zones start at the center of London and work outward to six different zones, each colored. When you enter some of the Tube zones, there are as many as five different Tubes that intersect and since they cannot run parallel to each other, they run at varying depths from one to ten stories underground. It is a weird feeling to be on an escalator that goes down hundreds of feet in a large tube - it gives you an insane feeling of being closed in. And due ot the amount of people that are riding it all times of the day, you are packed like sardines into a can while riding the Tube. I've ridden it over a dozen times now and never have I ever actually been able to sit down.
Buckingham Palace has gorgeous parks that surround it and they are very spacious. We walked up the parkway to Trafalgar Square to see the beautiful Marble Arch. This is amazing to see up close.
The walk down the parkway to the palace was wonderful. It has an area for walkers, bikers and horses.
At the end of the walkway, straightaway to the right, is Buckingham Palace.
The gates are high, and locked shut, guarded 24hrs a day now as terrorists are spreading around our world.
Here the royal guard walk their posts with fully automatic assault rifles. This is quite exactly like the White House - you do not want to cross that line.
A beautiful picture of the square.
It was a 7 hour walkabout and it was completely worth it. I'm still not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but we have until Monday morning to relax and explore a little more.
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Today was not as jam packed as yesterday was. Having no meetings, we actually were able to sleep in a little while and met at 11am rather than 8am.
We took the Tube from Westminster all the way into Zone 2 and got out in Chelsea. There we headed over to the British Museum of Natural History.
Pictures of Museum and a little detail of such.
Tomorrow it is back on the road again for a busy week.
We have now been out here 9 days and the downtimes make me miss my family. When I spoke to Alexis on the phone and she said in her little tiny voice, "I miss you", it broke my heart wide open. I think we here are all ready to come home, but we still have three hard days of work ahead of us before then. Cheers mate!
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Food in England has been quite the experience. What you think is grilled ham and cheese may not essentially be so. The English put some very weird shit on their food and today I wasted an entire lunch because it was so goddamn nasty. It wasn't ham and cheese, it was ham, cheese and some kind of weird sauce that tasted like death warmed over.
After visiting the museums we re-grouped at 8pm and headed over to a little literal hole in the wall called Gordon's Wine Cellar. You go in, and immediately down into this little hole in the wall where the ceiling is curved and only six feet high. It felt like we were in a bomb shelter.
All of the English we met raved about it, but I found it terrible food wise. Cold cuts and salad? You call that, dinner? The wine selection, OTOH, was fabulous. We bought four separate wines (there were four of us) and all four were fantastic.
Before long, we were enjoying ourselves and I realized why everyone in London that we met though it was spectacular. After a few glasses of wine (few, plus a few), you didn't mind thinking you were in a bomb shelter eating cheap food.
Afterwards, we rode the tube back out to Earl's Place to escort the sister of one of our company employees home. We did not wish her to ride the tube several miles to her doorstep, and our day passes were still good so we escorted her home safely. My laughing made him laugh made me laugh and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
I love London. There is always so much to do at any given time - no matter what time of day or night it is. It is so goddamn amazing to be out of the fricken Mormon bubble that is Salt Lake. The real world is far more fantastic than living in the rigid cult controlled Salt Lake valley.
Here people are not tied down by religion that is shoved down their throats. Guilt and shame are not practiced by the religious cult leaders. People are free and in that freedom have found balance - something the religious leaders do not want their followers to find. Mormon leaders preach that Mormons should be in the world but not of it, but only to frighten members into thinking that everything else out there is danger. To some degree it may be, but in the real regard, people given the choice choose those freedoms that bring balance. True some choose wrong, but those who choose wrong would choose so in any regard and religion has nothing to do with it. Religious leaders don't want anyone to know that because it would cause dramatic change.
I think it would be so absolutely romantic to bring my beautiful wife over here and walk her across the Thames at nigh. The light shimmering across the waters, with Big Ben on the other side and every kind of restaurant and shop becoming is so romantic. One day, I think I will bring her here.
Well I need to hit the sack as it is midnight and I've got to be on a train early for another customer.
I'll be home in four days and cannot wait to hold my babies in my arms.
'Night!
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Today we boarded a train at London-Paddington Station that took us 2 hours up to Staffordshire. There we checked into the hotel and immediately headed over to West Midlands Ambulance.
PICTURE.
Then we took a break, had some dinner and went to bed. We have been so busy, there has been little time for pictures.
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| Finished up West Midlands.
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Today we upgraded Staffordshire.
The upgrade went extremely well.
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Over the course of being in England I stayed in 10 hotels and rode over 13 different trains, and at least a dozen tube rides around the city. My trip took me to almost all sides of the UK.
The flight home took 16 hours 35 minutes. It was arduous.
The second flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake took a little over 5 hours. Packed in like Sardines, it sucked bullocks.
I have insane jet lag and no room to think.
I will be working on the UK trips section this weekend to finish it up with pictures and entries. For now, it is getting there, but isn't where I want it. I'll make a note when I'm done. For now I have put the entire section here: http://www.infymus.com/topic_tripseng... where you can see it from day one through day fourteen. I'll work on it more and get the rest of the pictures and details done soon.
For now
BED. I've been up almost 30 hours.
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