Peter Rother

London and Beyond

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:27:43 EDT

It seems like a long time ago now since living and working in London in what was a high point of my life. With hindsight, I would have liked to keep a better log of all the happenings over there for the sake of memorability but I simply lost the will to write.

It was an experience to have lived and worked in such a large English city where any idea of how English actually live and work is masked by a mass of immigrants, temporary workers such as myself, and camera-wielding tourists. It is not a place I could ever envision raising a family in but as a young working professional it really has some appeal.

London is not only crammed full of people but also and perhaps inherently, full of possibility. Within one week of putting my name out I was sought by a firm—not even the other way around. The interview went well even without a proper suit and I was offered the job that week! There are many options when it comes to living arrangements as well. Lydia and I rolled the dice and picked a house share before touching English soil. We ended up with a nice landlord, cheap rent, and a beautiful place to live. However, you do have to be watchful for scammers and the like.

Entertainment is highly accessible in London albeit a bit pricey. Once I started making money there, spending some of it on weekends for a pint or two didn't leave a dent in the wallet. The parks of London always made for a nice time when the weather was right. For a big city the green space is rather extensive and provides city dwellers with an escape from the hustle and bustle. Speaking of escape, we were able to spend a weekend in Brighton, which was made easy by a short and cheap train ride and a cheap hotel room all booked the day of.

One of the highlights of my work abroad trip was traveling to another big city, Vienna. The company I worked for flew Lydia and me to Austria for Euro 2008 to help on-site. We worked from a hotel there day in—day out for nearly a month. As dull as it sounds, the atmosphere was so exuberant that we were hardly bored or let down. At the end of the trip we set aside some time to explore the city and have a good time. I would not hesitate to do such a job again.

Coming back from Vienna to London time slowed down a bit and we spent our free-time resting or going to parks. I wanted to stay longer but there was virtually no way to get a visa without college education so I decided to come back to the US and finish up my schooling, which brings us to now. I am back at UC with my sights on a degree and if all goes well, I will have one come June 2009.

I'm Back

Sun, 25 May 2008 14:31:19 EDT

My smart cookie of a brother, Craig, finally gave in to his altruistic side and decided to examine my long-running server hiccup. It turns out it was a simple BIOS checksum error and saving the configuration anew restored the computer to working order. Props to Craig … although it would be nice for next time if you could simply check the monitor output rather than mindlessly pressing reset and power buttons.

A Small Keyboard Snag

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:11:39 EST

I'm no stranger to using different keyboard layouts and the German one still kills me (Shift-7 for a forward slash—talk about non-unix friendly), but having to use the UK layout all day at work has really made it tough not to make a few silly @mistakes@ back at home on the Mac. Luckily, the differences aren't too significant:

I work eight hours on this

I come home to this

The Mac Is Back

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:41:21 EST

After work on Friday I went to Oxford Circus once more to pick up my MacBook from the Apple Store. The foot traffic was unavoidable again but little did it matter for I was finally being reunited with my old friend. With Lydia by my side and all of her jealousy at hand, I welcomed the sight of the laptop and its working status. The genius there told me that only the hard drive was in need of replacement as presupposed. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not looking to see what they replaced it with.

At home I looked at the HD program and saw it was a Fujitsu rather than a Seagate. Now I'm really worried about my data…

Perhaps worrying is a good thing?

First Day on the Job

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:25:05 EST

I woke up at the dreaded hour of seven this morning and had to press the snooze three times but eventually I made it out of bed. My daily commute looks to be in the range of 40 to 60 minutes long depending on Tube delays and transfer times. There are two lines in Wembley Park...namely, the Metropolitan and the Jubilee. The Jubilee happens to stop at Waterloo but it is thirteen stops from Wembley Park. By first taking the Metropolitan and then switching to the Jubilee I shave off either five or seven stops depending on where I switch. Well, at least I have an iPod and reading material (free newspapers and my novels).

It was a slow day at work. I forgot how time-consuming it was to install Visual Studio 2005 with SP1 (with the Vista update as well). I've decided it may be possible for me to get used to Vista after all. Actually, I will have to get used to it considering I'll be spending eight hours a day on it from now until July. I was really excited at lunch to have found a sandwich shop which served up a brie, ham, and cranberry sandwich on brown bread for only £1,90.

After work I stepped outside into the cold, dark London streets and journeyed back to Wembley Park to find Lydia and her friend Julianne cooking a delightful dinner for the three. Moreover, Lydia bought Carlsberg and a dacquoise to celebrate my first day. What a sweet girl...