I’m going North on the M6 this morning, when the traffic starts to slow down, after a while of 20MPH speed I notice that for the past mile or two there has been no cars on the southbound lanes, it was quite eery .. a few minutes later I discover why, this car/trailer was overturned in the middle of the Motorway and the cops were not allowing any traffic by

What amazed me is that the car and trailer are pointing North in the Southbound lane, so not only the trailer overturned, it skid around 180 degrees.

I was swearing for not having my camera with me, when I remembered the phone also takes pictures
The people from the car were on the side of the road and looked unhurt.

Technorati Tags: Accident, M6, Motorway, RV

Popularity: 34% [?]

I have just booked my train tickets today, I’m off to Cologne (Germany) at the end of the month.

There is a WebHosting Day conference in Cologne on the 28th, this is the sort of conference that’s important for me to attend, so I started to look for the dreaded plain tickets .. after sorting it al out, I decided, just for curiosity, to see if I could get there from manchester by train instead.

Yep, I can, and for about the same price .. so I take off on Monday, 27th from Manchester to London Waterloo, get to the Eurostar train to Brussels at 10:43, arrive on Brussels at 14:05 .. then take the next train to Cologne at 14:28 in First Class (heck, it was just 5£ more) and arrive on Cologne at 16:45

The plain would have taken almost as long due to a long exchange at Frankfurt

I will then stay on a .. err .. Chinese hotel called “Hotel Phantasia” on Phantasialand

I then return on the 29th, once again First Class from Cologne to Brussels, leave at 12:14, arrive at 14:32 .. I then decided to take a few hours to check Brussels .. i never been there, so this is a good chance to sightseeing, later at 17:56 I take the train to London and arrive at 19:28 .. the train to manchester follows an hour later.

I’m very excited .. several reasons, this conference is a must be for us (PSoft/Comodo) .. and Serguei Beloussov (SWsoft CEO) will be one of the speakers and they will have a booth, it will be a good chance to rub shoulders with the competition and learn what they are up to … and of course, the chance to add Brussels and Cologne to my “Have visited” list.

I started a tradition of buying a Teddy Bear with the country I am on stamped on it somehow a while back, my task while there is to get one from Germany and one from Brussels to add to the French, American and Scottish ones I have … yep, I am missing quite a few

Technorati Tags: Germany, WebHostingDay, Travel, WebHosting Day

Popularity: 26% [?]

… to Manchester

Today (July 15th) we moved to manchester .. I went down to a local rent-a-van place were I got an Iveco white van to load up al our stuff, after driving the Iveco for 1/2 a mile I retuned back and asked for a different one, the steering wheel shaft was too close to the pedals, and my foot kept on getting stuck

30 minutes later and I was loading up a Fort Transit
I drove to Manchester by myself .. and the 3 hour drive would have been very pleasant, was not for a snag on M6 were it took me 1 hour to drive 500 feet.

I made it just on time to meet with the realtor and get the key .. after that I drove by the office were I dropped my computer, I made it back to Cardiff at about 1:00 AM

Then at 9:00 AM I returned the Van, packed the Multipla with the family and away we were to start a new life in Mancs

Technorati Tags: family, Manchester, Moving

Popularity: 27% [?]

For the past week or so, I have been extra busy with preparations for moving the family to manchester (we are moving next Friday) .. so today we decided to take some time off to enjoy the nice weather as a family.

And what a nice weather it was .. so we head out to Barry Island were they have a nice beach.

When we arrived, the whole place was packed, but not so packed to make one turn away, I got into a parking sport that was right in front of the beach, it was on a no parking area, but so were another 20 cars .. so I tough it was safe … I tough ..

Lovely Day

Technorati Tags: beach, family, fun, trips

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Popularity: 25% [?]

This past weekend, me and the family took the 170 mile drive to Manchester to look at a few houses.

My job requires me to move in the area ASAP, so last week I took into RightMove.co.uk and searched for a few homes within my set budget, once I found a few I liked, I phoned the realtors and set appointments for Friday the 30th and Saturday 1st.

We left Cardiff on Thursday (29th) at about 12:00, and Arrived on Lymm (South-West Manchester) at about 15:00 .. amazingly once again, the trip back took 20 minutes less … the familiarity with the roads and less traffic on a Saturday afternoon made it a breeze. We stayed at a local Travelodge, right on the Poplar 2000 rest stop .. I could have not picked a better location to stay, the hotel was clean and at only 45£ per night (internet special) .. it was cheap.

Technorati Tags: family, House Hunting, Manchester, trips

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Popularity: 22% [?]

Yesterday (Sunday), me and the family decided ti was a good time to go visit Stonehenge.

The site is only 95 miles away from were we live (Cardiff), and with the imminent move to Manchester, it will be much harder to visit it later on.

The drive there was excellent, after we travel 60 miles on I4 we then got into these beautiful country roads on the outskirts of Bath, that revealed some of the most amazing houses I have ever seen .. old and with character.

After about 1:50 on the road, we arrived (the return trip was only 1:35, helps when you know the road and not looking at a map every 5 minutes ).. the road leading to the site has a rises then dips on the last 1/2 mile or so before the site, so when your on the rising side you get the fist glance of the site, on the next rise ahead .. which makes it look very dramatic .. hard to explain really, you have to see it with you own eyes.

The thing that amazed me is, Stonehenge is virtually in the middle of nowhere, there is a small village a few miles form it, but when you are on the site, everywhere you look, you see nothing but fields of pasture .. it’s quite nice actually, if you disregard the nearby road it really gives the sense of the whole region being undisturbed for millennia.

Technorati Tags: Stonehenge, trips

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Popularity: 16% [?]

I have just returned home from a day long trip to Dublin, Ireland.
I have an irrational fear of flying, so the sight of the Cardiff Airport on my way to Departures on Sunday was not a joyful one.

The flight was on a dual propeller small plane, it had the capacity for 40 people, but only about 20 were on the actual flight, as we took off I was actually amazed how smooth of a ride it was, I ended up spendign the 50 minute trip standing up on the back talkign to the flight attendant, I find that standing up makes me less aware of any bumps and chatting with somebody else put my mind at ease and away from my contant fear that the plane will crash, I don’t understand how Andy does it all the time.

After a very smooth flight, we arrived in Dublin.

I was happy the flight had been uneventful, little that I knew, my real problems were about to start..[…]

Technorati Tags: trips, work

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Popularity: 19% [?]

I’m currently in Ireland, for the opening of Hosting365’s DataCenter .. I arrived yesterday, and will be leaving later this afternoon back to Wales.

I will go into more detail about my trip later tonight, I also got some nice pictures of this great city (Dublin).

I had more than my share of Guiness pints last night, this morning I woke up feeling like a freight train just ran me over .. man, what a punch .. didnt help either the fact a few our our servers were attacked last night, so from 1:30-AM till about 4:30-AM the alarm (phone) kept going off, and I had to call the datacenter and get it all sorted out .. netherless to say, I feel like shit.

At least there is this nice Cybercafe right in front of the hotel, I was able to come down this morning and double check on all servers and helpdesk tickets, we seem to be 100% back in business, and all attacks have been filtered.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I just got word from the CFO today, me and Nilesh (Sales manager) are to go to the grand opening of Hosting365 in Ireland next Monday.

The nice thing is, the Irish PM will be attending also, and we will get to be introduced.

We are also on the VPI list due to some dealings we made with the host lately.

But the cool part is, one the flight is only 50 minutes long (I HATE to fly), and second, we get to go on Sunday, I’ll arrive at noon, and Nilesh a few hours after .. that gives us the better part of the afternoon and evening to take in the local scenery and pubs, then rest it out at the hotel before going to the event at noon the next day.
The only sad part is that Sunday is Father’s day, and I wont get to spend it with the family.

Technorati Tags: Linux, trips, work

Popularity: 11% [?]

I absolutely hate to fly

As I write this on my blackberry, I am on a train from Manchester to Cardiff …. And we are 15 minutes late

The reason for it is that the trains engine keeps failing … At almost every station it stops , the engine dies and the conductor has to start it again … So we are crawling our way to Cardiff were the train will make his last stop and be fixed I am sure

What makes it all ok is my paranoiac fear of flying … I tell myself .. Ok, so we 15 minutes late, i’ll just order a beer, sit back, relax and write a note for my blog… If I was on a plane that the engines kept shutting down, I doubt the stewardess would have time to bring me that beer before we became a hole in the ground.

Popularity: 14% [?]