Guess where and the Christmas Ham

Yes you guessed correctly another coffee shop……. This time it’s Costa Coffee on Great Marlborough Street in Soho, London.  Again I’m early for a meeting so as usual stopped for a coffee and thought I’d add my usual coffee shop picture.  This is quite a big Costa and has lots of big tables, also as usual here are lots of meetings going on in here.  I’m drinking black Americano which is pretty good.  There’s also 2 lines running with 2 baristas making coffee at different machines which means the queue is moving really quickly.

Costa Coffee Great Marlborough Street

 

And now for the second part of this post……..The Xmas ham.

Last night we opened the Xmas ham…..it was great!  Fairly easy to carve too once you got used to it.  

The Xmas Ham

Sometimes it feels like I'm always at a station in the dark.

That’s especially true in the winter months isn’t it?

I think today is the first day where is starts officially getting lighter in the evening.  In December most of us leave for work in the dark and arrive home in the dark, which I’m sure isn’t good for us.  We need sunlight to function properly both mentally and physically. I’m sure lots of don’t even see sunlight at lunchtime as we probably don’t leave our workplace for lunch, instead opting for sandwiches or similar at our desks……. NOT GOOD.  Take a break, take a walk, get some fresh air.  YOU WILL feel better for it.

Whatever the time of year and in general whatever the weather make time to walk each day.  If you’re a tube traveler get off the tube a stop early and walk the rest of the way to work or a stop early on the way home.  This simple trick can help…. I promise.

Also, if you’re happy doing it walk on the escalator at the tube station.  Don’t get on and let it lift you all the way up.  Take the left side and walk up or down.  Everything helps.

Stockwell Tube Station about 1955 last night

Brixton Tube Station at 8pm last night.

 

Beckenham Junction Station at about 0645 this morning. 

 

Beckenham Junction Station about 0650 this morning, Lovely full moon.

13 December 2016 - Xmas Countdown

Well it’s now the 13th of December and the countdown to Christmas is well under way.  It’s a mild day but seems dull and dreary.  

The decorations are well and truly up and we’re are deep in the Christmas party season.  On Thursday I’m off to one at Bond In Motion in Covent Garden which is being hosted by Snell Advanced Media (SAM).  They are a good crowd there’ll be plenty of opportunity to catch up with old friends and industry colleagues.

Work is quietening down now and we’re into Xmas change freeze from Thursday @ 1800 so w’ell be entering the most reliable period of the year that 2-3 weeks over xmas where nobody tinkers with the toys for fear of a xmas call-out!

At the moment I’m in another Starbucks again, this time at Clapham Common.  II come every Tuesday as I have a meeting in Clapham at 1900 and I’m always between an hour to 30 minutes early so come here for some coffee and wifi.  It’s generally quite crowded and could be a little bigger however I guess retail space is a premium here.  The pat few times I’ve been here I’ve been paying more attention to the people around me and each time there has been a lady almost next to me who teaches language lessons in here, it’s actually quite funny that whilst I’ve seen people have informal business meetings in coffee shops before I’ve never actually seen anybody holding a classroom to paying customers!  Still why not ‘eh?  I. Guess it’s convenient to both her and her customers…… None of whom seem to buy a coffee though. 

Below is a couple of pics to show you general view.

 

It’s amazing it seems to be possible to make a coffee last an hour but somehow it stays just about warm and just about drinkable.  After this it’s my meeting for 50 minutes, then I rush to the tube, to make a connecting tube at Stockwell to Brixton then shoot across to the mainline station for my train home.  I’ve driven it a few ties but amazingly catching 2 tubes and a train is only about 5 minutes longer……that is as long as I get picked up from the station.

Lovely Sunset

Just a quick one to she you the lovely sunset I noticed when getting out of the cat this afternoon.  As you know in December in the UK the sunsets well before 4pm usually. It seemed to set a little later today the EXIF data from this iPhone shot say 4.10pm.  The sun was a lovely orangey/yellow and almost immediately after taking the picture it was dark.

Technorati Tags: Sunset

The Naughty Elf.....Poppy

Uh oh, It’s December and Poppy the Elf is staying with us this weekend.  She’s wth us in the daytime however at bed time she waits by the front door and then goes back to help Santa build toys.

When we wake up she’s back however she’s done something mischievous.  This morning she was waiting for us in the kitchen and had helped herself to the breakfast cereals…… All of them!

 

I seem to to be always travelling

Well having been to Israel, Amsterdam and 3 trips to Munich in the last 3 months hopefully I'm done with the travel and airport lounges now until 2017, although who knows what work throws at us.

Despite the airport trips there always seem to be meetings to go to somewhere in London too so the Oyster card is getting well used as is the TFL Undeground.  I've seen more of North Acton tube station than I ever thought I would as that's where the office is.

Work is busy with lots of investigation into HDR/HLG workflows ands looking at various methods of verifying the metadata against the content to see if it's really HLG.  This seems to be the difficult bit at the moment but have a few meetings over the next few days which should hopefully shed some light on the topic.

This morning I'm at an HDR Seminiar at Soho Screening Rooms.  As usual I'm early so I'm sitting here writing this in Starbucks on Wardour/Noel Street in Soho.

Here's some more pictures of Munich.  Had a great weekend there discovering the city and their surrounding areas.  Tegernsee is a definite visit if you're there.  It's about an hour train ride from Munich Central Station on the BOB train and goes through some lovely countryside.

 

Wow, hasn't it been a while

As the title says, wow hasn't it been a while?

So I thought I'd attempt a reboot.

It's 530am and I'm sitting at Heathrow Terminal 2 Airport in the Plaza Lounge having breakfast.

I'm on my way to Munich for meetings regarding various projects I'm working on.  I now have a new employer, MX1.  It's a challenging job as I'm new to a company that is the outcome of a merger between two existing companies so there's still a lot of sorting out and who does what kinda stuff to be done.  Still, it's reasonably exciting so can't complain.

Anyway off to Munich so need to catch a plane soon.

See you soon.

Chris