Archive for category Travel
IoW day4: Holiday Cancelled
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel, Work on March 31, 2010
Those that frequent Twitter will have known that my server crashed on the 31st March, not just a single site but over 30 sites including a number of Charity sites, so my holiday was cancelled.
I setup a temporary office in the hotel room, and worked a good 12 hours on/off liaising with support teams in Germany and USA to resolve the problem…
… I really can’t remember how much coffee I had!
The weather outside although dry was extremely windy, as you can see from this shot the seas were angry…
The web server is back up again, initially it was believed that it had a fatal disk crash, but after much investigation by the support teams it was discovered that the servers BIOS had become corrupt and the OS simply couldn’t see the disk.
Once the BIOS was re-flashed the drive came back online with no ill effects, I have my fingers crossed and will continue to have them crossed for the remainder of the holiday..
IoW day3: Parting Clouds & Butterfly’s
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on March 30, 2010
Well, I’m glad to say that the weather is improving all the time, it started off a bit wild as you can see;
… but the rain disappeared about 2pm, still about 7 degrees though.
IoW day2: Wet, Wild & the Art
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on March 29, 2010
Today, the first full day didn’t go so well. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, it was stormy with low clouds and late afternoon the skies opened with a vengeance.
Not much to say for today, the weather was awful, so spent most of the time driving around, jumping out to take some pictures when I could;
IoW day1: Time to go.
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on March 28, 2010
The 2010 holiday starts today, left home about 10:40 to catch the ferry at Southampton at 3pm – what was I thinking! It’s only 60 miles away.
Anyway, I’m at Fleet services about 40 miles from home and it’s 12:40 so chillin’ and doing a bit of surfing on the free Wi-Fi, played a couple of online games, but I’m a little bored now.
I’m not sure how the holidays going to turn out for a couple of reasons
1. This is the 4th time I’ve been to the Isle and it’s been more and more difficult to find new attractions.
2. The weather; would you believe it snow is forecast on Wednesday ?!
Still time will tell, with my new Lumix G1 in tow I’m sure there will be opportunities for some great shots whatever the weather.
More to follow…
Paris Day7: Say Goodbye
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on September 5, 2009
After another great breakfast to keep me going throughout the day – I sadly packed my case and ordered my taxi to the station for 2:30pm
Doing the tourist thing I hadn’t finished; I was only able to work half way through Rick Steves’ Historic Paris Walk that I mentioned yesterday – so it was back on the Metro and out to Notre-Dame again to pick up the rest of the tour.
Below you can see the Conciergerie, not to be confused with the guy that helps you out at the front desk of a hotel 
The Conciergerie is a gloomy prison famous as the last stop for 2,780 victims of the guillotine including Marie-Antoinette. Previously the building had be used to torture and execution of failed assassins.
Paris Day6: Culture Crazy
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on September 4, 2009
Throughout my holiday in central Paris, I’ve been using my technology. I’ve been using a number of iPhone applications which use local databases and GPS to route you around the city, find the nearest metro’s etc. There have been a number of digital guides I’ve used as well, later I’ll post some of the ones I’ve used and how to reduce data charges and increase battery time.
After a great breakfast; thanks Sofitel – I was ready to go…
The day started of dark and threatening but I was determined to get out… using Rick Steves’ Historic Paris Walk for the iPhone and Touch was the walk around the Notre-Dame area…
Paris Day5: Culture Shock
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on September 3, 2009
Well what a day! Slept well, left the hotel about 10am, visited the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the road…
… and caught the metro. Arrived at walked to Eiffel Tower; got some great pictures it’s an amazing structure built to celebrate the turn of the century in the 1900’s and its still as strong as ever.
Paris Day4: Chalk & Fromage
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on September 2, 2009
Dear readers, you will remember that I was enjoying the new room at Disney Newport Bay Club hotel yesterday; well last night at 3am the balcony door opened and refused to close! Lucky it wasn’t wet of cold but after 20 minutes of trying to stop it banging on the stop, I just jammed it open with a chair for the rest of the night – needless to say the interruption ruined my sleep for the rest of the night and I woke up like a bear with a sore head.
Needless to say the “cast members” were as always very helpful and fixed the door around 8am; at which point I went back sleep.
I packed again and distributed my various belongings with the concierge for a half day in the Disneyland Park. I must admit the cast members are great in the hotel, although in my opinion my whole hotel experience with Disney was let down by the physical hotel – however grand it looked.
Paris Day3: Silent Night, Stormy Head
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on September 1, 2009
With the fiasco of the rooms yesterday; you’ll be glad to hear that last night I slept the whole night – without interruptions!
But the morning itself woke with a bang. The weather had flipped 180, yesterday was one of the hottest – today it seemed like one of the wettest! Of course it didn’t just rain there was also thunderstorms and lightening – I’m sure it was natures work just to prove Disney how to do it properly.
Breakfast today was with Pluto; he made an appearance in the hotel lobby having pictures taken with the guests – a talented pup, signing autographs as well; although I’m a little concerned as it seems he has very poor vision…
Paris Day2: Disneyland Park
Posted by martin newham in Holidays, Travel on August 31, 2009
At around 12:30am I was woken up by the refuse collection below the room I was staying in – not a quick five minutes, but I can only assume some unhappy “cast member” taking it out on the empty bottles. I much have counted at least 20 glass bottles being thrown into refuse, that interspersed with the lift next door delivering people; a thankless task, but still noisy.
The following morning, after inspecting the HUGE queue for breakfast, to be honest I’ve seen smaller queues within the park! I decided to forgo the most important meal of the day and see what can be done about my room.