What have I been up to?

So now that I find myself with a few hours in Heathrow I will fill you in. The past week has been a bit crazy and it seems that it will only continue.

Sunday: Flew from BWI to LHR to Newcastle. Actually, mos tof the trip was on Monday. I arriver Monday after noon.

Monday: Got a rental and figured out the whole driving stick with the left hand thing while trying to stay on the left side of the road and navigate the roundabouts. The country up here is beautiful, but driving takes all my concentration. I stopped in Gateshead and had a quick experience with the Jewish community and picked up some food for the next few days. Then I headed straight to the plant and got some work done. It light here until about 9:00 with dark soming in around 11:30. The rain puts a damper on things though. I am already behind on work, since I was in Texas last week, so I do some emails in the hotel.

Tuesday: Work. I am here for the 2 weeks running teardowns of returned product to determine cause, fault, corrective actions, and the like. There is a group here from the factory in China, led by someone who used to work up here and he has suggested we go to Whitby for dinner. I think you have seen some of those pictures. Apparently Bram Stoker wrote Dracula while in Whitby and it was there that the count first entered England. Nice drive and beautiful little town.

Wed: Work. Drive back to Gateshead for more food. I decide to do some more work at night, but go for a quick walk first. It had been raining all day but was beautiful starting around 7:30PM. So I wallked along the river and took a few pictures when i was stopped “have you been to the cathedral” “no, I was planning on doing that next week” (it is only open until 4 each day and I was planning on doing more social and sightseeing activities the second week once the majority of work was complete) “well tonight it is open until 9:00 for a once in a life time chance to photograph it” (I am suspicious, but tempted and follow the guy up the hill to the cathedral..turns out he was right and the normally photos are not allowed, but the place was crawling with photographers with equiptment ranging from fully professional to iphones and there tripods everywhere as it is pretty dark in there. Anyway, I had to make do with the camera I had with me so we wills ee how anything turns out. I did also climb the tower which afforded great views of the area. Pictures will be posted upon my return. Pretty luck I got this done as next weeks plans will change in the morning)

Thursday: Work. Then the email telling me to get out of town and head to China, pronto. So much for a relaxing weekend, sightseeing, and about 1/3 of the work that was still incomplete. Went out in town with some collegues for the night.

Friday: Work, then to Gateshead for shabbos. I am staying with a very nice family that I met while grocery shopping earlier in the week. The kids are great, but a bit on the rambuncious side. Very interseting shabbos. The longest one being the summer solstice and being so far north. It ended at 11:30PM saturday night.

Sunday: asleep around 2:30AM, up at 4AM, happy father’s day…and I am off for the flight to heathrow where I now sit awaiting my flight to Shanghai. I should land at 8AM and then get out to the factory by early afternoon.

Going to be a lot of travel and so much time away from home :(