Newcastle Photos

On our way to Newcastle, we stopped to one of these highway services spots. All bins outside had stickers like this on them. I found them brilliant!!! 'When I grow up I want to be a cash machine'. Apparently all bank cards are accepted.


As I've mentioned, the city is quite beautiful.



To give you an idea of the women walking around. These of course are the classy ones. Unfortunately on the picture you can't really see how drunk they were.

The best way to start your day is by having a couple of pints for breakfast (at 9:30 in the morning):

The blue screen of Death…

I’m pretty sure that most of you are familiar with it. It’s the blue screen appearing while working on Windows just before it shuts down / restarts / crushes. I was pretty sure that this screen was extinct by now. Unfortunately for me, it hasn’t. It still does appear in a Windows XP, Service Pack 3 machine, my machine that I run at work.


I spent a full day yesterday and half a day today trying to fix it but in vain. Fortunately, there are more a dozens of PCs that I can choose from to keep on working but I really want to make my old one work. I am now running memory tests, driver updates, malware removals and everything known to my disposal to fix this. Unfortunately, I have to rush back to my old desk to pick up the phone and provide support using a PC that is in a nearby desk. It’s all very high tech, I assure you…

This is what happened to me yesterday, the first day of the week, of course on a MONDAY!



My weekend was pretty nice. It took us 6 hours to drive to Newcastle and 5 to come back. So, I spent in total around 11 hours in a car, singing, dancing, being bored and trying to do everything in our powers to make the journey nicer. There are some things I have to comment on our weekend.

The first thing I’d like to comment is that Newcastle in general is a beautiful city. It’s quite picturesque with beautiful bridges, nice buildings and shops. We went to an incredible Turkish restaurant for dinner and for drinks after that. The prices of the restaurants and bars there are so cheap there, it’s scandalous. ‘JJ’ had as a main a big whole grilled sea-bass for £11 and the cocktails in the bar cost £2.5 each! Find a place in London where you can get a whole grilled fish for that price!



However, I can’t not comment on the locals! They are very friendly, but the way they are dressed is extraordinary! Most women were dressed in very short, very bright coloured dresses, very high heels in colours like bright orange or light green, eye-popping fake jewellery and enormous hats / fake flowers on their heads! The heavy makeup and hair that look like they just got out of the hairdresser’s are also visible! They must have been spending a fortune and their whole day getting ready, just to go out for drinks on a Saturday evening! You really have to see it, to believe it!

In general, men there are good looking, if you are into that kind of rough look. I’m not going to use the word ‘Chav’ but I definitely had problems understanding them. Most of youngsters were into bright white sneakers, very tight t-shirts and jeans. The vast majority had tattoos on their arms, very short hair and some chains around their necks.

What else I’d like to comment is the drinking! They consume tremendous amounts of alcohol! As a matter of fact, even the next morning that we headed for breakfast in the hotel, some people were having their morning pints (yes, in plural) at 9:00 on a Sunday morning.

We planned it so that we’d be back to London when the football match was on. That way most of the roads were empty, so we didn’t have any problem with traffic…

Happy Friday…

I’m so happy this week is finally (almost) over. It sure started with a blast (work wise in not a very good way) but it got better. Almost every issue we had has been sorted out and now we are waiting for the arrival of my manager on Monday. Let’s hope he will not be too grumpy after the end of his vacations. We’ll see.

Regarding my plans for the future, I have to say that I’ve upgraded my CV, started contacting people to get recommendations on LinkedIn and also uploaded my CV on a couple of websites. I’ve even applied for two different positions, one of which is quite intriguing. I don’t know if it is good or bad, but what I do is quite particular and finding available positions is not very easy. Do not forget that with the current economic situation of this country not many companies are hiring anyway. At least I feel like I am not staying idle, but I am doing something to improve my situation. Having my current job is not bad, so I don’ really mind staying here until I find the opportunity I want.

This weekend is “Road Trip” weekend. We have to go to Newcastle to get some stuff from a warehouse (long story) so we’ll be driving there and back in two days. We’re leaving tomorrow, early in the morning, stay overnight in a nice hotel close to the river and we’ll get back the next day. I talked about our weekend plan to some English colleagues of mine to get the same response from everyone: “You’re Crazy” (with capital C). It’s supposed to be around 5-hour journey to go and another 5 to get back (If you’re lucky).

Because we are not that lucky planning for this trip a couple of months ago, this weekend is the end of the Glastonbury Festival. That means that on the Sunday, I don’t know how many thousands people will be driving back to London. Fortunately Glastonbury is due west and Newcastle is on the north, but still, by the time we’ll be arriving to London, most roads will be packed. Although I’m thinking how amazing it would be for someone to invent teleportation, I hope that we’ll have some fun goofing around in the car (for hours and hours). I do really have to thank ‘JJ’ who will be our driver for the whole trip! He doesn’t really have to do that, but he will.

Beam me up Scotty

So, I wish to you all a nice weekend. “See” you next week… I’m leaving you with some Garfield posts: