that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • SXSW Day 1: Reconnaissance mission

    It’s only day 1 of SXSW but it’s already been quite the trek! Left work around 4pm on Wednesday to go stay at a Gatwick hotel, avoiding the 3-4am start required if I’d tried to leave Cambridge the morning of the flight. Wise move as I managed to get up at 6:30am, feeling fairly refreshed and headed to the airport.

    Now the flight to Dallas was the first leg of the journey. Long, LONG flight, but thankfully I had this nice old couple next to me who were quite easy going with the whole get-up-and-walk-around routine that’s required on a flight that length.

    Get to Dallas and… well golly gee*, we’ve got ourselves some snowdrift! It was heavy wet snow, enough to affect landings and result in plenty of cancelled flights around the region. All flights for the Dallas-Austin leg of the journey were cancelled, and bookings for the next day weren’t looking too promising, with nothing until 8pm, and no hotels with free rooms anywhere nearby. Cots at the airport, oh joy.

    Thankfully, I ran into this lovely bunch of people from Brighton, notably Niqui and Aral, who were in the same boat. We ended up steering clear of the magical mystery bus that had been raised as a potential option, with airport staff having no details on the situation, and opted for a large taxi who was willing to drive all 8 of us and our luggage to Austin.

    Needless to say, porters at our Austin hotels were surprised by the arrival of Dallas Fort Worth taxis, but we were relieved to no end to all find beds and showers after a very long day.

    As for today, so far I’ve had a huge American buffet breakfast, the first proper meal in quite a few days, seeing as I had a tummy bug before I left which left me with no appetite whatsoever. I’ve also found the CVS Pharmacy nearby (500 Congress Ave @ 5th St) and stocked up on water, drinks and headache tablets. This was a first, quick, successful reconnaissance mission.

    Now time for mission #2, getting my pass. I can see the convention centre from my room, and people are starting to bimble in, so might as well head over!

    Then mission #3 will be meeting a lovely bunch of girls at Las Manitas a bit later. Looking forward to meeting follow Twitterers and geekettes.

    Follow me on Twitter if you’re wondering what I’m up to today!

    (* ok, i don’t know if they say that in Texas, I just felt like saying it)

  • Heading off to SXSW

    Since we moved house, I’ve had little to no opportunity to blog – too busy at work and no Internet at home, thanks to BT screwing up (yet again) so here’s a quickie post from the iPhone!

    On Wednesday, I’ll be deserting friends and family over here to go hang out with a bunch of Texans. Its that time of the year. It’s SXSW time!

    If you’re also attending, get in touch. If you’re not, then please go keep the husband and cats company. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to fill you in on the house move…

  • Star Wars story told by a 3 year old

    Because I know you all miss my posts while I have no Internet access at home due to the house move, I’ll provide you with comic relief in the form of some of YouTube’s cream of the crop.

    Everyone loves Star Wars. Everyone loves kids. Everyone loves YouTube. (sort of.)

  • Cambridge copper thieves

    “Thousands of homes face losing phone lines after cable thieves struck. Police were alerted today at 9.30am to the theft of high-value cables near Cambourne. […] A mobile police station has been sent to the area and high-profile police patrols have been mounted in a bid to reassure residents.

    BT engineers are working on restoring the lines but it is not known how long this will take. DS Chris Balmer said: “We do not yet know the exact number of homes which have been left without phone lines however we believe it could be a few thousand.

    “BT are working as quickly as possible to restore the phone lines. If you area aware of any elderly or vulnerable residents please check on their welfare. If anyone saw any suspicious activity around manhole covers please contact me. Scrap metal thieves who rip up telephone cables were warned by police they are putting lives at risk”, reported in the Cambridge News.”

    Seriously, what’s that all about? No phones? No internet?

    However, to lighten the tone, I thought I’d accompany the news with some interesting archeological findings, also reported recently.

    “After digging to a depth of 100 meters last year, Russian scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years, and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network one thousand years ago.

    Not to be outdone, in the weeks that followed, American scientists dug 200 meters and headlines in the US papers read: “US scientists have found traces of 2000 year old optical fibers, and have concluded that their ancestors already had advanced high-tech digital telephone 1000 years earlier than the Russians.”

    One week later, the Kenyan newspapers proudly reported the following: “After digging as deep as 500 meters, Kenyan scientists have found absolutely nothing. They have concluded that 5000 years ago, their ancestors were already using wireless technology.”

  • The web 2.0 crowd is a fickle one: How do you keep your users?

    Jaiku experiences downtime tooThis evening, looking at the activity on Twitter, I was fascinated to see how quickly the usual Jaiku crowd had migrated. For those who haven’t noticed, Jaiku was showing a big fat 502 Bad Gateway error for a number of hours before it was replaced by the Jaiku birdie telling us that busted hard drives were to blame for the downtime.

    Now, Twitter is notoriously flaky and known for going up and down more than a kid’s see-saw in a busy park in midsummer. Yet, everyone flocked over as the default alternative to Jaiku. If it wasn’t Twitter, it would have been something else. Pownce? Facebook? Seesmic?

    In a magpie-like fashion, the web 2.0 crowd will look for the next shiny thing. I know. I’m one of them, and I sure as hell am guilty for chronically creating accounts on every new service, just to promptly ditch it and move on.

    So what makes a service people come back to? A site that makes it past the 12-18 months “best before” date? Or are all new web 2.0’ish services destined to peak quickly then die just as fast? Lots more thoughts to add on this, but first, I’m interested to see what everyone else thinks.

    I’ll leave you on this thought… What if Twitter and Jaiku were down at the same time? Would the world collapse? Or would everyone’s productivity increase by 200%?

    For now, I must go tweet about how sick I am of packing boxes. It’s more bearable than it was some years ago but it still bites.

  • Want to write for Innocent Drinks?

    Dan Germain blogged about the ultimate job at Innocent Drinks, one of creative writer.

    Innocent DrinksAnyone who knows the Innocent brand and loves it as much as I do will agree that these are big shoes to fill. The writing is one of the assets that make the (somewhat overpriced) smoothies seem so much more appealing than their less expensive, but not so adorable, supermarket’s-own alternative.

    They’ve created a new benchmark for fun, cute and downright comical writing, so if you feel that you’re suited for the job, give ’em a ring on the bananaphone or apply for the job!

    [Via Gapingvoid on Twitter]

  • Mobile World Congress, Barcelona

    Tomorrow morning, really bloody early, I’ll be heading off to Barcelona to attend Mobile World Congress, an event of gargantuan proportions (from what everyone tells me). I’ll be blogging as much as possible on the Taptu blog and twittering away*. If I’m lucky, I should have the time to post a few videos to my Qik profile.

    If you’re also attending Mobile World Congress, then pop by and see me at the Taptu stand, 7D42, in hall 7 and join me for a coffee or a beer!

    [* Thanks to Alex Payne at Twitter, I now have the username Vero, which uber-rocks!]

  • Themeword: Exploration

    In early January, Chris Messina and many others kicked off the new year with “theme words”, ideas that should help them focus their efforts.

    themeword explorationI thought I’d share the #themeword I picked a month ago and have been following since. It’s “exploration”, in every sense of the word.

    Exploration in the travel sense. I want to see more of Europe. I’ve been in the UK for some years now but haven’t had a varied holiday track records, going mainly to Canada to see the family and Menorca for a touch of sun. I want to see the Italian countryside, check out the Scandinavian winter to compare to the Canadian one, see more of France, especially the South. I unquestionably want to fly out to New Zealand to see my sister during her stay there, and I want to give some parts of the US another go, even though I’m not so fond of Maricans.

    Exploration of business opportunities. Last night, while invoicing a few older pepsmedia clients who have ongoing hosting contracts with us, I realised how far I’d come in confidence, knowledge and general business sense since we started. Every year, every month, I can see that we’re producing better projects, making clients happier and feeling more in control of our business. It’s hard work, but it’s genuinely enjoyable and rewarding. I look forward to another year of growth and new ideas, pushing myself further than before.

    Exploration of skills and abilities that are currently nascent or unused. I know too well that it’s easy to sit within your existing comfort zone and use exclusively the skills you already master. It allows you to look good, always in control, but it doesn’t take much to fall into a much-dreaded routine. As my inspirational and downright wonderful grandfather always showed me, you stay young by continuing to learn. There’s a world of possibilities out there, and I don’t see a reason to stop now.

    Exploration of my friendships and relationships. There are so many great people in my life with whom I don’t spend enough time, I want to take advantage of our soon-to-be new house’s dining room and back garden to have as many dinner parties, bbqs and social get-togethers as possible, enjoying life and good company.

    While exploring – and my life in general – seems to be about more, more, more, faster, faster, faster, I also want to think in terms of less and slower. Taking me-time to breathe and think and focus myself. Eating better, at the dining table and without the tv on. Having evenings where both Andrew and I can relax without worrying about work to be done.

    So far, it’s looking like it’ll be a good year… What’s your themeword?

  • You're not allergic, you idiot

    As a total foodie, I find that challenging your tastebuds and trying new flavours regularly is one of the joys of life. I always feel a bit sorry for people afflicted with allergies, pregnant women (who can’t eat soft cheese or sushi!) and diabetics.

    While we all need to watch what we eat to avoid ballooning in weight or croaking too young from clogged up arteries, the people above need to be doubly careful since there are serious immediate implications to giving in to food they shouldn’t have – I should know, lovely Lynsey at work nearly sneezes her brains out if she eats anything containing gluten!

    When I cook for friends, I love to introduce them to new food, without serving anything TOO weird… But when someone mentions allergies, it stops me right in my tracks. Uh oh, must really watch what I put in this dish! I would feel awful to cause a friend the kind of physical discomfort that comes from a bad reaction to nuts, for example.

    However, there is a nuance. There’s real allergies, and then there’s what food sissies call “allergies”. When I hear “Oh, I’m allergic to red peppers, I once had a bad experience with red peppers”, whereby they mean they don’t particularly like the taste of them, or they ate a dish which contained bad prawns which gave them the runs, and to which they associate red peppers.

    That. Is. Not. An. Allergy.

    Comprendes? That’s a food dislike. It’s no more serious than my sister Julie disliking mashed potatoes and spending many childhood evenings alone at the table after dinner, left there to finish her potatoes if she wanted dessert. The only thing that could have killed her there was boredom.

    A one-off bad experience with fish shouldn’t be a reason to stop eating seafood altogether. It makes my blood boil that people cover their picky taste with a medical condition such as food allergies.

    If you’re one of these people, do yourself a favour. Next time you go out to a good restaurant, somewhere that serves quality food, try something out of your comfort zone. Maybe give salmon a go again? I’m not saying jump straight into the raw oysters, but don’t cut out an entire range of food from your life simply because you’re too weenie to try it again.

    Now, how about a chilli fried scorpion to top off that burrito?

  • CragHoppers Customer Service: A shock to the system

    Today, I’m getting out of the way and giving the blog limelight to my old work colleague and fantastic friend Tom Crinson. He’s the nicest guy I could have ever worked with, but he’s also completely bonkers and going on a life-changing trek up the Kilimanjaro in a few days. Here’s his interesting customer care story…

    I am going on a walk. A very big frickin’ walk, up a very big frickin’ hill (Kilimanjaro). I am scared. However, I am about as well prepared as I can possibly be, I have decent kit which has cost a small fortune, I have been training a lot, which has hurt. However the biggest shock of it all so far has come from a customer services experience. This is what happened:

    The trek is only a few days away and I am getting my kit together to run through final checklists etc. and I suddenly remember that after the trek I am going on a safari as well! As girly as it sounds, I have nothing to wear! I have been so focussed on the trek I had forgotten about it. Literally nothing I have would be good enough for the African savannah, and I start to panic. Mainly as I don’t have a day free to go shopping on to get kit, and it’s the middle of winter here, no shops are going to be pimping their summer wares just yet!

    So panic sets in, I reach for the magical box which contains the internet (it is shiny and silver and has an apple on the front) and type in “Safari clothing”, up pop lots of results. Clicking about I find some shirts that look like they are up to scratch for 40 or so of your english pounds. £40! For a frickin beige shirt?? Holy jesus mary mother of poo no way am I paying that. Remembering that some of my walking trousers are from a company called CragHoppers I thought I would give them a go. Perfect. Good quality shirts with UV(blah) protection and stuff. £15. Now were talking. Ordered two of those and two pairs of walking trousers that zip off to form shorts for a measly £70. A-mazing. Value and quality I know I can trust.

    Confirmation email time. Oh yes, this gem: “Please note: We are currently experiencing some delay in the dispatch of orders. Therefore your order may take slightly longer to arrive. Please be patient and bear with us at this busy time.” Appears in it! Not a single mention of this on the site, only after my money has been taken do they mention this. So I call them up….“Err.. WTF?” to hear an amazingly friendly voice which belongs to a nice lady called Dawn at the other end of CragHoppers’ customer services line.

    She explains to me how their system went down over Christmas and that they are going mental trying to get the back orders through. “But I’m off on friday!” I say, “Fear not” says she, and about an hour and a half later, the wonderful wonderful woman has somehow managed to get their warehouse to dispatch my order that day. Literally ordered Sunday night, panicked Monday, goods arrived Tuesday. Brilliant.

    I don’t think I have been so amazed by a customer services department before. She could have just told me to go away there was nothing she could do, but she went out of her way to help me and for that I am unbelievably grateful.

    Thank you thank you thank you! I am now a teeny bit less stressed!