Work
Archived posts from this Category
Monday, 28th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 01 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly, Work
Geoff writes: a morning of working, then we went out to fly. All the indicators we normally use were giving SE around Santa Brigida, but when we got there it actually had a lot of north in it. We waited around for a while, but finally gave up and came back home to work. The day did get worse, with a front coming in, though when we went out at first it was a great sky.
Some people from the Midland Gliding Club are currently in Jaca, in the Pyrenees. Today, they got in wave, to FL195 – over 20,000′, and -40C!
Tuesday, 22nd February 2011
Posted by Judith on 22 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Miscellaneous activities, Work
Another strong wind forecast for today. Winds of 25m/s (90km/h) in the mountains and 35m/s (125m/s) at the two extremes of the country. At the central coast (and possibly Santa Brigida) they were giving SE, light and variable. It seems a bit weird to me that you could have howling winds coming down from the mountains that just peter out when they hit the lower slopes, but hey, what do I know? In the end, it was cloudy with massive wave bars, so it really didn’t inspire us to even try to fly.
We also have some stuff to do before we depart tomorrow on our spontaneous trip to Athens. We were busy discussing what to take when Geoff got an email to inform us of a planned strike at Greek airports tomorrow. At the moment our flight is delayed (bonus – means we can get up at 8am, rather than 6am), but it means that we could be stuck at the airport for a while. We could be like those people you see on telly at Heathrow airport when BA decides to strike. Either way, it will be an adventure.
Just after mid-day we got a text from my parents, who were on their way back from their trip from Ireland, asking us if we fancied going out for lunch. Since we won’t see them again until next week (and haven’t actually seen them properly since before the conference), we gladly accepted their offer and got to try out La Veranda in Olot for the first time. Lovely building and nice dinner!
Sunday, 13th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 13 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Beach, Work
Geoff writes: we finally closed the conference at 8.30am this morning. A great four days – something over 2,000 posts in the 16 sessions. Brilliant feedback as usual, and everyone saying how much they look forward to next year. People increasingly prefer this type of conference to the face to face workshops they attend – the level of interaction is a lot greater, the level of debate is a lot higher (this is NOT Twitter!), more people get actively involved, they’re cheaper, and, of course, they can attend from home.
In the afternoon, we were hoping to go flying, but as expected the weather is getting worse now. So whilst it was still sunny, it was much too windy to fly, so we went to the beach, having a look at a place we’ve never been to before, Platja d’Aro, and the town nearby, Castell d’Aro. They were OK, but like most resorts, they use the winter to do repairs, so it had a sort of unfinished look. In summer, I guess it will be extremely busy. And it has some high rises on the front, which we really hate. There are nicer places, but good to get out of the house.
Saturday, 12th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 13 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Work
Geoff writes: the final full day of the conference. Nice flying day of course, though not quite as good as expected, we heard afterwards. In the evening, we went out for our traditional end of conference meal at the restuarant up the road. We splashed out at 13.50 euros each.
Friday, 11th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 11 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Work
Geoff writes: another day of the conference, so working all day. Also, another day of cloud and fog at the coast, but sunny inland.
We are free again from Sunday, but the weather turns distinctly worse then.
Thursday, 10th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 11 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Work
Geoff writes: not a lot to say, second day of the conference, so stuck in all day…. except for a short time when we managed to pop out for a sandwich in the sun at the cafe opposite our cliff, where all the tourists go to take photos.
Wednesday, 9th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 09 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Work
Geoff writes: the first day of our Supporting Deaf People conference. Over 280 participants, 17 countries, 24 hours a day, around 500 posts so far. Like all our online conferences, it is going to be very busy. Judith leads on this one, so she is permanently glued to the computer, getting RSI, eye strain, etc. So it’s just a day of work for us.
But we did look at the web cams occasionally. Another sunny forecast, but the cloud/fog from the coast crept in this far, and it was cloudy all day, though just a couple of km further inland, it was clear. Would have been a good skiing day.