Week 18 - Friday 31/03/00

Appear to be getting better. Less pain!  Load the files into the existing system tonight. The whole process went very smoothly  The resolution of the problems is going according to plan.  Brought my train ticket for next weeks exciting trip over to Poland. I will be traveling from Budapest to Katowice by sleeper.
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Original Publish Date Week 18 - Friday 31/03/00

Week 18 - Thursday 30/03/00

Start the conversion tonight.  Feel bad because of the problems, and my head hurts, eyes, throat etc.  The S*&$ that hit the fan is still being flung around, we have focus on the issue. A plan to resolve it
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Original Publish Date Week 18 - Thursday 30/03/00

Week 18 - Wednesday 29/03/00

If all goes according to plan, I will be on a train this morning back to Budapest. We drive back. A hotel car 2 hours, goes well. I and my boss feel bad.  I think I have caught a bug. Slovak flu.  There is a serious problem that has been escalated to hell an back.
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Original Publish Date Week 18 - Wednesday 29/03/00

Week 18 - Tuesday 28/03/00

Study continues to go well. Start finishing the budget aspects, negotiations with key suppliers etc.
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Original Publish Date Week 18 - Tuesday 28/03/00

Week 18 - Monday 27/03/00

Should be in Bratislava today. I will be getting up very early as I fly from Birmingham, direct to Vienna as there are no flights from East Midlands. I am up at 4am, too early. Taxi at 5. Nice journey, check in OK. Flight leaves 20 Minutes late. Duringflight the Purser says the curtain should be in front of me, as I am economy and will receive a combination of Business and Economy service. I correct his mistake. "Oh it is going to be one of those days" he says. What would you like to drink. I break my own rule about drinking, Champagne please.  The rest of the flight goes off with no problem. My taxi is awaiting to whisk me to another country, Slovakia.  The study goes well. Having the training between sessions certainly works. Still some major issues around finance.  I check in to my hotel. My first stay as a six continents member. A free bottle of wine, we will reserve judgment on the quality! Free fruit.
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Original Publish Date Week 18 - Monday 27/03/00

Week 17 - Saturday 25/03/00& Sunday 26/03/00

Saturday Expensive day today. Paid for the new oven, hob and extractor for the kitchen and booked a holiday abroad. Two weeks in Kos fully inclusive. Can't wait. Must get in training for all that free drink and food.  Walked into the travel agent to collect next weeks tickets. I am some sort of minor celebrity. Dream on! Nice to meet the staff who make this travel possible.
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Original Publish Date Week 17 - Saturday 25/03/00& Sunday 26/03/00

Week 17 - Friday 24/03/00

It's Friday it must be Prague. No. Late yesterday Prague was cancelled. I had to change flights again. I now fly out on the original flights I had booked.  Published a where am I for the next few weeks makes horrendous reading. And it includes a week off.  Problems with interface files. Our primary supplier is cocking us up big time.  Promised myself a Guinness when I got to the British Midland business lounge. Did I mention I am now Gold!!!!!  I cannot wait to see my extension on my house.
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Original Publish Date Week 17 - Friday 24/03/00

Week 17 - Thursday 23/03/00

More of the same. Sorting this, sorting that. I amy write a song about that one day.
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Original Publish Date Week 17 - Thursday 23/03/00

Week 17 - Wednesday 22/03/00

A PR exercise this morning. The Regional Operating Directors are here. Some have been converted, some are to be converted. Those that are are not happy, those that are to be converted are nervous. Time to get the issues on the table and address them.  A lessons learned session today. All good points.  I received a welcome shot across the bows (type of thing), back to reality. This is a fun thing to do, I am just being moved around and that is pissing off a number of people.
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Original Publish Date Week 17 - Wednesday 22/03/00

Week 17 - Tuesday 21/03/00

Back on-stream today. There are road works going on outside. I wonder what they will dig up!  Getting to grips with my absence. The team are still working well but the primary supplier does not want to invest resources, or so it seems.  Get home, no further revelations in the construction outside, just noise. Well if you can still hear you must be alive.
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Original Publish Date Week 17 - Tuesday 21/03/00

Week 17 - Monday 20/03/00

Malev have changed their timetable, for the worst. Instead of a 10:10 from Amsterdam I now have to travel to Brussels and catch a 10:45. Oh well the flight from East Midlands is 7:30, and I should have an extra 30 minutes in bed.  I miss my alarm wake up 15 minutes before my taxi. I still travel to the airport at the same time as usual. Good job. 1h:45m delay to Brussels. Back to ticket desk. Best is to fly to Amsterdam and wait until 13:10 and take a KLM flight to Budapest.  The flight is delayed by a further 15 minutes, oh well I am already very late, another quarter of an hour will make no difference at all. The flight was relaxing. Off the plane, through passport control and in the taxi with little delay. I start making calls. I then receive a call. Did I get the message, no it was just noise. Oh well there is a bomb at the offices. A what. You heard a Bomb. A 600lb WWII bomb under/at the office. Well that is one way of delaying the project. I had not quite planned for this and have no contingency for this. Dam. I will add the full story when I get it. Where it was, who discovered it. A bomb was discovered during construction of a man-hole in a small park (little green space) next to the offices. It was the company I work for doing the construction. The man hole is about 15 feet from the project office. This was around 250Kg. That is pretty big. It was a German bomb that did not go off, it also apparently had a Russian modification, which also did not blow it up. I don't know where it is now, no where near me I hope. Sorry I was not in the office when all this was going on. I did not bring my camera but I will take a picture in the future. I have to confess that I did not plan for this in the project planning. Now most navvies (affectionate term for construction workers) in the U.K. are not fully blooded until they hit either a Gas pipe or an electricity main. Some experts can hit both simultaneously in a spectacular manner. I have seen the front of a house blown off and trees up rooted in my time. Now these guys really know how to do it and in my humble estimation take the award for being the luckiest and dumbest guys on the planet. Congratulations!
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Original Publish Date Week 17 - Monday 20/03/00

Week 16 - Saturday 18/03/00& Sunday 19/03/00

Saturday was like any other Saturday. Swimming followed by buying stuff for the new kitchen. This time the Oven, Hobs and extractor fan. Saturday evening out with Duncan. Many thanks mate an lovely meal.  Duncan confirms he is a reader of this journal.
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Original Publish Date Week 16 - Saturday 18/03/00& Sunday 19/03/00

Week 16 - Friday 17/03/00

We kick off the project. A little slower than the previous sessions, but there is a little more to cover. We depart at 13:15, arrive at hotel 13:30. Pool 13:40 Sauna 14:10, check out 14:30 Airport 15:00, change tickets Lounge for a couple of beers at 15:10. Home 21:00. Long day.
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Original Publish Date Week 16 - Friday 17/03/00

Week 16 - Thursday 16/03/00

We fly to Prague. We check in. Give row 15. Business is at the back. Can we have something closer to the front. Give row 9.  We board, entry at rear. Dam and blast. 15 near door, 9 in middle of plane. It is an ATR 72. Food was lousy. Plane was cramped.  We arrive in Prague and decide to go out and visit the center. Find a pleasant pub with a Jazz band and a very impressive menu. A couple of beers and a rice dish, very nice.
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Original Publish Date Week 16 - Thursday 16/03/00

Week 16 - Wednesday 15/03/00

A public holiday in Hungary, Revolution Day the city is set out with Flags and stuff. I may have the opportunity to veiw the celebrations. I am in the office to ensure all is ok. The office is deserted. No Customer Care or Call center.  Must change tickets to return from Prague, not Budapest. Get a call, can I be in Vienna tomorrow. Yeah sure! Check out the train. The 1700 looks cool the 'Orient Express'. I clear up the final bits for the day, walk back to my hotel and check out. The Orient Express, does not quite live up to its grand name, but it is still comfortable.
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Original Publish Date Week 16 - Wednesday 15/03/00

Week 16 - Tuesday 14/03/00

Up very early today. Flight to Amsterdam had go faster strips, 45 minutes from push back to unloading. Incredible. What will I do with this extra time at the airport. Find the lounge I suppose  Met Chris again. He is in Town. Also meet up with the Slovakians as they are borrowing our training center to have their super user training (daft name).  We dine at a pleasant yet very good Italian restaurant
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Original Publish Date Week 16 - Tuesday 14/03/00

Week 16 - Monday 13/03/00

A day off. Yes sure! Okay went shopping for more stuff for the house. The floor for the new room today.  Hot news, I have some readers. Well to Mrs T and Mr. N, thank you.
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Original Publish Date Week 16 - Monday 13/03/00

Week 15 - Saturday 11/03/00& Sunday 12/03/00

Run around all weekend buying stuff for the house.  Saturday night I go into Nottingham. I have not been in town for years. Very interesting. I must be getting older! I think I know better places to drink. Lots of nice views! I am here with James.
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Original Publish Date Week 15 - Saturday 11/03/00& Sunday 12/03/00

Week 15 - Friday 10/03/00

Now how do I get home. I will fill this in when I know. We Leave at 04:45 for the journey home. Up at 4AM (I've just got to be crazy). Taxi to Vienna, Plane to Amsterdam, Plane to East Midlands, Taxi Home. God I am Knackered. A record for me, four countries in one day.  Visit our kitchen supplier. No plans drawn up. We leave and change supplier. The kitchen wall is gone when we return. That makes a difference
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Original Publish Date Week 15 - Friday 10/03/00

Week 15 - Thursday 9/03/00

More of the same pretty much. Tour of the old part of Bratislava. Found a good Jazz club.
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Original Publish Date Week 15 - Thursday 9/03/00

Week 15 - Wednesday 8/03/00

More kick off. A long day of explanations, issues being raised.  Had good news, I can change my plane tickets to fly from Vienna instead of Budapest.
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Original Publish Date Week 15 - Wednesday 8/03/00

Week 15 - Tuesday 7/03/00

Today I should travel to Slovakia. A new country, a new currency in my wallet.  As you see I traveled yesterday. I meet the team for the first time. My project manager, I have met before. The team are nice. I Kick off the session. I have presentations prepared and run for the scheduled time, bloody amazing.  We have a team meal at the top of a large hill We cannot see a lot as it is in the woods. A nice place that has a stuffed fox with a shotgun. Cute. The fox is to become our mascot!
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Original Publish Date Week 15 - Tuesday 7/03/00

Week 15 - Monday 6/03/00

My crystal ball tells me I<b><font size="4"> will</font></b> still be alive on this day. Knackered but alive.  In at 7 AM, The call centre goes live. It is very quite, from the project stand point. Calls are received. It is amazing for first day.  We change my travel plans. <ol> <li>Travel to Vienna</li> <li>Meeting</li> <li>Travel to Slovakia</li> </ol>  Details  1. Travel at 3PM to Vienna, great chance for me to see some more of Hungary. We read a reveiw from another part of the company and make comments. Cross the boarder, a 15 minute queue then on to Vienna. Peter is fantastic, he knows how to get there, or very close.  Leave the office at 21:00. We go for a meal. Peter takes us to a brilliant place that will not give us the meals we want. We vote with our feet and walk out. We walk a bit and find a better place around the corner which was great.  23:00 we travel to Bratislava, Slovakia. We miss the junction so we re-enter Hungary, then exit Hungary to get to Bratislava.  We check in at 1AM, the bar is closed, oh well off to bed.
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Original Publish Date Week 15 - Monday 6/03/00

Week 14 - Friday 3/03/00

01:00 Phone wakes me from my slumbers! Nice dream. There are about 2500 occurrences of this problem. Ok, we do not load this database and we will address the issue in the morning. We will try to correct the problem before we go live so it can be uploaded. I doubt this will happen. Next week looks favorite. I now have to manage the issue in the morning and determine exactly what went wrong. All our statistics and checks validate that the data transferred is correct and not missed. This is something new. I sleep safe in the knowledge that if transferred the data would at least would be the same. But the number of them is too great. I made the correct decision. Off to sleep.  06:45 I wake with a sense of dread. Could be a great day. Could be a crap day. Who knows.
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Original Publish Date Week 14 - Friday 3/03/00

Week 14 - Thursday 2/03/00

Conversion Day. A major milestone. The conversion starts tonight.  Sitting around as I write awaiting the first database. Who will be first. I should have opened a book.  Leave at 21:30 it seams to be going well. A little slower than planned but that's fine.  23:30 A call on my cell phone in my hotel. I had just watched the Eurosport highlights of Roma v Leeds, a great 0:0 game. Houston we have a problem. Oh no! A problem has just been identified, one of the sites has had payments applied to the wrong customers, and the amount is wrong also because the data supplied is incorrect. Please investigate and call me back.  23:50 We have identified the problem, will have people count the number of issues and get back to you so a decision can be made.
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Original Publish Date Week 14 - Thursday 2/03/00

Week 14 - Wednesday 1/03/00

A mass lunch. The first time the WHOLE team was in one location. We had a little buffet lunch, preceded and followed by pep talks. Quite good ones as pep talks go.  It is conversion day - 1. Things are hotting up! You know, I said this, you did not do that etc. This has to stop, but is quite normal. This is a chance to let off steam them get back to work as friends.  What a wimp! I was knackered, honest. I request to be taken home at Midnight. I was tired. A bottle of excellent red may have helped.
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Original Publish Date Week 14 - Wednesday 1/03/00