Pumpkin pie in London
Refreshing
It's been a week and a half since I've joined a ThoughtWorks project in London. It's been such a refreshing change. The whole team lives and breathes Agile. The code base is not the cleanest I've worked on but actually easier to work with because the team made sensible compromises and did not being stubborn about ideas or patterns. (Actually we still have some way to go on the Mingle front, but that's another story.) We are doing TDD, continuous integration, pair programming with regular rotation, 9-5:30 hours, everyone are treated as equal, basically the whole nine yards! I can foresee the next three months will just disappear quickly. You know what they say, time flies by when you are having fun…
As for London itself, I was pleasantly surprised by all the good/new stuff they have. But at the same time, the Tube still pisses me off, with the never ending tunnels and the asinine system of having to swipe your ticket/card on exit. At least the travel cost is paid for by my company!
I'm going up to Shropshire this weekend to visit my parents. Instead of taking a 2+ hours train ride, I'll be driving a rental car up. I know, it's not environmentally friendly but consider the total amount of driving I haven't done in the last 7 years, I think I can take this carbon emission hit.
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The event street?
If you are a Windows programmer, you would get this picture.
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Curious reaction
On Sunday morning, bright and early at 8AM, I'll be lifting off at Newark Airport and flying back to London for a 3 months temporary assignment with ThoughtWorks UK office. Why the UK and not assignment in the US? Well, being part of a global consulting company means I go wherever they need people. And working in London beats being on the bench and not earning any income for the company. Ethically it is not the most desirable assignment as it involves working with a company that deals with precious metal that apparently last forever and would cost you a month's salary…
More interestingly, whenever Eiron and I told our friends about my 3 months assignment the universal reaction is what we are going to do with our apartment, what will Eiron do with her job, etc. They react as if we are going to pack up and move to London for just 3 months! (The answer is we are not moving. Eiron will visit me a few times in London and racks up some air miles and carbon emission) Why would they react in this manner? I am really curious about it because moving to London for 3 months makes no sense whatsoever but yet, everyone assume this will be our plan.
Blogsphere, please enlighten me!
You got to be kidding!
Wow! Rich people trying to get sympathy by protesting London's new Congestion Charge expansion into Kensington?
What's next, rich people try to get government to lower tax for high earner? Hang on, they've been doing that for years!
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Lost in Colonisation 