The Internet and other stuff

It has been a bit difficult to keep up with the blog because getting an internet connection to our flat is like trying to find ranch salad dressing or microwave popcorn in London... nearly impossible (I'll spare you the details). We'll finally get a hookup late this week, so hopefully we'll update and email more often.

If you haven't been following World Cup Soccer, US is out and England has made it to the Quarter-Finals. It's World Cup fever here. With all the different nationalities living in London, there is always a game on TV and always a crowd watching it. It's a great time for a soccer fan to be in Europe.

My job is going good... I've been contracted to the UK's largest cable provider and am working with people in England and Scotland to potentially deploy a large piece of Database infrastructure across all their systems. The past two weeks has been a Proof of Concept that wraps up this week with a presentation. If they like what they see, they will contract me for another 6 months for the actual deployment and I'm hoping to get a trip to Scotland out of it. My company's head-quarters is based in Central London, but for the contract, I have to commute about an hour both ways out to the site. While an hour doesn't seem bad, its exhausting when you're packed into a hot train like a sardine for the whole trip. I work with some great people and have been learning some essential England slang/phrases:

snap - food as in "Hungry? Let's get some snap" (Only Northerners would say this)
Bob's your uncle - that's how it's done as in "How to start a car? Put the key in the ignition, turn it... bob's your uncle"
looking smart - dressed nicely as in "You're looking smart, trying to impress someone?"

That's it for now... I posted some pictures of part of my commute... the one good thing is that I have to walk past Chealse's Football Club stadium on my way to the tube for work... can't wait for the season to start.