end of travel (for this year)

Home sweet home.

Firewood.

Good Food.

Quiet.

Relax.

Next flight is on the evening of 01-Jan.
Until then: no more travel.

Happy ?

Just been asked if I wanted to stay in the new year.

YES.

The project is sometimes a bit slow, but we have some Real Interesting times ahead.
I'll continue asking all the weird questions, liven thing up if needed.
There will be (cross fingers) occasions to escapt to short ad-hoc troubleshooting jobs too, and I have papers accepted all over the place: That will spice stuff up (and be a bit hard on the personal life).

The commute is LONG, but comfortable if the train has seating (it had, at least this morning, good omen).

And the current location is good for networking.

Let me repeat it : Travel is not a bad thing (if you are taken well care of)

Count me in!

Too much travel ?

No!

I am convinced one can not travel too much.
The buzz of an airport or a large trainstation,
especially if there is a new destination ahead,
is just better then Drugs, and almost as good as S**.

Ok, the last week was a tad busy.
Too much obligatios, and too much interruptions.
I also do have a normal customer to please.
However, life could hardly be any better.
Now I need to get back to work and obligations.

situation normal ?

Back to normal. No more medical emergencies in the family, kids back to school tomorrow, and project in "normal" situation. Had to explain SNAFU last week.
I feel a blog coming on the role and Responsability of "architects".
speakinf of architects: there is a building project starting next door.
Stay tuned.

hot hot hot

After having ma in hostpital, I'm back at work.
The office is ok, and has airco. but anywhere outside is just plain too hot.
heatwave hitting Europe.

concalls goin fine, but slowly.
and install is nice hands-on experience.
Tel-support for perf-problem: I should have planned a visit...

hot...

Welcome Back - let me update your workstation.

Revisited a site where I had not been for 2 month.

My passwords needed immediate re-setting.
My customer-provided laptop had been stored in a locker under a desk for 2 months, and got bombarded with system-upgrades.
Took me about 2 hrs to get up and running again
probably not bad.

It was nice to be back though.

Wow - this is how flight should be

Wow-Factor: just had a Great flight from Brussels to LBA.

Partly cloudy, and a bit hazy so didnt get the nice view of Zeeland (wave to parents), but on entering the UK, the clouds were on 3 levels, and it was only partly cloudy. Weaving through the coulds gave us some GREAT VIEWS of cloud formations and the country below. Lots of Silver Linings too. This is what I enjoy most about flying (or any travel) : Gazing out of a window to some beautiful sights.

Combined with the fact that Embrears require you to board walking (jetway is too high), so you get the smell of real aviation (rubber, fuel, exhausts) and some rain (on landing), the experience of Real Travel is complete.

Now sitting comfortably in exec lounge of well known brand of hotels, enjoying my complimentary fruit and bitter lemon.
Nice close of the day.

salon based working - wow

Got some really boooring stuff to do, so trying to postpone it.

Have just worked two weeks in a new city, with hotel in comfortable walking distance of office, all smack-bang right in city centre. Good!
the hotel is part of the nice-chain, and very good.
the lounge/bar has free wifi access, and that is very convenient.
A nice change from the car-based working in my home-country.

But nice to be back in Maastricht office for a day,
and busy trying to only do the interesting parts of my job.
and got some really interesting feedback on the concept of my next professional blog/article.
more later...

Kms... (miles for the imperially inclined)

Just did 3000+ kms for various job-assignments in the last two weeks, and used yesterday (a pub-hol where I live) to recuperate. To reassure the ppl I saw: it was great, and it already generated 1 company-sponsored blog-entry (so there!). I enjoyed the meetings (even the sales-pitch) and the disucssions. But I have had it with driving to work for the coming week!

Salon-based working is much more relaxing (that is lounge-based, for the non-french speakers).
I vote for couch (UK: settee) and self-brewn coffee.
Today, it is even cold enough here to warrant a fire in the fireplace. Great way to write reports.

The first hint to my work-related blogs:
http://www.bloggingaboutoracle.org/archives/disaster-recovery-and-replication-at-what-level

And I think I need to generate another story entry on lpars, unix-deployment and risk-mitigation soon.

What a life!

Worked in comfortable communting distance of home today.
Wonderful! When I revert to working in M I always have this "wow" feeling.
The comfort of an office, without the loneliness of a hotel.

Now all I have to do is make sure the work stays interesting (as it will, for about a week, I guess).
Must admin I'm already looking fw to my next meetings and client visit. I need the interaction with peers.

On the positive side: I mowed the lawn on one of these short-commuting-days last week. And Today I was home in time to tear the grass from the driveway, and clean up the corner of the garden where the boss wants patch of flowers (well, let us just say: I started the cleanup).

Loking fw to some relaxed days in the coming weeks (just dont tell my management).

buzzing around

Almost 1 week, and nearly forgot my blog.
Been home, been Rotterdam, had travel arrangements re-done, went to meetings, wrote texts. Studied.
Worried about backup of documents, mail, knowledge.
Ran into waaay-too-full harddisk so trying to clean that up.
Oh, and had some very relaxing weekend time.

Ppl to thank: Natas for re-arranging my plans, Manon & admin crowd for processing expenses.
Management for letting me do my thing.
Rob and Eduard for interesting opportunities.

CU all soon.

Countdown - and expenses.

Final day in the UK.

The way to do expeneses is to re-enjoy the good meals that resulted in all those receipts. Look at it as a privilege, not a chore.
For BP and MM: the expenses are filed up to 07-May. Not bad eh ?

Clean up tasklist.
Reset passwords so they last a month.
Keep human connections alive.
Do shopping.
Avoid any task that cannot be completed in minutes.
Book taxi (Helen, Nial!).

Notably: Thank Martin for all the intersting stuff.
Internal joke: nr Nine really has a great wow-factor.

Looking ahead: plan for rest of week is packed. Plan for next week is a mess.

CU all later.


refrence here.. HERE see.

help - time crunch again.

Last day of my "extreme working weekend". Won't complain about taxidriver (but I should). At least breakfast crew was now used to me getting out Very Early even on weekends (Thanks!).

The usual problem when ending a stint: Time Crunch (have you addressed such-and-so's item as well? can you get it out before leaving?). Notes... and re-producable cases (proof) needed for all problems and issues (I know you are reading).

Was lucky yesterday: managed to squeeze myself on last tour of local castle and learned some local history (promised guide I'd verify on the web, later). No pictures allowed ??

On blogging general: I'll soon tell more friends and family about these pages, so we can keep tabs on one another.

one more working weekend

If the job is interesting, and instructive, it is not that big a deal to work long and weird hours. But the breakfast-lady at the hotel (not ready) and the cab driver (yawning) who picked me up from hotel to drive me to office wondered who in his right mind would go into work at 0645.
Well guys, I'll have to do this again tomorrow...
Now let me get on with my job.

language hell

Deinstalled firefox, and re-downloaded, finally got an english-speaking version. Edit now shows up as "edit", rather then some foreign language.

Work wise: still nice quiet, but knowledge-transfer issues become evident. may have to do some ppt work later on to properly introduce new team-members.

Would rather just get on with job, as real work will be ramping up nicely, but teh intro of new-ppl is vital to sustainabiltiy..

daily writers block? not yet

Still new enough to do my daily lines...

Networking is Fun: having dinner with pal from 2 years back. found veggie restaurant. And will try to find a particularly hard-to-get item from outdoor shop.

no pictures yet: I'm not the picture taking person anymore.

(what a nonsense eh ?)

now you are supposed to larder a blog with emoticons, icons, pictures, and links to friends.
(do I have any?)

sitemap

Here are the introductions to PdvFirstBlog and SimpleOracleDBA,

Intro - if available - This is where I started my my blogging era

Simple oracle DBA - The main topic.

Various Oracle Tips and Rants and Opinions, all to do with practicalities.

Simple Oracle DBA - Availability, Scalability, Manageability... It has to be Simple

Bitmap Indexes on an OLTP system - ORA-00060... Classic Deadlock

Backup on a different Level - in the SOA layer.

How To Pool Connections - One of the challenges

Databases Everywhwere - Systems and Databases, how many databases.

ILM, Information LifeCycle Management - another Three Letter Acronym.

Index Organized Tables - Many Benefits

txt - txt.

txt - txt.

UKOUG - I do value my usergroup events.

Various Rants, all to do with practicalities.

In times of Crisis you call the DBA - Who you gonna call...

Rationalize TOAD - Toad will find a way...

M O O W - Miracle Oracle Open World...

My blog-plug for the Conference - UK Oracle USergroup...

Travel related stuff.

Angel of the North - My most visited leasure page...

Inconvenience of Leeds Bradford International Airport.

Eurostar is Perfect - Very comfortable and reliable.

Colorado - Winter Park, actually.

Back to Normal - on the train.

Climate - Enjoy while it lasts....

Cricket - I have no clue.

Work, Dinners, Fun - and lots of miles on the train.

Angel - of the North, my most searched for picture.

UKOUG - my excuse to travel.

txt - txt.

txt - txt.

The usual links to groups etc..


my agenda (normally at the right hand side of the blog)




UKOUG main url



Miracle BV



the home of Oracle-L : Best Mailing list



link to Oracle Forum.



My own linked in profile (shameless plug)


Dont believe me ? Google

See you Somewhere, and say Hi if you feel like it!

different country, different styles

Getting re-used to the brits. Allthough I cant insult the locals by stating I'm in "England". Hopefully get to do some touristing around...

And I helped someone create a metalink account (hadnt done that in ages).

Off to see a new city... might include some phone-pictures tomorrow.

Hello world (how many others would have this title)

TWIMC,

Hi Yall!

After some company-sponsored and company controlled Blogs, this is my First Attempt at complete Freedom. Not counting the fact That I depend on blogger.com and firefox to keep it all running.

Supposedly, I can include links to others, like the worlds most popular book (last years):
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-da-vinci-code

and pictures, see below..


I'll experiment a bit, before creating a more serious blog (e.g. this is my dev-testing site, I may consider an acceptance test as well before going full production)..

Regards,
PdV