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Showing posts from November, 2014

My Travels

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I'm on my way back from England with work. I've been away for two days (one night) and was away two nights last week. This isn't normal for me at all. I normally don't fly with work, but I'm working on a fairly intense SAP implementation - its my first one and I'm working on it with just my manager. So what have I learnt? Travelling with work puts a lot of strain on family life. Kids start complaining to their teachers about their daddy flying away, wives struggle to balance everything with just one pair of hands (I guess moving house tomorrow isn't helping) and young sons lose a little of their confidence and swagger. Poor old daddy has project pressures and guilt. It has to be done to pay the bills, but kudos to those who do it regularly, because I'd hate it. No amount of nice hotel steak could convince me. I'll be happy to see out the project successfully and retreat to my desk!

Lathar Na

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Lathar Na means the lands of Lathar - Lathar being the son of an Irish High King. It is anglicised as Larne, on the North East Coast of (Northern) Ireland. It is the oldest inhabited spot in Ireland, and has been visited by Romans and Vikings. The Vikings liked it more than the Romans and stayed for a bit. It is my home town, where I still live. We fight dragons in the winter..... I was walking the dog along our old Victorian promenade the other night. The promenade runs along Waterloo Bay, an area of eroded limestone cliffs, atop a basalt shelf, with granite shot through by tectonic uplift. It was a clear starry night after another wet day. The waterfall beside the promenade was in full flow, where sometimes it is a tiny trickle. There wasn't a sinner about so I had the dog off the lead, charging about. Suddenly he stopped to stare into the darkness below the promenade. There on the rocks was a large heron. It looked at us and flew off. I chuckled to myself and though