Barcelona is the pickpocket

Back to life

Finally, my year has begun being flung straight into work and emails flying out in typical Akin fashion, long, detailed, particular and quite particular indeed.

I cannot fail to note that I have only spent five nights at home since the 17^th of November that has had me in South Africa, in London and I have just returned from Barcelona.

I had considered going much further afield after my birthday, the choices, at first, were the Thailand (Bangkok or Phuket), Canada (Toronto) and the United States (Miami), all places I had never been before, but with so little time to plan for these I defaulted to either Berlin or Barcelona. The latter won for slightly warmer weather.

Of Barcelona again

Now, the last time I was in Barcelona was in November 2008 when I attended the now defunct Microsoft TechEd Europe conference, before that it was December 2006 and my first time in some 18 years ago.

Then, whilst Barcelona was an exciting place to visit, the tourism elements had not been overly commercialised as they are now. I note that Palau Güell and Casa Batlló were not accessible to the public.

This time, I availed myself of the opportunity to visit these masterpieces of Antoni Gaudi’s genius, which if you know anything about Barcelona are a draw for tourists from the world over. The fact that Barcelona has beauty, treasure, culture, architecture, history and nationalism cannot be debated, there are lots to see and do.

It’s all about money

However, for all the tourist things I did, from the bus tours to all the buildings, things I did and the souvenirs purchased, no one can fail to notice how pricey all these places and things are, it is a case of over-exploiting the World Heritage status for outrageous price gouging and profit advantage. The whole idea that what we pay maintains and supports these sites should not excuse the atrocious profit motive of the custodians of these places.

Even the taxi drivers in Barcelona agree that this is the only motive, profiteering. We tourists pay top prices for accommodation, eat in the restaurants, shop in the fancy stores, visit all the places of significance paying full whack and to add insult to injury, as we leave we are charged as city tax. Then for what I paid from city centre to the airport, the thievery continued to the end of my visit.

You gotta pick a pocket or two

They say Barcelona is full of pickpockets, that might be true, but the real pickpocket is Barcelona and all the great beauty of this place is in the process of being marred by the inordinate quest for filthy lucre. I loved visiting Barcelona, but this is not the kind of Barcelona I would like to return to, already, in an honest survey at the hotel where I spent 11 nights, I categorically said I will not return to stay there.

If you are spending more than 5 nights in a hotel and they cannot attempt to make it feel as a home away from home, they neither deserve my custom again nor a recommendation to others. Barcelona can do better, but this time, it was a shame.

Barcelona: On the trail of Gaudi's genius

Overcoming the fear of flying

I first visited Barcelona some 18 years ago, it was with my partner and it was an amazing experience. My partner then, a design engineering major had things he wanted to see, for me, it was one of discovery.

This was a time when I was trying to overcome my fear of flying, a strange development that took hold over a couple of years, for no particular reason I could explain. I was used to flying from childhood and at many times travelled alone even before I was in my teens.

However, this flight was quite a pleasurable one, I was sat between a father and son who had come over from Australia. The father had emigrated to Australia about 40 years before and now, he had brought his son who was born in Australia to Europe for the very first time and they were doing a modern sort of grand tour.

Gaudi’s Barcelona I learnt

I guess it was the engagement and conversation that took my mind off the fact that we were in the air and in the process, I somewhat defeated my irrational fear of flying.

In Barcelona, for the first night, we walked up a major street and passed an interesting building that seemed to have an eerie living quality about it, little did I know that it was a landmark building, I later learnt it was Casa Batlló and with that I was introduced to the architectural genius of Antoni Gaudí I Cornet.

From a knowledgeable perspective, Antoni Gaudi as he is commonly known was an early proponent of the Art Nouveau movement and particularly what is referred to as the Catalan Modermisme movement. However, to the untrained eye, meaning those who are essentially not architects, we have a different appreciation of these works, the aesthetics, the design and the appearance of buildings and other forms just show an exceptional quality of inspiration and workmanship unmatched.

A madman genius

When Antoni Gaudi received his diploma, the supervisor who granted his the title of architect wrote, “Who knows if we have given this diploma to a nut or to a genius. Time will tell.” Suffice it to say that seven of Antoni Gaudi’s buildings all in Barcelona have been listed as World Heritage Sites.

Then we were only able to access Casa Milà, Sagrada Familia and Park Güell, at that time, Palau Güell and Casa Batlló were not accessible to the public. Now, literally all the Gaudi properties have a form of access for the public to appreciate the work and genius of Antoni Gaudi.

Sagrada Familia, I have visited twice and both times before it was consecrated into a basilica in 2010. Work commenced on this church in 1882 and work is still in progress sponsored by anonymous donations made towards the building and the upkeep. The first time, I went up the bell towers, the building was fascinating but not such a tourist pull as it is now.

No hurry

Of the time it will take to complete the project, Antoni Gaudi said, “My client is not in a hurry, God has all the time in the world for this to be completed.” It is likely, it will take more generations before the work is finally completely.

Yet, on this my fourth visit to Barcelona, I find myself on the Gaudi trail again, with a better appreciation of the uniqueness of this amazing genius, gifted beyond measure and whose life tragically ended as a result of being run over by a tram.

There is much to Antoni Gaudi’s work and legacy, the fact that he defied convention and boldly took strides that were somewhat unpopular, then there was Eusebi Guell, an industrialist who was a patron and sponsor of his work. He championed some of Gaudi’s listed works being respectful of the talent and a very good friend of the man.

The Gaudi trail cannot be done in a hurry, beyond seeing, there is much to observe. You cannot have done Barcelona without seeing what its most famous citizen did in the city. Here is to more Barcelonas.

Holiday snaps: A lounge to lunge from

An apology, I say

If anything, the “lounge” at the Madrid Barajas International Airport is a complete let-down, it exudes the worst of Spanish hospitality and comfort.

The furniture that probably looked cool years ago is dated, the fittings are cheap, the sockets are broken and falling apart, the choice of snacks leave much to be desired and to add insult to injury, one has to pay for wireless access.

Apart from the peace and quiet from the hustle and bustle of the airport terminal below, one can easily sit elsewhere with ear-plugs and be at peace.

Just not up to scratch

For a capital city airport, it is appalling, but then, I have been to the lounge at the Barcelona airport too and really, that takes the concept of lounges to a new depth of despair, it is the equivalent of the Ryanair of air travel comfort.

A bargain basement allocation of space for travellers to swear never to visit again; even if offered a bye to enter on the cheapest class of air travel available. Generally functional, rudimentary to the core and primitive at best.

I am surprised that there has been no clamour to get the managers of these lounges to polish up their act, with all the resorts and holiday locations the Spaniards squandered billions on in the property boom, upgrading these lounges to the healthy status of Spanish friendliness and comfort should have been a doddle.

Lunge from this lounge

It is not like one wants to spent the whole day here for any reason when you are on your way somewhere, either waiting to depart from Madrid or in transit through Madrid.

On the ratings scale my verdict is, the Madrid Barajas Airport lounge is a lounge to lunge from, probably headlong too.

Sun shines hard in Gran Canaria

Scheduled child seating

After the dreadful cold of the last few months, I have embarked on another sanity retention and enhancement escapade, I am back in Gran Canaria where the mercury is rising to the point that I could do a cold shower without a shiver.

Arkefly could not guarantee flights for the times I wanted to travel so I decided to ditch unreliable charter arrangements and go for a schedule flight with a stop-over in Barcelona on the way out and one at Madrid on the return in 15 days time.

I could not believe my amazing luck, for the third time in succession, I had another child behind me, there wasn’t too much crying but tantrums a-plenty as she kicked out so repetitively, I thought I was being mugged taking a massage in a Turkish bath.

I endured but not with any sleep, my co-passenger sympathised saying it would only be a 2-hour flight and it would all be over – almost over for the child I thought silently.

On transfer

The transfer desks in Barcelona are a mystery, you see big signs leading to Transfer Information and the it stops, you look back and you know it is somewhere in the middle.

When I finally found the desks, they were completely inconspicuous, the information desk was as good as asking for directions and being told to go North when you should be going West.

Switching from AirFrance-KLM to Air Europa was quite an insight, the service was definitely notches higher than Franco-Dutch fare, in fact, the food in comparison was the difference between cut-price dog food which needed water to reconstitute it for eating and gourmet Pedigree Chum – I woofed it all down, more or less.

It is a bit humid, I think I should saunter down to the pool and find out if my ankles are light enough for my first swim or sinking.

Punish Spain hard for Sport racism

Abuse again

Hearing that the golden boy of Formula 1 racing was racially abused in Barcelona, Spain was quite disheartening.

Louis Hamilton stirred the imagination of motor racing fans and the general populace when in his rookie year (2007) he lead the championship for almost half the season and it was down to the very last race before a champion was crowned with him coming second in the championship points.

I am of the view that McLaren his team wanted to stage an amazing climax in what really should have been concluded in China at the penultimate race – the rest is history.

Louis Hamilton’s motor-racing skills proved he was not a token equal-opportunities face and it pitched him against a two-time champion who being unable to retain the mystique of his achievements over the young lad turned the championship into a rivalry within the team that cost the team very dear.

They have form

There are some who would say that the animosity Louis has suffered from Spanish crowd stems from the soured relationship he had with Fernando Alonso but that would really be disingenuous to say the least.

The Spaniards have form when it comes to the racist abuse of people of colour and it has been exhibited by people as highly placed as the Spanish coach.

English football players of colour have heard despicable monkey chants which really should have one thinking, who really is playing monkey – definitely, not the one being abused.

Other players of colour in the Spanish league have been subjected to this primitive behaviour of assuming to be of a superior standard of race and rectitude.

A fitting punishing deterrent

It would appear the sanctions that have been levied against the perpetrators and the Spanish sporting authorities have not served as enough a deterrent to stop this loathsome attitude.

If is includes taking to two Formula 1 races out of Spain to more deserving countries with responsible fans, then it would not be a sanction too great to teach a very hard lesson.

The picture of blackened faces with Hamilton Family vests cannot be a costume party joke regardless of the anger fans might have felt about the Hamilton-Alonso rivalry .

To eliminate racism in sport, the pain of punishment must be felt very hard and the one about Hamilton must be taken as a general trend rather than a particular instance.

The same racist Spanish fans of motorsport could as well be football fans doing the same thing – until proven otherwise a fitting sanction and punishment must be meted out forthwith.

Like Hamilton, I love the city of Barcelona but would not condone this behaviour, somebody had better be doing something before a groundswell of indignant inquisition wipes the Spanish of the sporting slate.

We look forward to Louis Hamilton going for goal this season but not with this kind of nonsense coming into the foreground.

Meeting Mr. Big Stuff

That Hotel is off limits

I know that I would not return to Catalonia Atenas Hotel or any hotel in the Catalonia group when next I visit Barcelona. I chose this hotel because it came near the top of the list of hotels that were recommended by the event organiser of the Microsoft TechEd IT Forum.

Obviously, I was deluded into thinking the 4* designation meant it had an element of service and professionalism but compared to the 4* Riu Hotel Maspalomas I stayed in for my September holidays in Gran Canaria, one would be comparing class with trash.

A reviewer on Trip Advisor sums it up, it was a youth hostel masquerading as a 4* hotel which is why they had no mini-bars but vending machines on the ground floor and the hotel card stated one could not invite guests – typical of a hostel, one would say.

My concept of a 4* hotel is that service, comfort and accommodation tries to make it home away from home – there was not character in this hotel, I was glad to be out of it as much as possible.

The housekeeping was atrocious, you would not believe that my “Do Not Disturb” card was removed again like last Sunday; the subtext of one stay at the hotel is “Do Not Return” even under the pain of death.

It might well be that other hotels in the Catalonia group of hotels are a lot better and live up their billing considering this is supposed to depict Catalan hospitality, this hotel was such let down and the only service I got was being moved from a cubicle to a fair-sized room at arrival – the notion that someone thought 8 nights in that hell-hole are best spent in Room 1009 with a view like from a prison cell leaves me speechless – those guys really do have to polish up their act – Big Time!

Lounging towards Zara

I could not wait to check out this morning and I had checked to see if there was a business lounge at Barcelona airport, I did not even have the mind of doing any sightseeing either though my flight was not till 17:05.

I tried to check-in around 13:00 and I was told I would have to wait till 15:00 because the Barcelona airport was too small to accommodate my 30kg luggage for 4 hours and also would not be able to gain access to the business lounge either.

But these ladies at the check-in desk think on their feet and in minutes had moved me to the 15:10 flight with a better seat, I made a beeline to the business lounge which was just functional, apart from the drinks and snacks, I found one had to pay for wireless connectivity – really, in a business class lounge – sometimes.

Then I thought I would treat myself to something new and bought a winter coat at Zara the flagship fashion chain of Spain – sadly, the attendants did not wise up to the option of opening another cashier till when the queue grew to 10 people deep. At least 2 people asked that this be done and the lady just looked and shrugged as at least 6 other workers in the store idled away rearranging clothes.

I quipped that people who have to rush to the boarding gates may not be able to wait and others seeing queues this long might be discouraged and consequently they would lose customers because of poor service. One would think working in an international airport space would mean service is not sedentary in delivery – the fool me.

Mr. Big Stuff

I finally boarded my flight but not before a yuppie-like Northern Caucasian - looking a lot more tanned than a Berber with more gel in his coifed locks to set alight a volcano that would make Krakatoa look like a candle-light - made his presence known.

To some people, he probably is Mr. Big Stuff; the unfortunate consequence is that such people make everyone else look stuffy when in fact we are just plain irritated.

Big phone, big voice, silly conversation, all looks, more money and zero social graces, I thought I had seen the last of him till when I tried to recline my seat and it was pushed back forcefully that I found myself apologising profusely.

Wait a minute, I am supposed to be in a business class seat, something must be wrong, so rather that engage the man in conversation about why I could not recline my seat, I asked the airhostess to check why my seat would not recline. I also asked her to find out if it was affecting the man behind me and he said no – so recline I did and fell asleep.

The cabin crew were then advised to take their seats and we had not even landed when the man had his phone on with flowing conversation to some lady – some people – in fact, he was obnoxious throughout the flight; complaining about the volume and price of the cheap duty-free perfume and asking for coffee twice after all the catering had been cleared.

Unfortunately, one cannot choose the company of people to fly with paying for any premium rate service does not confer social graces on the customer – breeding always has a way of being self-evident.

That was the week that was in Barcelona.

Techies have kids too

Without a bang!

One cannot say that Microsoft TechEd IT Forum in Barcelona ended with a bang, the last session stretched to 16:30, everyone collected their bags and many had checked out of their hotels in the morning and made their way to the airport for their flights back home.

There was no social after-party and it did not appear any had been arranged impromptu; I can understand that many companies having lost the physical presence of their techies for a week but kept them on leash through their Blackberrys, phones and ubiquitous laptops would not countenance the idea of a free weekend in the beautiful city of Barcelona, especially if they are paying.

Many were missing their young families already and that is if they did not have duties stacked up for them to do the moment they land back at home.

There were some that brought their families but they never had them for company except after the sessions which ended late every day.

Techies have kids too

One sight that impressed and amused me was a session called Internet Safety for Kids delivered by Laura Chappell, usually, when a session is full, the spillover is a monitor outside the door with probably 3 people observing the session, I even attending one like that.

This session had a large spillover, with people sitting on the floor outside, I would suppose this means a larger forum and place needs to be set up for such a seminar, next time. More importantly, if no one has ever noticed, techies, geeks, and propeller-heads are flesh and blood, like you and me, they breathe, they feel and they are human-beings affected by everyday things.

Wait for it! Techies have kids, nieces or nephews and they are just as concerned about technological advancements at work as they are about the safety of children when they roam the Wild-West of the Internet.

Besides, many are engaged in other activities as de-facto consultants at home, to neighbours, to schools and other community services that require learned people pro-bono to ensure their systems are safe and the users are even safer.

Internet Safety for Kids is where you can find information, material and detail about this presentation.

Server Core Command Prompt

I have always said I cannot be a UNIX geek because I do not have long enough hair to grow a pony-tail if any at all – Windows Server 2008 is taking us back to the days of the command prompt with a lightweight but extensible base installation called Server Core. [A new URL for the Server Core link was posted 02/04/2019 as I was informed of a broken link by Naomi Vojt of CompariTech. Thank you.]

Yes, you get a command prompt, you can use a Graphical User Interface if you elect to install a fuller version of Windows Server 2008, but this was geeky and we all need to dust off our command-line skills as a demonstration of edlin showed how long we had been in this line of work.

Anyway, it means respect has arrived at the door of Windows experts and now Linux town-criers who think the world revolves around their geekery might suddenly find themselves grudgingly admitting Microsoft buffs to the fold of nerds.

Advent of the management techie

If anything, all that I learnt at this forum was everything we do from this time on requires serious planning; point-and-click does not deliver solutions and technical people need to take on a management perspective of business needs and goals, and then tailor solutions to meet them.

Well, that has never been far from my mind and perspective, but there are many technical people who need to review how they see ones and zeroes and what makes a business gain competitive advantage through IT solutions.

Preparing for Microsoft TechEd IT Forum 2008 already – over and out!

The Vista from my Windows

Melee with meals

The past 5 days, one can say life has revolved between the hotel and the daily conferences which could be exhausting to say the least.

Despite the issues I have with the hotel I ventured into the hotel restaurant last night for a meal because I could not be bothered trawling the whole of Barcelona for a restaurant and a table for one.

As I got there, there was no way of knowing that one room was meant for groups and the other for non-groups, waiter spoke no English and reeled out probably 20 sentences to me on Catalan and I just looked at him like I had just seen an alien.

Eventually, someone came round to show to be some nondescript room with no atmosphere and left me there as if I was in detention. I managed the entrée and touched the main course, refused the desert, which left them worried that I did not like the food nor the service - this time someone from reception came up to chat and find out what was wrong.

Well, what I hated was the fact that being a lone eater the room should have had a bit more atmosphere, a waiter about, probably some music and maybe more people - in the end, eating alone takes away from the pleasure of dining and definitely, in my case, the food would not go down.

It is amazing that one is in Barcelona, an international city that once hosted the Olympics and has quite a big tourist throughput but very few people in the hospitality industry speak any English.

I believe

I attended 4 sessions again and Microsoft might just have won a convert and that is what I said about these events. They are like evangelistic crusades with apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors preaching the gospel of Microsoft and performing miracles in the name of Microsoft.

The wonder, the excitement and hypnotism - you get carried along, carried away and voluntarily brainwashed as the mass hysteria consumes every opportunity to resist the urge to succumb - when I get back home, I would be installing Windows Vista.

I came here a sceptic and would be returning a believer; the cynicism has been cast out with evidence of glorious vistas of operation, performance and technical goodies you cannot ignore.

The jewel of the conference has to be Mark Russinovich; a super-geek that looks nothing like the geeks you know - the man knows the internals of Windows and how to look under the bonnet better than any Windows mechanic I have ever seen - he makes tools for every single thought or idea he might have had about extracting information from Windows about what is going on.

He leaves you wanting to go home and get your hands really dirty, solve problems by really finding out why the problem is there, break it down and then fix it up nicely, whatever session he has going, I think I would be lapping that up.

Blogging for whatever

I attended an afternoon session about blogging, and I have been thinking about how to do a bit of technical blogging and veer a bit away from the general stuff that I regularly write about.

I have not decided if I should host that on a separate blog and leave that in this setup; the panel views differed on that matter, but the most important advice was to keep your personality within what you do.

Obviously, people blog for all sorts of reasons, some are fully technical and others are light-hearted - there is a broad spectrum of opinions and views.

Quality and quantity really depends on what you are writing about and they are relative issues, it appeared my blogging frequency was a lot higher than those on the panel, but then I suppose if I had to write purely technical stuff, I might not be delivering stuff with this kind of regularity.

Someone asked about blogging trolls, people whose existence is exemplified by rotten commentary and rude inserts - we agreed that each person's blog space is purely theirs and people who do not respect that principle do not have to be acknowledged.

Whilst I accept anonymous comments I expect people who leave negative insulting comments to also present an identity, if not, I just delete the stuff. If you cannot stand by what you have to say, you are a non-person and non-entity - whilst I would know your IP address, it is a waste of time giving such people time.

If I do go technical with some of my blogging entries, I would suppose it would still revolve around my experiences with analogies, allegories and inferences - I suppose that is the best way to blog - your views and well-researched opinions about how you observe things or how things affect you.

TechEd IT Forum a must

On already with the last day of Microsoft TechEd IT Forum and I am already planning for next year - thankfully, I do not have to run the gauntlet of corporate inertia in arranging for these conferences, I would expect any technical mind that manages and builds infrastructure in the enterprise should be here.

If only CIOs and IT Managers realised that this is no freebie holiday jaunt but an essential element career development that their staff should enjoy. I mentioned this at work months ago, but it all fell through for them and many other projects do because of the lack of adequate exposure to how things are done implemented elsewhere.

References

Mark Russinovich

Beating the hands in Barcelona

Into the groove

What an eventful day it has been, so much information and what one would do to absorb it all and be able to apply it to situations and circumstances one finds back in the wild jungle of work.

I arrived at the conference centre more or less better prepared for the journey and since the keynote address was in the afternoon, one did not have to run the gauntlet of rush-hour traffic or crowds.

I must say the issue of seating has really not been addressed, there were lots of people sitting on the floor and sometimes it was like a rush for seats, for a person like me who uses a cane, there are times one was tempted to put on a poor puppy face to create the compassion that allows others to yield their hard-earned comfort for my pleasure.

I saw some old work colleagues and even joined one for lunch which started quite early and in the middle of lunch a drummer team started a cacophony I initially did not appreciate.

Having lunch early was essential because the keynote speech was going to attract the largest audience of the conference and in our seats were these coloured "scroll-holders" which had me thinking we would be asked to look through one end and see the narrow perspective of our objectives - I found out a lot more, later.

Drums from Africa

The drummers then took the stage, I am always amused when African percussion is offered as entertainment in Europe without the accompaniment of dancers and I was quite impressed with the two Caucasians in the ensemble who gave quite a performance considering I have never thought my white brothers appreciated tribal or native rhythms - I must now disabuse that thought.

The drumbeats almost had me getting up to dance as I feared the gods might be angered at the absence of human frenzy and festive hysteria to what might have well been the call to animist worship, but with no Shamans, no witch-doctors around possible wrath loomed.

I recollect that the music playing before they arrived on stage had a Nigeria flavour to it, with some lines in Nigerian Pidgin English and other words in Yoruba giving that crude feeling of being at home but still far away in Barcelona.

The gods would have been pleased when those scroll things were inculcated in the entertainment as we held them in one hand and hit the other to a rhythm dictated (conducted) by one of the white drummers, then it began to make sense and rhythm too - there were six colours and of different lengths arranged along different columns of the auditorium creating a phonic atmosphere and the game began.

We could all have hit our hands sore in self-flagellation thorough the willingness to participate and it was great fun that came to a crescendo with an emphatic and loud YES at the end of it all.

Suddenly, you see that a lot of planning does go into these participatory things and the more fool for those who refused to join in the almost juvenile atmosphere.

Talk sweet talk hoarse

The keynote started off nicely with quite a number of demonstrations of the future as Microsoft presents it, then another session to detail how the implementation of the new server software would affect our infrastructure.

I felt sorry for the presenter of the session on Microsoft Forefront a security product which I strongly feel should be integrated in other robust security platforms, he must have had acute laryngitis, after many sips of water, it appears he just downed his cough syrup like I do; bottle-to-mouth and gulp till you have but a drop to spare. Well, not as much from what I could see.

The welcoming reception was in the exhibition area as we walked past another group of this time, Spanish guitar players doing Catalan folk songs where my lesson in yo-yo manipulation still had this old dog unable to learn new tricks, the canapés and finger-food was quite nice and I think it is time to call it a day - tomorrow starts at 9:00 and it does not end will the sun is down.

De excitement La Catalunya

Packing the world

One might say, wonder why one would be visiting Barcelona for a week for a conference without taking in the weekend. Well, I decided to sandwich the busy week into two weekends so my trip to Barcelona today and returning next Sunday.

I finally packed my bag after having just about an hour’s conversation with my brother in Nigeria, I still have not mastered the art of travelling light; I take so much and almost always end up forgetting what I want and packing what I never use.

Just because I thought I might run late, I called a taxi which turned back 5 minutes into the journey because I had forgotten my phone – all my appointments and contacts are in that thing, so I was glad that I did not use public transport or else that situation would have been impossible to redeem.

The comfort of having a Flying Blue Silver card – need to travel more – and the trappings of business class meant one could jump queues for check-in and security.

Cane must hit head hard

All went well till one jobs-worthy customs oaf said I could not take my cane on the plane because I did not need it to walk with the metal detector – how much of a foolish talk is that?

I have been through Amsterdam Schiphol Airport about 30 times this year and each time I have take my cane apart into its 4 constituent parts and put it all in the check-in tray, no complains, but today they had a chiropractor loafing around checking people’s backs I suppose.

Here I was mouthing through every ailment I ever had along with the occasional back pain that compels me to use the cane as if I now have to carry around a doctor’s certification that allows me to take a cane through customs.

Anyway, after such vehement remonstration bordering on anger as one begins to recognise the atrocious constrictions of this stifling war on comfort named war on terror, I got my cane, put it together, did the revise strip-tease of putting my things back on and walked away with a huff – as one of the customs ladies who had a semblance of humanity in her sinews gave me a smile.

Then off to the KLM lounge where the ladies at the reception succoured me and told me the fact that they had to suffer these indignities twice a day as part of their working at the airport, I suddenly did not feel too sorry for myself.

It was night to be addressed by name as I was served on the plane, a bit of turbulence and the view over the Pyrenees was as magnificent as you could get of any view from the air and then 10 extra degrees of Celsius warmth, one would not want to be anywhere else but in Barcelona.

Hotel, not hell

When I arrived at the hotel which was fully-booked from the Microsoft contact site but available through a full package booking on lastminute.nl which is become a neat way to book holidays lately, I was informed I would have a top-floor room with amazing views of Barcelona, I suspected I was being sold crap, but I had to see the room first.

I could hardly get my luggage into the room and this was with the help of the bellboy, single-bed and window only a balcony I could not reach, views of Barcelona – my foot! There was no way I would spend 8 nights in this shack of a pretend-penthouse squeeze.

Meanwhile, the reception had called up for my passport which the bellboy took away for a photocopy to be made; I called reception and asked for a bigger room, first I was given the spiel about standard single rooms and I offered to pay the extra cost to be upgraded; I think the bellboy informed them that I had offered a generous tip so I got another room, probably triple the size with a balcony that I could access and even sit 2 other guests – at no extra charge.

As usual, if you do not ask, you might as well suffer in silence and be eaten up by the utter inconvenience.

Wireless helpless

I got online as reception feigned complete ignorance about the WiFi service which had me calling the Swisscom helpdesk where a competent lady called Barbara took my call from Portugal and we both did the troubleshooting that indicated there were problems with DNS which we resolved after about 20 minutes on the phone.

I decided to go for a walk and had reception give me an idea of my bearings, the metro station was just across the road and getting a ticket required a bank card which I swiftly retrieved from the hotel.

And the ticket machine swallowed my card – I consciously said to myself, this is not want I need in order not to say the clichéd “Just what I need”.

Thankfully, the transport security guys were there and they got to station supervisor to retrieve my card before my holiday went tunnelling into desperate despair.

The night had only begun, I should be out for dinner soon and one can only say Barcelona would be fun.

Coming out of it a human-doing

Thanks

First I like to thank those who have dropped by with comments which have served as comfort in a personally tumultuous time.

It is strange that my discomfiture has been worse when I have had a second to think at work rather than when I am in the safety and warmth of my home.

What has surprised me is my delayed reaction to this matter, it happened almost 4 weeks ago, but it was only at the beginning of this week that many of the implications started to sink in.

There is anger, self-pity, loss of control, a fuzzy focus and denial but one must needs gain focus and assume control of these affairs – my head cannot afford to cede control to my heart for too long – meanwhile, I have a life to live and too much energy to going into autopsies and hugging cadavers. Yuk!

I find myself agreeing with an analysis made on the My Family sitcom, I am not only a human-being, I am also a human-doing, I have to be doing something and hopefully something exciting, challenging, new and different. I still need to learn to be a proper human-being regardless of what I am doing. [Context of human-doing here is not hedonism or materialism but elements of being a control freak – I honestly do not think I am a control freak, just as a drunk would not confess to being an alcoholic.]

Getting into exciting stuff

We all have to find ways of dealing with these matters in our different ways and I see some major decisions coming because I need new compelling challenges not distractions to close this chapter properly and open a new one.

Again, it is work related but it would be mixing work with pleasure, I would be off to Barcelona in November for the annual “religious” camp-meeting of senior geeks in Microsoft tools and software – I would not say I am a geek per se, but I do think geeky stuff and sometimes do geeky stuff.

The camp-meeting once called Microsoft TechEd and now called Microsoft TechEd IT Forum is a big tent meeting of technology movers, designers and architects using Microsoft solutions, you can imagine that apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors of the Microsoft doctrine would be whipping up hysteria and excitement sharing the purposes and strategies that people like us have contributed to the pool of knowledge that Microsoft adapts for local, enterprise and global solutions, it could be great fun.

An enduring experience

I was last at a Tech Ed event in Amsterdam in 1999, it was year of great change with SMS 2.0, Windows 2000, Active Directory and .NET being introduced and made accessible to us.

This year in Barcelona, it is Microsoft Vista which I believe is not ready for enterprise deployment for many reasons including the fact that the support infrastructure is not wide enough to handle user issues and enquiries, System Centre which covers all management and administration issues – these are the areas I am quite interested in.

At the end of the forum, I should be buzzing with Microsoft miracles to unleash on projects under my remit – I am definitely looking forward to that, 5 days of camp-meeting out of a 9-day holiday.

My revival has begun!