[ from the nice-to-see-you dept. ]
I went to visit twh in Congleton with Hussein and jok last weekend. On Friday evening I went to Birmingham and took another coffee machine which should be identical to the one I had bought previously for Hannah and Joe to make fresh coffee. Travelling by train makes this a bit more amusing, and as I had previously purchased their machine in Witney and carried it back by train, it had been well travelled shall we say. Of course the same machine turns out to be available in Birmingham at the same price but things turn out like that.
Anyway we tested the machine and had a really pleasant evening. The next morning was to feature a visit to a local gym but the Health and Safety monster has bitten Birmingham City local government and they refused to allow me to use the equipment dispite my willingness to accept a disclaimer and my explanation that I have been a member of a gym previously. Unfortunately American Suing Syndrome does this kind of thing and then everyone jumps at once, preventing me from burning off excess carbohydrate while meeting certain people Hannah wants to set me up with… 
.
We went in to Birmingham City and I bought some new gloves from Marks and Spencer to replace a pair that I had left on a train in Brussels. Since these replaced those bought as a present from my grandmother they needed to be similar (I did tell her I had lost them!). I visited Marks and Spencer in Reading the day before and with the code of the correct pair available, got some in a different colour but otherwise identical and just as comfortable. A good thing because I hate having to find which gloves define me as a person.
Joe, Hannah and I went to CEX and bought some game consoles. Joe got an Xbox to mod for GNU/Linux use or maybe Xbox Media Center (did you decide which?). I bought a Gamecube ostensibly to join the Gamecube Linux development efforts, although I still need to purchase the broadband adapter and Phantasy Star Online. It is then planned to add somehow an IDE interface, and I have already discussed this with certain people who can help. I am going to be working on another bi_records implementation for ppc Linux also over the next few weeks because I am fed up with the number of platform ports needed for trivial differences.
I travelled from Birmingham to Congleton on saturday morning, arriving at around 13:22 or so. I met jok on the way as he joined the train at Stoke station. During the journey I talked to a chap from Bristol who deals with defending taxpayers from various lawsuits which I would guess are often of the American Suing Syndrome kind and not ambulance chasing money grubbing suing kind.
Upon arrival in Congleton, we walked to twh’s house. After an initial direction finding issue caused by my attempt at guesswork, we eventually found where he actually lives and met up with Hussein too. We had a very pleasant afternoon and the area is very asthetically pleasing. Tom is obviously a great deal better than he was and I am glad he is up and about.
I stayed in Congleton and jok stayed also. On Sunday we had a very enjoyable Sunday lunch before jok and I began our return trips interspaced with engineering improvement works. This meant that a normal return time of a few hours was doubled and consequently we stopped off in Birmingham. Photos of the trip show that we walked up to Victoria Square. Here in addition to finding a comical Powerpoint crashscreen in the theatre lobby, we also found a quaint area near the National Sea Life Center. Here there was an area similar to London Docklands with a Zizzi where I could have my favourite Olives, Bread and Pesto Pizza covered in Aubergene, Goat’s Cheese, Peppers, and pine nuts also.
Jon.