Winchester

We arrive at Heathrow but are about 10,000 feet too high, in a holding pattern. The UK was battered by a storm today that dumped the equivalent of a month's worth of rain in a single day. We eventually land at Heathrow's new Terminal 5, which has been open for just a couple months. It is clean and efficient, but I learn later that they are losing 900 suitcases daily. Yikes.

I sail through customs and meet IBMer Nigel, who was kind enough to drive me out to Winchester where I will be teaching tomorrow (thanks, Nigel!). Traffic is heavy. The greenery and gray sky makes Old England look very much like New England.

We pull up to the Winchester Hotel, a small but comfortable place with a nice bar in the front, where Nigel introduces me to two other IBMers, Richard and Martin. We share a pint (thanks, Richard!) and discuss the next day's planned activities.

Nigel departs; I check into my room. Upon entering I am pleasantly surprised that the in-room coffee service is actually a tea service! I have written about tea discrimination before, so coffee-drinkers, pay attention. American hotel owners: listen up. Check out this photo of my hotel room tea service. What do you see? TEA. Different kinds. A pot to boil water (yes, water for tea needs to be boiled, not just warmed). Notice that it is a pot for boiling the water, not a coffee maker. Have you ever actually tried to make yourself tea in a coffee maker? It tastes like shit. Now do you see the coffee? It is there. Look closely. YES, that's right. INSTANT coffee ("soluble coffee"). Would you drink that? Neither would I, if I was a coffee drinker. Just like I am not going to drink your crap Lipton-made-in-a-coffee-pot sewage.

While I'm on the subject, do you know what an idiot you sound like when you offer me more hot water for my teabag? A tea bag is used once. Would you want me to offer you more hot water for your nearly empty coffee mug?

Sorry... where was I? Oh yes. So Richard and Martin take me out to a local "gastropub" named The Old Vine. They explain that gastropubs have become a popular phenomenon in the UK. Basically it is a mix of old-style pub plus good food.

I like this place. It is crowded but we get a table immediately in the bar area. There is no table service so we order our beer and food from the bartender. Now I prefer to eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but in this place there is no way I am NOT going to order the wild boar I see on the menu.

A short while later, at the table in the pub in rural England, I chew my wild boar and drink my room-temperature gravity-fed ale, feeling very much like Henry VIII. Sweet.

Our next stop is Eclipse, a traditional pub in a building dating from the mid-1500s. I think that makes it relatively new around here. SMALL. Very friendly. Great beer.

I'm getting sleepy so we depart.

The next morning I awake and get breakfast in the hotel. They really know how to serve tea here :)

Richard and I leave to pick up Martin on our way into IBM's Hursley campus.

The class runs very smoothly. The network is perfect.

At lunch the choices are different. British. I eat Italian style :)

Martin guides me on a quick tour through the beautiful old Hursley building which contains a few interesting exhibits of early IBM technology, plus meeting rooms and other modern conveniences, like air conditioning.

After class I bid my farewells to Richard and Martin. Nigel drives me back toward Heathrow because I am staying in the Sheraton. I feel bad that I have the head-nods during the hour-long ride, but I'm exhausted; the week is catching up to me. I eat in the hotel and try to do some work.

Tomorrow I explore London.