Dublin, Abu Dhabi and tennis

Hello all,

I know I've been doing a pretty poor job of this lately, and for that I apologize. I'm not going to make any excuses for it... I just hope that most of you haven't lost interest, although of late I certainly wouldn't blame you.

The past couple weeks have been very busy. I'll get work stuff out of the way first - finished my first project a little while back and got some good feedback for it. The object was to determine the best sensor layout for a leak detection system onboard an offshore oil platform. Basically the most probable leak sites are determined, and we model those leaks. The results show the size and relative hazard of the resulting gas clouds, based on prevailing wind conditions. Then we analyze the proposed leak detector layout, to see if they accurately detect the most hazardous leaks. If so, the layout is fine, if not, we recommend the addition of more (or more efficient) detection in the problematic locations. It's all very interesting. Now that that's finished, I'm moving onto another oil platform which is having difficulty with equipment overheating - we're trying to get to the bottom of that.
Just found out yesterday that I'll most likely be heading to Abu Dhabi (UAE) for a site visit in about a month. From what I gather, it's quite warm there this time of year, say 50C on a hot day? Luckily we will most likely be working through the nights to stay a) more or less out of the way and b) raw (as opposed to, say, medium-well). This is something that I'm really looking forward to. Opportunities to travel for this type of work are quite numerous it seems - this is not something I'd be able to do with a smaller company, that's for sure. The company has done LOTS of work in the middle east, some of the more high-profile being the burj and the Bahrain World Trade Centre. Neither of these are actually in Abu Dhabi but hopefully we can swing a visit since we'll be relatively close. Now don't worry about me, the UAE is a very stable place and besides Atkins won't send any employees to even moderately risky places. The only danger will be a wicked sunburn.

In my free time I've had quite a busy couple of weeks as well. Two weekends ago was the Queen's official birthday, which included an airshow. I tell ya, there's always something going on in the City. This I had no idea about until I thought to myself 'Gee, those planes sound awful low...'




Last Wednesday (a week ago already?) I took off to Dublin to meet up with Jon, my Master's supervisor. He was in Ireland for a conference, and was going to fly out of Dublin so we were able to meet up for a couple of days. I was able to take advantage of a cheapo fare (a whopping 1.49 pounds, one way) to go so it was pretty difficult to pass up.



Dublin was a ton of fun. Lots of friendly people, interesting sights... aw, who am I kidding... we went for the Guinness. And the Guinness did not disappoint. The brewery has a very well done self-guided tour which takes you through the process, history, and basically everything else to do with Guinness. You wind your way up through the building until, ultimately, you reach the 'SkyBar'... a glass-walled tasting room 7 or 8 stories up overlooking the city and the Irish Sea. Really nice views, as you can see.





Well after a LONG night Thursday



I had to catch an obscenely early flight back home on Friday morning. Of note: There are a bunch of wind turbines in the middle of the Irish Sea. You can see them from the plane. I hear a similar effort is underway in Lake Ontario... anyone heard of this?
On Saturday I went to Brighton, on the south coast of England, with a couple of other Canadians - Andrea, a friend from Queen's who now lives in North London, and Jo - who had been vacationing in London for a couple weeks. We were blessed with beautiful weather and it was all in all a fantastic day. The city is quite picturesque, complete with a very large pebble beach, a carnival pier, and you can see the White Cliffs (of Dover?) off in the distance, even though Dover is many miles away.



This week the tennis at Wimbledon started up. As a result, my normally serene neighbourhood has transformed into a bustling metropolis. We can see the stadium and hear the crowds from our balcony - if you watch the coverage you can likely see my flat when they do a wide overhead shot of the grounds. One night this week I'll have to queue for tickets. It'll probably be easier to get in this week than next.

Ok, that's it for tonight. I promise it won't be so long until my next update.

You guys have to keep me up on Leafs news. I hear we have a new goaltender. Thoughts on that?

Cheers all
Dan

By popular demand...

Here are a couple pictures of my street/neighbourhood. Also there is a shot of the so-called 'gherkin' which is located in the financial district.





It's Saturday and the World Cup has begun. Imagine the Stanley Cup Finals, the Super Bowl, World Series, and the Calgary Stampede all rolled into one and spread out over a month and you might get an idea of how many people are excited about this. Of course everyone is very optimisitic about England's chances, however I haven't decided what country I will support. Perhaps Argentina. For no particular reason, of course.

Anyhow, England's first game is this afternoon so I think I'll head down to the pub and see what all the hoo-haw is about. It's another gorgeous day here (that's 8 in a row!) so a large patio is a prerequisite. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers all
dan

Still alive

Hi everyone,

First of all, apologies for the long absence.
Lots has happened since my last post. I've been biking to work most days, which started out pretty difficult but has gotten significantly easier already. If you're interested, my route to work is here. It takes about 40 minutes door-to-door, which is significantly shorter than taking transit. Some days it's a bit tough to get motivated but it's fine as soon as I get out there. I'm really happy with my bike, it definitely is getting the job done.

Work continues on at a pretty good clip. There is lots of work to go around so the days tend to go by pretty quickly. Everyone at work is pretty easy to get along with and I've settled in pretty quickly.

My flatmate Rachel just got back from Monaco, having spent 2 weeks there for the Grand Prix (she works for McLaren F1). So it's nice to have some company around the house again. Plus, she brought the weather back with her, apparently. After almost 2 weeks of rain, today was easily the nicest day since I've arrived. Don't know what the temperature was but it was clear and sunny all day. I spent much of the afternoon down at Wimbledon park, about 10 mins walk from my place. Pictures below:





So pretty much what people do when it's nice is go down to the park, have a barbecue, play soccer/cricket and drink a bunch of beers. That's the plan tomorrow if the weather holds up.

Speaking of cricket I've expressed interest in joining the Atkins cricket club, they play a couple games a week (one friendly, one comp). They generally have practise sessions at my office on Mondays, but seeing as last Monday was a bank holiday I have yet to try it out. I'm looking forward to it... hopefully some of my softball 'skills' translate. Speaking of softball, I hear you FCRC guys got banned from playing Novelis softball for being 'too competitive'? I apologize if I had any hand in their decision, but I get the feeling that Mark 'the Flash' Van Doormaal intimidated the hell out of them last season with his quick leather. Frisbee-golf it is?

Anyways I'm signing off now, I promise it won't be as long until my next post.

Go Oilers, go Jays,

Dan