Ride to Norwich

Got my first major project assigned, and guess what it was not in London, but far in East Anglia. It was Norwich, yeah, Naarwiiiich. The only good thing about the whole thing was that I did not have to reach there early. We had to reach Norwich at about 3.00 in the afternoon.

So woke up a bit late and got ready to travel. I had already done most of the packing. I had also done a bit of shopping in anticipation of the project. I had got myself a pair of Nike trainers, 2 formal shirts and some swimwear. So there it was, I was ready to go. I fed the address into the Tom Tom and set off. I was off, but then I realised that I had left my luggage behind. Doh !!!

Came back to fetch my luggage, bid Guddu goodbye and was off finally. The drive was a good one. I did not get much traffic. It took me about 50 mins to reach M11 from Wimbledon. After that the ride was a really smooth one. I then cut onto A11, this was the potential delay causing route. Since there were only 2 lanes on these roads, they were a threat. But luckily I got smooth flowing traffic. I was enjoying my ride. I was not planning to take any breaks. But then I saw a really picturesque view of a column. I pulled over. It was called Nelson column. I took a snap, paused for a while to soak the enchanting view, then moved on.

I reached the Marriott at about 3 PM. Not bad at all. Nicec travel time. I checked in. I was the first to check in. Got room 123.

Websphere Users Meet

Free events are always an attraction. When it is organized by IBM and offers free breakfast, lunch and drinks afterwards, it just makes it even more irresistible. The only tough part was the early registration for the event. I had to wake up early in the morning and drive my way up to IBM Bedfont.

The office is set in a serene place. I had ample amount of food, especially the cakes. After all I was hungry after the struggle with the traffic on my way. Nice start to the day. I went in to attend a few of the sessions on MQ Series, SIB, ESB and Websphere Message Broker, they were very informative. The people who were giving the presentations were highly experienced and had huge amount of expertise in their respective fields.

During the breaks between the sessions, I went to the expo, where stalls from various IBM business partners had been put up. Each of them were promoting their product and trying to attract customers towards them. Alphacourt, Open Logic, Morpheus, Verhouf, MidVision, Macro4, Smart421 were some of the companies who were present there. It was a good move during this gloom economic times. They were also giving away several freebies to attract people to visit their stalls. I went to few of those stalls and collected some of the goodies.

Most of them were giving away pens and mouse pads and coffee mugs, the one that stood out was Alphacourt, who gave away pen drives with their presentation in them, which was pretty innovative and smart.

I also met a lot of people from my previous job. It was nice to catch up with them. Afterall this is what such gatherings are for. After all the presentations people went for the drinks, but I left for home. After all one should never drink and drive, anad anyway I was more keen not to get stuck in traffic again. Overall a great dayout.