I write this first post 3 hours into my 11 hour flight from Heathrow to San Francisco. Several of you asked me to write up my ramblings over the course of this… expedition, for lack of a better word, so do please bear with me as the nature of this blog evolves and hopefully settles down in time. I’m sure it’ll be a lot chirpier by Monday!

A moment ago, having killed the first few hours watching Iron Man 3, I cracked into “Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby”, when a came across the line (written in the context of beginning a new project) “you will never know less than you know right now”. Truth be told I didn’t get much further than that paragraph; it has been very difficult to focus with my mind spinning as it is. But I couldn’t help but notice how that rather poetic line seemed oddly relevant to my current situation. New beginnings, filled with so much uncertainty, but fortunately things can only get clearer from here. Family and friends insist this will be the best time of my life, and I’ve no doubt they’re right. Nevertheless these first few days will be a culture shock that’s difficult to stomach.

Despite telling many friends that being, the emotional robot I can be, I didn’t know how to miss them, I certainly am missing them now. Not to say I’m not excited for what awaits when we land, TSA ‘fun’ aside, but it’s only now hitting me that if times do get tough, those figures who used to be omnipresent supportive figures (you know who you are!) simply aren’t there any more, for purely geographical and timezone reasons! That said, with the ‘Bristol Crew’ now spread across the globe, I’m certainly not the only one who suddenly finds themselves in that position, so I guess I must join you all in keeping a stiff upper lip.

Work doesn’t begin till Monday so we’ve got a long weekend of either frantic administrative work, or boozing, or more likely than not, both.

PS. Vaguely related aside, my TV screen tells me that the outside air temperature is both -40C and -40F. This could be the only time this year I find metric to imperial conversion a doddle!