Tingy

Well we’re back. And I’m not happy. Really.

England feels cold. Because it IS cold. Bloody cold. Gatwick airport was a shithole. It was embarrassing comparing it with Orlando that we had just left.

Jet lag has taken its toll and none of us can wake up before noon at the moment. This is a problem as it will soon be monday morning.

Trying to convey the joy I found in the Disney experience has been fustrating. I’m finding cynicism from those I’m talking to. I’m resigned to not trying anymore. You have to go there to get it. That’s the long and short of it. And if someone doesn’t want to go there, then I reckon there’s a little bit of joy missing somewhere. Their loss.

See You Real Soon, originally uploaded by Tingy.

We are at the end of the holiday now, the suitcases are all packed and we’ll soon be leaving the house to drop off the keys. The last few hours will be spent at Epcot catching up on the last few rides hopefully before going over to the airport this afternoon.

I’m going to be sad to leave here. It’s been a fantastic holiday and I’d gladly take another week or two easily. As with all things new, there’s been some learning involved and I’m sure another trip over would be even more enjoyable and relaxing. But even so, after a three-week break I still would like more and that says something.

Thankfully we have some days to get back into UK time before even thinking about work and stuff next week. I’m sure it will be good to be back home.

See you real soon.

It has been really great having an internet connection available throughout this holiday. The house we are renting had a router already setup so it was just a quick trip to WalMart to pickup a patch cable and we are connected. The primary reason for connecting was to enable flickr uploads to the holiday set for friends back home. But it has also enabled me to keep up with email and RSS feeds so I have peace of mind knowing I don’t have  a bunch of bloated inboxes to return to. It’s also been really nice to lightly monitor friends streams and see stuff going on but at the same time, enjoy the feeling of being away from it and be doing something completely different to the normal routine. Really it’s been the kind of stuff I would normally do with my iPhone but of course that bad boy has been switched off for the entire holiday.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

In gaming news, I’m real happy to see Little Big Planet start to ramp up activity and maybe I can start to believe in the rumoured October release. A news site has appeared here which I’ve already put into my feed reader but it’s worth a visit to the actual site to play with the stickers on there. Just click on Sackboy to bring up the sticker menu. When this game lands it’s going to be awesome, I’m sure of it.

Magic Kingdom Town Square, originally uploaded by Tingy.

We are on holiday in Florida and it’s fantastic! It’s really hard to know where to start in trying to document this. I’ve been uploading to the flickrstream so maybe the photos should speak for themselves. Everything has been bigger and better than I had imagined. The flight experience over was great. The hire car perfect for us. The house and pool better than all of us dared to hope for. And the theme parks? Well, I’ve never been a particular fan of The Mouse, but the wonderful design of the parks has won me over as a fan. Every aspect of design in visuals, architecture, experience is so impressive and the attention to detail across the vast scale is mind-boggling.

We are currently about half-way through our 3-week visit and it’s only in the last few days that we’ve really found our theme park feet and there’s still so much to see. Sure, there are long queues here and there but when you consider the vast number of visitors it’s really not surprising.

Breakfast With Application Frameworks And UI, originally uploaded by Tingy.

Another day working at home where I get to code in comfort and break off for a lovely breakfast such as this. Fresh coffee, croissants and a big book on OS X development. This ‘working at home’ lark really is the tops. I’m coming to the end of a two week period of home working and have really enjoyed it. I’m wondering what I could do to make this style of working more of a feature in my freelance career. Maybe some up-front advertising of services via website or mailshot may lay the ground out. I could offer ‘cost-effective, off-site PCS7 development’ to a number of potential clients and see what feedback I get. Watch this space.

Worked at home last week and all this coming week too. Really enjoying it although I’m having to keep myself in check as there’s a lot to be done. I guess I’ve been getting under the wife’s feet but it’s something we need to get organised.

CenterParcs Sunday Morning, originally uploaded by Tingy.

Got up early and made my way to Starbucks for opening at 8:00AM. Sat down with a grande americano and my copy of iCon.

CenterParcs Bowling, originally uploaded by Tingy.

Sent from iPhone.

CenterParcs Ice Cream, originally uploaded by Tingy.

Sent from iPhone.

CenterParcs Made, originally uploaded by Tingy.

Sent from iPhone.