A week in London

Last Friday I made arrangements for last minute work travel. Turns out two projects I work on both had lots of things going on this week and all of the work was being done out of the London office so it just made sense to head out there myself instead of trying to coordinate everything over email with a seven hour time difference. Actually it was the first time I'd done international travel for the office and while I have looked forward to getting to do it for some time, it was quite a difficult week.

For one thing, the time zone in the UK is a sweet spot for turning one into a workaholic. You get in at a reasonable hour and spend your day working and just when the day is about to end, folks from the States start coming online and sending you emails. There just is no good time to turn off your computer and walk away from work so you end up working say, from 8 to 11. And then you go back to your hotel and work on emails some more.

Also, jet lag, it seems as if it is much easier to recover from when you don't say, work 15 hours a day. Go figure. ;)

The week was rather hellish but it was productive as intended, and the story has a happy ending. Myself and two other engineers on the product met up for fish and chips at a pub and spent the day walking around London and seeing the sights, ending up at the Tate Modern and then going to an interesting neighborhood (the East End I think?) at night for dinner and drinks. Getting to see a bit of the city besides the few blocks between office and hotel really took the edge off the week.