Last round please

Sunday 28th

I put through a final load of washing last night and packed as much as I could. Once I had my shower this morning the last few items went into the suitcase and I started loading the car.  It was a bit after 10 when I left and I drove passed the mall and took a few more photos before heading to the TPC for a final round of golf for this trip.

It was even quieter today with only 6 players, including me, from The Rack. I played with Terry, one of the organisers and whom I'd been talking to yesterday after the game at the Player course. The other 4 played behind us.

I was hitting the ball really well today but an OB and a top in the water plus some putting lapses gave me a poor start before I started getting some pars.  I finished with 91 a few better than when I played this course 2 weeks ago. It was fairly sunny today but quite windy.

Because of the low numbers there was no comp organised so I have in fact finished with a bit of $30 to take home. Not a bad amount as it'll be a starter for the next trip without tying up a lot of money.

I headed to Tony's dropping my library books off on the way. I had enough time to clean and pack the golf clubs and have a bit of a chat before having a shower and changing for the trip.  I had a bit of a shock when I checked my itinerary to see I was flying out of San Francisco and not LA, until I check the domestic and found that was also going to SF. I remember the travel agent saying there were no ticket left to Hong Kong from SF when I first made my enquiry but forgot that she had looked at the wrong day and the second visit had shown they were still available.

I left Tony's about 6pm and by the time I'd returned the car and got to the terminal an hour had passed. I nearly only checked my baggage to SF but they were able to grab my golf bag before it disappeared and then reticket them all the way to Bangkok.

It was till 1 1/2 hours till my flight with no access to the lounge. I walked to the departure gate which was literally the farthest one from the check in counter and went to the loo where I found a phone (and some tickets) some one had left earlier. I tried to call the number that had 4 missed calls but it was blocked and eventually got through to customer service telling them the phone had been found and was being handed to airline staff. This filled in some of the wait time and i did some crosswords until the flight boarded.

I was in seat 1A so had a good view of the lights of Houston as we took off and some other cities we flew over but unfortunately it didn't photograph. I watched some standup on the TV, then the end of the cartoon movie 51 and then the golf before dozing off for a bit.

Check in at this end was quite quick and I was in the lounge within half an hour of getting off in the domestic terminal. there's only 15 minutes till boarding.

Re-Player

Saturday 27th

The Rack golf group was playing at the Player course again but becuase many of them were at a tournament, there were only 2 groups. This caught me out since I had been practicing chips and bunker shots and hadn't hit any drives or putts. The last couple of times it was nearly and hour between the first group and my group.

I again played in a 5, with 3 of the others being the same 3 as 2 weeks ago and Dan being the new one. Lee was at the tournament.

However, I still started with a lovely straight drive, but caught the bunker with my second and finished with a wipe. In the end I played somewhat erratically with often a string of pars then some horrible holes. I had a 93 - 4 worse than the first game. I did notice that I only missed 1 fairway on the back 9 and had some massive drives of 270 - 285 yards. I again played off the blue tees.

Because of the small numbers it was decided each of us would put in $5 and play skins only - ie you only won if you had a solo lowest score on a hole. I finished up winning $20, although I think I may have been over paid.

Still it was fortunate. I bought some replacement padlocks and had only slightly over $200 left in US currency. Green fees are $86 and we put $20 into the comp normally, so I could have been already over that on 2 normal days. I bought a sandwich after the 9th and then thought that it could have caused me to run out of money on Sunday. As it is I think I have just enought for tomorrow as long as I don't get into any side bets.

I am currently putting through a final wash before starting to pack. When I got to the laundry, 1 machine was half way through its cycle and the other 2 had finished and had baskets on top. I emptied one and was amazed at how much they managed to stuff into a single load. I'm surprised the machine could even spin.

I'll play golf with these guys again tomorrow, so I'll need to be ready to leave the room by 10-30.

I get a Brazilian

Friday 26th

Today was the last day in the office and I sepent some of it with fine tuning and bug fixing and some of it discussing concepts so that I have some idea when the enhancements come to my inbox.

There seems to be general agreement that my visit has been worthwhiole and that our achievements have justified the cost.  Tony seems keen to get me over twice a year (possible) but Goke was suggesting every 3 months (not likely).

Eventually the day was over but most people had already left and made their goodbyes.

Tony and Lisa invited me our to the Brazilian Restaurant, with Andy and Leslie, who I'd met at the concert last year also came. This is the gaucho style, where there is a big salad bar where you serve yourself, but the meat is delivered to the table on long skewers. You choose which of the offerings you want and how much. There were 4 or 5 types of steak, chicken, pork and prawns. Needless to say, it is tempting to overeat. However, I at least didn't have any desert unlike some of the others.

Middle little pigs

Thursday 25th

I seem to be back to normal today, thank goodness. I worked with Brandon today sprucing up the raw data plots. I also fixed a bug in surge and swab that I introduced recently.

Then Richard and Brandon takes about imaging the data. Ie using coloured bands to indicate values rather than displaying curves.

I did a proof of concept on the raw data displaying up to 9 tracks side by side as images. Richard supplied me with a default colour mapping which I then incorporated.

I then discussed how we might implement this with Brandon and came up with some ideas.

On the way home I stopped in at a new subdivision and took these photos to illustrate why Americans are like the middle little pig - the one that built his house from sticks.

I had bought a lasagne for lunch but I also bought some soup which was more than enough. I went to the dining room at the hotel to try and get some salad dressing and decided the pasta and salad on offer was good enough, so the lasagne will be for another time.

After dinner I worked on my idea for the imaging and was able to complete the option by 9 o'clock.

Sick and Tired

Tuesday 23rd

Was it some thing I ate last night or just the cumulation of too much rich food? I went to sleep about 10 but from 3 onwards I slipped in and out of sleep. I forced myself to get into the shower about 7 but was so tired I had to lie down again. I was also a bit woosy in my stomach. I eventually got to work via the chemist.

I really plodded along for the morning and about 1pm I headed back to the hotle and had a couple of hours sleep. After that I felt a bit better and was able to work on the surge and swab calculations which I eventually got working by about 10.

Wednesday 24th

I felt much better today and spent most of it with Tony running through the new options, fixing any bugs that came up and generally tidying up.

After having just 2 apples since yesterday morning, I had a turkey wrap for lunch but still don't feel like eating tonight.

The Maine event

Monday 22nd

Back to spring weather today. Hard to believe we had such a rotten weekend with both Friday and today being sunny and warm.

I decided to wear my new t shirt and cardigan today. The t was fine but when I went to put on the cardigan I found the sales assistant hadn't removed the security tag. There was a warning that tampering would release ink.

I spent most of the day working on little bugs that had been around for a while or newly discovered rather than making any great new improvements.

Tim, Mao and I went to lunch at a hamburger joint. It was a bit upmarket with burger, chips and drinks costing $15. Quite nice though.

I stopped off at Sears to get the tag removed and had a further look at the clearance items. Nothing grabbed me, but I noticed the extra 40% off tags had been removed from the racks where I got the clothes on Saturday, so timing for that was pretty good.

This evening I finally got to Red Lobster, the seafood restaurant just near the hotel. It was decidedly less busy than when I tried last time. I ordered one of the "Maine Lobster Month" specials which had prawns, crab and (small) lobster tails. The drink was the lobsterina which is a huge strawberry margarita.

Frozen out

Sunday 21st

The weather prediction for today has been getting worse all week. Early on, they predicted sunny but cold - 64 deg. The temperature gradually decreased all week and in today's prediction it is supposed to be 56. Winds were also predicted to be 25mph or more in the afternoon. It looked quite pleasant after breakfast but I called Lee and he said he wasn't playing but that some of them would still go out. He also said the wind chill factor would make it seem much colder than it was, so I decided to give it a miss as well.

Next weekend is back to 70 plus, so assuming that doesn't change, I'll get 2 more games in before I leave. At nearly $90 per game, I really want to enjoy it when I do play.  A big storm swept through the US from the East yesterday with snow in a lot of the states north of Texas, so just being cold and windy isn't so bad.

I decide to drive up to Conroe, the next town North on the I-45. It didn't take long to get there but I had set the hotel as "home" on the GPS and then click on Go home so as soon as I was under way it started nagging me about how to get back to the hotel. IN the end I had to reset the target address to Conroe and just picked a street at random. This turned out to be in the middle of nowhere. In fact Conroe in general is pretty non-descript with most of the shops lining the I-45.

I had lunch at a Chinese buffet which was quite tasty and fairly cheap and then decided to head to Lake Conroe. This was about 10 miles away and Tony had mentioned having a picnic there last weekend. Agin in order to program the GPS I had to select a destination and picked Walden on Lake Conroe, which turned out to be a golf course. On the way I stopped at a marina and took a few shots. However the lake was very choppy, the wind was blowing a gale and it was overcast so not very picturesque.

I drove on the the golf course and pulled in at the pro shop but didn't even try to get a game becuase the wind was really ripping along. However I got a card and the guy there talked about "the point" and showed me a pic. I decide to have a look myself. There are 3 really nasty holes there, even on a good day. A par 5 with a narrow fairway between 2 lakes curls around to the green, followed by a par over water to a green right at the edge of the lake, then back over the water. At the time the wind was blowing at right angles across the par 3 so it would have been very difficult not to finish in the lake.

As it turns out the father of one of the guys in the office is a member, and I might be able to get a game if I want.

I headed back stopping at a resort course on the way (Tragic isn't it) and the guy at the pro shop there said there were only 6 people on the course.

I picked up some nibbles and drink at the Walmart on the main road back to Conroe and then headed home. There was a major traffic jam, with (I think) fire engines blocking the road but I did a U-turn before I got close enough to see. I then headed away till the next major intersection and followed a farm road back to town. I nearly got cleaned up when I stopped at a red light and the women some 100m or so behind me decided she was going to run it (or maybe she just wasn't paying attention). She finished up in the turn left lane with her car further ahead then mine. I also saw one of those huge utes they have here with the double back wheels.

Once I got back to the I-45 it was a quick run back to the hotel.

I was able to call my client in Perth and discuss the mods, coming up with a simpler plan.

Washed out

Saturday 20th

Yesterday, I finished off the last few options for the log data. Lunch was with Richard and Tony at an upmarket sandwich bar in Market square.

My repaired 4 iron arrived in the morning so any worries about it not being back in time for my departure next weekend were exaggerated.

I was thinking of going to the driving range after work but I had worn jeans and didn't feel like going bakc to the hotel to change. I did however call into the golf shop and buy those wedges for Dane. I also hit a new hybrid on there launch monitor as well as my current one and the be honest there wasn't much difference so I decided I just stick with the status quo.

I had dinner at the Outback restaurant, the chain of steak house that has a supposedly Australian theme. This is most obvious in the stupid names they have for there dishes. eg Aussie-tisers instead of appetisers. The meals are typically American with some items I've never seen in Australia (such as the large friend onion as an appetiser). It did have the advantgae this it is right next to the hotel so I just walked there.

After a lovely sunny day on Friday, Saturday, the official start of spring was a reversion to winter weather. It rained most of the day and after breakfast I was wondering whether to play golf at all. I was saved from that decision by a message from Lee saying they had cancelled.

I decided to try a waffle this morning since I'd seen the waffle maker all week. It was particularly bland.and the syrup made little difference so I put some yoghurt on it. I did see packets of so called "Breakfast syrup". This rang a few bells after reading the "Omnivores Dilemma" in book club last year. The main ingredients were corn syrup and High Fructose Corn syrup. Definitely a product of industrialised corn.

I put the washing on and started working on an upgrade for a client back home. After I couple of hours I was ready for a break and headed out, first to the library, but my book hadn't arrived, and then to a Mexican restautant for lunch. After that I checked out the golf shop again, this time looking at shoes for myself. I saw a cute little umbrella designed to be put in the bag and cover the clubs for $18.

No purchases there but the next stop was the sports store that looks like a church or court house or lodge (see last years blog for a pic). However I thought I'd crossed the freeway too far North so wound my way back through the suburbs to the Mall. I decide instead to head south to a second hand book shop where I picked up a couple of paper backs for my flight and time in Thailand.

I then headed North again and found I had in fact not been too far South for the sport store after all.
They had Footjoys (green joys) for $40 but I didn't really like the colour and I already have an unused pair at home.

Further up the I45, there is a driving range with a golf shop attached, so I stopped there as well. After a lot of trying on of various shoes I found a pair of Addidas Clima cools on the $30 clearance table that were very comfortable. They will be great for Thailand and next summer at home. I also bought the club umbrella which was only $12 there and some slips ons for under $10 at a nearby shoe discount place.

Back at the hotel I did another couple of hours on the upgrade till it was time for dinner. I headed to the Mall and went in there for the first time this trip. This is quite a large mall with 4 department stores as week as a museum and speciality shops, with a lot of up market restaurants outside. (again pics in last year's blog.)


My first purchase was a Halter neck terry towelling dress for throwing on over bathers, bought in JC Penny's. It had been discounted to around $20 which seemed quite a reasonable price.  I then checked out Macy's but didn't find anything. Then in Sears, I found that had an 'extra 40% off' sale even on already discounted items. I bough a couple of 3/4 length t shirts for $3 each and a teal cardigan for $6. Unbelievable!

I had dinner at Landry's, an upmarket sea food restaurant. I had the blueberry mojito, as I've had twice before, but found that a shrimp and crab appetiser size fondue was more than enough for me.

I did see most of Saturday night Live tonight although I nodded off for part of it..

Knees up

Thursday 18th

The last few days have seen steady progress at work but nothing startling on the personal side.

I sent my 4 iron to the Wilson repair centre on Tuesday, with the help of Gina who found a package that fitted and organised the Fedex to get there and one to get back via overnight express. It arrived on Wednesday and has already been repaired and picked up for the return journey. I may have it for this weekend.

However the weather is not looking as promising as last weekend with thunderstorms on Saturday and sunny but quite cold on Sunday.

I got to sleep in past 7am the last 2 days. Dare I hope the jet lag has passed?

However I have another problem. My left knee is giving me quite a lot of pain. Fortunately not all the time, but whenever I try and walk, especially after sitting at my desk for a period, I get very sharp pains and have to limp a bit to avoid them. I had an operation last October and everything seemed to have recovered, so after 20 weeks, I played a game of hockey. This seemed to cause some problems and when I couldn't play the following week I decided to retire. However now I'm worried that I may hyave done more damage than I first thought. Or worse, that it's the golf that is making it worse.

I have been eating in lately, with some more crabs from the supermarket tonight. Yesterday I was planning to go out but passed the dining area and saw they had ordered in pizzas so I had that instead. They provide dinner Mon to Thu, free of charge, at the hotel, but it tends to be fairly basic.

Sleepless in Shenandoah

Monday 15th

I woke up about 3.45 this morning, showing that my jet lag, at least, has adjusted to daylight saving.

I was able to convert the user defined plot option and write most of the Log data option before lunch while Brandon was busy with other things. Just before lunch we had a discussion on the broad aims for this next part of my visit and then 4 of us headed to lunch at an Indian restaurant. That was different than last week but typical of my previous visits, with a group from the office eating lunch together at some restaurant.

While I was there I noticed a missed call from the Golf shop, which was only a block away from the restaurant. I called in there afterwards and was told that only Wilson could repair the broken shaft an was given the address of their repair centre (in Illinois) and cost ($28+$5 shipping). A phone call had me wondering whether it could be done before I left but I have since decided that I might as well send it off. It will probably not be any cheaper if I wait till I get home and may also need to be sent to a Wilson repair facility there. At least it will get fixed and hopefully, if not in time before I go, they will send it home for me.

After lunch, I fixed a few bugs and added an option to test the user defined plots. I then had a meeting with Tony and Brandon. There are 2 Brandons at the office, called senior and Junior to avoid confusion.  This was senior, a Vice president, like Tony, in the company before the take over.

I showed them what I had done so far and we talked about what else was required and how we might do it. When Brandon said he had to go we finished up and I went back to my office expecting to do some more work, only to realise it was already after 5-30 and most of the office was empty.

I bought some cooked crabs at the super market planning to have them with a salad in my room for dinner.  I lay on the bed to watch TV around 7 and was asleep before the first show finished. I eventually woke enough, about 11-30, to get in to bed properly and slept through to after 5.

TPC

I had a reasonable sleep again. I never really know if this will happen even after a week here.

The clock by indicated it was about 9 but the time i was up, showered and dressed. So did my PC but I had a suspicions that Daylight saving started today. As it turns out it did and both of these clocks adjusted automatically since my watch said it was 8. I had a horrible feeling I might be an hour late for golf.

I headed to Golf smith to see what they might do with my broken club and arrived before they were open. This gave me time to get some drinks at the supermarket.

They also said they'd need to order the shaft in specially and would call me tomorrow. They had a range of second and clubs and I saw a lone Mizuno 4 iron. I thought I might buy it if it was cheap enough but it turned out is was misplaced and part of a full set.

We played the Tournament players course today.  This was the last of the 3 courses I played last year with Tony and has water in play on all bar 4 holes. There are a lot of pretty holes which are also pretty difficult and I lost 4 balls in the water today.

We again played in a 5 ball. Lee said he'd partner me and we would play the 3 pair combinations of the others for $5 per 9 and for the 18. It wasn't too big a bet and I thought he'd have to play better than yesterday.

However we were still at a disadvantage since the opponents had handicaps of 6, 9 and 12 vs Lees, 9 and my 16 (playing handicap), since we played off scratch.

Nonetheless we finished up winning 2 of the front 9 matches and drawing the other. Unfortunately we didn't play as well on the back 9. On the final hole I had a downhill chip from 3 m passed the green to a pin only a few  m from the waters edge. I managed to finish 4 ft passed the hole and get my putt for a par to save us about $15.

This was 1 of only 5 pars for the day and I was pleased in the end to break 100 with 48 on both 9s. My net 80 turned out to be the best nett in our group.

The rest of them had gathered in the Men's locker room because the balcony was occupied so I couldn't join them. Lee said he'd fix both my $20 comp fee and the $5 bet loss, which was quite generous of him.

On the way home I stopped at a display home in a new area near the hotel. The house that was open was around $400,000 and had 3 bedrooms and a study downstairs with  3 bath rooms and a large living area. The kitchen was also quite big with a formal dining room and a 3 car garage on this level. Upstairs was a large games room. It was interesting to get a feel for what you get for your money here, but the shocker was that the rates were over $11,000 per year and this was a "cheap" area, because the commercial strip along the I-45 subsidised the council. I was also told there was 1 police officer for every 17 residents, so it was very safe but they were strict about enforcing the speed limit.

I was invited to Tony and Lisa's again for dinner, this time we had  roast pork on the BBQ. It was another very pleasant evening and so much better than eating on your own, no matter how fancy the restaurant.

Players

Saturday 13th

I woke up about 3.30 again and after lying in bed thinking about a report I was going to write, realised I wasn't getting back to sleep so got up and wrote it. I got back to bed about 6-30 and dropped off before the cleaner woke me at 9. I didn't realise the breakfast service lasted till 9-30 on the weekend so after a shower had some toast in my room.


About 10 I headed out to golf at the player course of the Woodlands Country Club. Once I got in the car I realised I didn't know the address to type into the GPS, so had to look it up on Google Earth back in the room. Even then I got the spelling of the name of the street wrong so the GPS couldn't find it. However I knew where to go to get there and the name of the main cross street so headed off. I hadn't realised how far it was and it was quite a bit later than intended by the time I got there. However, there was no panic since I was in the last group that hit off just before 12 so had plenty of time on the driving range and the putting green. I should also have gone to the chipping area as well since the first hole I chipped over the green 3 times. The greens here are a lot harder than at home and there is no bite and spin back like I expect there.


The course is not as lush as last time and the grass off the fairways is brown after the winter, which was harsher than normal. I was told it will green up in a few weeks. It was supposed to be 75F  today and was sunny, so great golf weather.



We played as a 5 ball as did a number of other groups, so it wasn't a fast round. Bad luck for the 2 ball that hit off after us as they had a lot of waiting. Apart from Lee who I played with last year, the other players were Jobie, an optician, Dewey who has a fireworks business and Doug who is a pastor.


I was quite pleased with my round, since I played off the blue tees and had an 89. The blues are the second to longest and have a "slope" of 140 - which means they are nearly 25% harder that a standard course. My 13 handicap would be adjusted to 16 so I was only 1 stroke over. I had 2 birdies and 6 pars and a number of doubles and one triple (because of a lost ball). I putted really well with only 28 putts and one chip in from off the green.

I also manage to break my 4 iron hitting out of the trees on the second hole (which I parred).

I played with a group called "The Rack" and they have several comps amongst themselves. Apart from individual scores, they have a draw for pairs and play skins. Each of us puts in $20 and the winners get $50 or $60 and so on. The skins are awarded to anyone who has a solo best score but unfortunately several others birdied the 2 holes that I did. When they finished I asked Lee what handicap he'd given me and discovered that one of the guys had put my score in as a net 85 rather than 73 or 74. This cost me a bit because that would have been a winning score in the pairs since my partner had 73. Lee apologised and refunded my $20.


I visited Golf Galaxy to see if they could fix my club but realised this would be an issue since it has an uncommon "fat shaft" only used by Wilson Golf.

I finished up eating dinner at a Mexican a few 100m from the hotel and then decide to watch Saturday Night Live on the TV, but kept falling asleep.

Time flies

Friday 12th

I can't believe a week has passed already. It seems that although I have done quite a lot of work, we have come up with more things that need to be done. I did finish the relative curve calculations and plotting routines. Here's a shot of the new building. Last time I was here they were still in the converted house but had already organised the move to the new premises.

After work I headed to the driving range again and  again had a decent period there. I then headed to Golfsmith which also did not have the 48 in oil can. I did hit the new Callaway Hybrid on the launch monitor. However it seems that picking up hybrids is a bit tricky and only 1 shot in every 4 or 5 was getting registered. However it seemed that I was actually getting better results with my old club than the one I was testing. I also tried on golf shoes but in the end only bought a couple of gloves.

Since I was down that end of the Woodlands ((the southern end) I decided to go to Crab Daddies for dinner. However there were no parking spots so I continued on back to the hotel. I then decided to walk to Red Lobster which as probably 500m away down the I45 access road. Because this is one way getting back to the hotel would involve a big loop and I figured I could do it quicker on foot.

They told me there would be a 25 minute wait so I went to the Kebab house next door. Vegetarians need not apply. I had the mixed platter with kebabs, sausages etc. about 6 different types of meat.

I did another load of washing once I got home before heading for bed about 11.

A short time ago, in a galaxy not far away

Thursday 11th

A better night's sleep last night waking around 7-30 and hence I managed to stay awake and concentrate till 5 today.

I had suggested to Tony that we both go to the driving range at lunch time but he suggested instead we play 9 holes from about 4 with Lisa joining us. However later he realised he wasn't going to get away and I was too busy as well. In fact I skipped lunch altogether although with the snack bar in the lunch room, you'll never starve in the office. There are baskets of chips, biscuits, chocolates etc.there as well as juice, water and soft drinks.

I was asked to have a meeting with Brandon junior who was having problems with well path planning to meet certain instructions from a particular client. Essentially they wanted a near horizontal well but didn't have a precise starting point, kick off or initial azimuth. Really too many variables to solve automatically. However we were able to come up with an manual iterative technique which got an acceptable solution much quicker than the method he was using, so he was happy by the end of the meeting.

I finished the new calculation routines and am now upgrading the plots. Already most of the first week has passed and I can see how, if I had the time, this trip could have been extended as well. However apart from the golf, which has a fixed window, I am now doing a couple of days work in Thailand for POE as well. This means I miss my shopping days in Bangkok. They will pick me up from the airport on Tuesday and hopefully drop me in Pattaya, not too late, on Thursday.

I left work about 5-30 and headed to the TPC for some practice on the driving range. I seemed to be much worse than yesterday! I also spend a bit of time on the putting green until the groundstaff collected the flag sticks and the light failed.

I picked up a book I had reserved at the library. I also have a copy of the same book waiting for collection in Perth but the hold date is much to soon for me to actually collect it. That one I reserved months ago.

From there I headed to nearby Market street to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Chicken fajitas and a margarita with some change from $20.

My last stop was Golf Galaxy, to check up on the wedges. Dane got back to me with his decision and I wanted to make sure they were in stock. Unfortunately one of them was not available in the finish he wanted and will need a special order from this store. I'll check Golfsmith tomorrow and confirm the finish.

I tried out a Callaway FT hybrid while I was there It'll be around A$175, so I'm not sure that I'll buy it. I did buy some more balls - the Pro-V1X cross outs at $30 a dozen ($45 for the standard boxes) and a magnetic ball marker.

This is my office. I started in the one next to Tony's which has 2 desks in it. However they are extending the office space and the new section is the other side of that wall. Apart from the noise of the fit out, that room will soon become part of the corridor. The new office is a few doors closer to the entrance and has only one desk.

F...Lag, Wavering

Wednesday 10th

Work has been good so far with some great ideas for extending and optimising relative curve functions. Had a few iterations but think we got it right finally. However I was too tired to concentrate to finish the actual programming this afternoon.

Monday night I slept well getting up around 7.  On Tuesday,Tony invited me to dinner at his place along with a neighbour, a Shell geologist. However due to some confusion about  the  "tomorrow" mentioned in the email invite, he thought it was Wednesday, so there were just the 3 of us.

Lisa cooked a roast and we had berry pie for desert. A couple of Margaritas got the night started.

We had a very pleasant evening and discussed all manner of things. Last time I was here Tony was away for all but the first and last few days of my visit, but this time he'll be here all the time, so we will probably socialise a number of times.

Last night jet lag caught up to me. I woke about 3-30 this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep. I was at the office too early to get in with my pass but some one else was there to let me in. I worked fairly steadily through the morning.

I went down to the TPC (Tournament players course) at lunch time and hit some balls on the driving range and then had some putting practice.

The range itself is mostly brown with some very green target greens. The bit of the course I could see also had very green fairways but the short rough was also brown. I haven't been here this time of year before so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. They have had snow here which is apparently not always the case.

After this, I got back to work and then hit the wall about 3-30 pm. I had a hard time staying awake let alone concentrating and eventually gave up and left a bit before 5. I picked up some pre grilled chicken breast and salad at the supermarket and just ate in my room.

The last 2 days have been overcast but not raining and quite balmy. It seems as we head to the weekend it will be getting sunnier but colder. Seems counter-intuitive to me.

A good start

Monday 8th

I had a fairly solid night's sleep. Although I woke up a few times I got back to sleep fairly quickly afterwards. I was quite surprised when I looked at the clock and saw it was 8-45. It was past breakfast time but I was able to get some anyway and then headed to work.

It was fairly easy to find but all the reserved parking was in use so I had to go up a couple of floors to the unreserved places.

It took a while to get set up but eventually I had a power supply, mouse and monitor and was ready to go. I also got a tour of the new office and met everybody again. Quite a few were away as is usual for this business.

Tony and I had a good discussion and came up with some good ideas for extending the relative curve function to include planning and input data. It didn't take too long before I had that working for the new rock mechanics option. We then headed to lunch at a Thai restaurant. Since the move the nearest restaurants have changed and this one was quite busy. Apparently the one we used to go to, which was always fairly quiet and has now closed.

I worked on upgrading the Surge and swab planning to use the Rock Mechanics tables but was having trouble concentrating and didn't finish it all today. It was still after 5-30 when I left and there were only a handful of people still in the office by then.

I headed to Golfsmith to start researching wedges I am looking at for Dane. The good news was that they were $10 off the internet price, but I had forgotten that tax is added to prices here rather than included in the price as it is in Australia.

From there I headed to the TPC golf course to see what time they stayed open till. I talked to a couple of guys practising on the putting green, despite the drizzle. Apparently the whole course is closed every Monday.

From there, I headed to the library where I borrowed 3 books. I looked at the DVDs but didn't see anything that appealed.

My last stop was Golf Galaxy. They had the wedges at the same price but also the old model another $20 cheaper again, although not the full set he wants. They had some Pro-V1 balls in a box that had been sponsor branded. These were the overruns and only $3 each rather than the standard price of nearly $4. I picked out 4 V1x's.

It was nearly 7-30 by the time I got to the hotel and the complimentary dinner was already finished. Apparently it was chicken nuggets so no great loss. Back into the car again and across the highway to Sport Authority who had no wedges of the required brand.

A bit further down the road I stopped for dinner at Pappadeaux and had 2 lbs of cajun crawfish and the special cocktail based on Barcardi and strawberry liqueur. Crawfish seem to been in season at this time of the year and are only $3-95 per pound.

Still no golf clubs.

Tripping, but not light nor fantastic

Sun 7th

Here I am in LAX, a -hole of a place. (Please feel free to prefix that with appropriate modifier)

I am about 25 hours into the 30 hour journey and feeling fairly wretched - sweaty and tired. Another 20 minutes or so till the next flight and as usual business/first class tickets don't get you into the Continental Airlines club so I'm in a fast food joint, the same as on a previous trip. No photos so far since there's really been nothing new.

David picked me up and took me to Perth airport about 9pm Saturday for an 11pm flight to Sydney. Had a chance to read a few golf mags in the lounge before taking off. The movie was "Up in the Air" - quite appropriate and not too bad. I nodded off somewhere in the middle however. We arrived about 6am and I had arranged to meet my Aunt and Uncle, who I haven't seen for 20 or so years. They picked me up around 8-30, so I had breakfast in the domestic Qantas lounge and read the Sunday papers.

We headed to Brighton for coffee and a catch up. After showing them photos of my kids, house and last trip to the US and seeing those of my cousin and her family, we were back to the international. Then I realised we were so busy looking at photos, I didn't take any. I guess sometime in the next 20 years we can try again.

I had about an hour to wait before my flight after buying a couple of duty free mini whisky bottles.

There's no doubt the flight to LA is long and even in business class it is a trial, so the economy trip must be awful. I sat next to the keyboard player from Whitney Houston's support band, heading home after 2 months on the road. There were quite a few others from the band scattered around the cabin.

Unfortunately, the entertainment system was playing up and after watching the missed bits of Up in the air (only about 5 minutes as it turned out), started to watch "The Informant". They turned it off and then rebooted some time later. It still wasn't working 100% and after trying to fast forward to the right spot, couldn't stop it and it fast forwarded all the way to the end. After that I wasn't even able to get it to load. I gave up and had a nap instead. Probably 3 or 4 hours. I was able to watch the general broadcast movies and saw "the Blind Side" which was again quite good. Sandra Bullock has earned her Oscar nomination.

There was still another 3 hours after that but eventually we landed. Passport control was quick and my bag was out early but there was a bit of a wait for the golf clubs so the exit queue was building up.

Once through I put the duty free in the suitcase, put my bags on the conveyor belt and headed to the Continental check in counter, which is probably a 1km walk. Check in was again pretty quick and I got through the security with minimum delay. I've got some US money from an ATM. So here I am ready to get on yet another plane.

Later

The flight was no better or worse than the others but it was over 3 hours. The entertainment has improved from the previous trip on Continental, with asmall screen in the back of the seat which had a very large choice of TV stations. I found one that was showing back to back episodes of "The Unit" and saw 3 of them, although whenever they made an announcement, we lost the sound. Being TV, rather than a film, I also got to watch the ads.


I had a window seat, for a change, and although a lot of the time we were flying over clouds I did get shots of the Rockies and the dessert.

My Limo driver was waiting for me holding up a sign with my name on it and my suitcase was in the first 20 off the plane. However we waited at the oversized luggage area for 30 minutes, seeing a number of other golf clubs being delivered before I headed to baggage services. They confirmed it didn't get on the flight and said it will be delivered to the hotel, but has not yet arrived.

However, Gina had got everything organised for me with a phone, car and a welcome basket waiting for me at the hotel. The room is more than adequate although a bit smaller than at the other Marriott I stayed at 18months ago. It has a lounge and a small kitchen as well as an LCD TV.

I headed out to the supermarket and bought some salad, some snow crab legs ($5 per lb) and some soft drinks. When I got to the check out I didn't have my purse. Fortunately I keep a credit card separately in my bag so I was able to pay for the shopping and when I got back, it was just lying on the bed, so no real damage done.

I called one of the 2 golf contacts but got disconnected only shortly into the conversation. A second try went to voice mail. I dialled the other guy and something similar happened. After several unsuccessful retries I dialled the first guy again and got through. He said he did something so it wasn't my phone playing up, which is what you think when the same thing happens twice. Anyway, he was quite friendly and said if I dropped his name at the pro shop, I would be able to use the driving range during the week. However, tomorrow doesn't look likely as they are predicting 1/2 to 1 " rain in the Houston area. Last time I came here they had even more rain the day after I arrived.

I have managed to stay up till after 9.30 so far, so hopefully I will get my body clock in sync quickly. I have only had about 6 hours sleep since getting up at 6am on Saturday, some 2 days 6 hours ago. I have been watching the golf channel while eating my crabs and getting technical support to send emails from the hotel (about 20 minutes on hold) but now working.