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danieldwilliamMy weekend involved more adventure that I really wanted. Or needed.
In fact I'd have paid some good money in order to avoid some of the adventure.
Friday - MLW and the Captain were still in Porto, expected home on Sunday with a stop off in Harrogate on Saturday night. I was travelling to London on Saturday and had pondered the idea of stopping off in Harrogate on the way home but dismissed it as too much of a faff. Oh, how the Gods laugh at the plans of mortals, and yet how Fate laughs at those of the Gods.
Anyhow - the weekend all started well enough with a presentation at work from a former colleague, now PhD student on the use of Generative Adversarial Networks in the production of synthetic video footage based on audio track. Basically turning some spoken words in to a convincing video of someone saying those words. Either a made up person, or a specific individual. The video generation process worked very well and very quickly. Not quite undetectable by an untutored human being but approaching that level of quality. Which when you consider that turning a script into a convincing voice track is just about trivially easy should make you consider the veractiy of any video you see of someone talking.
Very interesting and there was beer.
Got away early, met Andy for a drink and a chat (it is lovely to see him so delighted with fatherhood, a genuine joy) met up with Dad and decided to head out with him for a pub dinner and a few drinks in the Abbey. That was a nice pub. Lively, with decent food and beer. Early finish because...
... On Saturday I was travelling to London for the first UD board meeting of the new term. An induction and team working session in the morning, a short meeting with a light agenda in the afternoon. Really good to see plans for a full on campaign on a codified constitution and a citizen lead constitutional convention. I'm genuinely excited about that. I've been working to lead the organisation to that for the last 3 years and I'm really, really pleased to see UD starting work on it.
The meeting was marred by a bit of ill-discipline by one of my fellow board members which is going to involve me in some (sadly, now very necessary) remedial work. The person involved should not have done what they did. I will deal with it appropriately. I do, however, very much regret the lost time and energy it will cause to me and to other colleagues. I am grateful to my colleagues in the senior leadership team for there active championing of good standards of conduct.
And this is the point where things started to go sideways. I had planned to catch the 17.00 train from Kings Cross rather my usual 18.00 train. This meant foregoing a pint after the meeting but I thought that was worth doing as I'd be able to get home early, do a quick tidy up of the flat, still have an early night and then an undisturbed lie-in on Sunday morning before toddling off to my rehearsal.
The train was hit by multiple delays. Firstly, just north of Durham, some poor kids had been playing on the line and been hit and killed by the train in front of us. This meant we had to reverse southwards, change trains, head further south in order to divert on to a longer, slower line to Newcastle. Everything was a mess so we got held at Newcastle as well and then became the de facto last train to Edinburgh which involved stopping at every mainline station between Newcastle and Edinburgh (usually, each train stops at Berwick and one of Morpetch, Alnmouth, Dunbar et al, but we got them all). The final delay was a power line failure between Dunbar and Edinburgh. We retreated to Dunbar station, arriving at about 2 am. The conductor (who was very good through out) basically told us that it was going to be a long wait, but he couldn't say how long. he was going to open the doors and if anyone could get a taxi to Edinburgh he had cleared it with his controller to re-emburse people for the taxi fare. There are not many taxis to be had in Dunbar at 2am on a Sunday morning. I eventually got a lift in someone else's taxi and arrived home at 3.33am - some six hours late. I had left the flat at 5.30am on Saturday morning.
(The most badly affected people I noticed were two kids, perhaps 15, perhaps 19) who had slept through their stop to change for a train to Hartlepool and then found themselves stranded on Dunbar station at two in the morning.)
On Sunday I took myself out to Soderburgh for some lunch and ate Swedish bread rolls and an omlette in the fresh air until I felt awake enough to try acting. The acting went well. I only forgot one line. Sadly, it is the best line in the play. (Anyone wondering why my Facebook profile picture is a series of notably black people - it is because I am trying to remind myself that of the line I keep missing.) Good rehearsal but I sloped off after my bit and tidied the flat before popping to to Dad's to see him and my "uncle" and watch the golf until MLW and the Captain returned.
It was lovely to see them. I had missed them whilst they were away and we enjoyed a tender family reunion before I collapsed in to bed.
I had the gym this morning. Pretty good session considering the mental and physical state I was in. Lifted a 100 kgs. Still working myself back in to a post holiday state. Now at work - feelling decidely less than sharp.
I am feeling defiant and also, regular readers will be delighted to know that there was beer and voting over the weekend but, if it were up to me, I'd have less (or perhaps more) beer and voted to be home on time.
In fact I'd have paid some good money in order to avoid some of the adventure.
Friday - MLW and the Captain were still in Porto, expected home on Sunday with a stop off in Harrogate on Saturday night. I was travelling to London on Saturday and had pondered the idea of stopping off in Harrogate on the way home but dismissed it as too much of a faff. Oh, how the Gods laugh at the plans of mortals, and yet how Fate laughs at those of the Gods.
Anyhow - the weekend all started well enough with a presentation at work from a former colleague, now PhD student on the use of Generative Adversarial Networks in the production of synthetic video footage based on audio track. Basically turning some spoken words in to a convincing video of someone saying those words. Either a made up person, or a specific individual. The video generation process worked very well and very quickly. Not quite undetectable by an untutored human being but approaching that level of quality. Which when you consider that turning a script into a convincing voice track is just about trivially easy should make you consider the veractiy of any video you see of someone talking.
Very interesting and there was beer.
Got away early, met Andy for a drink and a chat (it is lovely to see him so delighted with fatherhood, a genuine joy) met up with Dad and decided to head out with him for a pub dinner and a few drinks in the Abbey. That was a nice pub. Lively, with decent food and beer. Early finish because...
... On Saturday I was travelling to London for the first UD board meeting of the new term. An induction and team working session in the morning, a short meeting with a light agenda in the afternoon. Really good to see plans for a full on campaign on a codified constitution and a citizen lead constitutional convention. I'm genuinely excited about that. I've been working to lead the organisation to that for the last 3 years and I'm really, really pleased to see UD starting work on it.
The meeting was marred by a bit of ill-discipline by one of my fellow board members which is going to involve me in some (sadly, now very necessary) remedial work. The person involved should not have done what they did. I will deal with it appropriately. I do, however, very much regret the lost time and energy it will cause to me and to other colleagues. I am grateful to my colleagues in the senior leadership team for there active championing of good standards of conduct.
And this is the point where things started to go sideways. I had planned to catch the 17.00 train from Kings Cross rather my usual 18.00 train. This meant foregoing a pint after the meeting but I thought that was worth doing as I'd be able to get home early, do a quick tidy up of the flat, still have an early night and then an undisturbed lie-in on Sunday morning before toddling off to my rehearsal.
The train was hit by multiple delays. Firstly, just north of Durham, some poor kids had been playing on the line and been hit and killed by the train in front of us. This meant we had to reverse southwards, change trains, head further south in order to divert on to a longer, slower line to Newcastle. Everything was a mess so we got held at Newcastle as well and then became the de facto last train to Edinburgh which involved stopping at every mainline station between Newcastle and Edinburgh (usually, each train stops at Berwick and one of Morpetch, Alnmouth, Dunbar et al, but we got them all). The final delay was a power line failure between Dunbar and Edinburgh. We retreated to Dunbar station, arriving at about 2 am. The conductor (who was very good through out) basically told us that it was going to be a long wait, but he couldn't say how long. he was going to open the doors and if anyone could get a taxi to Edinburgh he had cleared it with his controller to re-emburse people for the taxi fare. There are not many taxis to be had in Dunbar at 2am on a Sunday morning. I eventually got a lift in someone else's taxi and arrived home at 3.33am - some six hours late. I had left the flat at 5.30am on Saturday morning.
(The most badly affected people I noticed were two kids, perhaps 15, perhaps 19) who had slept through their stop to change for a train to Hartlepool and then found themselves stranded on Dunbar station at two in the morning.)
On Sunday I took myself out to Soderburgh for some lunch and ate Swedish bread rolls and an omlette in the fresh air until I felt awake enough to try acting. The acting went well. I only forgot one line. Sadly, it is the best line in the play. (Anyone wondering why my Facebook profile picture is a series of notably black people - it is because I am trying to remind myself that of the line I keep missing.) Good rehearsal but I sloped off after my bit and tidied the flat before popping to to Dad's to see him and my "uncle" and watch the golf until MLW and the Captain returned.
It was lovely to see them. I had missed them whilst they were away and we enjoyed a tender family reunion before I collapsed in to bed.
I had the gym this morning. Pretty good session considering the mental and physical state I was in. Lifted a 100 kgs. Still working myself back in to a post holiday state. Now at work - feelling decidely less than sharp.
I am feeling defiant and also, regular readers will be delighted to know that there was beer and voting over the weekend but, if it were up to me, I'd have less (or perhaps more) beer and voted to be home on time.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-23 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-24 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-24 08:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-24 06:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-24 08:31 am (UTC)I am also worried about them. I wish I had had the wit and energy to look after them.