Last Night In Dundee

penguinsIt’s finally my last night here in Dundee. What a week. Monday through Friday were the same day, over and over again – only with slightly different food. We’d meet up early in the morning for the free hotel breakfast and then walk to the office. Once at the office we’d work from one of the conference rooms running off regularly for slews of meetings and presentations. We’d break for lunch in the afternoons and herd off to dinner together in the evening. Somehow, each evening included at least two beers and a fair amount of socializing.

Friday evening was a slight break in the pattern as the evening brought on a full party. Instead of a couple of beers, I put down a 6 pack. Now, if you know me very well, you might know that being social takes a lot of energy out of me. After being social all day and all evening for a week, I was craving time alone. I had to push myself to attend a large social gathering. It was a “flat warming” party with a pretty swell guy from the Dundee office that I’ll be working with a lot. As things turned out, I had a really good time.

It seemed the party was a thousand miles from the hotel. Maybe because we walked so far in the wrong direction before we figured out where we were going. On the walk home, we decided to hit a dance club called Fat Sams. I’ve been largely inactive all week while eating lots of carbs, deep fried food, and drinking beer. Getting to dance a spell was great. It was the first time my heart rate’s been elevated since we got here. Less than an hour after arriving at the club, half the crew had disappeared so what was left of us figured we should head home too.

Today, Saturday, was our first free day. Steve and I are the only peeps left here. We spent the day trying to walk and explore, but we’re both very zombie like. I don’t know about him, but my feet hurt. We saw some sights, tried to shop (didn’t buy anything), and took some pictures… I think, had I not been totally spent, I would have enjoyed taking the bus around. As it is, I’ve fallen asleep several times already. I’m trying hard to stay awake so I get a good night’s sleep. We have to be up at 6 in the morning to catch a flight.

Overall, I’m not real impressed with Dundee. There’s a certain sense of that here. Everyone from somewhere else, and there are many such folks, sorta seem unimpressed with the place as well. Maybe it’s the trash in the street or the unhealthy food. It could be the uninviting weather. If you’re into people watching, you’ll notice everyone here is overweight, even by US standards. It also seems like half the people smoke.

I’m looking forward to coming home.

P.S. I’ve been using my new Mini 9 netbook while here and, overall, it rocks. The keyboard still isn’t what I’d like it to be, but I’ve been able to do a surprisingly wide variety of tasks. Two thumbs up.