popey.com

My journey from home to Boston was somewhat more convoluted than I imagined, but good fun and not too stressful.

I had already packed my suitcase on Thursday night so I was pretty much ready to go on Friday morning. I had to pop out of the house to run an errand, and on the way out said to my wife "Clare, explain baggage carousels to Sophie (my 4 year old daughter) and put some stickers on my case". I now have a case covered in smiley faces, stickers of Pooh Bear and Tigger, and lots of little sparkly stars. There's no way I'll mix-up my luggage at the airport now!

After a cab ride to the airport I met up with Jono, bumped into Scott James-Remnant, checked in and we chilled out for a bit before the flight was called. The Virgin Atlantic flight itself was pleasant enough and not full. Normally I'd put my headphones on and zone-out for the flight, but instead Jono and I spent most of the flight chatting. It's one of the great things about meeting up with members of the free software community, that you often have lots to talk about because you meet up so infrequently.

I also watched Cranky Geeks and Textra on my laptop which I had previously downloaded at home using hpodder. I then had to roll Jonos tongue back in after he drooled all over my keyboard in the direction of Natali Del Conte (the rather gorgeous host of Textra).

After a couple of movies, Magicians and half of 28 Weeks Later on the in-flight system the captain said it was time to land! The flight whizzed by, which is always a bonus.

Whilst standing in line at US Customs I note Jono having a laugh with the immigration officer which I later find out is due to the guy claiming that "there's nothing for free" after which Jono said "our software is!". Good boy Jono, advocating at every opportunity.

We also bumped into a few other people such as Jorge Castro and Mirco (MacSlow) Muller before we headed off to follow the instructions to get to the Hotel.

We took the free 33 bus to the blue T-station at the airport. We then bought a $2 "Charlie Ticket" at the machines (which take cash [notes/coins] and cards - although another (local) guy had problems with his card, don't know if that was the machine or his card). Once we got on the train we were told that there was a problem with the train and it would go only one stop (and not all the way to Government Cen - our intended destination) and we would have to get a bus (laid on by the transit company). The train was pretty packed, and as such so was the bus.

At this point Mirco and myself speculated about how many other forms of transport we could have used on the way. If only Paul Sladen was around we could have included "Bikes" in the "Planes Trains and Automobiles". A helicopter would also have been nice :)

We arrived at Government Cen and took the Green line for one stop to Park Street, then switched to the Red line (track 6) to the Central station (one after Kendal). Upon leaving the station, we did as instructed, with Starbucks behind us we crossed Mas. Ave., turned left and walked 3 blocks. In front of us was The Asgard (pub) and next to that is the Hotel.

Once checked in we found a nice little Chinese restaurant and a bar where we fuelled up.

The Hotel@Mit rooms are great. Free wired and wireless internet access (although last night it was sluggish, this morning it's more sprightly), a "Wolfgang Puck" coffee maker and a massive bed made for a comfortable nights sleep!

Today it's day one of the two-day FOSSCamp then the rest of the week is taken up by the Ubuntu Developer Summit. I'm really looking forward to both!

Time for breakfast!