1999-08 (AUGUST, 1999)

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Andrea and I began this month with a three-day weekend in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

Ljubljana is a fabulous wee town of around 300,000 people, quietly nestled between two rivers. There is some great Art Nouveau architecture and a beautiful castle on the hill overlooking the town. They also have some of the yummiest ice cream in Europe!

Whilst here we lazily wandered the town, ate great food, and generally had a relaxing time.

Strongly recommended as worth a visit.

Stamford, Connecticut - United States

My first international business trip!

No sooner had I arrived back from Slovenia, I was off again - this time to America for work, with my boss, Sue Cox.

The product I have been working on for the last year was released to the UK on the first of June. It has been such a success that it has stirred up great interest in other countries - to the point where a global release seemed to be required. We went to the States to see what they had and sure enough, our thing blew them away! It turned out that between the US and the UK products, we have a kick-ass set of tools, so we are now working on combining the two for release to the whole of the PwC Audit practice world-wide on the first of April next year. Choice one, eh!

Eclipse - Weymouth, England

On Wednesday, 11th August, a total eclipse of the sun trekked across Europe and the Middle East.

And where did I go to see this 'once-in-a-lifetime' event you ask? Paris? Stuttgart? Iran? India?

No - Weymouth. Not the prettiest of places, unfortunately. More like a 'Hi-De-Hi for the Hells Angles' than a quaint seaside resort.

But we got a 99.9% eclipse, which was really spooky! All the street and pier lights came on and all the seagulls got very confused. Unfortunately the weather was not so good - lots of cloud. So we'll just have to go and see the next one in Zimbabwe in 2001.

Cornwall, England

Andrea and I went to Cornwall for the long weekend. We based ourselves at Lamorna Cove, near Penzance. We travelled down by train (First Class) on Saturday morning. In the afternoon we walked around the Coastal Path to Mousehole, which was a lovely hike. We walked back via the farm roads, which were more direct and easier going than the track.

On Sunday we walked in the other direction around the coast from Lamorna Cove. This was much harder going, and we decided to pause at a pub at Treen (about five miles from Lamorna and three miles from Lands End). After some food we opted for the easy way back and called a taxi.

On Monday we went over to St Michael's Mount, on the other side of Penzance. This was a fabulous wee castle on an island in the bay. At low tide you can walk out to the castle on a causeway, but at high tide you need to get a boat. We returned to London on a very full train that afternoon.