Wednesday, 28 September, 2016. 16:16

I’m sitting in The Pilot pub, having one of their specially infused gins and tonics. They have a range of four of these, and I chose the plum and cinnamon, which tastes pretty good. Our ISO meeting has ended a full day early thanks to some quick sessions and an incredibly short lunch break today. Which means I now have tomorrow completely free to explore London.

I got to sleep easily, but woke up at 02:30, and then had trouble falling asleep again. I got up a bit after 05:00 and did some stretching exercises and checked various Internet things, before calling M. on Facetime for a chat. After that I had a shower and then went down for breakfast. Rather than fill up on hot food, I went for just muesli with fruit and yoghurt, followed by a plain croissant.

Christ Church, Turnham Green, Chiswick

Breakfast was done and I was ready to go a bit before 08:00. Rather than sit around waiting, I decided to go for a walk down the Chiswick High Road. The sky was only partly cloudy, and the morning sun was giving the street a wonderful light as I walked east towards Turnham Green. The black stone Christ Church on the green looked pretty in the light, and I walked around it taking photos.

Read more: wandering around Chiswick, rapid fire technical meeting, then checking out the Chiswick High Road again for dinner

Tuesday, 27 September, 2016. Evening

I had a good, solid sleep for much of the night, and woke up around 06:00, although it was still dark outside so I thought it was still the middle of the night. But after trying to sleep for a bit I checked the time and it was 06:20, so I’d had a pretty good sleep.

I got up and had a shower and dressed, then waited until 07:00 when M. got home so we could talk a little bit on Facetime. And then after that I went down to the restaurant for breakfast.

I started with a plate of sausage, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, tiny roasted potatoes, baked beans, and scrambled eggs. As I finished that, Dietmar arrived and joined me. While he got a plate of hot food, I went back and grabbed some muesli, sprinkling on sunflower seeds and adding some chopped fruit to have with one of the jars of yoghurt. Over breakfast Dietmar said he was planning to drive up to Glasgow on Thursday evening straight after the meeting closed, for some vacation time in Scotland.

On returning to my room, I discovered that I’d left my key card in the light switch slot inside the room, so I had to go down to reception and get a new one. Then I did some stretching exercises in my room, before leaving about 08:20 to walk over to the British Standards Institute building for the ISO meeting. The weather was chilly, but I was only walking a couple of hundred metres and my jacket was enough for that.

At the office, a lady at ground floor reception gave me a visitor swipe card and told me to go up to BSI reception on the first floor. Doing so, another lady there took the card and gave me another visitor card, and told me to go back down to the ground floor, where the meeting room was! The security here at BSI is a bit convoluted.

After settling into the meeting room and greeting other committee members for the first time since the New York meeting, we got stuck into business. Margaret is not here this time, but Ken Parulski is, who I haven’t seen since the meeting in Sapporo last year. I also got to meet the British representative, Hani, who I’ve heard about but haven’t met before. Also new here is Nicolas Touchard of DxO in France, Norman Koren from Imatest in Boulder, Colorado, and Robin Jenkin from a sensor manufacturer in San Jose, although he’s originally from Cornwall.

The Pilot pub, Chiswick

Read more: pub lunch, afternoon technical meetings, then an early dinner in another pub I found

This was a business trip I made back in September 2016 – just getting to writing it up and adding photos now!

Monday, 26 September, 2016. 20:45

I have arrived in London after a 24 hour flight from Sydney, leaving at 16:00 on Sunday, and arriving here at 07:00 on Monday.

The flight was fairly eventless, helped by having a half empty plane on each leg, from Sydney to Dubai, and also Dubai to London. The exit row aisle seat next to me was empty on both flights, so I moved over to leave an empty middle seat between me and the guy in the window seat. He was named Steve and returning home to Plymouth after six weeks touring Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.

I didn’t really sleep at all, but since I arrived in the morning, I wanted to stay awake all day until bed time. I checked into the Clayton Hotel Chiswick just before 09:00, after a three train journey from Heathrow to Gunnersbury, changing at Acton Town and then at Turnham Green. Work booked last night for me as well so I could check in early, and the rate includes breakfast, so the woman at reception told me I could go grab breakfast in the hotel restaurant right away!

View from my hotel room window, Clayton Hotel Chiswick

Read more: sightseeing on my free day, the Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Observatory, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Southwark Cathedral, and a pub meal dinner