Its ten after eleven tonight and up until recently the sky was still lit. The clouds never parted today, though it was just as well. I had lots of inside work to do and still no cash for outside fun. Things are looking up, however.
Soon after my previous posting, I made a stroll up to the nearest bank, located in a mall. After a twenty minute walk in the drizzle, I entered the mall exactly at the opposite end from the bank I wanted to visit. Another ten minutes of walking brought me there, where I was promptly told in stumbling English that I could not withdrawl cash from my credit card there. This was in spite of what Kelly was told by our credit card company, but who am I to argue? Thwarted yet again, I made the long twenty minute walk through drizzle back to the hotel. Moral to this story: when you forget your ATM card, you get a lot of exercise.
My European coworkers had arrived when I returned. Thus I had a server to configure. It was good seeing them again and we had a good time getting everything ready. Niall is an Irishman who lives in London and Ray is a Dutchman from here. We did some work before jumping in Ray’s car to eat at the local burger joint called Bear Burger. The theme of Bear Burger is one where hundreds of stuffed teddy bears line the walls. I was stuffed, too, after eating my cheeseburger! Thank you! Thank you very much!
We talked about sports and driving among other things and headed back to the hotel to finish up. Ray called it a day around 6PM, right after Al arrived from NJ. We worked up until 9PM before the World Cup coverage started, whereas we wandered down to the hotel bar for dinner and beers. I enjoyed tonight’s matchup between the Netherlands and Argentina, even though it was 0-0 the whole time I watched it.
By 10:30 I was doing more yawning than I should’ve and bid everyone good night. I put in a quick VoIP call to Kelly, caught up on some email, and stared at my bed as I wrote this from the chair three feet away. I’m looking forward to another night of good sleep before kicking off tomorrow’s training. Wish me luck!