Last night was frustrating – apparently everyone and their mom was trying to get on the internet to find out what this volcano will do so the internet was quite slow and unusable for real-time communication (e.g. Skype).  We found this afternoon that our flights tomorrow are cancelled, and we’re working with our travel agent to rebook them.  However, it sounds like we won’t be able to get anything until Tuesday at the earliest.  This, of course, assumes that the massive ash cloud over Europe moves by then.  No one seems to know when this volcano will stop erupting, or if the wind will shift and blow it somewhere else less disruptive (e.g. the North Pole?).  We decided to stick with our original plan for tonight (to go to London since we have a hotel here), and then hopefully figure something out in the morning.

The hotel isn’t anything special (small rooms, like all British hotels seem to have) and the only reason we picked it was because it’s near the airport.  The WiFi isn’t free (we go down to McDonalds for that), and the breakfast is mediocre.  Our travel agent asked if we wanted to stay someplace closer to downtown London on Saturday through Tuesday, and we emphatically said yes!

Today was a wonderful and terrible day at the same time.  First the frightening part…  We’ve heard that a volcano is erupting in Iceland and causing problems at European airports.  We are supposed to fly out of London on Saturday, so that’s a chance that we may be delayed, depending on how this thing goes down.  One of my coworkers is supposed to fly out on Friday to Italy, so that’s not looking very promising at all.  Other than that, today went well.  We had some more client meetings and things seem to be moving along nicely.

Now for the wonderful part…  We decided to go down to the sea for dinner after work tonight.  It was a long drive, but once we got there and found parking, it was lovely.  The water wasn’t too warm, but the air was nice and we spent some time on the beach just before sunset.  The beach is gorgeous white sand and people were out surfing (in wetsuits).  The whole area was built up with a theater out on a pier over the water, a number of nice restaurants, some food vendors, and a few carnival rides.  We ended up eating at a French restaurant and found the food to be quite good.  We got adventurous and got some octopus, and also some whole fish.  We drove back to the hotel blissfully ignoring the events occurring north of us.

Dinner tonight was spectacular.  We found a recommendation for a pub in the New Forest (essentially a national park in the UK).  The roads were narrow, but there wasn’t much traffic so it wasn’t too bad.  We eventually found ourselves in the middle of the woods (thank goodness for GPS!).  There were wild horses, cows, and donkeys all wondering around in the woods and we had to stop for them a few times.  At one point, the road forked and the left side dipped down into a little creek.  Apparently this was normal (not a bridge out), because we watched a car ahead of us drive through it.  Fortunately we were going to the right instead so we didn’t have to try.

Once we got there, the pub was interesting, too.  They brew some of their own beers there, and had decent bar food.  While we were waiting for our food, I noticed a photo op that just couldn’t be passed up.  There was a cow just outside the window and people were petting it.  By the time I had gotten outside, it had wondered across the road – right next to our rental car, actually.  It looked it over and bellowed resoundingly a few times.  Apparently it eventually decided that the auto wasn’t a threat and moved on.

One of my goals for this trip was to test out the world-wide capabilities of my Android G1.  Specifically, I really wanted to be able to get emails and browse Google Maps while on the go. When we arrived at the airport, I got a SIM card for the 3 network, which is local to the UK.  I put the SIM card in and followed the directions given by the text messages that I received.  My phone connected right up and said that it was on the 3 network.  It also notified me of my new phone number (in the UK) and that I could top up (i.e. add minutes) by visiting their website.  This seemed straight-forward enough, until I discovered that it wouldn’t take my US debit card.  Argh.

I figured that there must be another way, though, so I kept trying.  It turns out that you can also buy top up vouchers at most corner stores and super markets.  Perfect.  After doing this, I found that I could make phone calls, but I still couldn’t access the internet.  I tried power-cycling the phone and playing around with the mobile network settings, but nothing seemed to help.

Finally, I noticed a well-buried configuration option called “Access Point Names” and figured that it wouldn’t hurt to Google it.  After some searching, I found a forum that listed some settings for accessing the 3 network from a G1.  After configuring, it seems that everything works perfectly.  In case someone else needs them, here’s the settings that I used:

• Name: 3
• APN: three.co.uk
• Prxy: <Not set>
• Port: <Not set>
• Username: <Not set>
• Password: <Not set>
• Server: <Not set>
• MMSC: http://mms.um.three.co.uk:10021/mmsc
• MMS prxy: mms.three.co.uk
• MMS port: 8799
• MCC: 234
• MNC: 20
• APN type: <Not set>

I guess we must have made a good impression last time because our clients in England said they want us to come back (probably 3 more times, in fact).  This should be a lot of fun, and I’m glad that I get the opportunity to see a glimpse of Europe.  It does mean that I’ll have to spend some time apart from Janelle, but I know that the Lord will carry each of us through, and that we will enjoy being back together all the more after I return.  I hope that Janelle will be able to come out with me at some point as well.

A couple of my coworkers came over on Friday so that they would have a day to tour the city, but Janelle and I decided that it would be more fun to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit before I left instead.  I have no regrets, as it was certainly worth a visit and I enjoyed spending an extra day with Janelle.  Plus, we are now members at the Science Museum!

This week looks like it will mainly be meetings, as there is a lot of work to be done.  We are staying in town, though, so we may have a chance to look around a bit.  We are staying at a restaurant, so they serve made-to-order breakfast in the morning, and the food is really to die for.  We’ve eaten at a French restaurant and an Indian restaurant, both if which had great food.  There’s also an Italian place that the locals have recommended that’s only a block away from our hotel.  The only two complaints we have are about the size of the showers and the size of the alley leading to the parking area out back.  We actually had to fold in the mirrors to get through!