Booze Cruise #12 - Code crawl to the Ingres Users Association 2010

11/06/2010 by admin.

Monday 7th June 2010

On Tuesday 8th June, the UK Ingres Users Association conference 2010 was taking place at the Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London.  With a number of friends and colleagues (some of whom had attended the code sprint in Slough over the weekend) needing to travel to their respective hotels in London, we decided what better a way to travel than along the Grand Union Canal.

After exchanging a number of emails, we had enough interest to start to plan the cruise.  With Matt Rendell not coming up to the grade of Queen he had been demoted from Lord High Admiral to Purser.  Mark Whalley took the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, Paul Lawes as Admiral and Peter Gale as Vice Admiral.  This then left Matt with the task of identifying other crew member; John Mahony, Pete Lydon, Michael Flower (Ingres), Kim Ginnerup and Roy Simon (Bording Data) and Steve Sheil and Hans Scholten (HVR).  With plenty of ranks to hand out; Captain, Commander, Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant, Sub Lieutenant, Acting Lieutenant, Midshipman, Cadet, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer, Leading Seaman and Able Seaman he had plenty of choice.

The plan was for Mark to leave the office early, cycling back to Packet Boat Marina then move the boat the 4 miles (~1 hour) to Hayes.  Leaving a bit later, the rest of the crew would take the train from Slough to meet Mark at Hayes from where we would continue on the Grand Union, via Bull’s Bridge to Little Venice.  As with a previous cruise, we had intended to pick up take-away from the Mirch Masala from Southall.

Having already stocked the fridge with Holy Water (St. Ella), wine and water with lemon (for the Purser), on Monday lunchtime a number of us set off for the local Asda supermarket to pick up some bits and pieces.  As we were walking out of the Ingres car park, we met with a very good friend and ex-colleague Jean-Luc Hampton who had just arrived from Paris in his immaculate 28-year old BMW 323.  Having previously experienced the culinary excellence of JL, when he again offered to cook for us, the thought of stopping off at the Mirch Masala was very quickly dismissed.

With our French chef now taking the crew numbers up to 12, Jean-Luc set off for Tesco to stock up with ingredients to prepare for what ended up being yet another masterpiece.

So, with plans finalised, time to set sail…

First priority, adjust the ballast..

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Must phone home for directions.

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At well over 6′, there are not many places John could stand in comfort.

“I’m still in the office dear - honest!”.

Conjestion on the Grand Union.

Now this is how you do it - aim the stick thing this way to make the pointy end to go that way.

Pete, there’s no need to squat over the side, there is a toilet on board!

Is that a tree coming our way.?

A said “DUCK”!

It could have been worse, we might have lost our glasses.

The master chef (Jean-Luc) at work.

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What a masterpiece - Lamb Curry.

… with a prawn and scallop starter.

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Please note, this is Matt without his water, ice and lemon!

Pete and John contemplating something.

The Director of Education (Mr Flower) partaking of some Holy Water.

Sommelier Lydon.

Top Beer.

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Tuck in.

Cheers.

Champagne in one hand, Holy Water in the other.

Returning to Packet Boat the following evening.

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Some of the bird I saw en-route.

Dusk.

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… and back “home”.

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Is that all that was left

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