Work stuff

The last two weeks have been busy for me. On the work front Nigel, our PM, returned back to the UK to start a pre-booked three week holiday last Friday, which left just Leakey (the tech architect) and myself as the on site consultants. Before Nigel returned to the UK I have to say I was beginning to get a little riled with Leakey, who has been a strong advocate of reoganising the software development to become Agile driven. As part of this he started to dictate to me what I should be doing, not something guaranteed to foster good working relations.

Things started to get more fraught as the week progressed with John, the owner, pressing Leakey for his input on matters. Perhaps a database design? Maybe some coding standards for the mostly green developers? Things came to a head on the Friday afternoon when Leakey was finally meant to be presenting his suggestions for improvements to John. And the suggestion was to implement an Agile process which he launched into with gusto. Now, some of you are techie types who will know about this sort of thing and some not. If you're not please do bear with me for a moment and I'll try and explain a little. Agile is a process for developing software that covers a multitude of sins albeit with an emphasis on keeping things "lean": fine tuning requirements as you go along, self tasking on a daily and longer basis. It's terribly dynamic and just a tad American (whilst "Extreme Programming" has some things to commend it, the name is not one of them, whatever next, extreme ironing?). Leakey started off with slides covering the Agile Manifesto (yes, it's called the Agile Manifesto...). Anyway, for those of you unaware of this Manifesto ("like your manifesto put it to the test-o"*) it reads:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

He then expounded on the virtues of not producing any processes and not needing any more documentation. And you know, there is a lot to be said for this approach if you're overburdened with processes and have a highly experienced team ready to tackle a new project with vim and vigour. Rather less to be said for it if you don't have any real processes, tools or comprehensive documentation to start with and a team overwhelming made up of recent graduates. A long full and frank discussion between John and Leakey ensued during which I spent a lot of time looking at my watch to see just how late I was going to be for my supposed early out to miss the traffic and get to a National Park whilst it was still daylight. Oh, and I practised my ESP death ray powers as well but alas, still not got the hang of it. Maybe I should start on goats. At the end of the discussion John took me into his office and vented on me... he was somewhat upset that after spending thousands of Euros all he'd got was "one powerpoint slide and a load of bullshit". Quite.

I eventually hit the road a couple of hours late and had to phone a few work people on the way. More on the big game weekend in a later post. Leakey was given until Tuesday to come up with something practical. Like a DB design. He didn't. He did come back with another twelve powerpoint slides extolling Agile though. I am now the only consultant on site.


* Answers as to where this comes from on a comment please, no cheating and Googling!

First week on the job

Been settling into the job over the past few days although as I was in Egypt only a little over a month ago and given how much it's been on the TV of late I keep getting a little confused where I am. I know, I know, not much change there.

So, where to begin? Well, as the previous post indicated the apartments are very nice, regular home away from home. Got picked up at 9AM on the first day and taken to the office, marvelling all the time that I'M IN AFRICA! Whoa!!! Been twenty years since I was last in Kenya and now here I am working. I know I've been to Africa since then, most recently last December but that was North Africa. I ended up, you may recall, reaching Aswan, the furthest outpost of Mediterranean civilisation for millennia and considered pushing on. For me though, Africa is Sub-Saharan Africa with all it's riotous, rainy and sun baked melee.

Mind you, the areas I'm living and working in are pretty up market compared to where I was last time, although the red brick soil remains the same. Talking of my previous visit, part of a year spent backpacking around Africa, I mentioned to the boss of the company I'm working at that the last time I was in Nairobi I'd stayed on Latema Road and had been drinking in The Modern Green Day and Night Bar. He cracked up laughing at this as The Modern Green has one hell of a reputation, almost literally. Africa does dodgy bars like nowhere else I've been.

Work is pretty full on and is basically a consultant role. I'm one of a three man team, a technical architect by the name of Leakey who's a local chap returned here after years working at Deustche Bank, a Project Manager (PM) by the name of Nigel who's ex Vertu and me as Quality Assurance (QA) manager. In theory I should just be setting up the QA department and working on overall quality improvement but the role is broadening out from that. It's unsurprising that Nigel and I both come from a mobile phone background considering that Nokia fronted the money for us. However, mobile phones are very much a minor part of the work which is actually good from my perspective as it allows me to break out of what I've been doing of late. The areas we're mostly working with are supply chain solutions, so I'm drawing in part on my old days as a technical author at Pennine.

Challenging, fun and bloody hard work so far. We covered so much ground in the first week I feel like I've been here a month already. There was a lot of information to be taken on board in this period and with that done actually implementing things begins with my QA team doing a scoping project on Monday.

For those of you with a test background let me outline what's going on... until now the company has had no real QA process. Testing consisted of the tester getting a partial release of software, running ad hoc tests and recording defects in a "log" which consists of an eight column Excel sheet. These were then bounced back to dev who fixed the bugs then return the logs back for validation and for more bugs to be appended. No test cases, no repeatability, no real plan. And given that the software is buggy and a major re-factoring program under way it's not going to be possible to write any test cases. I'm really having to pull something creative out of the ether for this one, and I'm hoping the plan I've come up with will work. I almost had a Gordon Ramsey moment in one meeting as a developer presented screen mock-ups it has to be said.

On more mundane matters , although the office is less than three km from the apartment and we're being picked up at 7:45 it's taking over half an hour to get in. I walked it quicker this morning when I went to a "Masai market" held next to the office. They take the rush hour seriously in these here parts! Also nice to work in a place with a tea lady, who comes round dropping off flasks of hot water and hot milk along with tea bags, coffee and hot chocolate. It's got a kind of 1970s feel to it.

John, the boss, took Nigel and I round Nairobi National park yesterday. Got to see zebra, baboons, various gazelles, a glimpse of a rhino, giraffes and various other game suspects. I felt that John was a little disappointed we didn't find any lions or get a decent look at a rhino. We dropped in on a swanky bar on the way back and he casually mentioned that his brother owned Hill Tops and he'd see if he could organise a weekend there for us at some point. Hill Tops is apparently where Queen Elizabeth learned of the death of her father and hence her accession to the throne. From this I assume it's quite a swanky place.

Zebra crossing

In other news I finally finished my antibiotics off on Thursday and although my gum is still sensitive I think the infection has gone. I do hope so. On the up side I can now drink again. On the down side after yesterdays beers and a couple of glasses of wine I've had a stinking hangover for much of today. Ah well, might as well enjoy, it's back to the fray tomorrow.

Teething troubles with the Kenyan job

Part of my preparations for Kenya involved going to the dentist to make sure my teeth were OK. I knew I had a cavity that needed seeing to so got in touch a couple of weeks beforehand. Of course, the dentist couldn't actually see me for a week and then had to make another appointment to do the actual work as it transpired that the cavity had touched on the nerve pulp in the tooth which meant I needed root canal work. This was scheduled for the Wednesday before I flew but, alas, illness forced it to the Thursday morning. By Thursday evening the increasing pain in my gum made it pretty clear that I had a problem.

Come 8AM on Friday I was on the phone to the dentist and got an emergency appointment. By now the pain was raging. The dentist confirmed, with a second opinion from her colleague, that yes I had an infection and prescribed two different antibiotics including one which I could not drink alcohol with at all. When I picked up the prescription the chemist reiterated this point "No drinking with this one". OK, OK, I get the point! And pain management? Cocodamol and ibuprofen was all they could do. That pretty much wiped out my Friday which I'd pencilled in for last minute shopping and lunch with a friend. The shopping was haphazard and I wasn't exactly a sparkling conversationalist over lunch preferring to look miserable instead.
The one bright spot lay in me being so off my head on painkillers I didn't feel the pain of buying a fancy new camera, a Sony Nex5. Oooh, it's shiny and nice.

Some sleep came on Friday night courtesy of a sleeping tablet but didn't prove to be that restful or long. A constant regime of painkillers through the day saw me eventually on the train to London woozy from the amount of codeine I was on. The original plan had been for a convivial glass of wine or two, chat and food with another friend but that was torpedoed by the tooth and turned into food and me once again being sullen and little fun.

Then, on to Heathrow Terminal Three. Ah, Heathrow, what can I say? It's crap, that's what I can say. particularly if you're off your head on pain and painkillers. Unfortunately by this point my head was swimming but either the pain was getting worse or they were no longer cutting it as I was hurting really quite badly. Sitting there, waiting for my flight I was beginning to think the antibiotics weren't working. If you've ever had a root canal infection you may appreciate where I was. If you haven't, good for you. To be honest I was seriously mulling over cancelling the flight but in the end staggered on, head spinning.

The flight itself was fine and with the aid of another sleeping tablet I managed to get four hours sleep, and then, before I knew it (pain killers, remember?) we were touching down in Kenya! W00t!

John, the head of the outfit I'm working with, came to collect me from the airport. Nice chap, shame I couldn't hold a decent conversation with him which has been something of a recurring theme of late. We stopped for coffee on the way to the apartment at a place on the edge of a game park (the only game park in a capital city in the world I was told) but alas, no game to be seen. The apartment itself is nice enough, regular home from home as you can see from the pics below.

If it's good enough for the FBI it's good enough for me...

The only shame is the wifi doesn't work, so I've been getting internet withdrawal symptoms, trying to use CNN on the TV as a substitute. Didn't really help though. Even so I managed to make it through the day and went to bed at 10pm local time in order to help get my sleep cycle sorted.

Kenya

Ah, so much to blog, so little time and intermittent internet access has delayed this one as well.

OK, when I was taking my break diving in Egypt the plan was always to punt my CV out and see if I could start to line something up for when I got back. The market did seem to be picking up and whilst talking to an agency I've used before about a job with Nokia I was asked as an aside if I fancied a similar role in Kenya. Why, let me think about this for a nano-second. Yes.

The next thing I know they've offered me the job. No interview, no job beyond a one line brief (go and set up a test department for a Kenyan mobile applications company), just did I want. Sure, why not. The money is good although the rate dropped €10 from the start to end but I'm used to similar things happening. Accommodation and flights paid for which is good.

On my return to the UK things on the personal front took a severe turn for the worst when Helen ended up in an ICU in Stoke for four days over Christmas after a massive asthma attack which had followed within a day of a car crash, which pretty much killed the festive season for me. She was eventually released the day before New Years Eve looking like death.

This post, however, is about the Kenya job. Information started trickling again after the new year as people came back from holiday, with a potential start date of the second week in January which I put back a week in order to give Helen more time to recover before I went. Oh, and also to get my head more together.

Now I've had various discussions on the matter I've got more detail. The job is working with VirtualCity in Nairobi setting up a QA department for them. VirtualCity provide mobile based software for supply chain solutions, very important in places like Africa where fixed line communications are in short supply.

Accommodation and flights come with the role. The most "amusing" aspect thing so far has been finding out that one room in the apartments I'm being put up in were used by an FBI extraordinary rendition team for interrogating someone (link [warning, PDF]).

Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbal

The bus journey from Dahab was a little taxing. A "local" bus with cramped seats and minimal aircon for 17 hours. I thought it was going to be a case of take a valium and sleep but the person in the seat next to me put paid to that plan by continually drooping onto my shoulder when asleep and nudging me into wakefulness. Grr. Still, made it in the end and in the process it awakened many old memories from when I went travelling in Africa many years ago...

Beginning to understand why they look like that after the bus ride

First day in Luxor I had planned to spend the afternoon in Karnak, but I was still so woozey from the journey I thought this might not be such a good idea in the blazing hot sun so I settled instead for a quick stroll round Luxor Temple, which was terribly nice. Followed that with a couple of days of wondering around various tombs (Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, etc), temples (Karnak) and taking felucca rides on the Nile. All terribly civilised.

Very James Bond!

A three hour train journey took me down to Aswan, for more of the same. Temples, tombs and feluccas. Oh, and a nice early morning start to get down to Abu Simbal (did I say early morning? 2:45 AM wake up, more like the middle of the bleedin' night!).

Abu Simbal

Whilst in Aswan, sitting on a boat and watching the king fishers, in a moment of madness I started realising that the Sundaese border was only a few miles away and that a quick push could take down the Nile to Uganda in maybe three weeks. I could hop back to Cairo by plane from Kampala, pick my dive gear up and be back for Christmas. Fortunately there's only one ferry a week to Sudan (the only way I could go) and it's on the Monday, not giving me enough time to organise a visa. Maybe another time. Besides, still got plenty of diving to be done!

Dahab, Egypt. For now.

Egypt, with a balmy winter climate and the lure of Red Sea diving, what better place to go for a few weeks at the end of a contract?

Got here a couple of days ago with the well thought out plan of, er, doing some diving and for once seeing some things above water. First part of the plan was easy enough to sort with a quick trip up to Dahab a home away from home for me. A rapidly changing home away from home mind you... a lot of the restaurants between the lighthouse and the bridge such as Al Capones have at some point in the past 18 months been turned into proper sit down places rather that the old slouch down on rag rugs with cushion covered palm trees to lean on style.

Two days of diving have followed, alas no photos yet as my camera housing is not too reliable at the moment. Hopefully get some in a couple of weeks. Diving done for now, the dive center is looking after my kit as I set off for Luxor, Aswan and other places in the deep south. Unfortunately, in order to even try to be back and diving for my birthday I need to set off now. I say unfortunately as the only practical way for me to travel is a 16 hour overnight bus journey. Of course, with a little over an hour to go my stomach seems to have turned to mush. Looks like I could be in for an "intersting" time. This Valley of the Kings malarky had better be worth it, I could be doing the Canyon and Bells to Blue Hole today.

Here I go again...

A word on why no words for a while. I've been busy being busy for the past few months. Finding a job after my last cycle trip turned out to be somewhat more difficult than I'd hoped but I did land a contract eventually, running an outsourced test team working on a mobile music applications being delivered to a major operating company. Only possible downside was that it was in London, but even that proved to be no real hardship. Whilst the streets were disappointingly more paved with broken class than gold (worse for punctures on the bike but gold almost certainly presents a major slip hazard in the rain so about even there), there were other compensations. To start with, the weather is genuinely better in the South. London seems to a couple of weeks better off than Manchester and a couple of degrees warmer. London also has a wider range of cultural activities going on.

Alas, all good things come to an end and this job has abruptly ended on two weeks notice delivered last Friday. I had been told, and hoped, that it would go through until the end of February or early March, but I wasn't that surprised it ended early. Our client weren't the most efficient company I've ever worked for, with a tendency to disregard as unimportant such details as design documents or even org charts. I had been due to move into a room in Putney having been due to pay in over £1000 of rent at 12:30 on the Friday. I was given my notice at 12:00 so that was pretty damn good timing all things considered.

Two weeks notice and on the job market again for late November. Not the most auspicious time to be looking for work as the market tends to wind down towards Christmas. So... so, given I've had one day off since July I'm minded to organise myself a little outing when the contract ends, provided the next two weeks don't through up a job of course. I had been planning on going diving around now anyway so that would be the natural choice, except the buddy I was organising it with happened to win a free weeks diving for two when we were at the Dive show in Birmingham a few days ago. The dates it's available means we'll be going in late January (yay! I'm the plus one!) so I'll be getting some diving in soon anyway. Still, it's my birthday in a month and it'd be good to be somewhere with decent weather for it, or so I was thinking. And then I got to thinking the closer I get to Christmas the less likely of walking into a job. In which case why not take some more time off, get a flight into Aleppo, say, in Northern Syria return from Cairo (£390 for the flights with Turkish Airways) and get a month cycling in in the Middle East? Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and maybe Israel. Very tempting, very very tempting.

Still, we shall see. I have two weeks of work and job hunting left which if unsuccessful will give me a couple of weeks to decide between a months cycling or a couple of weeks of cheap diving. Actually slightly less than a couple of weeks to be realistic as I'd have to sort out a Syrian visa which will take a few days.

As they say, watch this space.