Its goodbye Team System for me

So with the end of this week also comes the sad end of my involvement on the QA team for Team Foundation, one of the major SKUs of the Visual Studio Team System family.

Its been an absolutely amazing experience and i've learnt far more than i could have ever percieved. These past 6 months have flown by so quickly with all the excitement, responsibility, and massive workload, and i am glad i was given the opportunity join the project at such an exciting time when we're about to ship the first release of Team Foundation.

Yes folks, Team Foundation will rock! With the recent release of Beta 3 to MSDN subscribers and the ominous chants of "Go Live!" across the IT world, we're looking at a product which will be a benchmark for all software lifecycle tools to come. Other bloggers have already reported the great increase in stability and reduction in deploy-time, so i urge you to give it a try and play around with the Beta 3 bits in your spare time.

-Check out Rob Caron's blog for tons of tips on Team System.
-Check out the MSDN Site for news and info on Team System.

Get informed.
Get interested.
Get started!

Hospitalized!

I finally returned to work today after a week in bed due to an unfortunate accident which left me unable to walk. Last saturday at Chris's party i felt a sharp sudden pain to my leg which ruined all the fun for me. Thinking it was just a drunken encounter with a piece of furniture, i ignored it thinking the bruise would heal in no time.

I was wrong. By monday, it had only got worse and my leg from the knee down was swollen like a balloon and bright red/purple. I could hardly walk with the pain so i decided to check in at the nearby RigsHospital. After about 30 mins of hobbling around i found the receptionist who told me to try another hospital since it was late and only the trauma section was on duty that night. So i started hobbling in the direction of Bispebjerg hospital which i just couldnt seem to find. Disgruntled at poor directions and the inability to walk, i decided to say "feckit" and go home. Jonas and Allan took a look at the now-enormous leg and decided it looked too nasty to leave unchecked, so they called me a taxi straight to the hospital. After waiting 2 hours there, the docs said it was a bad poisonous/infected insect bite and that i shouldnt walk. I was put on hardcore antibiotics which definitely did the trick despite the lingering pain.

I was asked by many people to post photos of the leg, but believe me it looked far too nasty for that. It looked like one leg belonged to me.... the other to an obese fellow with elephantosis in his right leg. And it was purple. Not pretty. So quit asking... you're not going to get any photos because there aren't any, and my foot has healed now anyway. Ha!

When i find that little shitfleck of an insect i'm going to tear its limbs apart just like i used to do to flies when i was a kid. After watching it fumble around helplessly, i will impale it with needle, spray vinegar, and set it alight. The charred corpse will be quartered and flushed down the toilet of doom. I will have my revenge: I'm not top of the foodchain for nothing you know...

The Irishman's farvelfest

Chris has been in Denmark for a whole year now so about 20 of us got together in his kitchen to see him off with a good farewell party (farvelfest). Conor, also from Northern Ireland, is also leaving pretty soon so we were also celebrating his farewell.

Well there's not much to report really. Just the usual drunken buffoonery and far too many beers and shots of whiskey, vodka, and wine. Chris also laid out the toasted cocktail weenies, pringles and dips which we polished off real fast, especially the pizza. Have you ever been to a party in which there was enough pizza? Oh i also got them to empty the bottle of Leila (traditional maltese liqeueueur... tastes good and does you good!) which no one at our kollegium wanted to drink anymore since they thought it was too sweet. I figured the best way to get rid of it is to give it to drunken people who couldnt tell the difference anyway... and what do you know.. it worked!

The party lasted well into the night and most of us slept there. By 6am, we had 2 corpses in the kitchen (Craig and I), one under the stairs already gathering cobwebs (Michael), and a couple more in Chris's room. I was woken up at around 10am and had to rush off because i was meant to go in for a few hours work today, even though its sunday. You can guess how much work i got done with such a bad hangover...

- pic - Craig goes straight for the nipple...
- pic - "We are not drunk" - Bernd, Eloise and Rehan
- pic - Normal behaviour for a white caucasian male, apparently
- pic - Me dancing with Ella. Caption should read, "Help!"
- pic - Beware ze Germans.. zey drink all your vin (scheiser!)

Summer Holiday in Malta

On the 3rd of September, i went for a week's vacation in Malta.. a week of sea, sand, sun and fun!

Day 1
After Erika got me back from the airport, mum cooked up some imqarrun fil-forn as soon as i arrived. I spent the rest of the afternoon resting since i had been awake since 4am and most of my morning traveling! It was good to see my room had not been destroyed by the forces of evil sister and mother, and everything was still just as i left it. Cousin Karl from England was sleeping over in my room for a few days since he was also on holiday...

Day 2
I spent most of the day locked in at Temple Studios helping out with The Gukulari Ensemble's new CD, recording some drums and other percussion instruments on various tracks.

Day 3
Monday morning was shopping day so Erika and I went to my favourite hypersupermonstermarket, Smart, which always seems to be growing in size. We went through all my shopping list and found almost everything there, and at a few other shops such as the Liquor Shop, Tal-Lira, Scan, etc. We then went to eat at good old Black Gold in Sliema, and then headed straight off once again to the recording studio for my final day of recording. That night, we went to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a movie i quite recommend, especially if you've read the book! It was great to see Roald Dahl's epic come to life, also thanks to a star performance by Johnny Depp. Of course, Erika was salivating allover the place from all the chocolate... next time i'm getting her a bib!

Day 4
Erika woke me up real early to go shopping in Valletta so we braved the blistering heat and went for a stroll through the shopping streets. We then met up with the rest of my family at D'Agostino, a new restaurant near the Grandmaster's Palace, where we had some tasty pasta washed down with some good wine. Erika and I then rushed home, picked up our things, and left for a 2-day holiday in Gozo
(see photo)

- photo - Erika on the Ferry coming from Gozo
- photo - Mike says farewell to Gozo

Day 5
Once again, Erika woke me up early to go and get a wholesome breakfast of fresh pastizzi from Rabat, just like the old days. We then went to San Blas, a beautiful sandy bay which can only be reached after a long drive through narrow winding roads, and a brief walk down a 45º slope, which is great fun walking down but rather painful when walking back up after 2 hours of scorching sun! On the way back, we stopped to buy a hobza biz-zejt from Rabat and ate it at the flat, packed, and left back for Malta in the early afternoon. Since it was Wednesday night, and stuff always seems to happen on Wednesday night in Malta, we went for a poolside BBQ at Chris's palace in Madliena together with all the old gang, and then proceeded to Coconut and Alley in paceville for a night of Aftershock trays. Yes, plural :-D

Day 6
Was pretty tired by day 6 so i slept in all morning, and spent the afternoon ripping my CDs and chatting with the oldies. I also spent a few hours trying to jump-start my car which had a dead battery... managed to get it out, wash it, and put it back in the garage. At night, we went for a walk in Bugibba, and then stopped by my favourite take-away in Gzira for some Greasy Chicken. Much to our amusement, the place was full of these typical village folk.. from massive obese women in tight lycra shorts, to an entire rahli family complete with bleached blonde wife, 4 noisy kids, and daddy kollu imsielet u undershave.

Day 7
Since it was the last day in Malta, i spent the morning rushing around buying last minute stuff like pastizzi, mobile topup card etc... Went to St.Julians for lunch with the nanniet and then rushed home to pick up Erika who joined me for the rest of the afternoon whilst we tried to install mum's new printer which refused to work, and then i waxed my beloved car until it was shining with that carshow finish. In the evening, we went for a fenkata at Sunny's in Mgarr.. quite a good rabbit meal and veeery filling. The guy also got us some karawett and dulliegh for dessert... MMMMMMMMM :-D me was very happy.

Sadly, it was time to leave. I packed my bags and 3-dozen pastizzi and the family and Erika saw me off to my 3am flight to Denmark. There was a thick mist over Malta and the night sky was alight with the orange glow of street lights. Europe was alight with a different glow, as i was treated to a wonderful display of lightning storms all the way til Copenhagen.