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Holidays are splendid things indeed; you get to read books you've not gotten around to reading (or, as in my case, realise you've already bought/read some of the books you hurriedly bought at the airport), play with the kids, eat good food and drink fine (and not so fine) beers and wines, and generally please yourself for a couple of weeks in the sun.
On the other hand, it means limited (if any) bandwidth, which can be a pain (and expensive, if using a GSM connection). But at least it's possible to monitor email, read a few blogs off-line, and generally keep up to date in the broadest possible sense.
Before I get back home though, I thought I'd blog one last time - just because I can. 8)
Since arriving in Portugal twelve days ago, I've slowly unwound and gradually mastered my inner Meldrew. It's been lovely. Although I initially had great plans in terms of getting some development done on personal projects, having kids running about requiring attention tends to put the kibosh on that. But actually, I haven't for the most part felt like doing much anyway, although I have to admit to spending an hour here or there "keeping my hand in" 8).
I've been using a TMN "Mimo" SIM card for the duration of my visit thus far (it works out an order of magnitude cheaper than roaming) in conjunction with my PCMCIA GSM phone card (no fiddly irda balancing or nasty wires for me, thank you!) - even if I still have to call my UK ISP. I've even had a marvellous excuse to make full use of my GPS unit (discovering a spectacular short cut as a result).
Books read: "Fever Pitch" and "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby. "Schild's Ladder" and "Luminous" by Greg Egan. "Kant and the Platypus" by Umberto Eco. "mod_perl Pocket Reference" by Andrew Ford. "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson (2nd time). "Impossibility" by John Barrow (2nd time).
I've also spent an unfeasibly delightful few hours sitting by the pool, drinking beer and reading "Mother Earth Board" by Neal Stephenson again (as referred to by chrisr on his snazzily updated web site).
Anyway, it's back to reality with a bump on Thursday. Although at least (from that bandwidth perspective again) it'll be nice to get back! 8)