Neil Hopcroft

Its been such a long time since I’ve been to an attended filling station that I had even forgotten that the ‘self-service’ signs actually mean something.

There are some strange microclimates going on here, we can see the rain rolling in over the peaks, sometimes it comes as snow, sometimes its mist. I think my fascination with time-lapse photography is going to get a little exercise over the next few weeks.

The 9000 made it from the Baltic to the Mediterranean with only a couple of ‘whats that weird smell?’ incidents, both of which were eventually traced to Frenchmen burning tyres in a field.

It took us four days, with stops for the night in Denmark, Germany and France. I think it was a good call to take the German route rather than the French – BMW and Audi pilots are rather more predictable than those in Peugeots and Citroens.

The final stages over the Pyrenees into Andorra were a little hairy, with the pass being somewhat snowy and covered in hairpin bends. Thank goodness for the tunnel.

Still, we’ve arrived now and we’re settling in for the month here. No more driving for a bit – a total of nearly 7000km in 10 days and now I want to stop moving.

Driving through Europe these days you notice the changes of driving style more than the borders between the countries. Something about driving through Germany makes the Dutch particularly agressive on the road.

I looked up from the road as we came over a range of hills to see all the vegetation had turned mediterranian. From the Baltic to the Mediterranian in three days. And the last Saab I saw was somewhere near Lyon – we’re on our own down here.

Damn, I’m going to sleep for days when we stop moving.

We set off yesterday a little later than planned but made good time.
Crossing the malmo/copenhagen bridge into the dusk is beautiful with kastrup ablaze with lights below the thundery sky.
We stayed in a small danish motel last night and are now on our way again, rødby puttgarden for the third time, drinking foul coffee in the stern lounge watching the harbour emerge from the fog.

Thats it, I’ve had my last curry pineapple burger and now we’re off. Departing Sweden tomorrow heading south.

The Rødby Puttgarden ferry is a little more serious than i had expected. Still, the travels are going ok so far. Back in blighty for the weekend.

What stormtroopers do on their days off

Lego games

Volvo 240 font

Rolling SQL injection attack

Marketing? Really? No.

I might be disillusioned with some parts of the consumer electronics industry, but my passion is still technology. That is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Things are a little crazy here at the moment, we’re in the process of packing for taking everything back to England before heading off travelling around Europe. Its turning into rather a monster of a plan but I’m still hoping it will come together.

Things should start picking up around this journal sometime early next month when the carousel stops turning at quite the current rate. Until then, though, the plan contains around 7000km of driving across 8 countries.

As you know my time in Sweden is coming to an end – I finished working on Tuesday and now its time to move back to England.

This time a change of job will bring with it a change of lifestyle too, since it is now clear to me that consumer electronics, and technology in general, is deluding itself as to its place in this world. We cannot keep on making the same things smaller, faster and with less quality than last years model.

So I have decided to seek some a career path, the current potential directions are:

– carpenter
– marketing
– lorry driver

…but I’m seeking your opinions on other possibilities that you think I should consider?