work trips

july 2007

during my time at codemasters, i got to go on a number of work trips.
these were organised to collect reference material, photographs.
photos of terrain, flora, buildings, etc.
i went to monte carlo, sweden, spain, greece and cyprus

monte carlo
this was under a year after joining codemasters and coincided with my birthday
it was my first trip abroad
luckily, i'd got a passport the previous year
we flew into nice and stayed near there for a few days
monte carlo was interesting
i got some nice photos, these were the days before digital cameras

sweden
i went there with rick, it was the first proper reference gathering trip
we flew to stockholm, then to karlstad, where the rally was based
codemasters hadn't got the hang of these trips and we landed not knowing where we were staying !
we had to call them from the airport to get some poor directions
then we had to rent ourselves a car
rick drove, i tried to navigate
eventually, we found the hotel, in the countryside
it was nice and almost deserted
it was cold
after the sun went down, the temperature dropped
"is it me or has just got cold ?" i asked rick
he remarked that i had turned blue
i was coming down with a flu
i had one night where i woke up delirious
the following day, i stayed in the hotel room
while poor old rick went off gathering material
we had a digital camera and laptop that didn't like the cold
aside from the cold, i liked sweden

spain
this wasn't a standard reference trip
we went as guests of the ford rally team, while they did some tarmac testing
it was fascinating and guy got a ride up the test stage with colin mcrae
with nicky grist's help we stayed in a nice hotel
and saw some local colour
we had the company digital camera and my film camera

greece
this was a proper reference trip, with chun this time
we were based in athens and visited the stages after the rally had been there
chun did all the driving and i navigated, i'm good at that
as well as taking video and photos, i also tuned in the radio to find interesting local stations
on the way back into the city on a sunday, i found the top 40
as we made our way along 6-way main roads, scooters flying everywhere, "hey boy hey girl" played over the radio
that song is tied to that memory now
it was also very hot and we got a puncture on the last day

cyprus
this was another trip with the ford rally team
we had a week with them, as they contested the world rally event, based in limassol
it was very hot, i managed to burn the top of my feet
guy managed to break an ankle while jogging
this meant he wasn't able to take the helicopter flight, but i was
and it was amazing
by now, it was all digital cameras
i had started this website by then and was able to write it from there

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