Every Ash Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Enrique and I recently became victims of the ash cloud, and spent rather longer in the US than we anticipated…

I spent a weekend in Chicago last month chatting to some other exceptional companies about the way we all do business. I learnt a huge amount about Eden and how we want to make it better in the future. We were due to leave on Sunday night, but unfortunately the ash cloud had other ideas, and we were stuck in Chicago for a further five days. It wasn’t much fun to be stranded, but when you’re stuck somewhere, you might as well make the most of it…

Whilst on my extended trip, I got to hang out at 8th Light and Obtiva, at the latter for several days. Thanks especially to Obtiva for hosting us for much of the week! Over the ten days I paired with Micah Martin, Dave Hoover, Chad Prye, Doug Bradbury and Eric Smith. I hacked on RSpec2 briefly with David Chelimsky. I went to visit the new offices at Hashrocket Chicago. I spent several days sharing a little suite of rooms at our hotel with Gustin and Enrique, hacking on edash. I wandered about the city, mostly looking up a lot.

In the evenings, I got to meet and have dinner with Corey Haines’ lovely girlfriend Sarah, to hang out with Chad and Joe from Obtiva at a fascinating restaurant, and ate at a vegan place - not normally on my radar, but it was an experience!

These were some of the many highlights of a five day trip that turned into a ten day experience. Of course I’d have preferred that I wasn’t delayed, but when life gives you lemons… you pair :)