Catching Up, Week 152 (was 165)

Long time since an update but there’s some important things going on so I wanted to get up to date.

In the weeks after my last update I continued to work on the Colour Match app for Crown. I’ve added various features to try to help users find the right colour better including adding in a new set of colours that need to be mixed on-demand, and then a set of colour palettes to let you browse the colours similar to the one the app has selected for you. I submitted that app last Thursday and Apple approved it around Tuesday of this week so that’s now available from the app store.

I then went on holiday for two weeks! Apart from a really crap start to the holiday courtesy of US airways and a cancelled flight meaning we were 24 hours late into our destination we actually had a really good time. We started our holiday in San Francisco, eventually having 2 full days there. This was actually my fourth trip to San Francisco but my wife’s first so it was nice to be able to take her around and show her some of the sights I’ve previously enjoyed. The first day was spent within SF doing a bit of shopping, visiting Chinatown and then over to Fisherman’s Wharf to do a boat cruise under the Golden Gate bridge (a first for me actually). On the second day I hired a car (an hour spent in a queue, thanks National!) and we explored a wider area. We drove into the Presidio and I took a photo of my wife with the Yoda fountain at the Lucasfilms HQ. We then continued on to the Golden Gate bridge, we drove over and parked at the viewing spot on the other side to take a photo, we then drove back over and to Baker Beach for a few more photos. The weather wasn’t really beach weather, more gray and cool, but it was still nice to see and take a few photos.

After this we went onto the Golden Gate park. I was originally looking for the Japanese Tea Garden but we ended up getting lost and ending up at the rose garden. This was nice enough to walk around so we had a look and I took some photos. From here we headed south, I was aiming to take the coast road but unfortunately I relied on the GPS too much and it took us mostly on a boring highway to our next destination - Half Moon Bay. The weather still wasn’t really playing ball so we didn’t spend too much time here but drove a short distance north to visit Barbara’s Fish Trap. This is a great little fish restaurant that I found last year (with a WhereCamp friend John Barratt). We both had a mixed seafood selection consisting of a big selection of breaded seafood delights. In the evening we headed back into town to join the WWDC2011 European developer gathering. Unfortunately I hadn’t managed to get a ticket for WWDC (but can you imagine how annoyed I would have been missing the first day due to cancelled flights?!) so it was good to be at least a little involved. I enjoyed a nice micro-brew beer and a good chat with Dave Verwer of Shiny Development and the European Apple developer liaison David Currall.

After San Francisco we flew to Detroit to see friends. This was a great relaxed time, it was good to catch up with friends and meet their new 9 month old twins! We didn’t get up to much while we were there but we did go on a quick trip into Detroit to see Michigan Central Station and even drove over to pay a quick visit to Canada on the other side of the Detroit river. On our last day we made the two hour trip up to see our friend’s grandparents who live on the shore of Lake Superior. They were actually on the shore of Saginaw Bay, so not the main part of the lake, but it was still huge and an impressive sight.

After Detroit we carried on to New York City. We stayed near Times Square and did all the tourist things including visiting Liberty and taking in the view from the top of the Empire State Building. There’s been a few links dotted through this post but if you want to see all my photos take a look at my set of America photos over on flickr.

So, finally, week 165. Just before I went away we signed the paperwork to register a new Community Interest Company - DoES Liverpool. The idea behind DoES Liverpool is to create a space in which people can come together, can use a workshop to design and build products, can co-work on desks and ultimately can build businesses. Much of this week has been taken up with organising paperwork for the company and the bank account and finalising details of the venue. If you’re interested in hearing more about DoES Liverpool then be at GeekUp on Tuesday in Leaf on Bold Street from 6:30pm to hear all the details.