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Martin's Year - 2004
Pictures include:-
With and without glasses (or should I say spectacles). More often than not
"with" these days.
ZEN on the move in 2004
By the end of February we needed to have found new business premises, as we had been
given written notice in Nov 2003 by our landlords, who are the company occupying the ground floor
below us. (Picture right - where we were.) Thankfully we are on pretty good terms with them so there was some flexibility in
the timing. They own the lease for the building, and when we moved in they didn't need all
the space. Now they've increased their business and staffing and needed the extra space
back.
It's not easy finding similar property that's the right size, in the right
area and actually available, but in our search we came across a new development
on the other side of Salford Quays which had a mix of different sized buildings
and units, a few of which were available freehold rather than leasehold. When we
were first looking for premises five years ago we thought it would be a nice
idea to buy somewhere, but completely failed to find anywhere suitable, and had
settled for leasing. Suddenly we had the possibility of buying, although even
the smallest freehold units were bigger than we currently need. However, with no
better alternative available elsewhere, and after comparing the costs of leasing
versus buying, we decided to go ahead with a freehold unit and attempt to become
landlords ourselves. We would occupy the ground floor and rent out the first
floor.
We had actually put in an offer before Christmas 2003, but only heard back at
the start of January, and after a little negotiation had reached an agreement.
Unfortunately there were endless delays with the purchase process, mainly
involving sub-soil contamination and the possible ramifications thereof, but we
finally obtained insurance at a reasonable price and completed in July 2003. You
can see what it looks like
here.
Meanwhile, other things had been happening...
Pauillac in March
A short business trip to the Bordeaux area of France, nothing to do with
wine, except for the healthy quantities consumed during the visit. Pauillac is
on the River Gironde, north of Bordeaux and in the heart of the Médoc wine
region, with famous houses like Lafite Rothschild just up the road. I was there
for a few days as part of a Leitch European Dealer meeting to look at their new
High Definition Video Editing system ahead of its official release later in the
year.
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a very pleasant French provincial hotel |
behind which the sessions took place |
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the VelocityHD - the reason we were here |
where we spent most of each day |
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plenty of small boats out on the river |
some architectural detail |
Amsterdam in September
Another business trip, this time for IBC, the big European
broadcast show spread over 11 halls of the RAI exhibition centre. Unlike most
shows which run during the week, this one is spread over the weekend as well,
which makes it easier to attend without having to close the office for too long.
I've been once before, but that was a very quick visit in which I stayed one
night in an airport hotel and didn't get into the centre of Amsterdam at all.
Despite my many travels with Granada, and more visits to Schipol airport than I
can remember, I'd never actually stayed in the centre of Amsterdam before, and
what a delight it was. Despite the difficulty in finding hotel places when
there's a convention in town, (and at short notice - I only booked the previous
weekend) I ended up in a small hotel within walking distance of Central Station,
with a room overlooking one of the inner ring of canals. The weather was kind
too (it had been quite cold on my previous IBC visit), and quite warm enough for
eating outside at night as well as during the day. I found the old town with all
its alleyways and cyclists quite charming, and would happily return for a more
leisurely visit sometime, as I'm sure Kathie would enjoy it too. |
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my hotel room with a view |
a tram to the RAI from nearby Central Station |
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it's easy to walk, travel by canal... |
...go by tram... |
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...or cycle, which is what most locals do - |
the cycle park by the station is huge |
Settling in at Quays Reach
It's now five months since I moved into the new office, although
sadly we don't have any tenants yet. We almost did, and they were due to start
in November, but pulled out at the last minute apparently due to several of
their new staff backing out on them. However, things are slowly getting
organised (see how it started out), and
in October I finally got the communications wiring tidied into the trunking, a
job I never got round to doing in the previous office, and one I promised myself
I'd do properly this time. One reason it needed doing sooner rather than later
is that I knew I'd need access to remove the covers to much of the trunking to
feed the cables through, and therefore I'd not put up much of the shelving or
finalised anything heavy near the walls for fear I'd have to move it. So, with
that job out of the way, we've now got most of the shelving up, things are going
into the bookcases and filing cabinets and the pile of boxes is diminishing,
although it's not over yet.
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wiring up the patchbay... |
...which fits into a home-made pine rack |
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work in progress... |
...and almost finished |
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the state of things... |
...just before Christmas 2004 |
| This page was updated on
31/12/2006. |
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