… and that trip to a couple of offices in the UK has gone from “Some weeks out” to “OMG, I leave in less than a week!”
Okay, so it’s a business trip. I’ve done a zillion of those before. Ah, but this is a business trip to two locations I’ve never been to before, and in a foreign country to boot. Now, I’ve travelled recreationally in the UK, but that’s a bit different. More city stuff this time, more using cabs and the train, and significantly less (gulp) Margie to keep me on an even keel.
That’s the unpleasant part. Not being 100% certain of where I’m going or what I’ll do while I’m there is one thing. Not having Margie around is a significantly less enjoyable aspect of the whole trip.
So, meantime, I’m busy gathering up stuff to take with me on the guest bed, worrying about voltage for my PC and cell phone and palm, and keen stuff like that. Actually, it’s the power thing that has me worried the most at the moment (with visions of Doyce’s burnt-out Palm dancing in my head).
- Palm: I can recharge this (via USB) through my PC.
- Cell Phone: My Nokia charger says, on the back, “Input: AC 100-240V … Output: DC 5.7V.” That says to me that, prongy stuff aside (and I have a set of adapters for the UK), my charger can plug into a British outlet and work just fine.
- PC: The power brick for my ThinkPad says something very much like the cell phone charger — “Input: AC 100-240V.” Which I read to me that, prongs aside, I’m stylin’.
Okay, so I come from an era when stuff was built for either NA 110 or European 220, and using one in the other was a guarantee for bursts of flame, loud popping noises, and lots of blog entries. It’s looking like, in reality, all these adapters are now designed to handle both voltage levels without blinking (or popping), and it’s so self-evident that they don’t even need to mention it anywhere. If so, keen. If not …
I’m sure it will be an interesting trip, and I will manage to eke out some fun, and there will be amusing anecdotes, and I will get a lot of productive work done. But it’s not going to be a holiday, by any means.