Battle Hymn of the Connectors

Battle Hymn of the Connectors(to the tune of Glory Glory Hallelujah)

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of Five-O;
So forget about your next day off
And favorite TV show;
'Cause your boss has come and called you
And you better not say no;
Code on for SeeBeyond!

Chorus
Get to work and build that eWay;
Proof your doc and run your QA;
It's not long until release day;
Code on for SeeBeyond!

Our humble servant leads us onward,
Bravely Ward-ing off our foes;
He is trampling out the classpaths
Where our Five-0 forest grows;
Leaves and branches keep on falling,
And the core is full of holes;
But still we code along!

Chorus
So get to work and build that eWay;
Proof your doc and run your QA;
It's not long until release day;
Code on for SeeBeyond!

-- Kent Kanouse

Paris

A day of sightseeing. Walked from my hotel to the Place de la Concorde, ate breakfast at an outdoor café in the Jardin des Tuileries, and spent an hour at the Louvre. Spent the afternoon taking a tour bus to Chartres, visiting the medieval town and cathedral. Back in Paris, had a fabulous dinner at a sidewalk café near my hotel.

Paris

Did a presentation with Jean-Francois at Mederic (in Nueilly) in the morning, met Alex, Marjo, and Paul at Generali afterwards, went with them to lunch at Atlantique. Back at my hotel by 4, took a nap, then went out walking, ate dinner across from the Moulin Rouge.

Paris

Breakfast at the hotel with Marjo. Checked out, walked to the customer offices (Generali insurance group), spent a day making good progress on the Cobol API project; got it working in CICS, nearly so in batch. Lunch with Marjo and Paul Myall.

Checked into Mercure Royal Madeleine (29 rue de l’arcade), where I’ll be staying until Sunday. Went out by myself for a nice walk and dinner.

Paris

Arrived Paris 2:20 PM, took a taxi to the Mercure Hotel Opera Garnier at 4 Rue de L’Isly. Went out for a walk, had a beer at a sidewalk café, then took a nap in my room (6-9). Marjo arrived same hotel at 10, we took a walk, had drinks at one café, dinner at another. Back to the hotel at 1:30.

England to the Netherlands

My co-worker and friend Marjo van Diem, 43, lives in Holland, and while on projects such as this, in England, he drives home on weekends, taking the ferry over the English Channel (his car is fueled by propane, so he's prohibited from taking the chunnel). This weekend he invited me to come with him, to see Holland, and of course I jumped at the chance.

So I saw the White Cliffs of Dover, and the beaches of Calais on the other side, and then rode with him through northern France and Belgium to his home in Zwijndrecht — arriving near midnight. His 37-year-old wife, Jerica, was up to greet us, and we talked for a while before going to bed. Jerica’s son was spending the weekend with her ex, so I slept in his room.

London

Having a day off, I took the train to London, and had a wonderful time sightseeing. Took a bus tour that hit all the hot spots, with an extensive tour of the Tower of London. Dinner at an Indian restaurant, then back to Hatfield.

Hatfield, England

Start of the project at Tesco (a major supermarket chain). For this POC, we need to demo the CICS e*Way, and (doing development on-site) adapt my Cobol/IP Sockets API (originally written for CICS) to work in both IMS and batch. The SeeBeyond team met in the lobby in the AM, and had a planning session over breakfast; we were an international mix: Eric Williams (Welsh), Adam Turnbull (English), Marjo van Diem (Dutch), Stefan Franczuk (a Scot of Polish descent), and myself. The Tesco headquarters were in Welwyn Garden (what would be called an “industrial park” in the US), some twenty minutes from Hatfield.

Back at the Jarvis in the evening, we all had drinks and dinner, after which Marjo (pronounced mar-yo) and I staying up late, talking—forging a friendship that would last for years.

From Paris to Hatfield, England

Checked out of my hotel in the AM, took the Eurostar train to London — under the English Channel. From London, I took a cab, and then a train, to Hatfield (half an hour north), and checked into the Jarvis Hotel in time for dinner. In the States, we might have called the Jarvis a “motor inn” (it was low and sprawling), but with its brick exterior, 40s deco motif, bar, and dining room, it aspired to more than that. Little did I know that I’d be there for a month.

Paris

Ate a bacon and egg sandwich at a place down the street from the hotel, then walked to the Seine, and checked into taking a river cruise at Pont Neuf. There was an hour and a half wait,so I walked around taking pictures, browsing the shops on the north side of the river, including a solid block of pet stores selling everything from chipmunks to roosters. By this time it had started to rain, so I gave up on the boat cruise, walked to the Louvre, and boarded a bus for a two-hour “city tour.” It hit all the highlights (Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, Ile de la City, Ile St. Louis, Notre Dame), and though it didn’t stop anywhere, it was a good way to get acquainted with the various neighborhoods. Afterwards, I took a taxi to the train station (Gare du Nord) to buy my ticket for Sunday’s trip to London, then had another taxi drop me off at Notre Dame, where I spent an hour or so. From there I took a leisurely walk back to my hotel, taking pictures, stopping for a drink on a riverboat bar, browsing the bookstores (I’ve never seen so many! They’re everywhere!), savoring the sights and sounds of the St. Germain des Pres neighborhood.

One bookstore was devoted to linguistics and language – dictionaries, study guides, tapes, etc. – and another contained nothing but photography and art books. The narrow winding streets were teeming with people, accordion players providing the classic ambiance (including incidental music from Charade!), and as I negotiated through the sidewalk cafes and creperies, I was overwhelmed by one delicious smell after another.

After a stop back at my room to call Tim Taylor in London (to let him know my arrival time), I went out looking for a place to eat dinner. Stopping first for a crepe au fromage at a sidewalk stand, I settled on a place called L’Atlas (Rue de Buci), and had a feast: Campari and soda for starters, then avocado salad, escargots, salmon over pasta, and Chablis; dessert was lemon sorbet in vodka.

It was nearly ten, and lightly raining, as I walked back to my hotel, and I made one more stop on the way – to sit and read over a Heineken, under a canopy at a café on Boulevard St. Germain.