003 - Recovering from my last job in the UK

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working with my brother at the Farnborough Air Show.

It has been long hours with a lot of driving between Brighton, Guildford, (the hotel where we stayed), and Farnborough.

The work was IT Support for the journalists, photographers, and production staff of the flight magazine that is released daily at the show and the interactive magazine and web-pages ( Flight Magazine ). Initially we had to create an office with not only internet connection, but also a network that connects to their main office in Sutton. This meant cables, laptops, Macs, printers, projectors, routers, servers, and switches. In all we used over 50 cables, many of them 50 meters long, as well as three different wireless connections.

On the setup we were driving back and forth between Brighton and Farnborough, leaving home at 6am to miss the traffic, and arriving back late in the evening. During the show it was roughly the same hours, normally getting back to the hotel at 11pm. We had to be first in, and last out every day as not only did we have the keys, but we also had to make sure everything was working from the off, and had to do a backup of all the work once they were finished.

Our days were quite eventful in a techie way, with occasional problems receiving and sending files, sorting out problems with the journalists own laptops, and even reinstalling software when it had got corrupted. We also were the odd-jobbers as we had free time on our hands, and such things as keeping the golf buggies (used by the journalists and photographers for bombing around the show to press conferences and displays) recharged. Being over six feet tall I was also on hand to get foodstuffs down from the high shelves for the kitchen staff.

The Farnborough Air Show is a big event for the business sector, and is not about a couple of aircraft popping up into the sky to do a few tricks with coloured flares, no, this is for the major buyers in the industry. There are stands, and offices for all the big players from every country in the world, with airlines buying passenger planes, and governments buying fighter jets, it would not be an exaggeration to say that billions of pounds changed hands throughout the show.

Our little group consisted of about 20 journalists, 6 photographers, a production team of about 12, catering staff, buyers, and dozens of lads and lasses who were giving out the free magazine to the thousands of show attendees.

So all in all both my brother and I were exhausted when we arrived back in Brighton yesterday afternoon at 5:30pm with a van full of gear.

We were then told that within the hour we had to travel to my brothers daughters for a birthday celebration. Thankfully it was a casual affair, and consisted of a few beers and a take-away Chinese meal.

Getting home around midnight I collapsed into bed thinking that Bulgaria can't come soon enough and fell into a deep sleep.

I mentioned a few problems still to overcome before my 'Bulgarian Dream' becomes a reality. The biggest is the sale of my house... It is supposed to all be finalised by the end of this month, with money in my bank soon afterwards ready to purchase when I get to Bulgaria. If the sale falls through, so does my dream. It is quite a tense time for me, and I actually feel a chill around me when I get a text or email from my solicitors.

OK, today means a rest I hope. I seriously need it.