To Graham and Lisa a son, Virtual Person Ellis. Virtual is a Designer child, conceived with the assistance of P and O Irish Ferries' web site support team to assist his father in the booking of a cabin on a sickly web site. At the tender age of 4 days, he's booked to accompany his father on a crossing from Liverpool this coming Sunday evening, and his father is hoping he sleeps through.

There are some daft booking systems and prices around! "Invent an infant" was the advise given to me by the ferry operator as I wrestled with their web site on Tuesday. "That way, you get the booking you want, and the web discount. There's no charge for an under 4, but if I book it for you you won't get the web price".

Ah - Dublin again next week; I think I must have been running private Perl courses in Dublin for 7 or 8 years now, and I've also run the odd public (open enrolment) Perl course on behalf of a reseller who consolidated a number of requirements. I was quite chuffed when one of my students on that course commented "Oh good - glad it's you Graham. Heard a lot about you; you're known as Mr Perl at our place". Of course, the Irish have a great line in Blarney (and, yes, I have visited Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney Stone - it helps in my teaching), but the proof of the pudding is that I continue to get regular bookings from the employer of that student.
(written 2004-09-23, updated 2008-05-10)

 Z900 - The rest
  [8] How much does fuel cost for an airline flight? - (2004-08-09)
  [14] London - Most expensive city?? - (2004-08-14)
  [21] two plus two equals seven - (2004-08-21)
  [97] What makes a professional photographer? - (2004-10-23)
  [100] Life is frail - (2004-10-26)
  [106] Far from the sea, but close to the heart - (2004-11-01)
  [147] Recent technical articles - (2004-12-10)
  [169] A pleasure to train - (2005-01-05)
  [178] Calling a spade a spade - (2005-01-15)
  [214] Futility of war? - (2005-02-13)
  [275] See 8 but buy 6. See 6 but you can buy 8. - (2005-04-10)
  [678] Why are maps rarely to scale? - (2006-04-10)
  [700] As I walked in to Oxford - (2006-04-26)
  [810] A bad place for security firms - (2006-07-21)
  [905] Not proud to be British - (2006-10-26)
  [2113] Answering a question with a question - (2009-04-01)
  [2807] Canal through Melksham - the options and issues - (2010-06-13)
  [4188] Extended Weekend - but not a quiet one! - (2013-10-07)
  [4516] Looking ahead on the blog - (2015-09-25)

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