We decided to take a short family break on the Isle of Wight dung the school Easter holidays. We found accommodation in Yarmouth through Airbnb at a lovely spot overlooking the River Yar.

On Thursday morning we took the WightLink ferry over to the island in the morning and as we got there early they put us on the earlier ferry so we arrived to the Isle of Wight just after ten o'clock. We decided to head to Alum Bay and spend the day there. We first went to the viewpoint to see the Needles and then took the stairs down to the bay as dogs weren't allowed on the chair lift we knew we had to do this both ways!

We found a nice spot on the beach to sit and have our picnic and relax. Nova had a good time exploring around us and found her comfiest spot to sit was on Jess.

After a relaxing time on the beach we headed back up to the cliff top - Nova managed the just set of stairs but wanted to be carried up the bigger set. At the top we browsed the shops and had ice creams whilst listening to the live music. We then took the bus across to the Needles battery where we explored the headland and enjoyed the views all around before heading in to see the battery itself. From there you cold see exactly it why was a strategic point to be armed as it overlooked the entrance to the Solent - noone was getting in without passing into its range. We got drinks from the cafe before heading for the bus stop to return to Alum Bay.

We then checked into our cottage, had fish and chips and enjoyed the sunset - of course Nova managed to be the first one to try out the outdoor shower as she found something smelly to roll in.

The next day we explored from where we were staying down the route of the old railway line along the side of the river - we got to the End of the Line Cafe and then headed back and had a relaxing afternnon at the boat house - making use of the sauna and garden to enjoy the fantastic weather. In the afternoon Laura and I headed out for another wander along the railway path along to the end and back along the coast, stopping at Off the Rails for a drink along the way. Then in the evening we headed up into Yarmouth and out on the pier before collecting pizzas to take back to the boathouse to enjoy in the garden.

I was fortunate to finally get a chance to visit my team in Kochi and had a fantastic few days with them, it was so great to be able to spend some time face to face after working together remotely for several years. I travelled to Kochi via Chennai with British Airways. In Chennai this meant I arrived through the international terminal and then had to clear immigration and head over to the domestic terminal next door. Immigration all went smoothly but then at the domestic terminal they didn't recognise my boarding pass for the Indigo codeshare that British Airways had given me, so I had to get help at the check in desks. Once this was all resolved I had to pass through security again and all went smoothly, efficient boarding and a short flight later I arrived in Kochi around 9 in the morning and was met by Akhil and Midhun at the airport to take me to the office.

I didn't have very much time to explore Kochi, with arriving on Monday morning and heading back over to Chennai on the Thursday night to spend a day with the team there on Friday but we managed to get away earlier one afternoon and head to the coast - then on the way it poured with rain so we ended up at a nice spot, Old Lighthouse Lounge, overlooking the coast where we could get some food and drink.

I tried a lot of different foods (whilst sticking to the less spicy options) heading to different places with the team each day I was there - I think my favourite was the local fish wrapped with spices and baked in a banana leaf followed closely by parotta (a flakey layered flatbread) and some of the different paneer based dishes.

There was a real buzz in the office there and it was fantastic seeing the sense of community there and the collaboration that went on within the teams. I managed to have a lot of conversations with different groups across the team, a few one on ones and a couple of full team meetings, but there's lots more that could easily taken another week as the time flew by too quickly. I hope to see them all again soon!

Just back from a fantastic time at #ibmtech2023 in Dubai, where it was great to meet with so many colleagues from across IBM, celebrate our achievements and learn together.

I was really struck by this in the welcome kickoff from Dinesh Nirmal - "For every ten excuses, find one reason to believe" - that technological advances come through out of belief in the possible even through surrounding skepticism. Meeting and chatting to so many fantastic IBMers shows how that belief can be reinforced through the many accomplishments being celebrated.

Then after a coffee break we had our first session - for me this was "AI Overview and IBM AI Technology Roadmap" which was a really well presented session with lots of useful information but I was starting to flag a bit after the late night arrival.

After the morning sessions we headed off to our recreation activity - mine was the 4x4 Desert Safari where we went off exploring the desert dunes in a 4x4, up the slopes and then along the edge of the peak before turning back round and down. This was followed by riding camels - it was really strange when they go up and kneel down and felt very high up on them! After this we had the chance to try sand-boarding, which I didn't do very well at at all and the board kept burying itself in the sand and getting stuck rather than elegantly gliding down the slope as I was hoping for!

Time to refresh before the Welcome dinner where they had a buffet style meal and musicians performing in the centre.

After the dinner a group of us headed down to see the fountains in front of the Burj Khalifa.

• Day two of sessions
• Celebration dinner

• Closing session with Arvind
• Transfer back to the airport

I travelled to Paris the day before the conference with Matt and we got to the Hotel in the evening, later than expected as we'd not considered traffic when getting a taxi in to Paris from the airport, I think next time I'd probably take the train in. We then met up with Tom and found a local restaurant/bar to have dinner.

As the API Days conference started at 1 o'clock the next day and I was up early I was able to do a bit of sight-seeing before heading back to the hotel to get on with some work and make sure I was ready for my session later that day. I had breakfast and headed out on the metro across Paris to the Eifel tower.

There was a light covering of snow everywhere and it was still very cold and there was more snow coming down as I emerged from the metro, although it didn't really show in the pictures and it was still well before sunrise so everything was quite dark. I grabbed a coffee at one of the nearby cafes and caught up on Slack.

After coffee it had brightened up a bit but was still nice and snowy all around so I walked down closer to the Eifel Tower and a little way along the Seine before heading back across to the Arc De Triomphe and back on the metro back to the hotel. I then made my way over to the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie where the conference was to be held. I met Tom as I left the metro station and we headed into the venue together to find the booth and meet the rest of the team.

My workshop "Applying AI to API Testing across the lifecycle" was early in the conference, starting just 30 minutes after the doors opened so I went to get set up fairly early to find that the projector in the room wasn't working but it turned out I'd gone to the wrong room and over in the room I was in everything worked properly. My talk went well and I had some good questions from the audience at the end and was glad to have it done so I could enjoy the remainder of the conference. I spent most of the rest of the day at or around the booth meeting people; discussing API Connect with them; giving demos and guiding them through the sign up for our free 30 day trial.

In the evening of the first day of the conference there was a Speaker Soiree which a few of us headed to after dropping things back to the hotel, it was at Belushi's on the Canal de l'Ourcq so was just a short walk from my hotel. Given the size of the conference and the number of tracks going on the event was packed with those speaking at the event and was a great oppportunity to meet some of the others and share our experiences in the API space. As the world cup game between France and Morocco was on that evening we'd been warned to expect trouble in the streets of Paris, so headed back to the hotel just after half time to avoid anything that kicked off after the match. Later on from the hotel I could hear that France had won with the jubilant sounds of car horns.

The other thing we had at the booth which was a different idea from the previous time was a series of SmartTalks - 10 minute slots scheduled throughout the event with different people giving a taster session on a topic. I had two on the schedule - "API Deployment automation with IBM API Connect and GitHub Actions" and "Lambda integration in IBM API Connect on AWS". As we were situated by one of the coffee stations we also had a steady stream of people passing our booth so the opportunity to sit down with a coffee and listen to a short talk definitely appealed. These seemed to work really well and drew an audience, often leading to interesting one to one follow on conversations with a few of the attendees.

Our summer family break in West Bay, Dorset