UK not OK

Well, I had my hopes up for the last couple of weeks – I got permission to apply to attend a residency in Hursley, UK for four weeks to help put the class material together for the upcoming Portal v5.1 beta program education.

I was delighted that our management would agree to pay the expense to send me to the UK for four weeks – especially given how difficult it has been to get funding for travel recently.

But, alas, I found out last night that I have not been selected to attend the residency. They were looking for four people from all over the world – so I was competing with a lot of others for the spot. I suspect that they were primarily looking for people who could also help teach the beta education in the US and UK – something I probably wouldn’t get funding for, and I don’t really have the time either if I’d just spent 4 weeks away from my job anyway.

I’m disappointed, it would have been great experience, but I’ll keep my eyes out for another suitable residency and will apply for that.

It would have been my first trip to the UK – indeed my first trip to any European country. I was looking forward to spending some time wandering around London and driving around the south coast on weekends.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to be content with a work trip to Darwin to teach a class I’ve been asked to do. That will be another first – haven’t been to Darwin yet, and apparently the weather at this time of year is superb.