Some news from Mexico :)

Hi there!
I know I've not posted anything much lately, but I do have a good reason: I've not done major things!
Every since last post I've stayed in Mexico city. I've been having rough times at work so I decided that staying in Mexico city to rest was the best option (and anyway, the prices for Cancun and Acapulco are overpriced for a lonely weekend trip).
What have I done during those weekends... hum, one of them was spent enjoying the World Cup semi-finals and finals in a Spanish restaurant ( Centro Castellano ). Really good ambiance, probably one of the best places I could pick to watch the matches! I've also walked a lot around the city, quite familiar with the surroundings of the hotel and the Chapultepec park. Visited some museums also ( Museo de Bellas Artes, Museo Antropológico), and rest. A lot of rest, as during weekdays I can be called in the middle of the night in order to do some support.

Google Test Automation Conference 2010

Oh, good news also! I've been invited to attend the 5th Anual Google Test Automation Conference. During this conference we will be discussing cutting edge challenges in test automation, and evaluate potential solutions. Testing in software development is very important, yet not executed properly in most companies. I'm very happy I get the chance to attend, as this conference has the particularity that you can't buy an entry ticket: you have to apply for the attendance and be selected among other people. The conference will take place in Hyderabad, India in the end of October. I'm very excited about this conference, as it's a unique opportunity to meet some of the brightest engineers in the area, and it's also a good opportunity to extend my professional network.

Will keep you updated about all this!

Resting Saturday and day trip to Taxco

Hi there!
Sorry for the lack of recent news, I have been very busy at work last week. The weekend of the 26/27th of June as spend in Mexico city On Friday night / Saturday I had to work (some installation at the client's site) but on Saturday night I finally meet up with Nayibe, a friend of mine that I meet during my exchange time back in Singapore. She invited me to join her at a friend's birthday party, in some club in Insurgentes sur. The place was quite nice and it was nice to meet her again! She introduced me to her boyfriend and her sister (with the bf too) and then we made a move inside the place. The music was good, and it kind of reminded me "Movida" in Singapore: electronic music mixed with some Spanish / Latino tracks.
Funny thing is that at the end of the night, in the middle of the phone call with the hotel to order a cab, my credit on the phone ended and there was no way to top up. I was very lucky that the hotel still sent a cab down to the place where my last cab dropped me, and that the taxi driver recognized me even with a pirate hat :p

With the pirate hat!

The sunday was spent... resting from my outing the previous day and then I had lunch in front of the football match. Later on the day, Ming Hwee and myself went out to the "World Trade Center" of Mexico, where we had dinner at this revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. The food was average, and it was extra hot (the AC was down). And I got a bit sick with all these eternal rotation of the floor. Not so exciting weekend right? But it was still a good one, meeting with friends after a long time is the best thing ever

Now, this weekend was a bit better! After the hard week with long hours, I woke up quite late on Saturday (13:30! but I was awaken by a work phone call) and went to see the Spain-Paraguay match in front of some nice steak. I only saw the second time of the match, and was cheered by the whole waitress team haha (I'm quite a regular there, it's the only decent restaurant near my hotel). After the match, I decided to go visit the Chapultepec forest castle,  but I guess my walk to get there and discovering the gardens took me too long, as I reached too late to get in (the castle is actually in top of a hill, and is now converted in a museum, but it closes at 4pm...). So I just went to a nearby mall, saw a movie (can't remember the name of the movie actually, I jumped in the first movie that was showing and it was nothing exceptional), and had dinner around. Nothing much

Sunday was much better, as I had booked a day trip with the hotel to Taxco (see the link for a detailed description of the place), with a stop over in Cuernavaca. To make things short, if you don't want to read the whole wikipedia page, Taxco is located 170km south Mexico, in the middle of the mountains. It has been developed around the silver mine industry, and is well know around the world (well, not that known, as I didn't have idea of it before coming here) for the silver industry. Apparently celebrities go all the way to this lost country to have some custom made jewelery.

Apart from that, we saw some cathedrals, churches and castles. Quite nice places, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of Taxco. I'll leave you with the photos, they will speak better than me concerning the magnificence of the place

Nothing planned next weekend, will keep you posted!