…could have been the soundtrack to the most recent assignment I went on.

At least for a suitable definition of London, I guess. As it turns out I ended up about an hour’s train ride from what is considered “London” in the sense of “yes, I want to be there”. Short-termed (i.e. four weeks) as the engagement was I got to meet and work with some nice people, got to pity a somewhat disorganized client and add a line to the list of CQ projects I’ve been involved in.

Lessons learned:

• Given the choice, favour Thistle Hotels over the Travelodge.
• Given the choice, don’t take the plastic bag full of processed food that passes as a breakfast in the Travelodge. For GBP 4.50 you can get a better breakfast virtually everywhere else, including, but not limited to that franchise with the golden arches.
• OSGi declarative services rock.
• Manage your expectations. If your JSP developers don’t even know JSTL properly, there’s only so much benefit you’ll get from using CQ.
• Coming home early from an out-of-country assignment is always nice, even if it costs you a weekend in London proper.
• Seamlessly switching between a Mac with a German keyboard layout and a Windows machine with a UK keyboard layout takes some getting used to.