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Went out for a meal with Andy and Andrew tonight. Andy suggested a place where they come to the table and cook your food in front of you.

We had "The Chef in the Green Hat". He was very cool. And the food was delicious.

The right way to burn an onion...

A great place to eat

Cunning use of minimal space on the ground. But I wouldn't like to live there...

Today we went for a boat trip out from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, which is around half an hour away. There was nothing particular on the island we wanted to see, but it was a nice trip nonetheless.

On the Boat

Seattle from the bay

The weather could have been nicer, but the views were excellent. It just made me more determined to come back here in sunnier times.

Today was the last day of the summit proper, and we had keynote addresses from Ray Ozzie and Steve Balmer

Gathering for the keynote

Ray Ozzie was first to speak and take questions.

Steve Balmer arrived looking like this:

..and left dressed like this

I think we had better find a University of Hull sweatshirt to give him next time.

I've never heard Steve talk before, and I must say I'm impressed. He was knowledgeable, smart, self aware and, above all, funny.  A great way to end a very interesting four days.

You've got to be careful in hotels. They put mirrors all over the place. There are a whole bunch in the bathroom, which in my opinion (and my condition) is a really bad place to put a mirror. They also have them on the lift doors. I was alone in the lift travelling down to the lobby and, staring at my reflection, thought I'd have a go at gurning to pass the time. As you do.

I just managed to pull a truly deformed face (not, admittedly much of a stretch for me) when of course the doors slid open to reveal a rather well dressed couple who were on their way out to some posh do or other. They managed not to actually recoil at the sight of me, but they did seem slightly worried as they got into the lift and the three of us made it the rest of the way down in rather stony silence. Oh well.

Today was our final day on the Microsoft Campus. Yesterday I carefully scoped out the best place to sit on the bus for photographs and today I took some.

Driving past the bay

The view down the road

The road is interesting, in that for parts of the journey you are pretty much level with the lake, which is a bit strange. Once we got to the campus we again went off for some sessions, and then I got to "Have lunch with my publisher". I've always wanted to say that. We went to a very nice place and I showed my poise and breeding by choosing the one thing on the menu that came with chips. And very nice it was too. The good news (for me at any rate) is that I think I'm going to be writing another book. 

After lunch I met up with Brian, another MVP who teaches with XNA (all these acronyms - don't we sound cool) and then I shot across the campus to meet up with Andy Sterland and Andrew Neil, ex Hull students who now work for Microsoft. As we were talking I noticed a chap outside the building who looked a bit familiar. It turned to be the legendary Phil Price, another Redmond employee from Hull. Out came the camera......

Andy, Phil, Andrew and Andy. If you see what I mean.

Then I shot back to another meeting (they have these amazing shuttles to ferry you around the place), and finally made it onto the bus. The journey back took a while, but I did get some interesting pictures.

This guy is using his laptop whilst driving....

I love the idea of a "Super Heavy" sticker. And talking of "super heavy"...

I took this at the Summit party, which was ace. They had Rock Band set up in a theatre and were letting folk have a go. These guys got booed off after around 30 seconds....

More entertainment

The party in full swing