Java without the Caffeine

I'm writing this sitting by a river in darkest Essex, mid-way through a winter's afternoon. The river is running slow, brown and deep; further down it has overflowed the banks and submerged the footpath.

To my right the water runs through a weir, adding a pleasant background chatter to the silence otherwise only broken by the odd crow and a group of Explorer scouts mucking about in kayaks further upstream. On the opposite bank a lone fisherman freezes over his rod - he doesn't appear to be having a very successful afternoon.



It's about five degrees above freezing and I've been sitting here on a bench for nearly two hours writing some Java to traverse and manipulate an XML DOM tree. There's no Wi-fi or cellular connectivity here, no e-mail, IM or Twitter - the only tweets are coming from a blackbird in the hedge behind me and a Jay in a tree across the way.

Fingers and toes are beginning to feel a bit cold now, but it feels good to coding productively without the constant need for caffeine!