2003- the Graham who came in from the cold

"Ah, there you are. Come in, I've been expecting you"

"Same procedure every year". For more than 10 years now I've been sending an end of year summary e-mail, so that those of you with whom I had been remiss in keeping in touch would know what I had been up to in the preceding year and what I looked forward to in the next. A few years ago I began to post a web page instead, allowing me to add a few photos. It is becoming clear to me that somewhere along the way, in addition to writing these pages for you, I began to write them also as a sort of diary so that I can look back in years to come and remind myself of my travels (I wish I had kept those earlier mails :-( I mention this to ask you to please indulge me if I ramble.

January

Despite a new year's resolution to sharply cut back on beer in order to lose weight, early January found me repeatedly falling over. No, it's not what you think, I was sober - Chrissy made good on her threat/promise that we buy cross country skis. Unfortunately, when we got home we discovered a large nail sticking through the sole of her boot. Nothing daunted, she volunteered me to go out on my own - hence the falling down. The next day we exchanged her boots, but by then the big thaw had set in :-(

After several days of melting we had another freeze, then some snow, leaving ice everywhere, covered by a thin layer of snow - making for interesting walking & driving. The entire yard in front of the farm was covered 3 or 4 inches deep in ice - imagine an ice rink. with a valley in the middle: now imagine that your shoes have totally smooth soles, with no grip whatsoever; now imagine pushing a wheelbarrow across the ice rink to the woodshed. Maybe you remember a game where there is a tower of wood and each player takes turns removing a piece until the tower collapses? Imagine playing that with an 8 foot woodstack, pulling out logs - in pitch darkness, by touch only. Then you get to manoeuvere the the fully laden wheelbarrow down into the valley, trying to dig your heels into the ice as its mass tries to drag you downwards, then try to push it up the other side. Ah, the joys of winter in Norway :-)

Well, if does have some compensations - as the weather became colder and wintrier drew on, we began to see deer. Sometime we would be going to bed & would look out of the window and see the foraging not 20 feet from the house; we would also see them run across the fields as we took the dog for a walk of an evening.

February

In February we got away from the cold for a week when we went to Hong Kong for the wedding of a very good friend (congratulations, Ronald and Rachel!). Just before we got there HK had also gone through an incredible cold spell - it got down to plus 8 degrees C. Unfortunately, every house, office, hotel and shop in HK has air conditioning, but not a single one has heating - they just don't need it (normally). Fortunately, we missed that and had some wonderful sun. We also managed to miss SARS (remember that?) by about 1 week.

We had a great week, with lots of shopping, quite a few business contacts and the highlight of the week, of course, was the wedding. I managed to exercise an incredible amount of self control. Since I had been weak and bought a few suits in the January sales, I had admonished myself not to buy any in HK and was very proud that I managed to only buy three :-)

We also, as you would expect, visited a few companies and agencies of our acquaintance. No-one was very optimistic as most HK companies seem to be moving their development work to the mainland where workers cost a fraction of their HK price (I must admit that this trend and the rise of Indian software houses leaves me feeling uneasy for the future). One V.P. with whom we previously worked said that if we were to set up a software house on the mainland, he would put a lot of work our way. That got us thinking and we had some serious discussion with a guy who had previously set up a very successful agency about the possibility of starting a software house in mainland China.

One company director explained that he planned to move his software development to Shanghai and quintuple is work force. Since the original idea was to send the Chinese engineers to Europe for 6 months each for training, we were quickly came to the agreement that it might be much more cost effective if Chrissy & I went to Shanghai to provide the training! Since we are not trainers by nature, we suggested hands-on training and knowledge transfer and then thought no more of it.

March

Apart from a false alarm involving a long contract with DoCoMo in Tokyo, nothing of interest :-(

April

Found me singing "I'm dreaming of a white easter" when it was still, snowing a week before Easter. We paid a visit to Munich, the first of the year and had a pleasant time, made more pleasant by a visit to the beergarden. We had hoped to meet up with those of you based in Munich, but it seemed that everyone was off somewhere else for the holidays.

May

Students leaving the technical university celebrate by wearing red dungarees and getting up to strange antics, among the mildest of which was camping overnight on the roundabout.by our office. It reminded me of the young Germans on their way to national service who don a special white sweatshirt with a pen attached by a cord and go on a pub crawl, trying to persuade girls to write on their shirts. It's little things like this that give a country character.

After the best summer since records began (would you expect 35c in Norway?) with people swimming in the fjord at the end of September, it chucked it down with snow at the start of October & it lay on the ground until only a few weeks ago (it snowed again last Monday). So, for 7 months I was walking home from work, mostly in the dark, through the woods in knee deep snow and stopping off at the wood shed to chop wood for the metal stove which is our only source of heat. Picturesque - for about a week!! The last snow fell on 5th May.

Then we had a few weeks of rain, punctuated by only day of sunshine, when the god of Norway smiled on May 17th to given beautiful weather for the Norwegian national day.

June

There was an eclipse of the sun, visible to much of Europe. In Norway it was 90% complete and I rose just after 4a.m and went to the office to climb to the roof to get a good view. Unfortunately, it was not comparable with the total eclipse which we experienced a few years previously in Munich. At 4:45a.m, when the eclipse was at its height, there was still enough light to easily read a book by. A slight disappointment, but I highly recommend you, if you get the chance, to experience a 100% eclipse, even if you have to travel or get up in the middle of the night; it is truly an unforgettable experience.

Never having been to Sweden, we took a weekend to explore a little. We stopped off at a castle on the Norwegian/Swedish border, which the Norwegians had been heavily fortifying in 1905(!). We spent an afternoon in Goetheborg., which is a very pleasant city indeed, but otherwise just drove around the swedish countryside (which is pleasant enough, but seems totally flat, in comparison to Norway). We had an enjoyable weekend and agreed that we would be happy to work in Sweden at some future time.

We returned, as every year, to Munich for some open air classical music concerts - Klassik Am Odeonzplatz - on a Saturday and Sunday. A nice chance to dress up and sip champagne, trying to look posh, surrounded by the upper crust of Munich.

July

Being creatures of habit, we returned, as every year, to Munich for the Kaltenberger Ritterturnier. The local prince opens his castle for a mediaeval festival. He has had a 20,000 seat ampitheatre built for jousting and all of the local (and some not so local) mediaeval reenactment societies, musical + dance groups, falconers, swordsmen, archers, etc attend. there is good mediaeval music and food (and the prince owns a brewery :-) Always an excellent time.

Starting last moth, I got into the habit of coming home from work and sitting for a few hours in the evening in the farmyard, trying to read, but mostly playing with the dog and, to some extent, the cats and kittens. A little piece of heaven on earth.

There were, however, one or two "never again" mornings after we sat in the farm yard until late at night, drinking vodka with our Ukrainian friend, Denys. That, however, didn't stop Denis & I from climbing Skaugum Os, the huge hill a few km behind the farm.

August

A fairly quiet month, but what's to complain about that? The weather continued to be wonderful and we took every chance to sit outdoors, often eating and drinking by the fjord, or on the quay in Akker Brygge, Oslo. Perfect weather for going for walks with my adopted dog, Iris. Here's a poor quality movie of the view from the farm balcony. I also had a very pleasant afternoon at the Oslo Jazz Festival, at a concert in the grandest hotel in town, with Denis.

September

Since this is, in any case, mostly a diary, I have decided to 'blog it in real time. You can read it as I post it here. Bore yourself to tears - receive a mail whenever Graham updates his online diary. Send a mail to this address or visit http://www.topica.com/lists/grahams_world/subscribe/ to subscribe. There is probably more to read there about the rest of the year than there is here.

Last month we had some email asking if we would be willing to go to Shanghai for a few months. We ascertained that the project plans in Norway were such that our contracts would not be renewed when they expired and agreed that a trip to China would be welcome. Everything is now firmly in place and we will start on December 15th - the world tour continues.

At the end of the month we went back to Munich for Oktoberfest, as usual. We reserved a Smart Car but when we got there, there were none left and we had to make do with a substitute. Had a great time with Anthony Chang and managed to hook up briefly with Alan Stenhouse. Sadly, so Santa stuff this year - maybe next. Here are two short movies: one of a revolving bar and one of the oompah band playing "Prosit ".

October

Not much this month. Rainy, dark and miserable. Deadlines are piling up at work and we seem to be spending every Saturday and Sunday in the office (one of the disadvantages of living so close to work).

November

Another month which didn't see one day not spent in the office. Winter finally arrived.

December

At least, the big day arrived. We went out for dinner with all of our friends from work, about 25 of us, to the nearest restaurant which just happens to be run by a guy from Shanghai. A great time was had by all, but the next day rather sad. Then, on Saturday I took the overnight ferry from Oslo to Keil and on Sunday had a grueling 900km drive to Munch. We had 2 days in Munich - one to unpack from Norway and one to pack for Shanghai and then flew to Hong Kong to pick up the visas. Only one day in HK for shopping and to meet up with old friends and then on to China.

The apartment is everything we could wish for and the whole city is a pleasant surprise - I think we had been expecting something like East Berlin was, back in the day. The city is incredibly modern, not surprising, really, since it has been built up from nothing in 20 years, and incredibly capitalistic. There is neon everywhere, the stores are packed with luxury goods and were decked with Christmas decorations and filled with Christmas tunes. See my blog for more details and some photos.

Shanghai celebrates Christmas European style, on the 24th, rather than British style, on the 25th. So, on Christmas eve the only place we could find to eat dinner was in the PEace Hotel on the Bund, with a nice view of the Huag Pu, looking towards Pudong, then downstairs to listen to the worst jazz band I have ever heard in my life - so bad they were actually good.

Although there was a lot of Christmas decoration, carols, etc, the 25th was just a normal working day. We got a special permission from the department head and took the day off, having a pleasant enough Christmas lunch (T-one steak for me + assorted veg for Chrissy), followed by a visit to the Paulaner Bierkeller (of Munich and Shanghai). Then back to work next day, to discover that the Christmas decorations had already been removed and replaced by Chinese New Year decorations. For (western) New Year's eve, we will probably go to a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic; they are doing some Mozart and some Strauss over the next few days.

And that was the year, that was. I hope that yours was as good. Please take a few minutes to drop me an e-mail and tell me what you are up to... you can see my favourite pictures of the year here.

Book of the year :: Adult Video Business: How You Can Find Attractive Women to Star in Your Own Adult Films, Make Money, and Quit Work in 7 Weeks

Joke of the year - the dachshund joke.

Software of the year - the Homeland Security Monitor.

Viral e-mail of the year (slightly rude) - Men's life before and after marriage.

Junk e-mail of the year - any one of this lot.

Craze of the year - ReflectoPorn - selling items on eBay (kettles, TVs, etc) with a reflection of the seller - NAKED - reflected in said object.

Movie still of the year - one ring to rule them all.

Recipe of the year, Graham style, is this one from my father's daily newspaper in Australia (where else?).

Registered Democrats only, click here for some graphics for your web page.

Anyone who worked in lovely Oolum on the beautiful brown Danube might wish to look here (which I swear is not doctored in any way)..

Song of the year, from an unknown Norwegian rock band, heard on the radio while driving to work - "This morning I put my favourite socks on" (though Chrissy thinks it may be favourite songs - spoilsport)

Tour guide of the year: I Googled for the name of my home town and found this. I swear that I didn't alter a word of it - it's just as some inhabitant submitted it.

As always, feel free to forward this mail to anyone with whom I have previously worked, but whom you don't see on the mailing list. Once again, I would ask you all to provide me with a personal e-mail address, not one from your employer. You would all be well advised to visit Bigfoot and get a forwarding address; that way, when you get a new address, you just have to change it once, you don't have to write to a few hundred people, telling them of your new address & almost certainly forgetting someone. I'd hate to lose touch, so ...

If anyone has e-mail addresses for any of the following, please let me know and/or forward my mail to them. Thanks:

Firstly, those to whom this year's mail bounced...

Claes Berg, Esther.Hageraats , Bram Brammering, Magnus Persson, Diana Jiang, Bernhard Koegle,

and those from earlier times...

Kevin Glencross, Alex Watt, Neil Anderson, L.A.F.G, et al

Derek Blacklock, Dave Kennard, Mandana Salehi, et al

Anyone at all from STC, East Kilbride, 1980 - 1982

Pat O'Brien, Lou Caltrider, Jack Beauchain, Jennifer Rodeniser, Toni Crowe, Hershy, etc

Henna Nadu, Pam Brown, Peter Prosen, George Glasgow, Larry Stewart, Marion Finck, Peter & Theresa McGranaghan, Rich Bianci, Cathy Tio

Karsten Schmidt

Steve Jones, Stephen Roche

Gina Parmar

Doris Sachsenweger

Michael Scmhid, Simone Schuler

Jelly Hung