So...  Quick list of things Ive been up to recently...
1. Fired up the Managing Agent for the apartment in Oxford regarding the latest escape of water from the place above.  A plumber was duly despatched by the rental agents who look after the people upstairs and rang my doorbell this morning at 10am.  The leak was swiftly fixed and the dripping into my hall has ceased, but there's terrible staining on the (relatively) newly plastered ceiling.  Jan the Agent has promised to bring me a dehumidifier and pay for a painter to deal with it.  I'm worrying over the (also relatively new) plasterboard in the new bathroom and the effects of water...  Oh we've been here before.  Last time it cost me a new bathroom, dammit.

2.  Passed the 1-hour Foundation and 3-hour PRINCE2 Practitioner exams so have been certified by the Government as someone who can execute their exotically complex project management methodology. It is nearly 22 years since my last 3-hour exam, I was shocked to determine.  Why did I do it?  Gives me some credence as a PM, especially as I've been using the method for 41 months.  Apparently my name goes up on the web soon on the APM Group (who administer PRINCE2 for the Government) site.

3. Up to London yesterday to talk to a consulting company in the evening.  Enjoyed Sushi on Oxford Street and a blank Indian Tonic cocktail at the Club before taking the Piccadilly line up to Kings Cross and their impressive new offices.  An amusing meeting.  Met by a boy with a yellow badge at the door, who escorted me up in the lift, I asked him about his time with the company and he admitted he'd only been there for ten weeks and "it's all been, uh, something of a blur".  He looked happy, though.  Before the meeting, made friends with the recruitment team over welcome drinks: they had that typical "Oh, I must be nice to you as you're a guest here look" so I asked them if there was a balcony on the 7th floor of their offices and we started a hunt to see if we could find it...  Curiously it broke the ice, and I got smiles out of them all and spent ten minutes chatting to a bevy of gorgeous girls before the guy I came to meet appeared.  I can never guess what will be the outcome of meetings like this one, so we shall see in due course.  Pleasant and fun team!

4. The people who own Autoglass have asked me to do a funny test by analysing some data they've sent me to see if I can be trusted with more information than I can throw a stick at.  We shall see.  They gave it to me on Thursday, just before I left for London, and want the completed report by Monday morning.

5.  A friend who owns a language school in Oxford walked up to me on Wednesday and asked if I had any experience with e-Learning.  Sure, I said, I used to be e-Learning Solutions Development Manager for a training company in Oxford.  How can I help?  Turns out he would like assistance with putting questions up on the web for remote students.  Could be fun!

6. A friend who works for TimeWarner has asked me to apply to be his boss, so I've duly done that.  We shall see where that one goes.  I've had no reply at all from their recruitment people, so no indications of anything.  Still, it was a week ago.

7. It's now nine years since my father died, as of about 4am this last Thursday morning.  I think of him all the time.  I drove my mother to the hospital in Bath (as it was then) in the early hours in response to a phone call from a nurse.  The worst part, oddly, was walking through the dark corridors to the ward.  Everything else was strangely relaxed and rather like taking part in a play, possibly by Pinter.  I remember afterwards sitting and drinking tea in a common room with mother.  It was very ordinary, somehow.

8. DiningClub people seem to be happy with my idea to host a dinner at Woods Restaurant in Bath in April, so I must get my skates on and set something up.  The last dinner, in Bristol a few weeks ago, was a huge success.  I held it at Loch Fyne there and commuted by train from the Wiltshire house.  Excellent evening.

9. The Danish holiday has now been booked after JP and I have been talking about it for four months.  We found an excellent little place on the coast and I've rented the cottage near Hou in Jutland.  Plan is to fly out to Copenhagen in July, stay for two nights in the city at the Scandic (I rather like Scandic hotels: they're a bit like Hiltons so the staff are always fun and the beds very comfortable), then take a hire car (it will be a Ford Focus Estate) and drive across the Danish islands' gorgeous bridges over the sea and up to Hou.  We shall stay there for Saturday - Saturday, then drive back to Copenhagen, stay at the Scandic again for one night, and return to England.  Looking forward to it already!

10. Still stuck at 17,000 words into my book.  Must see if I can get out of the rut and write more, but the problem's that I seem to have too much to do!

11. Have asked Bonhams to sell two of my first editions for me, largely because they're simply mouldering on shelves and I have no particular attachment to them.  One is a Fleming, the other a Yeats and signed by WB himself with his small, rather unassuming signature.  I drove up to Bonhams' Oxford office north of Kidlington earlier in the week and met with young David who was most interested in them.  I've paid for a photo of the Fleming to go into the catalogue as it looks splendid and might help to sell both books.  The auction will be in June this year and the catalogue should be published later this month.  David tells me the picture will also go up on their web site, but I see no sign of it at the moment.

22/01/09... Nestled in a Soho parade that runs along behind Regent Street, I first visited Shampers two years ago to sample the Champagne for a celebration.  Founded in 1977 by proprietor Simon Pearson, Shampers exudes bonhomie and bustle.  Packed with diners, a nice touch is to find your name on a card at your table: no need to stand around when you come in from the frosty January evening into the welcoming warmth.  I’d requested a seat in the window, and the table was immediately ready when I arrived for an early start at 6.30pm.  The wine list here is excellent and a small book of delights features a very wide selection.  My guest Matt and I opened the evening with two glasses of Prosecco di Valdobbiadene (Guerrieri Rizzardi).  This one isn’t officially on the “by the glass” list, but the friendly waiting staff made sure we were happy.  I’ve taken lately to starting dinners with something sparkling and the lively lemon and underplayed effervescence of this classic Prosecco didn’t disappoint.  Matt liked the idea of the traditional potted shrimp to start, whilst I decided to go for pan-fried squid with chilli and ginger.  Squid is easy to get very wrong and I’ve lost count of the number of venues I’ve visited to endure small rubber bands with too much batter: Shampers’ version were cooked beautifully and accompanied well, though the portion perhaps slightly on the small side.  Matt enjoyed his shrimp, clearing his plate, but wished for more too.

I plumped for a main course of Venison, one of the few meats I prefer to be cooked properly, but I was pleased that the chef had left a tinge of pink in his presentation on a well-assembled plate, though I felt the meat could have been left to hang a while longer before its journey to the kitchen.  Matt enjoyed his roast lamb’s kidneys, spinach and mash and admitted he’d chosen them to accompany the wine rather than the other way around.  Seasoned DiningClub members will know I delight in Gaston Hochar’s Chateau Musar and our host had listed a 2000 vintage at £30 for the bottle.  When it arrived, it had transposed into a 2001, but I decided not to demur.  As always, the initial tasting makes you wonder why you bothered and although the unseasoned palate may take this as merely a dutiful red, the essential element is time.  I left my Musar poured and breathing the London air for 20 minutes before tucking-in to an absolute delight: the rich flavours in this vintage justify what Simon’s tasting notes describe as “an idiosyncratic red” and I have to opine that the tannins in the 2001 vintage no longer leave one calling for a tumbler of paint stripper.  Often mistaken for Shiraz, Musar is in fact a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsault grapes, fermented in cement vats and aged in oak.  I have a private theory about the flavour being influenced by the number of tanks that have rolled around the Bekaa valley, but that’s another story.  An excellent wine that accompanied our venison and lamb well.

 For dessert, I chose Shampers’ “Mostly British” farmhouse cheeses and Matt headed for the Lemon Tart.  The cheeses, though pleasant enough were a little on the smaller portion side, whilst Matt decided his tart was “the best part of the meal, by far.”  Dessert wines are always something I rely upon to round-off a meal and preferably to accompany and sometimes to replace the course.  About ten years ago at the much-loved Gees in Oxford, a friend introduced me to a Californian delight, Quady Elysium, at Shampers £16 for the bottle of 2006 vintage we ordered and slightly better value than two glasses at £5 each.  Andrew Quady has made a considerable name for himself with this black Muscat, which he describes as having a “rose-like” aroma and lychee-like flavour.  Quite superb.  Matt suggested that we should take one further wine and we enjoyed two glasses of sumptuous yellow 2005 Clos Thou from Jurancon (£6.25 a glass) to complete the meal.

SUMMARY
Total for two people: £130 inc. service
Food: 7/10
Wine Menu: 9/10
Experience: 8/10
Booking: Book early, it’ll be packed.
In a sentence: Shampers exudes bonhomie and bustle with friendly
service; food is an accompaniment to the excellent wine list.
 

Saturday - drive JP and Leah (who is staying over from Boston) to Hertfordshire for James and Anthea's birthday celebration which consists of a mountain of fish and chips from the nearby Chinese Chippy.  Leah is keen to buy Hobnobs and has managed 30 packets so far: there are far too many orders from the University in Boston and she's obliged to fulfil all of them.  We enjoy tucking into the Collin Street Bakery fruitcake too, which I had thought I'd ordered at the start of December, but subsequently found I'd failed to push the "process order" button, or whatever it was, and had to re-cast the delight as a New Year Cake.  I first started ordering cakes from Collin Street Bakery in the early 1990's for friends.  Collin Street are based in Corsicana, Texas, and I came across them first in the New Yorker in an age where there was no internet, so everything had to be done by Real Mail. 

As the wedding is coming up this weekend, we decided to do a trial run from the hotel where Anthea's staying the night before, to the main gate of the church as I shall be Driver, as I was for Anthea's (utlimately tragic) first marriage, though it was a different car then (Merissa, not Clarissa).  The local church, at which Anthea's fiancee is Curate, is next door to the curatage (can't think what you'd call it otherwise, it's not the Vicarage - the Vicar lives in that) and we strolled from the car park, plotting organisation.  Inside the church, the gloom crept upon us in the late afternoon, until I discovered the switch panel beside the door.  James pointed out there was a striking wooden figure of Christ ascending to Heaven hanging over the Nave: carved in a modern, soft-faced form, he hung there in the grayling light looking a little sad.  I thought it must be possible to illuminate him, and whilst James, Anthea and Leah puzzled over the seating plan, I sought the electrical solution.  After a few minutes, I found the wires that led from a tiny lamp suspended from a great wooden beam above Christ, followed them down and found a small switch screwed into the wall near the lectern on the opposite side of the arch from the pulpit.  Throwing the Jesus Switch, a beam of light leapt from the lamp and yellow glory sprayed across the carved wood.  I told Rob about it later and he cracked up -I think I caught him a little off guard with my description of the Jesus Switch.  I'm looking forward to the driving on the day, but not sure --again- whether or not to invest in a peaked cap.  We drove back in the early evening and took dinner, as a birthday celebration for James and a farewell for Leah, at Branca.  Freezing rain lashed down outside, but the evening was warm and delightful in the throng inside the restaurant.

Tuesday - So, today I am in Wiltshire.  Drove down at 11am and arrived about 12.30ish.  Set to work to clean the house windows, which haven't been washed since January 2007.  Found that my IKEA squeegee was totally crap and hurried down the hill to the ironmonger to buy a new, professional window cleaner's one.  What else?  Washed the two carpets and a pile of blue clothes I'd brought down from Oxford; made lunch; ordered a new small business server from Dell - I worked out that it's cheaper to order a new server and install all the Oracle software myself than to go on the training courses to teach me how to do it, but this way I can a) keep the server and the software and b) have real experience doing it!  I've had American Express issue me with a platinum business card so that I can get the cash back for the company - well, that's the theory.  We shall see if a) Dell will accept differing addresses on card and delivery; b) whether I can bear American Express again after my huge off-p*ssedness with them in 2007; c) whether Dell actually deliver the thing.  [For those interested, the new server is a Dell PowerEdge 840 with a quad core Xeon 2.66Ghz, 4Gb of RAM, Windows2003 R2 Small Business Server (yes, it does have to be Windows 2003: the only Windows operating system compatible across all the Oracle BI software suite: oh, boooooring!), 2 x 500Gb SATA 7.2K HDs, 1 x 80Gb SATA HD.] 

What else?  Oh, yes, having re-started Dining Club, I completed the Definition of the Day email newsletter and sent it out to all the members.  We had a cracking crop of suggested definitions for the word Phenakistoscope this week!

Saturday - to London to host a business dinner at my club for Huw, Eamonn and Adam.  The Club gave me a small but well-appointed bedroom overlooking Green Park.  Although they're all air-conditioned and one can "check the checkboxes" for a four-star hotel, there's not really a way of avoiding the fact that this room was pokey.  Decided that I was still too hungry after the journey from Oxford and indulged in a gorgeous Welsh Rarebit in the Buttery whilst reading the newspaper.  So... Drinks from 6pm and Dinner in the Restaurant from 7pm - I guessed rightly that an early meal might work well given the gap since we've all seen one another and the fact that all three of us love to talk into the night given half the chance.  Francois the Sommelier is gracious as ever and kindly agrees with me that we should start with the red rather than the Pouilly Fume, though I suspect his sensibilities are offended.  Francois has presided over my enjoyment of his wines since the days when the Club's wine list was a book about three centimetres thick, right down to today, when it's more like five millimetres.  But then, the dessert wines had a loaded and groaning trolley of their own in those days. Oh, well.  Dinner was excellent and we repaired to the Cocktail Lounge to enjoy Port.

Sunday - Didn't sleep well, though the single bed was comfy and the temperature good - at least I appreciated the early morning view over Green Park.  I'd woken early for breakfast and afterwards spent the morning until 11.30am walking the streets to enjoy a quiet Sunday London.  Walked from St James's along Jermyn Street, up Regent's Street, pausing to note the cranes hanging over the Regent Palace Hotel (years ago I used to have a room there on permanent hire for business and taught Oracle to delegates from across Britain, lunching at the Cafe Royal on Tuesdays and Fridays where the Chef de Salon kept a stock of Pouilly Fume for me off-menu: it all sounds terribly louche these days), on to Oxford Street and back around past Hyde Park Corner and through Mayfair to the Club again. Geoff came to the Club to meet me for lunch.  We ended up enjoying an excellent rather long meal at one of the EAT chain, this one off Piccadilly.  I have a growing liking for EAT: they have some excellent little ready-made lunches packed with veggie goodies.  Took an afternoon Oxford Tube back to London and a lovely evening party hosted by geroge .

Tuesday - Birthday dinner for Scribbler held at the Chaing Mai and hosted by Arshad.  Whilst the food is a delight, and the company superb, the venue still leaves a lot to be desired and the staff are frankly surly.  Still - we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Wednesday - Breakfast at the Jericho Cafe - a long time since I last saw Ruth, who owns the cafe with her husband - the new baby is always hidden away somewhere out of sight!  Lighted on the approach of taking the lappy to the Jericho Cafe to try to force myself to start doing some web site redevelopment for the company and avoiding distractions: unfortunately I ended up being too interested in breakfast, dammit.  Leaving, it occurred to me that I must have been going for breakfasts there for around fifteen years --yikes! Luncheon at the Magic Cafe with Christie, celestialweasel and mr_snips.  In the evening, repaired to North Parade for the Christmas celebrations there.  Took a glass of pleasant mulled wine with Jenny of The Gardeners Arms and enjoyed the range of stalls before heading for the Rose and Crown.  One thing shocked me - talking with Graham-who-owns-the-language-school, I asked him about how the credit crunch was affecting his business.  He said that many things were much the same and business was good, but something odd had happened: three, completely separate emails had arrived from intending students in different parts of the world, one was from Korea, I think; another from Portugal.  The subject of each of these emails was concern from the students along the lines of "As Britain is such a poor country now, we're worried that the quality of food from our host families [each student stays with a host family in Oxford as part of their English learning] will be too low as the people are so poor now!".  Graham explained that this was a completely new development and he was shocked by it, not least as he and his team work hard to support each host family and expect that in return for a (sizeable) monthly fee, students staying with them will be entitled to a good breakfast. Strange world.

Already another hectic week...

Sunday - hosted a dinner party to thank Bernard, Josh and Katy for their recent hospitality.  I can't even remember when I was last able to host dinner on a Sunday at my place, it's been that long ago and in fact I've never made dinner for five people at my place, so with three courses and three wines, the washing-up pile is still only just reducing!  Buying the new table at IKEA last Friday (with Denise, James and Mardi) to seat five has meant I have to say goodbye to my lovely circular pine table, hence the advertisement on LJ posted recently.  Mind you, James and I enjoyed building the new extensible table on Saturday evening.

Monday - delightful luncheon at Cafe Rouge with zengineer .

Tuesday - working through Christmas stuff, business and admin.  Regular delights like completing my VAT return for Her Majesty, which has been bugging me since the reminder came through, took longer than expected, partly because of the switchover from my old Vaio to the new Vista Vaio and the change to Office 2007, which I quite like but which is annoying (I'm mirroring others' comments about the new over-simplified tool bars and trying to find features, but if I go on too long it makes me sound ancient, not least being an in-depth Word user, for example, since Word 2, which I pioneered at Datacase and SPS for course writing in the early 1990s!).

Wednesday - spent the morning packing for Wales and the IBM Christmas Ball in the evening.  Drove to my place in Kings Road in the Swansea Marina - the usual 144 miles and today about 2.5 hours because of traffic.  Started tidying up the place immediately and managed to get quite a lot of kitchen cleaning done.  Later, dressed for dinner, slicked hair and walked around the docks to The Village hotel to find Eamonn and Adam standing outside in the chill air taking fags.  Met Kate at the door checking me in, then David and Exec Partners Jeremy and Stewart in the pleasant melee, the latter sporting amusing new designer eyewear.  Although the bar staff were shocked (their Moet is way over-priced at £45 and I think they hadn't expected anyone to order it) went halves with Sally on a bottle for us as the other sparkly stuff looked like plonk and the wines with dinner were doubtless to be pleasant, but I suspected might yield the odd morning headache.  Our table: Sally, me, Barbara, Dave Price, Nick, Iona, John Bennett and a couple of other people about whom I'm too hazy to remember!  Mr Bennett kindly stood us another bottle of Moet - never sure why it goes so fast and the end of the meal saw a reprise of some of the best parts of the annual IBM Swansea DVD (usually about an hour's filmed material, sketches, songs, gags, filmed between October and January/February, usually at weekends and during people's evenings, to frequently a very high standard, for screening at the New Year kick-off event: I made it into this year's X-Factor skit for the Feb. event.)  A fabulous evening, indeed: met lots of other friends and Sean came and clapped me around the shoulders: "Hello Darling!  How are we?  ...Can we talk business for thirty seconds?"  Turns out the $3m deal I nearly broke my back to put together before my final day on 19th November has been signed just recently, by a very senior person we know, but is --guess what?-- being blocked by one of the furry people in the woodwork who want to check VfM (even though I've covered all that off at a detailed meeting with them four weeks ago and they were completely happy with it and understood all the value-add and the services... arghhhh!).  How can you block a purchase order that's already been approved and signed by the Board?  Oh!  Customers, customers!

Thursday - Awoke late, somewhat hungover: the Moet ran out after two bottles, so I had some of the table wines.  Oh dear.  Dimly remembered strolling back along the waterside about half past midnight under a beautiful moon and a herring-bone sky.  And... oh dear, Paula the agent is coming at 2pm.  Managed a rather good breakfast at the little cafe built into my block, full Welsh naturally, and finished about 11.35.  Dashed up to the apartment and tidied frantically.  Paula arrived at 2pm, moments after I'd finished hoovering, and minutes after I'd finished the four lift loads of junk down to the car park.... Final photos of the place all spick and span below.  Funny, I moved into it on a hectic pack up from Abernethy Quay apartment-dash to Altamar and put in all my stuff-dash to Mother in Wiltshire and dinner in Bath-dash to Oxford 29th May last year, just a few days before my mother died: I showed her photos in the afternoon that day (my birthday), so it feels a bit weird to be including these last ones in a post on LJ.

The Lounge


The Kitchen...


The View...


Leaving Swansea, took the M4 East to my Wiltshire home, via late luncheon at First Magor, and went to see kindly neighbours John and Yvonne, who have just taken over the Neighbourhood Watch scheme in my road after Mike and Mary left having sold their home to... Russian Buddhists.  We reckon Mr Russian Buddhist works for the KGB as he's very quiet about what he actually does ("Business Computing", he says, if asked, and declines to say more.)  Curious how their place has a view over Salisbury Plain in the distance, the major UK manouevres location for our military... hmmm... From John and Yvonne's place, dashed back to Oxford --about an hour and a half's driving-- to unpack the car, see JP, just off to Hereford the following day, and enjoy a slow dinner in front of the TV.

Glorious solid circular wooden pine table for sale.
Will suit office, dining room, kitchen or conservatory.
Key features:

• Solid pine
• Seats three to four in comfort
• Suitable for kitchen, conservatory, dining room, study
• Approx. sizes: D 1065mm; H 726mm
• Legs detach for ease of transportation
• Good condition
• Today this size & quality of table retails elsewhere at c. £250
• Price - offers considered over £60
• Purchaser to collect

Table - side view:

Table - legs removed for transportation:

Table - underside view

So, hello again!  This is my first post to LJ in a very long time: working up to 11 hour days against the clock and managing my team and our --sometimes fairly horrific-- challenges completely shot my ability to do anything very much outside work between early 2007 and late 2008.  Here I am on a sunny Monday afternoon in Oxford at the start of December, feeling rather too relaxed (hey, unusual!) and at last able to type something.

At last Swansea and work ground to a terrifying juddering halt on 19th November, the credit crunch crashing through the finely-wrought financial, commercial and governance structures I put in place to carry me and my team through into at least a projected decade's public sector software development work. Odd, though, because in the final week I put together a $3m deal for Big Blue, won plaudits from everyone, and left it on the cusp of signature by the customer: that may still be signed and I may just possibly have a role back in Swansea in the New Year 2008 (we shall see!). But there we are: if there's no money to pay, we all have to leave: the perennial consultant's nightmare. Very demoralising, dismissing people in the last few weeks as projects I've worked on for many months were simply shot to pieces financially and blown away on the searing financial wind. The good news: at least I actually delivered what I said in November 2006 that I was going to deliver. People have been pleased and delighted with it. The CTO has praised me and the team. All of us have significantly enhanced CVs and I've managed to further a few people's careers too (I hope!). The system is up and running and already beginning to make a huge difference to the customer, so I shouldn't be upset.

Ending: hosted a lovely DiningClub dinner at Hanson's restaurant in Swansea on the evening of Tuesday 18th, buying two rounds of Veuve Clicquot for people at Morgan's Champagne Bar beforehand, not least to thank them for putting up with me for three years and five months.  On the 19th itself, the IBM Commercial team very kindly invited me to join them at La Tasca to celebrate a birthday and go out with a bang, which we duly did at The Pitcher and Piano on Wind Street afterwards.

Thursday was extremely hectic: leave Swansea early, drive to my Wiltshire home and make sure everything was ship shape and take lunch; say farewell to Michael and Mary who are leaving Wiltshire for a new home further South; drove like a demon up to Oxford to pack, then meet JP at Waterstones to catch the 4.30pm to London for the start of our sixth anniversary....

We stayed in Holborn at the Citidines on Thursday evening and took a delightful Sushi dinner at a little fast-food Sushi place on Holborn itself (http://www.samurai-sushi.co.uk/) and took the (re-scheduled earlier because of the tunnel accident) train on Friday morning via St Pancras. Had a lovely lunch in Brussels at the Ibis Hotel (http://www.ibishotel.com/gb/hotel-3152-ibis-brussels-centre-gare-midi/index.shtml) and took the late afternoon Thalys high-speed train up to Amsterdam and the tram down from Centraal to stay at the Hilton where John and Yoko did their bed-in for Peace (here: http://beta.hilton.co.uk/amsterdam). Spent the weekend riding around town to look at the Rijksmuseum, van Gogh museum, Anna Frank House, a canal boat tour, lunch in a soup kitchen on Saturday, lunch at the van Gogh on Sunday, a quick look around Albert Hijn and two absolutely glorious dinners in the Hilton restaurant, the latter with a friendly blonde waitress who helped JP with Dutch.
 
Last week was:
Tuesday: lunch with artist Jane at Morgans in  the Covered Market;
Wednesday: lunch with mr_snips and Christie at The Magic Cafe;
Thursday: dinner with geroge, jackfirecat, e_pepys , and JP at Pierre Victoire;
Saturday: to see an art viewing at Jane's place in Eynsham --her new work, Have You Seen Jack-in-the-Green was well attended;
Saturday: lovely dinner at Xi'an in Summertown with  t__m__i, celestialweasel and JP;
Sunday: Thanksgiving luncheon at St Hilda's with Katy, Josh, JP, Miles, Anna.

Helsinki, capital of Finland, was a delight. Friendly, pleasant and supportive Finns; wonderful weather up to 22C.; marvellous sights and some spectacular dining.

Odd things about Finland:
1. In England, the service jobs are done by African people or Indian subcontinental people; in America, by Hispanics and Africans; but in Finland, the service jobs are done by Russians.
2. Water from roof tops drains into open ruts cut in the pavements. Very peculiar to see.
3. One of the most delicious and unusual snacks is the Carelian Cake: it's usually oval in shape, made of wholemeal flour and filled with rice or potato. They're for sale in almost every supermarket for about EUR1.50 for 5. Normally eaten warmed in a microwave.
4. "Bliw" soaps are gorgeous! They appear in washbasins all over the place. There are many different designs, some even by famous designers, and you can collect them!
5. The only tea worth drinking is Liptons.
6. People use mobile phones even more than they do in England and talk on them even at dinner. It's usual to find people walking down the street using them - of course we see that in Britain, but it's shocking how much more the Finns use their phones! There is 97% mobile phone ownership amongst the population.
7. Construction work in the Summer goes on late into the night: there's no stopping at 5pm.
8. It really never does go completely dark at this time of year. The sky is quite bright at 10pm, like an afternoon.
9. Trams are fabulous. We really HAVE to get trams everywhere. Buses really suck.
10. Helsinki Zoo is on an island to which you must take a boat. We met Takins and a Pallas Cat there!
11. The word "Ale" (pronounced "Arlay") means "Sale". Likewise the Swedish, "Rea". As a result, shop signs say "Ale - Rea".
12. You tip taxi drivers as you do in Germany (i.e. just enough to say "Thank you" - oh, and of course, in Finnish you say "Kiitos" if you do), but 10% is normal for service at dinner.
13. Espoo is embarrassing: don't go, it's like a terribly dull Milton Keynes.
14. Nokia's international head office in Espoo has no Visitor Centre.
15. Nokia's premier sales outlet, in the middle of Helsinki, sells both Nokia and Vertu phones. Their current hot new Nokia release is the sexy red N76.
16. The Finns really do still wash their carpets in sea water and hang them out to dry by the Baltic shore!

Odd things about Tallinn:
1. Tallinn is very picturesque and the people friendly, but the whole place has a weird air of Soviet threat. Although the country is a new member of the EU, there's an undertone difficult to place, affected by that Soviet air. 
2. Estonia is tiny: there are only about 1m people there and most of them seem to be in Tallinn.
3. The Estonian currency, the Kroon (pronounced "Krohn") is worth almost nothing. Entering a museum with a EKK100 note, I wiped out the cashier's float. She was shocked. It's worth about 5 quid.
4. The Old Town really is beautiful, but vastly full of tourists.
5. Everywhere you go there are brand new BMWs, Mercedes and new Porsches.
6. There is a desperation to Estonia - newly freed from the Soviet nightmare, the people are struggling to find out who they are. Oppressed both by Soviet Russia and by Nazi Germany, their country has a rich, deep history, but is hugely scarred by it.
7. The gateway to Estonia from the sea is a massive concrete staircase, the height of a tower block. It symbolises the state of the (in this case former) Soviet Empire: the concrete is cracked, weeds grow from the stairs, there are far too many reaching up into the sky, yet the end closest to the sea is flooded and in massive disrepair. Once you climb the steep steps to the top and walk along the pointless length of a football field, the steps lead down.... into a mass of small service roads, disused railway lines, grass and city roads. 
8. Never rely on the fact that a public WC with a green light on it will have a working coin mechanism, even when you've collected EKK3 in coins from the kindly young postcard seller and the wizened crone in the church selling candles who looked at you like Death when you asked if she'd change two EKK2 notes into four EKK1 coins and your boyfriend's bladder is about to explode...

Where we stayed (Finland):
Accome Parliament: http://www.accome.biz/

Where we ate and enjoyed the nightlife (Finland): 
Cafe Ursula: http://ursula.fi/kaivopuisto/
The Seahorse: http://www.seahorse.fi/indexsea.html
The Boathouse: http://www.palacekamp.fi/in_english/restaurants/boathouse2/
Storyville: http://www.storyville.fi/

Internet Cafe:
Mbar: http://www.mbar.fi/news.php

Favourite menu item (at The Boathouse):
Seafood Plate: Chilli-marinated king prawns, Hendrick´s Gin oysters, scallops ceviche, blue mussels in serrano and white wine broth, smoked shrimps, guacamole créme, aïoli and toast.

The Finnish Parliament:














Gateway to Estonia:


Sea Fortress at Suomenlinna:


Workman, Tallinn:

Time I posted something as it's getting to be too long ago.... Valentine's dinner was at Gees on the 15th.  Fabulous as ever, it's become a tradition for us now, I think.  Anyway, to horse, to horse...
Thursday
06.30 - Awake.  Listen to Today until 06.55 through the bed clothes.
07.40 - Pile my bags into Clarissa.
07.45 - No sign of Eamonn for our usual car share to work.  Suspect he just may be sleeping off last night.
08.10 - Arrive at the Innovation Centre. Spend the morning working on contracts and Eamonn arrives at 9am.  Lots of contracts! 
12.00 - luncheon at Razzbri in Swansea Vale with Eamonn, Mark, Huw, Olly, Mano, Mick, Dave and Ruud.
16.10 - slip into Clarissa and drive like hell the 144 miles back to Oxford.
17.50 - Call Mother as I pass Junction 18 on the M4.  This has become something of a tradition as it's difficult to combine everything and visit her, at least I can call sometimes. 
18.40 - Arrive Oxford.  Pile of mail to read.
19.20 - Walk to Summertown to do the M&S shopping for dinner.  James is sick and needs nose tissues and chicken soup!
20.00 - Arrive in North Oxford.  Dinner with James.  Lots of coughing and illness.  He has 'flu and needs comforting and hot apple drinks.
23.14 - Back home, I write this.  Hmmmm.

Wednesday
16.30 - it is the Monthly PMs' event at the Dragon Hotel, Swansea.  About twenty PMs turn up to hear the ever-effervescent Barbara present various people saying useful things to us about project management stuff.  The star turn is Jim, who waxes lyrically about writing contracts and managing "the key subcontractor" about whom I shouldn't speak here.
18.45 - We've sat through two and a quarter hours with no break, so force ourselves around the corner to the pile of swiftly-chilling nibbles and a glass or two of execrable vino.  I chat amiably to Jim about amusing contracts (I'm a contract-writing freak!  It's programming with words and people.  Much more fun even than SQL!). I've been experimenting with a potential special clause that obviates liability in the event of technology change.  So far it's taken only about 50 minutes to draft the twelve or so lines of this particular paragraph .  Eamonn and I have enjoyed it immensely.
19.15 - stroll back to my flat in the Maritime Quarter through the pouring rain.
20.00 - Meet Eamonn, Sally and Dave at The Chelsea Cafe for a most delightful dinner.  I reprise my favourite scallops with cockles and laverbread, followed by Hake Tornados.  Pinot Noir is the drink of the evening.
21.45 - Fall into the Pitcher and Piano.  Two for the price of one on Canard Duchene champagne, so find myself consuming four glasses.  Iona, Eamonn, Kate, Kate, Glenn, Graham, Gavin, Tim, Rob et al. bounce amiably around and we enjoy ourselves.  Take the opportunity to thank Will particularly for his help with commercialisation of three contracts on Monday with a stonking 3.5 hour turnaround time, faster than other commercialisations I've done by around 3 weeks!
00.15 - to bed in Abernethy Quay.

Friday
11.00 - The new washer-dryer (actually a cunningly disguised Christmas present from my mother) was delivered this morning. My first ever washing machine! Thrilling with its white on blue LCD. Far too amusing to be in a kitchen or a laundry: http://www.hotpoint.co.uk/macro/product.d2w/report?typeref=28&prnbr=WD860 for a piccy.  I have a theory that kitchens, laundries and their appliances are becoming so sophisticated that people shouldn't actually use them.
19.45 - Birthday dinner for James at Loch Fyne in Oxford.

Saturday
08.45 - drove to Headington to have four new shoes for Clarissa fitted at the shoe-shop.  
09.20 - Breakfast at The Queen's Bakery.
10.46 - Contretemps with M&S &More Credit Card, after which I used Amex (yay Amex, you pay for the service so it's better than anyone else's).  Friendly, fast, efficient Kwik-fit.  Highly recommended.  And they gave me a 30% discount on what would otherwise have been £899 worth of shoes.  
11.01 - Collected Eric from Oxford Station.  Haven't seen Eric in 12 years.  We met 20 years ago at University when he was over for a year as an exchange arrangement with his place in the US.  
12.00 - Luncheon at Gees.  http://www.gees-restaurant.co.uk/  Long conversations about work, people, America today.  Eric works for Fluor Daniel and manages large structural engineering project teams.  He's been doing a world tour lecturing Fluor people in Delhi, Manila, far flung places, and dropped in to Britain for two weeks....
13.30 - Walking tour of Oxford.  North Parade... Observatory Street, Walton Street, Little Trendy Street, St Giles, The Broad, The Turf, Bod, All Souls, Queens, Logic Lane, ChCh meadows, Sainsburys (to buy Yorkshire Tea for Eric, Champagne and Battenburg), Oxford Union, Exeter, Keble, University Museum.
15.55 - Bade Eric adieu at the Museum.
16.00 - Wedding celebration "Cakes and Ale" party at Hertford for Josh and Katy.  Presented the Champagne.  Gave the Battenburg to James (his cake gift for Katy and Josh) and talked to James, Cat and Joe.
16.50 - To buy tickets for Schwartbok at The Phoenix.
18.00 - Early dinner with James, Cat and Joe at Carluccio's.
19.20 - To stroll around Central in Little Trendy Street with James and Joe.
19.45 - To Borders.  Met Jeremy and Tim.
20.15 - Arrived at the Phoenix.  A black, dark film in a lot of ways.  Many redeeming features.  Right up James' street as a) about a witty and intelligent woman; b) about the second World War; c) about The Netherlands; d) in Dutch so he could practise his Dutch language skills.
11.00 - to my place.
12.00 - drive to James'.
02.00 - Bed after too much web browsing, not least at the lovely Tivoli Songbook Radio!  Not digital, alas....

Born Oxford, 1968; died Nightingale House, Wrexham, 4 January 2007; aged 38 years. Funeral 11 January 2007, Pentrebychan Crematorium, Wrexham.

Wheeee! At last I upgraded my ISP's service from 2Mb to 8Mb and had that conversation with the techies where they say, 'Uh, well, it's only an upgrade, not a new service so you aren't actually entitled to a new modem. But your old speedtouch is, well, a few years old and we'd recommend that you get a new one....'. So I bought a Belkin wireless router and ADSL modem in one yesterday, set it up and had it working by 02.15 this morning and... bingo! Here I am sitting on the edge of my bed writing LJ on the Vaio! The Belkin one is exceptionally straightforward to set up, too. And yes, I have switched on the security before you ask: I'm allowing just two MAC addresses on my system for the time being, the Vaio and the IBM laptop. Never had two lappies connected to the web at the same time. Oooh, the thrill, the thrill! Sad techie.

So, this has been a hectic week. Spent Monday working at home in Oxford.

Tuesday - Picked up Mary, Joe and Leah at 10am and took them to Rob's funeral in Cambridge. A two hour service, including an amazingly powerful and uplifting sermon by Anthea, his new widow, and an introductory piece by The Pig, resplendent in flowing black robes and imperial purple, who rather outshone the incumbent minister, it has to be said. The reception was held in the rather excellent Cambridge Garden Hotel, with the lawn stretching down to the Cam. Drove the four of us back to Oxford at 6.30pm and arrived back in town at a respectable 8.15pm. Exhausted and went to bed by 11.30pm, too late.

Wednesday - To Swansea at 9.00am. Uneventful and relatively swift drive, arriving at the Innovation Centre at 11.45am. Spent the day working away and chaired the work stream Social in the evening. We started at The Pitcher and Piano in Wind Street, proceeded to Morgan's Bar, then dined at Gallini's in the Marina. A good crowd: Dan, Huw, Dave, Eamonn, Kate, Rob, Phil, Alex and Sean. I managed to sidle away quietly at 11.15pm and slept upon head hitting pillow at 12am...

Thursday - Drove back to Oxford in the evening, as usual. Made dinner for James then slept until 8.15am.

Friday - Up in time to start work at 9.20am and an hour and a half's telecon from 10am. Far too much work resulting. Sally tells me she is missing me and wants to dine when she returns from holiday. I agree. Took late lunch at Joe's in Summertown. Olivier tells me he wants me to organise his birthday party next Tuesday as a Dining Club event, but I'm away in London on Wednesday and will probably be sleeping in Oxford that night.

This evening, a fine birthday dinner for Joe at James' place. I brought along a bottle of Moet and we feasted on Cat's cooking until a late hour. Leah leaves for Hamburg at 4.30am tomorrow. Hellish.

So... we returned from a fabulous road movie of a journey late on Thursday evening. The journey was from Oslo to Bergen via Seljord and Ullensvang (Lofthus) and traced the footsteps of Mavis, James' mother, on her own road movie across Norway, staying at youth hostels fifty years ago. James arrived in Bergen the week before me, and travelled to Oslo by public transport. The plan was for me to fly to Oslo and join him returning to Bergen, so we hired a little Megane in Oslo and drove, stopping at hotels in Oslo, Seljord, Ullensvang and lastly Bergen. The whole journey is documented as a photo-journal available on request in PDF format. Ask me if you'd like a copy!

The trip was slightly marred as BA, who had eventually flown me to Oslo after 2 hours of queueing, failed to deliver my clothes, razor, shoes, and, well, anything until the evening of the day before I left Norway. At the moment, I'm relying on Amex' baggage delay insurance to pick up the £490 bill for buying replacement clothes and essentials... Anyway, that aside: the people are genuinely warm and hugely friendly in a quiet, reserved way and have no qualms about speaking English; food is fabulous; the country stunning and riveting. We noticed that property prices are similar to Britain, but that restaurant food is extremely expensive --allow up to £70 for two to dine without alcohol in a city like Oslo (we're talking a city where an Omelette costs you £10, unless you really shop around). Favourite oddity: McDonalds sell a "McKylling Burger".

The Bryggen, Bergen:


Waterside, Oslo:


Magic Wood above the Floyveien:

Too long since I last posted! So, I celebrated one YEAR working in Swansea on Thursday 15 June. It's been a long year indeed and I spent over £11,500 in expenses, mainly just in getting to and from Wales. In the year a whole lot has changed. I joined IBM to work for a 3-day technical assignment as a Developer in June 2005 and have ended up creating a work programme with a pencilled-in budget of £4m and found myself managing not just one project but at least two simultaneously as a "Senior Project Manager" (they tell me). No staff yet, but hey! Give me time. I'm getting the programme plans together and liaising with all sorts of people about standards, resources, locations, goals. The usual.

Weirdest event in the last couple of weeks: standing one balmy Summer Saturday evening half way up a small, dirty concrete staircase behind The Big Bang on Walton Street in Oxford, surrounded by pigeon poop, listening to a live jazz band in the basement and drinking pink Champagne with possibly the world's foremost authority on Reformation History, Diarmuid Maculloch and a mad, brilliant young actor called David who worked for me in The Queen of King's Cross last Summer in Oxford. It was a great evening! We drank about four bottles between the three of us and Max (Mr Big Bang) insisted on opening the last one with a giant kitchen knife in the car park. His father banned him from using the family sabre again....

Breaking up is always hard to do... you realise that what you had in common with a partner is no longer quite what it was somehow and separation becomes the only option. I have to admit that our relationship had its difficult moments, but somehow we always pulled through. Frankly, although I didn't used to admit this, the drink problem was significant. I spent a huge amount on satiating her desire for liquor and, for that matter, for shoes. She wanted only the best --Italian things with high heels. After a while, I realised we just had nothing in common. Other men looked at her with lust in their eyes and I didn't care.

I started talking to my old pimp, Simon, about three weeks ago and he arranged a date with a new girl. We got on really well. Took her for a spin, even introduced her to James. I think he knew things weren't going well with Merissa and was very supportive. He liked the thought of a new woman for me too.

I'm afraid I dumped Merissa, harshly, on Saturday. It was goodbye and no frills. She sulked. She was angry. But that's what I hired a pimp for --he brushed her off and gave me a new woman, Clarissa. She's into champagne, leather and, okay, she likes Italian shoes with and 18" heel, rather than Merissa's 17". But, hey, no relationship's perfect is it?

Simon put two bottles of wine in a Tordoff presentation case in the boot for us, a Chardonnay and a Merlot. Thoughtful of him! We whisked off into the sunlight of Saturday and closed the door on Merissa.

On Bank Holiday Monday, James and I took Clarissa to Tring museum to look at ungulates. I called a Pudu "ridiculous". James bought an Apatosaurus (new name for the Brontosaurus), just exactly the one he wanted and had found the day before in a web catalogue.

James and the Avensis...

Trees above the shore, Fredericia....

Our house, Hyggebo, on the island of Fyn...

From the house to the shore of the Kattegat...

Danish Kirke at Humble, in search of Kong Humble's grav...

And here's the view of the inside of the stretch limo we took to Sally's birthday celebration at Fairyhill in the Gower. The people are members of Dining Club.... Clockwise: Kaldip, Ravi, Kamlesh, Barbara and Andy... They're drinking Pear Champagne.

Found myself in the Deanery at ChCh on Sunday the 17th, helping to move some books for Joe.