We spent New Year in Reading, with Lynda & David Stiles, Auriel Downs, Mark and Rowan. I went to Waikato University with Lynda and Auriel. We also visited old friend Edward Hammond & his family - I knew Edward in my University years and worked for him for a few weeks at Digital Equipment in Auckland. 

New Years Eve - I must be getting older, as it was difficult to stay awake for the midnight hour, but we did manage it! Lynda had saved a huge multi-shot firework for the moment, and we enjoyed a few minutes in the chilly outside to watch the spectacle. Then back inside for our beauty sleep! The following day we ambled around Windsor & Eton, in the freezing cold, hoping we'd be invited into Windsor Castle for tea, but 'she' wasn't in...

We were somewhat disappointed at Eton and Windsor, have definitely seen nicer places elsewhere. 

Was browsing books at their place, and saw "1000 places to see before you die". It was really odd and sad that the first random page which I opened was "Koh Phi Phi -- a few simple bungalow resorts, dotted with crescents of palm shaded buildings, bleached white sand". The horror of the Tsunami is still fresh in our minds. The first TV pictures made it look like something spectacular and frightening but not particularly life threatening. But as the toll got higher and higher we realised the true horror of it. TV pictures that came to light later in the week showed the impossibility of outrunning the waves, and made us understand the incredible power of the ocean. The UK public have been brilliant, donating £100 million in just a few days. At my work, staff donated £10,000 which the owners (equity partners) doubled from their own pockets.

It wasn't long ago that Aidan was working on the coastline of Malaysia, on the island of Langkawi. Sounds like this area wasn't too much affected, with only one death, but still in the zone of destruction.

Three times recently, I have worked for a day in the Nottingham office of Shoosmiths. It's a fascinating old city, which makes the most of it's Robin Hood history. There's a very old pub there which opened in 1189(!!!), called Ye Old Trip To Jerusalem  and still going strong, part of the pub is built in caves under the hill.

There are huge caves under the city where there used to be a tanning factory and a large number of people used to live. Those caves are now open as a museum, somewhere which I've been meaning to go to - was hoping that I would be able to on this trip but ran out of time.

Highlight of my last trip was when I was having lunch in a shopping mall cafe, an old drunk, an Irish man who introduced himself as "Paddy", came and sat at my table carrying a huge slice of cake which he had just helped himself to from the counter. I was doing my best to look busy, reading my paper (as the British do), but he was determined to talk! He then asked me for 40p, which he told me he was going to use to blow up a bank. I very rarely give money to beggars and he got none. A little while later he wandered off (without paying of course), and I noticed that most of the cafe had been watching my little dilemma! 

Last month I reported that Caitlin was in hospital with pneumonia. I'm delighted to say that 4 days later she was out of hospital, much improved. It is the first time ever that the twins have been separated, so it must have been traumatic for both of them.  

It has been a tough last two months at work, but it's coming right, with more of my IS team coming to assist me with training of the staff. They tell me to brace myself for more work, that I'm going to be looking after lots more staff soon. When I started in July 2003 there was about 20, now there's 40, and this could double again, so I'm going to be super busy.

I recently heard a Latin phrase, which aptly describes my long tenure at Hill Labs, Veni, Vedi, Velcro, - I came, I saw, I stuck around! 

We are making travel plans for Italy & Tuscany in September, when Jevon and his girlfriend Tash are visiting here. We hope to rent a villa near Lucca, the ancestral stomping ground of the Pooch family - then known as Pucci. Lucca is also the birthplace of Puccini, so I wonder if there is any connection? (So that's why I am so musical?!)

Lucca is an amazing looking walled town, with a central courtyard which was originally a Roman amphitheatre. It is quite near Pisa, an hour away from Florence. So provided we can master driving on the wrong side of the road, we'll have a great time exploring this region famous for it's olive oil, marble and it's kiwi descendants.

We also hope to go to Spain and Prague in the next 12 months.

Panic stations here, when we thought that our landlord was about to sell our flat. He had warned us last year that he might, and when valuers called, we thought it was all over. Had a look at some other properties over the weekend, and were feeling rather daunted at having to move to other places that didn't look anywhere as nice as our luxury flat. But it was a false call, he now says he would sell only to us (if we wanted), the valuers were needed as he was re-mortgaging at the end of a fixed term mortgage. 

One Saturday evening in January, we went out walking around our suburban area, then the snow started falling. Chris told me that the proper British thing to do was to go to the 'Chippy' (fish & chip shop) and buy a bag of chips to keep our hands warm. So we walked with our hands firmly wrapped around our individual packets of steaming hot freshly cooked chips - Chris's packed dripping with vinegar, mine with more salt that I should. It did keep us warm!!!

I've started writing a history of Birkdale College, at which I was a foundation pupil. Well, to be more correct, it will be a collection of my memories as opposed to a formal history. I occasionally hear from a small number of other foundation pupils, and I hope they will each contribute some memories as well. There's not much to read on my history page yet, but hopefully this will increase over time and inspire others to contribute.

Thinking about school days, and the dreaded reports which teachers would write about us, we chuckled at this example in the Times newspaper from a geography teacher about a somewhat dreamy fellow: "The propensity of this pupil to project himself into another world is unlikely to help him to master the geography of this one"

After all the news of earthquakes in NZ, and of course the big one in Indonesia, it amused me that Birmingham people were really besotted with the news that there had been a 4.4 Richter quake - so small that not a single person felt anything! This was covered for almost 10 minutes on the TV news, asking lots of people if they felt it, all saying No!

Gadget freak that I am, I've bought myself a new phone as a belated Xmas present (!! I was told it was an early birthday present !!). It's taken me absolutely ages to decide which one to get, finally deciding on a Sony P910i.

What I specifically wanted was a phone which would pick up all the hundred or so phone numbers and addresses on my work computer, and have that information in it's memory. And that any changes I make on the phone would then synchronise back onto my computer again. I've been frustrated by having six name & address lists floating around the place, none of them up to date. Now I can update it as I go, download it to the computer, and print out a tidy list.

What's so different about this phone is that it is a 'personal digital assistant' or PDA. This means (amongst other things) that you 'write' on the computer screen using a stylus & it recognises your handwriting. Also, it has a tiny wee QWERTY keyboard on it, which surprisingly does work. Another great thing - it has my calendar from my work computer on it, so that I can easily check on meetings appointments and travel. Plus I can write emails on it, surf the internet (great for finding out if the trains are running on time), play music, use it as a dictaphone, and can even write this newsletter on it, while sitting on the train.

By switching phone contracts to another phone company (whilst keeping my existing phone number) I was able to buy this phone for only £149 (it is worth £500).

The trees outside our bedroom window are now covered in blossom, so spring can't be too far away. 

A friend died in January, David Duffus. He was a lawyer in Northern Carolina, who has spent thousands of hours researching the Duffus family history (Duffus is my Mum's maiden name). You used to able to view his website at www.duffus.com. 

Please view my tribute to David here.

We met David 8 years ago, when we were in Edinburgh. We had hoped to have met at the Duffus Castle, but didn't make it. Over the years I was able to contribute more Duffus information to add to the thousand pages of information which he had accumulated and put on-line. 

Hopefully someone else in the Duffus family will pick up the responsibility for maintaining the website, it would be a horrible shame to see all that work disappear. I've made a backup of that website, so I could attempt to recreate it in the future if needed.

Genealogy is one of those things that I want to get into, but don't have time. So by the time I do have time, I will be retired & so many of the people I need to talk to won't be around any more...