Croeso

Nadolig Llawen

A sad loss

I have just heard from Anne via her Christmas card that her husband and my good friend died recently. Gordon was my old neighbour in North Wales, and was a very special friend. He died that day after returning from a holiday in the sun just after watching his/our beloved Wales win at rugby. He turned to Anne and stated how well they had played and nodded off to sleep. He did not awake.

What`awful news yet what a wonderful way to go, if I could wish for an exit window that would be it.

Thanks Gordon for your friendship, help, and eternal cups of coffee as we discussed our somewhat diametrically opposed political views (Gordon was a Maggy loving Tory I'm a left wing socialist - old labour not loony left).

Gordon Roberts was the ex village police Sergeant , of our village Coedpoeth, but originally from Blanaeu Ffestiniog, and I have many happy memories, especially dropping into their campsite in Provence (near Carpentras) on my way back from alpine challenges - it was always odd arriving in the village wearing plastic boots, and axes on my sack in the full heat of the summer. I too remember finding a Kyffin Williams original which belonged to Gordon's mother and telling them it was worth a bit, (a bit it auctioned for 5 grand). His endless gardening and stone wall building lessons, and when he roped me into the pub quiz team announcing to all Dr Andy Boyd RA would revitalise their season and especially someone so young (I was 30) was bound to know all the pop music stuff - we dropped in the league!!!! He certainly was one of the village characters and a tireless councillor. He even tried to rope me in to help the first week I arrived in the village, ferrying the OAP tories to vote, needless to say I took them all to the pub , bought them a gin and left them there!

Nos da Gordon

My on-line life in 26 links

I picked this meme idea up from Euan and Suw, type in www. followed by all the letters of the alphabet and see what gets prompted. How fascinating:

A = www.Amazon.fr (cheaper delivery than .co.uk)
B = www.bbc.co.uk (Euan will be pleased)
C = http://croeso.typepad.com
D = www.dick-gmbh.com (great woodworking tool company in Germany)
E = www.ebay.co.uk
F = www.finewoodworking.com
G = www.goldenearring.nl (god knows why - great dutch band though 'Radar Love' for you non - dutchies out there)
H = www.holiday-rentals.com (hmm too many weekends away)
I = www.iii.co.uk (watching my investments head south)
J = nothing
K = www.kodak.com (camera)
L = www.liverpoolfc.tv (football)
M = www.moviemile.com (dvd rentals)
N =http://rentacar-europe.com/italy/ (again too many holidays)
O = nothing
P = www.pbase.com (foto site all the furniture makes use)
Q = www.qjump.com british train times - this surprised me as I haven't been in the UK for 6 months!
R = www.radio3.nl (trying to stay young)
S = www.sheppach.com (woodworking machines)
T = www.teamtalk.com (Stoke City site)
U = www.quickbooks.com
V = work web mail
X = nothing
Y = www.yahoo.co.uk
Z = www.maczone.com - oh no the secret is out I am contemplating one!

Now this is an interesting way to profile people, and it certainly helps the time fly whilst I'm watching the christmas pudding steam for 8 hours! Femke had the shock of her life as she helped me make it when she sneaked a spoonful of the mixture. Now usually cake mixes taste quite nice but the rum, barley wine and guiness made her spat it our and declare bah - to everyone in the kitchen!

What also helps pass the time is listening to Arrow Classic Rock who have their voted for top 500 rock tracks running for a few days, now rock on this dutch station has a broad remit, it has included today the quo, the cure, simple minds, marc almond, genesis, bowie, zep, ac/dc, the manics (yes!), fleetwood mac, supertramp, david sanbourne just to name a few. I like this broad defenition and listening to the radio all day is great, especially through my new platronics 90 headset (for skyping) so not to distub colleagues/family.

I should write more clearly

Lilia commented on my last lot of postings that she was worried about my attitude to blogging, I think she misunderstood me a little, the 'crap' I was referring to was when you have a plan to do something and if something else appears, and you do not take that new opportunity , it's a pretty crappy way to behave , actually boringly mundane if you ask me!

So when the John Peel evening came on Radio One I abandoned all plans and listened to that. If your not British nor a World Service listener then the impact on the sad loss of John Peel maybe hard to read, he was basically the godfather of all new British music and was the champion of progression. Many of us feel deeply saddened by his loss. I actually met him once in the corridors of the Royal College of Music where he had heard there was a young tutor there with a Marshall stack and a Les Paul in his office - we chatted for half an hour or so and he impressed me to death, mind you I never did ask him what he was doing in the Royal College of Music, as he didn't just come to see me.

Anyway I shall endeavour to be a bit more clearer when I blog in the future, maybe I shouldn't blog when I'm emotional, but a blog does give you that immediate outlet which is what I seemed to have needed from my comfy sofa that evening.

It's a good job Anke has just come back

Anke has just arrived back from the Film Club - it's a good job as Melys and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci have just played and my emotions are all over the place again

All best plans of men and all that crap

I was planing to blog about writing blogs this evening but I'm sat here on the sofa listening to BBC Radio 1's Keep it Peel evening, feeling desperately sad tearful and wallowing in the great music. see last Croeso posting.

So such things as the afore mentioned can wait...

Listen to John Peel now

To understand a little about what all the Brits were on about when John Peel died - listen here now (live bbc radio)

Aruthrol!

Oh life is so wonderful

I now have windows XP and Office XP in Welsh!

Da Iawn Microsoft a Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/cymruwales/default.mspx

Thousands of accessible poets

One of the lesser known facts of Wales and the Welsh (or Welsh Welsh as Jan Morris calls them) is that Wales has the highest density of published poets per head in the world. The twist is that is not recognised as they all write in Welsh. Everyone does it, from postman to bank managers, dinner ladies to farmers, and a famous poet sells 200 to 500 copies of their book! They compete for the chair and the crown at the National Eisteddfod, one is a free form poetry prize the other is for poems that follow a strict form (similar to the Japanese tradition). Some of these poems are so moving and so stunningly clever upon reading them, I long for my homeland and the villages where my heart lies, and just need to be there with the views of the hills and the sea to cleanse and nurture my soul. Often they have moved me so much I book a flight home for the very next weekend, even from Houston!

I get a similar feeling with the blogs I follow albeit a little different. I'll try and explain how I read them and the possibilities I see.

I read my bloglines account straight after lunch, just after I've checked my portfolio, the news and the latest from my football team. I always spend a little time after lunch to ease my self in for the afternoons workload. And again in the evening on the sofa next to Anke.

Following blogs really gives me the feeling of knowing people and their inner thoughts. Some of the people I read I know, i.e Lilia - whom I know very well as I see her every other week as we work together, Euan a little less as I have met him some 3 or so times, Ian Scott etc. These people I know from one point of view and following their blogs you start to see their other sides which is quite fascinating and illuminating. I bumped into Chris Fox  at KM Europe and he immediately mentioned my furniture making, he has seen that side of me, and it takes you aback, as no-one usually that remote from me usually knows. It makes meeting with these people much more interesting as I can chat about their blogged life as well as our professional interests.

There are also people I do not know who I read, some I came across via other bloggers, who quote their blogs (I'm not a great quoter whereas Euan quotes all the time - I think I'm too lazy), blogroll them or they have commented on Croeso. These people are also interesting as you build a relationship with them some are interactive but some you just read and don't react.

Rogiers great 'standing in your underpants' statement, is also felt in the reading world of blogs, there is one blog I follow written by a man who lost his sister nearly 2 years ago. He blogs with deep emotion on this tragic loss and how he is doing day to day. I feel terribly intrusive reading his blog, but as I've lost 2 people close to me I can empathise . I'm even feel I should not link to the blog here as that would be also too invasive and not correct, which is strange as he blogs to help him grieve and welcomes the comments from the blog followers. This guy is standing naked with all his emotions exposed to all. How very very brave he is, I applaud his painful progress.

The temporal effect is also interesting, following someone over time with regular or not so regular posts, it's like seeing a favourite village friend often as you walk to the the village shop and exchanging the latest news/gossip and chit chat. As Euan states the blogroll really is our village.

Little snippets of information often are much more easy to follow than reading a lot, less frequently. You can also ignore certain posts they blog from the titles and first few words in your RSS news aggregator, so you can skim read and dive in when it interests you. The nice things about RSS readers which really suits my busy life,is that it just builds up whilst your away or too busy, and it gives you a simple way to look at many posts. I certainly find after a week away from the Internet and my PC the Bloglines feeds have more posts than my in box, but Bloglines is much easier to read. I'm not sure if it is the fact that the blogs are of a lesser priority for me and so it seems easier to go through it as there is less pressure/ actions that are apparent in my in box, I'm not sure - let me reflect on that one a bit more.

Reading blogs is addictive and I pick up new ones every week and drop others, there are many more in my Bloglines than appear in my blogroll as bloglines gives you the chance to categorise them this way.

Anyway enough for now I'm off to bed

Nos Da

Even Higher

The old High Priestess of the Euroblogsphere, when I first started to work with her, commented to me how quite often people mentioned me or knew me. These days as her powers become even more all consuming, she has reached the heights of an award winner - Best Research based Blog, and now everyone mentions her to me. I'm very happy to be in the shade again!

Well done girl!

Blogging review - background data

Blogging really sits in 2 camps for me, writing and reading. They are very much joined at the hip of course but still distinctly different. I will write on these 2 aspects as we review my blogging year, but firstly lets get the back end down.

Firstly so you know how I blog:

How:

TypePad Pro user (ex Blogger Pro), Mob-blogging using Pocket Sharp MT, RSS reader - Bloglines, Technorati user, email subscription via Bloglet, O2 Pocket PC Phone/PDA, IBM Thinkpad with WiFi, ADSL 1MB Upload 512 Download, Blogroll managed by Bloglines, Comments enabled, trackbacks enabled, and a customised set of TypePad templates to get the look and feel I need, Kodak 6490 Camera, IESpell (as it does, English, Dutch and Cymreag  [Welsh]) & various Internet cafes (normally airports)

When:

Mostly in the evening sat on the sofa next to Anke (I'm at this very moment bored by a Japanese DVD rental - Dolls, so hence time to reach for the Thinkpad)

Why:

Well it's just fascinating, finding your voice, discovering the boundaries of your comfort zone, an on line journal, connecting to others - plus too many more (see future posts)

Who:

Just me (no guest authors/ co-authors) but as Euan writes I have my fellow villagers for company (my BlogRoll)

Blogging

Carla and Lilia have asked me to reflect on blogging as apart of our R&D program, before I do that first an admission.

I intended to blog about the KM things we do, and I have done, to experiment to see if people could learn from me or even predict what I might do , just by being tuned into my blog. I'm afraid that idea ground to a halt due to all the IP rights and secrecy agreements I'm party too. I know I know, but I know the battles I can win with no bruising, and the battles I can win but become heavily bruised in the process. This fits in the latter and the bruising and the reputation might have put a stop to other interesting work I'm doing within KM in Shell and Basell, so I struggled and stopped. You see only putting part details down of our tricks and tips is just not good enough. One down side is. in my quest to get the company focused on blogging, they look at my blog and say what good is that, all kids, furniture making and music - and they are right. Blogging work related stuff is a step too far at the moment, but lets see what the future brings.

To sum it up I feel rather like Rogier  Brusse who stated that "Blogging is like standing in your underpants". Rogier is a wise man and I like him a lot, and fully concur with his feelings with respect to work related issues.

But I will blog further on my feelings on blogging as they are very positive

Just the perfect day

Well It was my 40th birthday and with the kids attending crèche and school, Anke surprised me with a day out as my present. She gave me an address in Utrecht, which I hacked into Maybelle (My phone based navigation software) and she navigated us to the Rietveld Schroder House, via an apple strudel and a cappuccino in La Place.

The house was designed by a furniture maker in the mid 20's and it was stunning at the time and still today. Mrs Schroder also helped heavily in the design process to make the house functional and livable for her children. You can see the hand and eye of the furniture maker everywhere.

We had a guided tour of not only this house but some more houses across the street he designed a little later.

The upper floor has fold back walls to give it a light airy feel and wonderful use of colours light and perspective.He wondefully joins the landscape, the outside of the house and the inside of the house.

He also has a famous chair design:

Anke and I were inspired enough to buy many books, and we are going to try and remodel our study to make it a Rietveld room, with a bed, fold away table and chairs, large shutters and bed bases painted in primary colours and placed on the walls as 'art' when not in use. Let's see how it goes. the beauty of Rietveld objects is that the pieces are easy to build as he designed them that way (a sort of early IKEA visionary)