Best images - 2004

Letter to Caroline when she left Cambridge

Dearest Caroline

It’s been a wonderful year and I feel very blessed to have worked so closely with you and to have become good friends.    Here are some of the memories I shall treasure most:

• Punting along the River Cam – beer in hand, and nearly falling off!
• Heart to heart chats about life at Sauce – putting the world to rights
• Driving through the snow in Asheville, how slippery it was!
• Trying to make our minds up about some things, like what to take for tea. Librans unite!!
• You sharing your writing with me – I felt very privileged.   I can’t wait to read your first novel!
• Trying to find our way back to the hotel in Greensboro – and laughing the whole way
• Playing with little Carla – you’ll make a great mum one day!
• Having you and Nicholas over for lunch to our new flat to show it off
• Bumping into you after I’d locked myself half naked outside my hotel room – how emabarrassing!
• Reminiscing about Mr Titley!
• Checking my emails and ideas with you before I sent them out into the world – and feeling so much better because I had
• The suprise when I found out you like candy nearly as much as me
• The way your eyes light up when you talk about shopping – and those mega shopping expeditions  in the US (I can’t believe I spent so much!)
• Your wonderful sense of humour and your great smile

It’s been so much fun and I will miss you in Cambridge more than you know.   We’ll be thinking of you as you return home – and wish you all the happiness in the world.  We look forward to having you stay with us in Cambridge soon

Lots of love / Graeme

Volvo Headquarters - Gothenberg

Volvo flags against a sun rise - amazing cause it is was around 9 am!! I was in Gothenberg for a day. My last business trip of the year. I'm looking forward to a quiet Xmas, far away from airports and planes.

Sales & Marketing Team

Here's a picture of the whole team. We had a good teambuilding meeting at a college in Cambridge this week. We got an actor in the do some exercises with us (part of the teambuilding) - tremendous fun and very enlightening too. Our president took part too with gusto. Nice to do some acting again - last time i did role playing was at school!

Surfing in the buff

Sitting by the heater, doing some surfing... Oh for that South African tan to be back!!

Volvo Xmas Lunch

Our office lunch party. Didn't win anything in the raffle unfortunately but I have my complimentary Xmas hamper to look forward to next week. Jenny and Richard both work with me in e-business. I kow the photo of me is a bit psycho but it was the only one!

Stockholm

I spent a day and a night in Stockholm. I was there with Caroline to do a consulting workshop on a project I'm working on. A really nice city built on lakes with a hip, happening vibe. We had a Swedish Xmas lunch at a traditional restaurant in the old city. Like a huge buffet with everything from raw pickled herring (delicious actually) to cold meets and salads and hot dishes. You typically go up 5 or more times and totally stuff yourself. My kind of meal! My plane back to the UK was supposed to leave at 9 pm but was close to 3 hours delayed and we spent most of that time in the stuffy plane. Only got to bed at 2:30 am. Whoever said business travel is glamorous! The second photo shows one of Stockholm's most distinctive landmarks. I got a nice walk through the old city on the way to lunch.

Sammy, the Mouse

Oh my God - what a cutie!! Sammy was a mouse in the Wizard of Oz ballet on Saturday. What an adorable mouse she makes. Come to think of it, she'd look cute in any costume. Sammy will have her tonsils out on Wednesday. We wish her a speedy recovery and lots of jelly and ice cream.

It's the Naked Chef! (Ally)

While in Boots, we spotted our friend Jamie Oliver. He reduced me to a giggling school girl groupie. He's so adorable. I bought a book just so I could get a little closer. Jamie has his own online blog.

Day in London (Ally)

I went up to London today and had a wonderful time. I met Kerry for lunch and we went to the nearby opened Spur close to where Kerri is working for the council where she is being excruciatingly "underchallenged" . She is celebrating the fact that she's just got her "indefinite leave of stay" in the UK. Wonderful!! Then I saw Sally for a hot chocolate and jean shopping. Sally returns to Cape Town on Sunday and I'll really miss her after having her close for a year.

What some people will do for charity!

It's been charity week at work, meaning that several of our colleagues have been dressed in strange outfits to raise money. The little cakes were delicious...

Web Council meeting in Gothenberg

Went to a web council meeting in Gothenberg out in the country side and it was snowing. Really beautiful. That's Caroline you can see presenting. The venue was extremely posh and I got to enjoy one of the best meals of my life. It's a tough life here at Volvo!

Trip to Munich

Scenes from my business trip to Munich. We had a few hours to kill, so went to the Imax to watch a 3D movie about coral reefs in German. So relaxing, I slept through most of it. The olives at the market were delicious.

First snow...

First snow fall this year in Cambridge - this photo is taken from our balcony.

Fun with Caroline in Gothenberg

Ally joined me later in the week so she could see Gothenberg. We then stayed the weekend with Caroline and Niklas which was lots of fun. One of our outings was Liseberg. Millions of Xmas lights in the trees makes Liseberg a very beautiful place. It also has an open air ice rink which is very romantic. I've wanted to bring Ally here for ages now, since I visted a year ago. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain so we didn't get to skate but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Pictutre of Ally and me in Gothenberg's botanical gardens

Went to visit some colleagues on Saturday night. It was Advent weekend which is a big event in Sweden so all very festive. Helen and Martin have a gorgeous little girl called Carla. You'll probably gather from these photos that she was the centre of attention!! The guy in photo with me is Carl, another friend from work, who is tremendous fun. He's also happens to be Carla's Godfather. It all made me miss Sammy very much.

On Sunday, we visited some local Islands via ferry. It was rainy but fun. Here is a nice pic of Ally in a fisherman's hat...

Getting an Apple iPod

Being able to have literally 1000's of songs on one device feel absolutely epic!  What a groundbreaking device!  I've experienced the future and I love it.  This device is also so beautiful and user-friendly. It feels like a work of art. 

Happy Anniversary, dear Blog!

It's 6 months now that we started this blog. It has been lots of fun. In fact, this site is fast becoming our digital scrapbook to look back on in years ahead. So, we're going to keep going! After all, Mum wouldn't forgive us if we didn't!!

Nice pic of Kyle and Mike

Kyle is about to leave for his travels!