UK Letter Home Feburary 2003

Welcome to the Feburary edition of UK Bound

This month we finally got our central heating installed. I don't know what it is about the UK, but heating is not a right, and something that not everyone has in their houses. We had one gas fireplace which heats 1/2 of the lounge, one really old non-vented gas heater in the hallway and two electric heaters (read ka-ching) in the rooms upstairs. It was bloody cold, and took forever to warm the place up. Anyways, we are now with the 1960's, and have central heating... This is the first time the place has been actually warm enough to open a window for some fresh air. It might sound silly to you, but it's quite nippy here, and even colder outside! We have some more reno's on our wish list - we just have to find a good installer and get it done. Anybody fancy to come over with their hammer? The worst part was having to catch the moggies and stuff them into a room where they weren't working. Solo is really pissed at me, but I've played and tried to calm him down a little so I think he's golden. Actually, on second thought, the worst part was actually paying for it. Thank goodness for Visa. Spare change anyone?

Work for me is getting scary. JPMCF have started moving jobs to India in a cost slashing measure. The team that I was working with 6 months ago is the first team to move, and they have hinted that my current team is next. Sure, all the other big companies are doing it, but the whole reason the Glasgow office was setup was to save on wages from expensive London. In that sense, I guess it might be better working for a smaller company where you know that it can't outsource to another city or country. Working for a bigger company is quite a pain, as there is also a lot of red tape, rules and the like. On the plus side, when you are sent on a trip to NY, you are able to fly first class, and stay in really posh hotels. I think those days are pretty much gone. When I was working at ACL, I think I was having the most fun when it was around 60-75 people. It was a large enough company to be recognized and we had good Christmas and golfing parties, but small enough where there wasn't tons of red tape. I think that you have to have some rules in a company, but when I started at ACL, it was run with more common sense. What do you think? Bigger or smaller company?

We had a trip to the Lakes District in England for Valentines Day. I rented a car and surprised Kim with a trip. It is only about 3 hours south of here, just 30 miles south of Carlisle if you have a map. We just took the weekend to relax and unwind. It was really beautiful as some of the flowers were just starting to come out, but I'd bet in a couple of weeks, the place would just be on fire with color. Anybody know how many lakes there are in the Lakes District? Well, actually, only 1. Although there are a lot of, what would appear to be lakes, they are just a little to small to be classified as lakes, but, merely "waters". Just don't tell any English people that. I have just added another 60+ pictures to the website.

On the website front, I have finally finished uploading the Italy pictures. There are over 160 pictures, so even if you have already had a look, all the pictures are now in the correct order, and tagged. I had one little problem uploading the descriptions, but it is all better now. We are rebooking our trip to Oslo for the middle of March, so those pictures will hopefully be up for the next newsletter.

Does anyone have the musical score to "Hockey Night In Canada"? I was going to change my mobile ringtone. I just need the main chorus, not the entire score. So, could you email it over when you get a chance.

I guess that's all for this edition. Hope to hear from you.
Brian and Kim.