Poem from Caroline

It was back then, in the fabulous year of 2003
as we first came to meet, you and me.
And I felt already at our initial handshake,
what a super type of extraordinary friends we would make.

And for all kinds of matters, business or pleasure
you sure came to be an irreplaceable treasure
So smart and charming, intelligent as few
you’re always there, able to find the missing clue.

In addition you’ve shown to be just one of a kind
when it comes to understand my own strange mind
Both being Librans - with all what that means -
I’ve often wondered, do we share the same pare of genes?

So how strange it is, my dearest, dearest friend
that this particular journey now has come to an end.
Even though a new exciting one is just about to start,
and I wish you the best of the best with all my heart.

But… don’t you ever think you’ve seen the last of me!
Australia is actually not that far away, you see
One sunny day, when you sense it the least
I will be on your doorstep - expecting a feast!

With all my love to you and Ally,

October 2005

Volvo farewell at Nandos

I had my farwell dinner from Volvo on Wednesday night. Very sad to be saying goodbye to such great people. My last day is 25 November but I had the farwell early as everyone is off to Lisbon next week for a product launch. Caroline came to visit for a couple of days too - she's hiding away in the picture above. She wrote me a wonderful farewell poem that I'll always treasure.

Trip to Gothenberg

Just got back from a two day planning session in Gothenberg. Weird planning for 2006 when I won't be here at Volvo. But it's good to have things all organised and in place for the guy who is taking over. Great seeing Caroline (as always!) and we had some good fun meals together as a group in the evenings. Here we are at Smaka which is one of my favourite restaurants in Sweden.



This is the lovely view from the office where we held our two day planning session. There was even a "pleasure room" next door with jacuzzi and all sorts of other delights - but no time to use it. Didn't get to enjoy the view the first day either - had a big storm move through and the window was belted with wind and rain.

Summer evening in Gothenberg

Spent a lovely evening in Gothenberg with some colleagues, including Caroline. Also Marriane, Eric and his lovely wife who I met for the first time. Dinner on a boat, enjoying the evening sun with lots of good laughs. Great company all round. It was great to see Caroline as always. I'm so, so going to miss her when we leave Europe.

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Caroline visits us in Cambridge

Caroline and Calle visited us this weekend and it was wonderful to spend some time with them. The weather was awful on Saturday so we didn't get to visit Granchester as we hoped. On Friday night, we all went out for Nandos chicken. Thank goodness for Nandos! It's becoming very, very popular in the UK with good reason.

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

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.

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!

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...

Gothenberg

Off to Gothenberg on Wednesay and Thursday. I was rather busy so no time for siteseeing, although I was here over 30 times last year so did't mind too much. I was upgraded in my hotel (they said it wsas beacause I am a preferred customer but I think they ran out of normal rooms...) to a palacial suite with three rooms and two TV's. Did't get too much time to enjoy it tho - just a place to crash.

I met up with some friends from work after a busy day in Gothenberg. THta's Caroline you can see in the doorway, looking smashing in the red coat against the blue door. Smaka is famous for it's Swedish meatballs and the food was great as always.

Caroline comes to visit...

What a great friend!

Caroline visited us this weekend from Sweden which was a real treat. She arrived on Friday and left Sunday evening. She's wonderful fun and gave us a great excuse to get out a bit over the weekend and not get totally bogged down in Ally's HR annual plan which has to be in on Tuesday.

Granchester

This is why I adore Cambridge - what heritage, what culture we have on our doorstep! Granchester is a famous orchard in Cambridge where people have been having tea since 1868. In fact, over the years, more famous people have taken tea here than anywhere else in the world. E.M Forster, Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russel, Maynard Keynes - they all loved this place.

Ruper Brooke's poem "The old vicarage, Granchester", immortalises the afternoon tea in the orchard with lines like: "Stand the church clock at ten to three. And is there honey still for tea?"

Breakfast on the Balcony

We ate very well this weekend. Ally sent Caroline and me off to the shops on Saturday morning to buy a spot of lunch but that's always dangerous because we both love shopping. So we arrived back laden under bags of DVD's and CD's and at least a week's worth of food.

In Prague, on the spur of the moment, I decided I would go on a sugar diet for the month of June (only allowed natural sugars, no chocolate or ice cream etc.) I did this cause I realised i am addicted to sugar and that's it's probably not to healthy. God, it was hell for the first three days!!

I had a crazy craving for meringue and felt pretty grim. Now it's fine though, and I must say I have noticed a nice stabilising in my energy levels. Still, I can't wait for my reward at the end of the month - a big slab of chocolate is what I've promised myself!!!

La Tasca

On Saturday evening, we went La Tasca, to a great restaurant with Caroline in Cambridge that serves Spanish food. You get to order lots of little courses and then mix and match. Great dishes with exotic spanish names that the waiters know and no-one else can pronounce. The restaurant is very popular with a great vibe and is worth visiting if you are in Cambridge.

Trip to Gothenberg

The joys of Stansted

Stansted Airport at 5:15 pm on the way to Sweden… Whoever said business travel is glamorous!! The queues at airport security seem to take forever these days. I have a rigorous ritual of extracting from my pockets (item by item, before the amazed gaze of the security chap) my wallet, camera, PDA, mobile phone, iPod walkman, keys and coins. Anything to avoid being beeped and subjected to a thorough & intimate rub down by a burly guard. If only they'd hire pretty lady guards to do the patting down, I wouldn't mind so much.

Nice work if you can get it...

Our conference in Sweden was held at a stunning sea side resort. Here is the view from my room (full suite)- my job sure does have its perks!! I knew it would be nice just from looking at its web site before I went. It was a two day affair & we arrived early on Wednesday and left Thursday after lunch.

Cheating!
In the evenings, we did some fun events. Here we are on a Swedish invention called a "quiz hike" where you follow a map through the wilderness and have to answer fun trivia questions posted to trees. The team with the most correct answers won a prize. Not too difficult when you have a mobile phone and can call your other halves to look up the answers on the internet. We weren't the only team to do it!! It's amazing what Google can help with these days.

Sail away!
This is one of the photos I took on the "quiz hike" The sea was a beautiful colour and looked more like a lake, it was so calm. The Swedes love to sail and I'm not surprised with a beautiful and peaceful coastline like theirs to enjoy. I look forward to doing some ferry island hopping here in summer when I get some time at the tail end of a trip.

Meet Caroline!
Here's Caroline who organized the conference. We spent all of last year rolling out web sites across the world under immense pressures and became really good friends. She is from Sweden but spent last year in Cambridge on assignment. This year she has returned to Sweden so I don't get to see her much. She and her hubby are coming to stay with us in Cambridge for a long weekend in July so that should be fun.

The Lipstick Building
I returned to Gothenberg and spent the afternoon with our suppliers. They are situated in a rather extraordinary looking building which has been nicknamed "The Lipstick building" because that is what it looks like from a distance.

Lazing in the park

My plane back to UK only left at 9:30 pm so I went to relax in the park for a couple of hours after my meetings. I had a gigantic hamburger next to the lake then lazed on the grass. I'm starting to look forward to Prague. I've only got a half day tomorrow (although it's going to be frenetic) and then we're off for 4 days.

Zzzzz!

It's a tough life here in Gothenberg! I had to set my alarm to make sure I woke up and got the taxi to the airport on time.

Caroline

See all blog posts for Caroline

Special memories

• Driving in the snow in Asheville and getting lost s few times (US)
• Our similar Libran ways
• Playing with Carla and visiting Helen and Martin in Asheville
• Visits to Cambrige
• Visits to Gothenberg
• Many heart to heart chats putting life to rights
• Our mutual love of Granchester (and the whole of Cambridge)
• Working together in Duxford - ah those were the best of days
• Volvo.com and Web council meetings
• Punting in Cambridge
• Trip to Stockholm
• Smaka restaurant in Gothenberg

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Letter to Caroline  (January, 2004)

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



Poem from Caroline (October 2005)

It was back then, in the fabulous year of 2003
as we first came to meet, you and me.
And I felt already at our initial handshake,
what a super type of extraordinary friends we would make.

And for all kinds of matters, business or pleasure
you sure came to be an irreplaceable treasure
So smart and charming, intelligent as few
you’re always there, able to find the missing clue.

In addition you’ve shown to be just one of a kind
when it comes to understand my own strange mind
Both being Librans - with all what that means -
I’ve often wondered, do we share the same pare of genes?

So how strange it is, my dearest, dearest friend
that this particular journey now has come to an end.
Even though a new exciting one is just about to start,
and I wish you the best of the best with all my heart.

But… don’t you ever think you’ve seen the last of me!
Australia is actually not that far away, you see
One sunny day, when you sense it the least
I will be on your doorstep - expecting a feast!

With all my love to you and Ally,

Caroline