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.

Mats

Best boss I ever had.

One night in Brussels

Bokenas, Sweden

Not a bad place for a web council meeting! It was sad saying goodbye to the council members - I've worked closely with them for close to three years and it's the last council meeting I will attend before we leave.

50 years on the job

Peter has just retired from Volvo after 50 years of employment. Amazing and pretty special.

The dangers of punting

We went punting along the Camb last weekend and saw a suspicious bunch of guys on the bridge ahead. Didn't think too much of it though - until we passed under the bridge and they unexpectedly "bombed" us from the bridge. We got soaked. And loved it - the girls thought the "bombers" were kinda cute and the weather was hot so a bit of a cooler off was just what we needed. Can't say that all the other punters on the river who experienced the same treatment felt as amiable as us though.

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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Martin's farewell punt

Another punt down the Camb, this time as a farewell outing for Martin. It was a gloriously sunny day with temperature over 30 degrees. Seemed liked everyone in Cambridge was out soaking up the rays. Ally was in the Lake District with Rosemarie so missed the outing. Afterwards, we went back to Mats and Maria for a steak barbecue. It was a late and rather drunken night.

The forfeits you pay when losing poker at 2 am in the morning

Martin's farewell presentation

Martin, a good friend at work, is leaving Volvo next week to do an MBA in the States. We did a funny farwell presentation for him yesterday where we pasted his face onto magazine covers and other funny things and painted a fantasy picture of where he might head in life. It caused a lot of mirth in the office and was a big success.

Dreamland isn't far away now

I'm sitting in an internet caffee (free!)in Aalborg Airport in Denmark, waiting for a plane to Copenhagan, then to UK.

What a start to the week it has been. After very little travel over the past few months, suddenly it's exploded.

I flew to Salzberg, Austria on Monday morning - necessitating a get up at 4:45 am. Then two busy days of meetings, before flying back to UK last night - arriving home after 11 pm.

Then another 4:45 am wake up call this morning to fly to Denmark for a presentation which I had to prepare on the plane. Arrived at my destination at 1 pm this afternoon and then left at 4 pm to get to the airport. I should be home after 11 pm again tonight.

Needless to say, I shall not be rushing to work tomorrow. They'll be lucky to see me by noon - just in time for a large Volvo lunch!!

Anyway, at least the meetings and presentations went well :)

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.

Roast beef, Volvo style

This full plate of food, including two yorkshire pudings (yum!), roast beef and veggies costs the princely sum of £2:50. Not bad!! Every thursday is roast day, needless to say my favourite meal of the week.

The pleasures of flight

I had a bumpy flight to Brussels this week on this rather small plane. I've always been a very confident flyer, even relishing a bout of turbulence now and then as welcome seconds of excitement amidst hours of flight monotony. But since flying weekly with Ryan Air and experiencing one ferociously bumpy landing to many (not to mention having to don my oxygen mask on one flight due to smoke in the cabin), I have become rather nervous in the air. The bumps on this propellor driven baby didn't help!

Where's my bag?

Gothenburg city airport is notorious for making you wait ages for your bag. And when you see their apparatus for transporting luggage from the plane to the airport, you're not suprised. No wonder too, that when it's snowing, your bags arrive sopping wet on the conveyer belt. I think they need to upgrade their technology! It might be quaint the first time, but not the 42nd.

Volvo Group Headquarters

Volvo Group is an enormous company that scans the globe so you might expect it's headquarters to be a towering skyscraper in a bustling city centre. Not so. It's an attractive rambling "mansion" on top of a hill in Gothenburg with courtyard garden in the middle (see photo above). Most of the offices look out onto gorgeous views. A nice environment to work in. Those concrete jungalists could learn a thing or two.

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