Matthew's First Birthday

Trip to Western Australia

Highlights

• Camping at Rottnest Island and exploring the island on bicycles
• First experience of geo caching - depositing Macavity the Cat
• Shannon National Park - camping in a cosy hut, forest walks, buying supplies from a little shop
• Lunch at Margarrette's River and a great river walk
• Seeing a buff-banded rail in the Mangrove Swamps
• Towering trees at Shannon National Park (Australia)
• The views from King's Park
• Seeing my first Kookaboro
• Seeing my first Kangaroo
• 48 new bird species including beautiful parakeets
  
  

New birds seen

King's Park - Perth

• Australian Wood duck
• Magpie-lark
• Rainbow Lorikeet
• Yellow Wattlebird

Mangrove Park

• Grey fantail
• White-faced heron
• New Holland Honeyeater
• Australian White ibis
• Buff-banded rail
• Willie wagtail
• Silvereye

Rotnest Island

• Rainbow bee-eater
• Spotted Turtle Dove
• Pacific Black duck
• Silver gull
• Singing Honeyeater
• Sacred Kingfisher
• Common pheasant
• Banded lapwing
• Banded Stilt
• Redcapped plover
• Australian raven
• Redcapped Robin
• Australian shelduck
• Welcome swallow
• Grey teal
• Bridled tern
• Crested tern

Shannon Forest Reserve

• Whitebrowed babbler
• Long billed black cockatoo
• Grey Currawong
• Restless flycatcher
• Common bronzewing
• Crested shrike-tit
• Scarlet Robin
• Yellow rumped thornbill
• Grey shrike-thrush
• Dusky Woodswallow
• Australian ringneck

Other

• Australian magpie
• Western Rosella
• Little Pied Cormorant
• Australasian Grebe
• Strawnecked Ibis
• Laughing Kookaburra
• Australina pelican
• Black Swan
• Grey butcherbird

Matt

Favourite movies watched (2004)

• The Others (2001)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• The Shining  (1980)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Psycho (1960)
• The Apartment (1960)
• The Graduate  (1967)
• Sunset Blvd. (1950)
• High Noon (1952)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• Rear Window (1954)
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• The 39 Steps (1935)
• Spirited Away (2001)
• Amadeus (1984)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Gandhi (1982)
• A Clockwork Orange  (1971)
• Spartacus (1960)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb  (1964)
• West Side Story (1961)
• The African Queen (1951)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• Spellbound (1945)
• The Big Sleep (1946)
• Notorious (1946)

Cambridge years (2004 & 2005)

"Living in Cambridge, with nature around you, it's so fresh."   Syd Barrett

The best of times

My two years in Cambridge have been amongst the happiest of my life.  So many highlights and great memories.  Cambridge is such a beautiful and relaxed university town with gorgeous, photogenic colleges and green gardens and parks, especially along the banks of the River Cam. 

We stayed in a wonderful apartment  with views of a lush garden and a bowling green.  Also, we were right next to the Cambridge Botanical Gardens (with our own secret entrance) and the River Cam was just 5 minutes walk away.

It was while living in Cambridge that I started this blog as a way to keep my family updated with our lives.  I started taking photos with a little Ixus i camera and gradually photography became a real passion which continues to this day.  Cambridge is so rich in opportunities for photography, especially the beautiful colleges at dusk.


In and around Cambridge

We really made the most of living in Cambridge and enjoyed many fun activities.  Highlights included:

Home life

• Enjoying Xmas in Cambridge.
• Watching a whole lot of movies (I set a goal of seeing all The Top 250 movies on The IMDB.)  As a result, I became quite a movie buff.
• Visiting the city centre on Saturdays and browsing in the library, then stopping at a local kiosk for delicious crepes.  This became something of a ritual.
• Nurturing our substitute kids  (our orchids).
• Our 5th year wedding anniversary and the fact we made cards with exactly the same theme.
• Tennis lessons at Next Generation Gym and then playing many games with Louis Pierre - and the day I finally beat him.
• Rescuing Chuckles - a little hedgehog than Carol, Ally's aunt, then looked after.

Friends and visits

• Spending quality time and lots of laughs with our good friends, Amanda and Johnathon who lived close by - including Sundays by the fire.
• Sundays by the fire with Amanda and Johnathon.
• Mum and Mike coming to visit and showing them around Cambridge, including a trip to Ely and punting on the Cam . By co-incidence, an enormous flower,the Titan Lilly, was flowering at the Botanical Gardens when they visited.  This only happens once in 30 years!
• Caroline's visits to Cambridge.  I met her while working at Volvo and she became a very special friend.
• Granchester with Caroline (both our favourite place in Cambridge) and her 2005 visit.
• Having Sally come to visit and rollerblading together.  I was amazed at how fast she was!  I struggled to keep up.
• Looking after Geena for the weekend.

Photography

• Photographing and enjoying the different seasons: spring,  autumn, winter and summer.
• Taking my luckiest photo ever of a pigeon framed in flight at King's College.
• Taking photos at Trinity College - my favourite college.

Walking, cycling, punting

• Relaxing walks in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens followed by hot chocolate at the little cafe.
• Relaxing afternoons punting on the Cam and stopping off to have a picnic on the bank.  I became quite an accomplished punter.
• Cycling along the Camb and stopping off for a an ice-cream sunday at local cafe.

Exploring and enjoying

• Having delicious summer picnics in the park.
• Exploring the local Imperial War Museum  in Duxford.
• Ally's delight at the cute little lambs at Wimpole Estate.
• Getting spat in my face from a pesky llama at the local animal sanctuary.
• Visiting Thetford Forest.
• Watching birds at Fowlmere Nature Reserve.  
• Visting the American Cemetery and seeing a heart wrenching message on one of the graves

Further afield in the UK

We also did plenty of trips to further afield in the UK.  Highlights included:

Day trips

• Doing the Cheshire Triathlon with Colleen and Mike.
• A day outing to Sandringham Estate (Norfolk).
• Visiting Wilga and Norman in Kenilworth.
• A trip to Suffolk with Amanda and Johnathon.
• A trip to Hunstanton Cliffs with Kerry.
• Jessie's wedding.
• Visiting Bill and Lynne in Lavenham.

London

• Amazing photos taken by Ally of a road being flooded and a car getting stuck from her work window.
• A day trip to visit the London Zoo.
• Going to the Turner Whistler Monet Exhibition with Rosemarie and Nick.
• Trips to visit Kerry and Dave.
• Watching Mamma Mia  with Colleen and Steve.
• Ally meeting the Naked Chef in the flesh at a book signing.
• Rollerblading the Friday Night Skate (London) and in Cambridge.
• Sight-seeing round London - and watching Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream Coat.
• A tour of Buckingham Palace with Rosemarie and Nick.
• The Last Night at the Proms at Hyde Park.
• Eating at Kew Grill.

Weekends away

• A weekend away to East Bourne  (with Colleen and Steve) where we scattered Gran and Gramp's ashes.
• Visiting Ally's uncle and aunt in Coventrey and spending weekends there. This included celebrating Nicola's 21st birthday and Gus's 50th.
• A weekend in Jersey and a weekend in Guernsey with Rosemarie and Nick.
• Sailing with Gus on the Solent.

Outside the UK

Ally and I also had some fun trips and holidays outside the UK.  These included:

• A visit to see our family and friends in Cape Town
• Learning to dive in Egypt in the Red Sea - and amazing experience
• Spending time with our Canadian family and seeing some fantastic sights (including Vancouver and The Rockies)
• A weekend visit to Prague
• A wonderful weekend in Gothenberg just before Xmas to show Ally the lights
• Taking Ally with me on a business trip to Amsterdam - it no longer felt like work
• Ally coming with me on a business trip to Belley in France 

Working at Volvo

I worked at Volvo headquarters in Duxford, just outside Cambridge and was responsible for the European public web site and the dealer extranet.  I also got to drive a whole lot of global projects.  It was a fun job with great people and I got to travel a lot which was a big bonus.

Here are some of my best memories of my time at Volvo:

The people

• The fantastic people from the Duxford Office, Europan dealers, Volvo IT North America Team, Volvo Group Web Council and CMS Services. I'll miss them all.
• Mats - best boss I've had and great fun to work with too.
• Working with Caroline and becoming great friends.
• Great laughs with Andrew and Richard - even if our sense of humour is not always the cleanest
• Punting with work friends in summer and getting dive bombed.
• Volvo Wedding Fever
• The whole Mr Andrew Titley saga.
• Lunch time walks around Duxford with Dorothy, Katarina, Henrik and Anna - past the pink house and the pink car.

The work

• The work - it was fun and varied and almost entirely digital.
• Mind mapping with Mindmanager - best software I've ever used.
• Usability testing in London.
• Helping Ally with her HR plan.

The Duxford Office

• Being able to see and touch what we sell - yellow machines - a nice change after the intangibleness of financial services.
• Watching herons on the Volvo Lake around our Duxford offices.

Get togethers and parties

• Picnics on Jesus Green
• Some great dinner parties with work friends.
• Putting the Framfab logo the "right way round" at their office party.
• Abba Mania at Mats place and having serious competitions.
• Singing of the "Swedish happy birthday" song at all major celebrations and farewells at Duxford, followed by champaign and tarts.
• Dancing half naked at work parties - the forfeits one pays!

Food

• The Volvo caffetaria in Duxford - especially the sweet chili sauce and the roast on Thursdays
• Ribs and shandy at the John Barleycorn (the local pub in Duxford).
• The Volvo Xmas hamper and Xmas dinner.
• Work dinners at good old Nandos.
• Barbecues at Mats and overdoing the garlic in the Tsatsiki just a tad. Then getting on the wrong train to Whittlesford and ending up in London.
• The delicious Chololate biscuits served at the meetings at Volvo Headquarters.
• Smaka restaurant in Gothenberg.

Farewells

• Martin's farewell presentation - a lot of fun
• My farewell DVD presentation

Business trips

• The "joys" (not!) of Gothenberg City Airport and Stansted on a Monday morning.
• Visiting Sweden multiple times - there was one time I knew Gothenberg better than Cambridge
• Visiting Lisbon, Madrid, Salzberg, Brussels, Munich, Dublin, Amsterdam, Eskilstuna, Hannover, Copenhagan, Gothenberg, (many times!), Stockholm, and Belley.
• Visiting every Head Quarters in the Volvo Group (Volvo Group HQ, Volvo CE, Volvo Penta, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Aero, Volvo Bus) and trying out their caffetarias.
• White river rafting in Asheville including Andrew's rifle shot faart in the boat.
• Visiting North Caroline in the US (particularly the beautiful scenery around Asheville)
• Gothenberg (particularly summer meetings at Bokenas, winter meetings at Rastaried , Xmas outings at Liseberg).
• Driving from Greensboro to Asheville (with Andrew) and ending up in Virginia by mistake
• Driving around Greensboro with Caroline in the snow and getting lost.
• Getting locked out of my hotel room in Sweden half naked - and having to go to reception to get another.
• Having to don an oxygen mask on a Ryan Air flight - nothing like a near death experience
• Test driving a dump truck and excavator in Eskilstuna.
• Spending time with Helen and Martin Jerresand and playing with little Carla.

Favourite books

• Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
• His Dark Materials (Mark Pullman)
• Woman in White (Collins)
• A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

Top movies

• Return of the King (2005)
• Crash (2004)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Kill Bill Vol 2 (2004)

Related

• Spiritual journey (Cambridge years)
• Journal entries labelled "Volvo"
• Journal entries labelled "Cambridge"
• Best images from 2004
• Best images from 2005
• Favourite family photos from 2004
• Favourite family photos from 2005

Little boy

Little boy 
Little stick arms pumped to the sky
Little thin legs lifting high
Little eyes fixed in a hungry stare
Little pink feet dangling bare
Little teeth clenched through flaring lips
Little frame rising on contorted hips
Little boy launched in a furious leap
Little boy lands in a sandy heap
Little boy striving non stop since birth
Little boy desperate to prove his worth

Written:  2003



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