Christmas at Ingrids Mums

Had a great time at Ingrids mums place over the christmas vacation. There was me, Ingrid, Taras, Leah and Maya. As well as Ingrids sister, husband and three kids. It was one of those vacations where everything centres around food....and lots of it. The kids got loads of presents from santa on christmas eve.....(swedish rules) and everybody had a great time. I got a cool manga style figure that you had to construct yourself. It was from Taras, and came from Japan, and you would not believe how well moulded it was!!! The funniest thing about the whole trip though was coming back and stopping at MAX burger. They were giving away these free whoopee cushions.....I had forgotten just how funny these can be!!

Radio Controlled Helicopter

Just got a new radio controlled helicopter to go with my aeroplane. Its pretty cool, and i can fly it in the house which is not possible with the plane. Its a bit hard to control though and really the plane is a bit more fun, especially in the park. For only 20 quid though you cant really complain. www.silverlit.com if you want one.

Johns Surprise 30th Party

Travelled to germany to visit some friends, and to surprise john for his 30th birthday. Must say thanks to Andrew, Melissa and "Mads" for putting up with me and Paul for a couple of days. And for letting us have a key so that we could come back from johns party at 8 in the morning. Paul, i dont think anything will ever beat our 4.5 hour journey home from that party!!! After the party went down to Pauls place and visited his new baby, Lucy. Also got to see Pauls flash new house. Unfortunatly I didnt get any pictures since i spent most of my time relaxing and sleeping in until way past noon. Thanks for letting me do that Carmen. It was a lovely time, and i look forward to coming back in the warmer weather. I may even help Paul with a bit of digging in the garden if he is lucky!! You will have to send me some pictures of the house, see if I can do an "artists" impression of what it could look like. Give you something to aim for Paul. Finally, thanks to Sue for arranging the surprise party.....and not getting too annoyed at my efforts to blow out the candles on Johns cake. Now.......who is going to arrange my surprise brthday party?? April 5th for those who have forgotten!! I hope though that nobody has to endure the length of journey it took to get back. Paul, it was a 12 hour journey back from your place. Two trains, a bus, a plane, a bus, a tram and then a walk. There must be an easier way?!

Teaching in Umeå

Went teaching again, this time in Umeå. Some really talented students up there, and I am hoping that I can persuade some of them to take a little time from their studies to write some tutorials for DesignerTechniques. Aside from the teaching, one of the students also had the coolest little electric scooter ever. Really cheap as well....although you have to import them from Korea. Perhaps something I am going to have to buy early next year. I will certainly let you know if i get one!!! By the way, cheers to Linnea again....I didnt take any pictures in Umeå either. Actually, i really must buy a digital camera!

Short break in Scotland

Went back to scotland for a few days. Nothing to interesting to report.....apart from I missed my flight back. I did come across this rather amusing picture of my dad though (the one on the right). Its from back in his army days, and I just thought it would be nice to post it up here for the whole world to see. Dad....your now famous!

Teaching in Luleå

Spent an interesting couple of days in Luleå (very northern Sweden). Actually had to lecture to just over 100 students, and then run a sketching workshop with about 30 students. Talking in front of 100 people was a bit of a new experience for me, but it went really well. I actually went over time...with no complaints. The students were not actually training to be designers, more studio engineers. It was good to try to show how important the role of studio engineering is in matching the designers ideas to engineering led production reality. Hopefully these two days lecturing will lead to more, as I had a great time running them. By the way, the picture is here is actually from a few hours I spent teaching at HDK in Göteborg. I didnt take any pictures at Lueleå. Everybody say hi to Linnea.