Paris in December

Dear All,

We will be in Paris on the 18, 19, 20 December flying out 21st late morning to return to Singapore, this s after a week skiing in the Alps, hope to see someone in Paris,

Love Nic & Family

A day early?

Many Happy Returns Nic





is that special birthday lightning predicted above?

My holiday reading was an account of the first Overland run to Singapore by Land Rover. Do intrepid travellers still turn up by car?

NICE TO TALK TO YOU THIS MORNING

Tee, Hee What did you do with the remainder of the Black Aberdeen Angus?? Dad

A matter of grammar a picture of Daniel enjoying and a picture of ME enjoying........
Hence a picture of Daniel and Me enjoying - not Daniel and I.- sorry to be pedantic Mum could Never get it right!!

Birthday Update

Hello All,

Here's a recent picture of Daniel and I enjoying Marina Bay



Today is a Public Holiday in Singapore, only a day early but a very good excuse to celebrate my 51st Birthday. So Jen ordered in a Black Aberdeen Angus and we invited some family and a special guest around;



Then we ate; so sorry, so delicious our 4.5kg prime rib, we scoffed it before taking any pics, I also deglazed the roasting dish with an olde bottle of plonk we had laying around, roasted some potatoes, garlics, onions, (thanks to Jamie O for his words of wisdom), carrots and tossed it all down with wine; not forgetting my pint of Olde Speckled Hen before lunch.





Then Claire and I went on a Nature walk and scaled the Summit of Bukit Timah Hill, a wonderful trek through the jungle to the heady heights of 164m, where we were met by old men, India workers in flip flops and others who had walked the tarmac road to the summit. This is in preparation for our Sumatra jungle trek next month and of course our December alpine adventure. We are now considered to be "in training". Here's a picture on the trail;




So for all those who have birthdays coming up, a Happy Birthday from us all here, and for all those wishing me a happy birthday, thank you and you are welcome.

Keep you posted,

Love Nic and all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NIC

Thanks for your blog about your lovely children. Fancy Claire playing football. We all hope you have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Thursday, so from us all here we hope you get some lovely presents. We will all drink your health on Saturday as we are all meeting in Witney for a lunch at the Holly Bush. Cheers lovely boy from Dad

Birthdays coming up

Nic 27th October
Claire November 27th
Daniel 8th December
Kate 27th December

Ladies Soccer

Today I watched my first ever game of women's soccer. I was quite impressed with the game and the level of commitment from the two teams. Claire played in defense and enjoyed her game. They play again next week and I'II bring a camera along.

Nic

Update from Singapore

Hi all,
We will soon be entering the holiday season and as Claire has already finished her Primary School leaving exams she is very free. Today she has a soccer game with a women's youth team so we'll see whether she gets a game or sits it out on the bench. We are looking to fulfill our promise to her of getting a dog, so if any one has a Cocker Spaniel import export business, please get in touch. Daniel has exams over the next two weeks and breaks up from school later than Claire so I've booked Claire and I flights to Medan in Sumatra so we can trek into the jungle to see some wild life, Orang Utans. We fly out on 11-11-11. So that's all the news from here for now, love Nic

Ile au Cerf (eee low surf)

The boat picked us up from the jetty on the beach and set off towards the reef at a gentle rate.
Robin and Henrique the Mauritian drivers dressed in red with V&V Vicky embroidered uniform explained that the route inside the reef (calm) was closed today so it meant taking the twin engined 280hp 18ft craft out onto the Indian Ocean for about half an hour to get round to Ile au Cerf.

No problem man we all said..
'Don't tell my Mother'he grinned
'She don't know we go outside the reef!'
At All? we said as the boat bucked and rode the 4 metre swell and we screamed like girls on Battersea Park roller coaster drenched and gripping the stainless steel rails.

Shifting

Welcome home Julian

Mauritius

This way for the speedboat..





Lovely on the water!


“Fanatastic day out” says tripadvisor

30 Sep 2011 Veteran4630

If you stay at Belle Mare Plage a must during your stay is a day out on a boat owned and organized by V& V Vicky. The boat is yours for the whole day.It is a very fast speed boat with twin 140 Hp engines which makes a very exhilarating day. The boat picks your party up(or party of four but up to 15 persons can be accommadated) at Belle Mare Plage at 10am in the morning and travels down the coast with your two man crew to Ile de Cerf a beautiful island just off the east coast.During the trip down, the crew describe the different named hotels and wonderful sights. Before having lunch the boat travels inland on a river to the most beautiful waterfalls where you are encouraged to swim and then feed the monkeys in the surrouding trees. After the waterfall visit the boat travels out into the open sea again to Isle De cerf where upon a table is laid on the shoreline and you are served the most wondeful three course delicious meal, right there on the shore with all the beauty surrounding you. an hour and a half was spent enjoying our meal,had a swim then proceeded back along the shore to experience the delights of snorkelling with all the wonders of the coral and the beautiful fish. Finally arriving back at Belle mare Plage at 5pm having had the most memorable day . Vicky himself (The owner) can be seen every day walking along the beach at Belle mare Plage dressed in a red polo shirt and a mill booard. He is the most friendly person and very helpful and courteous. It is a definate must to enhance the whole experience of your stay on the wonderful island of Mauritius, and the fantastic Belle Mare Plage

AGED PLAYBOY FOUND ON BEACH

Date: 13 October 2011 22:08:07 GMT+04:00

Birthday Greetings from Mauritius

Sometimes you need to get away to make a proper start on that book!

Broken wrist in Gratz

It seems that Edmund made a wrong turning in the cycle lane and collided wih an oncoming cyclist, braking his left wrist and the front wheel of his bike, the other cyclist was hurt too but I don't know in what way. This means that Edmund will have to explain himself to a magestrate at some later date. So we are worrying about him but he assures us he is alright, but it has made life very difficult for him as he finds it hard to type, cook, and wash up, etc and of course his bike is out of action. So he's back to walking 16k a day. I never rains but it pores!

Happy Birthday Steve!

I hope you are having a lovely time wherever you are, lots of love from all the welsh and me...

Happy Birthdays!

Happy birthday today to little Louis on his first birthday. And happy birthday to Dad for tomorrow. much love kiss kiss.

Gem & Clive

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THURSDAY

Happy birthday to my handsome clever son, Steve. I would like to have sent you a birthday card, but I don't know your address. Cheers and HAPPY HOOKY!! From your ever loving Dad XXX

letter from Ruth

dear friends,

again excuse the round robin.

the good news is julian is healing well. the bad news, unfortunately, is that he has to spend a fourth week in hospital, though that's not how the day started...

this morning as louis and i were having our 'transition' morning at gary and sylvie's (just in case louis had to stay with them) the doctor rang and said all was well, that julian could go home tomorrow. yippee we shouted. daddy's coming home! louis and i got in the car with all our gunk and drove the two hours back to bedoin. the landscape in all its amber maplesyruppy colours had never looked lovelier!!! then, as we drove up outside the house julian called to say they were not willing to let him go quite yet to be on the safe side and that he had to spend another week in carpentras hospital. he is in no danger, the doctor said to me later, they just need to finish the treatment. i changed louis' nappy, we said hello to a cat, did an about turn and here we are back in the drome.

meanwhile louis has made great buddies with ninja the dog and is in expert and tender hands with julian's oldest friend. julian is philosophical as he approaches a month in hospital. my train to paris is cancelled due to sncf strikes so i have had to rebook from montelimar and i will try and enjoy my music making in paris and maybe catch up on some sleep.

the bad luck has been piling on but the worst news is that our newly found super baby sitter/cleaner brigitte called this morning to say her husband had been killed in a car accident last night. that put things in perspective.as i fought back the tears when i rocked louis to sleep tonight i thought of brigitte and remembered that we have lost no-one and that our little family WILL be together again on monday next and have a belated first birthday and indeed tenth wedding anniversary celebration.

thanks for all of you who have been so incredibly supportive and i take my hat off to every single mum out there.

much love,

ruth and louis

More pubs to visit...

Hi Grandad,

Good to hear you are well and getting out and keeping the britsh pubs going. Here is an article about some local award winnig pubs which may be worth a visit, inc. one I think Ruth had already recommended on her Garsington trip last year (The Mole Inn at Toots Baldon), and one that we've tried to eat in before but has been booked up, though Dad and Will have been (Magadalen Arms off Iffley Road, Oxford):

http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/9294979.City_pub_wins_coveted_Michelin_award/?ref=mr

love Gem xx

sossidge semmich

I cannot remember ever having a sossidge semmich, so I don't know wot sauce I would choose - I think HP sauce would be my choice. Signed PH (HP)_ Merrow-Smith, As they called me at school HP the saucy fella!! or Smudger Smith or smoodge in the Yorkshire dialect.
Been out to the Red Lion in Steeple Aston, today where they have two Lions - a White Lion and a Red Lion. Fish and Chips - not very good, but the company was good. Soon be 57!! Hope Julian is recovering. I am still breathing Love from, Parky!

Red sauce Brown sauce or No sauce at all

http://today.yougov.co.uk/life/red-or-brown-sauce

Passed on to you all via Ruth's email

Dear friends,

I am writing as so many of you have expressed concern for Julian. There is really no concrete news as they have still not found out what the virus is, if indeed there is a virus, that caused the worrying symptoms just over two weeks ago. Apparently in three quarters of such cases they never find it. Anyway, Julian was transferred yesterday to Carpentras hospital, still under the supervision of the Marseille hospital. 20 minutes rather than two hours away. Although the latter has a marvellous reputation and he was under supervision of the best possible doctors, he was very uncomfortable in a run down building sharing a boiling room with a grumpy man who had the telly on all day and had tons of visitors. At least now he is in a much nicer environment, with a clean single room with a view of the Dentelles de Montmirail and his goose down pillows He feels fine and has done since the second episode over a week ago but has to be on a drip until they do a third lumbar punction on Monday to see if the mysterious virus has disappeared. If it has he will be let out on Tuesday, the day I am supposed to go to Paris and the day before Louis' first birthday. They feel hopeful as the second punction showed encouraging signs, but If it has not disappeared he will have to stay in hospital another week. AAArgh. Meanwhile after much agonizing we have, if that extra week is to be the case, decided to take up Gary and Sylvie's extraordinarily generous offer to take Louis in Dieulefit while I am away. We cannot think of anyone with whom Louis would be happier or safer and are of course incredibly grateful to them.

So, the good news is that julian is feeling healthy, reading a lot, mostly about food, probably benefiting from weeks of detox and enforced relaxation. His shoulder which has been bugging him for years feels easier. Let's all cross fingers that the results on Monday will be positive and that he will be back home next week. maybe in time to catch the last days of this extraordinary golden Autumn, maybe for Louis' first steps or word....

Today Louis and I will meet him on the 'deck' of the hospital and it will be the first time he will have seen his son in ten days.

Thanks for all your support and excuse this group email but I am sure you appreciate what single handed parenting entails....

Keep sending those good vibes.

Love, Ruth and Louis.

Julian and Louis reunite..

...and Louis finds a thrilling new toy.


Thanks for the Steve Jobs speech, Steve. My mum sent it to Julian too. There's that kind of stuff in the air right now. Feeling very thankful and hopeful Julian will be back home very soon.

Apple

Without Julian and his G3 iBook and endorsement of Mac, the worldwide web might well have remained a mystery- a lot of it still is and this blog would have been pretty poor fare.

Find what you love..

Steve Jobs' Stanford speech lives on, reading it will be best 5 mins you can spend today:



This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

J

Dear friends,

I am writing as so many of you have expressed concern for Julian. There is really no concrete news as they have still not found out what the virus is, if indeed there is a virus, that caused the worrying symptoms just over two weeks ago. Apparently in three quarters of such cases they never find it. Anyway, Julian was transferred yesterday to Carpentras hospital, still under the supervision of the Marseille hospital. 20 minutes rather than two hours away. Although the latter has a marvellous reputation and he was under supervision of the best possible doctors, he was very uncomfortable in a run down building sharing a boiling room with a grumpy man who had the telly on all day and had tons of visitors. At least now he is in a much nicer environment, with a clean single room with a view of the Dentelles de Montmirail and his goose down pillows He feels fine and has done since the second episode over a week ago but has to be on a drip until they do a third lumbar punction on Monday to see if the mysterious virus has disappeared. If it has he will be let out on Tuesday, the day I am supposed to go to Paris and the day before Louis' first birthday. They feel hopeful as the second punction showed encouraging signs, but If it has not disappeared he will have to stay in hospital another week. AAArgh. Meanwhile after much agonizing we have, if that extra week is to be the case, decided to take up Gary and Sylvie's extraordinarily generous offer to take Louis in Dieulefit while I am away. We cannot think of anyone with whom Louis would be happier or safer and are of course incredibly grateful to them.

So, the good news is that julian is feeling healthy, reading a lot, mostly about food, probably benefiting from weeks of detox and enforced relaxation. His shoulder which has been bugging him for years feels easier. Let's all cross fingers that the results on Monday will be positive and that he will be back home next week. maybe in time to catch the last days of this extraordinary golden Autumn, maybe for Louis' first steps or word....

Today Louis and I will meet him on the 'deck' of the hospital and it will be the first time he will have seen his son in ten days.

Thanks for all your support and excuse this group email but I am sure you appreciate what single handed parenting entails....

Keep sending those good vibes.

Love, Ruth and Louis.



my website: www.ruthphillips.com
julian's website: http://shiftinglight.com
email: ruth@wintermane.com

Nice to see you - to see you, Pete Nice

Thank you for dropping in on your way to Manchester.
I am glad you all enjoyed the Rose & Crown, I certainly did, too
Today I have been invited out to tea with friends only a few doors away.
I hope Julian continues to improve, Love from Dad

Ploughing

today's show was a trip back in time, with the fields full of workers getting on with the job.


local character Nick

stillives

Dear Steve,

I am writing to explain the recent absence of your Postcards from Provence. I am afraid Julian is in hospital in Marseille having suffered what we believed at the time to be a minor stroke but which doctors now think is a virus. He is feeling fine now but still undergoing tests to identify the mystery beastie. He hopes to be home within ten to fourteen days, in time for Louis' first birthday. Since he has no internet access at the hospital please don't overwhelm him with emails although I am sure your thoughts will be with him.

Many thanks for your patience and support,

Ruth

-

Day out in Hurstpierpoint

We took the dogs to see some young and old ploughpersons and their tractors working the land just up the road. The ploughing match last year was preceded by 36 hours of rain.
This year saw the competitors in skimpy tops (photo) and a run in the beer tent on Darkstar Hophead!