############################# A CHRISTMAS CAROL ############################# 

It was a magical night, last night. Mulled wine, home made eggnog, home made 
Mince pies, yummy little pecan things, Ben’s cookies (of course). Too much 
good food. And we read A Christmas Carol. And it was littered with innuendo. 
Merriment etc. I’d say “only in Oxford”, but it was at Laura’s, from New York, 
and most everyone there was international. Anyway, it was a fantastic evening 
and watching Die Hard after we finished A Christmas Carol made it even better. 
The two go together quite well. Oxford is a wonderful place, it is good to be 
back! 

The last email was way too long though. Mea culpa. I’ll leave the investing to 
my web page in the future, and RSI is done with. Moving on, if you want to see 
photos of some places I’ll miss, or reasons why you should visit New Zealand 
and conscript me as your tour guide, go here:
  http://oxford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172895&l=54588&id=36819560

This one just made me laugh:
 http://www.manitowoc.uwc.edu/staff/awhite/true-philo-sophy-irony.png

And I realised that my website was morphing into a wiki, so I ditched what I 
had written and converted it to DokuWiki. DokuWiki is much shinier than 
anything I have the time to put together. You can find it where you could find
the old one (plug plug), here:
  http://www.syntilect.com/cgf

Enough hyperlinking. Some writing. 

A couple of weeks before I left New Zealand Susanna and I went up to the Mount, 
and spent a few days there with Mum & Brian, also Ash, Carmen, Jono, Michelle,
um, other people but my memory is bad. That was fantastic, and leaving NZ this
 time was a little bit less hectic than last time – thank you for all your help
 everyone!  The chance to spend a few days with family, drinking good wine,
 walking on the beach and swimming in the sea, it was all fantastic. Brian also
 took us sailing, and was very patient with me when I nearly capsized the boat.
 Thank you Brian! Summer came early, just in time for me to know what I was
 going to miss out on and also just in time for me to get quickly and thoroughly
 burnt. Right now I’m missing that. 

Ash, Mum and I had a good chat about Sage and the next version too. They both 
know a lot more about the trading than me so this was very helpful. Ash thinks 
that Sage 2.0 should be called Kevin and I’m inclined to agree. It’s a good, 
trustworthy name, Kevin. At this stage it’s just a name though. Sage 1.0 is 
going through its final off-market testing and analysis, it’s nice that it’s 
finally there. I’ll write something up for my web page once that’s more 
complete. It looks positive so far, my fingers are crossed. 

The travel. God I hate travel, I really do. Being somewhere new is fantastic, 
I love that, but the process of getting there! In particular I don’t think you 
should fly through the US. There were some posters at LAX advising us that 
"new US VISIT procedures are now in effect". They don’t tell you what those 
procedures are, but somehow I kept getting the intimation that they could be
 summarised as "US visit? Don’t." I wouldn’t be surprised if the DPRK was more 
pleased to see passengers in transit than the US. Did you know they have blue 
shirts floating around LAX now, carrying assault rifles? Admittedly they’re 
quite polite and were more taken aback than offended when I asked for a photo 
with them. I didn’t believe my eyes at first, and I didn’t think you would 
either without some evidence. So I’ve attached that photo. Anyway, I’m not 
sure what they’re there for. Perhaps they’re worried that the Taliban is going 
to try for Iwo Jima, California-style, or maybe they’re there to welcome 
tourists? If anyone has a chance to find out let me know… 

After successfully navigating LAX and Frankfurt (much easier, the people were 
so much more polite) I made it to England and my work. Which has become much 
more theoretical, abstract and detailed since I got back. Which is good. And 
I won’t bore you with the details this time. What’s bad is that it’s also 
become a lot more mathematical. Shrug. I’ll get there. My fear of mathematics 
is being overwhelmed by how good it is to be back. I knew I wanted to come 
back, but I hadn’t realised how much so, I love it! The things academic yes, 
but also the friends and quirky institutions, the beauracracy (at times) and 
the dancing. Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing a DPhil in dancing. Of the last 
7 days I’ve danced 5 or 6. I was right not to miss the banks though. As 
George Anstey noted, the Cooperative Bank could not have been more inaccurately 
named.

Otherwise? I miss the fruit we get in NZ, but British vege and produce is 
actually better – huh? – and the market at Gloucester Green is cheaper, even 
before taking cost of living into account. It’s only really become cold the last 
couple of days, and there’s still a few minutes of sun some days of the week. 
In other words things are cheap and the weather is not nearly as bad as I keep 
hearing it should be. Either the winter is saving things up for me or the UK has 
a serious image problem (cost, climate).

Last but not least, the attached photos and some captions. LAX.jpg I’ve already 
talked about, I guess I’d just stress that the two in the photo were far and 
away the friendliest people there. Which is odd. The second is one of Rosanna 
and me at a dance competition in Bath. I like tails, I really do, but it’s a 
misleading photo and makes me look a much better dancer than I am. Rosanna 
should get almost all of the credit for us doing as well as we did, she’s a 
very good dancer and a patient one too. Did I mention that I loved wearing 
tails? I also know what a cummberbund is now. The last two photos are just a 
couple of Oxford at night. When this place empties out it really is 
breathtakingly beautiful, so quiet, I love it. It’s one of the most amazing 
places I’ve ever been to. Venice could maybe be the same, if it was empty, and 
didn’t smell so bad? And that church in Murren… Maybe Oxford isn’t unique, but 
it is truly special. I love it here. 

And this epistle’s a bit shorter, if also a bit short on breath.

FINIS

[Hover over each image for the caption/filename.]