2011

Well, this seems to be becoming a Tradition! No blogging for the year then an end-of-year/Christmas newsletter (or should that be "newsblog"?!).

It's been another busy, full and generally good year. It got off to a hectic start with a long stretch of lecturing the second-year class. Unusually, I wasn't able to get away for the Easter short vacation - the first time in many years that I have missed spending this in Pretoria.

I was very blessed to be able to get away in June/July for a mid-winter break to Ramsgate with Theo and Brenda and Theo's family (the photo is of me and Jemma making footprints in the sand!). As was the case last year, we had some excellent weather and were able to enjoy the beaches, sea, cycling, geocaching, etc. We took our time over the trip down and overnighted in the Natal Midlands.

In August/September, I travelled overseas for a conference in Denmark (just North of Copenhagen). The photo here is of a military fort/barracks in Copenhagen (not too far from the famous mermaid sculpture). That was a great experience, and I was able to fit in some sightseeing, before taking a train and an overnight ferry up to Oslo in Norway on the recommendation of some good friends. Oslo was stunning, and my only regret is that my time there was so short. Coincidentally, Jacob Zuma (President of South Africa) was on a state visit at the same time, so they had bedecked central Oslo in South African flags in honour of my visit! I really felt at home. If you squint carefully at the flag poles in the image below you can just make out the SA flag bunting in front of the Royal Palace in Oslo.

From Oslo I flew to the UK and spent a week or so with Liz, and then a rather frenetic few days in the UK catching up with various friends (as many as I could pack into the few days available). The highlight of that was the (completely coincidental) opportunity to be there for my godson Alistair's baptism. While with Liz, I managed to do some geocaching on the Isle of Man (the photo below is of me at Liz' local train station after finding a cache there), and we went out for a first-class meal at one of the island's top restaurants. The local museum also had a display of sporting highlights including a lot of cycling-related displays (a lot of them focused on the career of Mark Cavendish). While in the UK I was able to visit Oxford (for the first time), and also Bletchley Park (home of the WW2 German Enigma code-breaking effort).

I got back home from that trip just in time to dive into another busy stretch of lecturing.

The rest of the year seems to have flown by in something of a blur, and it's very hard to believe that the year is almost over. A recent highlight was a dinner to celebrate 25 years of service to the University by myself and two colleagues (Dave Sewry and Richard Foss). In some ways it seems like just the other day that I was a very young graduate starting out as a Junior Lecturer!

2012 promises a number of changes, challenges and excitements. After nine years (i.e. three successive three-year terms) as Head of the Department of Computer Science, I will be handing over that role to a colleague. I am really looking forward to having more time to spend on my research programme. One of the perks of being Head of Department is some extra sabbatical leave, so I will also be taking a few months off in 2012. In March, I plan to ride the Cape Argus cycle race in Cape Town, a world-famous event which attracts 35000 participants each year. That has been on my "bucket list" for some time, but I am almost always lecturing in March and have never been able to get to it previously. My good friend Theo will be joining me for that adventure, which will be a great bonus. Then in September I am organising a conference in Grahamstown (the next edition of the conference that has taken me to Austria and Denmark in the past two years).

And that's about all the news for 2011 and forth-coming attractions for 2012. I hope 2012 is a good year, filled with health and happiness for you.

2010

Better late than never! Embarrassed by all my friends who managed to get out 2010 newsletters before Christmas, I thought I should try to write up a brief overview of the past year (and make up for the woeful lack of blogging in 2010!).

It's been a fairly busy year. One of the main highlights was a lovely holiday in Ramsgate in July with Theo and Brenda and several other mutual friends (some from Grahamstown, and some from Pretoria). We rented out two large houses next to each other, on the sea: only 50m of grass between the houses and the rocks — the photo is the view from the verandah of one of the houses. That was stunning and the Natal winter was very kind to us — even I managed to swim almost every day! Besides enjoying the beaches and the sea, Theo and I managed to fit in some riding, and we also did some geocaching.

Then in September, I went to the conference in Vienna, with a week or so in the U.K. before that to catch up with various friends: Kevin and Caryl, Steve, Jody and Gina, Nig, Ang, Alistair and Kieran, and Ant, Giskin, Zara and Neal. I also fitted in a couple of days at the "castle" in England (near Hereford on the Welsh border), which Liz was managing at the time. It is a very impressive building   used for weddings and conferences, etc. rather than as a "proper" hotel. Her involvement there ended towards the end of the year, and she is now back on the Isle of Man full-time. We had a great time in Vienna   it's a beautiful city, and managed to pack quite a bit into a few days, including various castles and churches, a boat trip on the Danube, a couple of concerts, and some very good food! The photo here is of the Schönbrunn palace — we had walked up the hill from where this was taken after looking around the interior of the palace.

The end of the year in the Department marked Pat Terry's official retirement. It was weird dealing with that — if you had told me in my first-year that one day I would be a professor in the Department and responsible for saying farewell to "Professor Terry", I would have told you you were crazy! Pat's not retiring completely — we're keeping him on to do his third year compiler course, and the University is also keeping him around to help with some of the timetabling and administrative work that he is so good at.

The end of the year also brought the good news that I had received an NRF (National Research Foundation) "rating" — essentially a national recognition of my research track record. That's a very pleasing career development, so I was rather chuffed when the good news came through.

Liz managed to come out to Grahamstown for Christmas again this year — we've been blessed to have her here for two years in a row. Our parents had visited her in July/August, and then I saw her in September, so we've had a relatively good year of family contact. She was pleased to escape the cold and snow in the U.K. over Christmas, but a little miffed that her three weeks here were very wet — she counted only three days of sunshine. As the Eastern Cape is in the midst of severe drought we weren't complaining about the wet Christmas.

She left on 5 January, and I joined her on the flight up to Jo'burg to spend some time with Theo, Brenda and Caleb. That's almost over as I have to be back in G'town on Monday for a meeting, so fly back tomorrow afternoon.

The year ahead is starting off busy. We're starting the year with a vacant post, due to a colleague emigrating to Australia. I am due to step down from my role as Head of Department when my current term comes to an end in the middle of this year. My attempts at at succession planning keep being frustrated, there may be some light at the end of that tunnel — I certainly hope so: after eight years, I am more than ready to hand over the reins to someone else!