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!