Happy Anniversary..to me!

Apologies to all my loyal readers (if I have any) for the extended absence from the blog. I had some hellish work commitments (which I will explain in a later blog) which procluded me from doing any entries.

Tomorrow (4 September) is a very important day for me. It has been a decade since I left the U.S. for England. Looking back, alot has happened both to me personally, and in the world during that time. When I left the U.S., I was still married to my first wife (although the divorce papers were in our solicitors hands), I had a 29 inch waist, and the internet revolution had yet to really begin. Now I'm happily married to wife number two, my waist is now 35 inches. and I can tell you all this over the internet, with relative confidence that you can read it.

All this makes me feel incredibly old. I had the opportunity in the past few months to go back to the states for some training (hellish work commitment) to a place where I had, years ago, been faculty, training people on a very complex relational database. A few of my fellow teachers were still there, but the place has changed dramatically. The class I was in was a week-long, updated version of a class I had taken as a one-day course back in 1997. One of the instructors during the new course, trying to ascertain the experience level of the class, asked how many of the 40 or so pupils had been in the business at least a year. Around three-quarters of the class raised their hands. then he asked how many had been doing it for five years, and got about half the class raising their hands; then ten years, and got about eight hands. Finally he asked how many had been doing it for 15 years, and there were only three hands raised, mine among them. It struck me hard to realize in so graphic a fashion, that I have been working in this business for close to twenty years. The class (and the whole building in fact) had been overun with kids. Now I don't mean that to sound critical, they were actually quite nice, well educated, but extremely young. It made me realize how old I've gotten.

To end on a more positive note, tomorrow is the end-of-season party at the caravan site where the wife and I spend most of our weekends during the summer. Lots of barbecued food, beer, wine, and spirits, both good and alcoholic. I'm looking forward to it.

The Tea-Jerk