Pre-Blogger News

2002

23rd Oct : I haven't been keeping my blog up to date. Maybe it's because I don't have many happy things to write about. Oh well, I've tried to fill in a few gaps ...

19th Oct : Oh, big responsibility time. I'm looking after my cousin's son whilst he's on his half-term break. Heh heh, any tips anyone ? A big benefit is that since I'm going to be cooking virtually every day, I'll get to eat properly ! No junk food! I wonder how long this will last ?
    
15 Oct : I went for an interview yesterday for a job. And I'm quite optimistic about them offering me the position. Fingers crossed. Oh please ...... !

11th Oct : It's been quite a few months now since I was last working. Looking for work is a mundane task but it does have its benefits. I've managed to touch base with lots of old working colleagues from the past. So thanks to Ram, Rob Franks, Johnny Mercer, Dave Ashdown, Dudley, Johnny Lau, Paul Slater, Geoff Hill, Siva, Mushtaque for all your understanding.
 
10th Oct : Had the pleasure of working on Richard's website for his Showcase Sports Cars business. It was just a bit of Photoshop work & a bit of re-arranging here and there. All good experience though.

25th Sept : Driver... 260 miles & four hours of driving in one night: Camberley --> Brighton --> Richmond --> Docklands --> Camberley. The things you do for a friend!

17th Sept : I've been looking after two of my cousins, Selina & Jane, from Canada and they've been having a whale of a time winding me up! Their quote: "We have a day & a half to retaliate... look out ... or maybe we should be little angels and leave J wondering when we'll retaliate... heh heh.". In revenge, I should really post the photo of Jane with the devil's horns. Maybe I will one day! ***Jane gets worried***

13th Sept : Tonight's Friday badminton session at a new club was hard work - a bit like playing against some of the top guys in my usual Tuesday sessions. Friday's lot were of a very good standard - even had difficulties keeping up with the ladies. I did feel a bit young though - everybody else was 40+.

5th Sept : A good weekend in Manchester & Leeds for Julie & Simon's wedding celebrations.

20th August : Back from a stag weekend in Amsterdam. 

12th August : A couple of trips to the airport this morning to pick up three HK relatives and two cousins from Canada. It's going to be a busy house!

7th August : The recent rise in my enthusiasm for home DIY shows no sign of slowing down. The spare bedroom has been stripped of its wallpaper and the ceiling & walls have been painted. Now for the laminate flooring.

5th August : Just got back from a trip to Manchester to watch the rugby sevens tournament which was part of the Commonwealth Games.

27th July : The recent rise in my enthusiasm for home DIY shows no sign of slowing down. The spare bedroom has been stripped of its wallpaper and the ceiling & walls have been painted. Now for the laminate flooring.

10th July : Word is out that Julie & Simon have got their website up and running. 

9th July : For the first time in well over a year, I finally forced a paint brush into my hand to do a bit of decorating. The stairwell was in need of a paint job as the remains of a tester pot were still there from 19 months ago. I'm pleased with the results.

22nd June : Chinesewhispers.net is no more. The name now belongs to somebody else. Read how it was lost. I'm not very happy about it. Nothing I can do apart from dream up a new name for the site. For those who want to know my new email address please place a private comment on the comments page.

12th May : I've now added my CV for any prospective employers out there who would like to hire an acoustics engineer!

10th May : As some of you may know, I've had a few problems with my chinesewhispers.net domain name which have resulted in this site not being available. The problems will take about 2 weeks to resolve so please do not email me at chinesewhispers.net just yet.

11th Apr : Back from a great trip to Hong Kong.

18th Mar : I twisted my ankle yesterday at squash and can't walk on it at all today. Difficult to get up & down the stairs. Looks like I'm stranded upstairs and can't get down to the kitchen - I'll starve!

28th/1st Mar : It's my birthday today. Two days ? Well, there wasn't a 29th this year so I'm undecided. I'm proud to be the best uncle in the whole wide world.

19th Feb : Joshua's 4th birthday and I had the pleasure of attending his party! See him on his new skates.

16th Feb : A visit to Brighton to photograph a duck.

12th Feb : Chinese New Year today. Year of the Horse. Celebrated a couple of days ago at Geoff & Amy's dinner party.

6th Feb : Strange but true. A visit to Manchester to install a couple of items for Angela's PC and it's gone smoothly with no problems - amazing!

14th Jan : The next trip is already planned to Hong Kong!

5th Jan : Tadaima! - which means "I'm back". Yes, the trip to Japan was a great one and the photos will be up on the site soon (I hope).

2001

7th Dec : My new digital camera arrived this morning. Now we look forward to even better pictures in the future!

2nd Dec : Would you believe it, after my first trip to a swimming pool in years I find that I get arm ache!

29th Oct : Next on the travel trail will be a return trip to Japan (and possibly HK).

10th Oct : Got back from another holiday, this time a week in Naples & Sicily.

4th Sep : Just had it confirmed today that I'm 'at risk' and likely to be made redundant by the end of Jan next year.

30th Aug : Just when we thought it was all safe, Ericsson decides to carry out a major restructuring exercise and phase out handset product development at my Basingstoke site. So what does this mean ? Well, big chances are that I'll be out of a job. People here will transfer to producing 'reference designs' - basically handsets without the mechanics surrounding it, in other words, just the PCB and electronic design. I can't see the need for more than one acoustic engineer for this type of work and so the remaining two are likely to be surplus to requirements. We'll get to know our fates by the end of next week. Up to 60 people will lose their jobs here.

The only bit of good news is that I'm optimistic that the current team working on our new phone (due to be announced to the public next week) will be kept on to finish the project and see it through to production. We could be paid a bonus of up to 5 months pay if we hit certain targets. This would be in addition to the fairly generous redundancy package plus a retention fee. As I'm responsible for the acoustics of this phone I think I have a good chance of being asked to stay to finish the project which could be up to Christmas. However, as for staying for the long term, the other engineers must have a better chance than I (they have electronics experience whereas I do not). Whether I stay or not, I'll stop working with some nice & friendly colleagues. Let's see what happens next week.

30th June : Whoopee, just been promoted to Principal Engineer at work.

1st June : Was told this week that Basingstoke would be part of the new Sony Ericsson venture. Our jobs are safe!

16th May : Super fast cable modem installed - whoosh!

27th Apr : Successful in getting the Capital FM Party in the Park Tickets.

24th Apr : Ericsson to integrate mobile handset division with Sony. No details on whether Basingstoke will be part of the new joint venture.

21st Apr : Congrats to Andrea & Mapy. Delightful Italian wedding. Photos to follow soon (still got to publish the NY ones).

20th Apr : 2000 jobs are to go in the Ericsson mobile phone division where we have been losing money for the past year. HQ will announce details over the next couple of months. It might even mean that Basingstoke is shut down altogether.

16th Apr : Angela - never ask me to upgrade your IE5 again !

28th Mar : I lose again at squash 1-3. David gets his revenge. Went down fighting though.

27th Mar : More bad news for UK Ericsson employees as the big chiefs announce that the UK manufacturing plant is to close in Sept '01. R&D unaffected (for the moment!).

22nd Mar : Squash match - well beaten 3-0 by the newcomer to the Ericsson squash league. Well done Giles.

17th Mar : Nephew Josh goes for his first swimming lesson.

17th Feb : Just got back from a short break to New York where I stood 'on top of the world'. Photos to follow soon.

4th Feb : What a week at Ericsson! We were all told of our fates. I was safe & one of the 'lucky' ones - I would be staying.

26th Jan : Ericsson announce that their mobile phone division were making huge losses and that handset manufacture would be outsourced to a third party. Staff at Basingstoke would be cut by 25%. The project which I had been working on for the past 18 months is to be cancelled. An uncertain future beckons.