Before that, I spent almost 2 weeks following the Paralympics, and 2 weeks before that, following the Olympics - the best ever too! (sorry, had to rub it in for the non-Sydneysiders) YES, I have been busy! And what did I do for work? ZILCH!

Work wise, nothing really is happening, except for the constant 'thump' 'thump' noise I heard, which upon investigation was the sound my head was making against the brick wall. Having bosses who won't stand up and fight for you is really not very motivating. I would have been happy practising semi-retirement: getting paid and not do work (if I could work from home it would have been full retirement!), but the company went through a re-organisation and they wanted to move me into the city to sit even closer to my boss (the one who wouldn't fight for me) and do 'real' work, which if you can just picture: Bevan being very angry and swearing at the enemy and suddenly, he choked and coughed volumes of blood, clutched his chest and collapsed. Nobody came to the rescue except one lone dog who came and sniffed sniffed, then ran away (it could have been worse). Not a pretty picture. So I quit about 3 weeks ago, going to another company. I won't talk too much about the new company just in case I get kicked out of there...if I'm still there next Christmas, you'll hear about it in next year's letter - hopefully not late.

My computer network is now running Windows 2000 Server and Windows Me clients. For those who know me from way back, yes, I had to drop OS/2 because of Y2K, because IBM didn't do a good job supporting their own product!!

I am now using broadband cable modem at home. If you haven't got one, please take my advice and install one! You wouldn't want to go back to dial-up 56K modems anymore! You can now send me big files and it won't bother me at all! In fact, I can even afford to send even bigger files back to you!

With my broadband connection comes my own web page. This letter is on that web page. To visit, please go to http://members.optushome.com.au/bevan and feel free to sign the guest book.

I was hoping to have a multimedia Christmas letter this year, at least with latest photos and music that sort of thing. But I have to admit I was spending more time watching DVD movies instead of playing around with the digital camera. Anyway, in case any of you have a digital camera attached to your computer, my computer can do both audio and video conversation. I bought the camera when I was in Hong Kong back in March, I'm dying to find someone with a similar set up to try it out with. So, if you have either Net Meeting, Microsoft Messenger, ICQ, or AOL Instant Messenger, just email me and let's give this a try. In any case, hopefully next year I'll create a newsletter with music and photos etc.

On a sad note, my friend Tom Provost passed away in August. He was one of my few true friends. I didn't have that many friends when I worked at IBM, especially in high places. But Tom was one of them. He was a real character. I wish all of you could have met him. With the Olympics and the US election, I would have had endless conversations with him about these two events - he was very fond of Sydney hosting the Games and he was a Republican. I miss him.

On that note, a Christmas toast, though it is not very original, as I took it off the TV series "The West Wing": "To absent friends, and those who are present"

Merry Christmas and a Happy 21st Century!

Your friend,
Bevan