I'm a little late with my Christmas letter this year, but so what else is new?  Well, I've had a fairly successful year. I had one of my most successful year with Toastmasters, winning a few of the competitions at club level and went onto 2 more levels above it.  My home network is approaching industrial strength, next thing I need is to sign service level agreements with my family!  My home theatre is going strong, my video library expanding as rapidly as the studios can produce the DVDs.  I started a new job at the beginning of the year, and wanted to quit the first day at work (say "awwww..."). I also haven't got around to setting up a web cam. 🙂
 
I'm a technical consultant/project manager/dogs body (depends on what my boss wants me to be at the time) at this US-based pharmaceutical software company. It was called Domain Pharma when I joined, changed its name to Clinsoft in April to reflect a new identity, and was overtaken by another company in August and we're now called PhaseForward.  It's a very disorganised place - the Australian office that is, with a grand staff of 4.  I am the most organised one there by comparison (after our office administrator). My boss likes to leave everything to last minute and then panics.  You can imagine how well that goes down with me.

On the more interesting side, I got my share of travelling in one year!  I went to Melbourne twice (once was just for the day), I went to Kuala Lumpur twice for 3 days each trip, I went to Boston for a week.  Boston I went kicking and screaming because my boss was adamant that I must be there at a particular week, while I was not convinced of the urgency.  In the end, I went on the week he specified, but confirmed that I was right - I could have arrived the week after and achieve the same objectives. Nevertheless, I really love Boston.  I guess partly because it's my first visit to a city that is actually older than Sydney!  Showing my ignorance of American history, I've always thought the American Revolution started and fought in Philadelphia.  It wasn't until I was on a day tour and the tour guide started using words like 'battles' and 'British' that I found out that the first shot was fired in Lexington, where I was to attend my meetings!  Needless to say, I ended up with a lot of souvenirs, mainly history books on Boston and Lexington.  The people in our Lexington office were all very nice and friendly, and I really enjoyed my time there (even though I got sick while I was there).

My visit to Kuala Lumpur was just as interesting.  We were in this part of town that very much reminded me of Singapore in the early '70s.  The food was excellent.  I'm most pleased to, in addition to making new friends, catch up with my cousin and a University friend.  I last saw my cousin a few years ago when he visited Sydney.  He showed me some of the good places for food (it was a very short trip!).  I caught up with my University friend whom I haven't seen in 15 years a few hours before I boarded the plane to come back to Sydney!  We had McDonald's and cappuccinos. Talk about going from one extreme to another (food, that is), but you know, eating McDonald's and talking about old university days brings back some very fond memories of being a poor student.  We may have only had 2 hours to catch up, but it was certainly a highlight of that trip.  It is always very good to catch up with family and friends.  How did work go? Um...Don't remember.  I was concentrating on the morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. 🙂

However, all this pales into insignificance by the events on THAT tragic day, September 11.  I missed it when Neal Armstrong landed on the moon.  I missed it when John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Marilyn Monroe died.  I remember being in the car when I heard the news on the fall of Saigon.  When I heard the news on the deaths of Elvis, John Lennon, Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee (Bruce's son), some I remember where I was and what I was doing, some I don't.  But I WILL remember September 11 for the rest of my life.  Those images are regularly played back in my mind, and every time I think of it, I am still shocked, outraged and in disbelief.  I felt like grabbing the terrorists and screaming into his face: "Are you out of your mind???!!!"  There are wars going around the world all the time and I've never worried about the survival of the free world all this time.  I was scared for the first time as I saw America being attacked on CNN. 

But all that followed, the stories that came out about the courage and generosity of the people of New York City (and a seeing-eye dog leading her master out of one of the World Trade Centre buildings to safety), the resolve and will of a nation determined not to be intimidated, the invoking of the various defence treaties by the allies, gives me hope that the free world is not about to go up in smoke just yet.  Sorry if this sounds overly simplistic, but I've always been a sucker for "all for one and one for all" and "good wins over evil".  Always have been, always will be.

I normally have a "music intro" at the beginning of my letter so that you can have it playing in your mind while reading the letter.  This year, I'm leaving it till the end:

Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on Earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father, brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.

And if you are not religious or don't know this Christmas hymn, try this one:

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

And if you don't know that one either:

Season's greetings.

Your friend,
Bevan