Simon Butcher

For me, Christmas has nothing to do with religion: it's simply part of winding down at the end of a year with plenty of gratuitous holidays, and relaxing with friends and family. It's a time to start reflecting on the year, but I don't feel the whole event is overly important. Many people feel presents are obligated in this season, but I prefer not to give anything if I don't immediately think of something someone would like, or could use.

So far, all of my early presents have come from the office. These have included yummy chocolates, executive toys, clothing, and so forth. We've had some fantastic stuff float past our desks from some of our suppliers!

Last week, however, a crisis occured. For many months now, we've been trying to get our hands on a Google Mini, with a great deal of resistance from management. As part of a cruel joke and a Christmas present, one finally arrived last week at the same time as a care package from my parents arrived with lots of Australian goodies.

Two problems with the Google Mini is that it's sitting on the desk behind me, glaring at me, begging to be opened, but at the end of the year we have no time to play with our new toy, and unfortunately no rack space to install it: Evil present from our IT manager!

Another cruel present this Christmas courtesy of work was the announcement two weeks ago that Microsoft Dynamics Ax 4.0 (formerly Microsoft Axapta) is now available with Belgian localisations. This means, starting next year, my life will be hell migrating to a new ERP platform for the first few months. Great in the long run, but I'm not looking forward to the next quarter.

So, another busy year gone, and another busy year coming. Merry Christmas everyone!