Simon Butcher

Articles

  • So long, and thanks for all the fish

    The sun setting over the car park at work

    After a year (or two) of hand-over, training those around me in the department on everything under my remit, it's time for me to walk away from my job after seven years. It's been fun, and painful, and educational, and torturous. It may not be the wisest decision, or the best timing, but to maintain my own sanity it had to be done.

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  • La question à Dinner

    The ring (my kingdom for a macro lens!)

    A and I have been together for so many years now, the early years are starting to get all blurry. A while ago I had decided it was probably about time to formalise the arrangement with an engagement, as it would mean quite a lot to her. It's been on my mind for quite some time, but the day had to be special. It had to be a surprise. It also had to be relatively low-key, as we're both all about keeping it relaxed and simple.

    I've been seeking thoughts casually from friends as to whether or not it was really necessary — do a ring and a legal document really change anything? Or, as John puts it, “does the government really have to be involved?” Eventually I came to the conclusion that it would mean a lot to A, and the family on both sides, and ultimately it would mean quite a bit to me too. It’s a statement of commitment.

    So, I suppose you want the juicy details…

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  • The flood

    The lucky cars parked on “high ground”

    A few days ago I ordered some new Lafuma boots from Amazon. My old ones are possibly the most comfortable shoes I've had in years, and having worn them almost every day since I bought them in Chamonix (over three years ago) the outsoles are starting to break down.

    The new ones arrived today, and that was pretty lucky as today was the day for my old shoes to prove just how waterproof they are.

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  • The Move

    The view at the old place over Place Rouppe

    A and I decided to move in together a little over a month ago, and having found a place we have spent most of this month moving in. After a bit of convincing, A agreed to an apartment in the area of the Marolles (where I was living), and we found a huge ≅150m² loft-style apartment right on the edge of the district, purely by accident.

    Moving only a few blocks from my old apartment seems a bit odd, but I think I might miss my old ≅75m² place overlooking Place Rouppe… a bit…

    I've added a few photos here of my side of the move, as I haven't really got much to say at this point.

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  • Christmas is nearly over, finally

    Chocolates from PFSweb

    It's Christmas time again. It comes around every year, and for some reason this year I really couldn't care less. I don't think I'm becoming a scrooge, but rather I think it has something to do with the fact that Christmas started four months ago and I'm sick of hearing about it.

    But never fear: for in a few day's time Valentine's Day promotions will start, and before too long Easter will rear its ugly head — all obscenely ahead of schedule.

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  • A day in the life…

    ☃

    For the last two years, I have dedicated the arbitrary date of December 13th to recording a snapshot of my life. In what is quickly becoming an annual tradition after last year's repeat of much the same, I present to you this year's effort.

    To set the scene, you need to know that it's been unusually cold across Western Europe lately. Today was certainly no exception, and as the previous night was spent avoiding my company's Christmas Party in favour of another company's, you can understand that things were a little difficult…

    As with the last two years, all photos here have been taken hastily with my Nokia E70 and have not been modified.

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  • Rediscovering Photography

    Nikon D300 body

    I've spent a bit of money lately. Okay, I've spent a lot of money — more than I probably should have — on returning to an old hobby of mine.

    Photography was an old hobby of mine that faded away after I started working for Hitz FM and ultimately didn't have any money to continue. Over the last two years, I've been keen on getting back into it, and after Scott came over to Brussels for our road-trip around Europe with his Nikon D70 I've been itching to buy a digital SLR.

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  • The audits

    The environmental impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    My audits are in full swing at work this month, which is why I'm fairly quiet lately. Each year I get dragged into several audits because of my line of work, including an internal audit, an external audit, and a federal audit.

    Needless to say, it's a pain. More-so, it's a terrible detriment to the environment. The photo shown here is one security report from our system in a format that our external auditors prefer. Each year, a small tree gets printed, each page signed by management, and approved by the auditors, all in the name of Sarbanes-Oxley — Ha.

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  • Flying home

    Mountain view from Hong Kong airport

    I'm flying home today, surrendering the fantastically warm and sunny weather here in Melbourne and returning to the gloomy, miserable, cold weather in Brussels.

    This also means psyching myself up to return to the office: Urgh.

    Sadly I missed out on seeing a few of my friends, but maybe you lot can come over to Brussels at some stage!

    So long Melbourne; I'll be back!

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  • Christmas in Melbourne

    The City of Melbourne's Christmas tree

    For me, a real Christmas is one spent in nice warm weather in a relaxed atmosphere. The word cold should be applied only to the food and drink, and not the weather; Snow should never enter the equation, unless it's fake.

    In quite an atmospheric contrast to last year's Christmas in Bristol with friends, my Christmas this year has been spent baking in the Australian sun. Oddly, this year could have possibly been the most relaxing family Christmas on record, being a simple barbecue over at my sister's house.

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  • A day in the life…

    At the risk of seeming a bit like Seven Up!, I thought I'd have another crack at this day in the life stuff. After last year's effort, I was curious to see what had changed.

    Apparently, not much!

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  • The great alarm experiment

    Phone alarm

    I'm having a hell of a time trying to wake up on weekday mornings these days. Oversleeping has become so regular that my boss has even given up on joking about arriving an hour late in the morning.

    I rely heavily on my E70 to drag me out of bed in the morning because I have some particular requirements for my alarms. To this end, I decided to revive one of my old distractions and create some new alarms.

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  • Quietude

    Cows, as in “The Country”

    I’ve been trying to avoid using my holiday time from work so that I can use most of them for my eventual trip to the arse-end of the world at the end of this year, thus keeping as many holiday days for next year as possible. To this effect, I haven’t taken much in the way of time off this year at all.

    So hectic was last month, I didn’t really get much time for myself to decompress, and the national holiday of November 1st gave me the perfect excuse to was time to relinquish some holiday time to finally unwind a little.

    Fortunately Aline was kind enough to offer an escape by way of her family’s chalet in Chiny, so on Thursday morning we trundled down towards the French border with John for some well-earned time away from everything and anything for four days.

    …Or so we thought.

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  • Cycling

    Bicycle traffic light

    Lately I've been doing an awful lot of cycling. At least that is to say: an awful lot relative to the amount of cycling I've done over the past decade. While I'm not cycling as much as I should, I am managing to do at least a couple of bicycle commutes a week, which in itself is a fairly short ≈18km round-trip.

    To pick this new habit up properly, I read a lot of blogs, forums and other sites about commuting by bike in order to glean some tips and pointers. Unfortunately these sites only contained information from people who have been commuting to work for so many years they could do it in even the most bitter of weather conditions, half-asleep.

    While I'm not a psycho, I have already managed to clock-up over 500km of riding with the new bike. Because of this milestone, I thought I should share some of my experiences.

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  • Repudiation

    Dag tours

    Recently I mentioned that an Ex of mine was to arrive for a short visit. These plans didn't come together when I put my foot down last night, effectively cancelling them.

    Ordinarily I wouldn't air such things out here, but in this instance I felt I really needed to let it out into the open and allow the funk to dissipate.

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  • Death

    Spectre I drew/smudged for 5 minutes when playing with a graphics tablet

    Death seems to be a common theme lately. I seem to know or at least know of several people who are currently going through their grieving process right now, as if it's some sort of organised or seasonal event. Indeed, death has come to my family, with distant relative Geoff Echberg, who could be considered my Great Uncle, passing away last Saturday at the age of 92.

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  • Healthy life

    Cycle path markingThe one thing that occurs to me lately is that getting healthy can be very expensive. Oddly, I always knew that eating healthy was horribly expensive compared to buying junk food, but now I realise the cost of things to help you be healthy are equally expensive.

    I love my empty calories, and as my metabolism is slowing down like the rest of my family, I'm regaining the pot-belly I once grew while I baked myself in the sun at a resort in Pattaya back in 1992. Get me another watermelon juice, slave!

    It's time to put an end to all that, and get a bit of catabolism going, beyond just walking everywhere. I've been saying for months that I should start running, but I couldn't motivate myself. Cyclocity instead encouraged me to cycle, and unfortunately for them I wound up buying my own bike.

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  • Happy New Year!

    ¤
    Happy new year to all the bean-counters in countries and businesses that are presently closing their books from the last 12 months. Pity the accountants, and may their entries be doubled and their sheets balanced.

    More importantly though, pity us poor IT sods who still have to take a bunch of manual steps to prepare systems for the coming new financial year. Woe unto us.

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  • Coming to America

    McDowellsToday I'm flying off to Greenville, South Carolina, one of 31 Greenvilles in the USA (or 32, if you count Greeneville). I've been told by Mr. Brewer, who went not too long ago, that the southern hospitality is something to behold. Even after my last business trip to Miami, where I was told repeatedly that “this is not what America is like”, I think I need to brace myself for yet another culture shock.

    I'll be privileged enough to be stuck for several hours in cattle class on Delta to Atlanta, only to wait there for six hours waiting for my connecting flight. Maybe it's not so bad, since it doesn't beat my 8-½ hour stint in Dubai. Fortunately SITA have Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place there, and it'll take me at least an hour to get through customs.

    Whilst you all bestow me with sympathy comments (or not), I thought I'd share my thoughts (read: ramble) on some things that evoke a sense of culture shock for me.

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  • Five things: Epilogue

    So I've finally completed the five things you didn't know about me meme, and I've gone and twisted the rules of the game laid down by Jeff Pulver when he started the whole thing. The reason is simple: people I know are either blogless, or would ignore the request.

    If I read your blog, and you're feeling left out, then apparently I misjudged your character, at which point you may go ahead and consider yourself tagged.

    I was curious about the history of my tag, since there's a large element of social networking involved behind blog tagging.

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