Variable Pig The Aksai Black Pied Issue The “Somewhere on the Road to Eternity” issue, featuring the 166th issue of “Polar Pig”, “The Universe Is A Pink Blancmange Called Simon” 84 and on-the-shelf vol. XVI, issue 35. Variable Pig – (Askai Black Pied) 3 VARIABLE PIG (AKSAI BLACK PIED) POLAR PIG 166 Greetings and welcome to another issue of Variable Pig. We’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks, so we haven’t been able to turn this issue around quite as quickly as others recently, but we should make the intended 5 week goal. I hope that all our English readers survived the “Beast from the East”. We’ve had a couple of middling snow showers last week (4 – 6 inches), although the expected ‘snowmageddon’ passed North of the Valley, but the snow really hasn’t lasted. Since January, it’s been quite a mild (and damp) winter here. January 4th marked the 30th year since I started working professionally. I’m happy to say that Evonik did recognize the occasion, but it’s amazing to think of how things have changed since I started in Clayton (Manchester) all those years ago. I was fresh from University, engaged, enthusiastic and naïve. Since that time, I’ve moved from a R&D role to a Technical Support role, married, had 2 wonderful children, lived in four different countries and traveled the World. However, it’s also sobering to realize that the clock is definitely ticking a countdown on this, although I have no plans to retire right now. Jacqueline had her long-awaited eye follow up in January, but sadly the outcome was not a success. The operation to reattach the retina was successful, but unfortunately the connection to the optic nerve did not take. The bad news was confirmed when Jacqueline went to the Optician for a sight check. She does have some peripheral vision, which is good as it helps her when driving, but no focus. It is very disappointing, especially as we still don’t know the cause of the detachment in the first place, but Jacqueline has learned to adapt and has largely resumed her regular activities. February’s main event was a short trip to England and Holland. I only planned a short trip as I expected the weather to be lousy, but of course we had great weather. Jacqueline and I took a red eye on the Thursday and stayed at an airport hotel near Heathrow before starting our whirlwind trip. I have found that this schedule actually works better for me in limiting jet lag when I get to England. The next morning we drove to Andover for lunch with Jacqueline’s sister Wendy and her husband Ian plus our niece and her two daughters. We met at a lovely pub in Andover center that served Wadsworths! The food was good too. After a nice lunch, we went to have tea with Julie and Thelma from the Andover Hosteling group. Both ladies are now in their 80s and can’t walk so far now, but they were very active members of the group when Jacqueline first joined The last time Jacqueline saw Julie, she was taken away by ambulance at the start of her gall bladder problems. Fortunately, there was no repeat and we had a lovely time catching up with old friends over a traditional English afternoon tea. We then made the short trip to see Mark and Nebby. Jacqueline hadn’t seen Nebby for over two years and they had a great time catching up. It was good to back together again with everyone healthy. After a long day catching up, we headed for Stockbridge where we stayed overnight at the Three Cups Inn. It’s a very nice old Pub with low ceilings and uneven floors. It’s also where Jacqueline’s parents had stayed early in their marriage, as Jacqueline’s father had been evacuated there during the war, so it has a special place in her family history. I had stayed there before, but Jacqueline had not. The next morning we caught up with others from the Andover Hosteling Group for a walk along the water meadows beside the River Test, outside of Stockbridge. We had great weather for the walk, cool but bright and sunny. The original plan was a circular 8 mile walk, but we were not fast enough to complete this in time for lunch, so we shortened the route to a 6 mile round trip, but it was still a lot of fun. More members of the group joined us for lunch at another local pub. Variable Pig – (Askai Black Pied) 4 The reason for the rush, was our next stop was the Aldershot – Macclesfield game at the Recreation Ground, about an hour away. We arrived only a couple of minutes late but the large queues and problems paying for tickets with a credit card, meant that we missed the key moment in the match when Aldershot gave away a penalty and had their center back sent off after only three minutes. Having seen the incident from three different camera angles (club video, National League video and Kappadeano video), I think that it was a very harsh decision – probably a penalty but not a red card. Despite being a man down and conceding a sloppy goal at the beginning of the second half (just after missing a great chance t equalize), the Shots played really well and were a little unlucky to lose 2 – 1. It was the only blemish on a great week and it wonderful to be back at a loud, packed and passionate Recreation Ground. Macclesfield are looking good for the National League title but the Shots are still in the mix for the playoffs. After the game, we drove up to Dovercourt to see my Mum and Dad. After a couple of beers with Mum and Dad, we decamped to the Bottle Kiln, a new Wetherspoons Hotel in Dovercourt for the night. Next day we spent with Mum and Dad and enjoyed a nice walk along the Dovercourt beach. Mum also cooked a very tasty Kedgeree for lunch, something I haven’t had for years. It was the most relaxing day of our trip. We left in the evening to stay at an airport hotel near Stansted ahead of an early morning flight to Amsterdam. The main reason for our trip was that I wanted to visit Utrecht. Evonik announced last year that they would be closing the Utrecht lab this year, where I had worked for 8 years. Some of my former colleagues will relocate to other labs, but others will move on to new jobs and I wanted to say goodbye before people started to leave. It was the first time we had been back to Holland for some time and we definitely felt nostalgic riding the train from Schiphol to Utrecht and walking through the town to our hotel. Jacqueline spent the afternoon catching up with some of her friends from Utrecht and De Meern, while I made my way to the labs. It was great to see everyone again, particularly Wim who now works for another company and Bert who came up from Belgium. We enjoyed lunch at the Pancake house in the Vondelpark before returning to the lab for some pictures, I’m really glad I went, although it was a bitter sweet occasion and hard to see the lab shutting down having been such a vibrant place while I worked there. My colleague dropped me back at the station at the end of the work day, and I wandered back to the hotel enjoying the familiar sites of Utrecht: it really is a beautiful city. Jacqueline and I relaxed for a little before heading to one of our old haunts, Oudaens, for a beer and meeting with Grant and Ally, some more old friend who took us to a really neat warehouse restaurant on the Oudegracht for dinner. The last leg of our trip took us to Bristol via a direct Easyjet flight from Amsterdam, a city that I really don’t know. The reason – our first Magnum concert since October 1993. I first got into Magnum as a first year at Warwick and saw them a number of times as a student and also introduced them to Jacqueline while we courting. Their albums “On a Storytellers Night”, “Chase the Dragon” and “Marauder” are definitely part of the tracks of my youth and I still enjoy listening to them, They broke up in the late 90s but reformed in the early 2000s and have continued to record new music and play live. Their new album “Lost on the Road to Eternity” weas released this year, and careful planning meant that we could catch the opening night of their tour in Bristol. Of course, we were also able to catch up with more friends. One of Jacqueline’s bridemaids, Lisa, lives near Bristol and she was also a Magnum fan, so we arranged to meet up for the concert. We hadn’t seen her since Jacqueline’s 40th birthday party and we spent a very nice afternoon walking around a park and catching up. After a nice dinner, we walked to the Bristol Trinity center for the concert, where we met up with Mike (my best man), Carolyn, Stuart and Chris in the queue. Variable Pig – (Askai Black Pied) 5 The concert itself was great. We managed to worm our way to near the front and stayed there for almost the entire show.