Happy New Year's

I stayed in Oxford until January 4.

 Anne and Del went out to a house party NYE and I "babysitted" Lachlan. Del made a lovely ham for New Years Eve supper. 

Lachlan and Del building gingerbread houses.

Anne and I went to the Randolph Hotel for high tea on January 2 (Christmas present to me from the Fairhearts). It was really good, two different kinds of scones!! After that we met Lachlan at the theatre to see the pantomime Sleeping Beauty. It was also really good, lots of booing the bad guy and cheering the good guys and singing along to eighties songs. Lachlan was a little worried because at the interval the princess got put into a thousand year sleep, but Anne was able to reassure him it would all turn out ok in the end, and it did.

I stayed for four days in London, well really 3 days and 4 nights. The hotel I stayed at included breakfast with the rate, so that was a bonus, it also had a kitchenette and was next to a Tesco, so that made eating very easy. 

I saw 2 plays while I was there. Witness for the Prosecution, by Agatha Christie and Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. Both really good.

Set for Witness for the Prosecution 

Set for Ballet Shoes.

My flight left on January 8, I stayed over in Calgary and caught the Red Arrow to Red Deer the next day. Theresa and Geoff picked me up after Geoff's cataract surgery in Wetaskiwin. It feels really good to be back home.

2024 Year in review - Sam

 January

• Went to Mexico for a week and stayed at the adults-only Iberostar Grand Pariaso near Playa Del Carmen. Highly recommended. Jude watched the house while we were away. Hired private tour guide for Chichen Itza and Ek Balam. Went to Xel Ha ecopark.
  
  
  
• Started new job in finance process improvement - result of corporate reorg the prior year - not my choice and boring but a lot less hours than previous job

February

• Incredibly warm winter, so I figured it was a good time to get some clearance winter gear. I got two new winter coats and some boots for great deals!
• Went to an organ performance of "The Planets" by Holst. I learned the music to the hymn "I Vow to Thee My Country" a favourite of Prince Philip's, is actually Holst's Jupiter. Sounds great on the organ!
• Finished paint by numbers project.
  
  
  
  
  

March

• Beethoven's 7th at the Winspear
• New thermostat that can be controlled remotely. It produces lots of data and I'm liking that.
• Our only cross-country ski of the season since there was so little snow for most of it (Strathcona Wilderness Centre east of Sherwood Park)
• Took Tim and Grady to Oilers vs. Colorado (Christmas present). It was a good game but the Oilers lost 3-2 in OT right at the end. 
• Gum graft, always a pleasure

April

• Three Musketeers at the Citadel (won tickets from work - we are the season sponsor)

May

• Laura's service in Wetaskawin.
• Despite the warm winter, spring was cold. Started garden about two weeks later than 2023. We put in new garden boxes in fall 2023 so had more room. I grew tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce and beans in pots and more tomatoes, broccoli and lettuce in the garden. Overall strong year for vegetable production

• Crashed my bike and snapped my derallieur hanger, right before my bike trip but got it fixed in time

That's not supposed to look like that

• Went on a bike trip with about 30 other people and rode from Jasper to Nordegg over 2.5 days over May Long. Great trip even though it was quite cold and I only knew one guy on the trip. The hostel we stayed at the first night burned down in the summer fires.

• Nancy and I went to Canmore and biked from Canmore to Johnston Canyon in Banff and back. Nancy did great - over 100 km in a single day. - downhill on the way back though!

• Took Mom, Dad and Jude to a Beatles show at the Winspear (Christmas present)

June

• Went to Riverhawks (baseball) game for the first time as we bought a 10-pack of tickets.
• Bike frame cracked due to design flaw. Got a brand new (upgraded) frame courtesy of Cannondale.

That crack shouldn't be there

• Went to horseracing. Great time, great weather. I won my trifecta box! And only lost $25 on the day
• I watched practically every Oilers playoff game and they lost in game 7 of the final vs. Florida.

July

• Trying various new bike saddles
• K-Days, went on some rides for the first time in a few years (well-armed with anti-naseau meds). Saw Metric and Down With Webster, both better than expected and great shows.
• New Pixel 7a phone due to charging issues with old one that the repair shop couldn't figure out

August

• Bike out of service most of month, waiting for parts, specifically front chainrings, which were slipping so much the bike was basically unusable

Chain shouldn't look like that

• Then I ran over a nail and put a hole in my rim.

That hole shouldn't be there

• Went to Heritage Days, which was at Borden Park due to construction at Hawrelak
• Camping - Kananaskis - completed Tent Ridge (highly recommended), Windtower, Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling hikes. A bit cool and we had to pack up wet again.

      Tent Ridge

• Metallica was doing a pair of shows at Commonwealth and I went to both of them. They were great.

• Went to P!ink at Commonwealth with Nancy - last minute floor tickets were released so I beat the scalpers. Also great.

• Second "annual" family lunch over Folk Fest weekend. Was great to see everyone.
• Trip on the Edmonton riverboat.

• 2x Symphony Under the Sky concerts.

September

• In 2023 we had to take down some dying poplars in the back yard. With Grace and Dallyn's Christmas present (gift card to Sunstar Nurseries) we bought two new columnar spruce trees to replace them. They seem to be doing well so far.

• Dug up a good portion of the front lawn, got rid of the grass, put in garden wall border. It was mostly weeds and Nancy was cranky about mowing it. This was a lot more work than it looks like.

• First full year of solar production from roof finished. It's going better than expected.

October

• Went to Rocky for Thanksgiving. Dad drove me to Nordegg and I biked home. Very pleased with the effort. It was just over 3 hours of actual time and under 3 hours of moving time, average speed of 31 km/h for 90 km. 

• Company announces voluntary departure program. 
• Went to Oilers game vs. Pittsburgh - 4 - 0 Oilers. Wanted to see Crosby but he didn't play well.
• Planted some lilies, a lily tree and some other stuff in the front yard. It was quite late so we'll see what grows. I also added a bunch more lily bulbs to the front and planted some hostas Mom gave me at the east side of the house.
• Drove out one night to see some great aurora activity. 

November

• Grace hosted the first chocolate-making day in over a decade. We should do it again. I made sponge toffee, peppermint (a genuine old family recipe) and strawberry (same as peppermint with different flavouring).
• Put in some more metal garden beds, so now we have four total for 2025.
• Weather still warm into November, did a ride mid-month and closed out the year with 2,655 km. This was my most since I got my bike in 2020 despite losing most of August to smoke and repairs.

• Took Nancy to a "women of soul" concert at the Winspear. She didn't fall asleep and in fact sang along at times.
• 165 people took the voluntary package. They were aiming for 130.
• Expanded Christmas light display - lights on three trees plus the ones along the house, and added lights along the entire fenceline. This took all day to put up. Fell off the ladder while putting them up and dented my phone (which is still working OK)

December

• Death of Betty-Anne.
• Grace gave me the PS2 and I got Dance Dance Revolution set up in the basement after buying a TV off Marketplace. Working well!
• Two packages stolen off front step. Real downer.
• Oilers game with work - took my buddy Jeff as we had planned to go anyway and there was room in the box.
• Put up our own Christmas tree for the first time (real tree). It's still up as of this writing (Jan 5) and still looking good.

• Hockey game with Tim and friends for Tim's birthday
• Home for Christmas, quiet but good. Stayed for five days. Had drinks with the boys a couple nights which was good. Sold some more wagyu for Devon.
• Corporate reorg complete; started new job, which is a lot like my old job from 2023 with new boss. Kind of wishing I had took the package but we'll see how it goes.

New board games this year: Dune Uprising; Suburbia; Race for the Galaxy; Air, Land & Sea expansion; Dominion. The most-played game was probably Everdell.

Christmas in Oxford

I got to the Fairhearts on the 20th of December. The trip on the the train and bus were uneventful. Del and Lachlan met me at the Park and Ride.

The house was in a bit of an upheaval as Del is putting up new cabinets in the kitchen, and all the stuff from the old cabinets had to be moved out from the kitchen. The cabinets look lovely and Anne will be happy once they are all done. Next project is new flooring for the living room in February.

We did some Christmas shopping on the 21, for the Saturday before Christmas the shops were busy but more crazy busy.

Christmas Eve we went to Ade and Beata's for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Lots of dumplings and fish. Very tasty. Christmas Day was the usual opening stockings and then presents. Del made a chicken with all the sides and Anne made cabbage rolls. 

Anne and Del left on the 27th for Belfast and left Lachlan and I to our own devices. We had fun.

Monday Lachlan and went to town and the Story Museum, then to the Christmas Market for a ride on the Carousel.

On the carousel.

In the hundred acre wood.

The masked reader.

When we were walking back to catch the bus home we saw Ade, walking with some friends of his. I know two people in Oxford, what are odds I would see one of them in the street!!

Au revoir Paris

I am at the Gare du Nord, just waiting to board the train to London. It has been a good week here, but I am also excited to go and see the Fairhearts.

The visit to the Louvre was good, I decided to go on the late closing night and it wasn't really crowded. I did get to see the Mona Lisa, did not take a picture as I did not think I need a reminder of what she looks like. I enjoyed the other paintings and sculptures. It is a lot  of walking. One thing that surprised me was the .Starbucks in the middle of the museum. It sure seemed out of place. 

Police sightings were nicer a couple of cops on bikes and a couple on roller blades. Not sure how the roller blades could stay up withput tripping, the streets are cobblestones. 

The temperature was around 9 degrees all week, and the number of people all bundled up because of the cold made me laugh a bit. Lots of fur coats too.

Went to the Eiffel Tower, but did not go up it. There was also a Christmas Market there. 

I really liked the area I stayed in. Lots of restaurants, grocery stores and specialty ones like fishmongers, meat, cheese,l bakery etc. Lots of English speakers too working in the area. Easy access to the Metro.

Line ups this morning at the train station were really long. Lots of people traveling for Christmas. I did see Santa and he gave me a candy cane!!

Paris

My flight over was fine, I did not sleep much so have spent the last few days fighting jet lag. I don't bounce back like I used to.

The apartment I have is nice it's in the second arrondissement and quite close to the Louvre. I have not been there yet but have a ticket for Wednesday. Sunday and Saturday I spent in the area of the apartment. It is mostly a pedestrian area so fairly quiet but easy to walk around.

This afternoon I went to see the newly reopened Notre 

Dame Cathedral. It only reopened last week so I wasn't sure I would get in but the line moved quite quickly. It really is beautiful. 

The audio guides to rent from the cathedral were not ready yet, but I was able to download one from the internet to get a better sense of the history of the  cathedral. Love the internet.

One thing that kind of creeped me out though. I had just gotten off the train and walking to Notre Dame and I saw about 8 policemen walking towards me with machine guns in their arms. I would have taken a picture but fear that they wouldn't like it and might arrest me stopped me.

I also went to a Christmas Market. There was a guy selling roasted chestnuts, some nice looking cheese and lovely jewellery. Even Santa was there.

I find food is quite expensive. Some stuff looks like the same price as home but then I remember the Euro is twice as much as the Canadian dollar!!

I cancelled my trip to the Normandy beaches, with the Canadian dollar being so low it would have cost about 500.00 and I felt that was a little too much.

Layoff update

Overall, the company was aiming for 130 people to take voluntary buyout packages. Total actual subscription was 165 and about another ~20 laid off on top of that, so a reduction of close to ~190 people, around 40% of Canadian office staff. 

I didn't take the package and wasn't laid off. Some people were demoted, a few were relocated (to the branch office in Phoenix) and a few were promoted. As expected I was shuffled to a different job (lateral), as a manager again, with three people to do the work previously done by five. It will be messy but we should be able to pull it off, it will just be very time-intensive and we will have to cut a lot of things, which I expect lots of people won't like but otherwise it won't work. Morale is low for everyone left, which will be fun. 

In addition, the company did a lot of retitling of jobs. Most people ended up with worse titles, which is a big deal for a lot of people, especially in the corporate world when you are dealing with external counterparties (e.g. some people that were "directors" were retitled as "senior leads", which sounds a lot worse and doesn't map to other the titles of other companies in the industry). Titles are free so I'm not sure why they did this particular aspect. Basically everyone has a new job or a combined job with fewer people so it should be interesting for a year or so until things stabilize. My title actually improved and I didn't get demoted, so really I came out of it OK except for the upcoming chaos.

It's been a rough couple of months so I'm looking forward to Christmas. On that note we put up our own Christmas tree for the first time today. It's a real tree and, though it is dropping needles like crazy, makes the house smell great.

Layoffs

 We got notice last week that the company is planning on laying off 25% (~130 people) of its Canadian corporate workforce, with the expectation of either eliminating the roles or moving them to the US (where most our growth has been over the past few years). They offered everybody in Canada voluntary buyout packages - deadline to accept is this week. If they don't get enough takers, then in December they'll proceed with further layoffs. So it's a pretty broad brush, difficult to see exactly how things will operate afterwards.

I did some math over the weekend and think I'm better off taking the risk of the layoff and turning down the package (though it's pretty generous, as these things go). 

Nobody is "safe", but my guess is someone would step in and pull me out of the layoff list if it comes to that, though I would expect it's likely that I would be reassigned to a completely different job. There's always the risk that doesn't happen, though. I think afterwards it will be quite stressful, both coming to terms with  colleagues who left either voluntarily and involuntarily, and then trying to figure out how to make everything work after the fact with significantly less people. 

I've been through quite a few layoff rounds but it's been a while since the last big one, and this looks like the biggest one since maybe around 2013 or so. There's been hardly any work done over the last couple of weeks - this is all anyone is talking about.

I'm a bit cranky as the new CEO is spending money on unnecessary things that primarily benefit the executive, and has hired several friends as VPs, and I'm not sold on the strategic direction of the company, but I'll get over it. Should know more about how I'm impacted by early December.