esch

the sadness was the death (last year) of my friend nigel, whom I knew from college days. he was a brilliant painter, but never really found success (mostly because he couldn’t bear to part with his paintings, despite some impressive offers). he is survived by his partially disabled wife, jan.

i found myself contracting for an american–owned romanian company, but that got scotched. the americans campaigned for employee loyalty, then closed various offices, including the romanian office, sacking many people. they clearly have an … erm … ‘unusual’ … understanding of loyalty.

anyway, word of mouth got me a new contract with another romanian company, starting soon. i’ll visit bucharest again.

not much poetry this year. not much arts this year, actually. spent too much time on video games, got fed up with their world–building internal inconsistencies, so have now put the x–box away.

did a trip to the uk, caught up with the new wee ones, got some great family photos.

still building ssc.