Any Colour You Like

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/geoengineering-poll/
A very interesting topic that really seems to split people. What do you think?

There is only one curling rink in the UK outside of Scotland and it is in deepest darkest Kent. In fact it is owned by a Scottish ex-pat fanatic and he probably makes a mint out of having converted the barn on his farm into a sheet of ice – the England national team have to make the 2hr treck down there from London all the time.

So in a curious mix of activities, we combined halloween dress up with learning the nobel sport of curling. There was much falling over and laughter. A lot of bad stones and mess ups. But actually the conclusion was that it is a rather good sport after all if you have a spare ten years to practice Bloody frustrating though…

I am feeling very guilty about the massive neglect of this blog. I am now into month three of my new work and the responsibilities are piling up. I am sometimes out of my depth and it is not always easy to know who to ask because most of the more experienced designers are over in Denmark but I am getting there and learning loads every day.

In fact I am over in sunny Lem DK just now meeting some more of my team and getting involved in production support so that I stay in touch with the ‘real world’ when I am back on the island. Ringkøbing where we stay looks and feels just like Gamla Väster in Malmö and has lovely cobbled streets (3 of them!) and a beautiful harbour. Evenings are spent keeping the company credit card toasty warm in one of the four restaurants that ‘Vestas Folk’ like to frequent. My favourite is without a doubt the micro-brewery which serves a British Ale with a very Danish ‘toasted’ undertone. The best bit is that each dinner is with a different group of employees that could be from anywhere in the world so there is a lot of possabilities for networking and getting jealous of peoples business travel stories! Vestas Blades China gave me a present of tea that I was told was strictly for girls only and is apparently very good for the complexion. I am supposedly supposed to give it to Elley without trying it my self but what if my complexion needs a bit of spruicing up??

But generally people are a little glum around all of the offices. Vestas announced on Tuesday the closure of four factories and the loss of 3000 jobs. This may seem strange since we are highly profitable and likely to do reasonably well this year and very well next year. Wind energy is seeing huge huge global growth and we are the best situated to profit from it. But basically the problem is that we need those 3000 people over in the US, China and India rather than Europe. In the region for the region. China price + shipping. These are the key drivers that Vestas work to and we are trying very hard to become truely global in a very short space of time. The factories in Denmark have always struggled to see the need for a move from a large Danish export company to a world player in the energy sector.

But four factories only equals 2400 people. That leaves a further 600 to cut from ‘supporting functions’. In order to keep things seemingly fair these are to be distributed evenly across all functions regardless of whether they are really supporting functions for the closing factories or not. My department is design and production support globally. We work equally for the US, India, China and Europe and we are hugely over stretched doing so. All the same we could loose 15% of our people the same as anyone else. Everyone is a little nervous but we will have to wait till the end of November to find out.

Some other stuff has been going on rather than just work. Last weekend I went to see the Cat Empire in Brixton and they were almost as awesome as I had imagined. The brass instruments were brilliant but unfortunately the sound mixing wasn’t great for the organ and bass. But the whole thing still ranks up there amongst the coolest concerts I have ever been too. Everybody loved it

Saturday is ‘Haloween Curling’ – yes, indeed, the ‘sport’ where you scrub the ice with a broomstick! Should be an experience. Then Southampton for a week to start my training for climbing Monte Blanc next summer. The week after I am back in DK and then there is general chaos till the end of the year with another two denmark trips, a trip to the North of Sweden to climb some turbines and a stack load of other stuff in the callendar.

I will let you know!

Had an awesome crossing on the water-taxi today. It was only 25mph northerly wind but combined with a strong tide out to sea from the cowes estuary in a southerly direction meant the waves were massive. They even had to get a special reinforced rubber boat compared to our usual glass fibre stately and civilised one. Got kinda soaked but it was soo worth it! I love my job on the island

I have taken up squash much against my better judgement and preconception that it is a sport for bankers and bankers only. And look at this for the most pimp squash racket ever! And about a fifth of the price of a tennis racket! Maybe there is something in this after all. It is also really good fun screwing over you opponent and very therapeutic taking all of your aggression out on an innocent rubber ball.

Elley had been planning a day out to a steam museum for a while but I didn’t really know all the details until we turned up in a little village near Farnborough. It was clearly one of the villages that had suffered from the Beeching Axe, but they had re-laid some narrow gauge rail and had moved some of the signal and points buildings to a largish plot of land down the road.

But it was field number two that was really novel. It had a whole host of steam powered fair ground rides which if anything were more interesting than the conventional steam transport. All of the electricity to run the lights in the field was generated by a static steam tractor. Each ride also had it’s very own steam engine powering it, and most even had a steam organ to play music to go with the ride:

These organs ran from perforated card sheets, but they had created modern arrangements of things such as bohemian rhapsody to appeal to a wide audience!

They even had wibbly mirrors and a haunted house from 1921…

…and lots of ‘period’ adverts. Not really sure what you get for your money from this one!

I just made my first espresso with filtered water. BLUMIN EKK! Rich, luscious and with twice the quantity of tiger-speckled crema… I cannot believe it has taken me 7 years before I have bothered to control this clearly most vital of variables!

In what is probably the most corporately cheesy but reasonably cute gesture known to man, my manager has planted me a tree. I now have a certificate for the planting of a brand new elm tree in the Isle of Wight national park which will represent his commitment to my growth and professional development within Vestas. I will have to go visit it once it has started to sprout