[canucklad]

Once you’re retired CXDiamond, you’ll surely have far more time to contribute to this fine forum !

, tons of stuff to keep you busy in Germany !

[Charles-P]

Enjoy your retirement CXDiamond. I hope you continue to contribute here.
As somebody who presumably had a wide range of options for retirement location may I ask why you chose Germany.

[Globalti]

No trips away this Christmas and likely no Europe skiing in February either as we’re stuck at home nursing a sick and incontinent MIL. I Just hope the washing machine doesn’t choose the Christmas hols to break down.

On the bright side, at least we’re saving money.

[JohnHarper]

CXD have a great time and enjoy retirement to the full.

We are spending Christmas in Cyprus, the first time we haven’t been in the UK. Family and a number of friends are coming out and I believe all is organised with the usual level of Mrs JH’s military precision. She is shopping in London over the weekend and planning to return with a lot of luggage to cook traditional Christmas lunch so that’s no doubt me on sprout peeling duty as usual!

2015 has been a great year, I said I was cutting back on work and I have, it’s so much easier here when you can leave the computer and go out and prune a lemon tree in the garden instead of having a teleconference. I certainly don’t plan to ramp up anything during 2016 to anything like previous levels and others have finally got the message that JH just isn’t doing as much as he was.

Best wishes to all and good health and fortune for 2016.

[TominScotland]

CXD, I wish you a happy and fulfilling retirement. I will try to behave myself but will miss your strictures….

Have a great Christmas and a fruitful New Year, all

[SealinkBF]

I am off to Bridport, to stay with friends I met in Crystal Palace, London. It’s a delightful town in Dorset. This will be 5th visit this year. It’s calling me….!

Nearby is West Bay, famous as the setting for Broadchurch. The crumbling cliffs on the beach are unsettling even without that!

[FDOS_UK]

CXDiamond – 16/12/2015 08:54 GMT

My best wishes for a long and happy retirement.

I know the area around Inglostadt quite well – it is a lovely place to move to and the locals are laid back and friendly, not only easy access to ICE./MUC, but also wonderful lakes like Chiemsee and Starnbergersee/Ammersee, as well as Garmisch/Partenkirschen for a bit of langlauf or alpine.

Please do keep popping into the forum, I’d love to hear your updates.

[SealinkBF]

Happy Days CXDiamond.

Please do stay around! 🙂

[WillieWelsh]

Congratulations and all good wishes CXDiamond. I still have at least ten years to go.

I’m at home now in North Queensferry and here we’re staying for the holidays. We have the in-laws coming down from Wick from Christmas Eve until 28th and that will be good fun. I’m really looking forward to it.

Best wishes to one and all, happy holidays and prosperity for 2016.

[PeterCoultas]

Off tomorrow to sweden to view 2 new-born family members and to enjoy serious festivities in the long day nights.

[AnthonyDunn]

Well, after years of stay-at-home Christmas’ caring for my now late mother-in-law, Senior Management and I have maxed out on her annual leave entitlement and my work flexibility to return to Burma (I refuse to use the name given by the thugs in uniform) after last being here some 25+ years ago. On that occasion, I didn’t have my passport stamped because the writ of the Burmese government did not extend to that part of the southern Shan state/Golden Triangle where I was trekking. And in those days, the formal way in allowed just 7 day visas so this time we’re spending three weeks variously training, planing, ferrying and being driven around the country.

Just a few reflections: there are still topics around which people tread vary warily, particularly what the military have done to the country and the latter’s blood-soaked responsibility for land-seizures, expulsions, ethnic-cleansing and straightforward mass murder. They are still a very powerful force with fingers extending into not insubstantial parts of the economy. Then there is the role of China and the Chinese. To say that China and its countrymen are almost universally loathed the length and breadth of Burma is, if anything, a mild understatement. The wholesale rape, pillage and plundering of Burma’s natural resources to the benefit of China’s economy (and the greased palms of the Myanmar military) provokes deep bitterness and resentment amongst just about every Burmese we’ve spoken to. There is going to be a settling of scores at some point and the Chinese are going to get very badly burned – if your average Myu Kwau on the Yangon omnibus has anything to do with it.

Now it may just be that one ex-army Major was simply trying to humour us and we thought that he was joking when he told us he could think of nothing better than that Britain returned to administer the country for.a decade or so. At least that way the adminstration would be clean, transparent and fair – and the British were not in the habit of massacring their opponents by the thousand. And the clinching argument was that in some 70+ years of “colonial exploitation”, the British had barely scratched the surface in comparison with some thirty years of Chinese economic colonialism.

If there are any Chinese contributors to BT, I would love to hear your response and explanation of China’s exploitation of Burma. Indeed most Burmans would like to hear this as well.

In the meantime CXDe, best wishes for your retirement and that part of Bavaria is indeed wonderful. Unsure if it’s your cup of tea but the Regensburg early music festival is on our horizon…

Oh and if “misbehaving” is the alternative to being forced into accepting, uncritically, other people’s “group think/received wisdom”, then it will have to be the former. I left the MoD after a decade because it was just that kind of stifling “this is how it is: you like or you lump it” mindset that drove me around the bend. So, be prepared for future fireworks when ANOther and I lock horns yet again over exactly the same topic.

[AnthonyDunn]

Well, after years of stay-at-home Christmas’ in NW11 caring for my now late mother-in-law, Senior Management and I have maxed out on her annual leave entitlement and my work flexibility to return to Burma (I refuse to use the name given by the thugs in uniform) after last being here some 25+ years ago. On that occasion, I didn’t have my passport stamped because the writ of the Burmese government did not extend to that part of the southern Shan state/Golden Triangle where I was trekking. And in those days, the formal way in allowed just 7 day visas so this time we’re spending three weeks variously training, planing, ferrying and being driven around the country.

Just a few reflections: there are still topics around which people tread vary warily, particularly what the military have done to the country and the latter’s blood-soaked responsibility for land-seizures, expulsions, ethnic-cleansing and straightforward mass murder. They are still a very powerful force with fingers extending into not insubstantial parts of the economy. Then there is the role of China and the Chinese. To say that China and its countrymen are almost universally loathed the length and breadth of Burma is, if anything, a mild understatement. The wholesale rape, pillage and plundering of Burma’s natural resources to the benefit of China’s economy (and the greased palms of the Myanmar military) provokes deep bitterness and resentment amongst just about every Burmese we’ve spoken to. There is going to be a settling of scores at some point and the Chinese are going to get very badly burned – if your average Myu Kwau on the Yangon omnibus has anything to do with it.

But, I dare say, that in some quarters such thoughts would be considered “wet”. After all, a profit is a profit is a profit, irrespective of how it has been obtained.

Now it may just be that one ex-army Major was simply trying to humour us and we thought that he was joking when he told us he could think of nothing better than that Britain returned to administer the country for.a decade or so. At least that way the adminstration would be clean, transparent and fair – and the British were not in the habit of massacring their opponents by the thousand. And the clinching argument was that in some 70+ years of “colonial exploitation”, the British had barely scratched the surface in comparison with some thirty years of Chinese economic colonialism.

If there are any Chinese contributors to BT, I would love to hear your response and explanation of China’s conduct towards and exploitation of Burma. Indeed most Burmans would be very interested to hear this as well.

In the meantime CXDe, best wishes for your retirement and that part of Bavaria is indeed wonderful. Unsure if it’s your cup of tea but the Regensburg early music festival is certainly on our horizon…

Oh and if “misbehaving” is the alternative to being forced into accepting, uncritically, other people’s “group think/received wisdom”, then it will just have to be the former. A decade in the MoD and I had a lifetime’s worth of group think. I am hardly the world’s leading iconoclast but there are some “received wisdoms” too far and I will continue to point these out, when appropriate.

Best wishes to all and sundry for Christmas and for the New Year.

[Gin&Tonic]

And back to the thread! Hong Kong, first time ever my wife and I have not been at home in 32 years, but our son now lives in Hkg and is staying for the holiday with his girlfriend. Had a hell of a job finding a Turkey dinner, but did eventually book the Steakhouse Grill at the Intercontinental who claim they do, not sure about the pigs in blanket? Would a Michelin star restaurant do pigs in blankets? Well let’s see.

Merry Christmas all. Enjoy and be safe.

[AnthonyDunn]

Gin&Tonic – 22/12/2015 02:50 GMT

So, we are off to [complete as applicable]: caught the plane (review of booking process, ticketing arrangements, boarding procedures including exit rows and quantity/positioning of carry-on luggage), went there for several weeks during which we saw some pagodas and met a few locals. Got the plane(s) home (review of respective seats, condition of aircraft, quality of catering, IFE, cabin crew acknowledging my FFP status etc…). Post flight reviews to Seatplans and/or BT flight reviews.

As this is Business Traveller and, it would appear, very few have ventured to Burma, I thought that it might be of interest to have some of the local circumstances set out because, around here, you just cannot detach business from politics. The Myanmar military (and their Chinese overlords) have comprehensively seen to that.

EDITED TO ADD: For anyone who is interested, an extremely well-written analysis of the dilemmas facing a country emerging from the deep freeze after some fifty plus years, I can thoroughly recommend: “Blood, Dreams and Gold: the changing face of Burma” by Richard Cockett, the Economist’s erstwhile SE Asia correspondent.

Yale University Press 2015
ISBN-10: 0300204515

[Gin&Tonic]

Anthony, I wasn’t belittling your views, I was just bringing a light hearted thread back to where it started. Yes my concern for being able to get pigs in blankets on Christmas day with my dinner is a miniscule comment in proportion to world issues, which I am not ignorant of. We all travel ,work, and even now as I do, reside in countries that have political and economic issues which has huge impacts on the people.
Enjoy your time with family and friends and like you whilst I am very grateful for what I have, it’s not at the ignorance of others.

[Author]

Posts