We begin with a bit of trivia courtesy of Wikipedia...
This year we actually managed to avoid the crowds in Central London and instead opted for a quiet New Year's at home watching the various celebrations unfold both here in London and around the world.
Reading posts on the various social media platforms, it seems there are lots of people around the world who are not sad to see 2013 depart. It has been a difficult year for many. Economic pressures around the world, while easing somewhat in places, remain an issue for vast majority of people. We have seen a largely jobless recovery that seems to be benefiting a the top 1% far more than it has helped anyone else yet.
"Auld Lang Syne" (Scots pronunciation: [ˈɔːl(d) lɑŋˈsəin]: note "s" rather than "z") is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294). The song's Scots title may be translated into English literally as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago", or "days gone by" or "old times". Consequently "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "for (the sake of) old times".
Reading posts on the various social media platforms, it seems there are lots of people around the world who are not sad to see 2013 depart. It has been a difficult year for many. Economic pressures around the world, while easing somewhat in places, remain an issue for vast majority of people. We have seen a largely jobless recovery that seems to be benefiting a the top 1% far more than it has helped anyone else yet.
For us, 2013 was not a bad year but it was challenging. My travel schedule was insane having started the year with a trip to Hong Kong, then hitting the Middle East, Central Europe, North America, then back to Germany and Poland, and finishing up the year last month back in Hong Kong. Thankfully 2014 promises to be a year of considerably less business travel.
One bright spot this year were dramatic changes in the US around the issue of Same Sex Marriage, along with our own American wedding, in San Francisco last July. (We were already legal spouses here in the UK through our Civil Partnership) Consequently, a question we have been asked regularly this year, is will be be moving back to the United States?
That is a complex issue and frankly, there isn't a simply yes or no answer to that. Yes, we would like at some point, to move back to the U.S., but No, we don't know exactly when that will be.
Also, we look across the pond and see the state of affairs back in the United States, and frankly it doesn't inspire an overwhelming rush to pack up and move back. The end of 2013 saw the Republican Party double down on the Obama Derangement Syndrome that has defined them for the last 5 years. A move that has accomplished nothing, other than critically damaging the GOP's chances of ever again being a national governing party.
Yet stupidity cloaked in political ideology is not solely an American prerogative. Here in the United Kingdom, Britain's own version of the "tea party" are the folks over at the United Kingdom Independence Party or "UKIP". Like their Duck Dynasty loving cousins across the pond, UKIP has decided that trying to make voters scared of people who are not white anglo-saxons is the best way to take votes away from Britain's Conservative Party. The effort however, rather like a Sarah Palin Book tour, has not been going well.
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We are optimistic about 2014 though. It will be a year of big changes for Eric and myself. Later this month I will leave my current role with Buro Happold after a wonderful 3 years as their head of Learning and Development, and move on to an exciting new role leading global L&D efforts back in the Financial Services sector. It is in many ways coming full circle for me. Having had my first senior role in Corporate Learning years ago, with the global Dutch bank ABN AMRO.
In wishing a Happy New Year to all our friends and family around the world, we are so grateful for your love and friendship. To our families in the United States in New Jersey, Wisconsin and California, in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca and here in the UK in North London. We love you all and hope to see more of you in 2014.
To our incredible "extended family", our friends scattered all over the globe. We think of and miss you all. From folks back in LA and San Francisco, CA to Dallas, Houston and San Antonio TX, Omaha NE, Chicago, IL, Madison and Milwaukee WI, New York, NY, Knoxville, TN, Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Latrobe, PA., Winchendon and Wilmington, MA. Columbus and Dahlonega GA. Sydney and Melbourne Australia, Osan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Toronto, Brussels, Kuala Lumpur , Amsterdam, Lisbon and Sao Paulo , and of course here in London. To name only a few of the corners of the world where we are blessed to have amazing friends.
To all of you we can only say how much we hope to see you at some point in 2014, and remind you that we do have a rather nice guest room here.... just sayin'...
Happy New Year Everyone. Here's to 2014! May it bring all that you hope for, and more.
Love,
David & Eric
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