dadams.co.uk

Call me an unromantic old cynic, but isn’t St Valentine’s Day just another occasion promoted by greetings card companies and florists to swell their own coffers? Isn’t it strange that the price of roses suddenly peaks on February 14th?

Okay, I bought the wife a card and a very nice tasteful gift. But while I was in the card shop looking through the selection of over-priced printed cardboard I noticed cards that sons could send to their mums and cards from the family’s dog. Wikipedia describes St Valentine’s Day as “the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other”. So, sending THAT sort of greetings card to your mother, I believe that’s known as Oedipus Syndrome. And receiving one from the dog, quite frankly, that’s just not right.

Mother’s Day is less than a month away (florists, rub your greedy hands with glee). Then Easter… I don’t think we’ve ever been in the habit of sending Easter cards, but greetings card companies would like us to remind our friends of Christ’s resurrection with the words “Happy Easter”. Was it a happy time for Jesus? I don’t think so. Then Father’s Day. If they’re looking to plug a gap in the calendar where people are inconsiderate enough only to celebrate birthdays, I’m sure you’ll find “Happy Summer Solstice” cards in your local shop. And then perhaps “send your friend a piece of printed cardboard” day.

Please remember to recycle, because we’re running out of rainforest.

Warren Elsmore has announced that the UKLUG meeting will take place on the 18th and 19th of September 2008 in London. This follows directly on from Collaboration University (which you’d be mad to miss) so a busy week for those who follow the divine Lotus path.

The UKLUG 2007 meeting was a great success, although the free venue very generously donated by ComputaCenter had a limit of one hundred attendees. This meant a large waiting list and a great many disappointed people. But buoyed by the interest and the turnout, not to mention the number of customers prepared to stand up and talk, Warren is planning two days this time round, and a venue that can accommodate at least two hundred people and possibly two tracks.

Like the SNUG (Scottish Notes User Group) and ILUG (Irish Lotus User Group) events, UKLUG will be free (and by the way, is not an IBM event). To cover the costs we’ll be looking for sponsors - this is a big ask given that many of the usual suspects will already be funding ILUG, which this year is a whopping three-day event on the 4th to 6th of June (in Dublin, of course).

As for SNUG (you’ll appreciate we couldn’t call it SLUG), planning gets under way this week, and I think we’ll be looking at a Spring event.

A big thank you to the passion of everyone who makes these events possible… Warren and Kitty, Paul Mooney, Bill Buchan, Matt White, Julian Woodward, Tom Duff, Mike Smith, and apologies to anyone I’ve missed. Not to mention Graeme Clark and all the guys from Standard Life, Mark Calleran from the Salvation Army (a big hit last year and a huge appreciation of the work that his wonderful organisation does worldwide), Brian Ford from HSBC, Neil and Darren from Prudential, Steven Haugen from Scottish & Newcastle, all of the other customer speakers, and last but not least, the very generous sponsors.