https://stevedrice.net/ 2026-04-25T04:18:44+00:00 https://stevedrice.net/ https://stevedrice.net/_media/wiki/dokuwiki.svg text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/1999 [Me] 1999 - A Year in Review 1999 Country of Living: England Well, 1999 has been a very busy year for me. I have travelled a great deal, seem some new things, learned quite a bit and, to top it off, gained a year on my increasing number of years...Count the white hairs (at least I have some to count). text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2000 [The Fateful Location of my Isle of Wight Incident] 2000 - A Year in Review 2000 Country of Living: England Another year in England. This has been a year of a lot of travelling and shows. My house in Woking is growing to be quite comfortable (though a bit cool in fall and winter...insulation does not seem to be popular in this country). text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:25+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2001 [Me in Cricieth, Wales (taken by my aunt)] 2001 - A Year in Review 2001 Country of Living: England Well, looking back on it this year has been a very eventful one with my deciding my course for the next two years as well as entertaining a few visitors: * My mother and her husband visited early in the year on the way to/from South Africa. It was a good visit and we did manage to get to see a few things in the city and the country. text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:25+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2002 [Me on the Coast near Bakau] 2002 - A Year in Review 2002 Country of Living: The Gambia (West Africa) This has been a very challenging year for me. I began the year with my mother as we visited Europe for a bit of a holiday at Christmas and ended up in London during the New Year (see my journal of this trip text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:25+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2003 [Me on a Hill in Bansang (Central River Division)] 2003 - A Year in Review 2003 Country of Living: The Gambia (West Africa) Rains: Saturday, June 7th 10:30 pm to Sunday, October 26th 10:00 am This has been yet another year of challenges though not terribly demanding in terms of travel. It has also been a year of thinking about the future with my decision to extend text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:25+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2004 [Me sitting on the top of the Dogon escarpment in Mali] 2004 - A Year in Review 2004 Country of Living: England I have completed my service with VSO in The Gambia and have returned to the UK once again after a lot of tearful goodbyes. I did actually extend beyond my original extension period which would have had me leaving in July. I left The Gambia on December 7th after approximately 34 months of service (see my article published in the December VSO newsletter text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:26+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2005 [Me at Blackpool Pleasure Beach] 2005 - A Year in Review 2005 Country of Living: England It has been a very productive year. I have been catching up on the arts by attending a number of concerts and movies. It is quite different than my life in Africa. Beginnings The year began difficultly with my living in a B & B in London (see a bit of a note about that text/html 2015-10-10T21:21:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2006 [Me in Edinburgh] 2006 - A Year in Review 2006 Country of Living: England Well, another year is gone. This one was quite busy but not a lot of big things -- Just a lot of small things. I have been working my way up to a visit to Asia by continuing to study Japanese (though that has gone a bit by the wayside now since I did not really seem to be able to progress in my studies for various reasons). Still in Cambridge working at the same job (with a number of text/html 2025-11-09T18:09:28+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2007 [Relaxing in La Plagne] 2007 - A Year in Review 2007 Country of Living: England An interesting year. Did not end terribly well and began with my continuing to work on the arrangements for the Japan/China trip in August (really, it did occupy a LOT of my time). The first time by myself for Christmas for quite some number of years text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2008 [Me and My Fiance Melanie] 2008 - A Year in Review 2008 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Well, it was a year of dramatic changes in my personal live with my getting engaged in September to Melanie Hammond, a long-time friend of the family who I was re-introduced to at my grandfather's funeral in 2007. A year of changes indeed. I now have a flat in London with Melanie moving from Canada to join me in the new year. text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2009 [Paris!] 2009 - A Year in Review 2009 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Well, a busy year with a lot of tension at least initially with Mel taking quite some time to find a job (longer than we both anticipated). Did get out to see a few things and are really enjoying living in London. text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:21+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2010 [Mr and Mrs Rice] 2010 - A Year in Review 2010 Country of Living: England in LONDON! It has certainly been a busy year. Not only did we have a lot of travelling around the UK but we managed to also get married at the end of the year and honeymoon in Marrakech! So, we are now a married couple text/html 2015-10-10T21:03:31+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2011 [Mr and Mrs Rice at the Royal Wedding] 2011 - A Year in Review 2011 Country of Living: England in LONDON! A bit of a mixed year of fortunes. We were told we had to leave our flat at 22 Noko in July so we had to find a new place to live. Luckily we found a wonderful house with a front and back yard a few miles away from our old flat but the same distance from the city. The house is nice but transport is not as good as the old flat. text/html 2015-10-10T21:04:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2012 [Mr and Mrs Rice at the Olympics] 2012 - A Year in Review 2012 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Travel A bit of travelling... * March - Visited Val d'Isere for skiing with my mother * April - Drove around Hampshire during holiday period (and visited Stonehenge/Salisbury) * May - Visited the text/html 2015-10-10T21:12:54+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2013 [Toasting to the Future in Singapore] 2013 - A Year in Review 2013 Country of Living: England in LONDON! It has been a quite eventful year with our finally purchasing a car (a Mini!) early in the year, my locker from Canada finally being shipped to me here in London (and the resulting sorting/disposal of stuff), a trip to Hong Kong/Singapore then later in the year the unfortunate passing of Mel's grandmother. During the Christmas holidays we also learned that Casper (our cat) has kidney dise… text/html 2015-10-02T20:02:23+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2014 [ Relaxing(ish) at Bestival ] 2014 - A Year in Review 2014 Country of Living: England in LONDON! A rather busy year for us, yet again, this time with my going on a fair number of business trips and Mel being busy with her singing as well. Travel A bit of travelling... * January text/html 2021-08-01T13:34:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2015 [On Top of Sydney Harbour Bridge] 2015 - A Year in Review 2015 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Another eventful year, starting off with the sad loss of our cat Casper after a long illness then a lot of travel and other things never mind the significant update to this web site that also occurred in the summer (see text/html 2017-01-01T23:15:21+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2016 [Me and Mel at Parc Güell, Barcelona] 2016 - A Year in Review 2016 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Mel completed her Dog Grooming course and found a job at a local grooming salon while I continue working for Smartlogic in the city. We have been once again very busy with events but travel has been limited to Europe this time around text/html 2018-01-07T21:05:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2017 2017 - A Year in Review 2017 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Mel has been enjoying her time as a dog groomer at Dogtown while I continue working for Smartlogic though my company has recently closed it's rather under-utilised office in the city to allow us to work from home text/html 2019-01-01T15:41:15+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2018 2018 - A Year in Review 2018 Country of Living: England in LONDON! The year started off quite well with Mel continuing her job as a dog groomer at Dogtown while I continue working for Smartlogic. As part of my working from home full time, every two weeks the company gets together for two days alternating between, Warsaw (where one of our offices is located), London and other locations in the UK. While it is great to see each other the logistics can get a bit tiring particularly when you are … text/html 2025-10-31T20:31:50+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2019 [Bus Trip in Budapest] 2019 - A Year in Review 2019 Country of Living: England in LONDON! This year was a bittersweet one with Mel and I being apart for several months when she had to return to Canada in February to straighten our her Visa problems. Thankfully we were back together in June and were able to resume our lives together with Mel then having to search for a new job text/html 2021-01-01T20:56:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2020 [A Rare Trip Out - Kensington Gardens in May] 2020 - A Year in Review 2020 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Quite a year it has been with COVID changing everyone's lives and meaning we have not been able to get out but have had lots of time to watch TV and experience the delights on offer with local restaurant delivery. We did manage to get to the US for a vacation just before lock-down (by luck, of course, not design) but otherwise we have pretty much stayed put, having to do with loca… text/html 2023-01-07T16:40:48+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2021 [Newgale Beach, South Wales] 2021 - A Year in Review 2021 Country of Living: England in LONDON! Despite our movements restricted we managed to get out a fair amount particularly after finally talking to a financial consultant and looking into the purchase of a new house. After a tour of much of England and the south of Wales we have made an offer on a property in text/html 2025-10-31T20:32:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2022 [New Home] 2022 - A Year in Review 2022 Country of Living: England in Nantwich, Cheshire. A big year for us with our moving out of London to “remote” Cheshire, a small Roman town called “Nantwich” which is just south of Chester and about an hours drive from Manchester or a few minutes longer to text/html 2025-10-31T20:32:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2023 [Top of Battersea Power Station] 2023 - A Year in Review 2023 Country of Living: England in Nantwich, Cheshire. We are settling into our new life in Cheshire with Mel's business doing very well (“Paws a While Pet Grooming” in Cocoa Yard). She had a bit of a surprise as she started out renting a table in a shop owned by someone else but then that person had to stop trading for health reason leaving Mel sole leaseholder. Mel also had some health issues earlier in the year which meant an unexp… text/html 2025-12-31T17:37:57+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2024 [Mel and Steve at WorldCon 2024] 2024 - A Year in Review 2024 Country of Living: England in Nantwich, Cheshire. In January we attended the funeral of friend Godfrey King in London. Mel has had health problems throughout the year meaning several long visits to Leighton Hospital in nearby Crewe. Travel text/html 2025-12-31T18:03:40+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/2025 [Mel and Steve in Malta] 2025 - A Year in Review 2025 Country of Living: England in Nantwich, Cheshire. Travel We travelled around a bit this year but not as much as in recent years with a lot going on at home. For work, I was in Warsaw in June then Washington, DC in September with a number of other smaller meet-ups in text/html 2025-08-09T16:00:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/community Community Computing [Blue Sky Logo] [Welcome to Manitoba] Introduction Community Computing is a movement that seeks to provide access to community information to their community. Typically these organizations strive to make this access free and use computers to provide this access. For such organizations to work the community must be behind it (either by donating their time or actually using the system: if their is a demand most likely the system is required). text/html 2026-02-07T15:26:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/introduction My Blog A few comments about life, the universe and everything, really... text/html 2026-01-13T20:10:35+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/killer_whales_dancing My Collection: Killer Whales Dancing [Killer Whales Dancing] In the mid 1980s our family moved to Winnipeg. I was a teenager attending high school and working part time at McDonalds so I worked hard and had a bit of disposable income to show for it. One of the things I loved doing when living in the city was attending the text/html 2015-10-10T09:44:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/newsite2015 Welcome to the NEW stevedrice.net Out with the old... ...and in with the new... I am sure you can agree this is an incredible leap forward in many ways. Well, after about 200 man hours I am pleased to finally have this massive re-write of my web site finally available to everyone. There have been massive amounts of changes to my previous site including dramatically improving the way the site looks including providing extensive support for mobile phone (and smaller device) users. text/html 2018-11-11T21:06:12+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/scifi Science Fiction Well, I have to admit, I am a big fan of Science Fiction. To be a bit clear: that of the printed and visual variety. Many people are fans of strictly the movie (see my reviews here) and TV aspect but I do prefer read my SF. To this end, for quite some time, every year I would make an effort to get to the text/html 2025-12-31T18:03:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/sidebar * My Blog * Computers * Science Fiction * 2025 - A Year in Review text/html 2026-04-11T16:42:34+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/blog/the_foundation_trilogy My Collection: The Foundation Trilogy [The Foundation Trilogy] I have been a fan of Science Fiction for many years reading a good amount of it as I was growing up. Not sure where this came from but I suspect it could be at least partly due to my mother liking it as well with books around the house for me to read. I started reading the big names from the early to mid 20th century: Isaac Asimov (easy to read,