Doug's Oracle Blog

There she goes, squirreling into the corner of your carry-on.  Ready for another adventure.  Tucked between a fun floppy hat and the flourescent sun-block, of which she uses plenty, pale creature that she is, Monique is situated to prove to you that a seasoned traveller knows best.  Dressed in a curly mohair (so as not to show the wrinkles that betray one new to the jet set) and sporting a pale chiffon scarf - to double as a disquise in those cities where she is already known for her somewhat silly escapades - she seems to wink at you and beckon you along.  Forget your cares, but by no means your playing cards, and step lightly into whatever dreams your next voyage should hold for you:  let Monique be your guide.  

Her very presence alleviates all the maladies brought on by the jostling of trains, the dipping of ships, the swerving of buses and even by the simple fact that you are far from home.  For she has discovered the secret to successful travel; with the exception of the luscious few minutes in the X-ray machine, where she delights in making funny faces at the operators searching for more dangerous contents.  Monique never looks back.

Charleen Kinser Designs

(With thanks to Carol Dacko for bringing along an interesting dinner companion for my own cuddly friends. Somehow I doubt they'll ever be the same - she's terribly sophisticated for my lot!)

I heard someone bemoaning the lack of Swag at Hotsos - just an event program, couple of magazines and a small clockwork toy sponsored by Oracle. I don't think I ever come to the Symposium expecting Swag - it's just not that kind of event. But you do tend to get good speaker gifts, including the best speaker gift I ever received. This year, it's a digital photo frame.

As for that clockwork toy, the Cuddly Toys think it's *brilliant*!!! At first, their reaction was "What's THAT?!" then when I wound it up and let it dance in front of them, they fell in love.



The only thing is that it doesn't run for long per wind-up, so my right wrist is aching from them continually beggind me to "Do it again, Douglas!"

Then again, their reaction wasn't quite as relaxed as when they met Carol Dacko's friend while we were at the restaurant. Apologies for the quality of the photo, it was dark in there, but at least it proves that Little H and Chris were allowed out for dinner and that not all Cuddly Toys are made the same.



They were just stunned by their new friend. What's THAT?

All will be revealed in the next post ....

(... or why cuddly toys aren't allowed out of the house with me too often.)

What I neglected to mention in the last post was that, when JB turned up at All Bar One, not only did he tell me how much he'd enjoyed Robyn's presentation, he also highlighted the fact that Roger Wilco was still at the Oak Table and that the exhibition hall looked like it was closing! Having advertised Roger's presence via the blog, I felt he should be there, but I couldn't hang around there all day. JB had surrounded him with water bottles to make it clear that he was a very important Raccoon and not to be discarded!

So I dashed back to the ICC but the exhibition hall was now closed! I'd be in *big* trouble when I got home. Losing Roger because I was drinking beer? Then I received an email from M2 (Michael Moller).

"I have rescued Roger. He is in my safe keeping. The balcony was being cleared of everything ... if we dont meet, he'll become a danish citizen. :-)"

Phew! So now all I needed to do was meet up with M2 at some point and arrange a handover.

"I am in the conference, so call me to coordinate a place where Roger can switch travelling bags. I was under the impression he was looking forward to Denmark. It is where "the" Oak tables stand after all."

Well, with one thing or another, we didn't get to meet! Nevertheless, M2 emailed me regular updates, including ....

"I have at this very moment introduced Roger to Aimee" (It was Aimee who thought Mogens was talking about a person called Roger.)




... and finally, yesterday ....

"Roger has arrived and is currently sitting, quite happy, on the real Oak Tables."



Thanks M2, you're a gent. I don't expect Roger will be interested in returning to The Comfy Seat now, though. I *told* you he was a very superior raccoon!

There's a bit of a story behind this one, so bear with me.

Here's an excerpt from an email thread discussing arrangements for the Oak Table at this year's UKOUG conference.

Question - Will you be bringing any employees to man the Oaktable?  If so, they can register for exhibition only tickets at the following link - http://www.delegate.com/ukoug/2008/oracle/display.php

Answer - Roger

Later on, another email appeared.

I was looking on the registrations and I don't see Roger's name listed.  Has he registered himself? what is his full name?

At which point James Morle stepped in

might you have one of your furry friends that currently has no name, and could be baptised as 'Roger' (last name 'Wilco'?) to attend Oaktable events? His roles and responsibilities will include
- 'manning' the oaktable
- answering Oaktable Challenge questions (are we doing that this year?)
- getting the first round of drinks in

And, of course, he should be properly registered for the exhibit hall, with badge...

The bad news is that all of our Cuddly Toys have names (apart from the small collective known as 'The Little Ones).

The good news is that Roger does, in fact exist. So I applied for an Exhibition-only pass so he could meet this commitment.



So, Ladies and Gentlemen, although he is a superior Racoon, don't be shy, come along to the Oak Table Network area and feel free to ask him any questions you like. The Oak Table area is slightly hidden this year, on the balcony inside the Exhibition Hall.

Oh, and if you're *still* non-plussed by this affair, this may help.

Thanks to Frits Hoogland, here are some better pictures of the appreciation event.

See, it was me who did all the hard work really! Not really, you can see Marco is standing in another queue, waiting to help.



You can almost imagine this bear's thoughts. 'Mmmm, so this is where my future lies, with a drunken bum .... What was your name? Mark? Any chance I could come back to your place instead?'