Alas poor 2007, we knew him so well

Goodbye 2007, its been good, but all good things come to an end. I'm working at home and I'm looking out from my desk to where the San Francisco fireworks will be in about seven hours time. That big green tower wasn't there this time last year, which might spoil the view a bit, but I feel very lucky to live in the heart of a great city.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="346" caption="View from my home office"][/caption]

For me it's been a big year, my second child was born in early January and then another baby I've been helping nurture for some time; Oracle Ebusiness Suite Release 12 was sent out into the world that month too. One thing I really enjoyed was the field training for R12 financials, we did a number of sessions in HQ and then one on the East Coast and one in Nice, France. The Nice session would have been a great opportunity for me to visit Europe maybe take time off and visit my family in the UK too, small problem was our 4 week old baby at home. So I flew in, did my half day presenting and flew out again, I spent 32 hours on the ground and 36 hours traveling. People thought this was tough, but with a 2 year old boy and a 4 week old baby, I saw 16 hours on a plane as a chance for some 'me time' and I got the best sleep I have had in 2007. Delivering the sessions was a great learning experience for me, I met consulting, sales and support staff as well as Oracle partners, all of whom impressed me with their detailed knowledge of 11i and gave me insight into the issues they and our customers face and also reminded me that we made huge strides with R12. It also helped me realize that I needed to get out more, get out from the bubble of development that is.

Although R12 was the big release,