Alice passes through the gates of academia

Christmas 2009Ditton Corner, 5 Church Street, Fen Ditton, Cambridge CB5 8SU Tel: +44 (0) 1223 292066

Family Website: http://www.dittoncorner.com

THE REPORTER

Chinese Whispers

Ritorno in Italia

Alice got a place at CambridgeUniversity and embraced the red andblack of Jesus College. She is readingNatural Sciences and although nowliving only 1 ½ miles away, she hasn’tphoned home since she went up.

Alice Comes to Jesus

Henry gets debagged for winning at Diplomacy

Perse school enjoys the Vesuvius fumerole

After last year’s school leaving trip toItaly, Henry was delighted to findthat this year’s trip at his new school,was, naturalmente, to Italy. This timewith more classics and volcanoes.Pompeii showed how a Plineaneruption can really ruin your day.

Coburn of the Fourth Form

Henry, now 15 and 5’ 10”, embarkedon his first year of GCSEs at PerseSchool. His long legs won him theschool sports day high jump award.This term he’s enjoyed (if that’s theright word) the Versailles Treaty,irregular verbs and differentialequations on his run in to nextsummer’s exams. Less of a sprint andmore of a marathon, really.

Now he’s for the High Jump

The Coburn & Mulligan Gazette

Our Pyramid SchemeAndrew, Alice and Henry with the Mummy

Escaping the financial crisis, Ponzi swindles, and the swine flu pandemic, we sought refuge in themonuments of ancient Egypt. Nothing like a 5,000 year old civilization to put today’s problems intoperspective. Incredible temples, glimpses of lives long gone, and those pyramids – bonkers or what?

‘Oh Nile!’ intoned the pretentiousnarration of the son-et-lumière showat the pyramids, but this catch phrasesummed up the mighty river and thesites along its banks. We travelledfrom Cairo to Aswan, visiting Luxorand key temples from the Old & NewEgyptian Kingdoms.

Henry helpfully put together a quickguide to Egyptology to differentiatethe Ramses from the Tutankhamensand in decoding hieroglyphics, helpus tell our Horus from our Ebo.

It’s murder on the Nile

We used the cool of the mornings toexplore the Valley of the Kings, butlike many before us, failed to find thelast lost tomb of Ramses VIII, beforeretreating from the mid-day heat.The spectacular temples have beenreclaimed from under metres ofdesert sand and in some cases, rebuiltto save them from the Aswan lake.

The Pyramids of Giza put everythingin perspective: For 4,000 years theyremained the largest constructionsmade by man. We admired the scaleof everything. In Egypt, it is all amatter of degrees: 52° pyramidsalong the 30° longitude at 40°Ctemperatures.

Henry contemplates hieroglyphs in Karnak temple Girls enjoy the upper deck of the Nile Cruise ship

3D TV with Derren Brown’s magic tricks

Back Down the Pub

Brians at the Vic 2009

Reunion of the bar staff from thesummer job 35 years ago. Andrewand his two school friends Andy andMartin, (“the Brians”) relived theirpint-pulling days in the VictoriaArms, Llanbedr, in darkest Wales.

Henry Grows Another Foot

This year’s hot Parisian fashion is theblue-sashed gown and mortar boardof the MBA graduate from the ESCP-EAP European School of Business.

Brians at the Vic 1974 Henry decodes Dan Brown at the Louvre

Only a couple of class-mates didn’t make it back

Occupants of (wild) West Staircase 3 Chapel Court

Hieroglyph cartouche of the noble Pharaoh ‘Coburn’

Browned Off

2009 was the year of the threeBrowns: Gordon tried to save thefinancial world as UK Prime Minister,Dan produced the disappointing LostSymbol novel, and Derren had us allpyschologically glued to our sofaswith his illusionist tricks and 3Dtelevision. Entertaining though theseBrowns were, we could do with a bitmore colour in our lives in 2010.

Gowned in Paris

Dr. Mulligan the MBA graduate, with groupies

Helen graduates in style at the European School of Business

Dr. Helen Mulligan wore hers in stylealong the graduation ceremonycatwalk on the avenue de laRépublique. This was the culminationof the two year MBA programme,with project work in her specialisedfield of low-energy building designfor carbon credit trading.

COURT & SOCIAL BUSINESS SECTION

Emerging Leadership

By an amazing coincidence, all of the new ERS team are exactly the same height

RMS launches a new business unit to explore emerging risks

CAR SaleswomanSouth China seeBank Crisis During Liquidity Shortage

Mister Asbo, a mad swan that attacksboats, made the national headlines.But they locked him away to give usa great rowing spectacle unhinderedby aggressive cygnian intervention.We missed him. We’d have toastedhis health, if we’d had any booze left.

Churchill men’s first crew steals foliage from Ditton Corner to mark their successful bump

A higher than expected attendance at this year’s Bumps Party meant that the Pimms ran out quite quickly

DRINKS COUPON

Bumps & Carnage Party

Saturday 12 June 2010Cut out and keep, for next year, just in case...

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Several of the new risk areas thatAndrew has been exploring over thepast few years at Risk ManagementSolutions were consolidated in aformal business unit of EmergingRisk Solutions. Andrew now co-leadsthis with his partner-in-crime, PeterUlrich. ERS now pursues potential‘breakout’ opportunities of life &health risks, liability mass tort, and

In November, Helen took part in anofficial UK Trade Mission to China.After ten hectic days of diplomaticreceptions, presentations andnetworking banquets in six differentcities she ran out of luggage space forall the business cards she’d received.Now the real work begins…

A great year for CambridgeArchitectural Research: we expanded

Getting Retrofit

Flying the flag in Chnagsha

Aunty Joan gets the stretch limo

Edna gets the sparkler

If it’s good enough for Wayne andColleen, it’s good enough for Edna.Helen’s Mum feted her birthday instyle at Slattery’s of Whitefield, thevery finest cake shop in the wholeNorthwest. Not to be outdone, thenext day her baby sister Joancelebrated her own 80th with alimousine ride to Haslingden.

Birthday Girls

This autumn saw the launch of a newinitiative at University of Cambridge,to create a Centre for Risk Studies.Andrew has been an advisor to theinitiative and has helped arrange aseminar series and a one-dayinternational workshop onCatastrophic Collapse of ComplexSystems. Each have attracted eminentspeakers and strong attendance. TheCentre is now developing a researchagenda and a funding plan.

Coburns, Ruffles and Withers on the rooftop of

Gaudi’s La Pedrera building in Barcelona

Cambridge University Risk Studies Initiative

At Uncle Nick’s Sci-Fi 50th birthday party,

Helen the Zarbee dances with a Triffid and an Ood

The new summer house on the croquet lawn

Barcelona NightsThe European-funded COST networkon Cities Regrowing Smaller kicked offin Brussels and immediately trebledin participant numbers – perhaps theattraction was the Septemberworkshop held at the Sorbonne inParis. Helen co-ordinates theworkpackage on Solutions toShrinkage, and is attempting to keep itto a manageable size.

Living COST

The hostly four among the poppies

Mr Asbo the lunatic swan, attacks a rowing crew Family formal: Ladies wearing anti-swan headgear

A February weekend pilgrimage tookthe Class of ‘78 to see the architectureof Antoni Gaudi, the art museumsand other sights of the Mediterraneancity. Not to mention the Catalancuisine and the memorable Spanishwines. There’s something aboutsitting in the Mediterranean harboureating black rice that’s unbeatable. Surfing dudes and other grown up children

Style leadership: Andrew and Peter Ulrich

instil a strict dress code for the new group

health risks, liability mass tort, andterrorism risk. It is back to theentrepreneur days. At the height ofthe swine flu pandemic, ERS helpedlaunch an innovative $75m excessmortality bond. In liability, newtechnologies are being developed todetect risks years in advance.

Wish upon a Eurostar

Holy Tow-Truck! Batman’s secret identity is

revealed when parking wardens nab the Batmobile.

Chilly reception in Munich, visiting Munich Re, a

major client in several areas of emerging risk

Our Babies All Been Done Grown Up

We met at the National ChildbirthTrust parent-to-be classes of ‘91. Thissummer our progeny achievedadulthood so we celebrated the 18th

birthdays of Alfred, Sarah and Aliceon holiday at the Biarritz home of theJoly family. There are now 14 of us...

Architectural Research: we expandedour capacity and won a string ofhigh-profile contracts. Helen isadvising two competition-winningteams who aim to cut carbonemissions from social housingprojects by 70-80% in the Retrofit forthe Future demonstration scheme.

Unwelcome House GuestThe police caught him cyclingAndrew’s bike and wearingAndrew’s ski jacket, but by then he’dfenced the laptops stolen from DittonCorner in a midnight burglary. Poorchap is probably just mis-understood.