7 Festive Things You Didn't Know About Team Sarsen...

A little festive fun from the team. Merry Christmas!

NIGEL
1. Christmas must-see movie.   
I do love “Wizard of Oz” but “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is our family favourite. I have never seen “The Sound Of Music” and I never will.
2. What are you having for Christmas dinner?   
Free range, organic, local turkey
3. A Christmassy family tradition in your house.  
A themed Boxing Day for a big family get together. The food, costumes, drink, music, decoration are all themed – this year it’s all gone Greek.
4. Favourite Christmas song/carol.  
“In The Bleak Midwinter” & “Coventry Carol” (I was a choir boy but now I now sing bass – But I still try to sing the descant on the last verse of “O Come, All Ye Faithful”.)
5. What makes you feel festive? 
Spiced rum
6. New Year’s Resolution.  
Remember to smile when happy
7. A present you’re secretly hoping for this year.  
World Peace or a book called “David Bowie: A Life” by Dylan Jones
       
ANGELA
1. Christmas must-see movie.  
The Grinch
2. What are you having for Christmas dinner?  
Turkey, free-range of course and without the trimmings, but lots of roast potatoes, vegetables and lashings of gravy
3. A Christmassy family tradition in your house.
We always have a themed Boxing Day with our extended family.  Every year we dress up, decorate, play music and eat a menu based around a chosen country.  In recent years we have been to Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Sweden (even hired a hot tub for that one!), and Hawaii (musically challenging). This year we are off to Greece for the day – looking forward to Calamari, Sea Bass, veggie Moussaka, and Greek Salad with plenty of Feta cheese of course!
4. Favourite Christmas song/carol.
Away in a Manager – precious memories of nativity plays when the children were small.
5. What makes you feel festive?   
Marlborough High Street on Saturday mornings in December.
6. New Year’s Resolution.  
I am waiting to be told by my family – I’ll let you know!
7. A present you’re secretly hoping for this year.  
Honestly? Headway on a global scale on the use of and disposal of plastics, especially into our oceans.
       
CHRISTOS
1. Christmas must-see movie.  
Home Alone
2. What are you having for Christmas dinner?    
Thick Pork bacon slices, Sausages, Roast turkey, Salad, Roasted Potatoes, Rice, Bulgur Wheat, and possibly game of some sort. And for dessert Melomakarona and Kourabiedes
3. A Christmassy family tradition in your house.  
Getting to the church in the morning, then going to the local football club “house” to have a coffee and participate in raffle, Then go to my grandfathers named Christos, so we celebrate our nameday with the whole family and at night go out to Bouzoukia.
4. Favourite Christmas song/carol.  
White Christmas by Bing Crosby – Holiday Inn 1942
5. What makes you feel festive?   
The Christmas lights, the Christmas movies combined with bad weather outside, and the fireplace at my favourite café in the area I live in Cyprus.
6. New Year’s Resolution.  
Live a day like a lion rather 100 days like a sheep. I am kidding. To get back to exercising, learn a language, go somewhere I have never been before.
7. A present you’re secretly hoping for this year.  
I truly hope for love, well-being and peace.
       
LYNN
1. Christmas must-see movie.  
Our annual Christmas season movie is Moulin Rouge! Heavens knows why – we just love it.
2. What are you having for Christmas dinner?  
This year we are steering away from ‘traditional’ and having duck confit.
3. A Christmassy family tradition in your house.  
For the kids in the family and when I was a child we planted a ‘magic’ seed on Christmas Eve together with a Christmas Carol singalong and the magic tree grew overnight. Such great excitement on Christmas morning!
4. Favourite Christmas song/carol.  
O come all ye Faithful!
5. What makes you feel festive?  
Lovely glowing golden Christmas lights and candles.
6. New Year’s Resolution.    
Cut out biscuits, sweets and chocolates!!
7. A present you’re secretly hoping for this year. 
 A log burner!
       
LAURA
1. Christmas must-see movie.  
Love Actually. To me, it's perfect.
2. What are you having for Christmas dinner?  
Turkey, all the trimmings (including yorkshires, pigs in blankets and stuffing) and 'Delightful'. Which in our family is trifle without the revolting soggy sponge. And Angel Delight instead of blancmange. We win at desserts.
3. A Christmassy family tradition in your house.  
When we were kids we'd all open our stockings sat at the foot of Mum and Dad's bed. Now I do the same but with our cats. Yes, they have stockings too.
4. Favourite Christmas song/carol.   
All Alone on Christmas by Darlene Love. And it's not Christmas until 'The Buble' has been on at least 15 times.
5. What makes you feel festive?    
Twinkly lights and cinnamon.
6. New Year’s Resolution.  
Convince Nigel that The Sound of Music is a wonderful film.
7. A present you’re secretly hoping for this year.  
Unbelievably, socks. Big, fluffy knee length socks. With pom poms.

T'was the night before Christmas..... by Sarsen Technology!

T'was the night before Christmas, we were still at the shop.
The town was deserted; you could hear a pin drop.
Our families were at home, the egg-nog was flowing,
And outside the window it had just started snowing.

T'here was still work to do, and orders to place
We were working away at a furious pace!
Sarsen Technology was so busy in December,
When last this much to do we couldn’t remember!

T'he team was still smiling (it was more of a scowl),
And our moods were becoming increasingly foul.
When outside the office a roar did sound,
An engine, getting closer. Our heads turned around….

T'he moon was shining on the new fallen snow,
And it lit up the ground and the houses below.
Then what to our tired eyes should appear?
The boss parking his car, full of good cheer!

More jolly than Santa, he strode up the stairs,
And entered the office to a faceful of stares.
Under our breaths we asked “Why's he so cheerful?”
And why was he here? We were suddenly fearful...

Had we not done enough of the workload this eve?
We’d nearly completed what we set out to achieve.
We had no idea about what was his game,
Then to our surprise he called us by name!

Now Laura! Now Colleen! Now Angela and Tim!
And of course not forgetting Robbie and Lynn!
You’ve worked really hard, and you deserve a big cheer,
Take some time off, come back after New Year!

As we packed up our stuff, and put on our coats,
Our hats and our gloves, and wrapped scarves round our throats,
We heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Sarsen Technology!
We will be back in the office on Wednesday 2nd January.

Sarsen Technology is here if you need us, Santa!

Things are ramping up at the North Pole....

On the run up to Christmas Eve, Santa has to go through his list of names, and check it twice, to see who has been naughty and who has been nice. He then has to decide which toy each child deserves. It’s a long process, and it could be much simpler, using BLITzEN – the BittWare Low latency Intelligent Toy Evaluation Network.

It’s based on the Altera Stratix V FPGA, provides CPU offload, the highest performance transceivers , and with maximum processing performance per watt to minimize energy and thermal requirements it’s perfect for Santa’s busy Workshop, as it helps him to determine not just what children want but rather what they deserve.

Those Reindeer are an essential part of the process, and Santa knows he needs to make sure they are happy and performing at their best. The UEI Cube is small and rugged, and can be used to measure the tension on their specially adapted harnesses using its strain gauge layers, so Santa knows the second there are any problems. That sleigh is heavy!

Flying around the world in a reindeer-drawn sleigh would be made much easier with a display system running on the Copperhead Core i7 EBX board from VersaLogic. Its performance level allows for the integration of multiple high-bandwidth functions, such as digital signal processing and real-time video processing. The Copperhead features a high-speed memory interface, up to 16 GB on-board RAM capacity, and three independent display outputs, so Santa can check his route, run his aforementioned naughty-or-nice list, and still video-chat with the sleigh-port, an underground facility run by Elves that serves as a command and control centre. 

Phew! Its a busy time for the guys and girls at the North Pole, but don't worry Santa, Sarsen Technology is here to help. Give us a call on +44 1672 511166 or drop us an email!!