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I know – it’s been 2 weeks since my last post, but not much has really happened in that time, except that the kids have an inset day (teacher training) on Friday (tomorrow) so we have decided to use the opportunity as it will be the last one that is guaranteed to coincide for both of them as the eldest goes to secondary school in September.
We are taking them to Alton Towers, and I am hoping that there will not be many people there – it is the last working day before half term, so the train of thought is that most of the rest of the population will either be at work or at school, and will do their travelling Friday afternoon/evening.
So we are aiming to leave at 4:30am to get there in time for opening. I booked the tickets in advance on line, which gives us better prices, and also priority entry to the parks popular rides – Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita – Queen of Speed, before the park opens at 10am (we can get in at 9am).
That means early bed tonight, but even so, getting up at really stupid o’clock is going to kill me – hopefully I can get some sleep in the car, but I want to be round the M25 and a long way up the M1 before rush hour really gets going in earnest.
I have come into work, it's after 8:30am and there is no one here - it is extremely quiet, which is lovely!
Anyway, back to Monday and the Fun Day - I would say that it was relatively successful - we made a modest profit (which offset some of the losses - we lost £40 on the sweets - Alan Sugar would have had steam coming out of his ears on that one!!!), and the Chairman of the Residents Association is pleased and is hoping that we can now move things forward.
Work has been rather quiet this week; my adviser is off, and I am looking after another consultant while a colleague is on her honeymoon – all I can say about that is that it is nice to feel appreciated for a change!
All I get from the regular adviser is rant rant rant, but from the one I am looking after I get ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘good work on this’. It is a small thing, but it makes a big difference, and I have fed this back to my superiors. Maybe they will come to realise that it is not all me, that some of it is down to attitudes and I would feel happier if I was treated at least half decently more often!
On the news I see Madeleine McCann is back in the headlines – 2 years after she was left by her parents in the holiday apartment. I still have a suspicion that one of the parents knows more than they are letting on about the abduction – what right-minded parent leaves 3 young children on their own while they go off to dinner? They said that the restaurant was very close by, but that does not escape the fact that she was left unattended, and with an unlocked front door. That was asking for trouble.
In happier news my son passed his Grade 2 Violin exam, and he has just been given a violin by the Chairman of the Residents Association who bought it from eBay for a prop a couple of years ago, and it has never been used. He has taken it to school to show his violin teacher to see if it is any good. If it is, we can give the hired one back, which will save us a little money!
I have just had a text from my wife to let me know that my new keyboard has arrived, so hopefully I won’t get a repeat of the problem with a sticking space bar, and I also need to try and sort out the problem with my mouse with World of Warcraft – someone in-game suggested that there may be interference from wireless networks, and, although my previous wireless keyboard and mouse didn’t seem to suffer, I will give it a go anyway if the problem persists with the new mouse.
I get to home early today as Thursday = college, so I might be able to unwrap it and get it connected before I have to dash off!
I can see this petering out like the blog before, but I will carry on in the meantime when I can remember!
Nothing much of note really happened on Friday, except for the final Residents Association Committee Meeting before the Fun Day (tomorrow). It seems that the Secretary has stepped down to take care of personal matters, so hopefully that might satisfy some of the residents who feel that she shouldn't be on the Committee. One day I might go into more detail, but now is not really the time.
Yesterday my friend from Peterborough came to visit, and we went to Bedgebury to try out the mountain bike trail, but I think I wore him out; apparently he hasn't done any cycling for 6 months and, living in Peterborough, is not used to hills. Me, on the other hand, cycles to work every day and tries to fit in the odd 12 mile run had no problems at all. I have to say though that I didn't realise how much difference this would make, but while he was struggling to get up the hills I was hardly breaking a sweat.
He also showed me his new car - a 2007 Mondeo with lots of bells and whistles which he was keen to show off, and his new phone which he simply had to have so he could use the Bluetooth in his car!
Today we took the children to the Bouldering Academy where they did their first assessments, and apparently they did well, but we won't get confirmation until next week.
After lunch we went to Eastbourne for a game of ten pin bowling with my wife's friend as it was her birthday a few days ago, and then we went home for dinner over Robin Hood.
There has been some friction between my wife and I, mainly over the fun day - she doesn't understand why I got involved with the committee, has absolutely no interest and has made it abundently clear that I will get no support from her with anything I do in this regard.
I would continue but the spacebar on my new keyboard is sticking and is driving me potty so I'll end it here and hopefully it will be better tomorrow...
