Archive for October, 2007
So, after the mad frantic excitment of having a laptop, I have to leave it for a while, as we are ready for some holiday! We’re about to go to the south of France (between Nice and Monaco), followed by a week with our good friends Rachel and David, who live near Milan.
Even though life has been quieter at work, I still managed to leave at 7…Dan is not yet home, hence some blogging, while I decide whether or not to start cooking, or wait for him to come back first.
Somehow it’s always a fight to leave work, get things tamped down, and head off on holiday. For Dan, it’s even harder, given that it’s his own company, and he’s the main one doing liaison with customers.
This time, I was able to leave my manager with our two new members of staff to fill the gap. There’ll be limits to what they can do, given they’ve only been in for a week, but it’s a start.
More of the picture for work is emerging, which means I will get some HR type stuff to do, or rather learning and development. Given that I enjoy both of these things for myself, it’ll be nice to have a more officialised role for encouraging others to do this. And as so many staff are new, it’s a particular moment to sense what people know, do lots of training that doesn’t cost much but shares around people’s experience, etc.
I had a bit of a pang yesterday, when looking at our weekly bulletin, which goes out around the whole organisation. Lots of people mentioned for our office, and almost everyone was either new or on promotion…and I still remain at the same level as I’ve been for the last 5 or more years.
The minute I note this, though, I know full well that I wasn’t interested in the jobs that were available at the grade above - the type of thing they were covering wasn’t for me. No point moving unless it’s to something I want to do. And maybe, sometime, they will actually create the job they’ve talked of, with lots of communications work in education, which is I guess what I’ve been building up to for the last year in particular.
Yesterday hit us quite hard: loss of a family friend, news of further ill health for Dan’s granny, a ‘no’ from a possible designer for Dan’s company (or more accurately, yes to freelance, but also yes to someone else’s company for most of the time). There’s a need to draw breath from all that. We’re OK in ourselves, and with each other, but yes, we need some space.
I’d read on someone else’s blog of them taking time during a holiday to talk to their wife, take stock, work out where they wanted life to go in the future, or perhaps, what they wanted it to be about. I’m not sure that’s what we will be doing this time - the realisation that as life goes on, we have less and less control over some stuff. My work situation is better than a month ago, yes, but there’s still a lot where I don’t know where it’s going. In comparison to the past, I’m less keen on volunteering to do things, on having big plans for work - unfortunately, it can be a recipe for being taken advantage of.
So, yes to big plans for free time, for family time…and even just for some looking on at life, breathing more calmly.
October 26th, 2007
This post is dedicated to Nico van Loenen, who died on Wednesday. Nico and his family lived two doors up from us when I was at secondary school. Our families became friends soon after we moved to Malvern.
Nico and my dad would hang out together on Tuesdays, when I, my mum and Nico’s wife Daphne went off to choir. Their evenings involved wine, sometimes gruesome films, arguments that they both enjoyed a lot. And probably much more…I wasn’t there to see.
After Mum and Dad moved up to Scotland, Dad would still phone Nico. In the last few months, when we knew that Nico had terminal cancer, Dad continued to phone on Tuesday nights.
No one wants an ending, but we all have one anyway. In Nico’s case, huge numbers of family and friends came to say goodbye, from many different countries. We had time with him in April, and had to say our goodbyes face to face at that point, but I’m glad Dad continued to speak to him.
“Hello my girl…” was Nico’s regular greeting. It seems strange to think that I won’t be greeted in that way again - I even hear him say it when I think of him tonight. Goodbye, my father’s friend, and also mine, I say. Hail and farewell, ave atque vale.
October 25th, 2007
Fog has set in today, thickening by the minute as I ate my breakfast banana. (Yes, I also do brunch bananas, and other alliterative fruit.)
This was really just a chance to write about fog, or ‘pea soupers’ as they were called in London in the 19th century. Given all the pollution then, a fog mixing with it could be very nasty then. A bit like photochemicals and sunlight in LA these days, but without the stovepipe hats.
Equally, a chance to play with formats for titles, ’Of Mice and Men’ being the original.
But fog might equally describe feelings about work. We have a new team structure. New colleagues ready to get going. And how is it meant to work? Unclear.
To go for another title, not so much a need for ‘parting the waves’ as thinning the fog. The trouble is, I’m less prepared to accept it all than I used to be, or to put myself forward to do the fog thinning.
The other thing is that with these new colleagues, work load is going down (or is meant to be), which suddenly allows other vistas to open up in what has been called (at times laughingly) my home life. This is not because I don’t want a home life incidently - in fact, the distraction from work is all the greater because there has been so much time away from doing my own thing.
Maybe it’s a chance for yet more cooking (back to the peas and soup). Or blogging. Or writing other things. Or maybe just time to see where the wind’s blowing, so to speak.
October 24th, 2007
We’re told that inspiration strikes in unlikely places. So today, while hanging up the washing, came up with a new pun on the former UN Secretary General. I thought it could come in useful for someone who is trying to be very diplomatic, and has big intentions, but is limited to operating in (rural?) Scotland.
Now I’m sure there aren’t lots of occasions where those options combine, although it might have been an option for my grandfather, who came from Skye, and went on to be a diplomat.
I digress. The main thing that came to me, just after feeling smug at this combination, was the sinking feeling that someone, somewhere, must have spotted this, and got there before me, probably while Perez de C himself was still in the job.
This is the trouble. There are all kinds of nice potential titles out there, with wordplay, puns even, and I have the awful suspicion that someone else has got there before me. Perhaps the best option is to keep a list as they occur to me, test them out, and perhaps do a google search to see if anyone else has used the same.
It probably says more about a) the non-phonetic nature of English writing, which allows you to have various phrases that are written differently but sound alike b) the prevalence of puns in British newspaper articles and c) my own fondness for wordplay.
Now all I need is another useful phrase to round off the post, but perhaps I’ll save it for another title…
October 23rd, 2007
This is by way of some catch up from our holiday in Poland - various ideas for blog posts at the time.
For the uninitiated, I spent two chunks of time in Poland: six months in my gap year, working on the outskirts of Warsaw in a school for the blind; then ten months teaching English in Legnica, a small town near the border with Germany, after graduating from university.
Our visit to Poland this summer was a chance to revisit some old haunts - we even went back to the school for the blind, which I hadn’t visited for twelve years - and also get a sense for how Poland is doing now it’s part of the EU etc.
One feature that struck me this time was that pavement cafes are on the up. In particular, ones with large sun umbrellas advertising one of the main beers, Zywiec.
When I was in Poland in the past, this kind of ‘cafe society’ was not much in evidence. By the time I was in Legnica, ten years ago, a cafe in town occasionally managed some green sun umbrellas for Hortex, one of the brands of fruit juice. Hortex bars - juice bars! - were kind of trendy then, and an alternative to heavy drinking in a regular bar.
The nearby city of Wroclaw had an ‘Out of Africa’ cafe, which my discerning teacher friend Beata took me to, and this seemed to be the height of aspirations. (There were also standard German cafes in Gorlitz, the split border town, where Poles from Legnica and the surroundings went to do tax free shopping, rather than pay more in Wroclaw.)
Admittedly, this time we were mostly in big cities, or with places which had tourists, so there was probably more reason for expecting the pavement cafes. But it’s part of the visual landscape I expect in other countries, even see at times in the UK, and now, it seems, in Poland too.
Poland can do hot summers. It does a good line in hanging out in the park. It’s good for pavement cafes too. With the added advantage that the beer is just as cheap as in the ’standard’ European countries I’d expect to see the cafes, but sometimes even cheaper…what’s not to like? And when we were in the mountain resort of Zakopane, with afternoon storms quite frequent on hot days, the umbrellas were just the thing for keeping out of the rain. Sorted.
October 22nd, 2007
All of a sudden, quite a lot of new stuff coming up all at the same time…
I’ve been on the singing team at church for quite a while - not bad as a way to be involved, and more creative than cleaning the loos. (If you’ve come up with a creative way of cleaning loos, let me know. Although it may depend on what state the loo was in to start with. Maybe we’ll leave that one there…) This means I turn up around once a month, practise the songs with the band, learn any new ones, and sing with the rest of the band during the morning service.
This morning, things felt a big sluggish, and I could feel myself getting a bit miffed, because we were singing some good stuff about God. There are usually gaps for people to sing out their own songs to God (ie made up on the spot, though usually familiar words), and all of a sudden I found myself doing this.
Now you might think that if I could sing into a microphone in front of others, it wouldn’t be such a big deal to do this. But it’s bit nerve wracking, particularly with the thought “Is this right? Is this what God wants to say at this point?” And I don’t want to sing platitudes for the sake of it, just because there’s a gap.
I was almost literally shaking by the end of it…but I also knew that it had all come from God. Because the uncertainty went, the words were there, the tune was there, and somehow, I also knew how to lead it back in so that others could sing bits of it too.
Why write about this? Because it’s another mark of what God has been changing in me. I love music, I’ve sung or played for ages. But it’s taken nearly ten years to break through to this in what is my familiar church, the place where all the significant things have happened since I became a Christian.
Coming home afterwards, I spoke on the phone to Dan’s mum, and was mentioning a group I’ve been to one life stages. Talking to another person in the group, they had also experienced changes, confusion, but a greater creativity coming with it. It’s something I’ve found too, that’s moved me on to getting this laptop and writing. But to gain this for something else that’s important to me…I didn’t hope for it. I didn’t ask for it. But I’m certainly grateful.
Will I do it again? Perhaps the more important issue is: am I prepared for God to do it again? I think the answer has to be yes.
Will I go along with Him? If He can help me, and show me now, the hardest step has already been done.
October 21st, 2007
I can’t let this splurge of Dan-posts go by without saying how much I love our new bathroom. That it was assembled with great care by Olly and Artur in August while we were in Poland shouldn’t make you think I wasn’t appreciative then. The time that has passed hasn’t dulled my enthusiasm. It is a joy to behold.
That Alison and I chose all the things to go in it and designed it to within centimetres shouldn’t detract from how chuffed we are with the result. I’m used to planning and designing something in two dimensions, but it’s the first time that I’ve used that architectural training to take a plan into 3D. I must say, it’s pretty good.
So, if you want a peaceful bath in a boutique setting, bring your Moulton Brown toiletries and we’ll supply the hardware (bathroom) and software (Egyptian cotton towels) and you can enjoy light green reflective tiles and recessed dimmer lighting. Or if you want a similar look, we’ll let you have our list of suppliers. Pictures to come soon. Maybe.
October 20th, 2007
Okay, so I admit it. I’m a Mac Geek.
I’ve had two weeks where I’ve bought an iPod (Black, Classic, 80Gb), visited the Apple store in Glasgow and resolved to get Leopard as soon as it comes out. For those who don’t know what Leopard is, don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you.
The fact is that Macs have made my life easier. I had a rare moment a couple of weeks ago while writing an important proposal when my MacBook froze (ie crashed) and I thought I had lost an hour of pretty cogent, reasoned argument about why a company should choose Inigo.
I recovered my work, but I was a little shaken. It was like the time when I realised that one of my favourite teachers at school was able to make mistakes. It was a bit unreal and I didn’t want to admit to myself that Macs are really just cool PCs.
Sorry Steve, I don’t like writing that, but it’s true. Beneath the gloss, beneath the usability, a MacBook is still a personal computer, even if it’s not running on DOS/Windows. Machines aren’t invincible. To add insult to injury, my iPod crashed within a week of bringing it home, but that too is because it’s a machine.
We place far too much trust in machines, even cool ones that save us time and make things better. It will be nice to spend a couple of weeks away where the only machines I’m trusting in are ones that run on rails.
October 20th, 2007
So, it’s that time of year again; heading off to somewhere sunny and/or friendly for my birthday. How I’ve managed to escape having a 30-something birthday party is mainly down to getting out of the country. Perhaps I’ll stick around for number 35 (Oct 31st 2008 - will take bookings online), and we can celebrate then.
As we’re due to be in the South of France from next weekend for a week, Alison suggested that we head to Monte Carlo - the seat of the principality of Monaco - for my birthday. Top idea and somewhere that I’ve wanted to visit since I was 12 and heard all about it from my best friend at school.
He had lived there from 7-11 while his dad worked for Barclays. The enduring image was that his school playground was on the roof of a fifteen storey building and I’m going to try and seek it out. Google Earth may be useful too.
At the age of 12 my over-active, unrealistic expectation would have had me relaxing on a motor yacht in the harbour and living it up by my mid-30s. Life is harder than that, though a picnic on the side quayside is fine. The challenge will be finding a baguette that doesn’t break the bank.
This time next week, we’ll be looking out over the Med. If that doesn’t keep me going this week, I don’t know what will.
October 20th, 2007
I’m sorry. I’ve not been away. I’ve been busy.
Some would think that this is Alison’s blog and Alison’s alone. It is not! Let me squash those rumours right here, right now. She does a good job though, don’t you think?! I enjoy reading her posts much more than my own.
I wrote a little while ago of building blogs for clients and not having much time for this one. Well, that’s come full circle and I’ve been told by a number of people that I need to blog more, if only for work and to show that I can and do write posts.
We’re off on holiday next week, so I intend to say “I’m still here” and post a few before it’s head down and work full tilt up to Christmas. Yes, Christmas, it’s not far now. Birthday first, can’t think about Dec 25th until my birthday is done. Cue next post…
October 20th, 2007
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