Lakeland and other stories

Back now from a pleasant week off over half term. Did a lot of miles but had a good time.

First trip was to a place in Dorset where M and I are going with her school and 60-odd kids next February. It was quite nice though a long way from civilisation. Nicer than Sayers Croft earlier this year which had a real 'nissen huts in the pishing rain' feel to it. This is an old Manor house that has been converted and extended, and looked really pretty. The programme of events looks good also and there is a big lounge room for the adults to repair to and drink booze. Winner! How we are going to get down there in a double decker coach I don't know - the roads don't look wide enough!

From thence on to Wales to see the out-laws and watch the RWC final. Disappointing for England in the end but we were such a limited team (excellent in some areas but dismal in others) that it's probably a good thing in the end that we lost. Despite by ‘bok colleagues predictions they never got anywhere near the try line unlike us (damn Aussie TV refs) but in the end we had ridden our luck and bloody-mindedness as far as it would go. A proper defence of the title though, and a big hearty HA HA to the All Blacks. See you in 4 years! It also struck me how many of the national coaches got the boot during this competition. Obviously the major scalp was Graham Henry but the Aussie, French and Welsh national coaches all got the push, and I think there were others. Incredible. There were some suggestions in the national press this weekend that Brian Ashton should go also but I'm not sure on that. It may have been player power and siege mentality that got us to the final but the coach's role in organising and motivating should not be underestimated. Maybe see how we get through the next 6 Nations, but I dislike dropping national coaches so frequently. Interestingly, my father-in-law was supporting England on the night (there's no great love for the 'boks in Wales) as were a few others, painful though it was for them. Made a nice change and should be accepted with good grace and in the spirit it was intended.

From there up the spine of England to the Lake District for a couple of nights. Beautiful place, here's a piccie:

The hotel prices up there are staggering, though there is quite a lot of choice. We ended up in an OK but old fashioned hotel at the bottom of lake Windermere. It was a bit Fawlty Towers, if Manuel had been replaced by Eastern Europeans. Service was friendly but patchy, though the food was perfectly serviceable, the pool was the size of a postage stamp. The price was right though and it did OK for a couple of nights. The lakes themselves are lovely and we had a pleasant day driving up and down. Busy place, though. I took M to the Lakeland HQ, her mothership for kitchen and gift related tat. It’s quite a cool building though it’s infested with OAP’s. It has a garden on the roof and blends nicely into the landscape. Worth a visit if you can stand the smell of Werthers originals and the appalling parking/driving habits of the older generations.

All in all we were glad to get home finally having racked up 1000 miles in 6 days. Now back at work into one of the busiest weeks I have had in a while.

Weekends are too short...

Had a decent weekend, happily spending most of it with M apart from the rugby. Fab match, watched in a packed pub with great atmosphere in Guildford. England deservedly made it through to the final, and if we can defend the way we did vs France and Australia, with a bit of luck we can win the whole shebang.

I'll actually be in Wales with the in-laws for the final, which will be interesting. I'm promised a few English to watch it with, fortunately, or I could be a lonely voice cheering for the boys in white!

We had a visit from my old pal Richard and his kid, Daniel, 7 and a bit months old and full of giggles and drool. Mostly drool. M has been suffering a cold but brightened up considerably when Daniel arrived, and understandably so. Cute kid, fortunately looks more like his mum than his dad (hi Rich!).

Finally an overdue band rehearsal on Sunday night. As we are now down to just the five of us, it was a singing rehearsal for us fellas who had previously just stood at the back and strummed our guitars. Now we are coming out, blinking, into the semi-spotlight, and singing harmonies! It certainly makes the experience a lot more trying. I'm not sure I can manage to play guitar, remember what I'm playing AND sing and remember the words all at the same time! Good job we've got a few months to iron it out before the next gig - progress was slow on some of those numbers.

Ahahahhahahaha

Looks like my £5 is safe after the spectacular win by France in Cardiff last night. Well done les Bleus. The 'boks overcame Fiji OK and should have a clear run to the final. Guess I'm feeling lucky.

Had our Saturday night gig in Baskingstoke cancelled - shame as that was going to be our last gig of the year. Poor old Jules had her wisdom teeth out during the week and she's still in a lot of pain and discomfort from the painkillers. Hopefully she'll be OK for a rehearsal next week, gotta work on our harmonies as we are now without Sal on the bv's.

Saturday is coming...

Big day in the Rugby World Cup coming up tomorrow. Firstly, England get a chance at salvation playing Australia, and France get a similar opportunity to turn their fortunes around against the AB's. Strangly, possibly the most important match France have played to date in their World Cup Campaign will be played in the Millenium Stadium. If that doesn't show how much back-scratching goes on in the upper echelons of Rugby Union I don't know what does!

Kind of glad to see that Andy Farrell won't be on the field for England on Saturday. His try last week notwithstanding, I fail to rate him as a Union player. He's tough and has that killer look in his eyes but he can't boss the game well enough and fails to spark anything. Ollie Barkley should be the man on, Mike Catt to come on for the last 15mins only if it looks like we might actually win.

England winning would be a massive upset - we've been consistently for a few years now, though there are a few green roots showing now Ashton is in charge. We might have been in a stronger position if Ashton had come in before the rot set in under Robinson but frankly who knows, the younger guys have been slow coming into the squad and we're still fielding guys past their prime. Wilko has looked good on and off over the tournament however, and that boot of his is still a potent weapon. Oh, and Gomersall (sp?) at Scrum Half, please.

As for the AB's, I now have a vested interest in France rediscovering their cutting edge. My recently relocated from NZ brother has bet me £5 that the AB's will win the competition. My money's on the 'boks. The AB's are formidable in strength and depth and Dan Carter is a genius, but I have hopes for French flair and I think the crowd in Wales will be behind Les Bleus... as anyone who has been in the Millenium stadium when Wales are playing can testify, it's a potent force having the Welsh singing you on. That's how I explain the last 6 nations, anyway.

Poor old Wales, though (snigger). No, really, they can be so good but they lack discipline and the lionisation of rugby players in wales stops them being a coherent unit. They are their own worst enemy sometimes.

Come on England!

Memo to self

For crying out loud, never 'don't tell' your significant other something. It'll come back and make you feel like the scum of the earth.

If you read this, M, I'm really sorry. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing but I was wrong. I will remember.

I may never find the words to tell you how much you mean to me. I'll keep searching for them, inside and out, but in the meantime I will let my actions do the talking. I will not stop looking for ways to make you happy and to make you smile. I will not stop trying to be a better husband to you and a more thoughtful person.

Sunset over Battersea

I've been out of the office for a couple of days attending meetings and a conference in London. I made sure I was in town early both days so I got to enjoy the view of the sun rising over Wimbledon and setting over Battersea as I navigated the treacherous environs of South West Trains there and back. Both views are strangely evocative, especially at this time of year - the sunlight is positively golden, and it makes South London look almost beautiful.

Fighting for a seat , it occured to me that public transport in London and the SE is in a no-win situation. There are trains every 4 minutes from my local station into Waterloo (many of them direct or only stopping at Clapham) and yet they were all full to a pretty uncomfortable level. I seriously doubt that the network could physically handle any more trains, and though going faster would help, that isn't the issue either. The issue is the sheer number of people who commute into London from the South East - the concentration of business and services in the Capital is effectively destroying the infrastructure built to support it. The roads are the same - building more won't help, buses don't go to the places we need to go and suffer the same problems as trains. Maybe the answer is to try and disperse some of that high-intensity economic activity over a wider area, to lower the density and reduce the need to all be within one small area. However, that's counter-productive as the employment provided by the service industries to the businesses keeps the city running - recycling and spreading the wealth and pushing on the economy. It's reached a kind of black hole effect where the inertia of the city's economic might creates more commuters, which drives on the economy and creates more commuters etc. etc. Clearly the future lies in matter transporters - all of the movement, none of the mess. Come on, science!

Very glad I had the Blackberry to hand as work has gone completely bonkers the last few days - suddenly a lot of activity on things I thought were dead, and we're clearing away a lot of the fog and confusion around our major project. The news isn't all good, but we are making progress of a kind. Also finding myself in demand for meetings and conference calls, which is nice but a little wearying!

Hopefully a quiet weekend ahead, going with M to a place they are planning to take the schoolkids to in a few months (M is a teacher at a local school, teaching year 4) tomorrow but doing as little as possible the rest of the time - though might go the Gym on sunday.

Lessons in (Mis) Management

Well, the wind had clearly blown through my town yesterday, it even managed to move the shed which had a load of stuff in it. Good job we didn't have the patio umbrella up or I'm sure it'd be in the next county.

Whatever the polar opposite of management is, that is what I'm experiencing today. Typically, it's always at review time that it becomes a) painfully obvious that both the big and small team management things are not happening, and b) it's somehow the team member's fault and up to us to fix it. I feel as if I'm living in a Dilbert cartoon.

Right, apparently I should at some point have written a personal development plan with my manager. Since that didn't happen, do I make one up and pretend or just put 'not applicable'. I can't even remember what my objectives were supposed to be! Aaargh. How can it be that something that will affect my pay/bonus and more importantly my manager's pay/bonus is so far down their priority list, and yet still my problem! I suppose I should look at it as an opportunity to stretch my creative writing skills.

Going to the gym tonight and find myself strangely looking forward to it. Not sure why, really, exercise is a pretty tedious thing to do but there is that buzz from it at the end.

I watched Nigella Lawson's 'Nigella Express' last night. The conceit is that it's gourmet food prepared quickly for people who don't have the time and inclination to spend hours at the stove and counter-top. It tries to capture some of Jamie Oliver's old joie de vie and combine it with Nigella's coquettish charms. She spent most of the programme last night squeezing citrus fruit and licking her fingers. I'm surprised that the news on Tuesday mornings is taken up with the number of middle aged men who had heart-attacks watching this gastro-porn. I'll say this for her, she makes the link between food and sex VERY clear. Last week she picked up a lemon juicer, turned to camera and said 'I love a good impaling!' I mean, wtf?

Watching it for the comedy value (honest, guv) the same things niggle me each week. Firstly, Nigella is pretty wooden on screen. Secondly, the idea that she is some sort of busy 'working woman', juggling career, family and cooking is just too fake to bear. It's patronising in the extreme and makes you doubt everything - are those really her kids? Are those people actually friends or just actors? The conceit is that she is cooking in her home for herself and her family/friends and frankly I don't believe a word of it. M seems able to suspend her disbelief (of course a busy working mum has time to prepare an entire freezer of 'time saving' ingredients! She does that in the hours between eleventy-twelve and nixteen) but it's almost unbearable. It must be the same sort of suspension of belief that gets M through 'romantic comedies'...

Whoosh!

Update on the minging weather from this morning - it would appear according to the BBC that at the time I was heading through town to drop M off, Farnborough, not far to the south, was being hit by a tornado.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7010172.stm

Can I have a new head please?

Monday rolls round again and it's minging out there in darkest Berkshire. Why is it that when it's a bit wet on the road, nobody can drive properly? I'm a fairly conservative driver but good grief, you don't need to do 20mph all the way along a dual carriageway just 'cos it's a bit wet.

Pretty good weekend, all told. Particularly enjoyed a visit to one of the Gaucho Argentinian restaurants in London on Saturday night to mark the 31st birthday of good friend Si. Really nice steak, stunning wine, lovely. It was absolutlety stygian in there though - had to find the way to and from the table by braille. Not sure what they're trying to hide (apart from the gasp-inducingly expensive wine list) but they must have to employ owls for waiting staff. We had a really good night though, and (as per normal) we were the last to leave the restaurant.

One bit of bad news from Sunday - the band I play in has lost a member, backing singer Sally has found that she really can't make the commitment to us and isn't enjoying herself as much as she used to. We shall miss her lovely harmonies and frankly bonkers dancing. We had a positive rehearsal, but we are running up against issues on how to get enough gigs to make it worthwhile, and what new songs we can introduce to liven up the set and appeal to a function/party crowd - rather than the aging working-mens club audience. The W-M club scene is frankly moribund and not really booking bands anymore (not that we're expensive). The smoking ban, great news for us, will hit them hard now that the weather is changing. We need to re-position the band to get other gigs to make up the numbers.

The start, or possibly the beginning...

Having promised myself to do this for a couple of months now, I am now blogged up.

You can read my profile to find out a few not terribly relevant things about me, so I thought maybe I'd start by talking about some of the things going on in my world today.

I'm unreasonably pleased with the fact that I have managed to get myself a Blackberry for work - trying to manage my diary and contacts on an ancient Nokia phone was not going well and I'm quite excited to have upped my gadget-count with a shiny new bit of kit. I haven't worked out how to do everything with it so far but gosh it's exciting.

It's been a long working week and I'm quite glad it's now friday. It's going to be a busy weekend, though, with friends, family and a band rehersal on Sunday. I play guitar in a covers band, mostly playing Working Mens Clubs - subject of a future post!

My wife (hereafter known as M) and I have just joined a local gym after years of sloth. We had our health checks done yesterday by a friendly but sickeningly healthy individual called Chris. Unsurprisingly we're both pretty unfit (despite M spending all her time on her feet during the day) but we're going to start getting fitter, dammit! The club itself is quite nice and not too intimidating for us so hopefully we'll be able to stick at it. We're there again tonight for an induction session.

I get the feeling this is going to be one of those days where not a lot happens. Friday's can be like that around here as people 'work from home' or attend 'meetings' near their homes! I can't be too holier-than-thou, however, I'd do it myself if I could!

I'll work up some ire on the world later today and post a bile-filled entry on the cretins we have as a political class. Need more tea first.