February 2010

February 28, 2010

There’s an upper limit to how good you’re going to feel after tasting fourteen different wines, but happily I think I’m pretty close to that limit…;-) A couple of nurofen and a glass of water before bed saw me right…

Completed my final birthday preparations this afternoon with an expedition to Muswell Hill to buy Lyra a teaset, sort out party bag supplies and pick up a few groceries.

Went round to Pete and Pasc’s for tea. With the path closed, they’ve gone from being our nearest neighbours to being a bit of a trek away. Pasc had a couple of little presents for Lyra and a birthday cake as well, which was sweet of her

For dinner I made a chickpea & courgette filo pie. To be honest, it wasn’t a recipe that called out to me, but had a lot of courgettes to use up, and chickpeas are a big favourite of the girls… It went down surprisingly well — at least the filo and the chickpeas — I had to pick the courgette pieces and cumin seeds out of Lyra’s portion.

Baked the birthday cake and a batch of mini meringues, got the girls to bed early while Adam did the present wrapping, and finished making the birthday card… At last it was time to crack a couple of beers and settle down to watch the men’s hockey final between Canada and the USA.

It was a very tense game — Canada led from the start, but the Americans always looked like scoring, and in the last thirty seconds they pulled their goalie and managed to equalise. I had a sinking feeling about the sudden death overtime, but Crosby finally came good and whipped in a stunning goal. The best team won, but I’m with Donald Sutherland who said: “May the best team win….and if the other team is the best team I hope they lose!”

February 27, 2010

I went for a run this morning — for the first time in a couple of weeks… My ankle was twingeing most of the time, which is too bad. Kind of dispiriting to have it play up even after ‘resting it’ for two weeks. I’ll have to tape it next time. Still, it was good to get out there again…

Went to a wine tasting evening at the school, organised by Kiran, one of the dad’s in Nova’s class. The junior hall was arranged with tables of eight. Kiran and another dad called Adam had organised a series of wines in ‘flights’ of three to help us appreciate the differences between them.

The tasting was followed by an auction for thirty donated items — including a day’s fly fishing, two Arsenal tickets, a case of French wine, a session of Botox, and a new Mini Cooper (reserve price £15,000). Needless to say, we didn’t bid on anything…

February 26, 2010

We have intermittent Internet access today. Even though it wasn’t a work day, I found it really inconvenient not to be connected. I kept going to do things like renew my library books online, only to discover I wasn’t able to. It really brings home how dependent we’ve become on it…

Played an interesting game with Lyra on the piano this morning. “Play me a happy song,” I said and she tinkled around on the higher notes. “Play me something sad,” I said, which resulted in some dolorous thumping at the opposite end. “Now I’m going to play something jazzy!” she announced, launching into a little Thelonious Monk. (I exaggerate, but her efforts definitely had a jazzy feel…)

The boiler guy turned up this afternoon to try to diagnose what’s going wrong. He spent about three minutes with his head inside the boiler before announcing that he’d found the problem. “It’s the expansion vessel,” he said, explaining how the offending vessel has a membrane across the middle separating water from air. When the water heats it expands and swells into the air half; when it cools the membrane returns to normal. Apparently our membrane has a leak in it, and both sides of the vessel are filled with water. He’s ordered us a new part for next week…

February 25, 2010

Almost cried when Lyra came in at 5am this morning. I’d forgotten to sew Nova’s badges onto her new gymnastics leotard, which I’d promised to do, and ended up doing it in bed. Combined with the late dinner of apple and cheese, seemed to take ages to fall asleep. Well past 1am…

The main focus of the morning was getting Adam Jr to Euston. Gathered up his belongings from around the house, packed him a lunch, woke him up a few times, and it was time to go. I trailed along behind him, wanting to make sure that he knew the way to the station, how to buy a tube ticket, follow signs to the platforms at Euston, and he did absolutely fine. So maybe next time he’ll make his way to us, rather than being met…

Lyra is finally on the mend, though she still has diarrhoea (which she calls wee-poos). Adam home as girls finishing (or not in Lyra’s case) their dinner. Sounds like his pitch to L’Oreal went well, though they are up against French incumbents, so it’ll be quite a coup if they get it…

February 24, 2010

Lyra’s a bit better today — she’s gradually returning to her usual, stroppy, offbeat, irrational self, though her tummy is still far from settled…

I was meant to attend an away day on electronic dissemination, but opted to stay in the office to support my team, some of who are meeting with the consultant today. The team meeting was a bit challenging — understandably people are feeling anxious and upset. I’m not as experienced a line manager as Tina, but I think I handled it well enough in my own way. For all the many advantages of job sharing, it can be difficult to be in constant comparison to another person…

Adam is in Paris this evening, preparing for a pitch at L’Oreal tomorrow morning. He’d arranged to take Nova and Adam B to a circus thing at Jackson’s Lane, which I was now landed with. It was the last thing I felt like doing, but I ended up quite enjoying it. There was an amazing bit where the two women hung from a double cloud swing — two drooping “u’s” of rope, one a few feet higher than the other — and moved back and forth between the two, twining their bodies around each other like vines…

February 23, 2010

Lyra is still feeling sick, and wants to go to the doctor. It’s funny the way kids put such faith in the doctor. I can remember little Wade wailing, “Call the doctor!” whenever he was sick or injured. I think she’s likely got a norovirus, but I secured her an appointment in the late afternoon.

The doctor didn’t seem particularly concerned either, but said to come back if she hadn’t improved in 48 hours. (That’s a question I’ve learned to always ask: “What should trigger another visit?”) The doctor things that Lyra may be prone to convulsions — which often start about this age apparently — and that we should take care to control her temperature when she has a fever.

Went out for dinner at Morgan M, a local French restaurant whose chef aims to deliver high end food at neighbourhood prices. It’s not cheap, but for the standard of cooking, I think it’s very good value.

Once I’d ascertained there weren’t any really gamey items (or small birds like quail — I really don’t like eating small birds) on the “winter menu”, I opted for that and left the chef to get on with it. A tasty and beautifully presented succession of soup, terrine, fish, meat and dessert followed…

February 22, 2010

Had our annual team away day today. What with my training course and the stuff going on at work, I hadn’t done much in way of preparing for it. We gave the managers responsibility for organising it this year, and they did a great job.

Our director popped in at lunch time to make a formal announcement about the pending review. That went down like a lead balloon, but once we’d spent a good half hour discussing it we were able to return to our agenda for the day.

Lyra is sicker than she was yesterday. She’s still not able to keep food or water down, and has quite a high temperature. At bedtime, her limbs started shaking uncontrollably. It wasn’t like shivering — she was shaking quite slowly and with relatively wide movements, but obviously had no control over it.

It was enough to send me to the internet to look at symptoms, and ultimately to call NHS Direct. The consultant we spoke to described it as a fever tremor, a symptom that sometimes occurs before febrile convulsions. He suggested we take her into the hospital, but I decided that while she was sleeping peacefully, she was better off at home in her own bed…

February 21, 2010

Lyra woke the household at 4am, calling out for us. It was so dark that we couldn’t even find the way out of our room without turning on the light. That’s what the problem turned out to be — the bedroom she was in was pitch dark — I don’t think she’s ever been somewhere so dark. I turned a light on in the hallway and lay down beside her until she settled again…

After a leisurely start, we set off on a cross-field walk to the local pub for lunch. Nova and Lyra both ordered the kids’ roast, which was lovely. (I know because Lyra refused to eat her meat or cauliflower.) I ordered the risotto, which unfortunately was underseasoned. No amount of salt added at the table can put that right — the salt needs to be inside the rice, not on top of it. Happily, the lemon posset I ordered for dessert made up for it…

We were cutting it fine by the time we got back to their house. Leapt in the car and careened off down the twisting B roads towards the motorway. No surprise that Lyra was chucking up before we hit the M4. She did an impressive job of catching most of it in a ziplock bag…

Lyra dozed off afterwards, and we had a smooth run to London. Did it in great time, but it still wasn’t possible to swing by the house and get to Euston in time to meet Adam B’s train.

Dropped my Adam off at Euston and drove the girls home. I’d sorted most of the unpacking by the time he arrived with Adam Jr. Lyra was sick again on the kitchen floor just before dinner, and again in the bath, and twice in bed…

She can’t even keep water down, let alone the medicine we gave her when her temperature started to climb…

February 20, 2010

The first week of my course has left me feeling exhausted — physically and mentally, though probably more mentally. Spent a good hour journalling about all the stuff that went on. It’s going to take a while for me to process it all…

After a slapdash packing job and throwing a bag of popcorn in the microwave for the girls’ car snack, we set off for Harriet’s house in “the crunchyside” as Lyra calls it. Adam had printed off directions from the AA website and spoken to Nick for directions, but we still managed to get lost. Arrived about 20 minutes late in the end…

They had made pizzas for lunch. Nova a real trouper about it (she still doesn’t like pizza). She filled up on green salad to Harriet’s amazement. Went for an afternoon walk with their new(ish) dog. He’s just not getting with the programme — although they’ve had him in obedience school twice, and work on training him every day, he refuses to walk on a lead. Nick had to take him back to the house in the end… Tried a little process consulting on Sarah to help her figure out what to do about the situation. Doggy boot camp seems to be the answer…

Nick and I served up the children’s tea while Adam and Sarah were off attempting more dog training, then Nick ducked back into the kitchen to whip up our dinner. What a guy! He loves his wine as well, so we quaffed a couple of glasses of perfectly chilled French white before eating. And a lovely dessert wine with the home made damson ice cream afterwards…

Settled the little ones for bed first. Lyra was so excited about her first ever sleepover that she’d been in her pyjamas for about three hours before bed time. There was some wrangling over stuffed toys, but after a few Angelina stories I left Lyra and Cecily happily discussing Barbie divvydohs (as Lyra calls them…)

February 19, 2010

Final day of the course… Felt a bit reluctant going in, and that I was keeping my distance. Got me thinking about groups, and how I don’t enjoy them basically. I’m much more of a one-on-one person.

Spent the morning on a right brain exercise to capture a symbol that represents how we want to change. Dimmed lights, soft music, lying on the carpet etc… My symbol turned out to be a window, opening out to a garden beyond.

Our next task was to get busy with scissors, glue, magazines, pens etc and produce a poster based around our symbol. This was then married up with the learning objectives we’d drafted yesterday — I want to contribute more in meetings, be more strategic or whatever.

It initially appeared to me that my poster and my learning objectives were pretty much in opposition to each other. But talking it through with Joyce in a process consulting kind of way, we managed to find a relationship between the two — clarity, seeing the way ahead/out, getting out (or outside myself).

Her symbols were an eagle and an orchid, and we had a fascinating time exploring how those two images related to her life as a Baptist minister. “I have always been a change agent,” Joyce said at one point. I can’t imagine how it would feel to say that about myself — I’m not even a change agent in my own life…

Our final aula got very emotional, and I walked out feeling shattered. Declined to go for a drink with some of my course mates, opting to come home and dump it all on Adam, who’s good at unpicking that kind of thing.

Family dinner at the Weng Wah House in Hampstead in celebration of Chinese New Year, Nova’s half term, reconnecting with my family again after a very full-on and tumultous week…

Our footpath remains closed. Local residents managed to interest a journalist from the Ham and High in the story, and it featured on the front page of this week’s paper. Great photo of a bunch of disgruntled KP oldies looking like they are caged behind the barrier. “Who’d blame the council if they did?” said 80-year-old Joan’s daughter on seeing the photo.

February 18, 2010

Spent most of the day working with the Myers-Briggs type indicator. I’ve done MBTI a couple of times before, so it was no surprise to me when I came out as an INFP — introverted intuitive feeling perceiver. Myers and Briggs divide all personalities into four facets: introverted/extroverted; intuitive/sensing; feeling/thinking; and perceiving/judging. By answering a series of questions, your preference for each facet can be discovered and a personality type determined.

At least once a day, we spend an hour in “aula”, a kind of group encounter session. We sit in a circle and discuss whatever comes into our heads. The idea is to observe the group dynamics and examine our own feelings in the moment. The facilitor will intervene occasionally to comment on something he’s observed, or to try to give us a bit of a steer. Over the past few days, I’ve gotten the feeling that we aren’t quite doing it right, perhaps not being confrontational enough. That changed this afternoon, though it seemed to me that the facilitator deliberately provoked confrontation where none necessarily existed. Left me feeling somewhat pissed off and manipulated…

February 17, 2010

Had a interesting session from a guest lecturer on metaphors today, and how they shape our language and our thinking. He wrapped up his session by telling us a fairy tale:

An aging king has a beautiful, young wife who he regularly leaves at home while out administering his kingdom. One afternoon — bored and alone as usual — she is seduced by a passing musician and runs off with him. The musican cruelly abandons her in the wilderness. She asks her godfather for help getting back to the castle, but when he hears of her infidelity he rejects her. She begs a wandering knight to help, but when he discovers she has no money, he declines to get involved. Travelling alone through the enchanted woods she encounters an evil sorceror and asks for directions. The sorceror deliberately tells her to follow the path that leads to the dragon’s cave, and the dragon promptly eats her. Who is most responsible for her death? Who is least responsible? Discuss.

Very interesting to discover the wide range of responses to that question, and the reasons for choosing as they did…

Got home before 8pm this evening — it was nice to see the girls before they went bed for a change… This course is taking over my life this week…

February 16, 2010

Another long day, much of which was devoted to practicing “process consulting”. From what I can tell, process consulting is a way of helping others discover the solution to their own problems by asking them a series of open questions to unlock their thinking. It felt a bit awkward at first, but by the end of the afternoon I was starting to get the hang of it.

Today’s session ended with a visit to the National Theatre, where we saw The Power of Yes, David Hare’s new play on the financial crisis. It’s had great reviews, but I was really tired and am pretty sure I dozed off for a bit. I hope we’re not quizzed on it tomorrow — this overachieving lot are sure to have endless brilliant insights…

February 15, 2010

First day of my Kings Fund “Leadership for Senior Managers” course. The 10:30am start looked leisurely on paper, but the morning evaporated somehow, and I had to scramble to be there on time.

After some introductory remarks about the aims of the course, we broke into threes and were set our first task: take a piece of flipchart paper and fifteen minutes and prepare a short presentation of your life story. Made me realise I’ve never actually thought of my life like that…

The afternoon was spent at the National Gallery discovering “new ways of seeing”. Our guide led to a series of paintings which we analysed without reading anything written in the captions. An interesting exercise to form your own ideas about what might be going on first, before learning what the experts have to say about it. Also interesting to hear the various interpretations of others in the group. There are thirteen of us in total — nine women and four men.

At the end of the day we were each given an envelope with £20 and told to go out for dinner together. Ended up at Carluccios. It’s not easy to get a table for thirteen in central London at no notice, and we spent an hour in the bar before they managed to arrange it. They seem a nice bunch of people — though who knows what we’ll think of each other after four intensive weeks together…

February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Our day started with our now traditional family Valentine’s breakfast: heart-shaped toast, mixed berries and juice. There were chocolates for the girls and Adam, and bath candles and a little pill box for me.

I was feeling a bit ropey after our big night at Ben’s. Cried off attending Jenny’s art opening in the far reaches of High Barnet, Adam and Nova went off and I stayed home with Lyra, watching endless Olympic ski coverage on the telly…

February 13, 2010

Watching Olympic opening ceremony highlights with the girls this afternoon stirred up gusts of emotion and maybe homesickness. It also brought home to me how little relevance Canada has for them. Quite a lonely experience actually…

Went round to Ben Schneider’s for dinner this evening. The menu he posted on his Facebook page yesterday had us salivating in advance:

• barbet grillé avec fenouile gratinée
• thon au poivre avec osso bucco des carottes
• pommes boulangère et des epinards
• petit chocolats avec pralines et compote des oranges sanguines

The food was as delicious as always, and the osso bucco of carrots was a particular triumph. In addition to his prodigious skills in the kitchen, Ben is now becoming a wine buff as well. He served an amazing Pomerol with the pepper tuna.

Ben is newly single (and back on the Internet dating market), but his fab new cat Marvin is providing some companionship. An enormous, swaggering, black and white tom with a head like a battering ram, and a meow that would strip paint, Marvin is the Charles Bronson of the cat kingdom. I adored him instantly, and it made me realise that Cleo’s a bit of a dud in the cat department… Home drunk and late…

February 12, 2010

Managed to get Lyra into her ballet cardigan this morning, in readiness for our walk to Alice’s house. Though she did wangle an agreement out of me that “on Christmas I won’t wear sleeves!” Nova school is shut for a professional development day, so she came along as well to play with Evelyn.

After a good play/natter with our respective mates, we had a girls’ lunch – jacket potatoes with beans and cheese, green salad. Nice to catch up with Christine. I spent quite a bit of time with her at one time… until Nova’s friendship with Evelyn cooled considerably after the great face biting incident. Now that Alice and Lyra are doing ballet together, we find ourselves having a cup of tea at Jackson’s Lane each Friday afternoon.

February 11, 2010

In preparation for my course next week, I’ve been instructed to ask a range of colleagues what it is like to “be on the receiving end of me”. The feedback I receive will help me to formulate my learning objectives for the programme.

I ended up speaking to Jane (my line manager); Tina (my job share); Simon (a new colleague on the same level as me); and Donna (a direct report). Their feedback was quite interesting:

• Jane: I’m reflective, and that can be a good thing; I should be more confident about voicing my opinion in meetings; watch that I don’t overanalyse situations and leap to conclusions; because Tina talks so much more than I do, I need to be aware that people may think she’s speaking for both of us, when she isn’t
• Tina: I have an air of quiet, expert authority; I am measured, thoughtful, and take an even-handed in approach; I am very fair; I ‘do the right thing’ with regard to my actions and how I treat people; I avoid conflict (procrastinate, slide around it); my communications skills vary (especially when I’m avoiding something); I need to build my inner confidence
• Simon: I prefer to communicate in writing instead of verbally; I could contribute more to meetings because I generally have good ideas
• Donna: I can be difficult to read; I am honest and trustworthy; I would never repeat anything told to me in confidence; I am thoughtful and considered (not kneejerk in my responses); I only say what I think, but it can seem over-thought and can be daunting to challenge me; I take charge in an authoritative way; I’m good at providing leadership and making decisions

So some consistency there… It made me realise how seldom (if ever) I ask people what they think of me… Now to turn all that into learning objectives…

February 10, 2010

Had a rotten night’s sleep…Tossed about until gone 1am wrestling with this damn “review”, then Nova came in at 2am, having wet her bed. It was 4am before I managed to fall asleep again…

Got in early to discuss the brief with Tina. Spent a half hour editing it together in advance of a meeting with our manager. It didn’t go that badly — she thinks we’re being paranoid and suspicious, we think she’s either naïve or disingenuous – but we managed to agree a draft we’re happy for her to take back to the other team. It’ll be instructive to see how well it goes down with them…

It’s my last day in the office before my leadership training course next week. Normally, I’d stay late trying to finish everything off, but oddly enough I didn’t feel like it… Walked down to Covent Garden to meet my long lost friend Patrick for a drink. We were good friends at one time, but haven’t seen each other in about ten years. He got a girlfriend who whisked him away from all his London friends. He’s now installed in Surrey, with two kids and a big mortgage, commuting into town where he works in digital television at the BBC.

He doesn’t appear to have changed much – in a good way… We worked our way through a bottle of wine, and caught up on each other’s lives. It was a nice change of gears after all the stress of the work week.

Home in time for a late dinner with Adam — teriyaki salmon and mange tout salad (made my shredding raw mange tout and tossing them in a light dressing). Nice…

February 9, 2010

Prepared a Waldorf salad for my lunch today. I can never eat a Waldorf salad without thinking of the Fawlty Towers sketch. Or a Spanish omelette — if I ever ate Spanish omelettes…;-)

Lyra is extremely averse to wearing sleeves for some reason. We have a daily negotiation around sleeves every morning when I get her dressed. I won’t bother when the weather warms up a bit, but it’s freezing at the moment. “Princesses don’t wear sleeves!” she announced firmly when I suggested a putting a teeshirt under the dress she’d chosen. (Mental note, go through her storybooks to identify images of princesses with sleeves.)

I finished writing up my scoping report from our workshop this afternoon. Just as well… The brief from the “independent” consultant who will be reviewing our digital services came through, and it’s not what we’d signed up for at all. Surprise, surprise… Spent a couple of hours going through it, and produced a plain English translation, a technique that works well on deliberately obfusticating gobbledegook.

February 8, 2010

Woke to the news that the Saints pulled off a big upset in the Super Bowl. I wish we could have stayed up for the second half — I had a feeling that the momentum of the game was shifting…

Another cold day… this has been the bitterest winter I’ve experienced in my fifteen years in the UK. There was snow swirling in the air as I set off for work. Our footpath is still out of commission, and will be at least three more weeks apparently. While it’s a minor inconvenience for us, it’s a major issue for some of the oldies in our street. Taking the road doubles the journey to the village, and the hill is steeper to climb as well…

February 7, 2010

Tired today… In spite of a relatively late night, Lyra came in as early as ever. Adam heroically got up to make the girls pancakes. Amy’s mum collected her about 10:30, just after Adam and Lyra left for church. (Apparently he ended up leading the Sunday school today…)

We got Nova’s homework out of the way — asked to design an invention that would her life easier, she came up with a hamster cage cleaning machine — so she could head off to Fay’s for the afternoon.

Made tacos for dinner. I haven’t cooked them for the girls before, and expected that the meat might be too spicy but it was a great success.

Superbowl Sunday today — New Orleans Saints v Indianapolis Colts… With the time difference, the game started about 11pm. We watched the first half and would happily have watched the rest if it wasn’t a work day tomorrow…

February 6, 2010

Went for a long run this morning. I’ve put my name down for a 10km London run in July, and I’d love to do it in under an hour. That would be a pretty good pace for me. I was hoping that my standard long run round the edge of the Heath would be 10km, but it’s more like 8.5km…

Got the letter confirming Lyra’s place in the school nursery this September — which is great news! With the credit crunch, there is more pressure on state school places than ever before, and our local school is considered a desirable one. We were given a morning slot as well, which is much easier for working parents, especially when you have older children at the school.

Housework extravaganza, which was satisfying, though I never seem to manage to get the whole house clean at the same time — if I wash floors, the bathroom sinks still need doing; if I hoover the whole house, I don’t have time for the dusting etc. And then there’s the “moneysucking messmakers” (to borrow Wade’s description) who come along behind me making mess as fast as I can clean it…

Nova had a sleepover with her friend Amy this evening. I made the best mac and cheese I’ve ever cooked for dinner. After various crafty/messy activities, they settled into the flat to watch Nova’s Anne of Green Gables DVD.

I do feel sorry for Lyra when Nova has friends stay. She is desperate to have her own sleepover. We had a go at organising a sleepover with her imaginary friend Daisy, until Lyra looked up at me and said sadly, “Daisy’s not real you know, mum…”

February 5, 2010

Lyra has been wearing her ballet clothes for the last two days in anticipation of today’s lesson. I had to wash them last night to get the dried Weetabix and other sundry stains off the front.

It is a lovely, warm day, and sunny as well. It’s has been so long since we have had sun and warmth — and it feels great. Passersby were smiling at one another, and insects were dancing in shafts of sunlight on our walk home. Lyra was only moderately underdressed for a change, and instead of grizzling about being cold and tired, she chattered away happily about Miss Julie (her ballet teacher).

Nova sprained her ankle at lunch time. When Adam picked her up this afternoon it was badly swollen, and she couldn’t put her weight on it. I’m quite cross with the school — not only did they fail to inform us, they failed to take any notice of it whatsoever. Adam called to complain in that understated British way of his, which always sounds sort of like praise to me.

Swimming was out of the question… I settled Nova on the sofa with her ankle iced and elevated, but it would have been much better to have treated it at the time. We’ll see how it develops before deciding whether to take her for an x-ray…

February 4, 2010

Went for a good run this morning. I can feel that I’ve lost a little weight, which is always nice! It was a bit warmer for a change, which was nice as well…

Nova felt a bit sick this morning., but didn’t want to miss school Sent her in with a note asking the teacher to keep an eye on her. She may look like a delicate little flower, but she’s tougher than she looks that one…

February 3, 2010

The house at the top of our little footpath has sewage problems. Apparently, in December a great hole appeared in their garden, which swallowed their garden furniture and threatened the foundations of their garage.

The council responded by installing a massive, noisy pump on the footpath with a great hose to replace the leaking sewer pipe. This week they’ve closed off the footpath. Or rather, that’s their intention… I’m still managing to squeeze around the barricades when there aren’t workmen around, but each week they add another piece of screen, or drag in some concrete blocks to make it harder for people to move the obstacles aside.

Had another meeting about the looming “service review” as they are opting to call it. Our suggestion for an independent review is going to be acted on, although it isn’t quite as “independent” as we would have liked. We will have to engage with it in good faith, and make the case for maintain our team and ways of working, but I suspect decisions have already been made…

February 2, 2010

Worked from home today, as per usual for Tuesday. I’d arranged to meet my friend Carol in town for a film at the National Film Institute, but she had to cancel at the last moment. Just as well… I much prefer going out when I’m already in town to shlepping off to the tube after a day working at home.

And it meant that I was home when dad called this evening, so we had a nice catch up. He’s over the nasty cold he caught on his flight back to Canada and sounded pretty perky.

Am getting more frequent Linkedin requests these days. I ignored them initially, but now that Linkedin seems here to stay, I’ve given in and set up a profile. On the plus side, it has reconnected me with a couple of longlost work colleagues, such as my friend Patrick who emailed me today…

February 1, 2010

Rabbits…!
I didn’t say it very first thing, so I guess it doesn’t technically count, but I’m very glad to have January behind us. It always seems such a slog, that first month after the Christmas break. Then, February whisks past and it’s spring!

Or Lyra’s birthday around these parts… She is very aware that her birthday is coming soon, and has requested a “butterfly dress” for her present. No idea if she means a dress with butterflies on it, or if she has something specific in her mind, that will be impossible to realise…