The countdown continues

I am keeping busy with all that a busy working mother, also studying for a MSc degree needs to do as their annual summer holiday approaches. With little more than a month before submission of assignment 3 (5000 words on leadership development) I met with some of my fellow students yesterday for coffee, discussion and inspiration. I was pleased to find that we were all feeling as confused as each other about the whole thing. Not least because none of us had been expecting to have to write such a thing during July and August!. Our session together was really constructive though, coffee and discussion about leadership, education, experiential learning, and how different people experience their learning in different ways took place in cafe Nero before we moved on to the university library to get books (no really they have books there).

For some reason the library has no air conditioning so we each got some suitable volumes and escaped for an al fresco lunch before going our separate ways. I have got lots of ideas now, I am just not going to do much with them till I return from holiday and then will get down to some intense academia.

The rest of the afternoon was meant to have been about doing some work; I have my annual report to finish off, but I found I wasn’t really in the mood and had lots of other stuff to do. Did some internet, telephone and real banking, went to town to buy Euros and also a few items for holiday including some new cropped trousers and a tee shirt, birthday cards and a present for my nephew.

Today I need to do a general shop, plus all the sun cream and toiletries we need, also need to do some housework including the dreaded ironing. Which makes me wonder why I don’t get on with it!

Thursday Thirteen – 27 July 2006

Thirteen Things I hope to do before my next Thursday Thirteen Sort this car out, yesterday when I threatened to cancel, they asked for another 24 hours. That will be up when I finish doing this! Finish my last two days at work for over two weeks. I have been a bit demob happy all week, but who can blame me. Roll on Monday at 5pm Shop for some shorts for teen son. He has grown so much taller in the last year they are all just too short even though he wears them low on the hips (don’t they all?) Buy other stuff that is yet to be put onto a list (things like sun cream, toiletries etc) Get myself some Euros Fly in a plane to Barcelona in Spain Stay in a lovely hotel (heres hoping it is as good as it looks) Eat lots of Spanish food and drink Sangria, Cava and Wine See the sights of Barcelona Travel by car to France (see number 1, and the post below for more details) Watch people go by from the balcony of my apartment Engage myself in French holiday life Read books that have nothing to do with leadership, relax on the beach and swim in the Mediterranean Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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Sometimes blogger is annoying (but then so are car hire companies)

Yesterday I produced a slight rant only to find that there was some kind of technical error going on with Blogger. I have to admit I was in full Mrs Angry flow, and getting it all off my chest was proving slightly satisfying, not being able to post it was to say the least frustrating. So rewriting will likely be a more balanced approach.

We have booked our car hire for Barcelona through a company called Holiday Autos, we have deliberately booked a reasonably large and comfortable car at no small cost (teen son and his cousin are both 6 feet tall), which has been taken from hubby’s credit card about 3 weeks ago. Yesterday the company ring to say the car we had ordered is no longer available. When I spoke to them, I had no idea how easy it might be to rebook with someone else, so at the moment they are checking whether they have a slightly smaller car available at about £80 less. Whatever happens, a complaint will take place. I think the problem with these companies is that they are too big, they are essentially run through call centres and internet bookings and I am not sure they care if they lose a booking because someone else doing a google search will find them and book a car in a few minutes time. This means that while the individual call centre man I spoke to was sympathetic to my plight he really couldn’t have cared less whether I get a car to drive the 2.5 hours from Barcelona to our apartment in France or not. This really is not good enough in my book, and now having seen that other suitable options still exist with other companies, I won’t hesitate to take my business elsewhere!
By the way, did you know that spellcheck here doesn’t recognise the word ‘blogger’!

Thursday Thirteen – 20 July 2006

Thirteen Things I am up to right now

1. Exercise – Keeping the diet fitness thing going, yesterday though I had to go out at 6.30am to find a coolish time.
2. The diet regime – Cheating less and only drinking at the weekend has got to be part of the recipe for success, weigh in on Saturday well tell me if I am doing enough.
3. Getting to work more quickly – the schools have been gradually breaking up for the holidays, by next week more people should be off on holiday too.
4. Thinking about my essay – even reading and making a few notes, but still not made a great deal of progress. I need to take myself in hand on this!
5. Watering the garden with a watering can – we have a hose pipe ban, it is a real pain!
6. Reading up on my guide book to Barcelona, less than 2 weeks to go!
7. Getting my daily fix of Big Brother – mad I know, but what can you do?
8. Buying my vegetables and salad stuff from a local farmers market – I must admit that I had forgotten what vegetables could taste like.
9. Buying my meat from the butcher – Time the supermarket got less money from me, and we had better quality food. Plus a lot of it is cheaper too.
10. Putting off the housework due to the heat – but I guess it will have to be done soon, or else we will be living in a health hazard!
11. Putting off the weeding (as above) – will need to do something at the weekend.
12. Not blogging – have been bad lately, still 2 postings in 2 days isn’t too bad.
13. Trying not to think about the mess that is happening at work- another chief executive briefing next week; lets hope for good news for once!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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If we are getting global warming……..

Perhaps we all need to get air conditioning in the UK, because there is definitely a lack of it. I guess that for most of the time the weather is neither hot nor particularly cold and you don’t need air conditioning for that. But when the temperature hits the 90s well that is hot for us poor old Brits! I know that this is nothing for some of you people from across the pond who don’t even melt when faced with proper hot weather, but I don’t seem designed for this unless I am sitting on a sun bed under an umbrella sipping a cool drink and reading a book. Only 2 weeks till that can happen and counting.

So how is the good old NHS? Well it seems to be hanging on just about. When they announced the possibility of redundancies, people began queuing for pension forecasts to get early retirement. That has really freaked out the powers that be. After all, they go on about the demographic time bomb. You know where half of the staff are so old they will retire within 5 years or something (might be more as writing this off the top of my head). Plus if they suddenly decide they need more staff, who exactly is going to do this stuff? Having said that, there is some really great work going on with clinical service redesign, I am just not sure what is driving it. Is it the wants and needs of patients or the need to save money? We wait to find out!

In our place, the directors are beginning the process of applying for jobs. Well they don’t actually know what jobs they can apply for yet, but they can apply to find out if they are fit to be directors. I could save some people the bother of the application, but sadly it isn’t up to me!! I am toying with the idea of an NHS board game, kind of along the lines of Going for Broke (a game I had as a child, where you have to lose as much money as possible). I might be good at that; lets just say the director of finance is unaware of the state of my personal finances.

Speaking of which, I am making some progress. I am learning how to live within my (what should be ample) means, not to use credit and I have sold things. A book on Amazon and a freeview thing on e-bay. I could get good at this stuff, perhaps in the future I could be selling the board game to the unsuspecting customer of online trading companies. Seems like the heat tends to melt the brain, I am becoming deluded again!

This week I have been a bad blogger

Two posts in a week is real rubbish and pretty much my worse week since I started blogging. There have been a few reasons for this, firstly as my last post said I have been a bit under the weather, not sure if it was the prawn sandwich I ate for Saturday lunch or something else, but the whole thing really knocked me for six. I went back to work on Tuesday despite feeling rough still because we had the launch of our new Journey Planner appraisal documentation. I got to meet a real live Lord for the first time, and he was really nice if slightly bordering on the mad side!

I have been short on things to write about, I guess it is inevitable that their won’t be really exciting, gripping things to say every day whether it is about home or work. But actually I don’t think writing went to work, came home, ate dinner, watched TV, went to bed is interesting to write let alone read (hey did I really just write that?) Also I am slightly weary in the run up to my holiday on 2nd August (yipee, can’t wait).

So to the stuff that is going on right now. This is not a Thursday Thirteen but I am going to do a bit of a list:

• Have lost 8lb now on the GI diet, haven’t done any exercise since Saturday due to the aforementioned illness, but will get back to that asap
• Have made a start on the required reading for the assignment due in at the beginning of September, but I am struggling to feel in the mood for it – it is summer for heavens sake!
• Have got to fill in a massive questionnaire thing for my agenda for change appeal (JAQ) because they apparently couldn’t match my job at the appeal. Those reading this who know what I am on about hopefully will sympathise!
• Completed my first ever disciplinary style investigation and presented findings today. It will sadly result in a nurse having to appear at a disciplinary hearing and will give me a new challenge as I will have to present the case there. Good experience I guess, but sad as it may end the career of a nurse.
• Teen son is doing really well on the Roaccutaine and is pleased with the effect so far. I am a little worried about his unwillingness to protect his face from the son by wearing a hat, as one of the side effects is that it makes you more susceptible to the effects of the sun. He is off to a theme park tomorrow and I would like him to wear a hat there, but what can you do with a 15 year old?

So that is me and my life this week. More before too long I promise!

Not so good at the illness lark

Today I took the first day off sick I can remember taking in years. Not sure if it is something I ate, or just a bug, but sufficient to say that I have spent a good deal of time in close proximity to the toilet in the last 36 hours or so. Usually I might have battled my way to work, but this morning it was as much as I could do to drag myself to an iron and press teen son’s school uniform (yes I know, at 15 he could do it). I then spent till lunchtime (not that lunch was on the menu) in bed while the immodium kicked in. I am now feeling much more like my normal self, so am expecting semi normality to return tomorrow.

Got some semi good news at a meeting on Friday; there is still money for education in the NHS, just much less than we have enjoyed in previous years. Still though it looks as if we can begin to spend, even if I don’t know who will be left to spend it on. Having said that, the redundancy threat has subsided a little, as someone somewhere has realised it is not a major money saving option in the short term and is more a long term measure.

As can be seen here, life is a little slow around here right now, this might be because I am under the weather, or it could be because I am counting down to my holiday in 3 weeks and 2 days!!!

Remembering

At midday today I was at Kings Cross Station, where the first of last years July 7 bombs was detonated below the ground on a tube train. Standing in the middle of the station, having just got off my train alongside many other people was quite a moving experience. In fact despite the heat of the summers day, I felt goosebumps on my arms. I discovered that 2 minutes actually feels like quite a long time when you are stood silently amongst strangers, but it does us no harm to reflect in this way. A year ago, the station would have been packed with commuters on their way to work when the bombers set off their devices in the tube and on a bus just after 9.45am. For anyone who has ever travelled in this way, and who has thought little at the time about who they are traveling with then it is a wake up call and a scary one at that.

At two minutes past 12 I was on my way to the underground and the University Library to look for books for my impending assignment. Noticeably there were a lot of police and London Transport workers both within the station area and on the platform. In my carriage was a man collecting rubbish, now I have never seen that before. The presence of these people was reassuring, as I guess it was designed to be as well as showing the need to be vigilant today of all days.

Four heavy books later, I walked along Great Cavendish Street and into Cavendish Square where people sat in light rain, mixed with a hot and humid day, eating lunch. I had cause to think that only in England and London at that would people sit in the rain eating lunch! Interesting day.

Thursday Thirteen – 06 July 2006

Thirteen Things about Julie’s week I am now in the swing of my GI diet (has only taken all year to get motivated!). I have lost 6lb in the last 3 weeks or so by following a programme on e -diets diet and fitness programme. So far so good. I hate to admit it, but I actually prefer the new office to the old one. It is bigger, gives more opportunity to see people I need to work with and is very handy (some would say too handy) for the shops. Traffic problems have been a feature for all this week. On Tuesday a road closure caused hubbies journey home to be 3 hours long instead of just over 1. He was not a happy bunny! Both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings have featured world cup semi final matches which we have been able to watch in a relaxed and chilled manner, rather than the stressful time that is watching the England football team. On which subject, why is Wayne Rooney being treated as some kind of poor wounded animal. He got himself sent off, no one else made him stand on the other player and by doing so the writing was pretty much on the wall! The glorious, though hot and humit weather has briefly broken. Good thing is though, rain is very good for my garden. Still pretty warm though and hopefully we will see the sun again one day soon! Teen son is counting down the days to the end of term (2 weeks and one day and counting). I am looking forward to it for different reasons, better traffic for one thing! I have an essay to write for the beginning of September, I haven’t yet done so much as a literature search for it. I really must get on with it (plea to self!) Work remains ever so slightly depressing. Yesterdays news was that our current chief executive wasn’t shortlisted for the job in the new PCT. Gloomy times! The new person will be announced in early August. Wonder if it will be the person we have in the interim setting up the new organisation, many fear a conspiracy! The Roaccutane teen son started taking last week for his acne is already having an effect I am pleased to say. So far the only side effect is him being more thirsty and having drier skin. He has discovered moisturiser for the first time! We have been arranging our hire car for the second part of our holiday which takes place in 4 weeks time – yipee! I have also bought a book about Barcelona (part one of the trip), which has made me pretty excited about the whole thing! We are off to see my brother and sister in law at the weekend to try to extract the money for their son’s holiday from them. Wish me luck! As you can see, it has been a relatively quiet week. That is pretty much how I like it right now. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The thing about hot weather is…………

It is better spent relaxing at home or at the beach or somewhere. Being stuck in an office with no air conditioning and windows that open no more than an inch is not enjoyable. Much as I love warm sunny days, I never seem to be quite ready for the sheer humidity we get. It just seems to wear you out and today it has made me generally tired, achy and irritable.

My new office is right in the middle of a large town, and is seriously close to the shopping centre. This is good for getting lunch if you haven’t brought any with you, or for those retail therapy disasters, but it is terrible if you are trying to stop yourself spending money. Still it will be good for my personal resolve and self control (that’s the intention anyway).

At work we are preparing to hold workshops to help people identify their transferable skills and apply for new jobs. People who perhaps didn’t expect their jobs would be at risk are finding that perhaps they will be. This is challenging for all, for those affected and also the effect the news has on others around them. Last week I caught the sharp end of a department secretary’s tongue as she pretty much told me she couldn’t see any need for our department (training) when they are facing cuts to theirs. The thing she doesn’t know is how safe exactly my job is, and meanwhile how much work I have to do to help people cope with this uncertainty.

On the plus side, it is only 4 weeks until my holiday: roll on August 1st when I finish work for two whole weeks!

The menfolk are now depressed

It might be hard for people to understand just how important your average English man considers success in the world cup to be. Even faced with the evidence that the manager has sent the wrong team and told them to play in the wrong formation and in the wrong way, they still consider that winning the whole tournament is pretty much inevitable. Trouble is, reality is different, so when the team lose on penalties in the quarter finals, your average English man sinks into a deep depression. Today hubby has suggested he might move to a darkened room and stay in bed. Of course he didn’t quite do that. But he has spent the whole day moaning that if you are paid £100,000 a week then you should be able to score a simple penalty during a penalty shoot out. He definitely has a point and no doubt if he were paid such a salary he would be able to do such a thing. If he were paid that amount, I would of course be out with my personal trainer, or shopping or something and likely miss the event.

So it is all over for another 4 years, hubby and teen son are now supporting France, perhaps because we are going there in a few weeks or perhaps because they have Arsenal and Chelsea players in the team (or some other similar reason). This is the last week of the tournament, so normal TV will be resumed byMonday week; yipee!