Nearly there

Another week over, and after today, just four more working days before we are departing for our Summer Holidays darn sarf.

In between we have a weekend, when we will be preparing for our trip, and on Sunday, weather permitting, we will have a football tournament.

I really need a break.  Had my mid year review and the main feedback was "it seemed like you were not coping very well when under pressure, so we have marked you down", which seemed to me to be a "you were not smiling enough".  I challenged what stuff I did not deliver during that period, and my manager did not really have an answer to that.  The truth is, I did deliver, and during a month period when I had some kind of mild illness, I still delivered, but obviously I was not cheery enough about it at the time.

To be honest, I have so far been fairly lucky with this process, however this is the kind of nonsense that it can throw up, strange "parallel universe" type scenrios where you look back on the conversation and wonder if you had been dreaming it.

Oh well, holiday in a week, and I will then have the chance to step back from the front line, ponder life and my options, and return with renewed vigour and determination to change jobs.

I hope you have a great, if wet, weekend.

quickie

Work is never-changing at the moment, with a fairly steady, perhaps even relentless, set of tasks to be done.

Home is good.  Have a great weekend lined up.  Brad and Angelina will stay with us Saturday night for a Sunday event at David and Samantha's.  We are off to a 25th wedding anniversary do, had hoped to get an invite for Brad and Angelina but the hall is at capacity, so with sadness the hostess had to decline our request.  Not quite sure what that means, except maybe some free baby-sitting.  Only joking Brad, I know you are never free.

We are planning a re-decoration of our kitchen extension room.  Now that the crack in the wall has stopped getting any bigger we plan to freshen up everything, put wallpaper on the crack-wall (not to be confused with a crack whore apparently) and changing the woodwork to gloss, our experiment and dabbling with "satin" being well and truly over.  It may be much easier to apply, but does it really does not wear well.

Other than football and tennis, that is about it this weekend.

Oh, LO is working late tonight, year 6 Leavers' Ball, so I am contemplating taking the Maggots down to Bognor to see a Pompey warm-up.  Not tested the plan on anyone in the real world yet, so will let you know how it goes.

Great weekend

We had a fantastic long-weekend away at Golden Cap, just down the road from Lyme Regis.  We went with a big group of people, including Brad and Angelina, A&E, David and Samantha, and R&R, for whom this is a first mention on the blog.

We sat on the beach, we swam in the sea (sensibly bedecked in wetsuits), we drank beer, we ate food, some of it cooked on a BBQ (on the beach - fun, but a lot of hassle) and we also walked over the hills to West Bay, home of Broadchurch, spotting a number of locations, including Charlotte Rampling's house, the crime-scene house, the crime scene beach, David Tennant's waterside lodgings and the police station, as well as the harbour and other general fields (where the tractor fuel was stolen). 

In West Bay, we took a ride on a rib (a rigid inflatable boat, or a bleedin' fast motorboat, depending on your viewpoint) for a thrilling, bum-shuddering and salt-water dousing speed around the waters up and down the coast.  It was rather splendid.  We all arrived dressed for summer, to be told that it was really rather windy, rough and wet out there, so the Scobi clan went to a small harbour-side shop to buy "three for a tenner" tops, for added warmth.  After much ribbing (no pun intended, more's the pity) from the group, soon after two other families went over to avail themselves of the bargain rail.  Suffice it to say that we probably doubled the ladies takings, clearing her of stock that, frankly, she probably never expected to shift.

There were only two problems, the first that it was just not long enough, and the second that it was a bit wet Sunday morning.  This did not stop some of the group doing the morning hill climb, nor the whole group congregating round the 'vans for egg baps, tea, coffee and cake, or breakfast as we like to call it.

We are considering another trip back in mid September, diaries permitting.

The only other negative is that coming back to work after such a short but intense weekend, it really is rather hard to get back in to the swing of things.  Luckily, I have so much to do that it just kind of took me over.

School report

Comment by Maggot 2 on his school report, in the "what was good about my year" section:

"I really enjoyed learning the Roman numerals, since now I know which Star Wars is which"

Priceless. And all the words were spelt correctly too.

I am thinking of taking a break from blogging.  Don't have much to say these days it seems.