Well, that was fun

I am back at work, and the last few weeks are already feeling like a slightly hazy dream.  Having said that, we did have a lot of fun, the Maggots really enjoyed the time off, and while we did a lot of events, we also had a couple of days to do nothing, collectively.  This is an exercise that, on reflection, is very much more enjoying on reflection, than when actually in the doing.  What I mean to say is that it just felt like another day when we were doing it, but looking back it was wonderful to get up when we wanted, have a massive brunch, then watch a film, taking in a bit of remixing, or just dozing, if the feeling took us.  Lovely.

Oh well, no point griping, we have to pay for it all now, both financially and health-wise.  I am doing another dry January, though will probably pause it half way through since we are invited to a wine tasting evening, and while I really enjoy the learning part of the event, it would be churlish of me not to mention that I am also not averse to the tasting part either.

We are also on diets, though this is as much about eating healthier, though as part of that also to eat less, both volume and calaries.

So, by the end of the month I should be practically perfect in every way.  I even have a new smile, courtesy of a chain of events that started with a Christmas toffee, and ended with a trip to the dentist to replace a filling that was "painted" on one of my front incisers to replace some bad discolouration.  This is actually either the second or third time the filling has been replaced, so I suspect that this new one will eventually fall off, but for now, I am beautiful* again, and my teeth are, if anything, straighter than ever**.

That is enough for now.  I hope you all had a great break, and are back in the saddle, ready to either:

• find a new job
• carry on being retired
• keep on keeping on.

Have a great weekend, and speak next week.

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* notwithstanding the raw materials at my disposal
** lest this give the wrong impression, they are not very straight, for reasons unknown, though probably due to braces not being invented when I were a lad

Nine days to go

Another week over, another mince pie eaten . . .

Work has been steady as she goes, with some frantic activity followed by more sedate moments.  This has allowed me to get some training done, on my chosen subject (which is Cloud, if you have not been paying attention).

We had a great weekend at Brad and Angelina's.  Having become of late a G&T lover, I was able to avail myself of B&A's fairly extensive gin collection.  In the words of LO, I "do not have a sophisticated palate".  I think that is fair enough.  Put simply, I did not like the newer brands, with their botanics and, undoubtedly, their beards and leather satchels and wotnot.  Instead, I preferred the London Gin, the most ordinary of the batch.  Oh well, if you like it, stick with it.

On the music front, I now have something like 8 tracks out there, in the wild.  It was a productive summer for me, having so many tracks taken up for release.  On Monday I had contact from a South American label, wanting to re-release a 3-track EP released last year, and asking for more tracks, so I am working on those as we speak, with a plan to send them something over the break.

It is the last day of school for the Maggots, with Maggot 1 finishing at lunchtime (and then off to play football with his mates), and Maggot 2 finishing normal time, but bringing home his best friend G, who is also the goalie in his football team.  G is staying for a sleepover, and we are taking him to football tomorrow, from where his mum will collect him at the end of the game.  It will be fun for them both, and he is a good lad who is a pleasure to host.  Also, Maggot 2 has, for the very first time (we were able to deduce this from the loud shouting), won entry to the weekend FUT FIFA 16 championship.  This is, apparently, where the creme de la creme of FIFA players meet to wage batter over forty games, starting Friday and ending Sunday, with prizes for those able to win twenty games or more.  To say that Maggot 1 was, is, excited, is to say that Santa will be pretty busy over the next week.  This will, undoubtedly, keep them both busy for the whole time they are awake - hopefully not too late, since they have an hour's training followed by a friendly match tomorrow morning.

Since I have next Thursday off - and with a recent management announcement that we can all take Thursday afternoon off to start our holiday early - I will probably actually look to finish on Wednesday lunchtime, so I will not blog again until the new year.

Therefore, all that remains for me to say is to wish you a Happy Christmas, a Merry New Year, and plenty of mince pies in between.

Sixteen days to go

Christmas is coming folks.  Many of you may not realise that, since there are hardly any adverts on the TV selling you a dream or a product.

Aside from that, life goes on at a pace.  We are very much sorted for Christmas, which is nice, especially since the period leading up to the end of any term is always busy, and the one leading up to Christmas doubly so.

We are away this weekend, so we have football and tennis on Saturday, but nothing on Sunday.

We had our winter logs delivered today.  They are piled up on the drive and will need moving round to the woodstore, which means I will have a very physical lunch time, me and my wheelbarrow.

Nothing else to report, so I will sign off and wish you a great weekend.  Speak next week.

Pinch, punch, first of the month

As I am writing this, two little doors on the advent calendars (for sure, there is more than one) have been opened, and the temperature is dropping like a stone.  This means a bit of window scraping for most.  For us, being able to park both cars on our drive means that they are partially protected from the worst of the weather, so that there is usually only the need to scrape the rear window of the rear car, and that can be done with the window heater if we have time.  The big car has heated front and rear windows, something that is, without doubt, about as good as it gets this time of year.

Anyhow, enough about cars.  At home, things are the same as always.  LO is away tonight at her Christmas do, so us lads have packet pizzas and a quiet night in.

We have football at the weekend.  Last week we had two matches, a replay on Saturday and our regular game on Sunday, against the two best teams in our league.  The positive we can take from the games are that neither team are anything to fear; the negative is that we did not play our best.  The first half of the Saturday game was as good as they can play, and we can in at half time 2-0.  However, in the second half we reverted somewhat to the panicky kick and hope game that typifies the worst or our team performances.  It is all part of the learning process, and I guess it is good for the boys to experience defeat, crushing unecessary defeat, since that will then set them up for a lifetime following the England team.

The Sunday game started poorly, and remained so.

We also went to watch Pompey play, which was a great afternoon out, but a disappointment since, once again, the team lost.  There was an incident in the dressing room at half time where two of the better players got in to a fight, blood may or may not have been spilt, and neither play returned to the pitch for the second half.  To be fair, their replacements did a fine job too, but we cannot help feeling that such a disruption half way through a game would not be improving the concentration of the team.  It's a funny old game.

On other news, we have LO's family over tonight for a Strictly evening, sausages in baps for tea I believe.

That is all from me.  Have a great weekend, and speak next week.

A secure week

I cannot go in to too much detail, but as inferred in the title, security has been the main flavour this week.  To be precise, or as precise as it is wise to be, I have been under an assessment regime for the last three months, the culmination of which was, on Tuesday, notification that I am a secure chap.  Such an assertion is far from a formality, and I have had to go through several levels of assessment to reach this point, but reach it I have, and happy I am.

This means in practice two important things:

• I can now work on more confidential matters, thus opening up more opportunity
• I have a qualification that is fairly rare, and its rareness will, I hope, afford a small level of job security as we move towards the next phase of nn, a company which lives, like all others, in an ever changing world.

LO is away this weekend for her yearly meet up with one of her best friends, who lives down in Cornwall.  They meet up in Bristol for three nights and two and a half days of pure girlie pleasure, which is nothing to do with those emails that end up in your spam folder, but rather a time for non-stop retail pleasures.  In other words, most men's worst nightmare.

Us lads have a fairly fun weekend.  Last Sunday's cancelled match for Maggot 2 has been rearranged for Saturday, against the best team in the league, and on Sunday he has another match against one of the top teams in the league.  It will therefore be a testing time for the boys, who are definitely capable of winning both games, but likewise are also capable of losing both games - it is all in the mind, so will depend on which team turns up to play.

In between those two games, we are also off to see Pompey play at home, something to which I for one am very much looking forward.  We will train it down, and the Maggots will get the promised burger off a van, and I will hopefully get myself a Pompey beanie hat.

Otherwise, we will not be doing too much.  I really need to spend a bit of time clearing leaves from the garden.  The wind last night has kindly made a couple of neat piles of leaves, and it would be a waste of mother nature's help not to get them bagged up before she changes her mind, and redistributes them all over the garden again.

Have a great weekend, and speak next week.

I'm not a celebrity, and I am happy in here

Had a good week at work.  More work coming my way, also got some clearance approved which makes me more valuable to the business, and will open up some new opportunities.

At home, we have had a steady week, which means moments of frantic busyness followed by moments of calm.

This weekend we have the usual football, and we have David and Samantha coming over to us Saturday night, which will be fun.  In actual fact, the arrangements have changed and now we are going over to their house for the evening.  Either way it will be fun.

Talking of football, we enjoyed the England vs Spain friendly (so called, though it had more yellow cards than your average competitive international), sullied only by their late equaliser.  Being a "glass half full" kind of chap, I am happy to take the positives from the game - we played well, with purpose and with a fair amount of attacking threat and flair.  I was also pleased for the boy Vardy who has exorcised his demons by ending a goal drought.

Nearer to home, and following a terrible game twelve days ago, the match last Sunday was very much better.  The coach took them aside to the changing rooms for a long discussion at the start of training on Saturday, to spread the message that there was to be only short and tidy passing, no panicky hoofing of the ball, even from goal kicks.  If they were to lose playing like that, then he would not shout at them, he would only shout if they kicked it long in a panic (though if that was a perfect ball to one of their own, the complaints may have been much quieter).  He also talked about not having any fear of failure - something we thought was maybe creeping in to the team's psyche - and the results were astounding.  They played a fantastic match, winning 3-2 against a team who, having heard about the score from the previous week, really expected to beat us easily.  It was therefore very satisfying that we dominated the game.  The cherry on the icing on the case, for me, was that Maggot 2 scored his first header in open play.  A beautiful move sent our striker, and fastest forward player, down the wing, where he whipped in a perfect cross from the right, which Maggot 2 met with a perfect glancing header inside the left hand post.  Nice.

I wish you a fantastic weekend, and speak again next week.

Very well thank you

Things are pretty good.  The course I attended Wednesday to Friday last week is being put in to practice this week, and it is a very satisfying experience doing so.  My current deal is so nicely shaped that it could easily be one of those test cases you use on such training courses.  We just need to ensure that we cover the right bases with the process - ensuring it works for us, not becomes a burden - but we are in really good shape.  The biggest challenge is that our client is so busy, it can be hard to get the time we need with them.  This has resulted in a methodology, if that is not too grand a word, whereby we do all the legwork for them; need a session to bottom out their requirements, baselines and use cases, guess what, we are writing that ahead of time, and asking for correction of what is written, rather than giving them a blank piece of paper on which they have to try and map the same information.

Away from work, home is all working as it should.  LO went away for a girls' weekend last weekend, so us lads had an equivalent lads' weekend.  We went to watch Pompey play, unfortunately the worst game of the season, but fun nevertheless.  So much fun in fact that we have booked to go again in a couple of weeks.

This weekend we are not doing very much.  On Sunday, we planned to go for a family dinner out at a local pub, to say goodbye to Uncle No. 1, the same uncle who built our extension as it happens, who is going back to Thailand for six months.  He splits his time between here and there, and was actually back in the UK to sort out some medical issues.  Indeed, he was quizzed by the health police just to check that he was not getting free treatment to which he was not entitled; they were suspicious that he had been out in Thailand for too long on his previous visit.  He now has a "note to self" to come back at least once a year, to avoid such issues in the future.  It is fair enough that they checked, from where I am sitting, however most of the family were outraged, he having "paid his taxes for years".

That's all for now folks.  Have a great weekend, and speak next week.

What are the odds?

When it comes to democracy, naming a ship Boaty McBoatface should raise a smile for most, but Donald J Trump as the next President of the United States, hmm, not so sure.

At least during his nearly-an-acceptance-speach on the news this morning, he sounded statesman-like, calling for unity and wotnot.  Let's hope that is the real DJT, and that he has left behind his more dubious personality characteristics as he takes on one of the, if not the, biggest political jobs in the world*.

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* My old boss used to say (and he was not the only one) that you should not write publicly anything bad about a person that you would not say to their face.   That also goes for avoiding libellous content.

Taking a break

Things are hotting up with my deal.  We have a client meeting next week, when the new team (of which I am one) will meet the client, and we start to really refine (or in some cases define) the requirements for the deal.  This may seem odd to the lay person, us having already released to them a rough order of magnitude proposal, aka a RoM, however the truth is that at nn we have a much more developed RoM process, and a different way of handling risk, than Starfleet.  At Starfleet, in broad strokes, the approach was to avoid risk at all costs; they were a very risk-averse organisation.  This means that a RoM can be as detailed as an open to acceptance proposal.

At nn, we embrace risk with caution and appropriate boundaries, which means that firstly that our clients are not bombared with all that we will not do, but also they are get what they want, and so do we.  It also makes the RoM process a "that looks complex, call it half a million" type estimation process, rather than a "all the solutioning, but more relaxed coz it is not open to acceptance" approach of Starfleet.

It is all very interesting, and not a process I have been through fully too many times so far at nn, and with a new process introduced now also, it is harder (in that a process I did not know very well anyway has changed) and easier (a process I did not know has changed, so everyone is at broadly the same phase of understanding) for a relative newbie like me.  Oh well, as the old saying goes, you cannot learn less (unless you are an American voter, it seems).

To be honest, I cannot wait, at long last, to get properly stuck in to a deal, meet the client, really start working my booty* and getting some experience and credibility under my belt.

The only issues is that I have taken next week off, since it is half term.  I therefore plan to work on Wednesday, the day of the meeting, but have the rest of the week off.  This is a good plan, made slightly dodgy only because on Tuesday night we are planning to attend a wine tasting evening.  I suspect I shall be spitting rather than swallowing**.

We don't have any football this weekend, so will need to find useful, interesting, meaningful and "for all the family" things to do, which will be a challenge.  Maggot 1 has a sleepover on Monday and Maggot 2 on Thursday, so the week will be puntuated by Maggots of various sizes invading our front room, but we don't mind, and the Maggots love it.  Rather they were here, under our roof, than on a park bench in some dodgy part of town***.

We are at A&E on Saturday night for a Mexican-themed evening, complete, apparently, with sombreros and moustaches.  Should be fun, and we will hopefully see a bunch of folks we have not seen for a while, including Brad and Angelina.

Have a great weekend****, and speak next week.

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* not sure that is the right term. Ed
** really? Ed
*** Yes, they really do exist, even here down south
**** Just a routine reminder for Gorse Fox that for most of us, weekends are those two days when you are not at work

relaxing times

I am obviously so relaxed that I forgot to blog on Friday, so rather than tell you what I am going to be doing, I can tell you what I did.

Well, we had football training Saturday for Maggot 2, Maggot 1 doing his second weekend as an Assistant Tennis Coach (capitals are important, expecially for his developing CV).

On Saturday evening, David and Samantha and their two Maggotettes came over for a "holiday reunion" evening.  It started with the Scobi clan, in their swimsuits, dancing to a tune that was part of our "water aerobics" routine whilst on holiday.  You had to be there really.  We looked at photos and had a lovely evening of food, chat, and a little drink.  I was keeping it very light on the alcohol, since I am still in recovery, but I did have a couple of gin and tonics, a drink I found again whilst on holiday, and one that is just right when you want something, but not too much of it.

Sunday was a big day for Maggot 2.  It was the last game in his mini-league, and a win would secure a cup.  The team we were playing had, but their coach's own admission, been battered by every team in the league so far, so on paper it should have been an easy win.  However, as any pundit worth their salt will tell you, football is played on grass, not on paper, and so it was that, slightly against the run of play, they were 1-0 up at half time.  It was a fantastic counter-attack with their diminuative front man (he only reached the shoulders or our team) out-paced our fastest defender to slot home a nicely taken goal.  To be fair, our team was not playing badly, but we were playing directly in to a strong wind that, in my view (but not those of some of my fellow parents) was the dominant factor in the game.  So it was that in the second half, after a briefing from our coach along the lines of "you got yourselves in to this mess, you can get yourself out if it", they soon equalised, and then went on to win 4-1, with the wind, as already said, playing a major part in the game.  We battered them, the ball rarely left their half, and their goal kicks became a chance for one of our team to have a long shot at goal, so predictably did possession fall to us, the poor keeper unable to kick it far enough with the wind against him.  It was a good win, keeps our winning streak going, and gets us some more silverware.  Maggot 2 also scored, which will help his confidence, which has been dipping a bit of late.  He also had a very good game, working hard on and off the ball.  Overall, a great result.

I hope you had a great weekend, speak Friday (if I can be bothered).

Glad that one is over

We have all been ill this week.  LO had Monday and Tuesday off*, Maggot 2 had those, plus Wednesday and Thursday.  I have also been ill and ticking things over, but without travelling.  This is the bug that keeps on giving since we all have the same symptoms, and it has made this week pretty yuk.

This meant we had some interesting sleeping arrangements; I was on Maggot 1's bed, so I could cough and not sleep without upsetting the others, whilst Maggot 1 was on a put-me-up in with LO, and Maggot 2 had my space in our bed.  It is like some slightly bizarre version of The Waltons.  It did mean we all got the best night of sleep that was available to each of us.  For me, let's just say that I have nearly finished a book (part 3 of the J K Rowling written detective series) in four days.

We are now back in our own beds, and Maggot 2 is back to school today, though to be honest he is not 100%, but, I hope, he is good enough to get through the day.  Plus, being at school gets him back in the real world with a vengence that should get him on the road to normal life quicker.

Maggot 1 has moved his drumming lesson to this evening so that he can then do his first morning as Assistant Tennis Coach**, which should be fun, will get him out the house doing something physical, and will get him some pocket money.

If Maggot 2 is well enough, (i.e. if the kill or cure go back to school approach is positive) then we should have training tomorrow and a match Sunday.  The team have their new home kit now, which was funded by us having a sponsored run - his best pal has his and we may pick it up after school today - and the training/away kits should be coming fairly soon via the club, who somehow managed to wangle a deal that if we return all our old club-logo'd match shirts, then whoever is the maker (cannot remember which company) will provide new shirts at not cost.  Result.

Slightly sad for the boy, but our team is one lighter this week as we had to ask him, via his dad, to not be part of the team anymore.  The issue was with the dad, who has been creating some unecessary tension with both the coaches, to the point that both had considered giving it all up.  We could not have that, since they are both valued and very good for the team, so the dad had to go, and his son with it.  Sad for the lad, good for the team.
The other side benefit is that we now have 12, rather than 13, from which to pick the team of 9.  Ideally, we would want only 2 subs, 3 at most, so if all boys were available, then they were having to take turns in "being the thirteenth man", and not playing that week.  Reducing our numbers by one means this will be less of an issue.
As I may have previously discussed, we have moved from 7 to 9-a-side teams, so over the Summer we had been trialling various people, since we needed to bolster our numbers, and also we needed to find a goalie.  The goalie, G, is Maggot 2's best friend, and was previously the attacking mid-fielder and captain of the team (being a Liverpool fan, he would like to be called the Gerrard of our team), so not someone we naturally wanted to lose from the field by him going in goal.  Our main coach was not keen at all, but in the end he relented, and G took the number 1 shirt, and he has done a fantastic job.  He is a little smaller than average for the age, so size might be an issue, however he is a fantastic shot-stopper (indeed, we won our last tournament because of his saves in the penalty shootout), he has a big kick*** and he, obviously, is also a footballer, so is another player at the back when we have to work it round the back up the opposite wing.
So, we lost him from the outfield team, but managed to sign up three new players, all of which have some skill and potential, and have fitted in to the team well.

Otherwise, it will hopefully be a fairly relaxing weekend, with some football and some dancing on the TV.

I hope you are well, and have a great weekend.  Speak next week.

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* To be frank, she was not right, but felt she had to go in coz she had the Auditors in for the rest of the week
** Certainly how we will be describing it on his CV
*** Another change this year is that the opposition no longer need to retreat to the half-way line for goal kicks.  This has made the goal kick a real danger, with the attacking team able to gain a big advantage if the keeper has a small kick or is indecisive

Health

Health is, as we all know, the only thing standing between each of us and death.  i.e. it is pretty important.

That seemed mildly amusing when I wrote it, but hard to follow that with tales of unwellness in Scobi Towers without sound an alarm.  Nothing to worry about, no-one near to their last breath, but we are all under the weather just a little bit.  Both Maggots had a couple of days off at different times, LO is struggling, and even I, paragon of virtue*, have a sore throat and that "a few degrees under" feeling.

Nevertheless, it is a timely reminder, especially at this time of year, that we must all do what we can to keep well, to keep fit, to eat well, to drink plenty of the good stuff (boring old water) and not so much of the bad stuff (lovely beer and wine).

This weekend, health permitting, we will have football, drumming and, on Friday evening, for the older members of the clan, an evening out with David and Samantha, which we are really looking forward to, a chance to catch up on life, and possibly to reminisce on our holiday, the traces of which can still be found at the bottom of our respective sock drawers.

Talking of drumming, Maggot 1 will have to move his drumming lesson to Friday evening, because he has a job.  His old tennis coach contacted him asking if he wanted to be his Boy Friday, or rather Boy Saturday, helping out with junior tennis lessons on Saturday morning.  This came out the blue, but was rather flattering for Harvey, and an opportunity he has snapped up with indecent haste.  He has wanted a way to earn some money for a while, and this is an opportunity he cannot, and has not, turned down.  It will also look good on his CV, for when he applies for university (since it is no longer enough to have straight A+ results, one must also have volunteered, or climbed Mount Everest, or indeed spent some time as a junior tennis coach).

Talking of CVs, I have grasped an opportunity to go in to Maggot 1's school to help out with CV writing and interview techniques.  I have wanted to do some kind of volunteering, using my supposed experience to help nippers, and so when this was announced at the recent Year 10 evening, I grasped it with both hands.  I am really looking forward to helping out - I just hope that I have something useful to give.

Well, that is me done.  Have a great weekend, and speak next week.


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* hmmm. Ed.