They arrived!

The shirts arrived! Unfortunately we got stung with customs tax (£36!) and we needed to travel to Charlton to get them but hey, they came from Hawaii so SE7 doesn't seem that far...

This will be my last blog for a while. We leave at 6am tomorrow morning and to be honest computers, blogs, email etc., isn't really high on my holiday agenda! So it could be that the next time I blog, I'll be a married woman. Which I think is very, very cool!

Packing

I think my hard work and organisation is paying off... although I may end up being wrong about that…

All the laundry is done, and more importantly dry. The various bits of paperwork are all sorted and / or printed and now in my briefcase. The little jobs (camera charged, sat nav charged, relevant maps fished out from the map drawer [yes we have a map drawer], instructions for chickens written, shoes polished, travel bottles labelled etc., etc.) are finished. And now I just need to put my tops – already folded – into my suitcase and effectively I’m done. But obviously this isn’t just a holiday, it’s our wedding and so I’m sat here, one eye on the Olympics, one eye on my to-do list, quietly fretting.

For several weeks now I’ve been concentrating on the paperwork. For example, I’ve booked helicopter flights to the Scilly Isles and I’ve checked I’ve got the tickets maybe half a dozen times now; passports and birth certificates – check, accommodation details – check, doggy vaccination cards – check, readings – check and so on and so forth…

Based on my organisational abilities just these last two weeks I could very possibly run the country with a high degree of success…

Our Hawaiian shirts haven’t arrived yet – yikes! But to be honest, if that’s the only fly in the ointment I can't really complain.

Right more coffee and then maybe one more check… you can’t be too careful leading up to one of the most important days of your life!

Team GB

The greatest Team GB ever?

Please stand by...

Sorry not to have been blogging - in my defence, I do have a lot on! We're off on Friday and we're getting wed the following Saturday. Right now I'm up to my elbows in packing, laundry, sorting, paperwork etc. I'm also waiting for umpteen deliveries which we're hoping will arrive before Friday! But it's all good fun. I'm still glued to the Olympics and am delighted and proud we're already 28 medals to the good. (Go Team GB!) My partner is amazed at my capacity for watching the Olympics but it is only every four years and watching sports people at their very best is, in my opinion, a form of artistry...

Something which is nothing to do with weddings or holidays is that an interesting situation is developing with Pluto and Bess. We knew that once Bess was settled and less anxious, she would probably challenge for dominance. Older females will often dominate much younger and less mature male dogs. So in between sleeping and playing together and generally being inseparable, they are also having occasional physical face-offs. It's less subtle now and so we expect the transition soon. They jostle, bump, snarl and bark and now Bess has taken to standing over Pluto as well. We don't interfere - which is the worst thing you can do but what most people would do because they don't understand dogs. We only step in if it happens very near us because it could spill over to trying to dominate us, but otherwise, we let them sort out their own hierarchy. I personally have never had the chance to witness this - especially in my own dogs and it's fascinating. You hear the snarls and think the worst (you can't help it) but they never bite or attack. I'm glad it doesn't happen whilst we're out though; people would think we had fighting dogs!

A healthy well balanced pack needs to sort out its own hierarchy. If it doesn't you have anxious and quite possibly aggressive dogs trying to sort out who they are and what they do - and never quite finding out the answer to either. I'll keep you posted!

Dinner, dogs and ironing

We’ve had friends over for dinner two days in a row and it’s been very nice. Monday’s dinner was planned and I was rather pleased with my fresh pasta, roasted vegetables, hot breads followed by passion fruit cheesecake, but last night was spontaneous and no less lovely for it. Steak burgers and salad (with home grown/produced tomatoes, potatos, lettuce, chives and eggs!) hit the spot. Quieter night tonight though!

My partner has a hellish week as she’s away for the day on Thursday and needs to get a business plan and research in on Friday – something that she has been working on for a while now and which has meant a lot of stress and long hours.

Tomorrow I’m off to see the final of Underdog – a BBC programme where celebs adopt rescue dogs and train them to perform various tasks including agility. The last series (which was also the first) was hosted, bizarrely, by Julian Clary, and we became absolutely hooked! (Julia Sawalha and Cookie got our vote!) So friends have got tickets and we’re off to see the final before we’ve even got to see the first episode…

Over the weekend we ordered our Hawaiian shirts – from actual Hawaii! – for the evening do of the wedding. I’m looking forward to them arriving and this morning we had to pinch ourselves when we realised how close our holiday is. This Sunday we’re doing a lot of sorting and ironing. I think it will be the first time I’ve ever been excited to do ironing!

Sporting pride

I love the Olympics. I love sport. Sadly, it’s often the only time we can feel really proud in this country. I absolutely burst with pride when we do well. And I can’t tell you how I felt that our first two gold medals were won in spectacular style AND won by women. You may think it doesn’t matter whether it was men or women that won – and on some level you may be right, but when you consider how women struggle to gain recognition, support, media coverage and finance in even elite sports, it really does matter that two women have set the bar for team GB.

But it’s not just about the wealthier countries and the bigger sports teams, two Iraqi rowers have just been interviewed on the BBC. Team Iraq have only 4 athletes, and if I get to see them compete I think I would cheer just as hard for them as I would my own much loved country. To have them win would be an amazing achievement and a fantastic message about a country that isn’t just about war and hardship and occupation…

Yesterday we picked up my partner’s brother and took him to Brick Lane for his birthday. He had wanted to buy some vintage clothes and so we had all put in some money for him to go on a bit of a shopping spree. He managed to get loads! A jumper, a top, a shirt, shoes, trousers and shorts and he still has money left over. We had a fantastic day, lots of fun, but I was absolutely gutted to get back to the car to find a ticket. We were on a single yellow which we all thought was fine to park on on a Sunday. Apparently not. The semi-literate fuckwit mongrel who wrote the ticket, couldn’t even work out that my car was blue. And under colour had put ‘unknown’. I guess if there was an Olympics for parking attendants, he or she wouldn't make the cut...

Last night over tea and biscuits we did the seating plan for the wedding. Surprisingly difficult but very satisfying when done. After which, we watched Crimson Tide (fantastic film) and went to bed too late.

Looking ahead...

Blimey, I think it’s all caught up with me. I woke up with a horrible, horrible headache. It was making me feel sick and the light was hurting my eyes. I took some tablets, feel back to sleep, woke up, took some more tablets, fell back to sleep and this time woke up after 2.30pm and finally felt well enough to get out of bed although I’m still a little fragile. I guess the stress and emotion of the last few weeks finally decide to wallop me one…

I’m thinking of re-training! I’m particularly interested in Environmental Studies and think I’ve found a course through the Open University. It’s an introductory course – perfect for me as I never excelled in science and maths at school (I’m quite badly dyslexic), and so I need to be sure I can handle the course before committing to a longer, more involved and much more expensive course. Although I’m daunted, I’m also excited. I do like a challenge and I want to make sure I make the most of any time off I have. I also don’t take kindly to not doing something well: just because I’m dyslexic, doesn’t mean I can’t conquer my unfamiliarity – and no small amount of terror! – of science and maths!

Tomorrow is my brother-in-law’s birthday and we’re taking him for brunch and to do a bit of shopping. I’m looking forward to it and my resting today should be full of beans tomorrow!

I was unexpectedly sad to leave the office yesterday. The girls gave me an envelope containing 3 goodbye cards and a £50 voucher for John Lewis; this as well as a gorgeous bunch of roses and lilies and being taken out to lunch twice. It made me realise that the amazing people I spoke about in a previous entry, also thought I wasn't half bad either. And that made it sad to leave.

Right, back to the sofa… I LOVE the Olympics!

Toys take on climate change!

The best story of the week? Or even the month perhaps?

Stereotype?

Here’s an interesting thought, if we have any honesty and self-awareness we will admit to stereotyping people. We don’t like it, but we do it. But how do we feel when people do it to us?

Today I was walking Pluto and Bess. We virtually had the park to ourselves and the dogs were full of beans; racing around, jumping on each other, barking and generally having an absolute ball. I saw a couple of people the other side of the park and I put myself in their shoes – two strong, ‘tough’ looking dogs (Rotty/Lab x and Staffy/Mastiff x), roaring around, barking and growling. I suddenly looked exactly like one of those people I despise – using strong dogs to make myself look bigger! I had become a stereotype!

Luckily we are known at our local park and there are a lot of knowledgeable dog owners that know that barking and growling in play is like kids shouting when they play – harmless. It is after all how dogs communicate. But if you didn’t know that, if you assumed all barking was bad and all growling was a precursor to an attack you might well have been wary of us. People also know how I feel about the scum that brutalise their animals to make themselves seem hard, or that train their dogs to fight, but still – how strange, that if you knew nothing about me and our beloved P & B you might think I was a hard nut with two scary looking beasts! Ironic then that they and I much prefer a hug to a fight any day of the week.

Maybe I should buy them pink jackets?

Roll camera...

If I were to sum up my three years at this organisation it would be a cross between a film noir and a Carry On film, and maybe even with the level of inefficiencies, a dash of Benny Hill as well…

There are some truly marvellous people that work for this company and there are some truly awful people that work here. I think people that are crap at their job are a bit like benefit cheats (strange analogy but bear with me) they know how to play the system: they know the bare minimum they need to do to get by. But the irony is that everyone (even managers and to be fair, some of these idiots are managers!) knows how rubbish they are but nobody does anything. That’s one of the greatest failings of any company; especially when you consider how important our work is dealing with some of society's most vulnerable people.

The good people though are pretty outstanding and they inspire real hope for the future. And the once the temp contract of our interim chief executive is over, you can only hope that he is replaced with someone who actually gives a damn about the staff.

But there has been a lot of laughs, some great projects and learning experiences, and even a few friends! But at least I can now say, and that’s a wrap...

New tricks

Pluto is a very loving dog, but it’s easy not to see how gentle, well-behaved and well-socialised he actually is because he can be so excitable. He greets visitors like he hasn’t seen them in a hundred years and he does have a tendency to jump (which we’re working on). But since we adopted Bess we’ve seen another side to him. He’s taught Bess to play with toys (she’s never had them before and when her fosterer tried to give her some, Bess just ignored them), he’s taught her to feel safe at night when they go to bed in the kitchen, he’s teaching her to interact with other dogs, when she’s particularly itchy (she has an aytopic rash) he gently licks her paws and if she runs off too far away from us, he barks at her and brings her back.

I’ve seen him interact with very young puppies before now and have always been amazed at how wise he is – teaching them when to be submissive, when to be dominant and what is and isn’t acceptable in play (which is exactly how dogs learn; not just through training but through appropriate socialisation with other dogs) but now he’s teaching an older dog new tricks and it’s wonderful to watch. Of course, unless you spend time with him, it’s easy to dismiss him as a crazy but very lovable dog, but when you see Bess and him playing together you realise he’s all that and much more in fact I think he’s pretty fantastic!

What I WON'T miss when I leave work

1. My irritating colleague
2. My commute
3. The lifts at work which wheeze and rattle more than I do when I’m having an asthma attack
4. My irritating colleague
5. An organisation than generally rates creativity right up there with the dark arts…
6. Sandwiches for lunch
7. Spending too much money in my lunch break
8. My irritating colleague
9. My view of the A4
10. Everything else.

So near...

Last night I drove all the way to Upminster (middle of nowhere) from Hammersmith without a sat nav (which I forgot) and was, frankly, feeling very pleased with myself. With my navigational capacities I mused, I could be a scout leader. Not that I particularly want to be, but it’s nice to have options. Unfortunately though, when we eventually got to the airfield to go on the airship, the flight was cancelled because of strong winds!

Oh well, you can’t control nature. She’s a minxy beast.

I’ve spent a happy hour this morning checking out the websites of American minor league baseball teams. I’m not sure why, but I got a sudden fancy and went with it…

I’ve decided I like the Portland Beavers and the Toledo Mud Hens in case you're interested. I used to really like baseball, specifically the Giants and the Yankees, and was lucky enough to get to see two Giants games when we were over in SF. My partner couldn’t see the attraction but I was in heaven.

This is, of course, a classic example of displacement theory. A bit like when you’re supposed to be studying for your GCSE’s and you decide instead to alphabetise your socks, eat noodles and look up top tips for successful ant farming. I have work to do and very little time to do it in (especially as I am leaving early today as well!) and so I decided to do something else entirely. And now I’m blogging.

I also started the cross word but have so far only managed three clues which is fairly shocking. I’ve just drunk a smoothie in the hope that it may encourage my brain to perform better. Unfortunately it just gave me heartburn. But if my brain doesn't kick in soon I may well end up looking up vintage tractor sites, American college football teams, discount shoe shops or something else entirely...

Happy Monday!

This is my last Monday in work! In fact, this is my last week! I’m excited and impatient for it to be over. Although that said, I did lie awake for hours last night fretting about finding another job. I am, thankfully, quite employable and I have a great CV but still I have been out of work before and it sucks your soul…

Yesterday we went to Toys Wood in Kent, a lovely National Trust wood. They have three walks, the longest being 3 miles. I took my stick and was determined do the 3 mile walk. Unfortunately, the walks were not graded (some walks are graded for accessibility. People with mobility problems may not always struggle with the length of the walk, but they may struggle if it’s hilly or uneven). Sure enough, it almost killed me! Very steep drops, very steep climbs and uneven and rough ground… I was absolutely shattered at the end of it, and feeling sorry for myself because I was in quite a bit of pain. Even the dogs were exhausted (although very happy!) I guess I should have tried to find out how difficult the walk was but assumed – wrongly – that as there were no warnings about the level of difficulty, it would be alright. I won’t make that mistake again!

(I did take some pride it not having given up! It's what made me a good athlete - sheer bloody mindedness!)

When we got home, I took painkillers and didn’t really move from the sofa. Pluto, Bess and I watched Britain’s Strongest Man the 2007 finals and my partner pottered around the garden….

I didn’t go for my airship ride on Friday as strong winds meant it was cancelled. I’m – hopefully – going tonight.

I need to write a to-do list for this last week and I need to stay focused, lots to do and now, almost no time to do it!