Wednesday 20 February 2008

There and Back Again?

When I was a kid I always dreamed that I would end up in some far flung place - Australia was favourite - and return home having discovered some thing amazing or be really grown up or some other thing that would have massive impact on the the people who stayed behind.

I haven't been to Australia yet, Keith would love to go to Canada, some of our friends at Church have really exotic holidays and it's that which has prompted this blog, because to be honest, I just like being home and this revelation has left some people astonished ( Richard have you closed your mouth yet?)

We had a truely amazing holiday in America, but I felt odd - I used the phase, 'I feel so far away from home' during one very wobbly moment and my friend said,'Well that's because you are!'

It's not that I really love England - it's a bit rubbish sometimes and the old Australia urge reared it's head last week when there was an announcement in a paper that the entrance criteria for Poms was going to be less stringent - but I would hate it I think.

We once had to consider moving to Feltham, because of Keith's job, when Joe was little and went looking for houses and driving down one street and made a startling observation, 'No one in this street knows me!'

It's not that I particularly like living in Romford either - that's a bit rubbish too sometimes. Most evenings we can't park our cars anywhere near our house and we pay for the privilege of that.

I don't know what it is, but it's really annoying in many ways and now some of my friends think I'm a bit of a freak - ahem what's new there maybe??

Still can't load pics and that's very cross making - yuk!

Monday 11 February 2008

I'm back!

Well it's been a while and yes, while I have been busy, the pc has also been broken, which has been a blessing and a frustration. There were times when I felt quite claustrophobic, not being able to open my window on the world here at home ( you can't open the window quite as wide at work due to content blocker and please believe me, the sites I view are ...conservative to say the least, but somehow considered a threat to my 'save' or the SA generally. However, either way, doing the ironing just wasn't enough, but man did the ironing get done.

So a quick update - YP Annual at Romford, YP Annual at Letchworth. The week inbetween saw me spend some time with Benedict the SA Children's Advocate. He made a very neat impression on the officers in the division, I think. He's a great guy,a great Children's Advocate and very ( a word I am using loads at the mo) affirming.

Last week was fairly normal - had some great chats with people at work - there are some GOOD people at work which is great and on Wednesday went out for a meal with some people that I used to work with when I first left school, when I was just 19, so a fair while ago.

Funny thing is, I have worked with lots of different people since then, but these guys are really special. I guess we have stayed in touch because we have shared many life experiences, not least Keith and I meeting, and in those days, working for Lloyds Bank was loads of fun! Our Branch Manager was the least threatening Bank Manager you could ever hope to meet. I had been at the branch about a week before I saw him wandering about and I asked someone who that old man was! Our lives became really intertwined and we have shared really great times and really heartbreaking ones too in the intervening years. We had a great evening together and everyone wanted to know how the old Sally Army was, so I told them, as you do!

However,prior to actually getting into the restaurant, I had to negotiate the car park entrance and after a senario worthy of an old TV show called Butterflies, managed to drive through the entrance into a low brick wall, smashing up the passenger door - again.

Telling the people I was meeting up with what had happened was quite funny and they all laughed and said - Well you haven't changed a bit have you? Not that I was known for crashing cars although I did have rather a nasty car accident while working there, but I was a rather dizzy employee and all the old tales of cash differences and triple standing orders were rattled out.

I had to let the insurance company know about the prang and for a while was fearing for my identity, the guy was asking for so much info. Name, address, DOB, phone number(s) driving licence number, employee number, car reg number, kind of car, where the accident happened, was I arriving or leaving the venue ( I told him I was arriving, because it was true, but added that it meant there was no danger of me being drunk, he didn't laugh). I couldn't remember the name of the road the restaurant was in, so he asked for the restaurant name at which point I had had enough and asked if he needed to know what I had eaten too.It wasn't fair on the poor man, but he did laugh at that point and apologised for asking so many questions.

Anyway, that's it for now, other than for some reason, I can't load pictures on to my blog - any ideas why?