Friday, May 26, 2006

Update for May



What a month it’s been? I can’t believe it’s been a month actually, time seems to be flying past so fast. So what’s been happening? Spring arrived and then left again and I think we’re now in Autumn in London! We’ve got a hosepipe ban where I live and yet lots of roads and tunnels are being closed because of flooding. I’ve been caught out in it riding my bike on a couple occasions and the rain has been bouncing off the road level with my waist!!! It’s doing wonders for the garden, and I have elephant grass outside now. It’s been so wet I just can’t get out there to mow the lawn.

Went to Palma in Mallorca for a work conference and had a great time. It did involve work (and my first presentation in about 4 years – went surprisingly well), but also a lot of time to team build. I think it’s easy to look at these type of events cynically and call them jollies, but we have had a lot of new people starting recently, including me. It was a great chance for everybody to relax and get to know each other better. Since returning from the trip everyone is pulling together much more, and I can honestly say that everyone did and does get on. There were a lot of highlights, but a group (what’s the technical term?) of Dolphins swimming next to the boat we were on was amazing. Dolphins are even better in the flesh than I imagined. It was incredibly tempting to jump in the sea with them, but not sure how that would have gone down. One day I would love to swim with Dolphins.



Outside of the conference work is going pretty well. It’s been three months since I started and I think things are changing for the better. I’m not here to change the world, but hopefully my team are getting more motivated and we’re getting more organised. It will take a bit of time to get to where I think we should be, but we’re making progress. The first big job will be done soon and that will hopefully open the door to other projects getting rolling. And I’ve recruited a new member of staff as well! Nothing like trying to do everything at the same time.

Most importantly Megan is nearly with us. Theresa is REALLY big now and her tummy has massively grown in the last couple of weeks. The baby has turned and engaged (normal and good), and we’re all ready to rock and roll. The nursery was completed last week-end amid much swearing and destruction. Have managed to cover all of the holes and scratches with shelving and furniture so on the face of it, everything looks spotless. And I don’t imagine that Megan will care much for a while anyway. As long as there are flashing things that make noise everywhere she’ll be happy.



I am going through all sorts of emotions at the moment about the impending arrival. I am really excited about the new addition to Casa de Stancombe and I think we’re going to be such a great little team together. I’m not naïve enough to think that it’s going to be plain sailing, but I think we’ll do right by Megan. I think that Theresa and I have talked plenty about our approach to bringing her up and I think that is pretty much sorted as well. We’re going to try and introduce some kind of structure to mealtimes, bedtime and so on. I only write this now so that I can refer to it in a few months time and see how we got on!!



As well as being really excited about Megan coming I also have moments of huge fear about what will happen. My greatest fear being that something will happen to Theresa (and Megan) during the birth and that I might lose one or both of them. And I don’t know what I would do if that happened. I tell myself that it’s stupid and irrational, and I’ve not had thoughts like this before. But it keeps coming back to haunt me. I don’t know if it is because I care more about my family or what it is really.