Catching Up

Forgive me while I perform the equivalent of emergency surgery on my blog here.

As you can see from the history of it, the damn thing has nearly healed over completely, but like any real wound - it'll never get better if you pick it. Hence my reason for leaving it alone.  Of course that adage should also go on to say, it'll never get better if you don't actually write something either. So here it is - not getting any better - but at least it's here.

On my last visit I told you how I'd just returned from a week in the sunshine playing golf in Portugal - and jolly splendid it was too. In fact, the Sun and I got on so well, that it seems to have followed me home and hung around in the skies over England like a lost puppy, or a forgotten football in the park. Summer has most definitely arrived this year so there's little or no chance of hearing the naysayers in the winter uttering the immortal phrase "We didn't have a summer to speak of" or something similar.



Those of you keeping track of my relentless attempt to "vacation" or to "holiday" as we correctly put it, will be thrilled to know that my next adventure (this time with Mrs G) is a mere couple of weeks away and I'll be jetting off Easterly for some Mediterranean plate smashing type action.

Let's recap then and try and fill in a few gaps.

While I'm sat on the train travelling up that Laandan (more on that in a bit), daughter is sunning herself on one of the Canary Islands with a couple of her mates, while her cat is having a holiday of its own, staying with granny and Son is off painting schools (among other things) in Ghana, West Africa. She'll be suntanned and gorgeous when she returns (daughter, not the cat) because the warm weather really suits her - much like her mother in that respect - and son will be a bit more than suntanned I suspect. In fact Son is likely to become a grown up and that is something we can all be thankful for.

Granny with Will - the cat sitters - being a mahoosive tennis fan, spent the day with us on Sunday to watch the Wimbledon men's final, reclaimed by a Brit (well a Scot) in glorious 3D thanks to the BBC and Freesat. Will and I are not such fans, but the novelty of the 3D combined with the novelty of a Brit in the final and the overpowering heat outside meant that we joined granny in donning the 3D glasses. Mrs G on the other hand, sat in the garden and soaked up the sun - as Wimbledon week induces all sorts of memories of childhood cruelty and neglect from her youth.

The Beeb are missing a trick by suspending their 3D output entirely (after the Doctor Who anniversary special apparently) because honestly, to watch tennis in 3D is actually the only way to watch tennis at all. After the 3D experience, normal televised tennis is just ....  Well...  Flat, and you actually need "hawk eye" to watch it.

MTA and SEA have been busy too. Aud's will is all dealt with and probate completed. With the house now on the market, they can both sit back and relax a little. SEA in particular because she's had to have a bit of an "Op" on the back of her knee, nothing too serious, but she has also said that she will retire at the end of the year - which will result in her place of employ collapsing in her absence - at least that's what MTA and I would agree with. Mrs G has just been explaining to them how they can get their hands on some cricket tickets "for the school". One can only imagine who will have to go along with the kids to "watch the cricket" "look after them". Other than that, they're all good.

Sister Ball has a wedding coming up. Oddly for her, we still have no detail on that though - we'll have to wait and see.

Oh yes. On the subject of cricket... I'm off to watch some on Friday. My good friend Jugz is begrudgingly 50 years of age this year, and by way of a celebration (and believe me, there are plenty of celebrations for this one - any excuse, and this is a good excuse) he and another good friend of his (also 50 this year) have laid on some special "corporate entertainment" at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival.  Guaranteed to be a proper good day out - especially as the weather looks like it's going to hold out for it too.

As you know, Cheltenham loves a good festival - in fact, if you can think of anything even remotely culturally interesting, bung the world Festival on the end of it, and Cheltenham in front of it, and they'll sell tickets like its going out of fashion.  A few of us will be catching the bus to the event, as featured in the recent "Cheltenham Bus Festival" - £20 a ticket in advance.

Sadly the company that Jugz and a couple of the other lads work for have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to close down the part of the business that they work in. They've joined the company through acquisition and the Americans that have acquired it - as is so often the case nowadays - don't really understand what it is that they've acquired. The result is that instead of taking the time to understand it, they've gone to the bottom line numbers and made a decision to arbitrarily delete the business from their portfolio altogether. It's a shame, because the original company was a gem. I hope that all those that are now looking for work, do something great with their now available time and the Americans involved should all be thoroughly ashamed.

It maybe that they should diversify into something completely un-related like retail.... or better yet, fine dining and drinking.  That would be a true disaster. But brings me neatly to the opening of a couple of new venues in the Gloucester docks area that Mrs G and I recently visited.  There's Ed's Diner - which is an American style diner and looks great for those quality burger snack type things. And then there's the "Portivo" lounge bar, which was packed and served a very nice pint of Estrella and some half decent nosh as well.  Both recommended.



On the subject of work then.  Obviously I'm on the train back up to the city - otherwise how would this entry get written. It's just a quick day trip relating to the new job I've been allocated to.  And this isn't just any job.




Unfortunately, the last lot - which was the best part of a year of my life - decided that we weren't the people to provide the service they were looking for and have asked someone else to make up some numbers for them. In point of fact, I think this might have been a very close call for us because there have been other recent public announcements that make the achievement of the services they actually need - not far off of impossible. But mine is to reason why... And all that.

Work in general is all a bit up in the air at the moment.  Seems to be plenty of uncertainty, and plenty of people I've worked with for a while, walking out the door.  This is not a nice situation and not one that I'm enjoying a great deal.  Dumb decisions are being made by dumb people.  But then, that's just like, my opinion man....

One last very quick observation. I'm at opposite a Helen Mirren lookalike on the train this morning - so that's interestingish, but more importantly I'm sat next to a Nexus user. He's trying to compose an email - and it would appear that typing on a Nexus is hard work. I've written this on my iPad and to be honest it was as easy (if not easier) than writing it on a grown up keyboard.  Seems to me that the tablet space still belongs to Apple - and let's face it - the blade runners retired all of the Nexuses anyway.

Until next time.

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