I have embarrassingly little to report on the work front. The rest of the team have all been beavering away, but I have almost nothing to show for the last month bar an increasingly intimate knowledge of back route detours either side of the Dartford Tunnel, a declining feeling of warmth towards all those folk over the Channel who are making drivers on south east motorways lose the will to climb behind the wheel, and an impressively comprehensive mental database of where to buy cheap fuel in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent and Sussex… By choice, none of these would be my specialist subject if called up for Mastermind.
On the plus side there are also a few less weeds in my Norfolk garden, the kitchen wallpaper has finally been consigned to the bin (a job I started in May – and no, it’s not that big a kitchen), and George the horse’s hock (blog 1) is steadily improving.
The medical fraternity has played way too big a part in my life, poking and prodding me to check that I am still a picture of health, given the whole family situation right now (seems I am – phew). Just the CAA flying medical to go in a couple of weeks and I can resume my aversion to anyone who knows how to use a stethoscope or (one of my three most hated words in the English vocabulary) probe 😉
Talking of medics, I did get the promised tour of the RAF Search & Rescue Sea King helicopter (blog 2). Big thanks to the lovely folk at RAF Wattisham and my host, Haz Hunter. She (the Sea King – definitely female; beautiful, practical, multi-talented, complex and hard to handle) totally lived up to expectation. It was love at first sight – she’s just the coolest bit of kit. My heart breaks with the knowledge that these incredible machines are all being sold off and SAR is being transferred in to private hands. Don’t start me on politics…
I admit I was slightly nervous when Haz talked me through his back pack (weighs a ton and he carries it down on the tiniest wire imaginable, invariably dealing with some sort of sea rescue)… I’m pretty au fait with mind-bending drugs right now, but when he produced a small drill, used for drilling directly in to bones to get fluid in quickly (squeamish – ugh…) I weirdly found myself listing which bones I would find acceptable and which not, should he ever find himself rescuing me… Note to self: take up knitting.
I might not have much to show on the business front but I so love the people I work with. Panda at The GPC has given me hours of entertainment – non-disclosable of course, but I struggle to categorise it as work when it’s so much fun.
I’m missing The Festival of British Eventing this weekend, but Trevor has just texted to say that Oliver (Townend – web client) has already bagged a 1-2 in the Novice Championships, won the Intermediate Championships, and is lying 2nd & 3rd after dressage in the Open… I seriously hope that Bridget and her team are missing me – but bring on the European Championships at Blair in September, where she will be keeping us all in order…
Lastly I have to give a shout out to Harry Dzenis (another web client) who won an obscenely huge trophy recently with Xam the Man… can’t wait to see them at Burghley next month…
Next week the Highlands beckon before I ramp up my work. Horse & Hound are easing me in gently with a trip to Keysoe and then, via a small diversion to what will be probably the best 18th birthday celebration of 2015 with my lovely ‘sort of’ cousins, the eventing party really kicks off…