A short break...

It is a while since I blogged, as I took August off, as is my usual practice, and then came back to rather a lot to get through in early September.

When I say I took August off, do not imagine me sat with my feet up. It was a very busy period. I acquired two new grandchildren (Charlie on 1st, and Matthew on 13th) in Manchester and Durham, respectively. Needless to say, they needed visiting, and their mothers needed encouraging (and flattering, of course). So we were on the road a lot.  And then they all came here, as the girls wanted to see each others' babies, naturally enough. 

So it was something of a relief when September came around and I could return to the tranquility of my work life...  And Jane and I took the opportunity of some work in Wales either side of a weekend to have a weekend break, and visited the wonderful Gloucester cathedral.  It is remarkable, Norman overlaid with the very first experiments in Perpendicular - and that magnificent east window!  We also heard a fascinating lecture by Dr Janina Ramirez on the Gloucester candlestick (of which they have just printed a 3-D replica).  And of course Tewkesbury Abbey, another fine example of Norman architecture.

Perhaps by next week, I'll be sufficiently back in work mode to have something relevant to blog about: this post (as the more perceptive of you will have realised) was really just an excuse to show off my grandchildren...

A Very Different Holiday

From reading this and the last post in quick succession, the casual reader might get the impression that I spend my whole life on holiday! That is not quite the truth (though living in the Lake District, it can sometimes feel that way) but it just so happened that the Chartres pilgrimage and an invitation from some friends to spend a week sailing with them came in quick succession.

So a rapid gear change from the rigours of Chartres (long days of walking, sleeping in icy tents, communal facilities shared by 8,000 people) to a week on a catamaran sailing off the coast of Corfu.

You can tell that I am not used to this ocean sailing lark; on arrival at the catamaran, I was greeted with 'A bit of a swell!' and responded 'Thank you!' I gather that was incorrect.

Actually, by the standards of Gouvia marina, I was anything but a swell. You could see the super yachts lined up in bragging order on a distant quay, and even the humble catamaran we were on probably cost more than my house.

Once again the contrast with Chartres was very marked; and it would be easy to stand on some moral high ground (high wave, at sea?) and denounce the pleasures of the flesh and the indulgence of the wealthy. However the truth is that we had a wonderful week, getting to know our hosts (the parents of our daughter's husband, who refer to us as The Outlaws, reasonably enough) rather better.  And very good company they were, too! I also learned some of the rudiments of sailing a large yacht at sea, as opposed to a small dinghy on Ullswater. We swam, played games, sampled Greek restaurants, bought and cooked freshly caught fish, read, chatted, and relaxed.

So comparing the two holidays, I conclude that they served very different purposes, and met very different needs. A life that consisted solely of cruising on the Mediterranean in the sunshine, having fun and eating and drinking in good measure and in good company would perhaps be lacking something - and it was tempting to make all sorts of judgements about the chap we saw doing his workout on a treadmill on the upper deck of his massive super yacht, while his staff motored ashore in a launch on some errand. But there is certainly a place for real rest and relaxation, and above all slowing down; and particularly in the context of building new friendships. And by the same token, I suspect that an ascetic life, full of the rigours of the Chartres pilgrimage without relief, is a vocation to which very few are called - and that to assume it inappropriately would also be deleterious.

But I don't think I need worry about either temptation too much: the Chartres pilgrimage only happens once a year, and as long as I have a wife and children, I will be ineligible for monastic life; and I certainly won't be chartering a yacht on the Med on a regular basis, either.

And despite our children acquiring a liking for such a splendid holiday, our next one will be back to normal - amongst the midges of Scotland...

An Eventful Summer

In my last blog post I announced that we were getting connected to superfast broadband on 17 August.  Naively, perhaps, I thought that was true, as that is what our new provider had promised.  However, on getting back from a glorious week in Wales, I found that the router had not arrived, and that prompted me to ring the ISP - and sure enough, someone had forgotten to do something or other, and we were not, in fact, scheduled to be connected that day after all. They were terribly apologetic, but the soonest they could re-schedule for was 3 September. Clearly, that is a much worse time for me; I had chosen mid-August as the quietest time for the business: inSeptember, things start to get busy again.

And sure enough, the engineer turned up on the 3rd, did something at the box in the village, plugged in the new router, and told us the internet should be live in half an hour - but officially he was only meant to promise it by the end of the day.

By the end of the day, it still wasn't live: and given we don't get 3G here, I was effectively isolated from email, Skype and all the other online tools of my trade.  Cue angry phone call first thing this morning. And guess what, someone had forgotten to do something, a switch was thrown and we were online.

So an unpromising start with the new ISP - but I have to admit the internet is a lot faster now, so maybe it's worth it.

Not our car, but represents how I feel about it...

Other events over the summer include the timing belt on the car snapping long before it should have done, and trashing the engine - so a negotiation with Nissan about their meeting the cost of that. They wanted to local Nissan dealer to have a look inside, but unfortunately, the dealership managed to drop the car off the back of their truck and write it  off (along with two other vehicles on their forecourt). Fortunately nobody was hurt. So a further negotiation about that, as their insurers wanted to value the car as having no engine, whereas I felt that was unreasonable. And of course we had to find a replacement car.

On top of which, Mike managed both to lose his wallet and fail his driving test (by an very unlucky major...), so has had to re-book just as he is leaving for University; Clare got a new job and is moving out to live in Manchester, and needed to buy a car for that (with parental help, of course); and so on... Also, we were asked to have a Spanish student to stay, as she is working on her English. She was a delightful guest, and gave us the excuse to do a lot of walking, castle-visiting, boating and so on.

I'm also continuing to work on my ILM Coaching programme, which although I started somewhat grudgingly, is (of course) proving very worth while.

Nonetheless, my restful break and the time set aside to finish the book all felt somewhat eroded. However, I have managed to keep calm in the midst of these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (aka first world problems) and  I am still determined to finish the book this year and get it published asap - and am doing the final editing at present, while I await the graphics I have commissioned...

Holidays

I'm off now, after a flurry of busy-ness.  Taking August as holiday with the family, and a little time to work on my book.

Have just landed a couple of bits of work that mean we are going to hit our targets for the next year, so won't have to sell the kids into slavery over the next few months.

So a summer of rainy walks, mowing wet grass, and camping with the kids awaits - and I shall return refreshed (?) and ready for action in September.  Blogging likely to be sparse, but you will survive without me for a few weeks...