the wedding has been and gone. i have out a few pictures up (on instructions
from si and fi!). they left at 03:30 this morning to get to stansted in time
for a cheapo flight to italy.
the whole long weekend has been as close to perfect as we could have hoped.
thursday was just spent running around doing odd jobs like picking up the
suits. we had a “last supper” in the evening with everyone on very good form,
especially judith who didn’t seem to be having any nerves at all.
more to follow…
we had the wedding rehearsal last night. all a bit chaotic with everyone trying
to work out what they have to do during the service on friday. it looks like
the ushers are going to be pretty busy – mainly moving chairs on the altar (if
last night is anything to go by) and directing cars but at least the time will
fly by.
the families start to descend on ipswich tomorrow. simon and fiona are staying
with me for the duration which is always good.
there is a bit of a last supper for judith tomorrow night in witnesham, if it’s
as boozy as simon’s then there will be a few sore heads on friday.
autumn is definitely arriving. i had to turn my heating on last night for the
first time since the winter.
it’s also back to the point where it is dark when i get home in the evening.
soon we’ll be into the winter slog where daylight is just that thing you see
out of the office window.
the week is finally over. having though i had got out of working at the
weekend, i got a call last night and had to go in this morning. but i left at
lunchtime so i have the rest of the day to myself.
the trip to amsterdam turned out to be a bit of a waste of time but it sounds
like i avoided a fairly tense environment back in the office as things are
really not going well
i managed to leave the office in amstelveen (a suburb of amsterdam) and get to
schipol by 16:30 but they have cut down rather dramatically on the number of
filghts so i had to kill time until 19:30. then the plane was its (now
traditional) hour late. all this plus heavy traffic on the m11 meant that i
didn’t get home until 23:00 last night.
it looks like the whole team is going to be working all weekend as well.
on a positive note, my brother looks like he may have got us seats in a box for
the forest vs ipswich match at the end of november. if it comes off that will
be excellent.
it was an early start to drive to stansted this morning and then train into
london from there so that i can get home tomorrow evening.
it’s going to be a long day as the plane isn’t until 8pm this evening and it is
always late. then i have to be in the office in amsterdam very early tomorrow
morning.
there was a mix of good and bad news yesterday, my contract got renewed but the
whole team took a 10% rate cut (again). that being said we are still a lot
better off than most contractors at the moment. we are also being forced to
take several days off over christmas which has messed up my plans a little but
i am not overly worried by that.
i also got agreement for my 6 week break in jan/feb/mar next year which is
beginning to take shape now. more to follow later on this.
i am off to amsterdam as feared. but at least i don’t have to do an early
morning. i am getting the plane tomorrow night and then flying back on thursday
night. it will not be a good day given all the nastiness which has been
happening over the last few days.
while waiting for a program to run i have been browsing for the first time in
ages and found this which, in my opinion, is much better information
the ubiquitous jakob nielsen.
hopefully it will be third time lucky with the sale of my flat. i accepted
another offer last night which is for cash so it seems less likely to fall
through.
it has been a strange experience so far, there are no shortage of interested
people and, indeed, buyers but getting to the point where contracts are
exchanged etc is much harder than getting someone to express an general
ambition to own property!
it has got me thinking who these people are. i mean, putting in an offer on a
property without having the money sorted is not something i, or anyone i know,
would do and i am not known for my financially sound planning. all i can hope
is that this offer gets to completion as quickly as possible.
it looks like i might have to go to amsterdam for the day on wednesday which is
not good. i have done this a few times before and generally it means getting up
at 04:00 and not getting to bed until midnight. plus the task that i have to do
is quite tricky yet supremely boring.
this is going to be a bad week…
well, honours are even after a 1-1 draw yesterday. it was pretty a pretty close
thing with ipswich only scoring in the very last minute on the third rebound of
a penalty!
had a go in mum’s car and it is very nice indeed, although being quite tall my
head does rather stick out the top!