Today was one of those days where the plan went out of window within 10 minutes of getting into work. Clients have caused quite a bit of juggling of priorities today, but we got all we needed to get done and have planned tomorrow, so I’m fairly happy with my performance. Certainly managing projects and clients is a full time job and all the other stuff I need to do has been ignored this week.

It was such a complicated day that I didn’t get to take time out of the office for lunch today. Also, it was pouring with rain over lunchtime which didn’t motivate me! Of course the sun came out later in the afternoon and
this is the nearby picnic table where one day I may actually eat my lunch!

The big news today is that it was Ben’s first day at school. Obviously we took photos! His school has a “settling period” system so this week he’s only going for the afternoons and it’s a few weeks before he’s going full time.

It was quiet in the house this afternoon!

He seemed to enjoy himself as he came back with chalk dust on his face and told us that he played with Lego. Jon was also back at school today and seemed to like his new teacher, which was good. He has been a bit worried about schools starting as he’s in a new class which is a mixed years 3 and 4 class. So far, all is going well.

For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t take my lunch whilst sitting at my desk working. Today, I went to St Margaret’s church, Corse and took a few photos. Of course, it rained. Then the sun came out, so it wasn’t all bad. The church is actually a long way from the village. It’s the other side of the A417 and down a long winding road. As I was driving down, I was beginning to think the sign was wrong!

When I got there, I had a walk around and took a few photos. Mainly I just wanted to get out of work and put a camera to my eye. I didn’t get any fantastic shots, but it was good to be not thinking about work.

Now that the complicated summer months are over, we’ve started exercising regularly again and it’s a killer! Three times a week, you’ll now find us using exercise bike for half an hour each. During this time we watch something that’s been previously recorded on Sky+. Today, it was Top Gear – the Bullet train race episode. I have to say that I like the look of the Nissan GTR!

In other news, the boss is away this week, so I’m in charge! This means that I’m 99% project manager this week as it seems to take that much time to keep the clients up to date and the rest of the team on track with what they are doing. This isn’t a problem and I quite enjoyed heading off a problem with a client by altering stuff around the keep him happy. There’s a couple of tight deadlines coming up that are going to require clients to approve stuff quickly, so I expect they’ll be delayed though!

Jon also seems allergic to sleeping this evening. it’s nearly 9pm and he’s still awake. Tomorrow is not going to be a good day I suspect…

Productivity comes in waves for me, especially on personal stuff. This weekend has been particularly productive. I’ve sorted out lots of stuff that’s been hanging around for a few weeks.

I’m particularly pleased that I’ve got the camper packed up for the winter. It is now hoovered out, the bed sheets are packed away and I’ve also put on the winter cover. I have also processed all the photos from our last holiday now and published them to my Flickr account and onto the photo album here. I’m not very fast at processing, so it was good to get them all done.

I’ve also started preparing for my conference trip to Santa Clara, USA, in a fortnight. Travel is now all sorted as the plane tickets are booked, along with travel insurance and the hotel. For the travel insurance, I went with Norwich Union as they gave me a good deal, probably as we have other insurance with them too.

Jon, Ben and I played Boom Blox on the Wii this afternoon. Ben is struggling to use the wiimote to control the game. Jon has completely “got it” now and has no trouble flicking his wrist at just the right moment. Boom Blox is quite good – it’s a play on Jenga and quite addictive.

So, all in all, a great weekend. Now it’s time to play World of Warcraft…

Another camping season is over for the Allen family. This year we managed three trips in our Pennine Pathfinder:

• Kingsbury Water Park, a Camping and Caravanning Club site near Sutton Coldfield.
• Long Beach Tenting and Touring, on the Norfolk coast.
• Highclere Farm in Buckingshire, close to Legoland.

We had a good time in all of our trips away this year. They were all very different. Kingsbury is close to us and less than one hour’s drive. We stayed for a long weekend and will almost certainly be visiting again next year. Our pitch at Long Beach was stunning. It overlooked the sand dunes and the sea. Next year we’ll be going to the west coast though as we prefer to watch the sun set over the ocean with a glass of wine. Highclere Farm was easily the cleanest site we’ve been to. It had excellent facilities and the kids loved the playground.

All in all a good season, I feel.

It snowed!

Jon and Ben have played out in it with their friends from the houses around us. Ben’s hands got too cold though, so he came in after half an hour. Jon stayed out for a fair old while though and really enjoyed playing.

This is the last day of the Easter holidays too as school and nursery start again tomorrow. This holiday, the main achievement has been the decoration of the downstairs cloakroom. Georgina did most of the work – all I did was rubbing down at the start and then painting the woodwork at the end. We’ve got a new blind for it and as this one rolls all the way up, the room is so much lighter! The new flooring is being laid tomorrow so that will be another room ticked off.

Georgina bought a bike yesterday, so we’ll be able to go riding as a family when we go camping. As a result, I dusted off my bike and repaired flat tyres, so we are all ready to go :) I’m going to have to work out how we are going to transport the bikes. Current plan is for roof bars and 4 bike attachments, but that seems quite expensive. We may go for a high level rack on the back of the car for 3 bikes and then store Ben’s in the trailer or boot.

My beautiful, wonderful wife is celebrating her birthday today!

Happy Birthday, my love.

Although I titled my last post “last day of stress”, in reality, the website that was the cause of it all actually went live last Thursday!

So… I’m back on the book and making good progress again and I have managed to put up some photos from Christmas day into the Photo Album.

Due to a deadline that’s much too close, this last week or so has been really stressful at work. We close for the break tomorrow lunchtime, so I’ll start looking forward to Christmas then!

We’re having Christmas at our house this year with G’s family, so are seeing my family this weekend and also intend to catch up with some friends which should be fun.