Phew, Easter Holidays

It doesn't seem to matter how long (or short) the term is, by the time you get to the holidays everyone is limping to the finish. We are no different, with the slight exception that this time we were also winding up to Glenn heading out to Spain for a few days 'pre-season testing'. This is not a holiday you understand, despite the warm weather, beer and motorbikes, it's a crucial part of a race season! So with him heading off on the Thursday evening and the girls finishing school on Friday lunchtime, I decided to take Friday off and make a long week of it. Sort of worked although I've remembered that one of the downsides of practice versus corporate life is the lack of clear accountability / delegations. In BP when I went on leave I handed my delegations to my colleague and as long as everything in train was in hand, all would be fine. Here I'm back to the strange matrix world of a highly competitive partnership where it's very hard to switch off, and the merry go round never really slows down let alone stops. I also remember that the way many people deal with this is to go away so that it's (a) easier to switch off and (b) comms are such on some lucky occasions you are genuinely uncontactable. My top tip for next time is to finish at Friday lunchtime so that it's easier to close out and not feel like I'm stepping out a bit early.


The flip side to all of this is that kids are a wonderful way of making one switch off. Between Glenn being away, the girls and the dogs, it's difficult not to have to direct all attention to home and quite rightly so. On Friday afternoon we headed off to Bucklebury Farm and made the most of what was a wonderful spring day - lots of sunshine and baby animals at the farm park - Abi doing what she does to pretty much every animal - scooping them up and suggesting we should have one. Me trying to think of plausible reasons why we shouldn't add some pygmy goats to our madhouse....


Yesterday we had riding and the girls made the most of Glenn not being able to do the switchover by being the most helpful little helpers they could be while they waited out the end of my lesson. I'm loving my riding. I'm currently riding a sweet little 6 year old called Kiwi who is teaching me to be very subtle in my commands so I'm having to think a lot more than when on horses that just require more umph. I love the fact that for that hour it's just about me and the horse, as well as the fact that I ride in a group of 3 other lovely women. While we are different ages we have gelled really well together and love the fact that we are the fun group. The group before us is very serious and it's frowned upon if you have an off day. We are a much more supportive bunch and we have a great laugh, particularly when one of us gets it completely wrong - which happens at least once a week!


This morning the weather was as miserable as predicted and so we walked the dogs in the rain and wind - everyone being as good humoured as possible given the conditions. Even Izzy was very upbeat as she trotted along (everything is done as if on a horse for at least 24 hours after riding...) making the most of the puddles as she went. We then headed off to pottery - the greatest backstop on a rainy Sunday where we indulged in some therapeutic painting before heading off to Sharron's for a massive Sunday lunch - yummy. Abi and I walked the dogs from there around the field that we used to walk many times a week which was strange - funny being back after over a year - nothing has changed but felt different.


So now we are waiting for Glenn to come home on Tuesday, we all miss him. Izzy was writing him love notes earlier while for Abi it is with more mixed emotions. She desperately wants him home but it will mean she will have to head back to her own bed!