Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

A picture of Abi and Mia... We haven't got one of Bean and Boris yet And so March comes to an end - that's it now, the year will speed up and in a blink of an eye I will be talking about Christmas - it's always the same at this point in the year. Today was Mother's Day and while I got a lovely card from Kerrie, saying that she couldn't wish for a better Step-Mum (which literally made me well up - we have come so far and I'm so proud of her), I got a hand drawn card from Izzy "which we were made to do in school" and nothing from Abi "because it's all just commercial nonsense and Drinkwater's don't do that rubbish". Oh well, I shouldn't be surprised but a hug and an acknowledgement wouldn't go astray - maybe when they are mothers themselves they'll understand. This weekend has mainly been about the fact that we have become the proud (ish) owners of 2 little guinea pigs.... This is the ongoing saga of "can we...

This weekend has been lovely - the weather has been fabulous, the kids have been on form and everything seems just as it should be. I was away much of the week with work - a few days in Portugal at the Leadership Conference. I couldn't have asked for better timing and it was a chance to go and meet lots of people who up to this point have been names on the end of a group conference call or in a report. I made lots of new contacts and even a few friends and it was a great, if admittedly tiring, few days. The hotel we were in was beautiful, just outside Lisbon and immensely green with lovely walks for the few spare moments we got; the weather was a sunny 20 degrees - almost felt like summer! I arrived back on Thursday evening and worked at home on Friday. MY early reflections are very positive. I love the fact that the company philosophy is to get stuff done - my job is to try and help everyone do it safely. Given everybody understands the risks of not doing things properly, my t...

Snapchat fun Sneeze and the week is over in a flash - I think probably the way it's going to be for at least the next few months if not the rest of the year. This week it was my birthday and I was all ready for a bit of an anti-climax given I was working and hence in London most of the day but as it turned out I had a lovely time. Work was a bit manic - meetings pretty much wall to wall from the moment I arrived - so much for my diary taking a while to catch up with me being there. Despite me not having said anything to anyone (it's a bit early to be sharing birthdays with my colleagues, the Company Secretary had obviously clocked in from one of the many forms I've had to fill in and mid afternoon brought me a card and an emergency chocolate biscuit "to break in to when the madness gets too much!" What a lovely gesture. Her card said it all "welcome to the unique madness that is G4S"I can see this already and although it is mad, and under invested ...

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...

Chilling on a Saturday morning Ah, nerves biting before the big day of new job even though I was in for 2 days last week (all of which went well). A little bit of adrenaline is no bad thing though so will worry less about that and more about the fact that it will be sad to say goodbye to the freedom I've had over the past month. The things I will miss most are: - breakfast with the kids before walking them to school - easy time with Glenn where we can potter about together at home with no agenda - time to exercise in the middle of the day where I have the energy to do it well - time spent outside in daylight! - time to catch up with family and friends without having to cram it into the weekends It's interesting to reflect on my list. My favourite things are not material possessions or going out to fancy places but time to do the things I want to, when I want to. Worth remembering that, albeit I recognise that all of the above are made much nicer by the fact that w...