Well actually that should read Sunday... It's the day when the stress of the week really kicked off, and I became a bit of a wreck. Well, a lot of a wreck actually.
For some stupid reason I managed to notice the clock at some point in the afternoon and the thought 'in 15 hours I'll be telling my team' came to mind. Stupid! If anything is sure to make me panic and stress it's counting down hours until something happens... I called my parents and had a long chat with my mum - who again offered to fly here to be with me during the week and managed to get me somewhat calmed down - and ordered me to have a cognac (a Christmas pressent from my parents last year) to help.
Sunday night I pretty much did not sleep. I went to bed and took a valerian tablet to help me relax and it worked; for a few hours. Then I was awake, panicing and stressing in bed from 2:30 until 5:40 when the alarm went off. I managed to do some breathing exercises to make sure I got some rest even if sleep did alude me.
I got to work on Monday morning then the stress hit me completely, I honestly can't tell you what I did for the first two hours (except check my watch every couple of minutes to see if it was time for the team meeting). We all made our way to the meeting room and rather than try to talk around the issue and lead up to it I just said what was going to happen the next morning. It seemed the easiest way. Cue lots of shock, and one guy in the team looking like a bowling ball for a couple of minutes. Then a few questions, a bit of explanation and a some talk. All of it positive, no negative reactions at all. Phew :)
When we ran out of questions I told my team that the other department meeting that was planned later in the morning was to tell everyone else, and at the same time the other business unit managers would be telling their people too; and asked them not to discuss it in front of others until that time. Saying that caused the stress that was receding to start building again and our web master came out with a fantastic phrase for me...
'If anyone gives you any grief about this, just tell them that your team is completely behind you'
I don't think I could have asked for a better reaction than that from him!
30 mins of stressing again and we were in the biggest meeting room, with the whole department - about 30 people I think. My boss was giving the news, with me there to answer any questions that I felt I could answer but with the instruction that if I got to stressed I was just to leave. He brought the news over to the team 'X is in a process of transition and as of tomorrow we will have a female team lead in IT, Stacy.' Cue lots of quizzical faces and our one female developers asking the question that I have since found out was in the minds of a few others. 'But what will X be doing as of tomorrow then?' I couldn't help but smile here, and answered that I was going to be Stacy. My boss said some other things (which I can't remember) and asked if there were any questions. None came back and so we went back to work. Well we didn't... I got back to my room to find it filled with people and we spent the next 30 minutes chatting about it. Again the reactions I had were great. There were the people who were shocked, and the people who said something along the lines of 'I always knew that you were somewhat feminine, but never really thought anything of it.'
The rest of the day I tried to keep working (failed miserably) and tried to make some calls to ex-colleagues so that they found out from me and not from other people. There were 4 people that I really wanted to tell in person (well 5, but one is visiting family back in India so I knew he couldn't be there) and so I tried to arrange to see them. I think I managed to scare a few people that day. 'Hi it's X. I have some news for you, but it's not something I really want to tell you over the phone. Can you meet me in a cafe at 4:30?' Now... I made these calls between 12:30 and 2:30 PM, not giving people much time to be able to get there, and I was expecting a rather 'hmm, that could be really difficult' response. The first person I called couldn't make it - he was in bed sniffling - so I had to tell him over the phone.
Wow... Really! You're not joking?! (I've become accustomed to the last one in recent days) was the response. This is a person that I was dreading telling, there is a story somewhere on this blog about why - he has come out with a very scary story in the past - but he was fine. 'You are still going to BBQ next year aren't you?' was one of his responses. We had a bit of a chat, which was cut short as my boss then called my phone to find out where I was as I was late for the team lead meeting (oops).
The others just commented that it was very mysterious and that they would be there. Including a guy on the other side of the country in a business meeting (which he said he couldn't concentrate on after the call as he thought something very serious was wrong).
At 4:30 I got the cafe where two of the group where already there, we chatted for a while as we had to wait for the last to turn up (he brought his wife with him as we know each other as well) and when everyone had their drinks and we were all sitting down they demanded to know what was wrong. I told them. Three times. Again: No?! Really?! You're joking aren't you? When they understood that it was not a joke and the shock had worn off a little we chatted for an hour. It turns out that they all had the same couple of thoughts. I'd quit and wanted a job (they all have their own companies since leaving the company I work for). I'd quit to start my own company and wanted some freelance work. I'd started my own company and had an amazing idea for a startup but needed some collaboration to get it off the ground (I wish...). I was seriously ill and not long for this world (thankfully not! That is thankfully not serious ill, not thankfully not long for this world).
The wife of my friend said that we needed a getting to know Stacy party in the new year. I like the idea, after all I don't see these people day in, day out and I would be good for them to meet the real me sooner rather than later. I am just not sure if I am going to be hosting a winter BBQ (I like the idea I must admit) or just to go for drinks one evening after work.
The responses from all were amazing, and I was really impressed that I have friends who will drop everything and drive across the country if something is important. We are not the closest of friends (we see each other 4 or 5 times a year at most) but obviously we are very good friends - that was a little overwhelming when I stopped to think about it.
We had to leave before one of our party had his car clamped - he had not put enough money in the machine to park very long :) And I still had a couple of people that I needed to tell - unfortunately I knew that I was not going to be able to tell them in person so I had to call.
One was another ex-colleague from where I work now, and I always watch at least one match of the 6 nations with her. I called her, told her and guessed correctly from her voice that she already knew (I kind of figured that she would do as she is close friends with a few people in my department still). She was very supportive, and came out almost immediately with 'You're are still coming to the 6 nations aren't you? You're not going to make me go on my own?' Again we chatted for a while about this and other things before I had to go. I was home by now and needed to cook, then there was one last call of the day.
This time to a colleague who I worked with a while ago. Again he took it fantastically, and made sure I was still throwing my yearly BBQ in the summer. I don't think I could have asked for better responses so far.
After that it's a bit of a blur and exhaustion was really setting in. My parents called to check how I was doing, I watched Only Connect (wonderful program - makes you feel really stupid ;p) and went to bed. And slept!
Sorry for the long post, but I guess there was a lot to tell!
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Friday, 8 April 2011
A nice surprise
Just a quickie today... Its late(ish) and I am shattered :)
but I just wanted to post about a couple of nice things that happened to me this week.
Firstly was a conversation with my HR manager. There is a focus on Team Leader training at the moment and it was a discussion about how I think that team leads from various departments can help each other improve the way that we work. That's going to be interesting - there is a world of difference between the departments and so it's not that easy to translate experiences between us. But there were some good things that came out of the discussion. I have the list of things that I would like to improve on, and also the list of things that I would be prepared to do some mentoring on.
But I digress (I do manage to go off on tangents far too easily ;p). Our HR manager knows about me, and asked how it was going before we got down to business. She also asked if she could meet Stacy, which is great as it's something I was going to ask her about at some point. So next week I am going to arrange to go for drinks with her. Should be interesting...
The other good thing was a present. A colleague / friend has been to visit his wifes family in Mexico - taking three weeks for the vacation and then another week to recover form the trip.
When he comes back to work after these trips he normally brings little gifts with him. This time was no different, I got a little turtle for my monitor (everybody got different animals). He also brought a bigger pressie and a Mexican picture bingo game to decide who to give it to. I lost by one card!
When we were on our own he told me that his wife was going to be bringing me a present when she came back a few weeks later, she always stays on for a longer family visit. Now... This friend has a sense of humour, sometimes an interesting sense of humour. I was quite nervous as to what it could be.
Well she came back last week, got unpacked and sorted and I got my present. And I needn't have worried at all. It was a collection of cosmetics - an eyeliner, 4 colours of eye shadow and a couple of lipsticks. They are all colours that I have not yet worn - and have no idea how to wear. His wife is going to mail me some links to tutorials on how to wear the colours without looking like a clown.
And Stacy got an invite to food as well :) We are going to have to organise it next week.
As Mrs Stace pointed out, I am extremely lucky with the people who know about me :)
but I just wanted to post about a couple of nice things that happened to me this week.
Firstly was a conversation with my HR manager. There is a focus on Team Leader training at the moment and it was a discussion about how I think that team leads from various departments can help each other improve the way that we work. That's going to be interesting - there is a world of difference between the departments and so it's not that easy to translate experiences between us. But there were some good things that came out of the discussion. I have the list of things that I would like to improve on, and also the list of things that I would be prepared to do some mentoring on.
But I digress (I do manage to go off on tangents far too easily ;p). Our HR manager knows about me, and asked how it was going before we got down to business. She also asked if she could meet Stacy, which is great as it's something I was going to ask her about at some point. So next week I am going to arrange to go for drinks with her. Should be interesting...
The other good thing was a present. A colleague / friend has been to visit his wifes family in Mexico - taking three weeks for the vacation and then another week to recover form the trip.
When he comes back to work after these trips he normally brings little gifts with him. This time was no different, I got a little turtle for my monitor (everybody got different animals). He also brought a bigger pressie and a Mexican picture bingo game to decide who to give it to. I lost by one card!
When we were on our own he told me that his wife was going to be bringing me a present when she came back a few weeks later, she always stays on for a longer family visit. Now... This friend has a sense of humour, sometimes an interesting sense of humour. I was quite nervous as to what it could be.
Well she came back last week, got unpacked and sorted and I got my present. And I needn't have worried at all. It was a collection of cosmetics - an eyeliner, 4 colours of eye shadow and a couple of lipsticks. They are all colours that I have not yet worn - and have no idea how to wear. His wife is going to mail me some links to tutorials on how to wear the colours without looking like a clown.
And Stacy got an invite to food as well :) We are going to have to organise it next week.
As Mrs Stace pointed out, I am extremely lucky with the people who know about me :)
Monday, 28 February 2011
A weekend away (sorry long post!)
This weekend Mrs Stace and I took a trip to the UK. I had some shopping to do, and as my parents were going down to see family as well I thought it would be nice to try plan my trip coincide so that we could have a family get together.
The trip started interestingly – we got 20 KM’s from home and had to turn around as we had forgotten the car documents. If we had have been staying in The Netherlands I would have risked the fine of not having them on me. But with three countries to drive in I thought that I had better get them…
We reached the Euro Tunnel and things started to get boring… The journey from the French border control to the UK border control (200m or so) took 40-50 minutes… We wondered if the UK border control agents are completely ashamed working so closely to the French agents who are courteous, pleasant and speedy – as opposed to the UK agents who are slow, grumpy jobsworths. We were in a Dutch car, with me sitting on the wrong side. Passed them a Dutch passport for Mrs Stace and a UK passport for me; the first question was ‘Why are you going to the UK?’ This was followed by ‘Oh, I see UK passport you are just going home, where have you been?’ Going home? In a Dutch car? ‘No I live in the NL, we are going to the UK to visit family.’ Why you can’t just say ‘I have a UK passport so I am allowed to go there’ I am not sure…
By the time we got to where we were going it was very late and we were exhausted.
The next day we went speaker shopping. Mrs Stace, my mum and her sister went shopping and my father and I went to demo the speakers I was thinking of buying (expect a review soon). An hour of listening to all types of music (a nice mix of rock, classical, trance, pop and vocals) and we brought them (along with an extra amp to power the low frequency drivers) – sorry I go into geek mode with the stereo system :)
After meeting up with Mrs Stace and the rest for lunch we went to pick up the speakers. We piled into the shop and they brought them up from the basement. Mrs Stace went into shock at the size of the box that came up. Then I went into shock when I saw that it said 1pc on the side – I started to panic; I may drive a Volvo estate, but it’s only a little V50! We managed to get the boxes to the car (using a trolley from the shop – at 33kg per box we couldn’t carry them!) Thankfully with the seats folded down they *just* fit into the car (maybe 10cm to the side and enough room at the ends to fit the box for the amp and our little suitcase. Phew…
That evening we had a family get together, at my aunt’s house with nearly all the family there (including my cousin who I have not seen in a few years). It was a great night, a real laugh – going down memory lane and talking about old family holidays. There were only two spoilers for the evening. Mrs Stace and I were still shattered from the travelling – it seems that getting up at 4:30 (UK time) driving 60 miles to work and back, doing 4 hours (and forgetting to drink due to trying to get everything in the office completed) and then driving for 9 hours to get to Leicester is not a good idea...
The other was something that I have not had to deal with for some time now… These days I get warned by my friend who works with me that I let my mannerisms come through too often. I relax too much and have basically stopped caring about the rumours. Sitting in my aunts living room with everyone there that all came back to me and I spent the night trying to figure out how I should be sitting, talking, what to comment on - what not to comment on. It was like being back at my parents’ house before telling them last year. It didn’t spoil the night, but it was exhausting – and when already shattered it didn’t help. We left early so that I could drive back to my other aunts safely and slept as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The next morning I woke up with a hangover. Slightly unfair I thought seeing as I hadn’t drunk for days! A leftover from the exhaustion and dehydration I think. A couple cups of tea, and we left for a day’s shopping.
I had arranged to meet up with Lisa this trip, so dropping Mrs Stace off at Waterstones, and after picking up a packet of paracetamol I walked to the Clock Tower of the city I grew up in to meet someone for the first time in about 20 years – when I was young teenager that was always the meeting point…
I met Lisa and her daughters and we went for a drink and chat at Costa (where when they say large cappuccino they mean *large* - I drink large cups of coffee at home, but nothing compared to that!). We must have spent an hour or so nattering – I hope that it was not too boring for her daughters – and then went to buy a couple of scrap books. It was great to finally meet up – just a shame that it was on such a rushed weekend! Hopefully we’ll have a chance to meet up again the next time we are in town.
I met Mrs Stace at Waterstones – with a nice selection of books to add to our collection – we went to pay (picking up along the way a Mouse and Gruffalo soft toys to put on top of the new speakers). A healthy jacket spud later and we went clothes shopping. Mrs Stace introduced me to a new brand (well new for me…). Zara – she likes their clothes and I spotted a nice lilac canvas skirt that I will order online here soon.
A meal with my aunt, her husband and my cousin and his girlfriend (who I haven’t seen for a couple of years) and again a night of chatting, catching up and talking about life the universe and everything. It got quite late and as we had a lot of driving to do the next day I dropped a hint of how tired I was (felt awful for doing that, but we really needed to be rested before leaving).
The next morning we had a nice cooked breakfast (thanks to my aunt) loaded the car (best bit of 3D puzzling I have done in a long time to get everything in). The border crossing this time was easy – the French border control saw that we had passports and that was enough (why are the UK agents so useless?).
After we got home we just ate some soup (neither of us wanted anything substantial) and chilled (well I unpacked the speakers, I couldn’t wait :P). Today has been setting up the stereo, tidying the cables and chilling. Back to work tomorrow!
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Another long post I'm afraid...
(I started this on Sunday but didn’t quite get around to finishing it – let’s try again now)
Well the last week has been a bit of a mix... Ups, downs, and some oh my god moments.
And excuse me if I ramble a bit, I had my yearly BBQ with friends and colleagues last night and am recovering from the after effects a bit. Both of too much wine, and too little sleep. I’ve had 6 espressos so far this morning and I think that there are more to come. (note: there were another couple after this point)
Earlier this week I went to a friend’s house to help him with TFS 2010. His company is going to start using it and they have asked me to consult on their implementation of it. This friend knows about Stacy and his wife is a hair dresser – so I asked if she would be prepared to style my hair in a way that I can wear both ways. My inspiration is Sharon Small (from The Inspector Lindley Mysteries). I have a bit of a fringe, but whereas my normal hair dresser will cut it round no matter what I try to ask for it’s now cut so a little flatter giving me more cover. She then told me where I need to grow it, and what she thinks you can get away with as a man, whilst still having enough hair to style for Stacy. And then showed me the tricks of the trade for styling – I need to practice, but I’m getting there.
Friday came, and time for my third trip as Stacy in the outside world. The day was not great – we had a big move in the office and I was conscious of trying not to work that hard that I started to sweat – difficult when I was responsible for organising it and making sure things went to the right place, and then at lunch I got a view of just how harsh some people’s views can be.
We have a very multi cultural department – Polish, Indian, French, Turkish to name but a few. The Polish guy and Indian guys, whilst being nice enough day to day, have quite intolerant views when it comes to various things. Before I arrived at the table the others had started a discussion on whether homosexual couples should be able to adopt children. To say that they are against would be an understatement, going as far to say it’s better to be in an orphanage than have two parents of the same sex.
Then the Indian managed to shock even the Polish guy. ‘You never know in 50 years they may even have a pill to cure it’. Much discussion ensues, and to his credit when someone asks how he would feel if someone made a pill to cure his skin colour (as it’s different from European skin – his argument against homosexuality is that it’s different) he says ‘Yes, maybe in the future they’ll do that’. The conversation moved on and someone brings up inter-sexed and trans people. I just knew that someone was going to, but was wishing that they wouldn’t. I made a few comments, but kept quiet for the most part. Thankfully others didn’t. His reaction got to me though. “That’s the real abomination isn’t it?” Christ
So that set the tone for the afternoon stepping out again. I struggled with the make-up and hair. And when I went it seemed as if the whole world had decided to leave their house at the same time. I made myself walk head high, but my confidence was shot inside. Being in an outfit I had never tried before and with a new hairstyle didn’t help either.
I spoke about it with my therapist and he seemed to think that my keeping quiet was not a bad idea; that for now letting others do the talking is a good way to go. We also talked about my issue with filling up with fuel as Stacy. He suggested a three step plan – fill and let someone else pay, fill and pay with someone in the car and then when comfortable just do it. I’ll have to give that a try.
The good things... One was more phone calls where I was Madame’d every call (I’ve been looking for a new phone and was ringing shops for availability) and the other was a child in a car looking directly at me in the car without freaking – OK I have no children but if a child was freaked by the man make-up I would have expected a longer look out of the back window as the car pulled away from me or getting the attention of her brother / parents to show them the ‘freak’ (for want of a better word, I’m appreciate I’m putting words in people heads here and it’s possibly not fair). Little things I know, but after the day I had had they were very welcome.
Monday was not great – but I’ll go over that another time...
And to finish on a good note... I went back to my friends to go over some more functionality of TFS 2010. He and his wife have been very nice. Actually that sounds very contrite. They have been wonderful. Whilst we were speaking about the Monday incident my friend gave me a great compliment. ‘You don’t have a big bones, you don’t have a manly nose or chin and you have wonderful eyes.’ (The discussion was about how he will react when he see’s Stacy for the first time) And when I was leaving I got a compliment on my small feet from his wife. And... To top it off... I’m not ready to get my ears pierced, and can’t find any clip-on’s or magnetic ear rings locally. I just got a call whilst typing this and his wife saw some that she thought would look good on me and asked me if I wanted her to pick them up :)
Well the last week has been a bit of a mix... Ups, downs, and some oh my god moments.
And excuse me if I ramble a bit, I had my yearly BBQ with friends and colleagues last night and am recovering from the after effects a bit. Both of too much wine, and too little sleep. I’ve had 6 espressos so far this morning and I think that there are more to come. (note: there were another couple after this point)
Earlier this week I went to a friend’s house to help him with TFS 2010. His company is going to start using it and they have asked me to consult on their implementation of it. This friend knows about Stacy and his wife is a hair dresser – so I asked if she would be prepared to style my hair in a way that I can wear both ways. My inspiration is Sharon Small (from The Inspector Lindley Mysteries). I have a bit of a fringe, but whereas my normal hair dresser will cut it round no matter what I try to ask for it’s now cut so a little flatter giving me more cover. She then told me where I need to grow it, and what she thinks you can get away with as a man, whilst still having enough hair to style for Stacy. And then showed me the tricks of the trade for styling – I need to practice, but I’m getting there.
Friday came, and time for my third trip as Stacy in the outside world. The day was not great – we had a big move in the office and I was conscious of trying not to work that hard that I started to sweat – difficult when I was responsible for organising it and making sure things went to the right place, and then at lunch I got a view of just how harsh some people’s views can be.
We have a very multi cultural department – Polish, Indian, French, Turkish to name but a few. The Polish guy and Indian guys, whilst being nice enough day to day, have quite intolerant views when it comes to various things. Before I arrived at the table the others had started a discussion on whether homosexual couples should be able to adopt children. To say that they are against would be an understatement, going as far to say it’s better to be in an orphanage than have two parents of the same sex.
Then the Indian managed to shock even the Polish guy. ‘You never know in 50 years they may even have a pill to cure it’. Much discussion ensues, and to his credit when someone asks how he would feel if someone made a pill to cure his skin colour (as it’s different from European skin – his argument against homosexuality is that it’s different) he says ‘Yes, maybe in the future they’ll do that’. The conversation moved on and someone brings up inter-sexed and trans people. I just knew that someone was going to, but was wishing that they wouldn’t. I made a few comments, but kept quiet for the most part. Thankfully others didn’t. His reaction got to me though. “That’s the real abomination isn’t it?” Christ
So that set the tone for the afternoon stepping out again. I struggled with the make-up and hair. And when I went it seemed as if the whole world had decided to leave their house at the same time. I made myself walk head high, but my confidence was shot inside. Being in an outfit I had never tried before and with a new hairstyle didn’t help either.
I spoke about it with my therapist and he seemed to think that my keeping quiet was not a bad idea; that for now letting others do the talking is a good way to go. We also talked about my issue with filling up with fuel as Stacy. He suggested a three step plan – fill and let someone else pay, fill and pay with someone in the car and then when comfortable just do it. I’ll have to give that a try.
The good things... One was more phone calls where I was Madame’d every call (I’ve been looking for a new phone and was ringing shops for availability) and the other was a child in a car looking directly at me in the car without freaking – OK I have no children but if a child was freaked by the man make-up I would have expected a longer look out of the back window as the car pulled away from me or getting the attention of her brother / parents to show them the ‘freak’ (for want of a better word, I’m appreciate I’m putting words in people heads here and it’s possibly not fair). Little things I know, but after the day I had had they were very welcome.
Monday was not great – but I’ll go over that another time...
And to finish on a good note... I went back to my friends to go over some more functionality of TFS 2010. He and his wife have been very nice. Actually that sounds very contrite. They have been wonderful. Whilst we were speaking about the Monday incident my friend gave me a great compliment. ‘You don’t have a big bones, you don’t have a manly nose or chin and you have wonderful eyes.’ (The discussion was about how he will react when he see’s Stacy for the first time) And when I was leaving I got a compliment on my small feet from his wife. And... To top it off... I’m not ready to get my ears pierced, and can’t find any clip-on’s or magnetic ear rings locally. I just got a call whilst typing this and his wife saw some that she thought would look good on me and asked me if I wanted her to pick them up :)
Sunday, 18 July 2010
A glorious weekend
Well I’m sitting here on a lovely summers evening, the soothing tones (well to me at least) of Muse are gently coming through the back door into the garden, and I am sitting here in the garden typing up a blog at the end of a wonderful weekend.
Hmm, too many superlatives there I think... Still I’m in a quite a happy place, long may it continue.
Friday evening was superb. We had a small kerfuffle before we left regarding me and my other wardrobe. I was afraid that was going to be the tone of the evening, but we left that at home thankfully. We went a favourite restaurant of ours and enjoyed an evening talking, laughing and generally reminding each other why we have been together nearly 10 years now (and married for 6 of those). The food, as always at that place, was fantastic. Smoked Eel and toast starter for me, Carpaccio of beef for Mrs Stace, three very tender loins of lamb for me, a steak for Mrs Stace - very strange steak though, it came with gravy and two rounds of bread, nothing else... They gave her some free chips and I gave her some of my vegetables – but the meat was lovely she assured me. And finally, for desert, chocolate walnut brownie with white chocolate ice cream; I won’t try to describe it as it wouldn’t be fair to you. But needless to say it was a wonderful way to end the meal. Even if the ice cream was a little too rich and neither of us could finish both scoops.
We were going to try a new restaurant, on the edge of a man-made lake in the neighbourhood. We thought it would be nice to look out over the water as we ate. But... We looked at the menu and decided not to. I’m not the most activist person in the world, far from it in fact, but the there are a few things that I do know are bad. Eating Blue Fin tuna is one. We were watching a program on the BBC about it last year; the presenter interviewed the team of the Blue Fin Tuna Company about the fact that there are so few of the fish left that estimations are that there are 2 years left before it becomes extinct. That would be closer to 18 months now I guess. The people on the stand didn’t object to the study, or try to refute anything. No, they just said ‘we know, but don’t worry the company has contingency plans for when that happens.’ That sentence made me sick, they are knowingly hunting an animal to extinction, and they think I am worried about their company when they kill off their product. I couldn’t care less; I do care about needlessly killing off a species of fish though. So any restaurant that has that on the menu is one that I won’t be visiting if I can help it. So the nice new restaurant won’t be seeing us. No doubt they’ll get enough other people going to stay in business. I was thinking of sending a mail to them explaining why I think it’s wrong, but I doubt they’d care anyway... OK rant over.
Saturday I woke early (damn) and made tried to catch up on reading the blogs I follow, and drank too much coffee (7 strong espresso cappuccinos). Seeing as a friend who I had not seen for about three years was coming over with his Irish girlfriend we decided that we had better get the house in order (Rachel as I said on your post we struggle as well...) and sort the garden seeing as I was supposed to be BBQ’ing for them. The garden was awful, for obvious reasons Mrs Stace and I just haven’t had the get up and go this year to get it in a usable state. Nothing like a visit to fix that... Mrs Stace did inside whilst I did the outside. Three hours later and the green bin was full of weeds etc, the garden looked respectable and I wanted someone to sort the pain in my back, and fix the blister I got on my thumb from brushing. I would love a bigger garden than we have (66m2) but seeing as the effort this one takes maybe it’s good that we don’t.
After that the furniture needed a rub down seeing as it had not been used all winter. Well actually sanding and oiling, but I wasn’t going to do that. I thought... Whilst wiping it down I saw that with a little soap, water and effort with a green scrubbing pad from the kitchen it came up almost as new. Why not I thought, it’s easy enough and I have time. 3 hours later you realise the difference between a small patch of chair and doing all 4. And a six person table... But at least it all looked great for when the guests arrived.
The evening was a little interesting. When it’s been so long since you’ve someone you wonder what’s changed, and are they still the same person as before the left. When I first met the guy I was 26 and he was 32. I’m almost 34 now, and he turned 40 this year. A lot has changed, in both of our lives, certainly mine in the last 8 months. But after a stuttering start to the evening it went great. Catching up on old times, talking about things now (no I didn’t tell him about the last 8 months, not telling him was about the worst of the evening, especially when he asked why we had not done the work to the house that we were planning on doing this year). We all spent an amount of the evening in stitches, all got a bit shocked when talking about his baby, and small daughter (who are now 8 and 13 respectively) growing up so fast. Or else it’s us growing older so fast...
Today was just a lazy day to get over it all. Relaxed in the garden (well after doing a second coat of oil on the wood) watched Rossi get an amazing fourth, after losing out on the last corner of the MotoGP (wishing my best to Randy de Puniet who managed to red flag the race when he started a chain accident that broke his tibia and fibia) and sat outside for food for the first time this year.
Well, it’s starting to get colder now, and the laptop screen is blocking the heat from the candles so I am going to call it and day and slumber until top gear!
Hmm, too many superlatives there I think... Still I’m in a quite a happy place, long may it continue.
Friday evening was superb. We had a small kerfuffle before we left regarding me and my other wardrobe. I was afraid that was going to be the tone of the evening, but we left that at home thankfully. We went a favourite restaurant of ours and enjoyed an evening talking, laughing and generally reminding each other why we have been together nearly 10 years now (and married for 6 of those). The food, as always at that place, was fantastic. Smoked Eel and toast starter for me, Carpaccio of beef for Mrs Stace, three very tender loins of lamb for me, a steak for Mrs Stace - very strange steak though, it came with gravy and two rounds of bread, nothing else... They gave her some free chips and I gave her some of my vegetables – but the meat was lovely she assured me. And finally, for desert, chocolate walnut brownie with white chocolate ice cream; I won’t try to describe it as it wouldn’t be fair to you. But needless to say it was a wonderful way to end the meal. Even if the ice cream was a little too rich and neither of us could finish both scoops.
We were going to try a new restaurant, on the edge of a man-made lake in the neighbourhood. We thought it would be nice to look out over the water as we ate. But... We looked at the menu and decided not to. I’m not the most activist person in the world, far from it in fact, but the there are a few things that I do know are bad. Eating Blue Fin tuna is one. We were watching a program on the BBC about it last year; the presenter interviewed the team of the Blue Fin Tuna Company about the fact that there are so few of the fish left that estimations are that there are 2 years left before it becomes extinct. That would be closer to 18 months now I guess. The people on the stand didn’t object to the study, or try to refute anything. No, they just said ‘we know, but don’t worry the company has contingency plans for when that happens.’ That sentence made me sick, they are knowingly hunting an animal to extinction, and they think I am worried about their company when they kill off their product. I couldn’t care less; I do care about needlessly killing off a species of fish though. So any restaurant that has that on the menu is one that I won’t be visiting if I can help it. So the nice new restaurant won’t be seeing us. No doubt they’ll get enough other people going to stay in business. I was thinking of sending a mail to them explaining why I think it’s wrong, but I doubt they’d care anyway... OK rant over.
Saturday I woke early (damn) and made tried to catch up on reading the blogs I follow, and drank too much coffee (7 strong espresso cappuccinos). Seeing as a friend who I had not seen for about three years was coming over with his Irish girlfriend we decided that we had better get the house in order (Rachel as I said on your post we struggle as well...) and sort the garden seeing as I was supposed to be BBQ’ing for them. The garden was awful, for obvious reasons Mrs Stace and I just haven’t had the get up and go this year to get it in a usable state. Nothing like a visit to fix that... Mrs Stace did inside whilst I did the outside. Three hours later and the green bin was full of weeds etc, the garden looked respectable and I wanted someone to sort the pain in my back, and fix the blister I got on my thumb from brushing. I would love a bigger garden than we have (66m2) but seeing as the effort this one takes maybe it’s good that we don’t.
After that the furniture needed a rub down seeing as it had not been used all winter. Well actually sanding and oiling, but I wasn’t going to do that. I thought... Whilst wiping it down I saw that with a little soap, water and effort with a green scrubbing pad from the kitchen it came up almost as new. Why not I thought, it’s easy enough and I have time. 3 hours later you realise the difference between a small patch of chair and doing all 4. And a six person table... But at least it all looked great for when the guests arrived.
The evening was a little interesting. When it’s been so long since you’ve someone you wonder what’s changed, and are they still the same person as before the left. When I first met the guy I was 26 and he was 32. I’m almost 34 now, and he turned 40 this year. A lot has changed, in both of our lives, certainly mine in the last 8 months. But after a stuttering start to the evening it went great. Catching up on old times, talking about things now (no I didn’t tell him about the last 8 months, not telling him was about the worst of the evening, especially when he asked why we had not done the work to the house that we were planning on doing this year). We all spent an amount of the evening in stitches, all got a bit shocked when talking about his baby, and small daughter (who are now 8 and 13 respectively) growing up so fast. Or else it’s us growing older so fast...
Today was just a lazy day to get over it all. Relaxed in the garden (well after doing a second coat of oil on the wood) watched Rossi get an amazing fourth, after losing out on the last corner of the MotoGP (wishing my best to Randy de Puniet who managed to red flag the race when he started a chain accident that broke his tibia and fibia) and sat outside for food for the first time this year.
Well, it’s starting to get colder now, and the laptop screen is blocking the heat from the candles so I am going to call it and day and slumber until top gear!
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