More English than the English?

So, I'm not dead, just resting. We haven't been up to much except planning the big trip. I haven't been back to London for a fortnight as there were too many people away at work. It's going to put some pressure on over the next few weeks though... So little time left.



I won the St George quiz on St George's Day at work. It's a bit poor when a Kiwi beats all the Poms in a quiz on their own national day, so perhaps they should all go home and learn how to guess as well as I do. I've suggested a quick sing-along of Land of Hope and Glory might be in order at the next meeting (non-English excepted of course).



It's been pretty busy for the others at work as they've been testing changes for Quarter 1 reports that haven't worked. I carry on with it all happening around me, a bit like those TV shots you see of a person standing still while the crowd moves in fast-motion around him/her. My own report gets run this week and again next week, but I'm away in London 3 of those 10 days and another is a 'bank holiday' so it could get busier. Of course, my report was supposed to have been automated way back in December, and while I'm grateful for the extra work, it's a little disappointing I won't get to see the finished product!



Mum gets in tomorrow week plus a day, so she's quite excited. We've got a house-sit in Glasgow for a month when we get in from Italy, where we have to mind two dogs and a cat while the owners go to Aussie and, somewhat ironically, to Christchurch. Mum could have done a houseswap! So we may end up settling in Glasgow rather than Edinburgh, but it really doesn't matter as we weren't committed to anywhere in particular anyway.



The car is back on the road, but we've spent as much again as its buying price I think. New radiator, new water pump, jerry-built gearbox linkages, new tyres, and we still don't know if it'll pass the MoT (WoF). We've both swapped our NZ licences for UK ones recently too.



This weekend we went to Hay-on-Wye (the Town of Books) via Gloucester. I liked Gloucester Cathedral, especially for its solid Norman style. It has the very first examples of fan vaulting don't you know? (See J's blog for the best pic). In Hay-on-Wye I spent a good 8 hours browsing the military book sections. One shop in particular had a fantastic selection of regimental histories and personal histories, although rather expensive. I could even have bought the British Official History if I'd had a spare large sum of money. We stayed in a nice B&B run almost on an honesty system (the chap was in the hills somewhere and his instructions were to choose a room, make ourselves at home and catch up with him later). It was a very pleasant weekend away, with so few weekends left.



J caught up with a friend from one of the schools she worked at. They are converting a barn into des res, but they have a hell of a lot of work to do even to get it to a point that you would consider the beginning of the project. I admire their vision, but it wouldn't be something I'd consider.




I caught up briefly with C after the family came back from Aussie, and we will see them for dinner next week. It'll effectively be goodbye I suppose, although they might make it to a farewell lunch...



The flat has had two viewers: one a friend of the Italians, and the other through an agent. The agent made two appointments and didn't show up so I got the landlord to give him a bollocking. Hopefully they'll communicate better now.



Anyway, time to go.



Distinti Salute