Teaching an old dog new tricks

Time keeps going backwards- the past two weekends my clocks have gone back an hour each Saturday: the first because of the wholly unwelcome retreat from summer to standard time, the second because I traveled from the NL to the UK. As a result in the space of two weeks it now gets dark at 4.30 as opposed to 6.30. SAD? Me? Just a little.

Life has just got very hectic. On the business side, work is flying in to the extent where I am struggling to find the right people to sub contract it out to: to the extent where I am planning my work schedule until February. That’s fine - but it requires a new set of skills, of managing people and money – and I don’t always get it right. I am also learning how to manage (and get the most out of) spending half my time in the NL and half in London. The need to deal with my father’s affairs and having a major new contract with a London based NGO are leading me in this direction. Hell - I even have frequent flyer benefits now (which for a greenie is hard to deal with).

For a couple of weeks there was the prospect of a two-week mission to Africa: the idea was exciting but also created a lot of stress – organizing the jabs, the flights, the hotels- I felt more than ever like I needed to find myself a p/t PA. When the funding didn’t emerge there was a feeling of relief. between all this future and goal oriented stuff I am trying not to neglect my social and cultural life. I have squeezed in a few visits to museums (Rotterdam’s Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern), get to see a long term favourite band (Kangaroo Moon) doing a pub gig in Kingston, visit historic London pubs, eat in Chinatown, catch up with long time friends and make a new ones.

It’s all a bit fast and scary. So if I’m not writing about cultural events, or seeing rainbows and urban foxes, or the stupidity of the UK’s housing and banking structures, it’s because I am really busy learning new tricks and strengthening and building up my own life.