Celebrating

It was the hottest UK Bank Holiday weekend on record but the one we had chosen for our summer posh tea in London.  Kate, Barbara and I have been meeting twice-yearly for tea with professional and personal catch-ups for nearly nine years.  This time, though, we also had some celebrating to do. 

After much consideration, Kate had made an important decision about the future direction of her work.  Barbara had, in the midst of very difficult circumstances, completed a qualification which will take her even further forward in her new career.  After several months of trying to find the hours to locate evidence, squash it all into a lever arch file in the right order and go boggle-eyed over the cross referencing, I had also recently been awarded accreditation as a professional Educational Clerk (The Accredited Clerk, Hampshire County Council/Institute of Administrative Management).  

I have had a summer of increased flexibility: keeping work going some days, visiting lots of old friends for days/weekends, (enjoying the countryside of Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Berkshire and Hampshire) and crossing things off my To Do List on others.  I also caught up with the latest John Grisham (The Reckoning – not an easy read but a compulsive one) and two of the books on my reading pile from, er, last summer.  

In September it’s time for garden renovations and the return of my clients from their holidays so in this last week of August I am going to tick this blog and some website updates off the list with a big smile.