I’m still here

Yes, I am still here. My Virtual PA practice was 10 years old in April 2017 and the whole year went by like a flash, similar to the last eight months. I have been managing diaries, arranging meetings, supporting customer relations, co-ordinating events, supporting the administration of statutory audits, keeping up with the Charity Commission (challenging) and the DfE (even more so), liaising with clients’ teams, and writing minutes – hours and hours of minutes! Clearly, though, what I haven’t been doing is writing this update and I did want you to know that I’m still here, even if Google Analytics tells me that you are about 177 times more likely to read my page about the cost of a Virtual PA than click on this one!

This lovely summer has given me the opportunity to tackle some books which had been piling up. They are an eclectic mix and reveal some of the things currently on my mind and in my diary – some house renovations, my links with the local parish church (my own church is two parishes away), catching up in person this summer with George Verwer and K A Hitchins, a wonderful day at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, books recommended by family and friends, and the latest John Grisham, without which no time off in my eyes is complete. Some of these books remain in the reading queue but I’ll get to them. Another, not pictured because it was kindly lent to me by an old friend I’d not seen for 30 years and upon whose bookshelf I spotted it, was the harrowing “3096 Days”, the reflections of Natascha Kampusch on her eight-year kidnap ordeal in Austria.

With clients on holiday, or writing up their thesis, or planning new ventures in the autumn, I am taking advantage of the space to take some quiet time out, clear papers and electronic files, review my To Do List and tick off a few things, devote time to my Clerking Accreditation course, attack the weeds and enjoy the company of friends – and write this blog at last.