Life

Just thought I'd do a catch up on life over here

Sonya finishes up her old job this week ending more than 8 years with Orbit Housing Association in various roles. I think she is glad to be moving on. Best of all though for Sonya is that she has a new job. She is looking forward to it on a variety of levels:

• The office is just down the road
• It is a small organisation - 12 people - so she wont be swallowed up in bureaucracy
• It's a different area of work - training clients to use a particular piece of software related to the housing sector
• It still draws on her knowledge of the affordable housing sector
• She will get to travel round the country and see some cities she has never visited before
• Oh yeah and she gets an I Phone

Sonya has also just finished a mentoring programme run through work which she found very rewarding. She even volunteered to give a speech at the conference they hold to celebrate the end of each programme. A 10 minute talk in front of 110 people! Apparently some window cleaners chose her speach to descend behind her on their cradles. She was wondering what the giggling was about as she hadn't got up to the joke in her speech. She turned around to see this window cleaner grinning at her the audience. Not to be fazed she commented that this felt like a can of coke moment. How's that for thinking on your feet under pressure

Sonya has also joined the Croydon Speakers Club and goes once a fortnight with an old friend of hers. I am very impressed. It is very structured and they really grill the participants. It has done wonders for her confidence

Michael has finished his exams and predictably has got mixed results. He pulled some out of the bag and others were a disappointment. The frustrating thing is that he leaks so many marks from carelessness and rushing. These exams are used to set his classes for his GCSE exams next year (for those not in the UK - these are the ones that start counting towards University entrance marks) so  his marks this year are important but the mixed bag of results is not catastrophic. He is drinking at the last chance saloon however. Next year he needs to get his attitude and exam technique under control.

He breaks up for summer in a few weeks time so we figure there is not much point tackling him now as it will all be forgotten by the timehe starts again in September

As always our frustration is focussed on his ongoing addiction to PS3. We are just going to have to tough out more intermitable arguements once he goes back to school as we try and help avoid messing up. Joy of joys

Michael continues to enjoy his tennis and goes to lessons twice a week. I hope he can get to play in some more tournaments and he needs to learn to be a better winner and loser. This is a maturity thing I know but practice makes perfect they say.

Costandina has been back home from Winchester for a couple of weeks now. She is doing so well and is hoping for a 2:1 next year. She is already planning her major piece for her 3rd year. She has decided to drop Drama and just concentrate on the Creative Writing course for her 3rd year. Importantly she has also got herself a job at the Uni bookshop next year to supplement her income from her home waxing business. This hasn't taken off yet so she needs to find ways to makes some money.

For those not on Facebook, her and Sam continue to be an item. Although they are spending a lot the Summer apart doing their own things, I gather they are planning a big holiday together later in the year. Costandina also appears to have sorted out a better mix of flatmates for next year. This year there were 4 boys and 2 girls in her house and I think she found that a bit tedious. Their hygiene habits left a bit to be desired. She will have 4 or 5 girls in the house when she goes back in September so hopefully it will be a happier house

Costandina is off with her Dad for a few weeks in Cyprus to go to two christenings. Michael is going out to Cyprus in mid summer.

We are trying to see if we can book a holiday with both of them in late August. Might be our last holiday as a family. Not sure where we are going yet though.

My work continues to be up and down. The sector is in dire trouble and the company has had a very poor start to the FY (which begins in April for us). More significant redundancies are being made including two equity Directors who have been with the company for more than 12 years. They are having to cut into the DNA of the company now.

Sadly though the whole ethos of the company is changing as certain Directors are using these diffcult time to reshape the company. I dont like how it is changing but as for so many people in my position, there are no real options available for me out there.

I suspect my next career move will involve a complete change - i'm just not sure where to look to find it. I mustn't complain though; i still have a job that is often rewarding in the narrow sense (when I succeed in closing my ears and eyes to the games being played out around me)

Hope you are all well out there