Sunday 31 August 2008

Essay crisis

Its the last chance to add to the August blog list -- and I need to get something down urgently or will have only one thing down for the month. But so much to do these days with the gym and the tennis court, the Olympics with success of the oddly named Team GB- did they always call it that or is it some subliminal thing? , the resurgent KP England (good thing I didn't immortalise my great "terrible decision" prediction there for all to read) and now the US tennis to watch (though Murray gets no less annoying). Brief stumble in Nadal worship caused by his very un-Federer like decision to appear on the front of the New Yorker with his shirt off - but am sure it was all in a good cause. On medical front have new physio and new exercises which require me to make my buttocks ache - her words not mine... so my current aim is to be a pain in the backside - or at least to have one.

So that is a whole bunch of excuses - and why the dullest August on record - its official - has actually been quite fun - helped by spending it in Greece and Spain. But the new month;s resolution is to get back to blogging - as the political season gets back from the beach, we limber up for Matt Santos vs whoever Geena Davis played in that Commander-in-Chief thing which seems to have dictated McC's VEEP pick (time for the Hillaristas - I missed where PUMAs came from - to realise views trump gender), the words Alistair Darling and gaffe appear together in a headline for the first ever time.

So I have read a lot; got a bit browner and fitter; made my buttocks ache - but not enough - and am generally feeling like getting back to serious work - until my next holiday on Friday. I will have only worked one Friday since July -- and that feels pretty good. And I have finally cracked using my nice little Defra laptop from home. And this is a portable computer that even I am prepared to lug around - so more "working from home" may be in order.

So new month's resolution - back to serious blogging. The holiday is over.

Saturday 9 August 2008

Breaking the drought

too much going on all summer to do much blogging.... loads of people passing through - visitors from Virginia, Sudan and Kosovo (why do my friends all end up in weird places); gyms to be gone to; starting playing tennis again - ball toss gone awry and still very immobile; cricket to watch - day three of a cracking test at the Oval - though forecast dire from lunchtime. And in between even some work to do as we ready ourselves for autumn relaunches.

Interesting holiday in Corfu - lovely villa - a real Place in the Sun special. You would definitely buy it - especially if you didn't know about the wasps when investing; for the pool but also for the views across the picturesque harbour of Kassiopi over to the barren hills of Albania. But what you didn't see from the villa was that the influence of Brits has turned the undoubtedly charming fishing village Kassiopi was twenty years ago into a Laganas lite. Having avoided the costas in Spain it has been a long time since I have been exposed to the reality of Brits at play. No need or attempt to speak a word of Greek. Sky sports, karaoke and pop quizzes in every bar. A lot of pink and blue flesh on display. And - I am told by our teenage companions - very good nightlife - consisting for them of Sloanes on something called WKD - not to be confused with WD40. Biggest crisis was when the teens got carded at 4.00 a.m. in the morning and got chucked out for only being 17.... and discovered their fake ID was lurking at home unpacked. Biggest complaint was that this was unfair as the average age of the drinkers in the bar was 14. Still, one red card seemed not to count for the rest of the holiday as the same bar happily had them back (suddenly aged???) night after night; daybreak after daybreak.

Interesting that if these children were not being sent to expensive schools by their parents, and lived in SE3 rather than SW3, their behaviour would probably make them near ASBO candidates - though their gangs carry fake Gucci handbags and credit cards rather than knives. Instead most of them will be at Oxford in a couple of years time, and the Etonians will probably be leading the Tories in another fifteen to twenty (scary visions of watching them around the pool that I was on holiday with Cameron and Osborne's younger brothers). But despite the success of Dave and Boris they will need to work on the Wooster accents their schools seem determined to handicap them with - and which will certainly rule out a job in the BBC.

But biggest surprise.... except for the morning I got woken up when they were coming back from the bar just as I was battling an annoying mosquito and debating whether to get up to do a Sun Salutation (from my fifteen minute yoga book) at dawn, they were good holiday companions... as long as there was enough ketchup around to go with every meal. Maybe McDonalds has an even greater impact on lifetime habits than
Eton.