the formettes have landed

as of last week i've been fairly busy with these lovely guys (well, one guy/four girls) from all over the world. tomorrow, we head off to wales for our bonding session - hopefully involving kubb on the beach.

pics and profiles will appear shortly (well, depending on our web-guy really)...

blast from the past

yesterday i managed to upload a bunch of pictures from our trip to america. i don't suppose it is apparent that we crammed three holidays into two weeks from the few photos i've posted, but we did it as follows:

(i) we (that is mrs hope and i) travelled down the east coast from washington, dc to charleston, sc. highlights included the shenandoah national park, the blue ridge parkway, being in ashville, nc. for the July 4th celebrations, stumbling across an ansel adams exhibition in roanoake, wv. and experiencing walmart complete with guns and easy-cheese;

(ii) arriving in charleston, we (still the two of us) spent a delightful week with the form network eating far too much than is healthy, sailing, surf-kayaking, thinking and getting bitten by mosquitos; and

(iii) we then experienced the long arm of hurricane dennis (after katrina, it's easy to forget that before it there were several hurricanes this year which caused significant damage to the gulf of mexico and the carribean) as torrential rain kept our flight from keeping to its intended schedule. it also kept our suitcase on the tarmac (in the rain) and meant we had to lay-over in detroit for the small hours of saturday, before re-routing to anaheim, ca through minneapolis-st paul. we joined our formettes in anaheim and together we were pampered for a week by all at the anaheim vineyard. we helped out, with great gusto, on their grocery packing and handouts, and swam and visited disneyland with equal enthusiasm.

man-flu and the muckle brig

man flu sucks. woke up yesterday and mrs hope mentioned i'd been keeping her awake with my sniffing during the night. as my nose ran freely into my first handerchief of the day i had to admit i might well be coming down with a cold.

work was fine, such as it was. i even managed to hook up with a good friend in the afternoon for a chat over a coffee (i have to say i am yet to find a coffee to rival a small fair-trade latte from 'the one on the corner' on baldwin street. even mrs hope's new place of employment, '232' on gloucester road, doesn't come close).

last night we flew up to edinburgh, thence to st. andrews, to see mrs hope's spiritual parents and surrogate family, the fosters. they have recently planted the kingdom vineyard, which makes it slightly harder to visit them, but all the more precious when we do. last night they collected us from edinburgh and we drove up on a beautifully clear, moonlight night. the forth bridge was resplendent in its scaffolding and striking red paint. we hope to take the train back to edinburgh tomorrow, and i think it will be the first time i will have crossed the firth of forth on the forth bridge, as opposed to the forth road bridge.

the journey was only marred by the incessant flow of snot from my nose, as well as the occassional sneeze. thankfully the fosters have a well-stocked 'drug-drawer' and i took full advantage of chewable vitamin c tablets and night-nurse before crashing. this morning the drugs are keeping me from eroding my nose any further (oh how i crave some kleenex balsaam) but my head is stuffed with cotton-wool. as usual when we stay with the fosters, our tummies are equally stuffed with a fried breakfast.

the scenery in the kingdom is stunning, and i hope mrs hope will take advantage of this with our camera.

perfectionism

just read an interesting take on the effects of perfectionism on leadership/followership on my friends' (lightning and sara) blog. my productivity has been severely affected by my tendency to perfectionism in moving to a new office where i'm not entirely familiar with processes and procedures. hence the whole morning spent typing and sending one letter.

i have a feeling it's going to be beaten out of me this year, but i should try to embrace the process.

i also uploaded a batch of photos from (i) a weekend with mrs hope to birmingham (which was a great surprise as to how nice the place actually is); and (ii) our week in dorset with our friends ralph, rachel and taya (which was very relaxed and good fun).

typically

i've been trying to carve out some time to blog this week, but haven't been able to. typically now that i've made it to the machine, i don't know where to begin in sticking stuff down.

changing jobs has been good and different. it took me a whole morning to write, print and post a letter. partly because i'm a perfectionist, and partly because i'm still getting used to the way things work in my new office.

and the same applies here, in that i'd say more, but would rather it be a polished post. so i'm off.

beginnings

first day in my new office; by some coincidence i am sitting close to my last desk. despite the surroundings being familiar, the whole thing feels very new, especially with my new job.

i wore jeans and a t-shirt to work. i strolled home to see mrs hope for lunch. i listened to music (miles davis, jack johnson) while i worked. i clocked off at 5pm because my boss was leaving and we had to lock up. i thought about taking some work home, but decided (in about 5 seconds) to leave it until tomorrow.

i like it.