Belt and braces

I finished my travel journal from our recent trip yesterday.  I’d worked on it throughout the journey, usually sitting at the table in the evening and cutting and sticking whilst we watched HGTV and whatever home renovation show was on that night.  I’d taken my usual bag of tricks with me – a basic kit supplemented by a couple of rolls of washi tape and a few stickers bought along the way.

The advantage of keeping it going whilst we are travelling is that I can record all those small details which prompt the conversations later – like the man in the McDonalds by the filling station in Mount Vernon, OH, who came in wearing a T shirt with no sides.

How could I have forgotten that?!  (However hard I tried)  It’s a bit too personal to write about on my blog though, even though it’s those small details which make for the fun and provide the trigger for other stories.

So why keep the blog and the journal then?

Well, I had two days left to record in the journal to finish it off.  Our last evening in Chicago was spent sorting and packing, so I didn’t write and draw about the Field Museum.  Then of course, when we travelled home, all the journalling stuff was packed away, so plenty of time but no materials to record that.   Yesterday, I wanted to tie up all the loose ends so gathered the bits and pieces and wrote the last few pages.  Just as I was about to put it all together, I thought I’d check to see if I’d missed anything and opened up my blog of those two days.

I’d forgotten those awful five or ten minutes when I panicked, but thankfully, I’d told the story here.

I quickly added an extra page and the journal was complete.

See, I need both belt and braces!

Feet haven’t touched…

Busy days here.   Since last Thursday, when I gathered up a few of my journals and mini books to take for a couple of demonstrations, there’s been rather more fun than work, I’m glad to say.

Where there was work to be done, there were rather more hands than usual to share it.  Quite often, it was accompanied by a chorus from South Pacific or similar.  With all the doors and windows open, we probably entertained the whole village!

My Hero’s birthday last weekend meant a houseful,  but these were happy days spent around the kitchen table doing crosswords with a glass of something interesting on hand.

Occasionally we left the house for a breath of fresh air.

Enjoying the beautiful scent of sweet peas on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Of course, there was also birthday “cake”, built in a tower so high it toppled over and needed constant attention and “tidying up”.  Thankfully, there was plenty of help with that task, too!

Having said our goodbyes on Wednesday afternoon, normal routine began again yesterday, with a work meeting in another interesting place.

And WI last night was fun with a fascinating talk by the ladies from the Canal Trust who told us about the lives of the women who lived on the narrowboats.

They brought a marvellous collection of traditional craftwork with them too.  That got a few fingers itching, I can tell you

Today, we are home alone and the house is quiet.  Our family and friends are at home too: John in Melbourne, Sandy in Hobart, Edward in London and Amy in Devon.  Only Sam and Elise are still travelling, somewhere in Norway, by now, perhaps.

I think I really have lost all my excuses for not putting all my journals back where they belong.

Or?

The times, they are a-changin’

Not that anyone would have noticed.  But yesterday was the start of a new era at work.  For me, it was my first day as a permanent employee, after thirteen (or more?) years of annual contracts. 

Not that you’d have noticed.  Things were pretty much the same although we were pleased to welcome a new member of our team with a similar penchant for chocolate as the rest of us.  It was technology to the fore at our meeting yesterday though, with tablets, phones, laptops all humming away nicely as we worked out way through a bit of new paperwork and the resultant acronyms.

I especially like the “plan for learning”, aka PFL…or “the piffle” amongst friends.

It does mean that soon, my team will no longer count the rather lovely warehouse as our base and we will have to return to the old days of negotiating the city centre streets and the 1960s loveliness that is Shire Hall.

Gloucester is quite a fine city, really.  But sadly, since I had reason to be here in the city centre regularly, things have changed a little and many of the old, familiar businesses have gone.

Yesterday afternoon, whilst some corners were pretty busy, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a Sunday afternoon in other parts.

I’ll miss my meanderings around the docks, which are a great deal smarter now than when the office was first relocated, thank goodness.

Above all, I’ll miss coming across things like this – a crane – with a great deal of character, don’t you think?  Of course, nothing’s to stop me taking a walk down there from time to time, but you know how things go…

Lucky me, too, that I still get to work in an altogether different environment from time to time as well, as I did on Monday.

I’m working tomorrow, actually.  In a different place altogether.  I’ll let you know how it goes.