Moog's meanderings

Apologies for the lack of entries the past couple of weeks. Having returned from Brecon, I cancelled my whole 2 weeks holiday in favour of preparing for a quite important presentation I have to give in Japan on 22nd August. Only one week away – argh! I am quite a long way off having it finished – I have a lot of ideas and scribbles, but not much actual presentation. I have meetings with my boss every day this week to ensure that it’s right and as polished as it should be, and with him and his boss on Wednesday to check it over too. No pressure…
While all of this has been going on hubby has been busy sorting out a case study for his Phd and looking for a new job. The Good News is that he’s accepted an offer to work for his old boss again – who’s based in Swansea. We won’t be re-locating though, his first task is to do a 6 month contract placement for a company in Chippenham. Yes, still not really on our doorstep, is it? So he starts tomorrow. I can’t believe that it’s all happened so quickly. He will have to find himself a room and stay down there week by week just coming home at weekends because it’s just not practical to commute all that way (plus we just have one car, and I work quite a way out of town). He’s also got his case study sorted out. It’s been quite problematic mainly because he has lots of possible ideas, but he’s not allowed to use them because of confidentiality issues. But he’s been getting involved in the big Restoration project at our Church – St Nicolas, Kings Norton. Of course, being funded by Restoration, all of the information is in the public domain already (or should be) so there’s no problem him using his work for his Phd submission. Hooray!
My Dad had a knee replacement operation on Tuesday. We are currently in Nottingham staying with Mum and visited Dad for a few hours yesterday. He seemed pretty alert and happy – we had a good old chin wag for almost 3 hours – which is much better than mum said he’s been over the past few days. We’re off to see him again this morning before returning back to Brum.
Lots of things to get sorted out before Mr Moog goes off to Chippenham for his first day…. Plus I fly to Japan on Saturday, so have a fair bit to do making sure I am ready for that (on the domestic front as well as at work). Apparently Japan is very hot at this time of year, and I don’t cope very well with heat and high humidity. I will have to wear a suit for at least 2 of the days… Methinks that cotton blouses are the way to go!!

What a lovely weekend! We drove down to Swansea on Friday, and hubby met up with someone while I went to see Alice. It was lovely to actually catch up a little bit, even though it was only for about 45 minutes and while she was at work… I miss being in Swansea and being close by and being able to drop round and natter anytime
We went for lunch with my ex-boss and a few old colleagues, which was also really good. It’s nice to keep in touch and see what people are up to and what’s been going on since I left.
Then off to Brecon. We set up camp in the dry, and then went over to Hay on Wye where my parents-in-law, sister-in-law & family were camping. We had beef cooked over a campfire on a spit, with potatoes baked in the fire, followed by welsh cakes cooked on a frying pan over the campfire and then toasted marshmallows. mmmmmmmm!
We had a very wet night and then a lovely relaxing day mostly reading a book and sheltering in the tent from the rain. We went to evensong at Brecon Cathedral and heard the choir of St. Paul’s, Sketty singing. It was lovely – it’s the first time I have been along and not been singing, and although frustrating, it was quite wonderful to be able to hear and appreciate the full sound of the music. The service was followed by dinner for the Choir and other groupies (ie Myself and hubby) which was fab as we got to catch up with lots of people we haven’t seen in ages. When we got back to the campsite at about 11.30pm, we realised that we had left the 12V fridge plugged into the cigarette lighter (having meant to turn it off before the service earlier) and the car battery was flat! Blargh!
In the morning we managed to grab one of the Choir who luckily had some jump leads in his car, and we started our car ok. We skipped the rest of the services in favour of driving non-stop back to Birmingham via Halfords for a Battery Charger. Having got home and turned the ignition off, the battery had charged itself so there was no need for the charger. Ah well, I suppose it’s a good thing to own anyway.
So, all in all a lovely and relaxing weekend as well as being wonderful because of seeing old friends. Back to reality now.. Hubby still looking for work and waiting for news on some possible options….