An Uphill Struggle

This is where I'll be every fortnight if anyone is looking for me!

My request for voluntary redundancy was accepted last week and my final day at work is this Friday. Eight days to deliver four days of training, hand over my remaining students and sort out the rest of my workload so that whoever is finishing of the project knows what to do.

It was all a lot sooner than I expected but it seems thry want me to work a few extra days on an hourly rate to finish off one of my projects. Still hasnt been confirmed.


Its all a little scary. I have done quite a bit of work with The Jobcentre recently through unemployment programmes - didnt expect to be on one myself though!



I have two weeks until my holiday to Florida where I will relax and try not to think too much about the poor state of affairs when I get back to reality. I have a few options and intend to set the ball rolling before I go, but nothing guaranteed as yet. One of which is being self employed and doing freelance training. I need time to think this through and do some research though - something I dont have until next week.

And then there is my hair. I have no idea how those of you with medium length hair cope. I have persevered for two years to grow it. I spent most of my life with short or very short hair and barely gave it a thought. Never needed brushes or accessories, just a five second blast with a hairdryer if necessary and a small dab of wax. Life was so much easier back then.

Now I have this fine mop of shoulder length blonde hair that seems intent to irritate me as much as possible. It gets in my eyelashes, my mouth, sticks out at one side and in on the other, flops out of clips and bands, and refuses to be tamed. The other day I threw a mini tantrum because I couldnt eat my ice cream for my hair flapping all over it.

I also have a twitch, one of those you get from constantly trying to get hair out of your eyes.

I am 'this' far from having it all cut off again for my holidays. I have an appointment next week and if Rob my hairdresser doesn't come up with a solution then it's time for drastic action.

Here are photos of me as I am now give or take an inch or so and how I was a couple of years ago.

Short or Long?

The Simple Things....

Last weekend saw us (Hubby, Alexander and I) go off for our second camping weekend - this time to the Scouts Family Camp at Dilston Scout Campsite in Northumberland. We had never been to anything like this before so weren't sure what to take or expect once we got there.

We arrived at the campsite at the allocated time to find a large field already half full of tents in clusters. Our 'camp' was at the far end and took up almost a third of the field. When I say 'far end' I mean furthest away from the car park, and the toilet/shower block!

We found our spot and began to put up the tent along with other arrivals while Alexander and other Beavers, Cubs and Scouts went to explore. Amazingly we achieved an all time record - we had the whole tent up and running with the kettle on in 1hr 30 minutes.

The thing about these types of camps is that there are two kinds of people. The ones who do this kind of thing all the time ie, Scout Leaders and helpers, and those who dont and stand around like the preverbial spare part trying to work out what to do next and where and with whom while the 'others' just get on with all the 'things' that need to be done.

Fortunately there were several tents of us 'others' so between us we sussed things out eventually.


Like doing lots of 'male' bonding. It seems that it's more of a 'dad' experience in many families. There were several tents with Dad and kids, one of which was particularly upsetting for the 'Mum' who was told she couldn't come because she would make too much fuss.

After observing for two days I realised that the boy was right. Some of the mum's did fuss and worry about their kids, whereas 'dad's' tended to sit and chat or play games and give little regard to where their child was, comfortable in the knowledge that there is safety in packs!

There were so many age groups and lots of parents that there really was no point worrying about them. On the odd occasion where someone did poke their eye out with a stick or tumble down the steep forest path, one of the others would always come and tell the parent straight away.


My boy is a real outdoor type and loves nothing better than to be out getting dirty and exploring. He was right at home at the camp as you can see from these pictures.

The tree was his favourite spot. Being by the river and dug into the bank made it patricularly exciting as they could climb inside it. Talk of haunted trees, Goblins and Magic Rabbits were rife.
I wonder how many children have climbed on this tree over the years?


Shall I go down there?
Looks a bit dark and dirty......

(and you have your Beaver top on and I will never be able to get it clean again if you do!)
Of course I'm going in, to hell with dark and dirty.

And then I'm going to play at the side of the river (cos we aren't allowed to go in unless the scout leaders are there) and climb on the rocks until I accidentally on purpose fall in and get wet.

Who is that hiding in the root cave? maybe the magic rabbit came back or the Goblins?

This is such a cool place to hide away from annoying parents and leaders. We can play here for hours and do exactly what we want.



Looking for dinosaur fossils and strange coloured rocks.

We aren't just playing you know, we are getting an education!

We have discovered a hundred and one things to do with a big stick. Like poking things, pretending that its a rocket launcher, cooking bread twists, whacking trees, sword fighting, fishing in the river, stabbing goblins, flicking caps off heads and lots, lots more.


Scout crafts. Everyone had to make a family flag to put outside their tent using paint and glue. Here they are drying out.

We also made mini rafts for a race on Sunday, Alexander didnt like his much though.


And here is ours flying proudly outside our tent.

Due to the fact it was made with water based paint it had to be brought it every time it began to rain.




I learnt a lesson this weekend. When packing for a camping trip with a young boy, always make sure you pack T-Shirts. For some reason I packed everything else in copious amounts except T-shirts. My poor son had to spend the weekend in either his Beaver sweatshirt or hoodie. Fortunately it wasnt scorching hot and having sleeves did protect him from getting scratched by branches etc.

Neither did he have a need for the toothbrush and toothpaste, soap or hairbrush I packed. He woke up, got dressed, went out and then when it got dark, came in, undressed (partly) and was asleep in seconds. Eating and drinking as and when required.
And apparently that is pretty much standard procedure at Scout camp.

This was taken minutes before we all went home completely exhausted and in need of a nice hot bath.

We had a great time and will definitely be going again next year. Watching children truly enjoying themselves with sticks, trees, rivers and a bonfire makes me think that we protect our kids too much these days. On paper the weekend was a health and safety nightmare. All sorts of accidents, crisis and disasters could have happened - but they didnt! Ok so there were bruises, scratches and scrapes, filthy germ ridden hands eating hot dogs and lots of flies, bugs and beetles and a rather dubious toilet block by the end of the weekend but no-one minded in the least.

Back to the sumple things in life. I can't wait to get the tent out again!

Pretty cool huh?

Took this photo on my iPhone (just the chatty 3gs version!!) on Monday evening from the Millennium bridge in Newcastle. It turned out pretty good don't you think? It's as it was taken, no editing whatsoever.




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London Olympics 2012 - Is it just me or......

The news today is that it's only two years until we open the 2012 Olympic Games.




My initial reaction is to grab a cushion and cringe silently behind it in the way you would if you were watching elephants mating on the TV while your grandparents were in the room.

We just aren't very good at this kind of thing are we? We tell the world how great we are but then fizzle out like a damp squid when it matters most.

I sincerely hope I am wrong this time and we pull off one of the best games ever, but we are exceptionally good at shooting ourselves in the foot so I'm going to keep a cushion handy just incase.


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One Hell of a Week

All I can say is thank God it's almost over!

This week has been a little hot, surreal and tense.

The weather, and therefore high pollen count and lack of sleep due to humid sweaty nights made us all a little irritable, particularly Little Dude who suffers badly from hay fever. We have snapped and grumbled, cried and stamped. Even last nights rain hasn't done anything, I feel we need a mega thunderstorm and soon. (I love storms!)

And then there was the Raoul Moat situation which for those who don't know, played out in Northumberland and areas close to me. He carried out an armed raid on a local chip shop and was assisted by two men who were arrested literally a mile from my front door. Rothbury, where the final days search occurred is a pretty rural town I visited many times with work. To see and hear about places you know well in this kind of context was well, a little weird. To say this was the most excitement Northumberland has ever had would be a huge understatement. Most people think we are just the bit between England and Scotland.

Last night watching the capture and stand off unfurl on Sky News actually took my mind off something much more important in the scheme of things.

Yesterday I was handed a letter telling me I was at risk of redundancy. Not unexpected, but seeing it in writing was a little more unsettling than I thought it would be. Later we got to see what jobs were available for those of us at risk but not ring fenced. Not a lot in reality, in fact nothing that I felt confident in getting or even wanted. There are two roles I could apply for that have reasonable salaries, but would be the posts at risk managers would be applying for as well as others 'in the pot'.

My gut feeling is to apply for voluntary redundancy, to take the money and run. What to is the million dollar question. I have a wide range of experience and could turn my hand to most things, but now I am wondering if I should be asking myself what I want to do. This could be an opportunity to re train, up-skill or try something new.

Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime I still have 800 words of my final assignment on Leadership and Management to write, check, proof-read and put in my portfolio by Tuesday.

On a positive note, I did get the screen on my iPhone changed as it was starting to delaminate.

So as I said - I will be glad to see the back of this week!







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Leave of absence

Incase anyone is wondering where I am, and I know you won't because until I get myself some more followers there aren't many of you out there to be concerned about my lack of posts.

Anyway, as I was saying, if you are concerned ( and thank you If you are) the lack of blogging is due to two things, well three actually.

The usual round of taxi driving duties for the kids

The final push of getting my degree work completed and handed in to my tutor by next Tuesday. ( was today initially but thankfully she couldn't make it so we have a bit of a welcome extension)

The imminent result of almost 4 months of consultation regarding the restructure of staffing in the college. We had a union meeting last night and were informed that sometime today we will al receive a letter indicating if we are at risk or not. I already know mine is an at risk one as the department is definitely being disbanded. What new posts will be available we have to wait and see. The new structure is also due out today. I have a difficult day ahead and unfortunately a couple of students to see, who had they not been new ones I would have postponed as I don't really feel I can give them my full attention with all this going on.

I have already been thing about my options but it all hinges on what is there on paper. I'm thinking the worst, but also that the worst may bring new opportunities, not necessarily at the college.

I am weary, very weary of this whole process. I have little or no patience generally and this has been unbearable. It's like having a present under the tree for 3 months. You don't know what it is but you just want to rip it open and see. And just like a present, maybe today I will be hugely disappointed or pleasantly surprised.

Don't Panic Mr Mannering!

There is a dim light at the what will be the intersection of a long dark tunnel for staff at my place of work.

Friday saw the publication of the new management structure and the loss of several positions, which will mean that they will be looking at positions in the lower level

"Hopefully by Wednesday" the rest of us minions will know our fate. Apparently there are still 'ongoing consultations with the unions' regarding lecturing posts - and we assume the posts being created for our department which is being scattered to the far corners of the small and shabby kingdom of college.

It's worrying. Rumour has it that once this is all sorted out, we may end up merging with the Adult Learning department of the Local Authority, which will mean another huge job massacre.

Of course it will save the Government a small fortune so that's OK!

I remain optimistic (but not in an irritating way) that come the trip to Florida I will be able to relax and know;

a. I have a job to return to, and

b. I know where my desk will be.

It's all the more depressing to know that there are so many people in the UK (and other countries) in exactly the same position. If necessary I will do anything to keep working like most people, so will we end up with executives serving you at McDonalds?, teachers at the hand car wash?

It's the young people I worry about. If they can't get work and are forced into training schemes where the sole aim is to make them employable, then where do they go? In a few years we will have a generation of people who have little work experience (but lots of certificates)and who are required to fill all these positions that are going to come out of the ether as the economy improves. Sigh.

Pity life isnt like Sims3, then we could just 'delete game' and start over again.