Nearly Feb?

Don't know about you but January seems to be shooting past. I found the first couple of weeks a little bit 'meh'. I'd had a good Christmas and, probably like many in January, I found the first week or two a bit difficult to get back in to the routine of things - week beginning 9th seemed to go on forever and not in a good way. Much grumpiness (even for me!) and perhaps it's a another sign of middle age - I now partially aspire to 'get back in to the routine of things'!

Thankfully the last week or so hasn't been too routine. I've been able to catch up with a few people - gentle baby steps towards one of my goals of getting a balance back and making more and better time for friends.

Interesting for me, deep down I know how I'd like 2012 to pan out - something I've never thought about or admitted before, in this or previous years. Whether all or any of it happens, who knows? But so far some early, encouraging signs that 2012 may just turn out OK - interesting what a few days can make.

Disjointed, slow or in need of polish?

So how is your 2012 going so far?

I always find the first weeks in January a bit strange, a bit disjointed. This year has been no exception. After the fullness of the Christmas period, which was very enjoyable though also a little tiring, at the start of the year I looked in my diary and found not a single social thing in it for January. Nowt, nada, nothing. Now I wanted to slow down a bit in 2012 but this was taking it to extremes!

One of the things I want to do in 2012 is get some balance back. Not go to quite the extremes of the slow movement or slow living but to enjoy the simple pleasures - I'm aiming to use the #simplepleasures hashtag quite a lot on twitter. Thankfully my social diary has improved (!) and this last weekend has been a lovely blend of doing some things, catching up with people, and having some downtime. Simple pleasures.

How the rest of the year develops will be partly up to me - I had a wry smile reading yesterday's Independent which had some interesting articles on how to be happy & everyday contentment. One reason I like the image (which comes via a friend posting it on Facebook) is it's a good reminder that if things don't quite go as I'd like in 2012 I may need to do a little polishing.

2012 - Looking Forward

So how's 2012 going so far? Have to admit that for brief moment this morning I already felt it wasn't going well - thankfully the day improved!

I don't tend to do resolutions but here are a few thoughts looking forward to 2012.

• The Olympics - personally I'm really looking forward to them. Yes the city may grind to a halt, I haven't got as many tickets as I'd like, and there is the looming worry about just how naff the opening and closing ceremonies may be. But it's a once in a lifetime experience, some of which will be right on my doorstep, and I'm hoping to make the most of it.
• A cycle trip - all being well a group of us, having got the fever doing the C2C cycle route last year, will be tackling the Way of the Roses route. Slightly longer than the C2C, but not as hilly(!), it should be a fun trip. A real potential highlight.
• Work/life balance - this really needs improving in 2012. From the simple things like making more time for friends and family, and doing more cooking (apparently 'pierce film lid several times' is not proper cooking!), to just feeling more comfortable relaxing I'm hoping to get things better. I'll be giving up something I've spent a fair amount of time doing over the years and hopefully I'll be able to use the time in a different way. We will see...

Overall I sense that 2012 will be different, I sense that something major may change. I've no idea what, but I've a 'feeling in me water' (though that could just be middle age.!.) that something will change.

Whatever your thoughts or hopes are for the coming year, I hope that 2012 becomes all that you wish it to be.

2011 - Looking Back

It's fair to say that blogging has been light during 2011!

I don't know how you feel about New Year. Personally I find it a tricky time of year for various reasons but, as the year ends, a few very brief reflections.

Three good things;

• There have been some great breaks and trips during 2011.The undoubted highlight was cycling the C2C route with a great bunch of people - some photos can be found here. One of the best things I've ever done. Other enjoyable trips were the World Cup Cycling in Manchester and a quick skiing trip, both in Feb, and a beach holiday (a completely new experience!) in late Sept.
• Time with friends - old and new - and family. Really appreciated some quality time with people in 2011 which made realise how fortunate I am.
• Turning 40 - not nearly as bad as it sounds and felt surprisingly comfortable with it!

Three not so good things;

• work/life balance still wasn't right. It's not that work was awful, but some of things I do in my spare time were too much like work and took too much time. I need more 'life'!
• Not enough time writing. This was most evident in the almost complete lack of blogging in 2011 - something I enjoy but which fell completely off the radar - but not just that. This is perhaps a somewhat poncey regret, but I like words and didn't spend enough time on them in 2011.
• Not nearly enough time with friends and family. These things need time and I didn't make enough of it for them during the year.

Overall 2011 felt a strange year - a bit 'meh', a bit of year that felt one of transition, but transition to where wasn't exactly clear! Not a bad year - though it had its moments(!) - but not vintage.

Who knows what 2012 will bring, but tomorrow a few forward looking thoughts.

Have a very happy new year.

Straight from a Richard Curtis movie?

Christmas Eve and head to the Bournville Village Green carol service. Bournville is the 'village' created by the Cadbury Brothers and the chocolate factory still looms large in the area. There is a village green and across the road is the local primary school - where I went in my earlier days - which for some unexplained reason has full carillon of bells. Each Christmas Eve the local churches have a carol service on the Green with the bells providing the music. 

It's a slightly strange south Birmingham institution. Never advertised it is well attended, and there is always the hilarity of just how out of time the singing can be with the bells due to the laws of physics and the speed of sound. Sometimes in a single carol the singing can be both behind and ahead of the music...

With the village green, the tree, and the community signing in the snow it can appear to be something straight out of a Richard Curtis movie...

So this is Christmas

 

Started the Christmas shopping today and in a moment of weakness I purchased a small Christmas tree. Also bought some lights that seem a lot more complicated than they need to be. The lights come with eight settings;

• continuation
• in waves
• sequential
• slo glo
• chasing/flash
• slow fade
• twinkle/flash
• steady on

Have to say that all seems a bit excessive - what's wrong with a simple on/off?

My so called life...

Been a bit of a strange week...

• spoke at my local church on Sunday and the subject was Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. I included a couple of comments about whether blokes have a biological clock and if so does it just tick a little quieter than it does for women? Got a lot of comments and feedback on this - most reaction I've ever had on anything I've ever said.
• was coughing and spluttering on Monday and Tuesday - seemed to be my turn on the office rota
• Thursday evening was spent at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Very pleasant evening that got a little strange as Question Time was being recorded there that evening (not the reason I was there) and Dimbleby and the panel emerged into a cordoned off part of the bar for a post show meal - didn't recognise any of them...
• pleasant Friday afternoon in Pizza Express for office Christmas meal. However, I do seem to spend a lot of time in Pizza Expresses - perhaps should move in...

A different approach to the Nativity

For a different take on the Nativity story suggest you dip in to the The Natwivity.

You can follow on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook.

By Christmas it'll all be over - well just after actually...

In a month it'll all be over.

I find the long run up to Christmas all a bit annoying - yep, we're into grumpy old man territory here - and the fact that some shops started selling Christmas decorations in August is just, well, wrong. I have a rule that I don't really discuss Christmas, or start Christmas shopping, until the start of December.

Today I broke that rule. At a craft fair I purchased a couple of things that I'll be giving as presents.

I feel so dirty...

That was the week that was

It's been a strange old week or two.

Busy, in that things I committed to a few weeks or months ago have all suddenly come along. Good, in that I caught up with some people who I'd not seen for a while - always good to catch up with old friends. Tiring, it was just too busy and tipped from being 'good busy' to 'bad busy'.

The week ended with an invitation to a performance of Random - a one person short play looking at the impact one day's events has on a family written by Debbie Tucker Green. The performance was stunning, comic, poetic and powerful. Perhaps I should have stayed and chatted with people over a drink afterwards - but the combination of the play, and a long week or two, led to a polite decline but a thoughtful bus ride home.

As I said - a strange week or two...

Back to Blogging?

The blogging has been on a bit of break. It wasn't intended.

I was away at the end of August and during some of September. When I returned various other things got in the way and the blogging took a back seat. It wasn't designed, and I've missed doing it. Twitter has been good - I can be followed @smittyonline - but occasionally I need more than 140 characters. So, another attempted reboot.

I've taken the opportunity to slightly tweak the design and hopefully some semi regular blogging will return. Though no promises - there have been a couple of abortive restarts in recent history

All of the above?

Was filling out an equality monitoring questionaire the other day. Got to a question on sexual orientation - the options were;
a) Heterosexual/straight
b) Gay/lesbian
c) Bisexual
d) Other
e) Prefer not to say

Other?!? Wasn't sure whether to be slightly scared or whether I'm missing out on something...

Biking with Boris

Have taken the plunge and signed up with Boris' bike scheme.

It could be very useful - a cheap and pleasant way of getting around central London, especially in the summer.

Early impressions are good as my activation key arrived very promptly - the next day in fact. Not sure how it will work out but will update once I've had a go.

Mind you - the phrase 'with hilarious consquences' keeps coming to mine for some reason. Large slow bikes with inexperienced cyclists going around central London - what could possibly go wrong...

Just like buses... but in a good way!

It's been a busy few weeks - well months actually - and for me, like for many who work in the Westminster village, the run up to the summer recess has been full on and very busy. This year the 'summer madness' seemed to start earlier than ever.

Given that, it was lovely to spend three evenings this week catching up with friends over food and drink. Always good to see them, all are excellent company - it's the sort of thing I don't do enough.

So, having had a busy time, and having seemingly put my social life on hold for a few months, it was a little 'bus like' when three wonderful evenings came along at once.

Slightly ironic perhaps - a busy spell in my social life highlights that I need to get one!

Unknown danger of cigarettes

Been a bit of funny/strange weekend. Very bitty and though I've not had any major commitments there has been a fair few 'odds and ends' I've done - from catching up on a few work things, to buying some towels and being slightly too happy when I also bought a matching bath mat (I know, perhaps a cry for help!), to serving some food to a group of visiting Belgian teens and again proving that my French is truly appalling/shameful.

I've also managed to spot the odd funny thing. Driving this afternoon I stopped at traffic lights. Checking in the rear view it was very amusing to watch the woman in the car behind take a drag from her cigarette, go to flick the ash out of her window, then realise that her window wasn't actually open as she got showered with the hot ash.

If you saw it in a sitcom you wouldn't believe it - but it happened and was very amusing...

I don't like cricket...

.. and whilst I wouldn't say I love it, I do enjoy it.

So after work last night I headed to the Oval - sorry, The Brit Oval - to watch, somewhat strangely, Kent v Essex.

I've not followed much Twenty 20 cricket - the short form of the game - but can see it's attractions. A chance for the batters to innovate new shots, fielding becomes an important skill as every shot and run counts, and good, tight bowling is rewarded.

It's all done in a manageable time frame of 3 hours - no commitment of four days and the result still being a draw - yet even in this shortened form the game can ebb and flow, as this one did.

I wouldn't want this to become the only form of cricket - and there is always the fear that the administrators will over commit to T20 thus ruining part of its attraction - but with some friends after work in wonderful weather it's definitely a very pleasant way to start the weekend.

That was the week that was

Well, it's been a surprising week and not quite what a lot were expecting. Have to admit I'm very surprised that it's a formal and full coalition government rather than a 'supply and confidence' agreement. Could be a genuinely new era in politics. My observations so far;

• credit where due. All three party leaders were at their best - all 'statesmenlike' and pretty clear and open,
• Given coalition is new territory for Westminster politics we managed to get a pretty quick answer to the government question - credit to the staffers and the Cabinet Office teams,
• Gordon Brown looked a new man - a weight lifted. For once we saw his warmth. Sense he feels a burden lifted and who could begrudge him that? May he enjoy time with his family - for whom he showed real warmth,
• surprised David Cameron has given so much up - five Cabinet posts and various ministerial roles - did he need to? Then again, such a full coalition could be a very clever political move as it could neutralise the 'lunatic fringe' of both parties
• notice how on going to Buckingham Palace Gordon Brown had police outriders and a rolling roadblock, but on leaving he didn't? It's the little things that former ministers will notice in the coming days - no Private Office organising your diary and telling you where you should be, no ministerial car and driver, and for some like the ex-PM, the return to having to sit in traffic jams

Be very interesting to see how the next few weeks pan out!

What happens next??

Some thoughts on an interesting past 12 hours and what may happen next.

When anybody talks about ‘moral authority’ or ‘moral victory’ it’s because they don’t have the actual authority or victory. Each of the parties have flawed claims to become the government and here’s why.

• Conservatives – yes they are the biggest party and got the most votes. But the electorate hasn’t given them a clear mandate – it’s almost as if the electorate wanted change, but were not entirely convinced by the Conservatives so didn’t hand them a clear victory in order to ‘keep them honest.’ Also have the problem that they only have one MP in Scotland – so not a clear UK wide mandate either.

• Labour – clearly the electorate doesn’t want them as the sole party in power, or indeed in power at all. A massive loss in their vote – both in seats and percentage terms. Also have the issue that 41 of their 258 MPs are Scottish and would be able to vote on issues that affect England (and Wales) but, with devolved government, have no impact on their constituency; the tricky ‘West Lothian question’ posed by Tam Dalyell. To remain in government when clearly rejected by the electorate, and be supported by so many Scottish MPs (and possibly the SNP as well) to such an extent, raises issues about their ‘mandate’.

• Lib Dems – seem to be kingmakers but have been compromised. According to the polls people wanted to vote for them, but they couldn’t actually bring themselves to do so once in the voting booth. If they came to support Labour, who have been rejected, they leave themselves open to accusations of selling out to gain office and propping up a busted government. Supporting the Conservatives won't be popular within the party.

So it’s tricky... what should happen?

Well, if I was Nick Clegg I’d say that the Lib Dems will abstain in the vote on the Queen’s Speech – the first vote of ‘confidence’. That puts the decision back to Labour – do they brazen it out and risk defeat? In effect you’re offering Labour the chance to ‘do the honourable thing’. It shows that you’re not going to sell out just to gain power, won’t risk a split your party, and is not denying the result of the electorate. Above all it allows a space to breathe and then puts the onus on to the Conservatives to try to form a government, but is also telling them not to do anything stupid.

What will happen?

Still think a Conservative minority government - with a 'confidence and supply' arrangement with the Lib Dems is the most likely option – but may not happen for a few days.

Who knows – perhaps Caroline Lucas should be asked to try and form a rainbow coalition...

How good were my predictions??

Not bad - but not good.

No Cabinet Ministers lost their seat, BNP didn't win a seat and I overstated the Lib Dem share of the vote. Got the Balls and Bercow races completely wrong.

Pretty good guesses for the number of Cons seats, and the Cons share and Labour share of vote. Also pretty accurate on turnout and that the Greens would win a seat.

So, marginally better than a chicken pecking random guesses on a piece of paper...

One aside. Was dissappointed that Dr Richard Taylor, the local doctor who was the truly independent MP for Wyre Forest, wasn't returned as an MP. He only just lost out to the Conservatives. Whatever your politics he was an intelligent, independent and local voice in a Parliament that is largely media focussed on national issues and with few characterful and individually thinking MPs. He will be missed.

Vote early, vote often?

Well, it's V day (or E day??) - time to make your mark.

Voted earlier - interestingly there was quite a queue - never had that before.

Final predictions...

• Share of vote - Con 38%, Lab 27%, Lib Dem 27%, Other 8% - mainly I think the polls still understate the Conservatives
• Turnout - 65% - up on last time but not a massive amount. For those engaged by the debates I suspect there are nearly as many who are even more turned off by the whole process for a variety of reasons
• Largest party - Cons but short of an overall maj. My guess is 305 seats
• The 'it's not fair' moment - Lib Dems still won't get nearly as many seats as their vote warrants. I think such a perverse result will mean this will be the last 'first past the post' election with a move to the Alternative Vote
• Shocks - three Cabinet Ministers will lose their seats; BNP and Green will each get a seat.

For a different take to the telly - it might be worth dipping into http://tweetminster.co.uk/ once in a while.

See you 'on the other side'...