Now, I am not one to moan (watch it) but when I got to JFK two hours before my flight left and the check-in clerk told me that it was delayed by three hours I was furious. This was due to the weather - i.e. it was raining in New York. London, be not ashamed, what a few inches of snow is to you, a few inches of rain is to New York.
I really am not too pleased to be back here. As I mentioned in my last blog the world is carrying on just fine without me and I fear I am starting to look needy. Still, I need to be here for some reason and tomorrow we can start in earnest.
It's a new phase in my job. Previously I could rely on what I was doing or at most what my colleagues were doing but now I find myself responsible for a massive project that seethes and bubbles, always on the boil, always just ready to burn. I am having to learn to accept professional help in managing timelines (milestones they are called, surely with the knowledge that this is close to millstone). My project manager refers to our meetings with the wider audience as 'herding cats' and I have to salute her for so precisely capturing the spirit of the thing. You know when on Grand Designs people say they will project manage the build themselves to save money and crumble at all the problems they confront - well this is just like that only I have a project manager, three if I'm honest, and we are still up against it.
Hence I am back in London for the much needed face-to-face time. On the postive side I will be in New York next week doing exactly the same thing and would have had to fly out had I been based in London.
Glamorous, travel isn't. Seriously, five hours in JFK looking for something to do is awful. Yes we have all done it and worse but usually with a holiday either behind us or in front of us. This is just painful and however fancy the business class you can rest assured that you will still be bored to tears and are even more likely to be stuck in a lounge next to some truly dreadful donkeys braying about how important they are.
As I say, I'm not one to moan. So let me tell you what is wonderful. Our little girl is now truly flying with complex sentences. She understands the world around her, she knows what is, and what she would like it to be. She understands how to make what is become what she would like it to be via commands. "Let's go to the park, yes? " . Poor J is on the receiving end of these instructions especially this week when I am away.
Still he is not one to moan. Genuinely. Two hours of it on a Saturday morning and I'm looking for the tranquilizer shot - whether for her or for me I don't know. There is a huge privilege in seeing her develop and I'm sure he wouldn't change it for the world. He is herding cats too but the difference is that people only see the cute photographs, just not how unherdable the cats actually are.
Good night home, I love you all very much x.
