Monday Review

No, not a gig or stand up session, today was the penultimate review* of my project before it can be released and combined with two others to form the programme in its entirety.

This meant that I as a "New Kid" had to dial in to a call and present to an anonymous executive and my line manager for an hour about a project of a type that I had absolutely zero experience of up until about 8 weeks ago. To say that I was shitting myself this morning was somewhat of an understatement. Fortunately my "Buddy" agreed to join the call in case it got a bit sticky.

I was nervous but I got through it and my work can be released on a conditional basis. My Buddy kept pretty quiet throughout the call only pitching in on a couple of occasions to keep things heading in the right direction. At the end I felt immense relief tinged with trepidation that, all being well, I will have to go through this again but in much greater detail at some point in the Spring.

The past few months have been quite an experience after 4 years in a role where I had become comfortable and very experienced. I am now in new pastures and the challenges are daunting. I have an immense amount to learn and am constantly out of my comfort zone as I dig out my pitons, crampons and ice axe and address the learning curve. Am I enjoying it ? ......

..... Hmmm! Tricky one that. If you ask me during each ascent I will give you a resounding "No" but at the end of each day after I have had time to savour the tiny accomplishments I will give a grudging nod and a quiet thanks to the army of people that support and assist through this climb.

I am hoping that the rest of the week will be calmer and let me have a degree of wind down before the Christmas break.

Outside of work we again experienced an extremely cold night. It dropped to minus 18 celcius down the road in Pershore last night and we had a water pipe freeze cutting off hot water to one of the bathrooms and the downstairs loo for a few hours. After bumping up the heating and adding a little extra from a portable unit we soon got things moving again and decided that perhaps we should leave the central heating on overnight during this cold spell.

I took T&M for a walk this afternoon and took delight in the solitude and quiet of the three miler. The snow means that there was no traffic and I was able to let the dogs off for most of the walk. I walked though a steady fall of snow for  an hour and enjoyed every minute away from a laptop and phone. It is still snowing this evening as I type this entry and we are already wondering whether TP will make it back from his Grandma's before Christmas.

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* The final one is not one I have to host. I just have to turn up,listen and hopefully not say much :-)