Waste of time?

Well, there goes my aim of having a weekly blog - I guess I've just got too much to say!

Went to Newmarket today - been through it before but have never stopped. Anyway, I find the office I'm working in really easily, get parked up, receive a really friendly welcome and directions to the conference room and toddle off there. I'm supposed to be one of three facilitators on site today, one doing a full day and the other two of us doing just the afternoon managing small groups of learners. Anyway, what do I find when I get to the room? I'll put you out of your suspense - not enough delegates, that's what! Why couldn't somebody have told me before I drove the best part of 100 miles to get there? So I spent about half an hour there and came home - roads were really clear, so I made the trip really quickly, but it was (and remains) dashed hot.

So I get home, painter has finished and it looks good and I have a restorative sandwich. I then get an email telling me that a Monday meeting I've got in my diary in early July which I was told was going to be in Birmingham (which I can make with an early start) is now going to be in Warrington, which means I've got to travel on the Sunday. And, what's worse, and a peril of self employment, is that the trip is expenses only. This isn't turning out to be my best day, is it?

However, I go out into the garden (here's a picture of my raised veggie beds taken a bit earlier in the year - they're all full now, the one at back left covered with anti-fox bits of wood has now got broccoli and romanesco in it) and take solace from the fact that most things seem to be growing well and my first tomatoes are on the verge of ripening. Set against the simple pleasures (at least when the foxes are behaving!) of gardening, most of life's little tribulations fall into perspective and I guess that that's my learning point for today.

Week 1 (How imaginative!)

I'm currently working on a couple of contracts for a major postal services company and enjoying myself very much. The programmes are about change and performance management and I love the culture because it reminds me of the MOD - uniformed, bolshie and Theory X! The change stuff is particularly interesting because I'm working with groups of other facilitators (some good, some not so good!) managing 50+ delegates. It's very "sheep-dippy" but what the client wants and it's interesting to see other people's styles. The delegates are great, mostly front-line operational managers and there's lots of banter but we're achieving good outcomes and getting good feedback - which is nice. To help with my own learning and understanding, I've arranged to visit a couple of the company's local operating sites in a week or two's time and will report back when I've been. Oh yes, and I'm working mostly locally in Kent, Surrey and Sussex except for a trip to Preston and am notching up new places where I've never worked before - Tunbridge Wells and Crawley among them.

Other hot stuff is that I'm about to start delivering a CIPD accredited programme in October and am required by the company I'm doing it for to provide a PDP. I actually took some time to think about it and delivered the PDP on time today. In it I included the fact that I was considering doing a coaching qualification and I've actually signed up for a programme this afternoon. Sadly, it's not until November (can't do the earlier one because I'm working) but it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Oh yes, and I also said that one of my developmental goals was to start keeping a blog again!

Not a lot else going on outside work. Spent last weekend in our lovely brand spanking new mobile home by the sunny Sussex sea and have been busy at home fighting foxes and wood pigeons. The latter have been pinching raspberries but have been easily dealt with by the judicious (oh, Colin, where are you now?!) application of a bit of netting. The former are nasty malodorous scum who take great delight in destroying anything they can get their teeth into - and anything that gives them the option to dig up my vegetables, particularly brassicas, they especially enjoy. Or am I anthropomorphising too much? I just wish that the bleeding hearts out there would stop feeding and encouraging the blighters.

OK, I guess that'll do for a week - need to go and offer the roofers a cuppa, its blummin' hot up there today!

Return of the Bradford Blogger!

This all comes about because I used to blog semi-privately on a social networking site which was used by my MEd Cohort at Bradford University (and guess what, that's us at our graduation on the left!). Originally, I set out to use the blog as a reflective medium for my learning, but it soon became much more than that. A reflective tool, yes, but also a place to discuss what I'd been doing (boring things like work and gardening) and, just as importantly, to receive the views and comments of cohort colleagues - and also for me to comment on their blogs. Interestingly, there's research (I'll look up the reference for a future blog) that shows that learners who engage in social networking tend to do better academically than those who don't. And blow me, guess what? The two of us who blogged the most also did the best. Strange but true.

Anyway, we all graduated in 2009 and, gradually, our use of the former networking site fell into misuse. Eventually, some of us transitioned to, of all things, Facebook, but it's just not the same. I'm hoping to resurrect my old habit of doing a weekly blog for my own satisfaction as much as the entertainment of others, so please watch this space!