There are some bizarre people in the industry I work in. On Friday I received an e-mail from someone I've known for sometime....many years in fact...saying that although it was short notice, was I free to meet on Monday. I replied yes, and have heard nothing since. Not bad, but the same person contacted me several months ago suggesting we meet up, to which I responded yes that would be excellent...I heard no more so re-contacted him, to which the reply had been he didn't know what I was talking about. One of us is mad.
It was a cruel irony that the one person in our house that truly loves the snow was in the only place in the UK which had none over the weekend. Instead The Boy was getting drowned in a tropical monsoon in Devon on his Geography field trip. We were out at the school inter-house drama competition on Saturday night as the snow started to fall. As parents we are weak and after The Cat performed we sneaked of for a sneaky pizza. The consequence was that by the time we got back The Cat had been awarded 'Best Supporting Actor', and The Boy's House had won the competition. I put that down as a parental fail.
It's a remarkable loss when The Boy is not around. Last year when the snow fell we were all marched out into the forest whilst The Boy strapped on his skis and went for a fun ski. This year, and in his absence, we were at the shops and bought a fun sledge, which has remained resolutely in the back of the Jeep whilst we remained resolutely in the warm inside the house. I think that's our loss, as the snow is now melting away so the opportunity this year may have slipped out of our grasp. We had been scheduled to drive up to Cambridge, but even in The Tank that is the Jeep it didn't seem sensible. So the day was spent sorting out ski wear for next week and cooking a lovely piece of beef for the evening. The Boy's energy and enthusiasm can be a pain sometimes, but it's at times like this that I really appreciate how motivating his enthusiasm can be. Here's last year's video of him skiing in Epping Forest.
And again here