Greaseproof Victory

(Or, that’s right, I have a blog!)

To start with, I have no idea why this post is titled ‘Greaseproof Victory’. I logged in to the blog to pass some quiet time (very rare commodity of late) in the airport lounge. I found this unfinished, curiously-titled draft. It was so unfinished that all it was was title. This gives me the mental challenge of recalling what on earth I was on about, back on the 16th of October.

I think it might have had something to do with my birthday cake, a few days old by that date, which was in fact a large Epoisses cheese with candles stuck in the top. It took at least a week to consume, and might have involved some greaseproof paper in the attempt to stop it escaping, but the accompanying witty anecdote escapes me with the passing of the weeks.

Anyway, here would be a good point to go through the highlights of the last few months. First thing is, I’m in Australia with my family! (Although, without them for the next 2 weeks). I often marvel at the fact that I get to do an interesting job with UK-wide responsibility from a lovely, peaceful town nestled in the hills of mid-Wales. Now it’s gone one step further and taken me to Melbourne. Unbelievable!! So, one month’s (fairly intensive) work, followed by a couple of weeks’ holiday up in Queensland, visiting the folks with my family (if that distinction makes sense).

This weekend we came up to Brisbane, I took my boy to the Ashes at the Gabba today!! Bit of a dull day’s play, which he felt (one wicket fell all day – while I was in the toilet!) but a great experience nonetheless, catching up with old mates and soaking up the atmosphere. Should be some action (and hopefully a result) tomorrow – which I will follow with half an ear from my desk.

In the hectic week preceding our departure to Aus, I managed to collide with a passing car. Whilst driving my boss’ Prius. Nothing bad happened physically to anybody; the other car ended up well embedded in the hedge. It was pretty dramatic. There was no proper reason for me to have the boss’ car; I’d used it to get to a meeting in Reading the week before, and he just didn’t need it back straight away so I hung on to it and drove into work for a few days instead of cycling in the chilly, rainy weather. Probably a mistake.

Now I’m soaking up the long, sunny days, and trying not to think about the shock that awaits me in Wales in early January. I hear they had 3 inches of snow yesterday. (Interesting passing typo there, for a moment they had apparently had 3 inches of snot. Eew!)

There’s a bunch of blokes at the next table in this airport bar going on about their cars. Oh, how they love their big engines here. The new Holden Commodore has as big an engine as ever – the ‘Efficiency and Power’ range starts with a 3-litre V6 and goes up to a 6-litre V8! Bear in mind this is seen here as your standard family car. It’s mental. But I must admit I find the design of this new car very sexy, it just appeals to me, mostly because it does away with the blandness of most modern cars, it just looks chunky and solid with nicely protruding wheel arches and these really tough-looking air vents on the wing… no idea if they do anything but I reckon they look great!

Time for another overpriced beer and a bite before boarding. 2 weeks work in Melbourne, 2 weeks away from my 3 favourite people in the world; this is the longest we’ve ever been apart and I miss them like crazy already.