A long summer till September

It’s September.  Have I seriously not posted since July?  Sorry dear followers I know you’ve all been waiting on the edge of your seats…. *silence*… *whistling wind*…*Passing tumble-weed*

So a brief update if anyone is still reading.  Mrs F and I are now over 32 years married – seriously.  How’d that happen!   Son-of-Furtheron had his 27th birthday… how old you feel when your son is now the age you were when you had him.  (Btw – it took me a while to realise it wasn’t a weird coincidence that I’m currently also exactly twice his age but simply a mathematical certainty! DOH!) We gave him some money.  He might be 27 but he spent it on some Lego!  It’s just like he’s still 10.    He is currently building the Lego Saturn V rocket model – which is huge, standing about a metre tall once completed.  Also for his birthday he and I went to Brands Hatch to watch the British GT racing, again just like he was a youngster again!  We also had a great day watching the sprint trials in Crystal Palace Park just 5 mins from his flat.  Terrific day out.

Mrs F and I had a short break away in the Cotswolds.  Mrs F played a blinder and found a brilliant small bungalow that was attached to the owner’s house in this tiny village – hamlet more like.  It was brilliant.  Across the road was a field of sheep.  Peace, quiet… lovely.   A house a couple along in the village was up for sale.  £2.2million… peace comes with a high price these days it seems.

Anyway terrific week visiting Oxford, Bath, Cheltenham etc. and a day walking around some lakes in part of the Cotswold’s Water Park.  On that we set off from a little village after a lovely coffee and cake stop in the village post office – now a thriving coffee shop with a PO counter.  Soon we were pouring over the Explorer map, kindly provided by the cottage owners, and in the middle of field that looked like the only thing that had ever walked that way was a herd of cows.  We didn’t see a living soul again for some hours until we were on the return journey back into the village.  Just terrific.

Since late July our family and friends have been engaged in “Spot the daughter” competitions.  Through her work as a university ambassador they asked her to be part of the “face of the university” for it’s annual clearing campaign.   This led firstly to a huge and I mean huge billboard at a local train station with her on standing 20ft or so high.  Then we’ve been spotting her on the back of buses etc. all over southern England.  Including my wife jumping up and down like a mad woman in Crystal Palace shouting “Look! Look! She’s on that one over there”.  Today she is starting her masters course at the uni.  Interesting debate we’ve been having about academic gender bias.  Her undergraduate course in Psychology was about 8:1 female to male.  Her masters 1:3! that is such a dramatic turn around.  I wonder how females are so discouraged to carry on in the academic route? I also feel embarrassed and squirm a bit being a white male again, too often these days I’m reminded of my privileged position simply due to the luck of my gender and ethnicity and I squirm as do I really do anything to combat that?  Do I tut along with others by secretly breath a sigh of relief I’ve fallen the “right” side of those dividing lines?

I’ve started my placement with a mental health charity.  So far I’m enjoying it, early days but I’ve great hopes for that.  Also out of the blue my training centre asked me to visit for a chat.  That was actually a job offer to join them working as an assistant tutor.  The logistical bits are being sorted out and hopefully start soon on that if it can all be made to work.  I was really bowled over to be asked frankly, they clearly see something I don’t.

Other than that all good.  Still sober, still living….   I found myself being asked to talk at a load of meetings in the next few weeks.  Funny things like that seem to come in clumps.  I went to speak at one yesterday, a meeting I’ve never been to before and saw a very old friend who I haven’t seen in ages which was a bonus too.

Some photos…