It's a great life if ....

A day of contrasts. Beginning and end of the day were not good. This morning was fraught and full of problem solving at work, where we had to sit down and take a long and detailed look at some very practical issues that could only be managed forensically and without the kind of bullshit that so often characterises operational management. Enough said. I have a very good team. We get through. But end of day was characterised by very real anxieties about the prospect of wholesale job losses in our bit of the NHS which could put both of us at risk of redundancy before the year is out.

In between times -

Managed to get away from work on time by 12.20 to go to London for my Dance Festival board awayday. First off was a tour of the Royal Opera House where we were having a meeting at 3.00 hosted by one of our board members who works there. Couldn't take photos alas, all I can tell you is that backstage is stunning; from the grand scale of the place with all its giant props and machinery for moving them, down to the little offices with racks and racks of boxes of ballet shoes in all shapes and sizes; from the sewing rooms for divas dresses to the rehearsal rooms where lithe bodied dancers pressed their limbs in preparation for the evening performance. We even got to watch a few minutes of full throated singing on the main stage which was amazing.

Our awayday lasted until 6.15 and was really heartening - a group of people pulling for a common vision and a common aim - I felt really pleased to be a part of it. We were in a small room deep in the bowels of the opera house near the kitchens with a loud French madame proclaiming on one side and a room piled high with chairs and general paraphernalia on the other. The dividing doors had been left open a couple of inches and I watched with some amusement at one point as an overweight and rather elderly waiter stripped to his pants to change into his formal black and whites. No-one else saw this although I mentioned it as we were leaving to a tinkling of laughter and cries of "I didn't see that" to which I replied "I was the only one who could see through the crack". Pure Benny Hill, it got the cackle it deserved.

Then a trip to the Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane where we had a truly lovely meal, and I mean truly lovely, courtesy of another board member who is friends with the head chef. Such a good meal that I had to walk back to Waterloo from Hyde Park Corner to try and shed a few of the calories I had consumed.

Took this picture in Leicester Square, which seems to retain an enduring appeal because of its glitzy advertising. These four guys seemed to be enjoying it anyway.

Looking back on the day I suppose it sums up what I have been feeling for a long time - that the world remains exciting and full of new experiences but is about to change and has become a slightly scary place. Keeping going feels like it is getting harder. But as Aged P. has been saying ever since I can remember (and I can remember over half a century now):

"It's a great life - if you don't weaken".