Hi everyone. It's June, and the weather is gorgeously hot and sunny! I'm happy as I'm off tomorrow (Friday) as my double-glazing is being repaired so I've booked a day's leave. The sun is shining and I shall be outside, sunbathing with any luck while I wait for the service guy to arrive (although the neighbours are erecting a new fence, so it may be very noisy, dusty and frankly I may end up sitting in the house waiting for the engineer to come to avoid the stress!)
Well, I managed to successfully swim again this week with Vanni- she did well bearing in mind the terrible sunburn she had, bless her! I was pleased with my efforts, and, unlike last week, this week I had no pain at all afterwards or 2 days afterwards! Plus I swam 18-20 lengths which was more than last week. V. pleased with back and neck. Back is a tad sore now but I've been at work, so that is to be expected unfortunately. No sign of the Chiropractor appointment either so far. Anyway I've just taken painkillers and done my physio exercises so I'll be fine!
I was especially pleased with my back yesterday, as I had to go to Leeds in Yorkshire (just under 200 miles return trip) in the pool car for a high level meeting yesterday (Wednesday). The Executive Team (ET heh heh heh) are answerable to the Minister, and the Communications Group I'm involved with, fifteen of us, were invited to undertake a 15 minute presentation to the ET. We are trying to change the underlying problems with staff morale and mis-communication inhouse between Higher Management and us. We impressed the Consultant so much a fortnight ago with our ideas and vision that she contacted the ET and arranged for us to attend the meeting yesterday to express our views- the negative, and our ideas on how to progress into positive (my work psychology training came in v handy here!). Needless to say, I was one of the main speakers, and taking questions from Higher Management on our experiences and recommendations. It felt like Jerry Springer- powerpoint, microphones, handouts and when ET were standing up to field a question, they were waiting for a microphone to be handed to them lol! Wembley and Birmingham groups also featured, but we were thanked for our professional presentation (another nod to my time at Uni, having to do this infront of 200 people lol).
I was really nervous, as my nerves haven't been the greatest recently (I've been prescribed anti-depressants as back pain wearing me out), but no one noticed. My voice held true and apparently I was engaging delegates and coming across as if I was used to it. I'm not and I actually had stage-fright beforehand. After our presentation, one of the Executive Team (Higher Management about 6 grades above me) came and sat next to me and Rachel at lunch, and the three of us thrashed through more... I didn't really realise who the gentleman was either until afterwards! I hope this is going to be rolled-out over the DWP (DSS to you lol), but I have a bad feeling that cost and overall staff reluctance to get involved will kill it off. Management are trying their hardest to listen, but so much has happened, that this may be too little too late.
Looking forward to Saturday- but sad too as we were scheduled to visit Karen and Stef in Shropshire this weekend (I was soo looking forward to it, haven't seen KC since Mighty Boosh), but Darren and I's friend Lee is going back to sea (he's in the Navy) for 6 months, so we're all meeting up Sat for one last session. There is every chance we won't see him again for a v long time, as Andrea, his missus (the same Andrea in Coral's housewarming) is selling up and moving to Portsmouth for when he returns. Karen and Stef have been really understanding and we're visiting them later this month instead. We're watching the match in the pub (Raikes) and then carrying on. Supposed to be an all-dayer lol but concerned that half way through the night, emotions will be high. Hope no one starts crying.
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