Lakes

I'm putting off the gym this morning by doing laundry / eating stuff / booking train tickets / lying about in bed blogging when really, deep down, I know I'll love it (well maybe that's a bit strong!) if I actually do go…

Leonie and I had a week's holiday in the Lake District at the end of June. We went for lots of long walks during the day and a short run every morning before breakfast (admittedly this was a full english every day, so it's a good thing we were exercising), and we hired mountain bikes one day – which made me realise that I'm actually not very fit at all, esp not when trying to cycle up 25% gradiant hills.

Tim and Claire, the B&B owners, gave us puzzles to do over breakfast each day which Leonie solved diligently and I consistently failed to complete, except on the odd occasion when six year old children who also happened to be staying at the B&B showed me how.

And we also did a thing called Go Ape in Grizedale Forest, which involved swinging from tree to tree on high ropes and zip slides 40ft up in the air. All very terrifying, but fun!

More pics to follow when I find the time to upload them…

I'm moving jobs at the end of July to the Office for Disability Issues. This is still within DWP, but it will involve working closely with other departments (health, education+skills, local gov) as well as lobby group experts on a 12 month project reviewing the barriers to independent living for disabled people.

The team is brand new and very small, and although the work is still high–profile, it won't attract the same media coverage or involve the same degree of ministerial contact as my current job. Anyway, I'm feeling enthusiastic about the prospect of doing something completely different, and looking forward to starting work on what promises to be an interesting project come August.

I'm also doing a week–long attachment in the Jobcentre plus chief exec's office next week covering for the office manager, which I'm a bit concerned about as I think it involves working long hours and being stupidly organised!

Anyway, enough talk of work. I must make a decision now either to go to the gym and run for an hour or so, or go and find something interesting to do. Either way I need to stop lolling around in bed and get up properly.

: 08 Jul 2006 10:22 |  Tags: Diary |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem