Kitchen Project: Day One

We are making some major changes to our house. Our project to move the kitchen downstairs and create a large open-plan kitchen and living space has begun.

Jana, Ellie and Ben have flown out to see their Czech family for three and a half weeks. I'm left here alone to keep an eye on things. We've got builders in to do the work.

Nothing can go wrong, surely?

Today was the first day of the work. This was the downstairs at the start of the day:

Our House Downstairs
[24 February 2013]

And this is how it looks now, after a full day's work on it:

Our House Downstairs
[25 February 2013]

We're also getting the stairs boxed off and a doorway put in:

Our House Stairway
[25 February 2013]

Exercise

Since we had Ben I haven't done any regular exercise. The running I had started last year came to a grinding halt when he was born. I didn't really mind at the time, because I'd been struggling with strains and aches in my legs and I thought they could do with a good, prolonged rest to heal properly.

This year, however, I decided to get things going again and thought I'd at least commit to going for one run per week to start with.

The good news is I've kept this up so far.

The bad news is those aches and pains are back. It's a bit worrisome. This isn't just a bit of muscle fatigue. I've had that before and recovered within 48 hours max. This feels like my whole lower leg is bruised and the feeling doesn't subside much, even though I'm not running hard and I'm only running once a week.

The only explanation I can come up with is that my legs aren't coping well with the high impact. I run on tarmac and concrete mainly. I've recently invested in a proper pair of running shoes but the damage might already be done. I'll try contacting a physio but in the meantime I'm thinking I should try another form of activity.

So, I've decided to look at this positively and see it as an opportunity to try something new.

I really don't fancy going to a gym, so I'm looking for a new, low impact form of exercise that I can do on my own. So far I've come up with swimming and cycling, and either might be feasible to fit into my current work/life routine.

The main thing is I need to get fit again!

Goodbye to Scheduled Television

At Christmas, we got a SMART blu-ray player to replace our old DVD player. This means we now have easy access to internet television from the comfort of our living room.

I haven't watched much TV over the last few years, partly because Jana tends to watch it to unwind and chooses programmes of no interest to me, partly because I have so much reading I want to catch up on, but mostly because I'm not organised enough to plan ahead the programmes I want to watch.

Well, internet TV has been a revelation. We only have access to BBC iPlayer and YouTube at the moment, plus a month trial subscription to NetFlix, but this still gives me everything I need and more.

In particular I've got hooked on watching nature documentaries on the iPlayer. Within the last couple of weeks, I've caught up with the available back catalogues of Countryfile, Coast, Nature's Weirdest Events, Frozen Planet, a few one-off programmes, plus the first episode of the incredible new David Attenborough series, Africa.

The television is going to become a battleground once again between me and Jana.

And it got me thinking, surely this is the death knell of scheduled television? I mean, what is the point of having programmes playing at set times of the day when all of this is at our fingertips?

Yesterday, driving home from work, they were having a discussion on Radio 4's PM about the relative benefits of scheduled TV versus catch-up TV, and it was really very apparent that scheduled TV had very little going for it. The main argument in its defence was that it made it easier for people to stumble across programmes they might not normally seek out themselves. Well, to me that's another way of saying it forces people to tune it to programmes they don't really like.

I'm now toying with the idea of cancelling our regular TV licence altogether and going fully "catch-up." Jana isn't quite ready to get up "normal tv," but once ITV Player and 4OD are available I think she might be persuaded.

A New Year

Today was my second day back at work since the New Year. What an odd, odd time of the year this is. A whole mix of emotions caused by the end of the bubble that is Christmas-time and the shock of being back into the daily slog with nothing immediate to look forward to. A real uncertainty about whether the year ahead is going to hard, fulfilling, memorable, forgettable, or ... who knows what?

Yet it's also a time of year where renewal and opportunity are undeniably in the air.

By a quirk of the Christian calendar, Christmas and New Year come in quick succession meaning a prolonged period of festivities and indulgence come to an abrupt end once January arrives. The mere fact of seeing a new year documented on the calendar, "2013," feels strange and new. Midwinter has just passed and it won't be long before the first signs of new life start to emerge from the winter.

For me, 2013 is going to be the first full year of having a family of four. I'll watch Ben going through the same stages I watched Ellie go through two and half years before. Just today I saw him reach out and grab one of his feet for the first time, something I still clearly remember Ellie doing.

Ellie Grabbing Her Foot
(June 2010)

Ellie herself will be growing up too. My Dad said that one of his friends told him that 3 years old was the age that children really started interacting with you and while I'm not sure I agree with this I can certainly see that Ellie's general awareness and also speech have come on leaps and bounds very recently.  In August, Ellie will start nursery.

For myself, I'm hoping to keep up my new found love for blogging and I've also made a commitment (oh, alright then, a New Year's Resolution) to learn at last one new Czech word every day.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas from the whole Hopton family.  This picture is actually from 24 December, because that's when the Czechs have their main Christmas celebration.

This is also the first ever picture of all four of us :)

The Hoptons
(December 2012)

Getting Ready for Christmas

It's three days until Christmas. I've genuinely not enjoyed this time of the year so much in a long long while.  Ellie is at the right age to start appreciating Christmas properly.  I've had a week off work already so I'm winding down and in the right mood for it all.  We're not traveling anywhere or hosting any visitors.

Ellie and Ben have both come down sick, however.  Ellie has got a vomiting bug of some kind.  She won't eat much, is always tired and whine-y, and is occasionally sick.  I'm writing this having just put her back to bed and cleared up another batch of vomit.

Ben has got an eye infection (a recurrence from a couple of weeks ago) and a stuffed nose which keeps waking him up.  We also think he's started teething.  Jana and I are sleep-deprived and shattered.

The thing with kids is how they bounce back.  Even during the day, most of the time you wouldn't know either of them is unwell.  Ellie helped decorate the tree.  She enjoys taking several baubles off at once, wandering around with them strung from her fingers, and then placing them back in a little cluster.  We bought Christmas crackers today so she's been placing them on the tree too.

Mum and Charlie visited recently.  In Edinburgh we heard Christmas pop music so my mum bought us a CD and Ellie keeps demanding it be played.  I recorded a video of her dancing and sent it back to my mum.

Jana is taking the opportunity of having me around helping with the kids by spending more time in the kitchen, cooking and baking to her heart's content.  We are eating our main meals at midday.  In the evening, we're eating Stilton and drinking port (well I am.)

By and large, give or take, this is what I imagined (and hoped) the run up to Christmas would feel like once I had my own family.

Results

I suppose all that work last year was worth something, after all. I've received my results from the University of York, and I now have an MA! It's official. And perhaps most surprisingly, it feels good. It hasn't exactly been on my mind a lot recently. It's odd how quickly you can move from one phase of life into another, but my time in York seems distant now. Actually being awarded a degree brings it into focus a little.

So what are the practical implications? Two-fold, actually. 1) I get to write Craig Hopton MA on my correspondance (though I won't); and 2) I can select "obtained" instead of "expected" for my Masters degree on job application forms. As you can tell, this is quite a monumental occasion.

I suppose everyone else I know from York must be getting their results too. Well done all - you've worked hard and you deserve it.

Goostrey to Wembley in Eighty Days

What an astonishingly exhausting day. Some people will go to the most extraordinary lengths to see the bands they idolise - and now I'm one of them. I'm not sure I've ever done so much travelling or been on so many delayed trains. Goostrey-Wembley is not a journey I would recommend to anyone.

When Becky and I stepped off the tube at Wembley Park we were rewarded by the sight of the new Wembley Stadium with it's glorious arch stretching across the skyline (I should stress that I didn't take this picture!). Ah, football... but of course we had to turn aside and proceed to the much smaller Wembley Arena next door.

We stood pretty near the front, feeling very chuffed with ourselves, until we discovered we had to stand waiting a further two hours before Muse came on. By this point the crowd was rabid. We barely had any room to move. And when the first chord was struck, everyone surged forward crushing us in a heaving mass of 17-year old A Level students. We didn't last long before we were fighting our way to the back!

All in all, it was an excellent show. The audience alternated between a state of possessed exuberence and bored dehydration. I was no exception. Unfortunately, Muse themselves didn't seem very excited by the occasion, but that didn't stop them putting on a good performance. Yes, we all had a good old sing-song. And next time I go to Wembley, it'll be with Three Lions on my shirt.

Muse-ic

I'm going to my first ever rock concert next week. I haven't been this excited since I was more excited than this.

A review in The Times today says, "Ablaze with kaleidoscopic lights, supersized video screens and a hydraulic riser mounted on what looks like an upturned Dalek, their retro-futuristic stage show is unlike anything seen since the heady heyday of 1970s progressive rock". Oh, goody! "The cumulative effect here was rather like being force-fed an endless supply of overrich chocolate cake". Mmmm, yummy!

Still on my way

Time for an update on my job-hunting, I think.

So far I have had one interview and lots of rejections. On the other hand, I am currently employed so things aren't all that bad. On Sunday, we had to try out food from the new menu at the pub, and got paid for out exertions. I guess I can cope with this existence for a while yet.

I've thrown myself wholeheartedly into a couple of graduate schemes: the Civil Service Faststream and the Local Government Graduate Development Scheme, but I can't say that I'm entirely enthused by either of them. Still, I do have a Faststream assessment centre in December to look forward to.

I also have ongoing applications to the Metropolitan Police (! - but actually I quite fancy that one), and the Privy Council Office, both of which look promising.

And if anyone reading this needs a shelf fixing or lawn mowing, I'm sure that for a reasonable price I can tell you to get lost.

Coincidences

I went to a local church yesterday. A pretty average Anglican affair - but that's just what I was looking for. I could only get to the 9.15 service, and there was no-one my age.

I hung on for a bit, drank some coffee looking very lonely and waited to see who might turn up for the family service. As fortune would have it, I met a very pleasant guy my own age called Rob wearing a fashionable tie.

He works for an estate agents, but it turns out that he went to Durham University the exact same three years that I did - and lived in the college next door to me! How did we miss each other? Well, that's easy actually. Collingwood College and Grey College are the bitterest of enemies. Grey can't stand Collingwood because they know we're better, and Collingwood can't stand Grey because they're so puny. Rob said he only chose Grey College because they had a better pool table; I only visited Grey College to steal their cue ball. Thank goodness I've matured so much since then...

Ouch!

So yesterday's interview was a complete disaster. Never mind. It just shows you the value of preparation. I could barely answer any of the questions put to me. If you're thinking of applying to the Foreign Office any time soon, just ask and I can give you some tips.

Still, the great thing about living in England is that if something bad happens in the middle of the day you can always go to a pub and get a pint. I ordered London Pride. Hopefully I will have lots more of that in the future.

First Interview

Tomorrow I have an interview at the Foreign Office. Wish me luck!

Do not ask for whom the bell tolls...

Here's my pub. Come and visit it. You will receive a warm welcome. And if you order coffee, you'll receive a little biscuity-thing too.

Why is it called the "Bells" you may ask? Because of the church next door? No - because it was once owned by a family called "Bell". Sorry, that's not very interesting really.

The last two days have shown me two sides of the catering industry. Yesterday, Sunday, the busiest day of the week, two of my colleagues called in sick. Instead of five waiters, we had only three (including inexperienced me). I had to work 10 hours straight with no breaks and no food. At one point the chef refused to cook anything else because the meals weren't getting taken out quickly enough. But we got through it.

Today, on the other hand, I did three hours over lunchtime. Relaxed, pleasant - ah yes, the perfect job. Who needs excitement, or stress, or challenges? But on second thoughts, I didn't earn as many tips as I did yesterday...

I do have a job really

Despite my persistent claims to be job-hunting, I actually already have a job. At least, I do now. I started work tonight at a local pub called The Bells of Peover. I'll get a picture soon. It was extremely confusing as I have no catering experience and had to direct all my spare brain power to determining which were starter forks and which main forks.

The staff seemed friendly enough. And pretty varied, too. I have this new scheme where when I meet people I try to remember their names. It sounds very simple, but I've never done it successfully before. I think it's working: today I met Richard, Chris, Olly, Tracy, Ross, Ronny (? a woman), Sian, Zadine (I think), Esmelda, John and Tony. I won't say anything about any of them yet in case they become my friends and read this later. I'm sure they're all lovely people.

London (again)

Look where I've just been. Flashy, eh? Back to London for the second time in four days. Except on this occasion I took the train - and I didn't get the wrong day! It was a careers fair for working in the not-for-profit / public sector.

I've never properly considered working for a charity. I assumed they wanted volunteers, not employees. So it was quite enlightening to discover that Cancer Research UK has a graduate training scheme for corporate services and marketing. I felt like I was talking to someone from Deloitte.

A career in transport?

What an amazing day, yesterday. I got to mess around in London. But why was I there?

I went to attend an Open Day for "Transport for London" (TfL for those in the know), who are the body responsible for... well, yeah, you got it. It ran from 10.30-3.30. I knew from many childhood trips that the journey to London takes about three hours, so I set forth at half six in the morning. Half six, you hear me! That's earlier than seven! But not early enough. By the time I got to Birmingham I was stuck in traffic.

The problem with traffic jams is not that they delay you - you expect them to do that, and deep down you're glad for the excuse to be late for something. The problem is that you just get bored. I was stuck all the way from Birmingham to Luton. I felt like just turning round and going home.

By the time I got to the edge of London I was already way late for the event. I hurriedly tried to find a spot to park, but London isn't designed to be helpful for people who don't know what they're doing (like me). It took another half hour before I sighted a tiny spot by the side of the road and performed, under pressure, the most exquisite parallel park London has ever seen. As any man will tell you, nothing can give you as much pride as a perfectly executed parallel park.

It was about 12 by this time, and when I got off the tube at London Bridge I realised that I didn't have a pen and paper. Of course there were no newsagents in sight, so I was forced to dart into the London Dungeon gift shop, against the protestations of the staff ("this isn't the entrance"). Fortunately, the venue for the TfL conference wasn't hard to find. It wasn't until I walked confidently into a Lloyd's TSB business meeting brandishing my sharpened Jack the Ripper pencil that I realised I'd got the wrong day.

Still, who can complain about having an unexpected day out in London? I didn't leave empty-handed. Here you can see my certificate for climbing all 311 steps of The Monument (that's its full name). Maybe there is something that can make a man more proud than parallel parking.

Manchester united

I spent the day in Manchester. It's starting to look familiar now - I can even find my way around without a map. It's a pretty decent city, all in all. Makes me wonder whether I need to go to London after all.

I had a bit of a wander around and came across a Mongolian restaurant. Cool, eh? I've never seen a Mongolian restaurant before. I thought Mongolia was the backwater of all backwaters. What is it doing here in Manchester? On the door was a map of the Mongol Empire, which I just happen to know is the second largest empire in history (and the largest contiguous empire in history), so there. They let you select all your meat raw and cover it in sauces and then they cook it for you. Might be worth a try.

Then I went to a church service (my main reason for going into Manchester on a Sunday). I feel like I haven't been to church in months. It was called King's Church (yeah, I've figured out hyperlinks, too). It was the most multicultural event I've ever seen - fantastic. They had all these flags up from all around the globe, and practically a cross-section of the world's population singing on stage. And the first person I met there? A Mongolian.

My first plug

I just got my car back on the road! That's makes me happy. Unfortunately, it's only so that I can sell it. Bad news for me. But it could be good news for you... if you want a six-year old Ford Focus! Once I've got my act together I'll post a link here so you can buy it. It's very nice.

Patience, not complacence

Is there a scarier transition in one's life? Progressing from an easy, exciting student life to the difficult, unknown world of - employment. Shudder! It's probably even more scary then when you grew up knowing you would leave school for the coal mine. At least then you knew what was coming. Choice brings insecurity. Unfortunately that's the case for so much in modern society: democracy; women's rights; drinks you've never heard of at Starbuck's...

But at the end of the day, who wants to work in a coal mine?

I've applied to a variety of jobs already: the Foreign Office; Essex County Council; a development consultency firm; Immigration control; the Treasury; even an editor at Encarta! So far I've had no rejections, but I've only got one interview (at the Foreign Office), and that's not until October 24th! In the words of Samuel Beckett, "In the meantime nothing happens". Patience is my watchword. My track record shows that I have a worrying capacity for turning patience into its arch-nemesis: complacence. My challenge is to avoid doing so again.