24 (thankfully without Jack)

Contrary to popular belief, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, but there have been times in the last few weeks where times I have felt like I am losing traction & giving up the battle with gravity (and no, I'm not talking about skiing on sheet ice). So, here are the last 24 days in a nutshell.

Week 1 - Skiing was pretty good - there was a decent dump of snow on the Monday afternoon / evening which, in combination with the low temperatures, kept conditions in good shape all things considered. My (now not-so) shiny new skis were fantastic - I can vouch for their edge sharpness after a reasonable spectacular fall (8/10 for style, 7/10 for artistic impression) where I bounced onto the edge, slicing through my salopettes, thermals & underwear, leaving me with a lovely 2" gash across my right butt cheek. Nice.

Home, unpack, laundry, repack.

Week 2 - Offshore again for a few days; a technically useful but otherwise uninspiring few days. Key learning is not to play table tennis while waiting for the helicopter - getting sweaty prior to dressing in rubber is not recommended.

Home, unpack, laundry, repack.

Week 3 - Off to Houston, Takesarse, for a training course. I think my U.S. diary warrants it's own post, so I'll hold fire on this one for now.

Home, unpack, laundry.

Today - Supposed to be on Jury Duty this week. Pitched up at the courthouse, drank coffee & read the paper all morning before being called into the court for jury selection... sitting there waiting for the names to be pulled out of the hat (about 40 people there for a 15 man jury) was a bit like picking football teams at school.

Once again, I was left on the sidelines feeling all kinds of inadequacies & injustices with the legal system, chief amongst which was the fact I had to come to the office & actually do some work.