I've been out of town for most of the past two weeks in Wolverhampton doing some external consultancy work. Apart from the fact that this should bring in enough bucks to pay for the summer holiday, it's a welcome chance to get out of London, away from UCL and see a bit of life as lived elsewhere.
Basically the deal was to take the whole of the Computer Centre staff at Wolverhampton University through a programme of work concerning Customer Care and related issues. To manage the total staff we gave three iterations of the same two day course within a fortnight. I say we because I co-presented the sessions with a colleague from the University of East Anglia, Paddy Anstey. Basically, he dealt with the organisational stuff and I dealt with the touchy, feely human stuff.
Frankly, it was as exhausting as it was intensive. Still, job done and done well and all that. My main feeling at the end was that, in all probability, Paddy and I will never get to hear how the development of the Centre all panned out.
We stayed in a hotel while we were in town. And though it was reasonably comfortable, it wasn't luxurious. And it was heartless. It tells me that I never could be suited to a life on the road, moving from one hotel to another.
I was also a little put out that, given that Paddy and I were offering a course on Customer Care, no-one from the University hierarchy made any move to say to the two of use while we were away from home "Would you like to go out for a drink one night." There was something about a lack of basic hospitality there. I do wonder how that pans out into their attitude to their work and their attitude to offering a service.
Paddy and I, professionals both, did our bit to support each other. But you take the point that it's not quite the same.
We both did get out a bit and I have to say that Wolverhampton itself is a reasonably pleasant place. I don't know that I'd positively want to go and live there. But I can't say that I'd chew my arm off rather than face up to the prospect.
Apart from the middle weekend detailed in the previous entry, I got back from work on the Thursday night and fell into bed with Ross. Today, Friday, he's off up to Barton for an extended weekend centring round his sister's engagement party. Her beau, Jamie, is a hunk. I met him at Christmas time. Ross and I both think we ought to invite him to London for an alternative stag weekend before the marriage.
So, one way and another, I've not seen a lot of my beautiful Rossi during the past few weeks. And, I have to say that when he's not around, I miss him loads.