... The Fabulous Free 50th Feast

This Thursday past was Sandringham Library's 50th birthday and it had it's birthday party in the evening.

At first I thought there may have been some sort of conspiracy to keep me away from the food as I was in meetings at Brighton all morning and then there was a mix-up that had me hanging around waiting to make Beeby into "my young apprentice" - in the work sense since he's already well down the freeloading road all on his own.


Eventually I made it to Sandy but all the anxiety about missing out on the free feed led me to almost overdo the pre-feast eating - the nibbling and scrounging from the preparation table covered with the magnificent cake-work of Days of our Libraries and Country Girl, not to mention the many horses doovers and the dippyness of Mr Prada.
So heres another caution: pace yourself on a feast day as there's nothing worse than a wasted free dinner.

Luckily my years of training and robust constitution led to a quick recovery from that horrific "I ate too quickly and there's still so much more to eat" feeling and I was able to consume with the best of them by the time the main event rolled around - it will take the knuckle bruising from repeated "you can't eat that yet" rapping a bit longer to heal though.

The opening speech was given by Supervisor Grand Chief K with no sign of Torchwood. I can only hope that this means that SGCK has had the Torchwood problem taken care of permanently.

Other highlights include:

• a lot of mingling with the ghosts of Sandringham librarianship past
• Kiwichick, Days and The Pragmatist sporting wonderful 50's fashion
• the return of Chanlib and Vikki;
• a dozen library staff behind the desk when borrowers came up to be served;
  

My suspicion about a food deprivation conspirary deepened at the end of the night when the leftovers were quickly hustled out the door to go to the other branches rather than stay at the one I'd be at the next day.

... the Week of Free Lunches

What a long and busy week it's been.

I've spent most of it Training up on the new Library Management Software at our suppliers HQ in the city. Four days of catered lunches and far too many lollies from the bowls on each table! Supervisor S was with me all week and we had guest appearances from Mr Prada, Sonja Roster Queen, Miss Amanda, Genealogy Jane, chanlib, Vikki, Sister Serials, Ms Magpie, Devil's Advocate and a few others.

At the same time I was dealing with settlement on the current house and pre-settlement non-disclosure of upcoming costs on the new flat. It's going to be such a holiday when the property stuff is over and I can relax with the major system upgrade at work.

Thursday night's soccer was a wonderful flashback to my childhood career as the heavens opened up and we were lashed with rain for about half of the game.

The final day of training was topped of with a night of farewell drinks for Jemima from the IT Helpdesk. CC was there as was The Polster and another Canadian CC acquaintance with a J name, coincidentally drinking CC (Canadian Club). Many xx and cokes were consumed but I made it home fine and the ice in the drinks kept my hydration levels at a safe level.

In four days of Train Travel I managed to be affected by a Connex Train delay every day - the worst was 35 minutes sitting at one station on my way in to drinks last night.