Tony Blair's last day as PM

Today is Tony Blair's last day as PM - a sad day in many ways, and it has to be seen whether his successor can cope with the increased work load. Previously he only had to deal with 2 or 3 big events a year - now he will have 10 events to deal with every morning and be able to build coalitions of support.

Countries Visited - and a few to come

Will be visiting Morocco in late August, but have already checked the box in case I forget.

S and I will be visiting Hong Kong, New Zealand and LA next year for our Honey Moon. Can't wait.

Private Office Washup

It is now four days since I worked in the Home Secretary's Private Office.

I really enjoyed my three days covering there, but it was tough. The first day saw me feeling as if I was drowning, but by the end of the week I had begun to feel like I was getting a grip on some of the work.

The work left me mentally exhausted due to the need to keep up to date with every email and the contents of all documents going across my desk. But I got to feel as if I was making a small difference, and would be happy to work in PO again.

This week sees me on a training course, which is mentally taxing as it is covering Parliamentary and European workings, but it is at the National School of Government as there is, therefore, a lot of food.

Private Office introduction

I had my PO introduction today, and I know what I have to do for the rest of the week. Am pumped up for it, but also a little nervous. This is the big stage with the big boys, but it is what I want to do and why I went for the fast stream so bring it on.

Now a man can't work without food, so I am off round to my neighbours D & K for roast lamb. Yums.

May and June goings on

It has been a while, and I realise that I have given the impression of abandoning my blog and its readers. This is not the case, so The Committee for Updates, News, and Theoretical Summaries need not worry.

Mum and Dad have now moved into a rented flat and had the house valued by the estate agent over the weekend. They were pleasantly surprised with the valuation and the agent took 3 people by to see the house today. In one way it feels a little strange to sell what was the family home, but home is where the people are, and I have lived in 7 family homes given how often we moved when I was younger so it is not as if I spent 25 years in one house. The rental flat is nice, and all being well Mum and Dad will have been able to buy their new home within the next 6 months. Mum is certainly looking happier now that everything is on one floor.

Wedding planning progresses, with the usual negotiations with family with regard to the invitation list. My parents are cool, but S's father wants to invite more people than his allowance. Tact and negotiation will be needed. Apart from that we have booked our meeting with the Chief Rabbi's office. Not quite sure what the point of this is, but they want to make sure we are kosher and take some money from us for the privilege. I don't begrudge them making sure everything is above board, but some of this takes the mickey.

S's father and step mother took us both to Budapest over the bank holiday weekend at the end of May and we had a great time. Budapest is an interesting city, and certainly the men and women there like to show off. It is certainly a city in which people watching is a big thing. Like else where in Eastern Europe there are street walkers outside the luxury hotels, and on the Saturday evening S's father was propositioned by two of them!



Whilst in Hungary we took S's father and step-mother out for dinner at the best restaurant in town - Gundels. My five course meal was topped out by a three tokai desert which saw three different tokais matched with three different chocolate truffles. It reminded me somewhat of the three kings desert S had at the Oxo Tower when Mr P so kindly took us out for dinner earlier in the year. Gundels has a dress code that all men must wear a jacket to enter the dinning room for the first time. Once seated one is free to take it off, and then not bother putting it back on again. So I was given a jacket three sizes too big which made me look like a 500ilb guerrilla! Next time I will take my own jacket.

S was shaking of a cold so we didn't get to go to a club, but when we go back we are determined to check out the club Bed - http://bedbeach.hu/ - as talking to some of S's friends who went last year it is one of the coolest clubs around.

Since getting back from Budapest I have been busy at work, as there are finally several things for me to do at any one time rather than one thing after another with large gaps in between.

Apart from all this I have found some time to socialize and go to the cinema. S and I saw Zodiac a couple of weekends back which is about the Zodiac killer that terrorised California in the 1970s. A good film with some fine performances, but like a lot of films it was 30 mins too long. We were back at the Clifton Hotel - http://www.capitalpubcompany2.com/clifton.htm - last weekend for E & A's engagement and leaving party. We couldn't quite believe how 2007 is zipping by as it was February that we had our engagement party there and we are now half way through June! E & A leave for the US and Philadelphia in July, as E is going to Wharton for an MBA.

Work this week is set to get a whole lot more interesting as I will be covering for one of the private secretaries in the Home Secretary's office. This is what I put myself through the fast stream assessment centres for!

I will post more at the weekend to update you all on how the three days in Private Office were.