Oh Blog it!

There is just never the time, what with Christmas letters and cards to write, presents to buy and inter nicene war declared amongst my staff. Really they are not that bad and they are all there for the right reason - service users not money - but they just don't seem to be able to get on together. The season of goodwill has certainly passed some of them by. As for the Board, they have definitely gone AWOL for me. Not an important meeting on Friday you might think, only the annual accounts to sign off before the Charity Commission deadline (I'm not going to prison for them), the strategic plan to finalise, job descriptions for three new posts (well old posts recycled but substantially changed), and those that bother to come turn up an hour late and "have to leave early". Not quite "the dog ate my homework sir" excuses but not far off really. Further embarrassment to follow. We had been invited to Christmas lunch with the service users which last year was a hectic buffet, so I packed off the trustees, finished a bit of paperwork visited the other projects and arrived around 2.00 (for a 12.30 invitation) expecting maybe a chicken leg and a bit of christmas pudding just to show willing. Have you ever sat on your own eating a full turkey dinner with trimmings and christmas pud to follow watched by 30 people who all wanted to know why you were late? I could have tried blaming the A10 on which I seem to have spent more time sitting than at my desk in the last few weeks. Actually Christmas is a very interesting time of year when your staff range from devout Catholic to strict Moslem with all sorts of variations in between. It is a good opportunity to remind yourself of what Christmas is all about, not the credit crunch blighted commercial fest that it has become. Santa went sick at the service user dinner but fortunately I was not called upon to reprise my role of last year but I still take a professional interest in the grottos that are brought to my attention. This year the Round Table did not live up to expectations. Their motorised sleigh complete with elves in pinstripe suits and anoraks did not even have a santa, just an empty throne which I think summed up the 21st century Christmas more eloquently than I can. Lots of things I could go on about over the last few weeks but before the Grinch finally gets to me I will sign off and take myself to our morning carol service where I hope my spirits will be lifted in more ways than one. If I don't blog again before 25th then may I wish all my readers (now there's optimistic - hello happy READER) a merry Christmas and a blessed new year
with love from Santa