Thinly Spread...

It hit me tonight, for the first time really, just how thinly spread I've become.

I long to be the perfect man, but maybe haven't realised just how much that entails until tonight. Don't get me wrong, I will strive to be this guy until my last breath... it's just exhausting!

I am currently trying to be the perfect husband, the perfect daddy, the perfect worker, studier, small group leader, worship team member to name a few things. This coming week could potentially be the most exhausting ever. We are getting closer to moving day (next Saturday) which is an emotional roller coaster in itself. I then have a large project at work being handed in on Friday and am trying to keep my head above water. On top of that I have my first University coursework hand-in on Wednesday, as well as my first examination in Construction Law.

My thought right now is bring on next week, when all of the above craziness will be over, only to be replaced by a whole lot more stuff, I'm sure.

Cam Your Bodia...

Yes, this blog title has been stolen from my wife. Yes, it is hilarious and should indeed be the title of the Meseg-Smith blog about Cambodia for the next two months. And yes, I have completed Paris Hiltons Diamond Quest on my phone. Twice.

All burning questions of yours, I’m sure.

Today is the day that I’m finally rid of my in-way-over-my-head tender… and I have spent the afternoon reorganising my desk after what looked like a paper explosion (and those that know me are aware that that’s a) something I don’t usually put up with and b) is hard to admit) and sorting out my college files. So, I thought now that is done and there is half an hour left of my working week, I’d let the world know of my recent adventures!!!

Weddings

Last weekend Liz and I were heavily involved maybe the most disorganised and hectic wedding that I’ve ever been a part of- I was an usher/groomsman and Liz was the hottie whom everyone looked out for- and I LOVED it. Dan and Anna aren’t usually this disorganised, but Anna, bless her, was told on the Wednesday before her wedding day that she was to have an interview for a job on Friday morning, 24 hours before her wedding day!!!


To tell you the truth, I love rolling up my sleeves and getting involved in serving good friends, God and the local church, whether it be a house move or helping set out desks after our church service. It’s one of my favourites. And it was a real honour to be able to bless such brilliant friends on their wedding day and ensure they had a mostly stress free and relaxing day.

Houses

Liz and I are moving!!! To those of you we are close with and know and love- we’ll send you our new address via email! However, moving is stressful. It means a major upheaval of pretty much everything that’s familiar. It means sifting through box after box that is stowed in the attic and being ruthless with what we need to keep! It’s an exhausting process.

God has been blessing us immensely through this. Having just signed on the dotted line and put in our notice at our current place it dawned on us… poop, we don’t have anything we need for an unfurnished house!!! We drew up a list of all the things we absolutely needed to live and I emailed the McCullough’s (a family in our church who are moving to start a new church in Istanbul) and asked if there was anything they could lend us/ give us. Andy sent a swift email back offering every single item that was on our list, no less, and a little bit more (namely a pair of y-fronts). Brilliant.

Food

A link was sent to me last week- THIS is my kind of meal…

You've GOT To Be Kidding Me...

...This is a phrase is reserve for one of those times when the truth just seems bizarre, and one of those times was today.

At work I have been busting my gut to get a particular project done in time (Names and companies have been removed). It is the life of an Estimator, you have deadline and whether it’s finished or not, you have to give a final price.

Due to various unforeseen reason, I was recently give a project, approx. value of £1 million to price, and was only given 2 and a half weeks to price it (I should have had 5-6 weeks!)- a near impossible task for a trained Estimator, let alone a trainee! We decided to endeavor and do our best, but with one week until deadline and barely any of the job priced, we bit the bullet and asked for an extension of time. We/ I was shot down and given a firm no. A few days is all I needed.

Now, coming up to a week after I submitted the price, I called the Project Manager to see if our bid (we were bidding against 5 other Contractors) was successful/ in the ball park/ being looked at seriously and to my, probably obvious anger, was told that they hadn’t opened the envelopes yet. My stunned silence provoked him to carry on explaining… and he explained very elegantly that a couple of members on the Clients’ board of directors are on holiday and that they can’t be opened until their return… in another one and a half weeks!!!

You’ve GOT to be kidding me!

Stiff Bored....

It’s one of those days in the office where I don’t really have anything to do just yet- and have nothing “outside of work” that needs doing. I’ve read up on all of the sports I could possibly do, while doing a task for a colleague that took about 3 minutes to complete, and everything else that I want to do just isn’t that subtle!

I don’t mind it that much, as Chris and Sarah are both stuck on £20 millionish jobs and are in meetings all the time, and Dan has so little to do himself that he doesn’t really want to give me anything that might mean he’s bored stiff later on. The problem comes in that on days like this, I get more drained than if I’m facing a totally jam packed day. I leave feeling totally drained as opposed to totally pumped if I were hard at work all day! More than that… it means I can’t go home and moan about being tired from doing nothing while my wife has been working hard all day. Conundrum!

Things I’m doing to past the time:
· A pretty lame blog
· Toilet breaks
· Reading up on how Spurs smashed ‘Boro 4-0 last night
· Looking on the Apple website for the genius bar
· Helping my Elizabeth with Word issues
· Trying to look busy by first typing this in an email on Outlook
· Drinking Ice Tea
· Looking forward to dinner
· Thinking about how much butt I will be kicking on Jumpers for Goalposts 2 in an hour

Man of man, my wife is going to have some fun hearing about my day over dinner!!

Obsessions Part 2- Jumpers…

Obsession 2, the one that I actively seek out, makes my lunchtimes fly by. It’s called jumpers for goalposts 2. It’s a game about soccer. It’s amazing.

The name springs from the fact that soccer can be played anywhere, as long as you have a football, 2 jumpers, or sweaters, can be laid down to make a goal and bob’s your uncle. You start off playing in your back garden and have to do a few shooting challenges, this then progresses to playing in a youth team and then being signed by a professional outfit. You score goals; you get girlfriends, buy houses and cars, and then gamble all of your wages to get that little bit further in life.

I spend my lunchtimes playing this with my cup-a-soup and rice cakes… and I’m getting pretty good. This last lunchtime I finished top of league 2…..




And then my team could not afford to keep me, so I was relegated back down to a team back in the same league…



All that hard labour for nothing (I hope the pictures aren’t too blurry).

At least lunchtimes will never be the same again!

Work is Hard...

Things achieved this week that I didn't expect:

1. Making my very first elastic band ball
2. Squeezing my rubber desk "stress duck" to build up forearm mass
3. Spend the first night without my wife since we've been married doing pilates and sewing

Being a working man can really take it's toll sometimes. Just to prove I do actually work, I spent a lot of today getting stressed at a subcontractor because he counted the wrong amount of windows.