Monday, 19 March 2007

I began the week at the Quality Hotel in Hatfield, attending an introduction to the NVQ level 4 that all our Connexions Personal Advisors have to take. It was a good introduction and I was pleased that Farzana and Saud seemed to take everything in their stride. I am to be an “expert witness” within the evidence base that Farzana and Saud will collate for their assessments.

The meeting finished at 12:00 and I hurried straight on to Watford. After dealing with a few domestic matters, I met with Sarah Pinnock to prepare for Wednesday’s meeting with senior WBC figures: Mayor Dorothy Thornhill, Cllr Shirena Counter (portfolio holder for Leisure and Community), Cate Hall (Corporate Director), and Sarah herself.

Later in the day, I spoke with Steph about Tuesday’s HIC meeting, before reading a very useful handbook "Capacity Checking Framework" produced by the South London CVS partnership.

I left work about 6:30 pm and arrived home to a lovely dinner, after which we all settled down to watch the mighty Spurs take on the Chelsea minnows in the FA Cup quarter-final replay. Spurs didn’t play well. I suppose if Spurs are going to lose a game, it ought to be to goals like those scored by Shevchenko and Wright-Phillips, both beautiful.

To console myself, I began reading Pretty girl in scarlet rose (8) by Sandy Balfour, a personal memoir charting his life and his growing passion for cryptic crosswords. All very good. Sadly for me, by the close of chapter three he makes it clear that he is an avid Arsenal supporter. Is there no respite on this gloomy night?