Tonight I write this blog from my room in south east Coventry as I go through the last week of three of my leadership course. A comfortable room with power shower, TV and Internet connection, the view is less satisfactory as it overlooks a caravan storage park. Small cheese, I never look out of the window. It's not home from home, but it's good for four nights.
Tonight however, for a break I went to the pictures at the Showcase in Coventry to see Paul starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and an Alien called 'Paul'. This is a fun road movie with two nerdy Englishmen who are on an alien trail across south of the USA. A car crash one night unites them with the said alien who happened to be driving a car (badly) whilst escaping from 60 years of incarceration by the American authorities. No spoilers here, but once over the shock of meeting Paul they embark on a chase across the countryside coming across ridiculous and hilarious situations.
There is excellent support from Seth Rogen as the voice of Paul, Kirsten Wiig, Jason Bateman and a cameo from Sigourney Weaver. The film should be enjoyed for what it is, fun, daft comedy, good script, juvenile humour and LOTS of swearing. The film will never win an Oscar but it's good value light entertainment with excellent CGI. Recommended.
Back to the course. The day started with meeting some new people and being reunited with some familiar faces. This is a week which brings together everything that we've learned in the previous two weekly modules. This week will finish with a 'hydra' exercise. This is a live exercise which last two days where a team of four will act as a senior management team dealing with a critical incident (a serious reputation damaging incident) hoping to bring it to a successful conclusion using all the skills and abilities at our disposal. Theory into action.
We worked on 'command and control' issues today and how to construct strategic plans. We did an exercise on negotiation and tomorrow we'll look at risk and a bit of historical context.
Well, it's late and I've got an hours work before turning in.
Chat soon
Ta-ra.
All the turkey has gone, the last of which we had with a salad (the first of LOTS of salads) but there are still chocolates, nuts and savouries left to nibble on. Still, there are some consolations to being stuffed through food, England are stuffing Australia in the fourth Ashes test in Melbourne. I’ve been staying up until the early hours watching play until lunch time.
It’s time to be a little more profound. There’s a vexed question that’s been baffling mankind for centuries: Are zebra’s white horses with black stripes or black horses with white stripes?
Well, scientists have apparently come up with the answer. New evidence suggests now that the animals are in fact black with white stripes. I just thought you ought to know. Zebra is a translation of ‘wild ass,’ and exclusively an African animal, there are many varieties apparently.
Less profound is the weather which reached the dizzying heights of plus two degrees today with some light wet snow and sleet which means, thankfully, the snow is on its way out, no doubt for the time being at least.
However the eastern seaboard of the USA has now had their dumping of snow causing travel chaos and disappointing retailers who may well miss out on important post Christmas sales. Even southern states of Georgia and South Carolina have been affected with their first white Christmas in over 100 years. With winds reported up to 62 miles per hour, blizzards have brought misery to many.
Still at least there’s a happy ending for Moroccan born grandfather Mohammed Bellazrak who got lost in the snow in Wiltshire (UK) after dropping his wife off at an airport. He was eventually stopped by police in Oxfordshire after going missing for three days when his registration plate was recognised by cameras. According to the BBC News Online service, “Analysis from number-plate recognition systems showed he had driven around various towns in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire and on the M4.
“Mr Bellazrak had no mobile phone with him, and he told newspaper reporters that his sat-nav was not working.” Lucky man, he’s none the worse for his ordeal.
I don’t normally watch much television, but with not a lot else to do and being so cold and icy out, I’ve managed a few hours in front of the box. Television hasn’t been too bad, some reasonable choice if you have satellite, but no real highlights for me. I got three books for Christmas, Simon Pegg’s autobiography ‘Nerd do Well’, Michael Caine’s autobiography ‘The Elephant to Hollywood’ and Tim Vines ‘The Biggest Ever’ joke book.
I’ve enjoyed sitting this afternoon just reading Pegg’s book which is both entertaining and a testament to his memory of his very formative childhood. This sci-fi nut tells a very interesting story although sometimes you feel he’s a bit over analytical about what has influenced his career as an entertainer.
One more day off tomorrow (Tuesday) before a short three day return to work. I hope you’ve had a good holiday so far if you have been fortunate enough to have it away from work.
Chat soon
Ta-ra
Tonight I write this blog from my room in south east Coventry as I go through the last week of three of my leadership course. A comfortable room with power shower, TV and Internet connection, the view is less satisfactory as it overlooks a caravan storage park. Small cheese, I never look out of the window. It's not home from home, but it's good for four nights.
