The last few weeks have seen some resounding results from the Ladies in my life. Or perhaps I should say my favorite Ladies.
The Gymnast. My Sister went to Durham to compete. I had the pleasure of watching her in a recent class. She seemed very confident in her work despite being about six inches shorter than everyone else in the class. This doesn’t stop her and she had been selected to partner the daughter of the couple who run the sessions. This was amusing in itself seeing as her partner is several years older so the synchronised rolls left her to shuffle a foot back.
So off they went to Durham and I received the phone call from my Sister around lunch time. “I’ve got a silver medal!” That was for the solo event so pretty impressive. That afternoon she competed with her partner and gained yet another medal.
The very next week I get another call. My Step-Dad ran a “Mini Olympics” at his school with another five school there too. It was basically a big sports day at the school but they totted up the points at the end of all of the events (egg and spoon race, sack race, jumping, etc.) and surprise, surprise, li’l Sis comes in third against seven, eight and nine year olds. As Mum keeps reminding me “you were pretty good when you were little don’t get me wrong, but she’s… she’s something special”.
The Economist. Mum studied Economics at University but gave up her work in that field when I was born. Yet every so often she talks about how she would like to get back into it somehow. In the mean time she seems to be toiling away with working for Education. I think she has enjoyed her current task. It has been a step up in management terms, really looking at long term strategy rather than implementing itself. Running the show has been pretty good for her though I think there was a little shell shock coming from her last job where everyone was cherry picked, into a team already established.
Now however she has got a job with the not-for-profit organisation PFEG (Personal Finance Education Group). In all honesty the job description described her absolutely spot on. After an intial phone interview then, imagine how surprised she was not to get an interview! No matter they were quick to realise their mistake and phoned back to apologise. A quick trip to London and before she was even on the return journey the offer was made!
The Athlete. My girlfriend has been searching around for a PhD for a while. She applied to several top Universities but the first couple didn’t go her way. Feedback was irritatingly that she has everything it takes just someone else had more. What can you do?
But on the same day as my mum went for her interview to London, my other favourite lady was heading through London to the University of Greenwich where she showed what she was made of and got the job! I don’t know how much she believes it but I think this could well have been the best University for her. Her first choice of Loughborough I think would have been tough. Having already spent four years here I think she needed a change of scenery and at the time she was going for it for the wrong reasons – mainly money and the fact it was a good whack more funding than Birmingham. She will now be heading to a much smaller Department where she can really shine and I hope it will be a much tighter knit community than the Beast that Loughborough Sports Science is.
All in all a pretty hot month for all my girls. Long may that continue. Congratulations!
