Tough Week

It's been a very tough week. I notified my UK squints that we were closing the UK offices and that our work together as a team would soon be over. It's particularly hard as they are excellent engineers and while I understand the corporate strategy, I still struggle with the human (and material) cost. I have no idea what this means for bwo and I. I suppose it will be back to Israel sometime in the nearish future, but when is not clear at this point. I would like to spend more time in the UK as I really like it here. The weather agrees with me and it's heaven for the dog (walking the dog is where I seem to spend a lot of my free time). But I will first get my team organized before I can think about my future.

All in all I cannot complain. It has been a marvelous three years here and I have learned and grown. I don't know of many other companies that would have supported me as well during this relocation. I can really only blame myself at this point for lack of future clarity. Over the years I have moved away from the hands on technical work that is indispensable and become just another management drone. While I have been writing a lot of code for the archaeological season and have worked out how to get some of the data accessible from the cloud, programming has become a hobby. Still, it has been fun and challenging. So finding the kind of job I dream about could be hard.

One of my first thoughts when all this became clear was that everything would fall slap bang in the middle of the Megiddo dig, as it indeed seems it will. The UK has some strict laws governing site closures and we will undergo an extended period of consultation only after which the team will be let go. Seeing as I belong to a different geo, my story is way more complex, and is completely unclear at the moment.

All in all, it sucks and I have had trouble staying focused this week. I'm not the only one. At least the typical post apocalyptic black humor is always better in an English accent. 

May Bank Holiday

It's a "Bank Holiday" weekend, an English public holiday, so we have Monday off. Bwo is still in San Diego bonding with her family, so I have been out walking. Yesterday (Sat) I did the "Epsom Downs and Walton on the Hill" walk on ifootpath. It was wonderful. We watched race horses galloping by in training and came across foxes, rabbits, squirrels, deer and all sorts of birds on the footpaths. It was pretty cold early in the morning with some frost, but Roxy and all the wildlife seem to love it. The only downside was that dogs must be kept on a lead before 12 noon due to the horses. The walk took us past Walton on the Hill and this is where I want to live, I think. It's lovely little town surrounded by open fields and rolling hills.

This morning Roxy and I walked down to Richmond Park and Isabella Plantation. The flowers are not in full bloom yet, perhaps another week, but it is still very colorful. We were the only two there at 7am this morning, so it was absolutely quiet with only the sound of the birds. We sat for about a half hour by the little lake just breathing. Spring is really something in this country.