A blog by James: Gamer, Father, Geek.

So the major perk of working in a school is of course the holidays. I can’t deny it’s a great bonus. We’re about half way through now, so what have I been up to…

London

Well the first thing is the utter failure of a trip to London. We were going primarily for Hannah’s first visit to London Zoo, a place Me & Kat have been before and loved. Hannah loves animals so we were super excited about it all, which is why the whole experience was all the more bitter. The trip can be summed up thus:

• Poor service
• BUSY! RUSH! LONDON! COMMUTERS!
• Rude tourists.
• Hannah recovering from virus still.
• Grumpy Hannah.
• No cot for Hannah at the hotel.
• Most of the good animals asleep/hiding/not in at the zoo.

So basically it was a lot of money and a lot of effort all for nothing really. The one redeeming thing about the trip to the zoo was that for a few minutes when Hannah saw the tigers she lit up and was happy. Ho hum. Next time we’ll do it when she’s a bit older and we’ll do it as a day trip.

Good Friends

The best thing about the holiday so far is the thing that’s cost us the least. Kat’s parents went on holiday and as they live in a mansion (not really, but you could fit our house into their’s several times over) we decided to stay there whilst Kat’s friends Tom and Jemma visited us with their brand new baby Ellie who is 6 months old. They are the nicest people you could ever meet. Scarily so. Perhaps they secretly eat kittens or something to balance out the niceness? Who knows. Anyway Ellie and Hannah got along great and I found it really nice to be with another ‘new’ family like ours. It’s a real shame they live so far away. I have very few friends and out of those only two are guys and neither have children, it would be nice to have another dad to talk to on occasion.

Exercise! Focus!

Every new year, every holiday I tell myself I will lose weight, start exercising etc. It never happens. I managed 2 long morning walks and that was about it. It comes down to my main underlying problem, the aspect of myself that I really hate the most. I can’t focus on anything. I have a million things I think about doing and I flit between them all, never doing most and barely doing the rest. So I feel in a permanent state of cruise control, doing the same things. I like my life a lot, in fact it’s pretty much perfect. I have a stable job with prospects, a lovely wife, perfect child and overall a cushy lifestyle. But there’s nothing I ever get my teeth into. The closest I get is when my assignment deadlines are only days away and I have no other choice. In those moments I excel, it has always been the way I do work and 99% of the time it works out fine.

So what to do? My brain tends to flick between these options:

• Turn the garden into a paradise
• Learn to play the piano
• Get super fit
• Make a game
• Learn things that will make me a good teacher

When I pick an option my mind tends to go into overdrive with ideas and enthusiasm. The problem being it all vanishes after a night’s sleep. So either I need to stop sleeping, or perhaps set a more low-key plan for one of those goals. Merely writing this is just another example of me just talking the talk, pretending I’ll do one of them when my usual laziness will override any such instincts.

Or will it?

(Answer: Yes)

On a positive note…

I do at least have one thing that I always try my best at and that is being a father to Hannah. Every day I make sure I have fun with her, protect her, teach her and show my love for her. I think this is where my laziness is an asset. It’s just so easy to love her. It happens without trying, it’s effortless. With that the playing, protecting and teaching happens on it’s own. In fact you can’t have one without the others.

All a bit soppy I know but she’s magic personified and I felt like writing about it. On that note I have the rest of my summer holidays to be getting on with, so shoo! Off you go!