I’ve been very busy lately and I haven’t been updating my blog as I should – fortunately I’ve had a couple of able deputies keeping things moving.
George and Ned started on a week’s work experience last Monday, and it was great to have them around. Betfair is an interesting place to be – the atmosphere is easy going and cheerful but there’s always a lot going on. I think the boys had a good time and I hope they learnt from it – I’m grateful to them for keeping my blog fresh.
One of the things that has been keeping me busy is my plan to move to a farm. I’ve had an offer accepted on an old and rather beautiful farm not far from where I’m living at the moment – it has a fair bit of land which I can use as pasture to keep horses on (and possibly breed, train etc.). It’s a big and rather bold move, and possibly one that I’m not quite ready for yet, but these places don’t come up very often so we decided to go for it now.
I had a busy day on Wednesday, which ended with the Betfair Summer party. A lot of effort goes into our summer and Christmas parties and the team did their normal excellent job – the weather didn’t help but it was a good evening nevertheless. Thursday was a board meeting – perhaps next year we should have the Summer party after the board meeting and not before as a few of us were looking a little jaded. I enjoy board meetings – I like to get stuck in to the debate.
Friday was my wife’s birthday, and we went to Wimbledon for the day as is our tradition. They are in the middle of a big redevelopment – Centre Court is missing it’s roof and a new roof will be there for next year. When we had lunch the service was completely shambolic and it took ages to get served. I put it down to poor planning, which was disappointing given that they only have to be up and running for 2 weeks out of 52. The tennis was excellent though, and there was very little rain. Federer was brilliant – I don’t really see how anyone can beat him unless a wheel comes off somewhere.
The weekend was mostly spent with my children. I spend so much time with them it makes me wonder where the time came from and what I was doing with it before they came along. Thinking back I had all sorts of hobbies and pastimes that I just don’t do any more – it’s all work and family now, with just enough time to follow the horses and do my blog.
We got a letter this morning that had been delivered to the wrong address. Nothing strange in that you might think – it happens all the time. This was a good one though. I live in Cobham in Surrey. The letter was addressed to someone in a similar road to mine in Cobram, Victoria in Australia and sent from the neighbouring Australian village of Berwick. We popped it back in the post with a note scribbled on the back – when it reaches it’s destination it will have travelled the circumference of the earth and finished a few miles from where it started.