Work, work, work again

More work today. My mother is visiting for a couple of days (amazingly, Aggie seems to have suddenly found some really long meetings to attend, in various parts of the country), so after dropping Mstr A off at school, we all bundled into the car & headed off to Paignton (which is laughably called the English Riviera), as I had a meeting at the school there.

Sadly, the A380 at the bottom of the M5 was closed for some unknown reason. They did put up a sign that said "Follow diversion", but then failed to put up any further diversion signs to follow! This meant that I was 30 mins late for the meeting. I did phone ahead to warn them, but it was not good as this area has been a cause of some problems in my work for, um, well, at least 20 years!

There are two very good clubs within a couple of miles of each other. Historically one was a break away from another, then there was some poaching of athletes and coaches, and generally a ongoing fight over the limited resources of the local authority, LEA & sports grants. This has ensured that not only do they refuse to talk to each other, but they actively go out of their way to cause problems for each other & happily plant complaints about the other club with every person they meet.

The sports college is really caught in the middle. they had been doing some really good work with club A when I came on the scene. i didn't want to cause any further problems, so tried to work through club A to meet with the school, but just kept getting fobbed off. apparently the school asked to meet with me a few times too, with the same result! Then club B complained that they weren't being involved in any discussions. I managed to get all three people into the same room a couple of months ago, with the result they all hate me now:-) But we do have an area wide development strategy, involving both clubs, all schools & the Local Authority. I've given up tip-toeing around the two clubs & myself & the PDM at the sports college have agreed just to get everything sorted to our own satisfaction then tell the clubs once it is a fait accompli:-)

Anyway, the meting was a success. we got much decided, & I'll write it all up & sort out the finances before leaving in a couple of weeks. My mother managed to babysit the girls well enough while I was in the meeting, then we popped off to club B to infom them of the outcome of the meeting & had a lovely late lunch in a pub on the way back.

we made it home just in time to go fetch Mstr A from school & the kids have all spent the evening playing hapily. They are all fed, bathed & ready for bed now. Aggie is still stuck on the M5 trying to get home, and I'm looking forward to a quiet evening in chatting.