Mid term blues ....

It is a funny thing with these championships, but around this time you tend to get the mid-term blues. It isn't helped by the fact the often – as in this case – the offices are windowless, so we get no sunshine, no daylight. Living in an hotel is just hard work – however comfortable the room, the pillows are not your own, the sounds around you are different. In this case there is the constant hum of the air conditioning (very necessary, believe me!), and you just don't sleep very well.

The days are long – I am generally in the office by about 8 or 8.30, finishing around 7.30 or 8 in the evening, sometimes a bit earlier but not a lot. So that in itself is tiring.

Here there is no chance of going out for a breath of fresh air – it is hot and sticky outside, not fresh at all, and the pollution is … well, let's just say that fresh it isn't ! And I am a country girl at heart – I am lucky enough to live in the country in England, in a village, but behind the station (I live in a Railway Station in case you didn't know!) there are trees and the river and lovely wildlife and I am missing it dreadfully ! It isn't helped by Mark not being here with me, by knowing that my daughter Vick is going to be at home packing up the Children in Need material and I am not there to help and – most difficult of all in many ways – knowing that my younger daughter, Catherine is about to leave for a year to travel through South America, New Zealand and South East Asia with "her" Mark (all these Mark's get very confusing). So … mid term blues! And in the words of the song … "I wanna go home" !!

Anyway, today is a "Transnational" day, when the teams who have not qualified will make themselves into new teams to play in the new event, and will come to register ready to start play tomorrow, so it is busy busy busy and the office will be buzzing all day – which is why I am actually writing this first thing, although I won't post it until the end of the day in case there is any extra news.

And there isn't much really ! The quarter finals are under way and, as I guessed, the transnationals have kept me very busy – I have been preparing invoices, checking the numbers of teams and the names and things, and Christine has been dealing with the finances.

And the day has run away with me as usual, and it is time for me to close down and go and find some dinner … then to bed and back to the fray tomorrow ! Hopefully the blues will start to turn rosy pink as we get closer to the end :-)