Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!  As I was channel surfing this evening, I could have watched Flags of Our Fathers (followed by Letters from Iwo Jima) or Saving Private Ryan.  But nope, there was only one correct choice - Band of Brothers.  I had forgotten how good it is.  That really deserves a proper rewatch.  Another one to add to the list.  When I watch an intense show like Band of Brothers, I really feel thankful and blessed that I have never had to fight a war in my lifetime.  And I can't help but wonder what kind of soldier I might have been.  Not a good one I suspect.  I would have been more of the pencil pusher type a long way away from the action. 

End of Season

Well, a 15th place finish is extremely disappointing for Palace.  But considering the mid-season turmoil, I guess we should just be happy that we were never part of the relegation battle (even if we finished just above it).  But our season will be entirely dictated by how we do in the Conference League final on Wednesday.  A win, another trophy and qualification for Europe next season would be massive.  And perhaps we can attract a better manager.  A loss, and this season will have been a big disappointment - a failure to capitalize on last season's progress, and the loss of our manager and our best players.  And we will be serious relegation candidates next season.

Otherwise, I've found the Premier League to be a bit disappointing this season.  Disappointed that Arsenal won, and disappointed that Spurs didn't go down.  And generally I've been a lot less invested in the ups and downs of the league.  I haven't watched many games live, preferring to stick to highlights.   And this is despite going to Selhurst Park for the first time ever and catching a game in person for the first time in absolutely ages.  Perhaps I've just grown a bit tired of the sport in general.  I'm not at all excited by the upcoming World Cup, which I feel is going to drag on with slow and boring games.  I don't have any opinions on the England squad selection, because I don't really care.  And England will probably have a spectacularly underwhelming showing, which is my early World Cup prediction.  

Developments

News on the job front.  Maybe good news?  It appears that I'm not going to be laid off any time soon.  Later this year, I am going to transition to a new role - essentially working on a task force that assists on different projects as and when required.  This is what I wanted, so I should be happy.  Especially as this should give me a degree of job security I didn't have before.  But for some reason I am very apprehensive.  In light of how I am not coping particularly well when my current workload is intense, I am worried that this new role might be even more demanding and stressful.  I'm going to have a new manager (actually my current manager's manager) who I don't know well, and who doesn't know me well.  And, if I'm going to be honest, I think I wanted to be laid off (and take what should be some decent severance pay).  I'm about to turn 50 - I want to take a sabbatical, I want to enjoy my life for a bit on my own terms, and I especially could do with an extended length of time without the weight of work on my shoulders.  I have a couple of friends on both sides of the Atlantic who are between jobs, and I'm extremely jealous.  But so be it.  I'll give the new role a shot, and see how it goes.  If I don't enjoy it, then perhaps I'll just leave on my own terms rather than get laid off.  Or at least ask for a leave of absence.  But change is good, and I needed something like this to keep me going because I am not happy with my current work situation.    

British Food Section

Just in case you're interested, I took a quick photo of the British food section at the supermarket I regularly frequent.  Sorry it's not a very good photo - I took it in a rush, because I was very self-conscious of how stupid I looked taking this photo.  And as you can tell, I guess it's more of a European food section than a British food section - there is a load of stuff there that I don't recognize.

But if you look closely, you'll see digestives, wine gums, custard powder, aero chocolate bars, mustard, salad cream, hp sauce, baked beans and ribena among the offerings.  A disappointingly paltry selection - most of which I won't bother with.  And if you look even closer, you'll be shocked by how expensive all these things are. 

Disgrace

It was bad enough that Trump granted clemency to all the rioters who stormed the Capitol.  Now he's created a slush fund - funded by tax-payer money - that could hand payouts to these criminals.  It's absolutely disgusting, and an utter disgrace.  I guess I'm no longer surprised by the level of corruption and abuse of power of this administration, but the sheer scale of it is still shocking.  And it's exposed just how messed up the American political system is, when it has apparently been so easily undermined by the actions of this administration.  No wonder global perception of the US is currently at record lows.  And no wonder that I'm also questioning whether I want to continue living here.        

Frequency

It's, apparently, getting tougher and tougher for me to maintain daily entries in this blog.  I forgot to post anything yesterday.  This seems to be occurring more regularly.  Perhaps this says something about my life right now - interpret that however you want.  Perhaps this says something about my motivation to do this blog.  It is making me question whether I want to maintain a daily blog.  It might be easier if it's every other day, or weekly, or even if I just bring this blog to an end.  But, for the time being, I shall endeavor to keep doing it daily.  But be warned that the quality of my entries might not be very good.  Like this one.  

Gratitude

In the space of a few days, I've been awarded 3 of what our company calls gratitude awards from different people.  Finally some recognition, no matter how minor, of the amount of hard work I've been doing recently.  Clearly someone has said something, and surprisingly I don't think it was me, although I was definitely feeling underappreciated.  The total monetary value of these awards only comes to about $400.  So not exactly the big bonus I really deserve.  The way this thing works now is that you get awarded points, and then you go to this online store where you can spend these points.  Since the selection of gifts in this store is so poor, I just spend it on gift vouchers for myself.  In this case, I got $400 of Lego gift cards because I know I'm about to make a big purchase (the next Lord of the Rings set).