As Autumn Leaves Turn To Gold.....

I think I have mentioned before in these pages how I love autumn as a season.

As the air gets colder the days get shorter and the leaves turn to gold I start to feel cosy and warm. I think it might be part of the process of getting older, but as one does so I feel that one wants what is familiar around one.

I spent Monday of this week up at my Mother’s. She is much better now and has regained much of her bloom and wit.

Her house is now virtually a nest. Chairs filled with familiar objects, old pieces of paper that “she might need’ and a resistance to change that is almost palpable. It would be so much easier for her to have a microwave for her meal preparation, but this is something she has stoutly resisted for over twenty years, and now at the ripe old age of nearly 89 I stand very little chance of persuading her to have one.

Anything new has to be introduced with the greatest of care. I managed to get her to use a new and more secure walking stick while she was ill, but I took the precaution of buying it with a guarantee from the Mobility shop that it could be returned in the case of parental opposition.

I like to think that I’m still up for adventure, for change and for innovation, but I think the truth might be somewhat different.

I’ve recently been in discussion about the possibility of doing a weeks training for a law firm in Lagos. The managing partner came over to England in February and I did a couple of sessions with him on presentation technique. They were a great success, and he was keen that other partners in his firm should be able to get the same training. So Jack Downton of The Influence Business, a company I work for on a regular basis, has been negotiating for a visit to Lagos for the two of us to do a weeks training. I think it’s been quite hard work. The Africans have negotiated hard. Having agreed a price and a date of a week in mid-November, they suddenly realised that that week contained two Nigerian bank holidays and they needed to move the training back. This means it will now move to sometime in January and of course it’s given me pause for thought.

The visit will involve a cholera jab and taking malaria tablets. These days getting anything done associated with foreign travel at the doctors is a nightmare. Filling out forms on the Internet, paying a fee–another NHS stealth payment, and then trying to get an appointment at a time that doesn’t interrupt work. All that and the prospect of becoming the next Cheryl Cole fills me with trepidation before I even begin to log on and read about the practicalities of travelling to Nigeria

The Foreign office website which offers advice to travellers isn’t keen on British people going to Nigeria. Or certainly not to certain areas on it. I’m not keen on going to do a weeks hard work somewhere where I don’t feel safe. Part of the joy of being away is the luxury of being able to spend the time in a hotel room ordering room service, or having a wander around the streets of foreign city while not having the feel of being a tourist. As far as I understand it, a wander around the streets of Lagos is the last thing one should be doing. We’ve been told we will be given a chauffeur driven car and driver at our disposal of the week, but this doesn’t disperse my worries.

I’d be very happy to go and do this job if Richard were coming along with me. Then I’d feel safe if, comfortable, and happy to try the adventures I’m sure such a trip would bring.

But without him the prospect of such a visit doesn’t hold much excitement for me. Indeed on a day of role-play on Thursday with my very good friends Debi and Fran, we were talking about this very subject in the lift at the CPS. A woman who was in the lift suddenly turned to us and said “Nigeria. Don’t go there. I come from there and I wouldn’t recommend anybody to visit the place!”

So it’s all still up in the air.

Another opportunity presented itself this week which would involve working in far more familiar surroundings, and if it came off, would mean that I wouldn’t be available for any work in January–and certainly not a trip to Lagos. Actors superstition means I can’t actually mention what the possibility is, but I can only entreat all readers of my blog to keep their fingers crossed and await further announcements.

In the meantime I’m going to head towards my Sunday afternoon bath, another couple of chapters of the latest Val McDermid whodunnit, and a cup of tea and custard tart!