A leaf in a bunch of roses...

End of first week's work and its all looking like the finest garden imaginable. There's much to be done every day, and given my surroundings, it's not a toil at all. The entire office - from first floor to the top of the building - is staffed entirely by women, and I love every minute of it, being the only one of the male gender in the place! Its wonderful, but then I always did prefer being around women. I'm not going to name the company, such is my way, neither am I going to name the staff around me, as they wouldn't like that, but it's all good.

I'm working for an independent fostering agency in Ealing, still quite small and finding its feet - although it is part of a wider, national organisation - so there's still a lot of new systems to devise and set up, plus adapting other ones to suit my style of working. Throw into this the task of organising fostering panel meetings, chasing paperwork from local authorities, arranging forms for applicants and so on, there's plenty to do. In what spare time I have, I've been making contacts within the other regional offices, to make life a little easier in the long term. As I have no experience of the fostering sector, I also have to try and pick up the terms and expressions, their meanings, their implications and so on. Its not something I would have seen myself doing, but its now a position I feel capable of fulfilling. 5 years ago, I would have not thought that, but being more mature and somewhat more organised, I feel like I can do this and do it well. Of course the surroundings make a difference as well...!