Yummy Harry Potter

So I know that a couple of my readers are Harry Potter fans. Here is Harry as you've never seen him! I'm planning to go to this play, because it has horses in it, and because Daniel Radcliffe has a beautiful body - I can definitely appreciate beauty! The play that he's in is called "Equus".

Enjoy!

Busy but good

Wow, am I ever behind in my blog! Sorry, people!

I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger with a cold! I've been working a lot of evenings and from home a lot, too. With the merger due diligence and the financing due diligence, it's been busy. Combined with the audit (and they're new auditors so they need lots of old background info), it's completely mad! And I've barely even scratched the surface of annual report and year-end reporting! Not to mention the information circular that we have to prepare with Grove to send to their shareholders and the complete reorganization of the office, filing system, etc. to accommodate the combined workforce. It makes me tired just to type it!

Having said all that, I'm loving my increased responsibilities with these projects and feeling challenged and valued. I just need to be careful not to slip into laziness (which is my natural state, after all!). I don't have much of a personal life - mostly working and eating and sleeping, but I have managed to get out a bit. Two weekends ago (I am a bad blogger!) I had the twins over for the weekend. It was great just spending time with them. We had fun. We bought two guniea pigs and called them Ant and Dec (they are presenters over here that seem to be joined at the hip!). The girls loved them, although Leanne is definitely more of an animal person than Stephanie. And I am loving them too. I had been thinking about it for about a week, so it wasn't really spur of the moment. I'll post some pictures soon.

On that Sunday, my friend Donna came from Canada. She's leaving tomorrow, so was here for 12 days. We've had a fantastic time, although she has spend most of it on her own, poor girl. She came out for the Business Travel Show (she's Travel Manager with Fluor Canada) and I went to it as well because we are travelling more and more and it's getting hard to keep up with everything. We went for drinks on Valentine's day with my friend Steve - three singles thumbing their noses at all the couples (ok, actually we sat in the corner and moaned). We also did some shopping and wandering around. She's been cleaning the flat and doing laundry and making meals too. I like having her around!! I think I need a wife! But it all comes to an end tomorrow. We're going to see Porgy and Bess tonight (Gershwin!), after I have a drinks things with Grove - sort of a get to know each other thing.

So, that's my life up to day. Fairly boring for all you sad gits out there with no life, but that's how it is sometimes. I often have no life either! Ciao for now! I have more work to do!

Merger...or takover?

I have a very good reason for not blogging lately! We've been very busy working on what is officially called a "business combination" at Stratic. But I couldn't say anything about it, so I thought it best not to blog at all!

But it's announced now, so here it is. Stratic is merging with Grove Energy, a company fairly similar to Stratic. It has assets in Italy, the Dutch North Sea, Tunisia, Romania and Albania. It's a similar size, and is listed on the TSX-Venture exchange and the Alternative Investment Market ("AIM") of the London Stock Exchange. In reality, it is more like a takeover, because we are staying as Stratic, and most of our management is staying the same. Their Chief Executive is coming over to us as Chief Operating Officer and I think we're taking on all their employees as well. And Stratic is actually buying their shares. So, it's like a very, very friendly takeover. Anyway, it's just been announced and now their shareholders have to approve the deal and we have to do the due diligence and so do they to make sure everyone is happy with everything. You can check out the press release on Stratic's website, or click here.

So, that has taken up a bit of my time lately, and is going to be taking up a lot more over the next few months, along with the annual report, and the annual general meeting and directors meetings. It is shaping up to be a busy spring!

I got a bicycle on Saturday (well, actually, I bought it the previous Sunday, but only picked it up on Saturday) and rode to Hyde Park. I'm told it's about 7 miles, mostly on streets. It was a little scary at times, and tiring, but it felt good to accomplish it. I met Shannon there and we went for breakfast and then to Kensington Palace, which is where Diana, Princess of Wales, used to live. There was a display of some of her dresses and photographs from the famous photo shoot by Mario Testino taken of her with her short fashionable hairstyle. There was also displays about court dress and how they used to have to dress to hang out with royalty. What a lot of work!! We also got to tour through Princess Margaret's apartment from when she lived there with Lord Snowdon. It was kind of cool since I don't really know that much about her. It was a great morning. Headed back to Chiswick on bike, stopped to pick up a couple of things at the market, and got home completely knackered! I knew my muscles would be sore, so I soaked in a hot bath with Dead Sea salts in it, and I had almost no muscle soreness the next day!

Sunday I had church and then went to Ann and Ron's place for dinner. They run the sound system in the church and are really warm and friendly people. Nicola came too, and a couple of other friends. It was a lovely afternoon - good food and good friends and lots of laughter.

This weekend I have the twins at my place again - I haven't seen them since before Christmas so I'm really looking forward to it! My church is having a family barn dance on Saturday night, so we're going to that, and on Saturday morning the church is doing a kids fun morning, with a bouncy castle and games and crafts and stuff. The girls will love that - especially the bouncy castle! So it should be a good weekend. We'll pick up a couple of movies and be set!

Weather is cold here now and we're supposed to get snow tomorrow. However, the daffy-dills are starting to bloom here and there, so spring is on the way! Time to start walking through St. James park again!