Scarman merging November 07

It feels like it has been a cerebrally busy month. Scarman are merging as we speak with Novas, a social housing organisation which works with marginalised groups and has a focus on urban contemporary centres, www.novas.org The whole process has been so fast with minimal due diligence where you are supposed to check out each other’s culture and way of working are compatible. We are all nominally getting transferred into the new ‘merged’ group, but I seriously wonder how long we will be allowed to stay. Nobody knows what will happen. The only good thing is that eastern region have a healthy balance sheet for next year so I am hoping that M, G and I will keep our jobs at least in the mid-term. There have been some salutary and insightful meetings where the interests of a select few reign over the lesser masses. It leaves you feeling a bit numb and overwhelmed, probably because it is something we have no control over.

There is nothing especially new to report at EC1.

J2 has got stuck into his reffing. His third game was a torrid affair with Mums and Dads giving him gross abuse from the side-lines. He was tearful, but has gone back and actively seeks feedback from his referee mentors. I am very proud of him and I can also see how it is helping him to increase his self-esteem. After all, as he tells me, referees are quite powerful figures and can stop games and he is earning not insubstantial amounts of dosh doing it.

A* is enjoying her job, but finding getting to grips with financial realities daunting. I think they are quite a youthful, cosmopolitan crowd and that suits her. All her closest friends have returned to Luton and her social life seems quite good.

J1 will know within a month if he has his green beret. He is at camp every other week-end and I get a blow by blow account of exactly where he is in the pecking hierarchy after each new gruelling test – running until you are dribbling, standing round soaking wet and shivering for hours with no sleep – and then, OMG! He said to me on Monday – what am I going to do afterwards for my next challenge? The suggestion that he now focused on getting his degree next June was not what he had in mind!

Interestingly, they found a finger print on his wages envelope and are now in a position to prosecute the guy who stole from him in the summer.

I’ve got an India contact for Can Do Freedom Travel which is quite exciting. The reason it is so exciting is that this guy lectures internationally on community development and wants to bring people to his centres in India to give them a real insight into communities there and train facilitators. This is the next step up from us looking for projects because it is other credible figures seeing the rationale behind the social enterprise idea and supporting it. We are looking for ten people interested in a test tour in October. The website should be live by Christmas at the latest. It has taken a long time, but I am hoping the delay is a good thing because we keep refining how it looks and how it will work. However, my middle brother, who is a bit of an IT guru, now tells me that websites will fast become a thing of the past and business will be done through social networking sites akin to My Space.

We are taking both sets of children to the musical, ‘Lord of the Rings’ in London this week-end as birthday treats, but otherwise our social life is pretty muted and uncostly. When I’m not wiped out with work, both paid and domestic, I am plotting how we can afford future adventures!