Afternoon all

a little rant from Sunday, when I went sailing and got burned.

I usually pride myself on my timekeeping; if I can arrive "on the dot" when I planned then I feel a thorough sense of satisfaction that is difficult to explain without bringing down a Dunc-fuelled tirade.

Being on time is not the same as being early. Anyone can be early (or late) but being on time requires some careful planning, more so if the route to the venue is multistaged or in some other way circuitous and so requires the inclusion of enough float (technical term for spare time) in the plan to absorb eventualities. Too much float is as wrong as not enough, hence being early as wrong as being late. Things will always find a way of going wrong, any plan will require on-the-fly revision to ensure maintenance of sufficient progress towards the ultimate goal, achieving planned milestones along the way. In the end you either make it or you don't & will be judged accordingly. There are no really excusable reasons (& so no excuses) for failure, only lessons to take forward in order to avoid recurrent failure.

Boy do I drone on & so on I drone.

My trip to Japan was a good example; 3 days to cover 4 projects in 2 countries. "POOF" hear you cry "you should have done the lot in 24 hours." Well, as it turned out 3 days was perfect, we had about 1/2 an hour (literally) to spare before getting the bus back to Narita. In the end the trip achieved what it set out to, no more no less & hence can be considered a success. That I had no time to go toy shopping and spent all the "float" on an old 747 circling Japan was neither here nor there.

This is brought on by me arriving at the yacht club an hour early this morning, where I currently sit, bored out of my skull & unable to buy a coffee (no cash bar & I am not a member) pondering the simple notion that the single most crutial thing one needs in order to plan a timely arrival is accurate information as to exactly when is considered timely. I have arrived precisely when I planned to, only that is an hour earlier than I really need to be here.

I think I spotted a water fountain downstairs...

Bomber out