Gavin decided this afternoon was a good time for he and I to have a sit-down meeting and 'catch up with a few things'. Mostly, those 'things' seemed to be him trying to convince me to move to Devon to permanently take on the running of his place down there. I felt my heart sink a little as soon as he started talking about it. You might remember that he tried to get me to relocate that way when he first took it on, and I'm sure you remember that I was down there a few weeks ago, after the general manager had to be 'let go'.
I get the impression that he got very excited about buying it and having the opportunity to turn it around, but now the reality of having to put the work in for a couple of years has come home to him, he is regretting the purchase and hoping to fob it off on someone else. He really is a strange character at times. Brilliant, in his own way, and you can't question how successful he has made things with his empire here in Suffolk, but he occasionally gets a bee in his bonnet that won't stop buzzing, and no matter how many people tell him to calm down and think things through again, he'll just plough on like a bull in a china shop and try to force his own will on the world through sheer effort. And then he has to deal with the consequences. Or - more regularly - those around him do; myself included.
So, anyway, he hit me with the full 'everyone down there thinks you're wonderful' spiel about my five-day stay last month, and he wants me to seriously consider taking up the reins to run it all full-time. I said it would be a hell of a decision to take, with two young children, and a wife with her own career, and he just said he'd do everything he could to make it an easy transition, and that 'obviously' the financial package would take the upheaval into account.
I politely said I would think about it, even though I had no real inclination to do so. But the weird thing is - maybe the timing would be pretty good for this kind of thing right now. We could find Mathew a good school to start at, before he gets settled at another one. Rian is easy enough to transport and wouldn't even remember the move. And Philippa is looking to change her career, and maybe a move would provoke that to happen sooner? I mean, I know she is literally about to start her course that involves a three-month commitment, but maybe Gavin could make do without me until January? Philippa will hopefully then be fully qualified... We'll have had another nice family Christmas here... It would give us the rest of 2023 to sort out schooling and accommodation... It's fun to think about, right?
RC 5-9-23
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