XX Medio maratón de Almería 20th Almería half marathon

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

No-one is more upset about me not being there than myself, I can assure you. I'll blog some more about it soon. but in essence, the corporate dunderheads who are my bosses at w*rk have received some funding and have now tendered for a system to replace the likes of myself with autonomous software within 18 months. This is a bunch of guys who couldn't put two Lego bricks together and who have so eroded standards that it makes us 'old guard' cry. Unfortunately, while they have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell of getting such a job-destroying system in place within 18 months, they are also the kind of narcissistic, psychopathic crisis managers who deliberately destroy their own departments in order to receive obscene 'productivity' bonuses (i.e. a percentage of the money they didn't spend out of their budget). They are quite likely to 're-classify' our positions, which is to say sack the lot of us and invite us to re-apply for a limited number of lower-paid positions which will then have to attempt to clean up the mess their management created. They have already made it perfectly clear there is no room for us 'old' guys in the new, 21st-century workplace.

This is a long-winded and (I'm sorry to say) vitriolic way of stating that with my employment on decidedly shaky ground we've had to curtail all non-essential travel plans for the foreseeable. And regrettably, that includes Almeria, which is a shame because it's exactly the kind of thing that takes my mind of the struggles of w*rk and enables me to continue functioning in a very dysfunctional environment. Needless to say, though, the expense can't be justified in the present circumstances and so I must bow out with as much dignity and grace as I can muster, little as that is just at the moment.

Of course, the event will be a huge success, especially with your wondrous host Antonio there to ensure all goes as smoothly as that delightfully zany country can allow.

As I say, I'll write something more about all this shortly. Hopefully with slightly more colourful, but less vitriolic language.

Adiós amigos.