Following discussions in of one of our monthly management meetings there has been a change in my working pattern; my working week now runs from Tuesday to Saturday.

For the Trust, this means that there will be someone in the office on a Saturday manning the phones and generally being able to support Jemma, Sonia and the park staff from the back room. I am beginning to realise that this is where I feel most comfortable - the back room. For me, the change means that I have one working day in the week, Monday, when I can gets lots done and not be jostled by weekend crowds.

So here we are in the winter and closed to the public. What, I hear you ask, happens on a Saturday when we're closed? Well, where to begin! Basically, all the things that happen in the week also happen on a Saturday; more of some and less of others. Since this is the approach to Christmas we have been having lots of enquiries about our gift vouchers for Christmas presents; Bird of Prey Days and Half Days, Owl Experiences and Owls by Torchlight mostly, with a couple of admissions thrown in for good measure.

Sadly, the call levels that relate to injured and sick birds remain constant but I'm pleased that callers with this type of enquiry have the facility to talk to a person straight away. Now, as the finance manager, the field of injured birds is not my specialist subject but it does seem that people are just happy to have a human to talk to. "Pop it in a box, don't feed it cat food, bring it in to us as soon as you can, I'll let a falconer know you're coming", seems to do the trick. I'm constantly learning just by sharing an office with Ashley and Andrew but I try to keep it simple for self preservation if nothing else.

Then there are some quiet moments. These I really treasure. I can pile on through the hills of paperwork that gather up round my ears through the week, relatively undisturbed. I have Radio 2 burbling on gently in the background – because there really is nothing worse than being able to hear the contents of my head in the silence of an uninhabited office. Also, Radio 2 because I seem to have reached an age when my kind of music has been sidelined from Radio 1! I don't know when that happened quite, but it has. I do shift over to Radio 4 occasionally where I can listen to funny old men doing silly things with sound, and the Ashes of course but there's another story altogether (Anya is Australian – Ed).

I can also get a lot of the figures ready to support the future planning that goes on. Since we are now a charitable trust, any plans we have for site investment or capital expenditure have to be justified to and approved by the Board of Trustees. We have to put together business case plans that show where the funds are going to come from, how we're going to spend them and how the spend will benefit the Trust. The plans we are putting in place this winter; the gift shop refurbishment and the Study Centre upgrade, have all gone through this approval process. The next step is to monitor their progress and market them sufficiently to make them pay as promised in the business case. That'll be the challenge.

This is how we all work together. We all plan it, I count it, Andy and Ash build it and Tracey markets it and then I count it again. What a team.

I’ll let you know how we get on, in my next posting.

And, since it's January, may I take this opportunity to wish health and happiness to every body for 2007.

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