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Brain Fog

I am definitely suffering from brain fog at the moment and I can't decide whether this is the reality of the first few months in a new job or me or a combination of both. I constantly feel like someone is squeezing my brain and despite the fact that I sleep well, keep fit and look after myself I'm still mentally shattered half the time. My memory feels shot to pieces, particularly with faces and names (not great when meeting lots of new people!) and I just don't feel,like I can think as clearly as normal.  I have worked out that there are things I can do to shake the feeling - running makes a big difference, as does doing something creative which is great because it means I'm starting to make space for my glass work again. Let's hope it's a  passing phase and my brain clears a bit soon.

The one thing that I am very pleased about given how I'm feeling is that I sensibly decided not to run the London Marathon today. I did go for my normal run - 10 miles today - and I'm keeping up with my minimum 20 miles / week which I've been doing since January and that feels great. We switched on the TV this morning and watched the start and I didn't feel remotely disappointed that I had manage to get to the start line. It's not as though I couldn't have done it this time, this time I made a conscious decision not to push myself to train that hard and I'm proud of myself for not trying to do everything all in one go. There's always next year and at least I know I have a guaranteed place if I choose to do it. It also meant that I wasn't heading into London on a Saturday night and having to deal with all the admin that running a massive race like this entails. After all, last time I had to go to London on a Sunday I ended up in the wrong part of town ... I blame the brain fog again!

So instead of running 26 miles I had a lovely 10 mile run and then pottered around at home. Last night I made a start on some lovely glass designs, beginning to give some thought to the fact that Mum and Dad have suggested that I design a piece to go in the internal window they have downstairs in their cottage. It will need to be quite large so I'm trying to do some smaller designs first to see how they look before working out whether I would be able to replicate them in a large piece. It will be larger than anything I've made before so needs some thought - bugger, where are those brain cells when I need them?!?

So while I wallow in a lumpy brain the kids are back at school for a few weeks before half term kicks in. Given this term we also have 2 bank holidays it does feel like its a very expensive way of doing things. Poor Glenn has just realised that I'm travelling again next week as well so he's on bank holiday duty on this own. This time I'm off to Florida which will be another whistle stop tour of the business - 3 working days with a trip to the Miami Dolphins thrown in - not to see a game (it's out of season apparently), but to see the security contract we have there in action. As ever business travel is not glamorous and my main aim is to stay in the UK timezone as much as possible. I think it will work except for the team meal which starts UK time at about midnight - my worst nightmare. I hope they aren't expecting much in the way of conversation from me! Then we will be a good way through May and summer will be nearly upon us. The weather forecast today was talking about an unseasonably warm few months ahead - I hope so. After a lovely Easter it's like someone turned the heating off and its been cold and windy - not what we want. Fingers crossed for some late spring sunshine to cheer us all up again.

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