Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...

I was sure I write the blog last week.... but, it seems another 2 weeks have flown by and now we are staring down the barrel of the Christmas holidays and the end of the year! Currently it's all about Doug and what a star he has proved to be so far. He has now been with us for 3 weeks and he is (so far, I keep thinking at some point it will change) a pretty chilled out puppy. As a second dog he has been thrown in at the deep end and has been to Sunday lunch with Alan & Sarah (which he loved), socialised at home with friends and their dogs, met babies (he loved Elsie) and started to go for walks. The walking has been a bit different to our previous approaches with new dogs. In the past we have ventured out carefully, making sure that our new baby only walks a short distance so they can experience all the new sights and sounds. Doug's first walk was after Sunday lunch last week, just him and 8 other dogs for bout 45 mins - he loved it! In our defence we didn't let him wal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more