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Back to normal


So tomorrow is the first Monday of the year and it's back to work for me (and pretty much everyone else that's office based), with back to school for the girls following closely on Tuesday. Apparently  it's also one of the most miserable days of the year for workers - I certainly don't feel that way so I shall go in feeling positive and ready for the inevitable onslaught of the first few weeks.

Regardless of how we feel I think Glenn will be happy to have his peace and quiet restored. I have had a lovely 3 weeks but I'm ready to get started - I've had access to my inbox for the last few weeks and while I've been dipping in to it I don't have the context and so I'm looking at documents without really knowing what's what - time to get into the detail. I have a month of handover and then it will be down to me to make my mark - at least I know what I'm supposed to do this time and I can already see the induction and support is streets ahead of what I had last time around. Looking back I really didn't have much of anything joining my last 3 jobs - any induction will be a step in the right direction!

The kids also need to get back to school as they are now permanently attached to a device of one sort
or another - it's like a disease. Abi checked her stats on her phone yesterday and apparently she had picked it up 127 times by the evening - that has to be a record?!? Much as I would like to say we are putting measures in place to ensure they aren't always on their phones it takes a huge amount of policing and we have neither the time or the inclination to do it. It was easier whenever they just didn't exist, but even then I guess we were finding other ways of lazing around doing very little - it is the teenage way. Some friends were over this morning getting ready to head to the Newport Velodrome with Glenn and they reported much the same. Freddie (18) apparently rolled in at 4:30am banging in the door because he had forgotten his keys (again) and Finn (13) woke the house up at 1am "just heading to the fridge for a midnight snack"!! On this basis I don't feel quite so bad about ours - at least they aren't doing that - yet!

It's been so nice this holiday just to have slow time - enjoying walks with Bertie (who is now very well behaved in pretty much every situation), taking the kids when I can entice them to come outside (generally someone will come with me with persuasion), little and often running and lots of yoga - perfect for me. This said I couldn't be off work for too long - idle time definitely results in money spent, either by me or, more likely, the kids wanting to "just browse around" (Izzy for more things to stuff into her bedroom and Abi more animals) - it's time to get back earning. We have been conscious that I'm currently both unemployed and uninsured - a scary prospect even if only for a few days!

So, last few hours and then back to it - fingers crossed this one is good for 5-7 years please!

Yep.






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