Skip to main content

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.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...

Half term

Whatever happened to half term?? It seems to have disappeared in a flash, do doubt partly as I was working having had 3 days off the previous week for Kerrie and Ryan's wedding. The plan was to not have a plan - both girls have exam week coming up and so our major intent was for them to spend at least half an hour a day or so doing a bit of revision. This has sort of worked - we only had one day where I got an irate message from Glenn that Izzy knows 'absolutely nothing' about her maths... we'll see. With half term comes effort grades and if they genuinely know nothing, it's not for a lack of effort. Abi did really well, keeping up her average and getting a 6 (top grade) in French again. Izzy, who we always worry is apt to cruise if allowed, got the first 5.0 average grade we've seen from either of them and 3 6's in French, English and DT - well done Izzy! I tend to assume all the kids work hard but it seems not - according to Abi "all the boys always...