Big Baby

I think I must be feeling a little bit down this week.  Probably tiredness coupled with mixed emotions still at being back at work (albeit temporary).

After a false start to the morning, I was dropped off by the family and in the 10 minute walk found myself sobbing down the phone to my very good friend.

I feel daft now as my mood is considerably better, but why oh why were women blessed with such volatile hormones. 

But it struck me how much my friends mean to me.  By the time I got to work I already felt better.  We are huggy people anyway, but sometimes it’s nice to have a ‘verbal hug’, something to soothe.

My friend didn’t tut or heavy breathe on me with impatience.  As usual I just had a very smiley, encouraging voice at the end of the phone.  So a big thank you.  You know who you are and I know you will be reading this at some point.

And better still I get to see both my good friends this week, so proper hugs will be forthcoming.

Goodness knows what my new work colleagues must think of me.  I obviously looked as though I had been crying and coupled with the fact it was damp outside I resembled Worzel Gummidge on a bad hair day!  Not a good look believe me.

The only good thing is - I don’t have to look at myself.

Spent a lot of today inputting data on to the computer so felt very tired this afternoon.  So for a break from it I did some very pleasant filing! 

Tonight our accountant came to see us.  He is so great with us.  I think he feels sorry for us at the moment as he won’t give us his invoices!  Aside from completing tax returns with us, we can have a good laugh with him. 

My husband has a new piece of software about to be launched and gets very animated about it (what I politely mean is, he won’t stop going on about it and rightly too as it is good). 

He was giving our accountant chapter and verse and we were having difficulty kerbing his excitement.  So I asked our accountant if he would take him home with him. I even offered to pay, but he just walked out laughing. 

Did he think I was joking?

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Listen to Me!

It’s a good job women are good at multi-tasking.  Bearing in mind I am working full-time, we came home from a trip to the park and I embarked on cooking our tea.

My husband wanted to talk through some marketing methods with me, which I will be able to use for a ’secret’ project that I am working on at the moment.  (It’s secret until I can organise the action plan which will take the next week or so to come up with.)

Anyway, my husband obviously needed my attention, but as a woman I knew there were lots of other things I needed to be doing as well in preparation for tomorrow.  So I put the dinner in the oven knowing I had an hour before it would be cooked.

I asked my husband to stand by me while I peeled the vegetables, so I could listen to him. I also put washing on, put a load in the tumble dryer, took the vegetable peelings up to the composter and ironed all the school uniforms and associated clothes for tomorrow - before the meal had finished cooking, I hasten to add.

I only nearly slapped him once when he tutted as I walked off to do one chore (which he denies doing).  But like I said to him, by doing all these things during the cooking I was free to talk even more about the marketing later.

And guess what, we covered the ground he wanted to at the same time.

I have just finished making yummy pancakes at my son’s request and it is now the bedtime routine.   I already know that hubby is fast asleep in the chair as I’ve just peeped round the living room door while I was cleaning the kitchen. 

It was obviously very taxing talking to me about marketing wasn’t it!  I am naughty really, he is trying, but like all good wives, I wouldn’t swap him for anything. 

Sorry, did someone mention white toblerone!

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Week 4

Haven’t been so good this week, however, I am working for a company who is very environmentally friendly, so maybe I am doing more recycling at work this week.

They have boxes for waste paper, plastics, general, batteries, toner cartridges, Christmas cards and that’s just the areas I have noticed.

At home it’s been the usual:

*  Vegetable peelings

*  All my milk bottles that I have delivered

*  Paper

I am going to start a campaign to raise the profile of milkmen.  Think of all the plastic that coud be saved if more people used their milkmen.

It may be a few pence more to be delivered to your door, but isn’t it helping the environment?  Apart from the fact you need never run out of milk, bread and all the other items they can deliver.

So if you know a milkman delivers near you, get your milk from him.  I personally like sterilised milk and it tastes horrible in plastic cartons, so I have it delivered fresh in glass bottles, which can be recycled.

Maybe the government would think the idea good enough to pay a subsidy to milkmen, so the price can come down a bit.

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Plans - What Plans?

I’m not big on making New Year resolutions, but if I had have done this year it would have been, don’t plan anything!  Then, I would be able to continually pat myself on the back for achievement in this area.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t got into an organised way with working full time at the moment, but I am failing miserably at getting anything done.  Okay, ‘failing miserably’ may be a little bit strong, but I haven’t been able to get to the things I need to.

I am probably being a little harsh on myself, but all of a sudden I have to rely on my husband to ‘do’ all the things I was during the day.  I’m not even talking housework and the like here, this is just organising things for the children and school.  And, let’s give him a pat on the back because, so far, he has been carrying out my ‘to do’ list.

So I suppose I am organising things, just getting someone else to do it.  Actually that sounds great doesn’t it?  It’s so good to put things in writing, it makes you see sense.

I think the main issue of working full time is that by the time we have got back in the house and had tea, we’re not getting the children sorted for bed until about 7.00 or after.  Otherwise, I’d have no time with them.

When I’m not working, we’re sitting down for tea between 5.00 and 6.00, not cooking it. We are trying to meal plan so my husband and I both know what’s to be prepared ahead of time, but it’s a bit of a slog when you’re really tired.

I have, however, had a great start to the weekend.  My mom took us all out for a meal last night.  So first off, no cooking (always good).  We went early and then finished off by going back to mom’s for a cuppa. 

Everyone had a good night, we all felt really relaxed and we didn’t bother fighting tiredness last night, we were all settled by 10.30.

I even had a bit of a lie in this morning with Alan Titchmarsh!  One of his books I hasten to add.

Today, the weather is miserable so we’re all chilling and doing our own thing.  My ‘own thing’ though happens to be cleaning and tidying.  Maybe I ought to think of it as a hobby, then I would be really enthused by it, wouldn’t I?

Anyway, enough waffling.  I have a fair bit of catching up to do on various projects at the moment, but now I’m getting into the swing of things at work, I will be able to use my lunch hour to start working on my ‘home’ projects.

There’s a thought. I wonder if they would mind me taking a pile of ironing in?

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I Need More Weekend

Boy oh boy.  I’d forgotten how little weekend you get when you are working.  I really have been living in the lap of luxury.

I am determined to spend as much time with the children this weekend during the day but you forget about the shopping, washing and ironing that needs to be done as well. 

Well that can all be worked in gradually, but because I’ve been a little tired this week and still helping my husband in the evening with one of his projects, I’d kind of put off getting the Christmas tree down.

So that is how I spent my first Friday night!  Luckily my wonderful mom had made us a huge lamb stew complete with dumplings (I won’t accept it without!), so tea was taken care of.

So my first task this morning is to go and put all the mess I made in the living room up in the loft.  I can’t play with the children until I do this, as guess what, there is no floor space at the moment.

I also have to work in the shopping otherwise we have no fresh food.  Although I did kind of hint to my husband last night that maybe he wouldn’t mind doing some during the week while I am working. 

I can’t moan too much at him though because he has been making me some very nice packed lunches for work . . .  and taking me and picking me up from work. . . and taking the children to and from school . . . and sending me nice litte emails to cheer me up.

You know, this working malarkey might just work to my advantage.

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Week 3

Well, being Christmas the rubbish has accumulated quite nicely.  But the recycling hasn’t changed very much.

*  Vegetable peelings as usual.

*  3 glass bottles.

*  All my milk bottles that I have delivered

*  Paper as usual

What gets me is that there is no council pick up of cardboard after the Christmas holidays.  It’s an ideal opportunity to ‘up’ the recycling quotas but nothing is offered and I haven’t found an explanation for why not yet. 

I put all my cardboard into it’s own bag just to see how much there was and I had almost 2 bin bags of various cardboard.  Surely as a one off the councils could put on extra vehicles to take this away.

I know people can take it up to their nearest waste management sites, but for many the journey is not worth it, or they don’t have transport. 

I have got a couple of suggestions on recycling which I am currently looking into and will post them in the next couple of weeks.  And one is for the cardboard.

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Can I Stop Now?

Well day 2 of my new job is over.  Because I am temporary I feel as though I am just ‘playing’ at being an admin person.  It’s a strange feeling.  Being a quality minded person, it’s odd to know that whatever I do within the company, in three months time, I just walk away and it’s forgotten.

I also feel as though I can’t just dive in shouting, you do it what way??????  I have made notes of ‘improvements’ I feel could be made, in case I am ever asked.  And I admit to being very tired today and ‘almost’ being bolshy asking . . . . but why can’t we do it like that? 

I’m having to kerb my tongue a little.  I spoke to one of my best friends tonight who shared in laughing with me, because she is like minded when it comes to quality and would know how frustrated I felt. 

Yesterday was a strange day though.  I will admit to sitting at the computer fighting back tears (how old am I?) because I truly didn’t want to be there.  Lets be real here, there are a lot of hormones lurking around as well, so I have to balance those feelings too.

So what did I achieve?

1) I successfully walked back from the toilet with my flies open!

2) I frightened myself stupid in the toilets by using, lets call it a ‘disposal machine’.  I placed my ‘rubbish’ in the tray and it made the most awful noise.  I swear that outside in the office, sirens and red lights were flashing ‘it’s the time of the month’. 

3) I was studying a list of people who were on telephone covering duty for the week and tried matching up the names with the telephone list.  I couldn’t place the initials BH or AL, until it dawned on me very slowly that BH was Bank Holiday and AL was Absence Leave!

So what do you think, would you employ me?

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Phones, Moans and Toblerones!

I’m not sure how to gauge how the rest of 2007 is going to go, based on the last couple of days.  Here’s why.

Let’s talk about phones first.  It’s become a bit of joke amongst the family (albeit an expensive one) that I am not to be trusted with mobile phones.

I only have one for emergencies and use it when I go out as a kind of life line.  In 2006 I lost, yes lost, 2 mobile phones.  One I think fell out of the car on a school run, the other just vanished into thin air.  Maybe it’s in that deep dark place within the depths of the settee.  I don’t know.

So recently I have been taking my husband’s phone out with me instead.  I normally take great care with it.  Note I say normally.  While I was being driven along by my mom today, we noticed the interior car light came on.

My daughter, for the first time ever, decided to try opening the door while we were moving.  Luckily, she’s not strong enough and because we noticed quickly, we were able to pull over and secure the door.

We carried on driving when I realised I couldn’t find my husband’s phone.  I checked all pockets, the dashboard, the floor and shopping, but no.  We even rang it with mom’s phone and the silence confirmed it.  It was not in the car.

It was safely swimming in a dirty muddy puddle where we had stopped the car, and because it was muddy, was the reason I didn’t hear it drop.  The good news is we found it, but the sad news is, it no longer works . . . surprisingly!

The moans relates to the fact that as of tomorrow I am joining the ranks of the working world again.  It’s only temporary for three months, but it’s full time.  Basically we need the money, just to support us while our business is getting on it’s feet.

We changed what we were doing this year and with anything it takes time to establish yourself and your reputation in a different area.  The good news is, it is taking off and we have a lot of ideas for 2007, especially as one is really exciting for me, but can’t say much about it yet.  Oh don’t you just love a mystery?

It therefore made sense for me to go out and earn, while my husband builds up the business.  It’s a moan because I have never worked full time with the children and although it’s only for 3 months I have had to really battle with the inner ‘mommy wanting to stay at home’.

I should have started today, but the references hadn’t all come through because of the Christmas post.  I had to whimper and whine around my two friends to help me out, which they duly did.

And let’s be positive here.  For someone who has been at home 3 years, to walk into a temping job and be wanted for it, that’s not bad is it?

It won’t stop me doing the other projects, it just means I need to be really organised (yes well let’s check back on the organised bit later shall we?).  Actually joking apart the thought of being back to work has had an impact already and I’ve achieved quite a few tasks in the last couple of days.

And finally the Toblerone.  I adore white Toblerone and usually have a bar bought me for Christmas.  This year I had 4 x 400g bars bought me.  And do you know what, I HAVE EATEN ALL OF THEM!!!

I’m not sure if that’s a record or not, because I only opened them Christmas day and polished the last bit off tonight.  I did share them a little, but only a bit as I can be selfish with white Toblerone!

My daft mind says, eat them up out of the way, then you don’t have to worry about it later . . .  suits me.

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