I had planned to have a nice lazy week before Easter. It didn’t quite turn out that way, as the “maintenance” on the house turned out to be more extensive than I’d hoped. On Monday I had a landscape gardener and a structural engineer come round to look at my back garden and suck their […]
I’ve taken this week and next off work – making maximum use of the cluster of bank holidays. I’ve deliberately not planned much for this week – I’m mostly tying to catch up on my sleep, and have been doing some of the chores around the house which have stacked up. I took a whole […]
In this case, I am in fact talking about the perils of living in a Victorian cottage, which requires ongoing maintenance. But I could equally well be talking about myself at the moment – I feel about ten years older than I did before Chris was taken ill. At least it’s moderately easy to do […]
I went back to the doctor today to get the results of last week’s blood tests. And on the whole they were absolutely fine. I’m not diabetic; my thyroid and liver functions are normal; my campaign to eat more broccoli and spinach has worked as I’m no longer anaemic. Even my blood pressure is boringly […]
Yesterday was the end of the financial year at work, and I’m pleased to report that I made it in one piece. When I think of everything that’s happened over the last year, that seems an achievement in itself! I delivered the last remaining milestone reports on time, then came home with a throbbing headache […]
A colleague and I spent today in a darkened meeting room, projecting onto the wall the final milestone report for my project, and going through it line-by-line. It was pretty intense, but necessary. I got through the day on a combination of adrenalin, caffeine, paracetamol and sheer bloody-mindedness. Unfortunately, by mid-afternoon all four ran out […]
Since the middle of February, I’ve spent a total of eleven days so far working at a customer site two hours away from home. I’m sick of living out of a suitcase! But I think that’s most of the travelling over now for this month, and it’s really good to be home and sleeping in […]
I went to give blood on Monday, but was turned away because I am anaemic. That’s rather disappointing – I’ve tried so hard since Chris died to improve my cooking and have a balanced and healthy diet. It’s discouraging that my efforts haven’t been enough and I’ll have to start taking supplements. On the other […]
Work is completely frantic at the moment. It always is in the last quarter of the financial year – both the company and our main customer have financial years ending in March, so there is a huge pressure to get projects completed, research written up, and (most importantly!) invoices submitted. This year seems even worse […]
I had lightbulb blow last week, and it was in the most awkward place in the house – right at the top of the stairs in the extension. I simply couldn’t reach it either from the stairs or from the room above – I’m too short. So it was a temptation too great to resist […]
