Well so much for my relaxing week off. It had so much promise......
I did have a nice relaxing Monday - my last post was after that - when I was full of beans after a relaxing day. On the Tuesday I then did loads of chores. The main one was to tart up the garden furniture, which was looking a bit desperate.
I'd ordered some spray paint, because I felt that would be easier. In many ways it was. I put up protectors for the patio etc. and also had a really good industrial face mask I'd purchased back when I was buying up anything I might need when the pandemic started. Needless to say I hadn't used the industrial mask before.
All went well and I did 2 tables and 3 chairs - at which point my fingers gave up. I literally couldn't compress the spray can at all. I guess you don't use the muscle in one finger for extended periods of time usually. My index finger on my right hand still has no strength 6 days later. How pathetic is that!!!! How do grafitti artists do it? They must have unusually strong fingers.
Anyway, I ran out of spray paint, I've ordered more, so I'll do the remaining chairs when that turns up - give my finger some time to recover.
Thursday I met a friend at a nature reserve near Dartford. The first time I've done a significant motorway drive to an unfamiliar place for over a year. I was absolutely terrified. I've got a mini and I've never felt like I'm in a small car before, but over the last year the lorries have gone crazy. I suspect there are not more on the road than there were before, it's just that they've had the roads to themselves for a year.
They were swerving between lanes without looking and also aggressively an inch from your backside if you were driving at the speed limit. That's also another thing that's changed - I used to struggle to keep down to the speed limit. I mean really struggle. Now if I'm going at the speed limit I feel like I'm going a million miles an hour. Officially I am now one of those annoying Sunday drivers. It wasn't just me either - you could spot the other drivers that had not really been in the car much for a year.
On top of this there are now so many of these horrible smart motorways. I was in the car for 4 hours there and back. During this journey there were 6 cars abandoned on the inside lane. The 6th was the scariest as there was no warning and I was about 30m from a car before I realised it was stationary. Fortunately I was able to swing into the second lane without causing a pile up. But I was certainly lucky.
It was lovely to see friend and we had a good natter, but by the time I got home I was a shell of my former self.
Friday was husbands birthday. He had the day off, we had a lovely day. I'd organised that we'd meet his brothers and their wives at one of our favourite out of town places to eat. The Ginger Fox in Hassocks. I just love it there. The food, as ever, was amazing and when they found out it was husbands birthday they went out of their way to make it special for him.
They knew it was his birthday for 2 reasons. The first was that I hadn't told him his brothers were joining us and when I turned up and gave the name for my booking the man said 'ah yes, table for 6'. Husband looked at me and I said 'oh no, you spoilt the suprise'. It wasn't important as husband would have guessed the second we sat him down at a table for 6, but the poor man was moritified. I did say to him it really didn't matter. However, at the end of the meal the waitress came over with a huge white plate with Happy Birthday piped on it and a piece of home made fudge. A really sweet touch.
Oh and the other reason they knew it was his birthday was because I insisted he wore the HUGE 'It's my Birthday' badge for the day. Always a bit of a tell tale sign.
Then when son got home from school we opened presents and had a light birthday tea, whilst watching films. I think husband had a good day and it's certainly better than last years birthday.
Saturday was chores, as ever (that's a point I need to sort the washing out today), then we did a proper old fashioned birthday tea in the evening and some friends joined us. All socially distanced and rule of 6 and all that. As we are off carbs at the moment, it actually took hours to prepare the meal as everything had to be hand made, it's impossible to get carb free party food from any supermarket. Everything is covered in breadcrumbs I find.
So that was my nice relaxing week. I've woken up this morning - the Sunday before I start work again and I've got a STINKING cold. I've done a COVID test and it is just a cold - but I feel absolutely rotten. I guess it's a bit like when your kid starts school and they suddenly meet others with germs they haven't come across before. At which point they are full of snot and cold for at least a year.
Also got to de-party the house - part of husbands actual birthday tea was a birthday cannon. OMG. Once this was set off it covered the entire sitting room in confetti - instant party. We have lived with it for 3 days now, but today it needs clearning up and I'm praying that the hoover makes light work of it. (please).
The other thing I've discovered after the last week is that I have a 2.5 hour window of being able to cope with humanity. At exactly 2.5 hours my brain says - 'had enough now, need to get away from humans'. I suspect there are going to be a lot of similar things that people are going to find about how they have changed. I think we'll have to re-set - COVID or no COVID it's going to take a while for normality to come back.
I'm also wondering whether my new job is the right thing. It's a really worthwhile job and I'm proud to be doing it - but the pay isn't great. I'm still on the fence. With old job I earnt the same amount of money, but for a 4 day week. The Monday was really important because that's when I'd do all my extra curricular chores, things like painting the garden furniture, sorting out the kitchen, doing clothes shopping for son etc. etc. This meant I got a relax on a Sunday. Now I've lost that - I still try to relax on Sunday, but this means all the other jobs just pile up.
I'm not knocking husband - he does loads around the house, but he's used to me picking up the extra curricular because I have had the Monday off. So it's a change of behaviour for him too. He's set up a digital to do list for me to fill in so I can list all the stuff that needs doing and he can then pick things up. Problem is that's not how I rock I don't want a digital list I just want a piece of paper with a list on it. Blog aside I tend to turn off my laptop when work is finished.
This doesn't mean I don't spend hours on my ipad when not working, but can you imagine how painful it would be to do a to do list on an ipad!!!!!
Aaaaanyway, I can't drop to a 4 day week in new role as I simply couldn't afford it. I guess it's just another thing to keep an eye on. I really want new job to work though because so far the beneifts outweight the negatives - or should I say - once I've set everything up the benefits WILL outweight the negatives. If this isn't the case then I will sadly need to look elsewhere.
Obviously the ideal situation would be or me to win the lottery. Then I can get myself a nice new house with a studio. I can spend my time in the studio doing decoupage and I've always wanted to have a go at welding. Not welding industrially you understand, welding 'pretty things'. I had hoped to see if I could make money out of decoupage last year, but with all the junk shops shut I couldn't do that. I need the junk shops so I can get cheap bits of furniture to tart up. It's still on my to do list to give it a go when things settle down, problem is I now wonder how I'll find the time to do it.
Final thing that's happened today (so far) is that I sent mum a Whatsapp to say 'are you around for a call at 4.00'. She rang me to say that she and dad were coming over for lunch today. This was news to me - I only have party food in and I'm still rocking my pajamas. Fortunately she was able to switch to next week.
It wouldn't be the first time that somebody arrived at my front door expecting to be fed, much to my surprise. I doubt it will be the last.
Goodness lots of STUFF to discuss this week - how unusual..... need sleep.
UPDATE: Turns out that Dysons don't much like a room full of confetti. Much unblocking required. Always useful to know....
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