There really is nothing quite like your own bed to stop and relax, no matter how comfortable other beds have been. The shape I leave in my own mattress feels like a while body hug when I get back, and tensions I’ve only peripherally noticed begin to ebb away.

Perhaps that’s why, after crashing to bed for a couple of hours when we got home, I’m already feeling lighter and ready to return to work in the morning. That’s not to say I won’t be grumpy and stressed when I do, but for the first time in about a week or so my neck doesn’t hurt.

It could, admittedly also be tied to having got through yesterday, and so there’s a sense of a new start – or it could even be the prosecco that Lady M and I have shared this evening.

A little from all three columns I suspect.

I’m home, surrounded by my books, journals, fripperies, and little luxuries. I’ve spent a couple of days with my loves doing Christmas shopping, eating, and gossipping. I’ve about a month of work to pile through, and then I’m off until the new year. Right now? That feels good.