idle musings

Time Taken

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I’m lucky enough to have a reasonable amount of flexibility in the hours I work as well as the locations in which I work. When I work longer hours than planned it’s usually not too difficult to plan time off in lieu. After a hectic week I took yesterday off and somehow I think I’m even more tired now.

My GP was meant to call first thing so I’d arranged to take a friend to Kingston for a gentle pootle around. Life being what it is, the call didn’t come until late in the afternoon so our decision to head out anyway rather than wait for it panned out.

I’d promised to show Lady T the art gallery I’d found earlier in the month, and we ambled around coffee shops putting the world to rights in a gentle and sunlit afternoon.

By contrast, the GP conversation around referral was a bit of a slog, and as draining as I’d feared. I’ve been quietly worrying over the last few days about it all – and hearing a read back from my notes of my mental health treatment history was difficult. On the one hand it was a testament of stubbornness and progression. On the other a series of blows endured.

I’ve spent a significant portion of my counselling session this evening sorting through both aspects and their nuances.

Perhaps it’s not surprising therefore that today has been one of near shutdown. I shall hit the gym tomorrow.

Tangled Days

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Work is complicated at present – well more so than usual – and I think between that and personal processing it has been more difficult to bring things to the blog in any coherent way. Sometimes, especially when it comes to work, there are things that I can’t talk about in a public form because of financial or confidential matters connected to them.

Likewise in the tangled pathways of my brain I have things I can’t coherently talk about because they’re still being mulled over. In some ways it’s like a jigsaw puzzle that I don’t want to display yet.

However I find the discipline of maintaining a blog schedule to be a useful one, if only so I’ve got somewhere to put things on display for later consideration or to entertain you. That’s why sometimes I have rambling posts like this that don’t go anywhere until I get a random flash of inspiration.

In this case its to muse that all things being well, the D&D group will be back on Sunday to continue their adventures. They are currently on a fantasy steampunk railway, mixing with reasonably high society. What’s the worst that could happen? What’s that, a murder? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Brief Update

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I can’t think of anything witty to title today’s entry, but basically life ticks on, work is continuing, and I’m filling a new notebook with pictures and scraps of story as a simple outlet in between planning things for the D&D group and spinning metaphorical plates at work.

I’m booked to talk to a GP on Friday next week, my blood pressure readings are all submitted, I think I’m due a new set of diabetic blood tests soon, and I’m feeling reasonably good in and of myself.

The D&D scenario? Think murder on the orient express but with only vaguely housetrained adventurers. This is going to end up like the restaurant scene in the Blues Brothers, isn’t it?

Ah Payday

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I would say that I’m not sure why the last week has been a bit of a struggle with money but I can very firmly point to the two parking tickets I managed to earn this month as contributing to the pain. Never mind, lessons learned and all that.

It’s been a quiet couple of days, but I did go to Kingston yesterday to have a payday spend, looking at things for the flat. By far the best decision I made was to walk in to Not My Beautiful House, which is a pop up art gallery set up and run by students at Kingston University. They are focused on selling art by local people and I found a fair few things that caught my eye. In particular there were abstracts created by an ADHD support group, and I couldn’t resist

For £20 I had a new canvas piece for the hall, and I’ll definitely keep an eye on the place from now on.

Other than that it’s been quiet. Both the introverts have tucked themselves away so I may go out to the gym later – or spoil myself with a nice rioja – I haven’t decided yet.

Bank Holiday Weekend

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It’s been a good weekend so far – we hit the gym, I remembered my counselling session, and last night’s D&D game was sweet and roleplay orientated and set things up for the next story arc

Today we have the cub staying over while boy s is back at work, and we’re planning to go see The Wessex Pistols and catch up with friends at The Plough later this afternoon. Should be fun, but I do wonder how the cub will react to it all. We shall see.

In the meantime, we have sunshine, birdsong, and washing drying on the balcony. Not a bad start.

Split Attention

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I’ve worked up a good mixed routine of cardio and resistance training via the KickStart coach at the gym which I’m looking forward to getting to grips with. I made a start on it today but by necessity I couldn’t entirely focus on it as I also had the cub with me.

He lives splashing around in the pool. After complaining about the days heat in the flat today it made for a good reward for doing his homework to bring him along. Lady M is mired in paperwork so stayed behind, while boy s is working today. That meant it was our first visit just the two of us, rather than the whole triad trading off watching duties.

If I’m making this sound more momentous than it was, it’s not deliberate. The cub is familiar enough with the pool, and gym, to not be phased if I’m momentarily out off his line of view. That said, I did make sure that the treadmill I used was in plain view overlooking the pool so we could gesture or smile as needed to reassure.

So I’m now sat in the cafe area, waiting for him to emerge from showering and changing, then we’ll go pick his dad up from work

Googly Eyes

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I am, unashamedly, a child at heart and one of the things that brings that out to play is having some googly eyes spare to brighten people’s days. Sometimes I will use them to decorate pieces of equipment for the purposes of a photo, or give a light switch a shocked expression. Other times it may be books destined to be pulped that find themselves enhanced. I use that last word in a qualified sense of “it looks silly and made me smile”

It may not sound much, but it has distracted me this week while supervising plumbers and trying to ignore the return of last week’s cold.

It’s shocked, I tell you…

Adventures Old and New

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We had a great time yesterday at the Preview event at Thorpe Park – a pre-season day exclusive for annual pass holders and staff and their families. In previous years before the plague times we were the former and dropped in with the Charleesi. This year it was as guests of boy s.

The sun was out, the cub unsure of what he might like, and the after effects of Storm Eunice were still evident in some closed attractions. We had fun. I’m feeling a bit battered and bruised, and it took a while for my brain to remember how to process the signals from my inner ears, but I’m so glad I tried some new things.

Bright skies are back

Even remembering I should have been at counselling just as dessert arrived at our restaurant meal afterwards didn’t put too much of a dampener on things.

And then today we joined a gym – biting the bullet to manage various health conditions. The last time I was a member of a David Lloyd gym I was deep in depression and generally all over the place. My brain has therefore wasted no time in trying to recall and castigate me over non issues from that time period. No surprise there.

I am reminding myself instead that my last gym membership did me a lot of good and I did actually enjoy it.

Time for new memories.

Busy Week

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Just as no good deed goes unpunished, no holiday goes without emails to catch up on – and the plate spinning has been particularly fierce this week.

Somehow it’s still only Wednesday.

I’m taking heart from the fact that many of my work conversations have been about building partnerships and setting things up for artistic endeavours to benefit and entertain our local communities. If all goes to plan, I’m very excited.

Meanwhile, slightly more mundane building issues have been my more immediate focus. The joys of management…

Celebratory Meal

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Back before the days of plague we had a plan. Lady M and I were due to celebrate ten years of marriage and thought it would be amazing to get everyone we could back at the same venue for a knees up. Well, so much for that idea.

Instead we took a deep breath a day booked in for lunch, just the two of us, at The Hand And Flowers in Marlow. It, famously, is a pub with two Michelin stars. We make no secret about loving good food, and we’d been promising ourselves a fine dining experience but until now hadn’t taken the plunge.

A great joy of where we are in our careers is that we’ve variously built and rebuilt out of debt and career swerves over the years. We’ve been unemployed together, variously in and out of work and supporting each other, and I like to think that it’s helped us keep reasonably grounded about money as a result.

So we took a deep breath and then reminded ourselves it was a special occasion and we could afford it. And it was lovely. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable about the food and drink, the place is warm and comfortable, and the layout just irregular enough to feel cosy. And the food and drink was superb – we were very well fed and looked after.

A good way to celebrate an anniversary – and now we’ll have to plan for another excuse to return.