Last week was quite unpleasant. Not catastrophic, not calamitous, just kind of low-grade annoying.

The list of unpleasantnesses is quite lengthy, but I’ve limited it to a few highlights.

It started rather badly last Friday evening with somewhere between 4 and 6 litres of water pouring though Bessie’s ceiling during a quite fierce storm. Fortunately we managed to get to it relatively quickly after investigating what sounded like a tap running at full force. And even more fortunately this was totally our fault. Being delighted that it was our fault might sound odd, but the cause was a blocked gutter on the top balcony and a known issue. New-expensive-to-fix leaks would not fill me with delight. Note to selves: be more conscientious about home maintenance tasks.

Then I lost my beloved bracelet.

Back at SML, despite my time allegedly being 100% dedicated to Project Sulfur, I was (as ever) parachuted in to save an important BAU** deliverable which two teams had completely dropped the ball on. This required several late nights for me and has resulted in an enormous backlog of my own project work. The ball-droppers report to Bobs, and many (many!) of us have been complaining to him about their terribleness for an age – all of which he has cheerfully ignored. Now that this impacts him directly and his reputation with CEO LadyPenelope, he’s all “carolbaby, I just don’t understand how could this have happened!” “How can we fix this?” and pleas for guidance. Honestly, I could not have rolled my eyes harder. In addition to being pretty merciless, I’ve firmly suggested he really might like to take some time to reflect on all this.

Because of this I ate quite a few cakes, doughnuts and tiny chocolates. Actually, many (many!) tiny chocolates. And ice-cream.

And I haven’t really been exercising. Okay, I haven’t been exercising at all.

What I didn’t do was fall apart. I kept on trucking in a resigned-but-not-surprised manner, which is really very unlike me. I definitely attribute this to longer-term sobriety – I seem to be handling major annoyances with much more aplomb than previously. I am very exhausted though and my stress appears to be manifesting itself via quite vivid nightmares, inability to sleep and horrible head-in-a-vise headaches. So maybe not quite so much aplomb, but I’m not (yet) crying at work, so I’ll take what I can get.

This weekend I had intended to do some catch-up work, but, you know, screw that. Future me will likely be somewhat displeased by this, but she can go to hell. If she has any sense, she’ll be grateful for the chance to breathe for a bit.

Despite REALLY not wanting to, I forced myself out to yoga this morning after a 5 week break. It was pleasant and very well needed.

I need to focus all my powers on self-care in the coming week because I can’t see too much improving. More yoga, less chocolate and ice-cream.

xxx

** Business As Usual