Where does the time go? Last time I looked it was mid-November ... a new month seems to have snuck on me.
My last posting was on the 16th November. There's a good reason for that: on the following day things went pear-shaped at work. In fact, they went into the shape of a whole queue of pears. A queue that wouldn't be unexpected for a city post-office during lunchtime on the last day for posting Christmas gifts.
This has been my first day off since.
I won't bore you with all the technical details of what had to be done. What I will confirm, however, is that it's been a long, exhausting, stressful and demanding couple of weeks. And, at times, disheartening as things didn't always go completely to plan (plan? what plan?) and some problems proved a little harder to solve than I might have liked.
But it has also been uplifting. The solution to many of the problems has been new hardware and new software, and I've learned so much over this period. I feel a revived enthusiasm for my work, even though I could quite happily not go in for a few more days!
This, in a sense, is one of the problems with me: I'll stay in a job for far longer than is career-healthy as long as I'm learning new things, rising to new challenges, being entertained ...
Of course, few people can suddenly dedicate all their time to work without something else giving. In my case, two things have been badly hit.
The first was my exercise. My gym attendance in the previous couple of weeks had been patchy anyway due to ill-health, and during this period of monk-like devotion to work, the gym didn't even get a look-in. I'm pleased to say that I returned yesterday. I'm less pleased to report that my experience can be summed up in one word:
ouch.
Of course, me being me, I'm going to use more than one word. I may not be
quite back to square one, but I've certainly slid down one of the big snakes on the Snakes 'n' Ladders board of life. Being able to do that 10km in a reasonable time seems a long way away again.
It's remarkable to me how quickly my stamina, in particular, has declined through a month away from the gym and a month's lousy diet. Vigilance will have to be my watchword. Along with all the other watchwords I've collected over the years, and tend to ignore.
The other things that slipped out of my life was
NaNoWriMo. As some of you may recall, I joined in this challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in a month and was optimistic that I'd make it. My last report on the 16th stated that I'd reached 17,185 words, and there it remained - and has remained until now.
I find that, if anything, more disappointing than the exercise thing: I have started to write so many novels over the years and have always, but always, found an excuse to stop writing them - usually an excuse that glosses thinly over a singular lack of confidence. This time it would be different. This time I would plough on.
This time life found me a fantastic excuse to give up.
Except ... I'm not sure I have given up. Granted, I won't be
one of those who succeeded in reaching the 50,000 words within the month, but something inside me wants to carry on. It's not because I have any particular belief that the story has any great merit, but I seem to have attached my stubborn streak to this effort. I don't want to let myself down. We shall see.
No time today for such considerations though: my first day off has been concentrated mainly on catching up on all the chores that I've put to one side for far too long. I now have clean clothes, ironed shirts galore hanging just over
there, food in the fridge ... and work to return to tomorrow.
But Thursday ... ah, Thursday I have marked to be taken as a day off. I think I deserve it, don't you?
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