Work is somewhat pressurised at present.
This Monday, our first new member of staff arrived, Kamal. He's settling in and it's a relief to have him on board. Last week was the first of two when Mitch was away on his honeymoon - Ross and I attended the evening wedding party a couple of Saturdays back which was a happy affair even if I generally speaking don't like those sorts of public events - and so, consequently, John and I were dealing with the training groups on our own.
I'm working hard but enjoying it. My usual routine is completely disrupted, however. Instead of having my usual Mondays off, I'm working Monday and Wednesday mornings and taking the afternoons as leave. Even this was thrown out of kilter last week when Jill had to take some time out for family reasons and I ended up doing a four and a half day week in order to keep things going.
I've also been bringing work home, which has been a no-no up until now. Still, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the satisfaction is that the Project is making progress and improving.
I've been keeping a fair eye on my domestic life, meanwhile. Ross has been an absolute treasure over the past weeks. His command of the domestic arena has given me the time and space I've needed to be able to cope with everything that has been thrown at me (and this has included one of our customers succumbing to a grand mal seizure during one of the assessments that we run).
I've been keeping up with the yoga but I had to cancel a healing session at short notice and I've missed out on a couple of Quaker meetings. Part of this was down to annoyance with the way that the introduction to a series of training sessions within meeting was handled. I attended a preliminary Sunday afternoon meeting only to find, at the end of it, that subsequent meetings would be held at times which I couldn't make. So, I was peeved.
Still, I've used the time away to my own profit in the bathroom and, this last weekend, in the garden.
This year, rather than putting the garden to bed, it was more like Ross and I were busily creating next year's garden. We've moved, re-planted, divided and pruned many plants and bushes that were filling out and cramping each other. The result is going to be something a little different next year.
Monday afternoon, whilst Ross was sleeping, I visited Albert and Grace. Last Friday, my dad went to hospital to have a biopsy performed on an area of his throat. Two years ago now, he underwent a similar procedure which resulted in him requiring radiotherapy treatment.
Luckily, this time, the doctors did not even get as far as performing the biopsy. When they took a closer look at the inflamed area, they pronounced it benign.
However, I set off straight from work to see them both and he looked in rude health. I took over a number of the cuttings and spare plants that we'd amassed - others went to Roland and Colin. I'd wanted to help dad put them into the garden but he was quietly adamant that he wanted to do this on his own. So, I sat and chatted with them for a while (mainly listening to hospital talk) before I came home to seek out food and comfort with Ross.