Week In The Life 2017 | Sunday

After all the drama of yesterday I didn't get to sleep until midnight and was awake again by 5:30. I check in with work and it was fine. I get up and walk round the garden capturing some detail, I find it interesting each year about this time to see how far things are along in comparison to other years.

 I stay in bed with a coffee and add a couple more bits to my grocery order, watch The London Marathon build up and then snooze again before getting up and ready.

Mum and I drive to Okehampton via Tesco to pick up a last couple of bits for her holiday and a takeaway mocha for me as a treat.

We listen to BBC Radio 4's Reunion programme on the way It was about the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster which was very good and very emotional.

The countryside looks so stunning, beautiful green patchwork fields with the odd field of bright yellow rape. Looming above us and getting nearer is Dartmoor. Devon is the one of the biggest counties in England and we are lucky enough to have these two stunning National Parks of Exmoor and Dartmoor, I live next to Exmoor so I always go there but I would love to know Dartmoor better too.

We have a lovely chat before lunch with my Aunt and Uncle, I ask Uncle Brian for advice as I want to build a raised flower bed and he is one of the handiest people I know, he gave me some good advice and ideas.

It was a lovely lunch of chicken, roast potatoes and green veg and then cheesecake. 

I help Auntie Pat out with a problem with her phone and then head back to home. 

I realise when I get 10 minutes out that I took zero photos of Dartmoor up close and more importantly zero photos of the whole visit, including their wonderful garden! So mad with myself.

So here are a few more from mine.

It only takes 45 minutes to get back to barnstaple and I pop in to my shop (as it's open) and get pizzas for movie night.

I see to the dogs when I get home and then we all settle down to a movie and then I go to bed to watch Line Of Duty (sooo good).

Sunday done ✅

Week In The Life 2017 done ✅

I am thrilled that I managed to blog all week as it is all captured now and it was great being part of the community of witl'ers. By Saturday and Sunday I had slowed right down on remembering to collect photos. But that is natural for a big project like this.

Week In The Life 2017 | Saturday

Just a long work day, I was not looking forward to going in. 

I felt tense when I got there and there was a niggle that I knew I needed to address. I didn't want to do it right there and then as I wasn't in the best frame so I waited a few hours and discussed it with my colleague and we resolved it. A mentor a long time ago told me "worst first" and I have used that all through my working life to deal with tasks. However I have long since learned that whilst that is amazing advice for task it isn't necessarily so with employees. I take a deep breath and let it settle, get some context. If it still needs addressing then I use data-based feedback; when I see you do/say xy or z it makes me think and feel ab and c and what I would like you to do next time is... this method works well for me and my team know where they are with me. 

I left the shop for a break during the morning to go to Marks & Spencer for a tee-shirt for Mum's holiday that she had decided on. I see a work top in there that would be perfect, comfortable, bland, durable, reasonable, I could get two and rotate, I miss wearing a uniform. I like dressing smartly sometimes but my job is often manual and so I need to be comfortable and not worrying about it getting damaged.

I stayed on longer to get this weeks workload completed and help out the evening duty manager during the late afternoon busy time with service and routines. 

I am glad to escape into the sunshine with my bag full of healthy goodies for my day off. I walk back over the bridge and head to the car park and then after wondering momentarily where I had parked the car, I realise that I had treated myself to a paid parking space the other end of town 😲 (where we park is free so we all park there most days). It is nearer to my home town so cuts about 15 mins off my commute but it costs so it is a treat.
My first word is a swear word, I did this once before years ago! Habit is a good thing most of the time but not today when it automatically takes my feet in the wrong direction! Anyway, after wondering whether I should just lay down on the floor and cry, I found a new podcast episode and plugged myself in and decided I would enjoy the walk! Which I did, although I was glad to get to the car, the shopping bag filled with goodies was getting a tad heavy 😁

I got home and had dinner and chatted to Mum and Alex while he played his computer game and told me about how he had unlocked a new "charater" - he still can't get that c sound in that word - a goat on a hoverboard, of course.

Then Louis rang me to tell me he had lost his return bus ticket so Alex and I get up and drive back to where I just left in my work town to collect him. We may have had a few words about this. There was definitely some databased feedback going on 😆

So my idea of a nice crafty evening is completely out of the window and I decide to go to bed. With that, work rings and tell me the CO2 gas alarm is going off and so I deal with that for a couple of hours by phone, thinking that I was going to have to go back in again. Fortunately I didn't, we sorted out a work round so I go to sleep in case I am needed in the morning. I hope not, as it is my day off and I have plans.

What a day.

Saturday done ✅

Week In The Life 2017 | Friday

6am = Shower, Coffee, Finish up blogging yesterdays photos.

I didn't have much get up and go this morning.

7am = Get ready and go.

Vaguely less horrifying after make-up.

8am = Walk across the bridge

Beautiful river mist.

9am = Payroll

Coding everyones clocking exceptions

10am = Payroll

Completing a few rotas as best I can, there are a few uncertainties that I won't be able to nail down until next week.

11am = Payroll

Checking that I am within what I forecast to spend. My labelled calculator cracks people up and I get a lot of stick, but I got it in 2007 so it has done the trick lol

12pm = Walk outside for some fresh air

My office has no windows and it was a fun but challenging day and so I needed a breather.

2pm = Team meeting

Just chatting and socialising really, which is massively important in the scheme of things.

4pm = One-to-one meeting

Helping one of my colleagues more in depth.

4:30pm = Leave work

Back over the bridge.

5:15pm = Home

Listen to This American Life podcast in the car.

5:30 = Beauty & The Beast

I knew if I waited long enough they would move the movie into the armchair cinema. Actually I just really haven't had the time to go before. I went on my own as no-one else was wanting to see it. I loved it. The costumes the most. I can see fashion bunnies wearing old-fashioned pinafore dresses and floral wedding dresses next year!

8pm = Bump into Kerry (so good to see her and get a hug) and collect Alex from Church Club. The biscuits were not good this week apparently.

9pm = Bubble Bath and an episode of Breaking Bad

I am late to this serial and have been savouring the chance to get stuck in. It is sooo good but almost unbearable, do you know what I mean?

10pm = Blogging & Bed

There have been a fair few photos on the week in the life Facebook group of week in the lifers reading Ali's week in the life, dubbed #witlmatrix. I want to remember that, it made me chuckle.

I haven't felt in the moment today as fridays are always a bit of a day at work and I always work on a friday unless I am on holiday. I am going to see what else I want to capture this week and try and get that tomorrow.

Friday Done ✅

Week In The Life 2017 | Thursday

I cannot believe I have made it to the fourth day blogging! Pleased is an understatement :-)

I cleaned the car today, I was shamed into it by the thought of it going to the garage as it needs some work. I actually spent a long time on it, I normally just wash off the dirt quickly or put it through the car wash at the garage, but as I got started it occurred to me that that is why it is called having your car detailed 😆 I'm so astute, anyhow, I really looked at the detail of the car and it looks much better now. A passer by actually looked at me in disdain as I cleaned some of this 14 year old Honda with a toothbrush 🤓 Man, I love the car, she has done us so proud and has been so reliable, we have got so many things carried in her considering her size, she isn't my choice of car though and I would dearly love an upgrade so that is a goal I am working towards.

Just the hoovering to do at the petrol station.

I thought about details as I was doing it and that part of my intention this week was to get more detail today recorded for me to look back on, especially as I have quite a poor memory. I love Ali Edwards' idea of "tell me more". However I warn you now that this will, most likely, not be of interest to you lol

I have three homemade mochas today as my caffeine fix. I only started drinking coffee about 4 years ago regularly and only about 6 years ago at all. I remember trying it when I was young and hating it and never even trying it again until I was in my thirties, I am 43 now. I first drank black coffee and that was great but then I ran with the coffee craze that has swept the world, tried them all and fell in love with mochas. I can't afford either the calories or the cash to make takeaway options a habit, I remember having one from our local Caffe Nero and then going back straightaway for another and giving myself a big smack on the forehead. So I looked round for ideas, sachets were better but not much and although I do buy them now and again I came up with a different plan. A teaspoon of coffee and a teaspoon of Options hot chocolate powder and hot water; that gives me 4 cups a day for 2 weight watchers smart points which I can live with.

As I make it I am so irritated as the small mocha making whisk is in the dishie and each time this happens I am irritated and it happens all the time. I always think, go get another whisk they are like tuppence-ha'penny, but I always forget.

My Boots I have had forever, at least ten years I am pretty sure. They were quite expensive (to my view anyway lol) but they have now worked out at about £10 a year which is amazing as I wear them a lot. I realise as I type that I seem to be mentioning the cost of things a lot! I am a little fretful about money at the moment so it must be that 😬

Anyway as I did them up this morning, the zipper got jammed on one, I literally took a shocked breath 😀 Once they were working again I got a photo as it might be their last hurrah (or last week in the life!). Goodbye my friends, you were well loved 😁

I like to wear nice nails, and have done either continuously or more often than not, for about 15 years now, this was just as the craze was starting. I rarely wear colour varnish, just pale pink and beige shades but I just feel 100% better with them on. In fact as these have just gone on I have been hiding my nails from my own camera all week. Working manually some of the time means that they get easily damaged so sometimes now I go without when I know I have a patch of that to go through. 

Fudge is our male dog. He is a grumpy old so and so but has mellowed in his older age. We have had him for nearly 13 years and he is like most pets a member of the family. Despite him being grumpy when he is out and about he is as soft as butter with the family. Alex and him have a special bond, Alex was just a sitting up baby when we got them (we have his sister Minty too) and from the get go he has tolerated Alex dragging him about, dressing him up (not unusual to see Fudge wandering in with deely-boppers or a hat on his head) cuddling him etc. Since last week in the life he has been diagnosed with diabetes and has to have two daily injections which, fair play to Alex, he has learned to do and does at least one jab most days. He suddenly went blind last Autumn and I was worried sick but he has absolutely made it work. He was quite obviously frightened to start with, but he just gets on with it, recently venturing upstairs and downstairs again, FOMO, I think 😃. He does cause a bit of amusement as you come across him in strange places just sitting and you wonder where he thinks he is. He loves his cuddles with his humans even more than he did before.

The rest of Thursday was chores and stuff and things. Topping up dinner money balance electronically, shopping for basic groceries and packed lunch things for Louis and I, mainly junk for him and healthier for me, getting the darned menu for next week finished, cleaning the bathroom (and admiring my bathroom plants which miraculously have made it to nearly a year old) and hoovering and wiping down through the house, Mum did the washing up to date, eating a lovely pasta dish for lunch and then just a sandwich for tea, sighing at Alex not getting his bag and shoes even near the cubby, watching the brothers play on the computer together, working together to unlock the next level, loving seeing Minty get settled on my discarded pillow instead of her bed, still liking my Harry Potter pj's, just stuff.