It’s been a strange week, during which I’ve not done a lot of work. Hardly any, in fact. In fact, I’ve hardly done anything at all, let alone any work.
We had a quiet Easter weekend, and I took ALL of it off. I don’t remember everything we did, it’s a bit of a blur. But I’ll do my best.
I finished work very late last Thursday evening. I was transferring edits to pdfs and wanted the job shifted off my desk in time for the weekend. So I chose to work late on Thursday. It was work that didn’t require a lot of brain work, just automatic, mechanical work that only needed concentration. I didn’t get around to doing anything for Camp NaNo and I haven’t done any writing since either.
We had a lie-in on Friday and when we got up I wrote a meal plan for this week and the shopping list. We made it to the supermarket by about 4pm. I’d checked the opening times ahead of going out in case they were closing early for the weekend. But Friday was normal hours. It turned out to be the best time to go, although I don’t imagine it will be like that every Friday. I think we’re going again at the same time today, so we’ll find out.
On Saturday the poet spent a little time in the garden blocking up escape routes for both the dog and the cat. At some point over Easter he also collected an amp from someone who was giving it away and he had a bit of a play with that. It wasn’t working, so he arranged with the person who usually looks after the band equipment to have a look at it. We still have to take the amp to him, but at least it’s lined up. I caught up on the washing. For the first time this year the washing line went up in the garden.
On Sunday, Son #2 and his partner came to vist us with their yampy dog. They don’t have a massive garden so every time the dog visits anywhere with a good-sized garden, he goes nuts. We sat in the conservatory for a natter while the dog had a lot of fun. (Rufus was in our bedroom because he’s not good with black dogs, and he’s getting a bit old to have a loony dog running around him.)
Monday was a bank holiday and we took the mother-in-law for a ride out to the seaside for fish and chips. It rained a lot of the time and MIL and the dog couldn’t walk very far, so we stayed in the car while the poet went to the pier to get fish for his mum, fish and chips for him and sausage and chips for me. When we’d finished that, I went with the poet to get us all an ice cream. He and his mum had plain 99s (chocolate flakes), while I had the 99, coloured bits, and red juice.
We went for a drive along the sea front just as a massive thunder storm erupted. It was a fantastic show.
Tuesday was a bit meh. The poet had a bit of driving to do for work and I just pottered around the house.
On Wednesday, I had a long chat with my sister and we arranged a course of action for the next few weeks.
Because it was a bank holiday weekend, she wasn’t able to register our mom’s death within the required five days, but she did make an appointment for today. I had a big box of paperwork to go through, which took half of the day. And then I was on an information-finding mission, which took the rest of the day. I was either glued to the phone hanging on, or searching online for the correct procedure.
And I made notes. Lots of notes. Lots of copious notes. And then I sent those to my sister for information.
Our brother and his wife want to come back over from Canada for the funeral, but they can’t come for at least six weeks. So one of the things we’re doing is arranging for our inheritance from our dad to be released. It was put in trust for the life of our mom with me and my sister as trustees. The money will help our brother with their flights, amongst other things of course. It does mean, though, that the funeral won’t be until the beginning of June, which is just as well as it seems everyone is very busy at the moment for some reason (registrar, undertaker, probate, etc).
By Thursday I was itching to do something work-wise, but was at a loss for what to do. I have so much I could be doing it’s a bit overwhelming. I decided to start with the newsletter, as the last one I sent out was in January. It was probably a bit of a boring newsletter, but it got me back into work and that was the main thing.
On Thursday evening I started to read Save the Cat! Writes a Novel again. I’ve been watching the workshops the author gives on this topic, which is one of many available to subscribers to her writing mastery website. But as it had been a good week since my last workshop, I thought reading the book might get me back into the swing of things again. I concentrated on just the chapter on the main character, and before I turned in I jotted down a page of notes for my main character in The Fool.
So far today I’ve only done faff work. I started with catching up on the competitions. I did a few paid surveys. I played a few paid games. I went onto the Camp NaNo website and aborted the project for April. I’ll carry on with The Fool, and I’ll carry on with the Save the Cat! process. Hopefully I’ll have something else to work on by the time the July Camp comes around. And I pitched for a few jobs on Upwork and reported two. One was asking for free work, the other was a freelancer looking for work.
I still have the weekly scan and backup to do and then I want to look at next week’s diary. I’m not doing any work for anyone else, though. After dinner today I’ll have another look at The Fool, then I’ll do this week’s meal plan and shopping list.
Hopefully by Monday I’ll be back in the saddle. We don’t have anything planned for the weekend. I think we’ll be dropping that amp off to be repaired and then the world’s our oyster.
Have a good one!
Be kind to yourself. It’s a big transition. And there’s way too much paperwork involved, and people demanding you do something by a deadline, when they dick around on their end.
Conflicting advice from different quarters is also a bit of a problem, but we’re getting there. And at least there are two of us working on this. It’s a lot of work for one person to do on their own. It’s a lot of work for two of us.