Thursday was a bit of a bonus day in the world of new home renovation. We didn’t have to get up early to let anyone in. No one was coming to the house throughout the day. We didn’t have to be anywhere.
Well, we do have a stupid dog who likes to get us up early…and the dustmen were due to come and empty our wheelie bins (the recycle bin, the glass box, and the garden waste)…and we did have to go out and put petrol in my car on a dry run to the garage so I knew which gate to drive into in the morning…and the poet did have a meeting on site he had to attend…
But apart from all of that…
I’d submitted one of the proofreading jobs the night before at around 9pm and after working so hard on that one, I thought I deserved a bit of a rest, even if it did mean just not getting to my desk first thing. But I realised I hadn’t proof-read any illustration captions for that job, so off I went in search of the pdf. I couldn’t find it, but I did find a Word document with the captions on that I definitely hadn’t edited. So I edited that one and sent it back to the ciient.
I’d already started the next proofreading job when an email came in asking if I’d started a different one or did I want her to do it? Well, I know she’s just as busy as me. Busier. Much busier. But she’d also asked me to prioritise the one I started over everything else. So I responded, saying to see how far I’ve got by the end of today and if I think I can fit it in early next week I will, and if not, then she can do it. She was happy with that solution/compromise, so we’ll see how I go.
Of course, I’d forgotten that my car was going in for its MOT this morning, but as that was quite an early start, I kept my fingers crossed that they’d do it while I waited, like every other MOT centre in the country…Ho ho ho, I think we can already guess where we’re going with that one!
Because I’d worked until 9pm the day before, I decided to shut up shop just before 6pm yesterday, with 10 minutes to spare. I’d normally work until 7pm, but we still had to go and fill my car up. The poet had already come home from his site meeting, so all we had to do was swap the cars and I’d go while he stayed with the dog.
However, we’re both tired. We’re both feeling a bit stressed. We’ve achieved a lot in the past 8 weeks. And we’ve done a lot of stuff. I’ve had to do a lot more people than I’d usually do in a year. Even our weekends are busy still, doing stuff. So we decided we’d all go for a ride out in my car, fill it with petrol, and get a takeaway for tea.
We’ve had more takeaways in the past 8 weeks than we’ve had in the last 2 or 3 years, and that, plus all of the above, is starting to take its toll, on my body at least. No, I’m not ballooning in weight or anything like that, but I do feel like I’m eating a lot of stodge, and my body can’t cope with too much stodge. And we’re getting a bit ratty – heck, I seem to be getting angry with the slightest thing at the moment, and so does the poet. Things we can’t control but that aren’t living up to our high expectations.
So, we’re heeding the warnings and we’re going in search of some Zen. We know we need a holiday sooner rather than later, but we can’t do that until after the wedding. Instead, whenever we feel ourselves getting agitated, we’re taking a breath before letting off steam. We’ve decided that instead of doing the bedroom, the hallway and the living room next week, the decorator can do the lobby instead of the living room, if he still wants to do three rooms.
There’s still a lot of work that needs doing in the living room, like the fireplace clearing after a soot-fall, a bit of boarding out and a new curtain pole. But there isn’t a lot that needs doing in the lobby, yet. Yes, we’ll likely be panelling it out at some point, but not yet. And anyway, he may have enough with the two rooms.
That means then, that apart from the usual shopping at the weekend, and having to make sure the decorator has enough room to manoeuvre, we’re not doing anything else. Daughter is coming to collect some of the coal that was in the coal bunkers we had removed, but that’s all. If we can chill a bit, we will.
Have a great weekend.
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