I’m sat in the study at home, bathed in the light of a desk lamp, two monitors, and a laptop. I’m officially “on call” for work - which in reality means I logged in this morning, opened Microsoft Outlook, and have half listened for the familiar chime of arriving email all day. It’s like a form of paranoia.
My parents left this morning after spending a couple of days with us. It was wonderful to have them visit, and great fun for the children - they had looked forward to their arrival for days. After such high spirits, and amazing behaviour from the children I was wondering when the crash would come. It happened an hour or two after their departure today.
What started as a fight over a blanked in the playroom eventually resulted in Miss Seven being deserted by her sisters to scream the place down. While they went off to watch cartoons and play with toys, she had a total meltdown, in the process singing an improvised sad song that could have reduced quite nasty pirates to tears probably, so heartfelt was it; “I’m so saaaad… Nobody loves me… Nobody wants to play with me… And I’m not tired… And I don’t need a nap… And I’m so bored… (chorus - repeat several times) And I shall not bother… I sat quietly listening from the study across, caught between feeling sorry for her, and laughing into my sleeve. Her sense of the dramatic is awful and wonderful at the same time.
So. It’s the day before New Years Eve. We have friends visiting us tomorrow night (I think) to ring in the New Year - I don’t really know - much of my life is spent being told what is going to happen next. I expect some kind of shopping trip will be set into motion as soon as I’ve finished work today.
One of the huge advantages about working from home is I can wander into the kitchen, make a coffee, and steal from the fridge. Yes, I could do that at work too, but people don’t tend to react wonderfully to you nosing around the fridge for whatever you might find…