Monday, September 29, 2008

A break for a while

I'm going to take a break from this blog for a while for reasons that are entirely personal and of no particular import to the world at large. I may be back, I may not be. I will post my intentions in due course, once I've decided what I am going to do.
I will continue to read the witty and wonderful words of others - take care all.
Love
Ms B

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Surviving without 8 hours per night

I've been such a busy thing recently, surviving on too little sleep, leaving wet towels in the washing machine for up to a week because I've forgotten about them and all the time limping through each day.

I know I'm not good when I'm really really tired - I get worked up over little things and I lose my sense of proportion. The best thing I can do is to withdraw from people and sleep but I haven't had that luxury so I'm glad to say that I've managed to keep myself in check. To the world I've looked calm, cheery and very busy. One of my staff apparently commented to another that it was amazing that I could be so relaxed when I'm rushing from one thing to another, and as a result I was her idol.

I also managed to negotiate a difficult situation between two colleagues (Mr Elder Statesman and Mr Most Distinguished Gent). MRS and MMDG don't get along and we we all needed to work together on the urgent Very Important Thing. I managed to pull the VIT together without seeming to be taking one side or another, and put in extra hours to ensure that we went above and beyond the call in terms of what was required. The persons who benefit from VIT were happy. MES thanked me while MMDG who has never been my biggest fan told me he was very impressed and he recognised my diplomacy skills. All this while I've been getting 3-4 hours sleep per night.

So just as the crazy hours ebbed away I started to feel happy (maybe a bit too smug) and think that I may have conquered this tiredness thing I get a call from MMDG. I'd made a small but embarrassing mistake on VIT - one that I thought about at the time and made a call on. When he pointed it out to me, I realised that of course I was wrong. Of course this realisation came too late as I momentarily tried to explain my decision. I could hear him sigh over the phone and with that exhalation went his good opinion of me.

The mistake will have little practical consequence but makes me look unprofessional. I've apologised but I'm not sure it has had any effect.

So now I have enough time for 8 hours a night, but I can't get that much sleep as I have a hollow feeling at the pit of my stomach as I churn over my mistake again and again and again.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

That will serve her right...

It is only a few weeks ago that I posted that my dear old Mum had a strange and passionate dislike of Barack Obama. Then this happened:


One look at a moose-hunting, right to lifer, pro-Alaskan oil drilling, climate sceptic and my Mum has declared she is a "100% Obama supporter." She also mumbled something about the decline of the great American empire, and how Putin may cause the end of the world but she'd had a few gins by then and that can bring out the pessimist in any girl.