Much and work and much play makes for a busy Reine Misere...
Looking back at my journal, it seems that I’ve not updated since the end of February, which makes sense, since I’ve been pretty busy both with work and with play.
The new job is going OK. It’s a bit of a mess from an organisational point of view: HR and IT support are beyond a joke and I’ve still yet to be given my working-from-home laptop or a written contract - or the contact details of all the governors I have to send stuff! On the positive side, they did manage to pay me for the part-month I worked in February and the panel were very complimentary about the decision letter/minute which was my first piece of serious work for them (which happened also to be my first ever pay appeal hearing).
The other job is trundling along much as usual, and I have brokered an uneasy peace with the carefully-not-specified person who was so pissed off with (me and) everything back in February. For that school, much will depend on the election of their new Chair this coming week.
I’m half way through Month of Insane Workload, which has gone slightly better than anticipated, partly because I’ve had a couple of meetings postponed. All being well, I should be circulating my last sets of papers for the month in the next couple of days, and I currently only have minutes for one (short) meeting needing drafting. That means that maybe I can find some time in April to do the online training course stuff I've not touched since November, plus a bit of translation...
Oh, and the volunteer thing is finally done and dusted for this year. We had the completion event at the top floor of City Hall, which was a bit flash. I haven't sorted out the photos yet: the view was so impressive that I took silly amounts...
I’ve also managed to get a fair bit of not-work stuff done. I had a very successful Alternative Bring and Buy Sale at the beginning of March, where I sold quite a lot of stuff I didn’t use/wear and bought a smaller number of things which I am much more likely to use/wear. Here they are:
I’ve done semi-respectably on the domestic goddess front, too (to be read in a tone of definite irony, if you please…). The Alt B n B contributed to the progress of the Unclutter 2015 challenge, where I have so far disposed of a number of things equal to those I have brought into the house, plus another 215. If I keep on at a similar rate I’ll make the target of 365 items somewhere around May or so. I’ve also managed to keep up with the Doing Real Cooking thing, running at twice a month or so. The most recent, yesterday, was Penne alla Olive, i.e. pasta in a tomato and olive sauce.
Other things done, on the entertainment front, include a book reading/signing event, a cinema trip and a gig. I’ll hopefully get round to reviews for some or all of those things soon-ish, plus for the book I’ve been reading since just about forever and finally finished.
Anyway, it’s definitely getting to the point where I ought to be thinking about going to bed (not least because A has to be in much earlier than usual for the get-in for his new show tomorrow, so needs to be in bed soon so he can get up 'early'. He'll complain that he definitely can’t sleep if I’m not there when he tries to do so, because I’m usually in bed well before him…)
Reviews etc will follow later in the week [*touches wood*] , when I have broken the back of the week’s paid work…
The new job is going OK. It’s a bit of a mess from an organisational point of view: HR and IT support are beyond a joke and I’ve still yet to be given my working-from-home laptop or a written contract - or the contact details of all the governors I have to send stuff! On the positive side, they did manage to pay me for the part-month I worked in February and the panel were very complimentary about the decision letter/minute which was my first piece of serious work for them (which happened also to be my first ever pay appeal hearing).
The other job is trundling along much as usual, and I have brokered an uneasy peace with the carefully-not-specified person who was so pissed off with (me and) everything back in February. For that school, much will depend on the election of their new Chair this coming week.
I’m half way through Month of Insane Workload, which has gone slightly better than anticipated, partly because I’ve had a couple of meetings postponed. All being well, I should be circulating my last sets of papers for the month in the next couple of days, and I currently only have minutes for one (short) meeting needing drafting. That means that maybe I can find some time in April to do the online training course stuff I've not touched since November, plus a bit of translation...
Oh, and the volunteer thing is finally done and dusted for this year. We had the completion event at the top floor of City Hall, which was a bit flash. I haven't sorted out the photos yet: the view was so impressive that I took silly amounts...
I’ve also managed to get a fair bit of not-work stuff done. I had a very successful Alternative Bring and Buy Sale at the beginning of March, where I sold quite a lot of stuff I didn’t use/wear and bought a smaller number of things which I am much more likely to use/wear. Here they are:
I’ve done semi-respectably on the domestic goddess front, too (to be read in a tone of definite irony, if you please…). The Alt B n B contributed to the progress of the Unclutter 2015 challenge, where I have so far disposed of a number of things equal to those I have brought into the house, plus another 215. If I keep on at a similar rate I’ll make the target of 365 items somewhere around May or so. I’ve also managed to keep up with the Doing Real Cooking thing, running at twice a month or so. The most recent, yesterday, was Penne alla Olive, i.e. pasta in a tomato and olive sauce.
Other things done, on the entertainment front, include a book reading/signing event, a cinema trip and a gig. I’ll hopefully get round to reviews for some or all of those things soon-ish, plus for the book I’ve been reading since just about forever and finally finished.
Anyway, it’s definitely getting to the point where I ought to be thinking about going to bed (not least because A has to be in much earlier than usual for the get-in for his new show tomorrow, so needs to be in bed soon so he can get up 'early'. He'll complain that he definitely can’t sleep if I’m not there when he tries to do so, because I’m usually in bed well before him…)
Reviews etc will follow later in the week [*touches wood*] , when I have broken the back of the week’s paid work…