Has Anybody Seen The Weekend ?
I've been sitting on the couch with the netbook for the last hour, half watching the television, half wondering what to write about, and half watching the remaining minutes of Sunday evening tick away. That's three halves, which pretty much describes my state of mind at the moment.
Yesterday I spent the day standing on the touchline of a football pitch, washing up, tidying up, walking into town to buy groceries, babysitting the kids for a play-date, and re-installing an old computer. Today I spent the morning stood on the touchline of a rugby pitch, walking into town grocery shopping, building a website on the internet, and fighting with our eldest daughter.
I counted yesterday – I found myself stood in the kitchen with a sink full of washing up seven times. We still haven't spent the money my parents gave us at Christmas for a new dishwasher, because we haven't been able to be here when it might get delivered.
At the moment life feels like a huge hamster wheel that is closed on both sides.
It would be wrong to paint everything so darkly though – today our youngest daughter returned from her first Judo tournament with a bronze medal. We made a huge deal of it (and were incredibly proud) – she walked into the house, took the medal off, nonchalantly hung it on a door, and walked off.
I can't believe it's already 11pm.
I will be in the office for a few hours tomorrow, then return home to pack my bag for a trip to the north of England once more. Five hours on trains for a long meeting on Tuesday, then return on Tuesday night.
I need life to slow down a bit – a few days of calm would be nice before I head to Scotland next month. Quite how the house is going to keep going with me absent for two weeks is anybody's guess. I'm thinking I need to hire a cleaner for a few days during my absence. Who knows – if we had help, perhaps we would get half a chance to spend time together as a family instead of always sprinting from one thing to the next.