Oh dear, I've not really got on with the blogging this year, have I? Since going back to work I seem to have had no time or energy for anything else. But it's almost the weekend, so: quick update time.
Tybalt is doing much better. He had a further check up today, as he's now been on the meds for a month, so he has to have blood tests so they can check that he's having the right dosage. He'd put on another 300g, which means he has gained nearly 2lbs since he started treatment. He is, of course, not at all happy with me for taking him to the vet - and 3 times in a month is, he makes clear, wholly unacceptable. I have given him a spare sardine, however, and I think he is considering forgiving me...
In other news, I've been very busy at work - I seem to have spent vast amounts of time in court this week, mostly with good outcomes from a professional perspective, although sad in other ways. (A child being removed from parents is never good, even when it is the least-worst option for the child concerned..)
There have been a few other things going on causing me a lot of stress, which always causes me to sleep badly, so I get stuck into a cycle of sleeping badly, so having no energy to do much except work, which in turn means little time or energy to do anything fun, which adds to the stress... All of which means that life becomes a little dull, and there is nothing to blog about.
I shall try to do better this weekend.
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Friday, 13 January 2012
Saturday, 16 July 2011
In Which I Am Somewhat Stressed
Friday did not go well.
I had a full day at the office planned, but on Wednesday I learned of an unexpected hearing, for Friday, in DistantTown, which is about 2 hours from me. This meant having to apply to amend my client's legal aid. You wouldn't think that would be too difficult, as the criteria were clearly met, but due to cutbacks and backlogs most applicartions take weeks to process. Which is not good when you need a reply within 2 days.
So, the process is something like this:
The hearing on Friday was listed for one hour, at 11 a.m. So I was fairly tired and a little stressed when it finished at 3.35. And was not best pleased when I then discovered that due to an accident on the Motorway, traffic was backed up into town, so my journey back, which would normally take about 90 minutes (to the office) or 2 hours (to home) was considerably extended.
The back log from the motorway being closed probably only delayed me for about 20 minutes, but as it turned out, after that I was also destined to be further delayed by The Old Man in a Flat Cap, driving at 30 mph or 10 mph below the spped limit, whichever was slower, the Van Towing Trailer (apprently driven by someone who had never towed anything, and possibly never driven anything before, the Funeral Cortege (and who holds a funeral at 5 in the afternoon?) and, of course, the Extra-Long, Extra-Wide Articulated Lorry Carrying Portakabins sent to meet me just as the narrowest, sharpest corner in Glastonbury.
All of which meant it took me nearly 2 1/2 hours to get back, so I literally only had time to lock ny files into the house before rushing back to the station to catch a train to London at 6.15. and then that train was delayed so I had to sprint to change platforms at Bath, making the connection by the skin of my teeth.
Mercifully there was a bar on the train.
Of
I had a full day at the office planned, but on Wednesday I learned of an unexpected hearing, for Friday, in DistantTown, which is about 2 hours from me. This meant having to apply to amend my client's legal aid. You wouldn't think that would be too difficult, as the criteria were clearly met, but due to cutbacks and backlogs most applicartions take weeks to process. Which is not good when you need a reply within 2 days.
So, the process is something like this:
- Phone Legal Aid. Spend 45 minutes on hold listening to cheesy elevator music, interrupted evey 30 seconds or so by mesages saying that your call will be answered shortly (even long after it has become obvious that this is, in fact, a LIE) and that it is important to them (which, frankly, is also a LIE, as they are a monopoly)
- Eventually reach an actual person, who confirms what you already know, namely that they can't actually grant the necessary amendment over the phone, only give you a code to allow you to fax it in to be dealt with urgently, which will "probably" be done within 48 hours.
- Fax application, making sure to get a delivery confirmation
- the following morning, telephone to follow up & see whether the application has been dealt with. Spend 70 minutes on hold waiting for your call to be answered "shortly".
- Just as you lose the will to live (or at least to live as a person who has to deal with the Legal services Commission) you get to a person, who claims that they have not recieved the fax. After some discussion, they admit that it would be possible to scan and e-mail a further copy of the form, which we duly do...
- Ring for a third time. (because they won't actually phone of fax to tell you. that would be too easy) Weep softly forthe 30 minutes spent on hold while listening to cheesy elevator music and insincere messages.
- get amendment.
The hearing on Friday was listed for one hour, at 11 a.m. So I was fairly tired and a little stressed when it finished at 3.35. And was not best pleased when I then discovered that due to an accident on the Motorway, traffic was backed up into town, so my journey back, which would normally take about 90 minutes (to the office) or 2 hours (to home) was considerably extended.
The back log from the motorway being closed probably only delayed me for about 20 minutes, but as it turned out, after that I was also destined to be further delayed by The Old Man in a Flat Cap, driving at 30 mph or 10 mph below the spped limit, whichever was slower, the Van Towing Trailer (apprently driven by someone who had never towed anything, and possibly never driven anything before, the Funeral Cortege (and who holds a funeral at 5 in the afternoon?) and, of course, the Extra-Long, Extra-Wide Articulated Lorry Carrying Portakabins sent to meet me just as the narrowest, sharpest corner in Glastonbury.
All of which meant it took me nearly 2 1/2 hours to get back, so I literally only had time to lock ny files into the house before rushing back to the station to catch a train to London at 6.15. and then that train was delayed so I had to sprint to change platforms at Bath, making the connection by the skin of my teeth.
Mercifully there was a bar on the train.
Of
Saturday, 7 May 2011
In Which There Are Many Little Things....
I've had something of a stressful week, despite it having been so short (there was a bank holiday on Monday) and stress did the stuff it always does, and left me not sleeping well, and feeling nauseous, which is no fun whatsoever. And the knowledge that things are (almost) never as bad as you expect really doesn't help.
Anyway, for various reasons I was very much looking forward to the week being over. On Friday I was in court all day. It was a not-too-difficult day for me, as I had counsel, but a long day in a stuffy court room is rarely much fun, especially when timing leads to a certain emptiness, at the point in the day where one usually finds lunch...
However, after we had finished, it was suggested that we go for a drink, as one of our number was celebrating a birthday, and besides, I was told, "it's fizzy Friday" (one per week!) so i found myself, at around 5.30, sitting out under a large parasol, sipping chilled prosecco and fraternising with my erstwhile opponents. I’m not in the habit of drinking champagne or prosecco at 5.30 in the afternoon, even on a Friday, but I have to say it is the kind of thing one could become accustomed to, fairly easily…!
Of course, one of the disadvantages of slurping fizz at 5.30 is that you then have to find something else to do afterwards, while you wait for the fizz to wear off in order to drive home. Happily, another local lawyer was holding a party to celebrate 20 years in practice, so we went to congratulate her, and socialise for a while. Not at all what I had planned for my Friday evening, but definitely a pleasant end to the week. And when I got home, it was to find an unexpected free box of chocolates on the doorstep, which I think we can all agree is the type of thing which improves any day no end! (The chocolates are a somewhat belated apology from the chocolate company, for having inserted a big chunk of plastic sheeting into a chocolate I had at Christmas)
So not a bad day, all in all.
And then, it started to rain. It hasn’t rained for several weeks, and everything smelled of freshness and wet earth and spring, and a new start.
Today has been a quiet day – I woke up to the news that the referendum, on AV has resulted in a ‘No’ vote, which does not surprise me, but which does disappoint me. Other than that, I have done dull things, such as laundry and hoovering the floors, and topping up the oil in the car, and taking cardboard and plastic to the recycling place. I have also been to the garden centre to buy various seedlings – tomatoes, beans and so on, as, as usual, I have either been too late to plant seeds or have planted them and seen them develop into healthy slug-food. I am hoping that the plants I have now bought will prove too large to be easily eaten by slugs, even the Super-Slugs which seem to inhabit my garden. I haven’t planted them yet, as I got side-tracked by weeding, and it then started to rain, but hopefully tomorrow will be fine for long enough to do so.
The day ended, happily, with Doctor Who and Pirates, and a little sneak preview of Mr Gaiman’s episode, which airs next week. I have to say that this week’s episode, while it had its moments, will not, I think, go down as one of the great episodes. It was fun, but not deep.
Anyway, for various reasons I was very much looking forward to the week being over. On Friday I was in court all day. It was a not-too-difficult day for me, as I had counsel, but a long day in a stuffy court room is rarely much fun, especially when timing leads to a certain emptiness, at the point in the day where one usually finds lunch...
However, after we had finished, it was suggested that we go for a drink, as one of our number was celebrating a birthday, and besides, I was told, "it's fizzy Friday" (one per week!) so i found myself, at around 5.30, sitting out under a large parasol, sipping chilled prosecco and fraternising with my erstwhile opponents. I’m not in the habit of drinking champagne or prosecco at 5.30 in the afternoon, even on a Friday, but I have to say it is the kind of thing one could become accustomed to, fairly easily…!
Of course, one of the disadvantages of slurping fizz at 5.30 is that you then have to find something else to do afterwards, while you wait for the fizz to wear off in order to drive home. Happily, another local lawyer was holding a party to celebrate 20 years in practice, so we went to congratulate her, and socialise for a while. Not at all what I had planned for my Friday evening, but definitely a pleasant end to the week. And when I got home, it was to find an unexpected free box of chocolates on the doorstep, which I think we can all agree is the type of thing which improves any day no end! (The chocolates are a somewhat belated apology from the chocolate company, for having inserted a big chunk of plastic sheeting into a chocolate I had at Christmas)
So not a bad day, all in all.
And then, it started to rain. It hasn’t rained for several weeks, and everything smelled of freshness and wet earth and spring, and a new start.
Today has been a quiet day – I woke up to the news that the referendum, on AV has resulted in a ‘No’ vote, which does not surprise me, but which does disappoint me. Other than that, I have done dull things, such as laundry and hoovering the floors, and topping up the oil in the car, and taking cardboard and plastic to the recycling place. I have also been to the garden centre to buy various seedlings – tomatoes, beans and so on, as, as usual, I have either been too late to plant seeds or have planted them and seen them develop into healthy slug-food. I am hoping that the plants I have now bought will prove too large to be easily eaten by slugs, even the Super-Slugs which seem to inhabit my garden. I haven’t planted them yet, as I got side-tracked by weeding, and it then started to rain, but hopefully tomorrow will be fine for long enough to do so.
The day ended, happily, with Doctor Who and Pirates, and a little sneak preview of Mr Gaiman’s episode, which airs next week. I have to say that this week’s episode, while it had its moments, will not, I think, go down as one of the great episodes. It was fun, but not deep.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
A Bad Day at the Office
So, it’s been a long and stressful week at work – I don’t want to go into too much detail (I very much doubt that anyone I work with will ever come here, but paranoia speaks to me, murmuring caution…) But basically we have been having to look at ways of cutting costs, as our business is directly affected by the fall in the housing market. And as our single biggest expense (by a very long way) is salaries, the harsh truth which we have been addressing I that we have to reduce the wages bill. As if this wasn’t bad enough, another issue came up which has the potential to cause a huge rift between the partners, and the way in which it was raised caused a LOT of raised hackles
Now, clearly it is far worse to be the person or people whose jobs are on the line, or who are being invited to accept reduced hours, but it is also pretty unpleasant to be having to try to make those decisions. Add to this a couple of other things, and it became a very bad day – and, because I knew in advance that it was going to be like this, I had slept badly, and spent all day feeling sick.
My problem with this kind of situation is that knowing in my head that actually, the world is not going to end, that people will almost certainly not decide that I am single-handedly to blame for whatever is wrong and that fretting about it in advance will not help, But this knowledge doesn’t get through to my subconscious, so I end up not sleeping and feeling sick, which of course in turn means that when the meeting or whatever-it-is actually arrives, I am already tired, stressed and expecting the worst. Not helped on this occasion by having had a conversation with a colleague who was very pessimistic – again, I know in my head that this person is a very Eeyore-ish person, so normally I take what they say with a healthy pinch of optimism, but again, it is one thing to Know this, and quite another to believe it, deep down.
Fortunately, I have some very good friends, who gave me much needed support, without having to know any details. Equally fortunately, as often happens, things weren’t as bad as I had started to think they would be – we think we can work things so everyone gets to keep their job (at least unless things get worse) and the other issue turned out to be less (or at least less immediately) of an issue that had appeared – which made me thankful that I had managed to deny my first impulse to send a reflexive e-mail back at the start, as that would have undoubtedly made matters worse. A friend of mine recently referred to this as the ‘Lizard Brain’ – the part that is unreasonable, illogical, distrustful – it’s a good description. I must remember it for the future!
So, after all of this, I finished the week feeling utterly exhausted. So it’s just as well that I had (previously) decided against going to Manchester this weekend. Instead, I have stayed home, snoozed, had some very long baths, watched some suitably non-threatening TV and unwound a lot. and had chocolate-chip cookies. Chocoalte cures (almost) all ills.
I’ve also sorted out various bills - I have set up payments for the Council Tax and Water bills for the next year, neither of which has gone up by as much as I feared, have finally got around to reviewing (and arranging to change) my internet provider, paid the house insurance, paid the paper bill, paid the credit card bill and wormed the cat. All of which needed doing, and doing them also helped me to feel that I was back in control of things, which is also a Good Thing.
Now, clearly it is far worse to be the person or people whose jobs are on the line, or who are being invited to accept reduced hours, but it is also pretty unpleasant to be having to try to make those decisions. Add to this a couple of other things, and it became a very bad day – and, because I knew in advance that it was going to be like this, I had slept badly, and spent all day feeling sick.
My problem with this kind of situation is that knowing in my head that actually, the world is not going to end, that people will almost certainly not decide that I am single-handedly to blame for whatever is wrong and that fretting about it in advance will not help, But this knowledge doesn’t get through to my subconscious, so I end up not sleeping and feeling sick, which of course in turn means that when the meeting or whatever-it-is actually arrives, I am already tired, stressed and expecting the worst. Not helped on this occasion by having had a conversation with a colleague who was very pessimistic – again, I know in my head that this person is a very Eeyore-ish person, so normally I take what they say with a healthy pinch of optimism, but again, it is one thing to Know this, and quite another to believe it, deep down.
Fortunately, I have some very good friends, who gave me much needed support, without having to know any details. Equally fortunately, as often happens, things weren’t as bad as I had started to think they would be – we think we can work things so everyone gets to keep their job (at least unless things get worse) and the other issue turned out to be less (or at least less immediately) of an issue that had appeared – which made me thankful that I had managed to deny my first impulse to send a reflexive e-mail back at the start, as that would have undoubtedly made matters worse. A friend of mine recently referred to this as the ‘Lizard Brain’ – the part that is unreasonable, illogical, distrustful – it’s a good description. I must remember it for the future!
So, after all of this, I finished the week feeling utterly exhausted. So it’s just as well that I had (previously) decided against going to Manchester this weekend. Instead, I have stayed home, snoozed, had some very long baths, watched some suitably non-threatening TV and unwound a lot. and had chocolate-chip cookies. Chocoalte cures (almost) all ills.
I’ve also sorted out various bills - I have set up payments for the Council Tax and Water bills for the next year, neither of which has gone up by as much as I feared, have finally got around to reviewing (and arranging to change) my internet provider, paid the house insurance, paid the paper bill, paid the credit card bill and wormed the cat. All of which needed doing, and doing them also helped me to feel that I was back in control of things, which is also a Good Thing.
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