Weaknote 2023-06-27

The first weeknote! Or weak note. I’ve named it this way because I’m absolutely not going to be able to commit to doing this exactly weekly. I cheated with 100 Days of Code too… There’s a difference, I feel, between being defeatist and knowing your limits.

Hey, I might want to write one of these more than once a week sometimes, too :)

Anyway, this past week (and a little beyond):

Family

• We have been having a very busy time this month. Both myself and my husband have had work engagements keeping us from home, or making the working days longer. I have also been on a social trip away to see friends (more on that later) - it’s all been Go! Go! Go! We’re a bit tired. But coping.

• During this, our youngest child was ill for a week requiring parenting tag-team in between working and the other engagements. Note to self, if either child appears to be ailing again in this way, ask for them to do the finger-prick blood test sooner to check CRP values and see if antibiotics are needed, actually.

Work

• …has been very jolly lately, actually. First a conference trip with colleagues, then a quarterly three day ‘all hands’ event, which involves a big discussion day, a planning day, and a team-building fun day. Because of the aforementioned busy-family situation, I had to run away early on the first two days, but this turned out OK.

• During the discussion day, I managed to get a solid accessibility priority set in our working practices, which has been a really good first step. Step by step. Before this, I was a little overwhelmed with what needs doing, so it helps to narrow it down.

Self

• I just came back from a weekend seeing old friends. We had a chill and classy* hen party in Liverpool entailing matching T-shirts, a bunch of challenges in bingo card form, a makeover, then getting dressed up, going for a nice meal and dancing the night away. It was the perfect tonic, definitely something I needed.

• The last day of this trip I spent alone with the host, and we went to a Puppy Yoga session. Yes. I know. Actually the yoga wasn’t just a sideshow to the puppies, it was pretty good! And PUPPIES. 8 week old Dachshunds, painfully cute. Apparently it’s actually useful for the breeders, to help socialise their pups, and we got to enjoy the snugs.

• My foot continues to be a pain. Either I’m learning to live with it, or it’s getting very slowly better. It’s plantar fasciitis or a heel spur, or the former became the latter. I miss walking around comfortably barefoot - it’s been sore since mid-January. I saw the doctor about it last week, and have decided to hold off on further treatment for now, after taking the advice of the physio. We will see if I can make any progress on my own.

*So said several people who said we were “not like all those other hen parties!” which was meant in a complimentary way, but at times it felt like it threw the other hen parties under a bus. They’re allowed to have fun in their way, too.

Afterword

That will do for now - let’s see when the next weak note is written :)