Frydmania

Drawing breath

October 26th, 2007

So, after the mad frantic excitment of having a laptop, I have to leave it for a while, as we are ready for some holiday!  We’re about to go to the south of France (between Nice and Monaco), followed by a week with our good friends Rachel and David, who live near Milan.

Even though life has been quieter at work, I still managed to leave at 7…Dan is not yet home, hence some blogging, while I decide whether or not to start cooking, or wait for him to come back first.

Somehow it’s always a fight to leave work, get things tamped down, and head off on holiday.  For Dan, it’s even harder, given that it’s his own company, and he’s the main one doing liaison with customers. 

This time, I was able to leave my manager with our two new members of staff to fill the gap.  There’ll be limits to what they can do, given they’ve only been in for a week, but it’s a start.

More of the picture for work is emerging, which means I will get some HR type stuff to do, or rather learning and development.  Given that I enjoy both of these things for myself, it’ll be nice to have a more officialised role for encouraging others to do this.  And as so many staff are new, it’s a particular moment to sense what people know, do lots of training that doesn’t cost much but shares around people’s experience, etc.

I had a bit of a pang yesterday, when looking at our weekly bulletin, which goes out around the whole organisation.  Lots of people mentioned for our office, and almost everyone was either new or on promotion…and I still remain at the same level as I’ve been for the last 5 or more years.

The minute I note this, though, I know full well that I wasn’t interested in the jobs that were available at the grade above - the type of thing they were covering wasn’t for me.  No point moving unless it’s to something I want to do.  And maybe, sometime, they will actually create the job they’ve talked of, with lots of communications work in education, which is I guess what I’ve been building up to for the last year in particular.

Yesterday hit us quite hard: loss of a family friend, news of further ill health for Dan’s granny, a ‘no’ from a possible designer for Dan’s company (or more accurately, yes to freelance, but also yes to someone else’s company for most of the time).  There’s a need to draw breath from all that.  We’re OK in ourselves, and with each other, but yes, we need some space.

I’d read on someone else’s blog of them taking time during a holiday to talk to their wife, take stock, work out where they wanted life to go in the future, or perhaps, what they wanted it to be about.  I’m not sure that’s what we will be doing this time - the realisation that as life goes on, we have less and less control over some stuff.  My work situation is better than a month ago, yes, but there’s still a lot where I don’t know where it’s going.  In comparison to the past, I’m less keen on volunteering to do things, on having big plans for work - unfortunately, it can be a recipe for being taken advantage of.

So, yes to big plans for free time, for family time…and even just for some looking on at life, breathing more calmly.

Entry Filed under: Travel