(Saturday, 4 April 2020)
Having spent the last couple of days festering around the place and doing a bit of this and a bit of that, it was a huge relief to have had a really good night’s sleep and bounced out of bed feeling clear headed and chirpy. Well, when I say ‘bounced’ (I really am not a first thing in the morning person), I mean that I sort of got up and shuffled out to the balcony with my coffee but I did it with a much more cheerful and positive outlook and more of a bounce to my slug like shuffling. 😬 😆
Mark joined me out there after a bit and we held a 15 minute board meeting on the balcony with our coffees and decided on the day’s plan. Well, Mark’s plan more to the point. He has a couple of new projects up his sleeve to coincide with the arrival of the better weather and was keen to get started. He is now planning to dig a french drain behind the garage, using rubble that seems to sprout in various places from the ground in the old chicken run.
Sometimes, just listening to him exhausts me, he is a veritable machine and is always wanting to get on with the next big job. I’m far more faffy in my approach to getting things done… a bit of this, a bit of that, pretty much whatever my mood of the moment fancies doing (and a few things my mood doesn’t fancy doing, but need doing nonetheless).
I find tackling big physical projects quite daunting and therefore have a tendency to either prevaricate and put them off completely, or I start them, become daunted and leave them unfinished, coming back to them a little at a time (…or never…) 😉 😂
I give you my pebble path/edging around the veg patch as Exhibit A – a job that was started, I keep coming back to it but it’s not yet finished or even my (infamous) kitchen curtains as Exhibit B. The curtains which, despite muttering about this a week or more ago, have yet to be started. Instead, I’ve picked up smaller sewing jobs and done them instead – mostly for the quick win feeling of satisfaction and achievement. At some point, I will have to bite the bullet, set aside a few hours of concentrated effort and get the damn things made.
But that’s another of my quirky character traits… when I do decide to take the bull by the horns, in a split second, I change from the Queen of Faff into a single minded (some might say bloody minded) unstoppable train. Missing meals, being distracted by nothing and going at something full on, sometimes late into the night, until it’s done. My previous working life was littered with such episodes. It was why self employment suited me so well… for the reasons I’ve given above, I really was every bosses’ nightmare. 😝
The good thing about this current situation is that there is no pressure to get any of these things done in a tight timescale. Unlike the norm, where we are forced to fit a job into a couple of days between guests or worse, between guest departures in the morning and the new set arriving in the afternoon.
Anybody care to take a guess at the level of expletives that abound when you go to change over a room after check out, only to discover that something has been broken/damaged/stained and realise you have only 4 hours between the last lot leaving and the new ones arriving? 😇 🤬
At least if they’ve told you in advance, you can plan for it to some degree, but discovering it at the last moment (and the law according to sod states clearly that the offending room will be the last one you go in and do) is one of the most stressful parts of this job. One that always sticks in my mind the clearest, is the incident where a basin was pulled off the wall… and we checked the room at midday on a Saturday… the DIY store closed at 13.00. You can probably imagine the rest 😜 😝
Having the luxury of time to get these things done, really does give it a bit of a ‘holiday like’ feel… which probably sounds weird.. but it does.
Yesterday was also the day I posted my least positive ramblings. I couldn’t let today’s post pass without making reference to the unbelievably amazing response it generated. I had no idea that a) so many of you were going through similar situations and feelings and b) how humbled I am by the love and kind wishes you all sent us. I can’t tell you how much it means to us and thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I so nearly didn’t post that yesterday and if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had such a graphic underlining of the bloody brilliant friends and family we have. You. Lot. Rock. Nuff said. 💖 💖 🙏 🙏 😁 😁 😘 😘
Stay safe everyone xx
