It’s been so lonely without you here;
Like a bird without a song.
Nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling
Tell me baby, where did I go wrong?
Wednesday
Woke up early. Again. This seems to be becoming a habit. One child still snoring, I took the other one downstairs very, very quietly and found cartoons on Disney+ to watch. Tried the new version of Duck Tales, but it’s just lacking… something… compared to the original. Soul, maybe? It’s computer animated rather than hand drawn. We stuck with the late 80s/ early 90s nostalgia ‘toons, at least until the rest of the household emerged at gone 8am, by which point I’d also been horribly organised and put the pork for dinner in the sous vide..
Getting into a routine now; breakfast, head upstairs for meetings, followed by work, followed by more meetings, then lunch, which for a change wasn’t wolfed down in 5 minutes flat.
Back to the office, interviewed one of the candidates from last week for the second time – they’ll be getting an offer from us – and then spent an hour demonstrating to our (supposedly technical) end users how to use the tools I’ve been building for them. That was like pulling teeth. Demonstration was fine, then asked “Any questions?” Silence. Followed by, just after I start to move on. “Actually, what about <X>?”. The “Any further questions?”, silence, and last-minute interruption sequence goes on for more than half an hour.
Cooking dinner at a time that suits both our working hours and the kids’ bedtime is becoming a bit of a chore; people pinging me about work at mealtimes is also unhelpful (to be fair, 1. they’re overseas and 2. I’d usually still be at the office at that time under normal circumstances).
Eventually collapsed onto the sofa at 9pm, way too late to make beer, and watched the final episodes of Parks and Recreation, a series that we were way, way too late coming to.
Thursday
Slept in. No, wait, the other thing. Woke before 6 again. Not much notable about the day other than the boss promises we’ll be done with this project (at least in terms of delivery) by 4pm tomorrow so we can all have a clear weekend. Yeah, right, I’ll believe that when I see it.
Again, managed a leisurely-ish lunch! Just one ping on Slack, which I accidentally ignored because my phone and laptop were both upstairs. Wasn’t massively important anyway, just a question about something I already had in hand. The afternoon was free of interviews for a change (though only because the candidate cancelled on us), so I had a little more time to check in on my team and find out where they’re up to with their work. Good to see some progress on stuff that will turn out to be more important than we’d first envisaged!
Once again, a late dinner, though not as bad as yesterday. Got the brew kit out finally and started to heat the water to strike point around 8pm, setting up by the back door. Was simply in awe of the number of people who stood out on the street (ourselves included) to applaud the NHS efforts, complete with fireworks up the road. I’m usually something of a cynic when it comes to these things; perhaps I should be slightly less so in future. Had a brief chat with our next door neighbours before we went back inside; they’re helping out a local greengrocer they know get produce to those who can’t get out themselves. I’m slightly envious; between the children and the job, I don’t have even the tiniest bit of energy left over to go into helping those less fortunate. I suppose I’m already doing two jobs at once (or at least one and a half) what with the kids.
I haven’t left the house in five days, except for the odd ten minutes in the garden. Tomorrow I need to make time to get out on the bike, one way or another.
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