Week 288: Five Hour Chat

I’ve had an absolutely wild week of ups and downs. I’m emotionally and physically exhausted.

We kicked off with my dad’s birthday. He would have been 78 this year if he wasn’t dead. I knew him for 18 years and he’s been dead for 20 so it’s weird coming to terms with the fact I probably know some of my friends better than I knew him. It’s also weird thinking about the fact that the “me” he knew is very much not the person I am today, would we even get on? Who knows. Weird.

On Thursday I gave a well received talk at work. I know it was well received because a dozen people DMed me directly about it to say so, that’s never happened before. Also the head of our department kept nodding at me a lot while I was speaking. I was given 24 hours to prepare the talk so I think I can call it a success. I nearly burned all the goodwill that I generated by asking why we have no budget for promotions but decided to bank that credit for now instead.

After the talk I left the office because I had a half day booked. It wasn’t a fun half day, I was driving to visit my little brother in hospital.

Despite the heaviness of the situation we chatted for five hours straight about everything under the sun. I can’t remember the last time we bonded like this, so silver linings.

While I was north of London with the car I dropped into Grandma’s and mum popped over. We mostly talked about George but also the house.

Boardgames was a welcome distraction.

On Friday Charlotte completed on her house. I told you it was a week of ups and downs. Gonna be honest the day was a blur and more stress than fun. We drove up to Matlock at about 50mph due to motorway issues so got there quite late. Then we struggled to park. Then we just needed a little rest so we chilled on the sofa and spiralled slightly about the traffic noise (we got into the house at rush hour and the room we chose to nap in is the closest to the road).

We relaxed a bit and got more excited in the evening. The chip shop around the corner is amazing, like I’ll probably never get fish and chips in London again. We’re now in full admin and planning mode; I’ve made several spreadsheets.

We chilled a lot for the rest of the weekend, I deserved it. On Sunday we had drinks and dinner with J&C which was lovely.

Today (Monday) we had drinks and dinner with Gallal which was lovely. I spent the first half of the day doing a few house tasks for the flat, I took apart all the waste pipes for the kitchen sink and washing machine and gave them a deep clean, they were absolutely rancid so I felt like I achieved something.

Writing all this was a headfuck and a half. I have a two day week and then on holiday in Bergerac, I will drink wine and relax. Laters.