Home/Work

Photo by Ken Tomita on Pexels.com

Husband and I have been working from home for 10 months now. We’ve moved from kitchen table to spare room to attic room. We’ve been grateful every single day of those months that we have rooms in which to work. We’ve thanked our lucky stars we have work, and haven’t lost any of it over the past year. We’ve had connection issues and back issues. We’ve had negotiations over space and equipment. We’ve had lunch breaks and coffees. We’ve had late nights and early mornings. We’ve had IT failures and patchy solutions. We’ve had good days, and boring days, and bad days, and muddling through it all days.

Having been in jobs where working from home for even one day wasn’t ever a possibility, we’ve been thinking about what work might look like in ten months’ time. Could we work at home, together? Would we want to? What if we had a mix of work and home?

I have been in my workplace occasionally, and it has been transformed. Gone are the quick chats and coffee breaks. It all feels very intense and intentional. We’re only there because we have to be, and we scurry off home as soon as we can. There’s no lunches together; we sit at tables placed two meters apart and there is no mixing.

I have missed some bits and pieces of working in an office, and I’ve been grateful for the ability to work from home. I’m finding the idea of a daily commute very hard work, and I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it again. I’ve been amazed that a wholesale transformation of how we work can take place within weeks, and that the work gets done and there doesn’t seem to be as many negatives as we were led to believe they would.

I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that work continues like this in some form or another. Life feels more balanced and organised, even on those days where I’m in a funk and getting out of bed seems like a lot of work.

Tiny Sparks of Joy

Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

It’s Brexit day, so knowing that we live in a country that knows how to hold referendums and is pro-EU is how I’m choosing to look on the bright side.

Photo books, political leaflets, ‘cheque enclosed’ – the post box on the side of our house sparked a lot of joy this week.

Getting to the gym, doing a tough class, feeling great afterwards and planning to go as much as possible.

A daughter who is so sure of herself and knows exactly what she wants to wear, regardless of what anyone says.

Catching up with friends and work colleagues, something a more regular set of working hours allows me to do. I could get used to it, but I’m trying not to.

Sweet Caroline

The very first book I read in the Little House On The Prairie series was Little Town On The Prairie. I had seen the 1970s TV series but knew nothing about Laura Ingalls Wilder or her family. I remember the feeling when I realised the girl who was the main character in the book actually wrote the book. Groundbreaking for nine year old me!

It is probably safe to say that Laura doesn’t always make the best choices and is an impulsive teenager, as portrayed in the book anyway, like so many of us were. She does and says and thinks things she regrets. No surprises there for a 14 year old. It is supposed to be a time of life for making some mistakes and tripping up and hopefully learning from the big and small facepalm moments.

In an attempt to impart some wisdom into her hot headed daughter, her mother Caroline wrote a verse in her autograph album, and it is some advice many of us could do with, even if we’re not a rebellious 14 year old schoolgirl. I could certainly heed it more regularly, as could many working in a Government far, far away.

If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care,

To whom you speak,

Of whom you speak,

And how, and when, and where.

I’ve been thinking about these wise words in recent days. I and many others should probably heed them, whether we’re living in 1881 or 2018.