Monday Morning Musings and Thanks

Posted on September 16, 2013 by suzie81speaks

After The Bloke and I spent yesterday packing I find that I am spending the first part of Monday morning sitting in my front room surrounded by boxes, packing tape, newspapers and bubble wrap. In my very first post I commented on the amount of ‘stuff’ that I own, but it was only when I started to organise all my worldly possessions and box them up that I realised exactly how much I’ve collected over the years. Twelve years ago, when I moved to the city to start univeristy, everything I owned could fit into the back of a car. I remember the day that I got my unconditional offer acceptance letter – I went straight out and bought myself a frying pan, a plate, bowl and cutlery from Woolworths in Bolton Town Centre (I’m showing my age here) and all these years later I am going to have to spend the day finding a large hire van to transport everything across to our new home next week. Continue reading →

Triple Happiness

Posted on September 3, 2013 by suzie81speaks

Have any of you ever had an impending, persistent feeling of dread about something, only to find that the thing you were dreading was actually brilliant and you wished you hadn’t wasted all that time worrying about it?

This happened to me yesterday. I’d been dreading the return to work for a while and although I tried to keep myself busy I couldn’t shake the little anxious bubble that had seemed to manifest itself in the pit of my stomach. Getting out of bed yesterday was tough.

However, when I arrived I found that I was actually in quite a happy place – my colleagues are great and we all talked excitedly over each other about our holiday experiences, our exam results have improved massively since last year and so the data presentation given by our principal was positive and celebratory and we were provided a beautiful lunch as a thank you.

I love the idea that things happen in three’s, and yesterday afternoon was definitely proof of this. I was going through some assessment criteria with my boss and we were interrupted three times:

1. My faculty line manager walked in to show me an email that he’d received from a teacher at a primary school that I’ve been doing some workshops at. It was the nicest, most complimentary email I’ve ever had.

2. The ICT technician walked in to hand me a new iPad that the school had bought for me.

3. My faculty line manager’s boss walked in to tell me that as I’d come into work when it was technically my day off (I don’t work Monday’s) I could have Tuesday off instead.

What a brilliant day!

So here I am! I thought that I would take the opportunity to catch up with you all as I feel like I’ve barely looked at my blog. I’ve been delighted about the response that I had to my recent Blog Party so I’d like to thank all of you who submitted entries and reblogged various things – it was a brilliant opportunity to meet lots of new people and read some amazing stories! I’ve decided to make it a regular thing which will take place on the first day of each month. I also still have quite a few Guest Posts that I need to put up.

I’m off to catch up on all the posts that I’ve missed. If you are interested in following me on Twitter: @suzie81blog

Happy Blogging!

Thankful

Posted on August 20, 2013 by suzie81speaks

The Bloke had a seizure last night. We’d just started getting ready for bed and suddenly he made some strange noises and then collapsed onto the bed. His arms were twitching, he stopped breathing and he lay there with his eyes open, staring at me. About thirty seconds later he woke up with no memory of what had happened. It was the scariest moment of my life – I genuinely thought he was dead at one point. After a few worrying hours at the hospital all tests came back clear. He feels fairly reasonable today and so I’ve sent him up to his mother’s for a few days. It may sound cold, but he needs a break from here – he doesn’t sleep well because I move around a lot during the night and the neighbours are causing him anxiety and stress. His family are wonderful and so I know that he’ll be able to truly relax without having to listen to the chaos next door and be able to get a decent night’s sleep. I also know that he won’t be as stubborn with his mum as he is with me – if he had his own way he would be back in work today. Continue reading →