Long overdue update

I have been absent for some time and until I checked the date on my last post, I hadn't realised how long. From my blog stats I can see that very few people drop by and so I am probably talking to myself, though I am pretty certain a couple of my oldest blog friends will check in.

My situation at the moment is complicated. I have very little time or energy for much once work has taken more than it's fair share these days. In short I am very busy at work but very unhappy as well. I feel that I am being set up to fail for a number of reasons but I don't want to go into any more detail here. You never know who is reading. I used to blog at lunchtime but now often work through lunches.

I am so far behind on my chores at home that I just see things to do wherever I look. The list lengthens and no matter how much I seem to do, it never seems to make a difference. Just keeping the house clean is a challenge. My garden is a mess. Weeds have more or less taken over. There are dead things in pots which saddens me as I haven't had time to do anything. I fear pygmy warriors may have taken up residence in the dense undergrowth, but they too are on my list to evict.

Not everything is negative. I launched my photography portfolio website and have been working on improving my photography lately. I potentially have commissions to do a small wedding and a couple of family portraits. This is something I enjoy and this creative outlet can be a real sanity saver at times.

A blog friend commented that I had been lost to Facebook. Yes, I am active on FB, but it is not the reason I am not here. It takes just a few moments a day to update my status and check in on others through the news feed. I actually find FB to be 'noisy' with no real intimacy. It's a platform where everyone seems to be transmitting but is essentially not emotionally fulfilling like blogging. Or perhaps that's just me. I miss my blog friends but just can't seem to make time to come here and do anything meaningful. I'm working on it.

Ironically, at the same time I have been toying the idea of discontinuing my blog. I am painfully aware I have not seemed to be a good blogger. My problem is threefold. At the moment my life is not running smoothly and I do not want to share these things here. They are negative and boring and there are people who visit here that I don't want to share my inner thoughts with, including a malicious person, which covers the second issue: I do not feel I can share here any more except trivial bits and that is not what I want to write about. The third issue is time and energy. I am toying with the idea of a new blog based more around my photography but with a lot of me thrown in as well. It addresses the issues and I can stay in touch with my blog friends and bring you with me. I'm just thinking at the moment. I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks for popping by. I really do appreciate it.

I've just read this and it seems very negative - I was going to delete it but I it explains a few things. Believe me there are some good things too. Life is never black and white.

Have you got a bear in your freezer?

Among the usual dross, trying to sell me things I don't want; trying to persuade me that their vision for my life is much more desirable that what I have and I could have it if I just bought their product; there are a series of adverts for a frozen food company that make me smile every time they air and they feature a slightly disturbing polar bear.



Things are fine here. Just very very busy at work and my spare time has mostly been split between chores and having a big clear out and tidy (I have too much junk) and working on wedding photos and compiling a photobook for the bride and groom as a gift. I'm very pleased with how it looks and can't wait to see the final printed version myself.

A year ago

Bob - Beloved Cat and Companion

I can hardly believe it's been so long since I last posted. Things have been so hectic-busy-manic (one word will no longer so) that blogging took a back seat in order to retain some sanity. Of course I'm not constantly on the go, but since I was diagnosed as having hypothyroidism I seem to get tired much more quickly and it takes far longer to bounce back. That means sometimes I don't so much drop a ball, but put one down for a while. Just until I have the time and energy to juggle it again. It's self preservation really and it's been a long, hard lesson for me to learn because quite frankly I can't do the same things at the same rate that I used to before the operation. So what balls have I been juggling?

• Work: The job I started in December has been more of a learning cliff to scale than a learning curve, but it's going well. Just last week I delivered a piece of work that is going to be adopted across the team and then other departments.
  
• Home: I have been trying for so long to get my home straight. There is so much to be done that it can be overwhelming but I am taking baby steps. This too, is a ball though that I sometimes have to put aside for a while as just keeping up with housework can be exhausting.
  
• Photography: I launched my new portfolio website nearly two weeks ago now and I'm really pleased with how it looks. I have toyed with posting about it here but I'm undecided as the website is the real me, not my online persona. If you would like to take a look, then email me and I will send you a link.
  
• Wedding: No, not mine. I also photographed a wedding this weekend just gone. It was a huge challenge but I enjoyed it. As with everything, the best laid plans went awry as the bride had hair problems and so my time taking photos with the bridesmaids getting ready completely went off the schedule. I ended up helping the bride dress and acted as a calming influence on her mother who was in a flat spin as things were running nearly an hour late with getting ready! My stage management training kicked in and as with all the best shows, it opened practically on time. The group photos were interesting as people wrangling is like cat herding but I received many compliments on keeping it fun and keeping the ball rolling. I was so tired afterwards that it took me over a day to recover. All in all I think I got some decent shots, despite the lack of time to capture any reportage ones. I am currently working on them in Photoshop so they will be ready when the happy couple return from their honeymoon.

So, lots has been keeping me from here. It is also the anniversary of when my dear Bob left. I can hardly believe it's been a whole year and I still miss him. Just little things, like when I'm working at the computer, Bob always came to sit on the windowsill next to me. Sam and Max have started to do that too, but have a habit of trying to sit in front of the keyboard instead. We're working on it...

One Year Old!

Max and Sam - 4-5 weeks old

This week saw my boys turn one year old! Of course, I wasn't able to bring them home with me until they were 12 weeks old and they were 5 weeks old before I met them for the first time. Back then they were tiny balls of fluff that could sit in the palm of my hand!

Sam and Max - One year old

One year on and my boys have become big kitties! They have grown up so much and have become giant balls of fluff instead. Especially, Max who has become a big soft pudding of a cat with a mischievous streak a mile wide. He is also very stubborn at times but is a very loving soul too who loves his belly being rubbed.

Max

Sam, on the other hand was quite a handful as a kitten. He was always the more timid of the two and could be quite naughty but has grown into a sweet boy. He is always the one who meets me by the door and will come running when he is called. He is also the brighter of the two and has leant quite a few tricks. His latest trick is to give me a high five when asked. He gets up on his back paws and smacks my open pal with his little paw. No, really he does!

Sam

They had recently been bought a new activity centre / scratching post and so they just had some treats and small toy mice on their birthday. The treats went down very well, with much licking of chops and the mice, well they were promptly lost under the sofa. All six of them. Happy birthday boys!

Max

Easter

It's that time of the year again. Spring is springing (though you'd never tell from the weather which is cold and wet!), the daffodils are blooming, new born lambs are shaking their tails in the fields and March has mysteriously vanished. Easter is finally upon us, in a frenzy of chocolate wrapped in gaudy coloured foil and thankfully, brings a few days off work. Christmas break seems so long ago...


I am feeling much better now, tough still having trouble with my asthma after the last chest infection. Healing takes time and I am trying to be patient but I would so like to walk somewhere without breaking into a wheeze of a 80 year old that has smoked a packet of cigarettes a day since their teens. Work has been crazy busy, more so than usual, and I have delivered a couple of things that should benefit the whole area. I am just waiting for the Management Board to endorse one so fingers crossed.

In my personal life I have been working on a couple of projects. The first is a damn big clear out. So far, I have thrown a load of stuff out and the place looks worse than ever! I can only hope that there will be a place for everything when I'm done and I don't disappear under a pile of random detritus before I'm done. The cats are accounted for and are banned from the spare room and study for fear that they might get trapped under something.


I am also working on a website. My website. It's going to be a photographic portfolio of some of my work. I am not setting up a business as such but I have been asked to photograph a wedding and do a pet portrait and I thought it would be nice to have somewhere to display my work and see where this thing takes me. More information will follow soon. Lastly, I will be collecting a new member of my pet family tomorrow and I can't wait. It's a baby Crested Gecko and these little chaps are so sweet. More news on him with pics soon. In the meantime, if you celebrate it, have a very Happy Easter.