My work can get very busy in the last month of the year as customers look at their bank balances and decide to buy (or not) - and December is a busy month for me, with all the Christmas planning. I had hoped for a quiet 2.5 day week in week 51, clearing out my inbox etc, but had to do a major redesign on something we quoted a while back because the new building is 6m shorter and they were having a board meeting about it on the 22nd (who DOES that?!). I had to cram six week's design work into one day (well, I managed to move the big parts, but the spaghetti awaits me next year). To put the tin hat on the icing, there was a major IT issue on my last working morning. In the end I logged on at 7am the following morning and did twenty minutes unpaid. I hate stuff hanging over my head! Most of the CAD team were already on holiday, plus the sales engineer, but the senior engineer wanted to know if I was working week 52? He's recently widowed, I get it, but absolutely not!
Yada, yada, it comes every year, alongside the disrupted sleep and anxiety that just make everything feel so much harder than it really is. For some reason I always feel like I should have started planning in November, whilst also wanting to keep December for Christmas alone (our lights will never go up in November, put it this way - and my first spotting was on bonfire night, November 5th!).
I made some xmas jewellery sets for female family members, and I don't know if I photographed them or not and they've already been gifted or wrapped (more on that later). I also cast on a sideways cardigan in an aran-weight yarn, which knits up very quickly (so I have knitted about three quarters of it already). I added cables to it. I failed to get any machine knitting done, unless you count demonstrating a simple mitten pattern and making a pair at the Alex.
Outside of all that, we traded in both of our beloved cars for a newish Ford Focus in November, and we've had a few issues with it. My first job today is to call the dealers and politely express my wrath in having had to call out the AA (recovery) twice in less than two months, for two seperate faults. The car's been nicknamed MP (Money Pit). Pity, it's a lovely drive, but I'm beginning to think it's a lemon.
We had some nice celebrations for Christmas - work did a "bake off" buffet at work, and there was also a meal (we paid for ourselves) which I couldn't attend because I had holiday to use up and had made other plans. The Cog's eldest brother hosted the annual xmas eve meal, which was excellent, and we won at Junior Pictionary because I am so good at drawing and not at ALL bigheaded! :D
Mum tested positive for COVID when she got home on Christmas day. In hindsight, she really ought to have tested herself before she came, and I saw her on the Thursday before too (when she was coughing) - neither of us joined the dots, alas - it's the time of year for coughs and colds. Plus she's had a cough for ages - to the point of having an ultrasound - and they can't find anything. The vaccine takes 1-2 weeks to take effect, so she must have somehow caught a different variant in the meantime. The Cog tested faintly positive, so he must have caught it in Norway. So, Boxing day plans went out of the window. It was going to be the first year since the pandemic where people on my side of the family would actually get their xmas presents at xmas, and everyone would be present, but my sister didn't want to take the risk (they've both had it several times and been poorly, and my niece has somehow never had it) and we didn't want to risk Greg's parents, who are quite frail. We got Greg's elder brother to drop off our gifts, and the trip to Coventry ended up being a short trip to pick up some COVID tests and a supermarket run to buy some actual food for us, as we had not planned to be eating at home. Our freezer had plenty of veggies but very little protein in it!
So! Not the best end to 2023, and the saga isn't over yet. NYE plans are also up in the air. I can tell I'm anxious - it's like that feeling at the top of a helter skelter, except it's all the time, and over the silliest of things. My smartwatch keeps telling me my heart rate is too high when I am walking around the shops (it can do that, yet it can't tell me my daily calendar, just the Cog's! Ugh!). I always struggle in winter but this year seems darker for so many reasons, political and otherwise. Oh well, onwards and upwards!
Here's hoping your holiday celebrations went better than mine, and let's pray for a peaceful 2024.
Current mood: 
exhausted, annoyed, fed up
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