angharad_gam

But I have been up to my eyeballs for what feels like months. Firstly work was really insanely busy for the few weeks leading up to the end of the financial year. Then Andy took off on a two week overseas holiday with his dad and brother. They went to Hawaii and Japan (the latter during the hottest week they've ever had there, and then they only just got out as a cyclone was blowing in). I took the first week of this off to be a single parent (it being the last week of the school holidays), and hosted a couple of friends from Canberra who were visiting. Then my parents came to stay so the kids could go back to school and me to work. The not driving thing was a distinct nuisance, but we managed (including taking three buses to the Aquatic Centre because Ashwyn was desperate to go swimming at least once in the holidays).

Next up was a rotten cold, which knocked me out for about a week. I dragged myself back to work after that only to discover that my boss had taken some bereavement leave, and I was going to have to do his job for two weeks. That ended on Friday. Today I am at the airport on my way to Melbourne for the Australian Statistical Conference. I am giving a talk. I am woefully underprepared. I come back rather late on Thursday night. Next week I am mostly taking off to do shopping and cooking for Fields of Steel (also feeling woefully underprepared atm), which is the following weekend.

And the last few days have been the first really nice days of Spring, which has been a shame because I have been too busy to go out and enjoy them. Mind you, the hayfever is also now rearing its ugly head, so maybe that's not such a terrible thing. It's going to be cold and grey all week in Melbourne, apparently, and I am not terribly disappointed by that. The garden is doing ok, though, although the front garden is suffering from my inability to line up days with decent weather when I am not sick or stupidly busy in order to do some weeding.