How is it December 5th already? The end of November flew by with all the grace and speed of a freight train ploughing through 10 feet of snow, passing deadline after deadline as I screamed in vain for it to slow down and just give me a chance. It is my own fault of course. I took on an extra job on October, from a place that I haven't worked with before and therefore didn't want to say no to. This on its own would have been OK, but then my trusty 11 year old computer died. I have a work laptop, but I am too set in my ways to find it easy to use - I am too used to having two screens now. Then the exam board dumped a huge piece of work on me without notice. School has also turned up the pressure so I ended up having just one free this past week, on Friday.
Woe, woe, woe is me. Woe, I say.
Books read: I read To Miss With Love by Katharine Birbalsingh. She is a controversial figure in the education world but has just been made social mobility tsar, so beloved of the Tories is she, so I thought I had better read it and see what she was about. I guess I surmised that she wants similar things for children to what I want, but she has some very different ideas about the best way to achieve them. Rather than encouraging children to 'talk proper' to improve their life chances, for example, I'd sooner work towards a world in which this no longer matters. But, meh.
I've started December reading a hefty history tome and a cook book, so I am not holding out much hope for a successful end to the year. But we'll see.
Metres knitted: Not too many. I've finished the front and collar and I am plugging away at the first Tegna sleeve. This project is dragging, I'm bored and I desperately want to knit something new.
Pounds lost: 1. I am overjoyed by this, because the weight I dropped during covid has stayed off. It has wobbled around a bit, especially because the calorie tracking lasted all of a week...My Fitness Pal has been sending me increasingly desperate-sounding notifications all month. But, I think the careful planning and prepping of lunches, a habit I have managed to keep up with almost all school year so far, has really helped. As has just not having time to eat anything outside of meal times.
Sleep: Predictably awful. I've been repeating my unhealthy mantra, 'Sleep is for wimps' this past week. It's definitely not. Sleep is for people who are able to say no to offers of work in months that are always, always too busy.
This post is all very meh, isn't it? I should be full of the joys of Christmas. I want to be. It's coming very soon. I just have a lot of work to clear before then. I should also say that I decided I was going to make a concerted effort to catch up with more friends this month, I goal I achieved with finesse, having dinners with Tom, Jo, Caroline, Vikki, Kate and a whole weekend in Wales with Rachael plus another Saturday at a conference and long lunch. Plus an in-person knit at Flock. So it hasn't all been gloom.
