Thursday, September 29, 2005

Change is as good as a rest? Yeah right!

I have been taking exception to that phrase very recently as there's been a lot of change going on in my life and it's all rather exhausting!!!

In the last 6 weeks I have, hunted for a new place to live, made preparations to attend a wedding in Sussex, attended the wedding in Sussex, then went walking for several hours along part of the South Downs way the following day and got very sunburnt, and the day after that I finished moving my stuff out of Leytonstone into temporary storage (i.e. my mum's place). The following week I finalised arrangements to visit a Catholic monastery in the Orkney Isles, which involved trying to tie up lose ends at work and doing a handover to the temp covering me whilst I was away, in addition to the usual hassle packing etc. My 'holiday' in Orkney was physically restful and I did really enjoy my time there, but pondering the question "Was/Is Jesus really the Son of God?" whilst going to Mass almost every day and reading stuff on the authenticity of the gospels is hardly the most relaxing of holiday pursuits! And then coming back to the hustle and bustle of cosmopolitan, multicultural London after the calm of the relatively homogeneous island of Stronsay with a total population not exceeding 300, - well frankly it was a bit of a culture shock!!! The next day (Friday) I moved into my new house and by Saturday evening I was developing a cold. Too ill to return to work on Monday as scheduled, I spent 2 days in my new home slouching around in my pajamas and dressing gown, coughing and sneezing making pathetic attempts to shuffle a few pieces of paper out of cardboard boxes in vain attempt to declutter, whilst giving up on maintaining my usual standard of self-dignity in front of the painter and decorator!! I returned to work on Wednesday a little too dazed to deal with my rather vibrant and tactile work colleagues, being greeted with over enthusiastic hellos and the odd hug here and there welcoming me back!!! All this whilst trying to juggle a social life too with birthday celebrations and the like to attend and friends I had to catch up with before they jetted off on their holidays!!

Phew!! And the weekend just gone there was a rather embarrassing incident with the burglar alarm and this weekend I'm off to York so it's just go go go and I can't cope!!!!

So no Change is NOT as good as a rest.

Instead, I would rather like a rest from change!!!