I love my new hoodie

[nineveh_uk]

There, that is my positive spin on today. I have a new hoodie (aubergine) from Tog24* and it is amazing and warm and cosy and a feeling of pleasure even as I lay on the sofa with the head pulled over my eyes, because they hurt and I was exhausted. I have a sudden fellow-feeling with all the teenaged boys in Skam who are clearly wearing their hoodies and baseball caps and beanies as mobile comfort blankets in a time of teenagerness. It has been a long week. Actually, it has been a short week, but the step from an average of 4 - 4 1/2 hours to 6 hours a day has been more than I'm physically able to cope with. I slept 10 hours last night, didn't leave my bed until after 11, and I'm still utterly flattened and there is a small fire somewhere beneath my breastbone. It is going to be day 6 of eating food I have previously made and frozen because I can't cope with actual cooking. I feel that this is not sustainable.

It really is an amazing hoodie, though. I am about to order a blue one with a zip, because clearly this is not a year in which I am going to get much use out of my summer work wardrobe, so I should spend money (and time, in the case of sewing) on casual clothing for the current situation.

Otherwise, this afternoon I sat on the sofa and have made a cunning hinged widget for linocut printing my latest creation (a SARS-COV-2 virus :-) ), and marked up some paper for printing tomorrow. Unfortunately, the cunning jigs that you can buy involve instructions for use like "First glue your lino to a piece of MDF that you have cut to size". Not having an inexhaustible supply of MDF or a workshop to cut it in** I am making do with the backs of defunct clip-frames, cereal and shoe boxes, and a childhood of watching Blue Peter.

* For reasons that are unknown to me, they seem to have sized this season (unlike the coat I already had from them that gave me false confidence in ordering my usual UK12) for Dutch landgirls. If tempted, size down if you are less than 5'10. But the quality is very good otherwise.

** And no longer working in a science department I cannot, as I did many years ago, go down to the workshop with a piece of MDF on which I had drawn outlines of a load of daggers and a large sword and have them cut them out for me for a pirate-themed fancy dress party.

Comments

[alithea]

Very sorry to hear you're struggling - can you go back down to 4 hours?

That hoodie looks wonderful, I'm glad it's comforting.

Any chance of a kind local friend popping a prepared meal or two round for you?

*hugs*

[nineveh_uk]

Thanks. I did talk to my boss on Friday morning when visibly not looking good and say that I thought it was being a bit much, and I think if necessary I can drop down a bit this week, but it was partly my fault for saying that it was fine, I would lead after this meeting, which had a deadline, and partly the fault of someone being really annoying :-) But I feel a bit guilty because my boss has had to increase her hours to account for me not being there and is managing my team in my absence, and however nice people are it's kind of awkward. But clearly last week was too much and I need to draw back a bit for a week, and then try again.

I am OK for food, having stocked the freezer quite a lot when I was resting, I just feel that I'd kill for something like the perfect lamb steak to turn up at my door. I suppose I could look at restaurants doing take-aways.

[white_hart]

I don't think you should feel that guilty given that you almost certainly got infected at work in the first place! I hope you can work a shorter week this week, and apologies for any annoyances which are down to my lot ;-)

[nineveh_uk]

I can't be too blame-y because they did previously offer me the opportunity to work from home. But at that point Covid-19 was a lung disease and since I don't think of myself as particularly prone to chest infections I didn't expect to be any worse than anyone else. More fool me!

Your lot are being OK as far as I'm concerned, though I am not looking forward to a certain potential meeting :-)

[white_hart]

I don't think anyone is looking forward to that meeting!

[nineveh_uk]

At least my role in it should allow me to switch the camera off! So a rare thing actually improved by Teams :-)

[alithea]

Yeah, I can see that's awkward and frustrating but better to take another week to recover than have reduced capacity drag on even longer IMHO.

Some restaurants here are doing delivery, maybe time to treat yourself to something a bit special

[nineveh_uk]

Annoyingly, the restaurant I'd really like a delivery from is only doing collection, and I haven't quite felt up to that yet, but I think it might be time to do some research before next weekend into other places and to treat myself.

[mrs_redboots]

The hoodie is lovely - I'm tempted to order one for use in the motor home, only I think perhaps navy rather than aubergine. But who knows when we'll be able to use the motor home again?

[mrs_redboots]

And - I just have bought one! Oops.... Still, at that price it would have been rude not to.

[nineveh_uk]

I hope it fits and you like it! And that you get a chance in the motor home again before the summer's out.

[mrs_redboots]

I hope we do, too.  But I'm even dubious about our Christmas markets trip this year.....  sigh....  And we have just run out of beer - I know we can buy it in Lidl, but it's Not the Same!

[azdak]

How do you think you're going to get better if you keep overdoing things? Do you imagine that without you all hell will break out at the office and no one but you can fix it? Stop trying to protect your boss and just tell her the truth, for crying out loud! Get back onto that sofa at once and watch some TV! Lino-cutting? Don't you dare!!!

[azdak]

PS I really like the hoodie.

[nineveh_uk]

You're not wrong. It all seems very reasonable to Build Up Slowly, and then I do the next bit of building up and collapse. Though I have to admit there is an element of vanity as well as guiltiness in there - the urge to demonstrate that one Performs Well in a Crisis. But evidently I do need to dial it back down again. The previous rate was sustainable, being tiring while I was doing it, but recovering afternoon/overnight, being able to cook dinner etc.

I will do the lino printing today, though - it is very small and can be done sitting down and it will let me feel that I have achieved a thing :-)

[azdak]

Physician Yan will wag his finger at you!