Two Weeks and 100s of Emails Later - it’s back to work!

Well the last two weeks have been a wonderful break. The sunshine, sea and isolation of Scotland were fantastic, a real tonic and totally relaxing. Last week was more unreliable weather wise but there were plenty of sunshine filled days nevertheless – but it was a week of chores and getting things done that are more difficult to do during the weekend.

The tree surgeon came for his annual visit – trees are lovely things but certainly need looking after. Cello went for his regular check up, as always an absolute star and of course loves being the centre of attention. I spent an hour or two choosing new shelves for my office at work, and thought I am possibly becoming too much of a grumpy old man to tolerate IKEA any more. But many thanks to our caretakers who took the flat packs out of my car and up to the new office. Jennie and I have swopped offices in preparation for the new enlarged School and although I am sure it was a pain to organise my thanks also go to Jennie and colleagues for getting things sorted while I was away.

Yesterday I called in and assembled the book cases – I really am becoming a grumpy and impatient old man, who should stick to buying ready assembled furniture. I abandoned the project after a few hours, and I guess it will take me some late evenings this week to get things sorted and comfortable.

Following on from a conversation I had a few weeks ago at a wedding reception I was invited to go and meet some colleagues at a mental health service in the West of what our new NHS SHA Cluster refers to as the NHS North. Whilst some might some think this a strange thing to do on holiday, it was partly business as well as pleasure. The morning was very bright and the sun shone. It was gorgeous walking around the grounds of a relatively unspoilt and slight old fashioned mental health hospital. Someone clearly had spent time, love and care on the grounds, and the space and quietness was soothing.

Today I will have to turn on my outlook account and start to look at the emails – 100’s, but hopefully, many of these will have already been looked at and responded to by colleagues – so it will be more a case of me catching up. A bit like Cello, who has been trying every night for the last two weeks, to catch Henry our resident hedgehog - every night he waits for Henry to walk across the front lawn, at which point he becomes beside himself with excitement - until last night Henry has always disappeared by the time Cello has gone out for his last walk - but last night he hadn't and Cello managed to catch him - Henry of course rolled into a ball leaving Cello completely flummoxed! Just as well...

...and now I am off to enjoy the last few hours of my holiday.