Sitting in bed on a Sunday morning, half listening to Chris Laidlaw (I always seem to half listen to him). I think we had 12 teenagers sleepover last night. Something like that. They took the cottage over. It was not nearly as bad as it sounds. They kept the music and noise down and all seem to get up OK this morning, before us and with no major headaches. It was nice for Alice to get her Matamata College and band/Hamilton friends together. And that she gets to spend the night with Kent is obviously a bonus!!!
I have had the week from hell this week and have been very stressed. Monday was a long day and dealing with some major crap. Not within our organisation but with another one who we cannot avoid dealing with. There is obviously something going on internally with them but they are not telling us and that does not make for a good working arrangement. Tuesday I had 4 meetings booked, one with that included people from this organisation. As it was none of them attended and it made for a free and frank meeting with those that did attend and I left feeling very positive about the whole situation. This is a bit vague I know but this is a public site!! From here i went straight from Hamilton to Te Awamutu to speak at the Rotary club.I then did office work until 11.30pm to prepare for the rest of the week. Wednesday and Thursday I was teaching a Vaccinator Training Course (VTC)which are very early starts for me but then had attend a Victim Support AGM on Wednesday (home at 10.45pm) and teach at an ante-natal class on Thursday evening (hone at 9.15pm!). Friday I had to go out to do 2 clinical assessments in Cambridge and planned to take the afternoon off but was still doing emails and general admin at 5.30pm!!!! There were some nice bits to the week also; I got a card and box of chocolates in the post with thanks for presenting at the national hospital pharmacists conference the previous weekend. My talk had lots of positive feedback which is always nice to hear. My boss gave me a gift voucher with a note saying 'a little appreciation of all you do, and have to go through at times'. How nice is that? And, the individual evaluations from the VTC were fantastic with great comments on every single one which always gives me a buzz.
Since July we have not had a weekend to ourselves until now. We went to Hastings where the girls were performing in the National Concert Band Association's annual festival in early August. I travelled down on the bus on the Thursday with the schools band (and Harriette) and Eric came down on Saturday morning. I spent the first 2 nights with Steve and Liz. Steve and I have known each other forever as our fathers were good friends. Liz is a kiwi midwife. They have a pip fruit orchard on the edge of Hastings and 2 young boys. It was sooo nice to spend some time with them and they were delightful hosts and really took care of me. As they are in the midst of decorating bedrooms I was sleeping in a single bed in the office so when Eric came down we spent the night in a motel. Another pleasure of the weekend was catching up with Susie Ironside. Susie and I lived together in Golden Oaks in Hillbrow, Johanesburg in the 1980's I love Susie! She is was always such good fun, and so sensitive and caring. She is a great mom. When we stayed with them in Hastings when we first came to NZ I was amazed at how much fun a family could have together. We just seem to yell at each other in this house!!! I haven't seen Susie for years Anyway, Eric and I met her for lunch which was all too short. We had so much news to catch up on.
The following weekend I flew to Adelaide and 2 weeks after that we were in Auckland for the Uni open day at UoA. Alice also came and we sat in on the session on law (as well as health sciences for Harriette who is planning to do medicine). Alice was actually very motivated and came away with the desicion that she was going to study law. Still planning to go to Victoria in Wellington but she'd be happy with Auckland also. I know it's a long way off but I think Eric would be very proud to admit her to the bar and pas on the law firm to her in the future :-)
At the Victim Support AGM this week I resigned my position on the local management group. On the way over I was telling the chair that I planned to resign the following year as I was so pushed for time. I did not want to resign this year as they had recently lost a lot of staff and I felt I could not add to their woes. Sandra was fantastic though and said I must look after myself and that I should not stand this time round. I must say it was a huge weight removed from my shoulders. I felt guilty that I was not commiting myself to the role in the way I felt I should. I am still very busy with Rotary and WYMA.
