There’s a new game in town, and it’s called pass the buck lol. Usually I’ll go out of my way to help people in work, however now that I’m covering my colleagues job as well as my own it’s time for some self-preservation. I recently helped someone with a query, and it got me a ton of work that I could well do without. This week alone I’ve had 3 people try and foist some work onto me but instead of doing it, I’ve passed it up the chain. Basically someone hasn’t planned their work, at all, and they’re now trying to make more work for me. No thank you. They’ve had all summer to sort this out and it’s not my problem. The other task involved some work done by an outside contractor so that’s totally outside of my remit, and again, not my problem.

I had a good weekend; I got up early on Saturday and hit the supermarket just after 8am, took the groceries home, made some breakfast, then went out with my kid sister. We had a good chat, a nice lunch of fish and chips – something I haven’t had in many months, and she took me for a nice country drive. We pottered around a garden centre and basically had a chilled day.

On Sunday I was sleeping nicely after a disturbed night – too many work worries – when the damn alarm went off at 7am. I’d forgotten to switch it off; I was not a happy bunny. I spent most of the day dealing with laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and tidying up in the garden. The change in the weather prompted me to clean all the plant saucers, dry them, and store them for the winter; a major task!

I also made an apple and quince pie. I’d previously bought a quince plant and to my great delight it fruited this year. The fruit is pretty small and very bitter, however when stewed it becomes delightfully ‘mushy’ and just perfect to mix with fruit such as apples. The pie was delicious if I say so myself. I have another 5 fruit on the plant but I’m not sure if they’ll ripen now as it’s getting very dull and cold here.

This week has been less manic with an exam session for prospective students – very late in the year for this, and a get together planned in work for Thursday afternoon which if humanly possible I’m going to attend. It’s on another campus but not the one that’s too far away and will be a good time to chill out and network. It’s this campus that I’m hoping to be moved to but so far nobody knows. Less than a year to go, and nobody knows; can you believe it? I’ve just about decided that if I’m ‘forced’ to move to the further campus then I’m going to retire. I’ll be on the downward slide to 60 by then, have never travelled far for work, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to start now. It’s not just the people I don’t like, it’s also the work; it’s too stressful and difficult, and there are no thanks. That’s the plan anyway. I also plan to win the lottery lol but I’m sure many people plan for that eventuality too ;) Roll on Friday :)