Last year, there were spanners a-plenty. Family and domestic life presented sadness and major challenges respectively. Nonetheless, last year was amazing. My IASH Fellowship was more than a highlight – it was a great big blazing beacon, giving me focus and purpose.
This year, we’ve had the rogue trader, in the guise of the unreliable painter and decorator. Then a succession of good guys (plasterers, windowsill-fixers, tilers …). The round of home improvements is nearly finished now. (Let’s just get the kitchen lino replaced, then we can settle down to await the stone-masons.)
However, more challenges still remain in other quarters. There are so many spanners in the works, that it’s a blessing my work’s only a small part of my week.
I didn’t even want to knit or sew, this morning. Until I finally decided that even if sewing didn’t raise my spirits, I would at least have a new jacket, if I just got on with it. And in between the 8000 steps occasioned by unexpectedly role-playing Florence Nightingale, I did achieve my mission. Well, very nearly.
Here’s hoping I’ll be wearing it when I go into work on Thursday! However, I’m still hoping I get to go to town at all. I’ve never been what you’d call a Florence Nightingale. And I know I’m a disappointment (this comes across loud and clear!) when it comes to stroking brows and smoothing sheets. I can handle disinfectant and laundry, but I’d never have made a nurse! Thursday is still something of an unknown quantity. Whether I’ll be Florence Nightingale or a research fellow is equally unknown.
Anyway, let’s see what the rest of the week brings. I’m itching to get on with the research project, circumstances permitting.
- Florence Nightingale: see page for author, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Cover image by Chris Reading from Pixabay
Postscript
More gains than losses:- trip to town not achieved; however, recording device mastered; jacket completed Thursday evening; and invalid improving.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 