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Homeworking in the snow
Feeling very lucky that I can work from home as I hear about others struggling into work…
Snow, snow, snow. I woke up yesterday and everything seemed really quiet. I thought, maybe I’ve got up too early [unlikely, I normally oversleep] or maybe I have overslept horribly and it is midday. In fact, it turned out that the whole world had gone white and it was still snowing. Yippee, was my first thought. No school run. I rushed downstairs to check the BBC Essex website which had inevitably crashed as everyone else was doing the exact same thing. About half an hour later I had the news I was craving – the school was confirmed shut. I did some work. I thought it was a good idea to get ahead as everyone was going to be off and I would have to coral them somehow or other into "activities". I was hoping said "activities" did not involve me getting wet or cold.
The girls slept in, which they needed to do because last weekend they had two late, late nights with New Year’s Eve and the delayed flight home. I had a couple of interviews to do and bribed everyone to keep quiet. Inevitably big girl daughter didn’t understand the concept of bribe and came in at the end of one interview so I cuddled her while I finished. My partner was at home too, stranded due to the snow, but still sick from the horrible mystery New Year virus. I still have it too. It just doesn’t seem to go. It completely whacks you out and means you can’t hear properly plus have a headache and generally feel unwell. He retired to bed with paracetamol. I organised a lovely cutting up xmas cards and making new types of art game which kept everyone busy for a while. Bonkers daughter went outside with some friends to run amok. The guinea pigs got a bit of attention. The cat appears to have got flu. He coughed very pathetically and stared out the window all day at the snow in stupefication. What had happened to his world?
By around 4pm I decided it was time to venture out and see if there was life outside the house. I took bonkers and big girl daughters with me for a trek to the corner shop. Some kids had made a huge snowball and left it kindly in the middle of the road. The corner shop charged double the normal prices and I had very little cash, but it is near the main road. I glimpsed some black under the white. It was all going to be okay. Normality was going to return some day soon. One day my ears will clear and I will embrace January like an old friend. I still can’t quite believe it’s new year since I haven’t been out to work yet. All my work is in the house and seems strangely unconnected with the world, but much better that than the tales I hear from colleagues in the office who have had to struggle with the public transport system. Thank God for homeworking.
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