Guilt of the working mum.

by 8 Comments

So, back to work on Tuesday for me, and tonight I am exhausted, ill and emotional.

The Christmas break was amazing. Nearly three weeks off work (because of the days that I work), filled with happiness, merriment and family time. Hubby took two days off work over that time and we ended up with a five-day Christmas weekend and a four-day New Year's weekend. It was lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed (nearly) every second of it.

Which then makes going back to work even harder.

Tonight, I have felt terrible. Three full days of intensive work with a hacking, tickly and dry cough have meant that tonight I did not have the energy to do a thing. Hubby cooked tea, fed The Boy and put him to bed. I sat downstairs and tried not to cry.

It didn't work, I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. There was snot, it wasn't attractive (how come Sandra Bullock never has a leaky nose when she cries?).

And then came the guilt. You know what I'm talking about. The following goes through my mind: I hate leaving him; I did not have a child to not be there for him; I wish to God I was there for him 24/7 but the mortgage needs paying, clothes need buying, food needs to be provided, don't forget the debts!; I am lucky that my mum has him (he gets to spend time with nana & she has an input in his life); I wish it was me that was there everyday; (here we go, the biggy) I am a bad mum.

Only I'm not and I know I'm not.

But God it physically hurts to leave him every single day.

I wish I was lucky enough to be a stay at home mum.

My Top 5 Famous Dinner Party Guests

by 5 Comments

The lovely @katetakes5 has issued the latest challenge to identify our favourite dinner party guests. (This reminds me of 'High Fidelity' – top 5 all time greats)

My Top 5 Famous Dinner Party Guests

1) Belinda Jones – I love her novels; the places she has described have inspired a number of our holiday locations over the past few years.

2) Johnny Depp – because there has to be a bit of totty at the table.

3) My husband – because I love him and would like to spend more time talking to him, not something we get a chance to do nowadays. Yes I know it says famous and I am going to break the rules and include him in this, because it's my list. And he has been retweeted (from a single tweet) 50,000 times.

4) Chris Evans – I think he is fascinating. I'm reading his first autobiography on Kindle and it is extremely insightful as to his behaviour and television personality.

I'm having a bit of difficulty with this one… so many people but it's difficult to choose. Hmm, aha, I know!

5) Sandra Bullock – because I think she's funny, lovely and sweet. I want to ask her if she did the horizontal fandango with Keanu Reeves, why she made 'All About Steve' and died her hair blonde, and I'm pretty sure that hubby fancies her.
Photobucket"/>

Black out.

by 23 Comments

Bang!

Flash!

"Mum-meee! Dad-deee!"

And with that ensued a mild panic on my part while I tried to remain calm, keep The Boy happy and safe, find the candles and work out why we had returned to the dark ages.

A power cut? But it's 2011, we don't have things like that anymore!

Apparently we do though. I looked outside the front door & everything was a sea of non-light. It was like Ron Weasley had been along with his de-illuminator. No light pollution and the faint high-pitched wails of burglar alarms protesting and being rendered incapable of doing their jobs.

Meanwhile inside, The Boy was quite enjoying this new game and hubby was in his boy scout element finding torches, plugging in the basic, non-electric phone and feeling all a bit 'me man, protect family'-ish.

Busy, busy, busy. Where are the candles? Who put the matches at the back of the only kitchen drawer which was wedged shut with pens and red Royal Mail elastic bands?

So I heated up The Boy's milk on the gas hob ('that's why we have a dual-fuel cooker' thought I smugly) and hubby took The Boy upstairs to get ready for bed, ably assisted by his super-duper Maglight.

I texted a few people and it transpired the whole of the 40,000 strong town was out. Well now this is serious! I know, I'll ask twitter for advice. Ah, no wireless. But aha, I have 3G! So I duly tweeted, and they ignored me. Pah!

A lovely automated phoneline from SWALEC informed me that it would be 10pm before the power would be back on.10pm?! But that's 3 whole hours away, what will we do? No 'net, no tv, no reading… and no I'm sorry don't even think about suggesting that! No wonder the Victorians had so many children.

"It's like the Blitz," says I to hubby.

He looked at me. You know that look. "Yes darling, but without the aeroplanes and bombing," says he.

He may have a point there, I'll concede that one.

So there I am, putting The Boy to bed in the pitch-black (don't worry, that's normal) when I hear the heating strike back up, the phone blip, the burglar alarms silence and normality return to the world.

Electricity, how I love thee.

ShowOff Showcase