Too much to do and not enough time!

You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged lately. That isn’t a product of a stagnant creative urge, but more a lack of time with not enough hours in the day. Much of that busyness is self imposed, but not all.

Work is just ridiculous at the moment. We are going through a complicated restructure to make savings (although the official message is to create efficiencies) which I am leading as many of my teams are affected. It is taking up an inordinate amount of time and effort to dot ‘I’s’ and cross ‘T’s’ to make sure that it is not only thought through but ‘union proof’ as well, and immune to challenge. Couple that with a bunch of senior colleagues who do not want to listen to my advice (of course me being the only one qualified in general management as well as project and programme management means I am not worth listening to) and it makes for a very frustrating and demotivating experience.

On the more positive side, I have just started DJ’ing for a local community radio station, which I am thoroughly enjoying. That is something which I didn’t anticipate doing when I said in January “Now, I’m going to have a rest for a few months”, but it is an opportunity which has just presented itself and is proving to be great fun. So tune in to www.ridgeradio.co.uk (it’s a web based broadcast, not over the conventional airwaves) from 5pm to 7pm every Friday evening for ‘Friday Footlights’ or from 7am until 9am alternate Saturdays (starting this Saturday, 9^th) for the Breakfast show with news, views, popular music and classic golden oldies to hear my dulcet tones where ever you happen to be. You’ll enjoy it, I promise! You can even send in a request or dedication and I’ll try and play it for you.

All this is running alongside the fact that we are making sterling efforts to get the house sorted out the way we want it to be, after many years of compromise to accommodate our tribe of children. We have tidied the hallway to make it more welcoming and moved all the admin stuff and the computer upstairs to create a proper study. Next up is to tidy the outside lobby and have a massive chuck out (hopefully over Easter if the weather is fine as we will have to put everything outside overnight before we can sort it and put it back in a more sensible order) and then the loft (which we will do instead at Easter if it is horrid weather) which has stuff in it we haven’t touched for ten years and therefore probably don’t need or want. After that, we will move the lounge round to face the garden again and use the ‘front room’ as the dining room, which it is much more suited for.

I’m also making efforts with my health, trying to sort out all the medical issues which have plagued me for the last few years and trying to get slimmer, fitter and basically with more zest for life. I am tired of being tired all the time (forgive the pun). I want to put myself in good shape to have a long and fulfilling old age, ideally in the Mediterranean sun, and so need to be healthy enough not to have to rely on the Greek medical system (not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not the NHS [maybe that’s a good thing] and it’s expensive!).

Finally, I have all these creative ideas flowing for children’s books, a TV cookery series and goodness knows what else. Despite now having had almost two months off from doing shows, I’ve done nothing about any of it, and it’s about time I did; I’m sick of what I currently do for a living.

So I’ve been busy. But I like blogging, and I know that quite a few people read it, so they must enjoy them. So I’ll make more of an effort in future, I promise! Now, back to work…..

Busy, busy, busy - but doing what?

I don't understand how I can be so ridiculously busy all the time! And yet, if someone were to ask me what I've done today, I'd struggle to put together a list of more than two or three things.

The Hubby feels the same. He has now been out of work for about two months. although some time has been spent on a few applications for new jobs, he has dedicated his newly found leisure time to doing work around the house that has frustrated him over the past two to three years because he hasn't had the time to do it when he was working. But the two months has flown past; in that time he's mended a fence, painted the side of the house where the paint was flaking and done some general maintenance but when you stop and think about it in two months it's amazing that's all.

That sounds terrible, doesn't it, because he hasn't been sitting on his arse doing nothing. But the point I'm trying to make is where does the time go to? Because the list of accomplishments for both of us in two months seems pitifully small.

When we were away at the end of September, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do to try and change our lilves. It wasn't a long list, rather carefully chosen, and we thought easily accomplished in a month or two. But I haven't even started, and nor has he, and I haven't yet got into the main thrust of panto rehearsals and all the demands they bring.

The rate at which time flies is scary. When we sat down and thought about it the other night, it made us realise that we have to focus our minds sooner rather than later if we are not to miss the window of opportunity to change things that I have blogged about before.

Of course life is generally busy anyway as it would be if between you, you have five children who all now need guidance to make their transition into full adulthood and also three stubborn cats and now an enthusiastic puppy. Also trying to have 'a life' takes up time - I have loved the theatre since I was a child but boy, does it eat into your leisure time! All sorts of things get neglected when I'm involved with a show - washing, ironing, food shopping and cleaning all go to the wall and we live in an air of neglect for a few weeks until it's all over.

Between now and Christmas, I am going to have to write myself a 'To do' list and systematically work my way through it. I might even write a few things on it that I have already done just so I can cross them off straight away and feel better about my busyness. I'm going to have to do that anyway just to cope with the festive season, so a few additional tasks shouldn't make too much diference. Should it?

I don't have time to go to work!

I don’t have time to go to work. Regardless of whether I enjoy it when I get there (and usually I don’t), I simply don’t have time.

There is always too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I am not arrogant enough to assume I am the only one in this position, but it does seem to be a permanent state for me.

We have a 1950s house which constantly needs minor maintenance done to it for which we cannot afford to pay and so have to do it ourselves. We have a large garden which grows like Topsy with several mature trees and plants – lovely to look at but time consuming to look after. Between us we have five children between 17 and 24 who all still need help, guidance and advice on various issues – don’t listen to anyone that tells you parenting stops at 18 because they have clearly never had children of their own. We are both trying to eat healthily and exercise more, both of which take time and effort. On top of that I am trying to have a life by doing what I love – amdram – and helping run the Society, and The Hubby is trying to keep in touch with his friends from various past lives and socialise too. It’s all too much! We can end up not seeing each other from Sunday night through to Friday, and that’s not good.

In this past week I have only had one evening commitment but that’s unusual. Often I am out two or three nights and we have things planned at the weekend too. The other day I sat down with the diary and tried to find a date to see a very good friend just for a glass of wine and a natter and we had to go for something at the end of April. It’s madness!

Much of this is, of course, self inflicted. I don’t have to do shows, nor do I have to sit on the Society’s committee. We could move to a nice little two bedroom flat with no garden (the cats would hate it!), built recently, and in one stroke get rid of all the home upkeep chores.  We could tell our kids to get on with it and learn the hard way like we did!

But we won’t do any of these things. When work is so demanding and as unsatisfying as it is for both of us now, you have to have something that keeps you going and for us it’s our relationship and the things we have and like to do. So what we have to do is find a way of managing it and keeping it all in proportion.

That is not as easy to do as it is to say. Sadly, work does have to come first – it pays the bills for two houses and provides just about enough to fund a reasonable lifestyle (although that is getting tougher). If one of us were made redundant, we’d have to rethink but for now we have decided to struggle through with a plan which has light at the end of the tunnel in terms of finances and time. We reckon in five years time, we will be in a much better place – five years!

We have taken a day off this week, and in the not too distant future we have a week away which can’t come quickly enough. Until then we’ll struggle along trying to fit it all in, and when we get there we’ll wonder where the time has gone. No change there, then!