Stress

Stress is funny thing. It can just come upon you with no warning, or it can slowly build up. Two of my staff are off with stress/anxiety ast the moment. I had no forewarning of it. One day they were here, apparently normal, next day they were on the phone crying to me about being stressed.

My life is quite stressful at the moment.Let's itemise

1. Money worries- perennial problem, always overstretched. I must deal with it rather than manage it, but that would involve lifestyle changes my wife does not want to make.
2.Mother in law- more or specifically father in law's reaction to her recent knee replacement operation. The seems to be recovering well bit has slipped. She has had minor setback and is in quite a bit of pain and is not very mobile. This has turned my father in law into a raging loony as he struggles to come to terms with it all (and if I'm honest I suspect he doesn't much like being inconvenienced)
3. My daughter's GCSEs. I don't know if she is stressed but I certainly am by it all
4. My wife (see all points above which makes her quite stressed at times and she is behaving strangely)

But what would life be without stress? Pretty dull. But I might like dull at least for a while.

UPDATE Mother- in- law has torn her hamstring!!

Monday

A mix of a post this one. The Decorators have done their work very nicely. If you live in Newcastle or North East and want some work done I would recommend them. New Century Decorators 0191 274 4271. No website, they are a bit old fashioned, in a sense that's what you want from painters and decorators. The kids don't like the change.The dog is a bit confused by all the disruption.So its gone down well

We are now post birthday week so, like every year, it feels a bit anti climactic. This year especially so since my son was eighteen and my daughter 16. Big milestones in every one's life.

My daughter was dancing at Durham Gala Theatre last night. It was a school dance troupe plus guests type thing.I wouldn't have gone except she was dancing in two pieces. Modern dance, not my cup of tea. Mind you neither is ballet.She is a talented dancer and is doing work experience this year at Dance City in town. She is doing Grade 6 Ballet exam in the Summer. I hope she can make a living through it.

My son had American football training at Gateshead Stadium for the Senators as usual so it was a bit of a whirl travelling up and down and around the region yesterday. We did manage to fit a bit of food shopping in at Aldi. I love Aldi, its cheap but very good quality food especially the Dairy and Deli stuff . My son tells me that in Germany Aldi is the equivalent of Sainsbury.The service sucks but that is somehow part of its charm. Better than Netto where food and the service suck.

I ripped most of my Wedding Present collection onto the PC last night to put onto my MP3 player. I am after comfort music at the moment after a week or so of forcing myself to listen to new stuff.I am taking a break from Lammo on 6Music for now and indulging my Cinerama/Wedding Present obsession.

One of the new bands I have come across during my foray into the unknown are The Maccabees. I'd forgotten I had seen them supporting someone last year and was impressed then. There is a free download of a good song from their website here.

Monday Monday

Another day, another dollar so they say. Not a bad weekend. I felt a bit rough on Sunday but that might have something to do with drinking the best part of a bottle of wine on Saturday night. We went out for a meal on Friday night to the Loch Fyne restaurant in Gosforth, sort of a Valentine's day outing. I like that place, its an old church converted and the ambience is really good. I know its a chain but it doesn't feel like one. Food was good The Gradan Orach smoked salmon starter I would recommend. I had Sea Bas for main course which I don't normally like but was good. Julie had the Thai spiced mussels and mackerel. All that and two glasses of wine for £12 each before 7pm. Here's a link to their site.Check out the menu they are doing a discount voucher for February as well. If there is one near you and you like fish, go and eat there you wont be disappointed www.lochfyne.com

Work is busy. lots of reports to write and one to ones to plan. I don't want to do any of this. I want to be on holiday somewhere, bu there you go. I listened to the new Lily Allen offering over the weekend. It is extremely welll produced and they make a lot of her nice, but limited voice. Lyrically its amusing but in a very puerile way (Fuck You being a prime example). It says nothing to me about my life , I suppose but then I don't think I am her demographic. My soon to be 16 year old daughter likes it, which is probably as it should be. Didn't realise she was Joe Strummer's goddaughter. Also finished reading The Olivetti Chronicles the collection of John Peel's various newspaper articles. I didn't like the way it was set out (alphabetically) but some good articles in there. Still miss the sound of his voice on the Radio.

Must go to my 1-2-1 with my boss now. Joy oh joy.