A bed of roses

 My calendar looked ridiculous at the start of the week but a couple of cancellations made it manageable.  One of the things that slipped in to one of the gaps was my annual appraisal.

I am a big supporter of the process - reflecting back and planning forward are things I approve of.  But the form always feels a bit like a school report, and the older I get, the weirder that feels.  My line manager is about my age, too, so in most ways our relationship is one of equals - and then there's this...

Anyway, my objectives from last year weren't really fulfilled - but largely because, I now realise, the objectives themselves were rather wooly.  They were mostly, 'Rosa will do aspect x of her JD' - which... well... yeah... that's my job.  This year's are better, I think.  Except one that I've asked to be rewritten.  We'll see how it goes.

Also did some more shopping for Number 2 Grandson <3  Mostly practical (baby bath, nappies) but also some cute bath toys.  It's all feeling very real :D

And two of my colleagues are expecting babies in December.  The world is awash with cuteness.

Oh, I think I still haven't given my final thoughts on Lucifer.  I really wasn't a fan of series 5.  It turned in to the kind of show you'd expect a programme about the Devil would be.  And I missed the investigations in series 6.  But I did like the ending.  I thought it wrapped everything up very nicely.

And now I am back in the nostalgia-fest that is ST:TNG :D

This week was slightly less frenetic, so I was less exhausted at the end of each day.  I'm also trying out a 'get to sleep really quickly' method - basically, clear your mind, relax each part of your body, and drift off.  It's especially helpful when I wake up in the middle of the night.

Had a REALLY frustrating time with Finance people.  Part of my role (although it's NOWHERE in my new JD) is to look after the uni's enterprise architecture.  It kind of fits with my skill set because it's about being organised but it's really a historic thing that I've never been able to hand off to someone else.  Anyway, the CIO wants us to understand the costs associated with the myriad systems the university uses, so I started with the Finance Partner for IT who sent me a spreadsheet with a certain number of systems on it but had to point me towards other Finance Partners because some systems are paid for through other budgets.

One told me they didn't know the cost and I'd have to speak to another person.  You're the Finance person and... you don't know... the cost...?  But, OK, I'll ask this other person.  Said person came back with, 'I'm new to this role; I suggest you speak to the Finance Person.'  O_o  They copied Finance Person into the email who responded with, 'Rosa is trying to find out about the costs for System X, which we usually pay £Y for.'

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That was the information I asked you for two days ago.  Why didn't you just tell me that, THEN?!?!  I emailed back something neutral, thanking them for the information (although that WAS NOT what I was thinking of saying!) - and they came back with, 'Glad we got there in the end.'.

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I can't even...

But today is Saturday!  It's time for shopping and cleaning and gaming, oh my!  And, possibly, online safeguarding training - oh what joy...

I think I need to do a day-by-day for this week...

Sunday - usual church stuff, except that there was an Incident that I apparently managed to miss completely.  A tree in the grounds was brought down by the storm last Friday and the light in the kitchen was also hanging off.  Our tea lady was off gadding in Skegness(!), so I stepped in to help our tea gentleman manage the mad rush for teas and coffees.

Monday - husband turned 52, so there was a suitable level of fuss made of him.  Mother rang and invited us up to theirs on Sunday or Monday; we have plans for Sunday, so I'm going on Monday.  She did not wish husband 'happy birthday' which seemed odd - they'd given him a card and(particularly terrible) present the weekend before, so they knew about it!

Tuesday - one of my Taste of God team agreed to 'open up' for the next two sessions, which took a huge weight off my mind because the husband had asked me to not make any plans for next week when I'm off and I didn't want to say, 'as well as going to mother's I also have this thing...'.  Then I looked at the schedule and saw said person was supposed to be off!  Mild panic...  But then someone else stepped into the breach!  Yay for teams!!!  My line manager's father passed away.

Wednesday - had a lovely catch up with a former colleague over coffee in the morning.  Then the church team meeting in the evening when the Incident I missed on Sunday was discussed.  It involves someone who comes to us because we're inclusive of their sexual identity - but who is definitely exclusive when it comes to certain Christian faith backgrounds.  I get that they were hurt but that's no excuse to describe someone in the way they did, especially when that person is an EX-other background.  When we call ourselves inclusive, we mean it!  A couple of members of the team undertook to try to have a conversation with the person, but I've offered to support someone else on Sunday if it comes to that.

Thursday - mentoring meeting at work.   I always leave those feeling so upbeat and positive about EVERYTHING!  And like my spiritual director, my mentor gave me homework!  And I talked to my mentor about their prayer life and encouraged them to think about coming along to Taste of God.  I have always tried to keep my life compartmentalised but it really doesn't work.  And my faith isn't something I can switch on and off!  And I don't talk about it very often, and certainly not with non-church people, so I see this as a Good Thing.

Friday - winding down ahead of my week off.

Today - expecting a quiet day for gaming.

Tomorrow - family meal to celebrate husband's birthday and mine (which is on Wednesday).  This year, our ages add up to 100.

Monday - trip to mother's.

Tuesday - hair cut and then...

The rest of the week is free of Plans.  The husband wants us to be 'spontaneous' and just go for a picnic in the park if we feel like it.  There will also be gaming.

Wow - that was a week!

Bye for now, DW.

 Finally got to start Hearts of Stone last night. Didn't get very far, partly because I hadn't downloaded it and I watched a 45 minute long thing whilst it did that, but it's looking interesting so far. And HARD. I'm at level 35 on a quest that recommends level 30 AND I've got the difficulty setting at 'story only', and I still struggled with the battles.

I was coming to the end of the first big battle - giant poison-spitting toad - when the husband came in asking for a leg rub. 'Don't rush,' he said. After the toad, there was a long cut scene and then I was right into another battle with some soldiers and a mage, and during all of this I couldn't save. By the time I'd dispatched the soldiers and had a chance to meditate and re-don my armour, then save, the poor man was asleep. I shall have to make it up to him this morning.

Well, the last three days at work have been very busy - but we know that busy is good. One of the things I was doing was preparing some slides for my boss for her to present at the cascade meeting in June. I've done three VERY basic slides that I don't think are what she wants but are what she asked for. I'm really getting the hang of being an IT professional! I shall have a word with her later.

Looking forward to a quieter couple of days.