A bed of roses

 It was raining when I set off for work this morning and my fancy-dan umbrella blew inside out twice! But the spokes didn't get all mangled, so that's something. I felt sorry for the people graduating today because they didn't have a nice sunny day like yesterday - but the rain did go off, so at least they weren't soaked.

But it's raining again now, and I have to put the bin out :(

LM was doing some LM work - specifically checking my objectives on our funky appraisal system. It's designed for capturing annual objectives and our progress towards them, and for recording our 1:1s, and quarterly and annual appraisals. I have time booked in my calendar to do a monthly update because there's nothing worst than getting to the end of the year and having ZERO idea how I've spent my time, except knowing I've been busy! Anyway, LM was full of praise for my approach and seemed to be making a mental note to manage not only their own objectives in a similar way, but to recommend to their other reports that they do it, too. I mean, it's all a choice, isn't it? There's no reward for doing it and no punishment for not - but I appreciate the appreciation.

After evening prayer, I watched an episode of Psych, which was all about a group of people living together - which I'd just been talking about with the group! Personally, the idea of living with other people sounds awful - I mean, I struggle with my husband and son! - but there's also something attractive about it. In particular, I have a community living in my head that want me to tell their story - it takes a village to raise a child, and ubuntu, and all that - I just don't know what the story is, yet.

This morning I edited another DS Harding story. I love him so much - and his sidekick DC Priti 'yes like the MP, no I don't vote Conservative' Patel. And now I want to write about THEM in November, not the group of fantasy characters... I may need to do double Nano... Or two 25k MSs because 100k sounds a LOT...

Also, between work, evening prayer, husband's poor sleep, and a take away for tea, I haven't done a great job of looking after him today. I will be better tomorrow <3

There's a bank holiday on Monday, so I have one more day in work until I hit Part-Time mode! Seriously, for most of June, I'm working 4-day weeks. I am very much looking forward to it.

I also have 2 weeks without LM. And both weeks just generally look pretty quiet, which means I can hopefully get my head around all the stuff I keep forgetting. There's nothing worse than someone asking me a question I should know the answer to and my brain going, 'I dunno!'. It's also evidence of how many plates are spinning at the moment, I suppose.

More rain today, so it's been quite chilly. Summer isn't quite here!

And found favourite colleague's favourite Doctor Who episode so far was the song and dance one I thought they'd hate >D But as they pointed out, it was just FUN. Doctor Who used to be fun, before it had to be serious and worthy. Why did they have to do that to Whittaker's Doctor? Looking forward to the next episode - and our next conversation <3 It's a long time since I saw FC so animated, especially about Doctor Who, and I enjoyed them being happy. Interested people are interesting.

Husband's podiatry appointment was at 15:05, so I pre-booked a taxi for 14:45. When I checked the app at 14:40, it said the taxi booking was for 15:05! WTF?! So, I cancelled the booking and tried doing a right-fucking-NOW booking and waited for a driver to be assigned - and waited - and waited... In the end, our son booked one through Uber. The clinic where the appointment was is only a 20-minute stroll away, so we wouldn't normally have got a taxi even in January but it was absolutely teaming with rain. When we came out, we tried a RFN booking and waited for a driver to be assigned... And gave up after 5 minutes because there was nowhere to shelter so we were already getting wet. Of course, I'd left the hats and umbrellas at home, thinking we wouldn't need them. First Lesson Learned for 2024 - ALWAYS take the bag with All The Things in it! But, as we were heading for home, we knew we would be able to get into some dry clothes once we were in.

We now have two days of sitting around and doing very little until Friday when we go for a blood test.

Oh, except that tomorrow I have to chase his sharps box. We put the full one out last night, which was supposed to be collected and replaced between 07:00 and 15:00 but wasn't. We need somewhere to put the needles!

Three play-sessions with Scarlet Nexus today means REAL progress has been made. I've just done a bit of poking in the PS Store at all the add-ons, which are a) reasonably priced and b) quite useful. Unfortunately for whoever made the game, I'm not invested enough in the game or the characters to spend cold, hard cash. I can imagine lots of people would be, though. For example, there are two 'Extra Bonding' (or something like that) DLCs with extra costumes and weapons, as well as more bonding episodes, and a DLC that gives some insight into the Big Bad - which may be worth investigating on YouTube.

I currently have 3 books on the go. Sometimes I read a bit of all of them, sometimes I just focus on one.

• The book I'm reading simply for pleasure, and therefore the one I read when I'm ONLY reading one, is Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I hate every adaptation because the MC is a quiet, shy, timid person, which makes for a very uninteresting screen heroine, so they always try to make her more lively and 'interesting', thereby ruining her. But I will always watch any Austen adaptation :D
• The other novel I have on the go is Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. I recently read Nostromo by him - and yes, I only read it because of the link to Alien! There is, however, nothing in the book that links to the film apart from the ship in Alien being called the Nostromo. Anyway, this is the one I'm sort of forcing myself to read. It's on a '100 classic novels' cartridge for my Nintendo DS and I'm reading through them in author alphabetical order.
• Finally is The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis. I always find the theology Lewis presents in the Narniad aligns much more with my own thoughts on the subject than his apologetics. I remember struggling with Mere Christianity and not making much sense of The Four Loves. Anyway, early on in TPOP, he presents a logical 'proof' for Christianity - either Jesus was a dangerous lunatic, or his claims to be the Son of God are true. Now, even I have a problem with this. It presupposes that atheists accept that a) Jesus was an actual, historical person (which I believe is still up for debate since his existence is only recorded in the Gospels) and b) there's a God for him to be the Son of, which would be difficult if you didn't believe in God (which is, after all, the DEFINITION of an atheist...). For me, the existence of God is self-evident, but that's because I look at the world in a way that provides the proofs. I'm looking through God-tinted glasses, so I naturally see God in everything and everyone. I appreciate that the world just doesn't look like that to other people. But, for me, the purpose of our existence is to make the world a better place than we found it, and we can all do that. Those who know God here and now are like the Pevensies and Narnians - those who don't are like Emeth in The Last Battle. Which is why I prefer the theology of the Narniad :D

Well, time to settle down for the night. It feels like a 3-book night...

So I am currently supporting 4 projects, in various stages of maturity, and doing my day job of wrangling the whole portfolio, which in itself has a number of main tasks.  To 'help' matters, I work with the same people on a lot of this stuff, so it can be challenging to know exactly which conversation I am having >D

One of the ways I know which project is under discussion is by the PM.  Until this week, we had 3 PMs each managing their own project.  Then Project #4 started gearing up, and one of the PMs now has 2 projects.  Inevitably, they came to talk to me about one of them and I started talking to them about the other one - ROFL.  They are working with 2 BAs and admitted they'd done the same with one of them - at least I was talking to the right PM, even if it was about the wrong project.

And my line manager got the senior job.  Apparently, they've done a similar role in the past but I didn't know that and it came as a complete shock.  I think they'll still be line managing me because we don't have a proper programme manager to manage the project delivery team, but we shall see.  As long as they see my fucking regrade through...  There are interviews for a new PM next week - not to replace my line manager but for a gap we identified ages ago.  So, there's an expectation my line managers Big Project will go to the new PM.

We are getting a nice little windfall - £750 in October and £250 in December for certain grades, which I understand is sector wide, not just my uni.  If my regrade goes through before Christmas (highly unlikely), I'll miss the second one.  It is taxable and liable for NI and pension but it's a nice little bonus - especially with grandson #2 on the way!  Of course, what we'd prefer is to be properly paid.

We've had a lot of rain this week, including the best thunder storm I've seen in years the other night.  The whole sky was lit up with the lightning and the thunder went on for ages.  The garden is happy - and so are the birds because the bird baths have filled up :D

And, of course, the only monarch I've ever known has shuffled off this mortal coil.  I'm quite sad, really.  I liked the Queen; she behaved with dignity in the face of multiple challenges created by her own offspring.  I wouldn't say she always got it right - she really misjudged the public mood over Diana's death, for example (although my personal feelings were all on her side!) - but she believed in doing her duty, a sadly lacking quality in today's world.  Oh, and apparently Harry and Meaghan's kids are now HRH.

But what now for the monarchy?  I do believe a lot of people felt like I did - liked the Queen rather than the institution.  I would like to see the new King see his time out - he's waited a long time, after all!  But after that...?  At the very least, I'd like to see a trimming down of the civil list.  I don't see why my taxes should be paying for Andrew (for example) to be swanning around wherever he's swanning around, these days.

And I have to remember to lead 'God Save the King' at the end of the service on Sunday...