Happy Mondays

It's going to take me a little while to get used to working part time.  I have worked full time since I was 19 and that's a long time ago, a lifetime of the colleagues I work with plus a couple of years! I am not entirely comfortable with the idea though two part time working friends assure me I will get used to having an extended weekend and that I can eventually pick up additional work.  They laughed when I told them I set my alarm clock and prepped overnight oats for breakfast, just as if I was still starting work at 7am on a Monday morning.  Short memory I think.

Having taken the car for its MOT and spent time drinking coffee in my favourite hideway I hit the pool for a burst of lengths.  It's strange being with the leisurely pensioners and young mums and dads instead of the thrashing up and down the poolers and kids doing swimming classes.  My friend tells me I am practising for retirement, working part time.  I am uncomfortable with the thought - I have many years to go, hopefully!

I spent 11 years endlessly, workingly, competently, with a bunch of "boys" who called me "one of the lads" and the words "work life balance" didn't enter their heads or the head of the boss, bless them.  I'm not entirely sure but I think that working so solidly didn't help me and that learning to be and to be balanced is going to take immense practice.