Mother's Day

With it being Mother's Day this weekend - at least in the US - I want to take this opportunity to say how proud I am of my Mum.  The last few years haven't been easy, but no matter what life throws at you she has remained strong.  She's had to learn to live a lot more independently, and she has done so admirably (with a little bit of help at times!  And I'm so glad she has Darcey to keep her company now as well!).  She has continued to live her retirement as she wants - mostly in the garden - and somehow continues to lead a full and busy life.  I think it helps that she is stubborn and has her routines and ways of doing things - I don't always agree with them, but if they work for her then who am I to judge.  I know I'm probably a bit of a disappointment to her - never having got married, never giving her grandchildren, and in her own words being "not normal" - for which I can only apologize.  And I also feel somewhat guilty that I'm only able to offer her limited support from the other side of the world - and it's been tough not being able to see her as much as either of us would like over the last few years.  But I hope we can appreciate the time we are able to spend together now, and I do hope to come back to the UK a bit more regularly (twice a year if possible).  I hope she continues to be able to do the things she like to do (though being wary of her increasing limitations as she gets older!).  And I hope the future remains relatively stress-free (don't let the small things bother you, it's not good for the blood pressure!).  Stay strong and wishing my Mum - and all the other Mums out there - a Happy Mother's Day!      

Property

I've wanted to get on the property ladder for a while now.  And a home that has just gone on the market has piqued my interest.  

Sadly, I can't afford it.  At $85 million, it is just outside my price range.  Apparently it's the most expensive residential listing of all time in Greater Seattle.  On 4.3 acres, with 327 feet of lake front on Lake Washington, it used to belong to Kenny G (yep, that's smooth jazz musician Kenny G!).  Nearly 18,000 square feet divided between 4 structures, a tennis court, a pool, a dock big enough to moor your seaplane and yacht, 5 rooms, 10 (!) bathrooms, the property tax alone is more than my annual income.  You can dream.         

Workload

We had a company-wide meeting today – the kind of meeting where the CEO talks a little bit about the company and how we’re doing.  And the more I hear from this guy, the more I think he sounds like a snake oil salesman.  His positivity seems far removed from reality and how most of us “grunts” actually feel the company is doing – and if the share price is anything to go by, the investors also don’t seem to agree with him.  Our pipeline of work doesn’t seem anywhere near as full as our CEO seems to make it out to be.  My workload is extremely light at the moment, and has been for quite some time, and I’m definitely not the only one – almost everyone working within our therapeutic area (probably the “least important” area when it comes to our company’s growth, and clearly the least successful when it comes to recent results) has little to no work - and there doesn’t seem to be any substantial work coming up.  I just found out this week that another project I was earmarked to work on has been canned.  The meeting today actually focused on our therapeutic area, but I got zero sense that there was actually any significant tangible work coming up anytime soon.  A lot of the discussion was more about the various failures and lessons learnt – I wish they’d looked forward more than they looked back.  With no upcoming vacation planned, I suspect I will be shipped out to help out on other projects in different areas as and when they need some extra help.  Not exactly the best use of my skillset, but frankly I’ll take anything right now if it means I’ll be a bit busier than I currently am.  But it’s all very dispiriting – I don’t think we’re anywhere close to talking about job layoffs yet, but I fear we are heading in that direction if things don’t turn around soon.  

Food

I didn't want to, but I've just had to throw out a load of out of date food.  The reason I didn't want to - the current price of food at the supermarkets out here is shocking.  And it's not like the food is of particular high quality.  But I read somewhere that Seattle has the highest cost of food shopping in the US only behind New York.  And the price increase is noticeable when you do your weekly shop now.  What is perhaps surprising is how expensive comparable foods here are to what they cost in the UK - that doesn't seem right in the wake of Brexit.  Yes it's a lot cheaper to eat out here than it is in the UK, but the cost of groceries - particularly the healthy stuff like fruit and veg - is a lot cheaper in the UK than it is here.  No wonder obesity is so prevalent - it ain't cheap to eat healthily.  Not that I can use that as an excuse!  But I can say that it is not just the various British foods I miss (fish n chips, curry, sunday roasts, sausage rolls, pies, crisps, confectionery, pastries, etc), but it is also food shopping in general - I think I could eat a lot more healthily and with a lot more variety in the UK than I currently do here.  It might be time to switch up my grocery shopping - I've been thinking about trying some new places.   

Song of the Week #108

It's just gone 10 pm here, which is 6 am UK time.  And it feels like 6 am - I've just dozed off on the sofa watching some basketball, and I feel SO tired as I drag myself upstairs and into bed, and then I remember that I have to post something.  I don't feel like writing much, so here is another song instead.  Which I should probably have picked a few weeks ago.

Bathroom Stuff

There were 2 things I missed in the US when I was in the UK - taking a bath, and some nice toilet paper.  My oversensitive bum hole suffered when I was back.  Which is probably why I got through so much toilet paper (or was it because I got through so much toilet paper?).  I think generally I use too much anyway - which is why I have been giving some serious consideration to getting a bidet attachment for one of my toilets.  Apparently if you get a good one, they do wonders in keeping you clean and significantly reducing the amount of toilet paper you need.  So I might give one a go.  If it isn't too much trouble to install (which with my lack of DIY skills, is potentially a big issue).     

Body Clock

It's been less than a week, and I think I am still on UK time.  I am falling asleep in front of the TV in the evenings, totally unable to concentrate on any of the very many TV recordings that I made while I was away.  And then I wake up in the very early hours.  Even before sunrise.  It's all very disconcerting.  And probably not good for me.  I think I'm very slowly and incrementally readjusting to the time difference here, but it's taking me an incredibly long time - and considerably longer than adjusting to UK time from the US.  But perhaps I can make the most of this by getting into a healthier routine that involves starting the day early with some exercise.  And if my job workload remains light to non-existent, I think I can probably maintain this for a while even if I gradually start to wake up at a more sensible hour.