Balancing Act

That lovely balance I spoke about last Wednesday has been rather wobbly this week. Ellie has been unwell – sick once on Monday, high temperature on Tuesday, followed by a night of very little sleep (for both of us!) and generally unwell today although seeming much brighter this evening. Consequently, I’ve had to take some time off work to look after her and in compensation I’ve brought a mass of work home to catch up on.

Still, it could be much worse. The nursery staff are excellent at judging the fine line between pulling me out of work when Ellie is unwell and keeping her at nursery when she’s a just little under the weather. When it became apparent this morning that Ellie really wasn’t going to be fit to return to nursery today, Paul and I split the task of staying at home with Ellie between us.

This led to the interesting verbal ‘diary’ game, half asleep at 6.30 am.
“What have you got on this morning at work?”
“Team meeting”
“I’ve got a student’s direct observation and a meeting with my manager – I trump that”
“OK – what have you got on this afternoon?”
“Team meeting – and I’m chairing it”
“I’ve got a mental health review tribunal – that beats team meeting, even with chairing”.

Thus the cunning plan of swapping cars at Paul’s work car park at 12.20pm, with sleeping Ellie in the back, was hatched.

Which worked really well – except that when I got into Paul’s car it wouldn’t start! So I called him to come back, intending to take the keys for the other car and leave him to deal with the AA/RAC person at the end of the day. Of course, cars being what they are, it started as soon as he turned the key!