Day 5 - getting easier?

[Wordsworth2]

Good morning all,

I hope your journeys are becoming easier and your life healthier. It does feel easier for me this morning, but then I know I'm going back to work tomorrow, which brings the stress, the exhaustion, the cravings that tag along with that.

The good thing: I know I'm not alone and that support is only a few typed letters away. Good luck today, tomorrow and every day of your journey.

[BerlinBetty Visitor]

Hullo Wordsworth2 and Happy New Year! This may seem a bit much considering I'm now semi- retired but those of us who are still have work we need to go to, in one form or another, and stress-laden situations we'd rather not face, so I hope you'll accept my advice as valid.

The first day back to work, take more trouble with your outfit and make-up, hair etc than you normally would. I always went back to two days of pointless meetings, when sometimes Full-of-Themselves Management stood and drowned us in management-speak. If you greet them confidently and take notes with a manicured hand it somehow helps. I used to take copious notes as they drawled on, but they were about my New Year resolutions, which were only do-able challenges and ideas for how to keep myself jolly through January, never a jolly month.

If by any chance you've gained some festive weight then I bet most of your colleagues will have done the same, and if they proudly claim they haven't, they're either Taking Porkies for a Walk or they starved themselves over Christmas, looking on miserably while ancient Auntie Thelma got herself most of the way outside a giant Toblerone while watching Gavin and Stacey, whereas I hope you were helping yourself to Something a Bit Naughty while laughing at G+S.

I really hope that you had a great Christmas. If you did, please hug those memories to yourself with pleasure and go to work with a tuppaware of allowable, nutritious snacks so that the workplace carp-snacks don't tempt. It's a New Year and New Adventure! Sucks to Guilt and Down with Depression.

Take a house plant and a daft small teddy with you for comfort? I'm ancient and I still have a healthy collection of small teddies (and a daft rabbit) who give me comfort and companionship when life is elephant grey. Yes, I know it's daft but I don't care.

Take that Workday by the Throat and Give it a Good Shake! It's yours to own, not the other way around.

love Betty.

Enjoyed your username. Did you know that William and his sister Dorothy sometimes lay in ditches around the Cockermouth countryside and pretended to be dead?

No. I've no idea either but presumably they were young, and it was fun.... After all, there were no giant Toblerones around in those days... x

[Wordsworth2 in reply to BerlinBetty]

Hi Berlin Betty,

Thank you for your great advice. I will certainly go in - although, as a male, I think I'll refrain from make up and nail varnish, if that's ok? - dressed to impress me (let's face it, I'm doing this for me)!

I love the plant idea and am going to but one over the week for my classroom, it will be a wonderful addition to it. However, try as hard as I might, I don't think I will ever laugh at G+S...controversial, I know! 🤯

I hope you also had a great christmas and are enjoying the new year and everything it brings with it. Here's to living a new lifestyle and being healthier.

Stay strong!

[BerlinBetty Visitor in reply to Wordsworth2]

Well that's just priceless, so sorry; I should have realised from your username that you were a chap!

INSET looming then. May your term be unclouded by imminent inspections and your week as SMT-free as possible.

My classroom contained, apart from many desks, a three-piece suite, a kettle, a bickie tin and a corkscrew in the filing cabinet for special occasions. The shelves that weren't stuffed with books were full of animals, mostly of tin or stone, also old theatre props. There was a blow-up chair which the boys always fought over and we all watched together on an interactive board I used for nothing else but good films... happy days.

Some colleagues thought I was unprofessional for making my room into a personal space but the young ones loved it and it made going to work just more bearable.

May your term be enjoyable in as many ways as possible - and stay off the school puddings!

love Betty xxxx