Catching up....

I've had a lovely weekend relaxing and doing nothing much in particular. Circumstances meant that I worked all last weekend and I found that working 12 days straight was incredibly tiring. I have nothing but admiration for people who work under such conditions. In recent weeks I've realised again how fortunate I am and that I lead quite a self indulgent life since I retired from my teaching career. The joy of crafting, cooking, gardening, doing some charity work, visiting and maintaining friendships whenever I wish and spending the odd day just doing nothing are all part of my retired life.

When i'm not working I go to several Knit and Natter groups each month

Some of the eggplants from my garden this year; they were used to make moussaka

An old photo now but I still meet these ladies regularly eevn though we left school in the 1960s

So why am I back in the workforce for 12 weeks? I went into this work with a heavy heart and a feeling of foreboding. I dreaded the announcement that would come signalling the state election because I would start this job then. I wasn't frightened of having to work hard; the fear was that I had no background knowledge in this field and that I would let my husband down by not coping with the skills etc needed for the job. Well that hasn't happened. I have been able to do every task set for me including using the computer system. I know that I'm still slow with data entry but there isn't  much of that involved in this job. A lot of the data entry is done via a scanning wand so that makes it easy :-) I've also done a lot of 'lower level' skill work which really amuses my DD2 because it's the kind of work she did when she started work in an office when she was 18. I just can't believe my luck that someone would pay me so well to do such tasks, lol. And that's why DH and I are doing this work...to earn some money for our travelling fund.

One challenging aspect of the job is this flight of stairs up to where the kitchen  and the restrooms are ; it's good exercise though

This time last year we were travelling in the US (we travelled from Mar 5 till April 26) and on this day last year we were in San Francisco where I was so upset by the number of people begging on the streets. We spent extra days in Monterey and then San Francisco as the bad weather had closed Yosemite National Park. Despite the beggars I loved San Francisco, especially the waterfront and those seals! lol

I have 6 more weeks of paid work. We are 'finishing off' all the work necessary after the state election and since last week we've started work on the local government election which will happen on April 28. It's just how things have worked out having 2 elections so close to each other and it's certainly keeping us busy.