“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen”

What a miserable weeks holiday.
I've rarely been in bed before 3am, not wild revelry, just looming anxiety.
None of that insomnia I had back in the mid 2000s, once I'm in bed (ear buds in place of course)
I can get to sleep, but I've been staying up increasingly late (one day until 6am) fretting and a worrying.
I'm not going to mention any of my concerns, because they are all relatively petty, and normal (I imagine, I've no peers to review me).

Anyway, I'm quite looking forward  to getting back to work, even if its just to speak to another human being! (it's been a very lonely week off).

Lots of cash needed in the next few weeks, apart from the usual Christmas stuff. Strangely that's not one of my worries, I'm far from rich and I'll probably never finish my mortgage, but I can usually afford what I need (sadly I don't really need a Florida holiday next year, I simply want one!)

I'm still missing Billie of course, but not in quite the same way as last time I mentioned it. We still get to chat nearly every day, and hopefully I'm going to visit her before Christmas (actually she's counting on a lift back!).
One spurious achievement - I've recently watched every episode of "Still Game" spurred on by the recent BBC broadcast of the live show - whit a tonic!

Anyone Who Had A Heart... from yakkowarner on 8tracks Radio.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain (born this day 1835)

“It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame.”

Well, in lieu of someone to talk too here I am again, finally!
What's happened since last time?

The biggest event surely must be Billies departure for University.

Oh how I miss her!
At first it was a tangible hole in my everyday life, as so much of my "leisure" time revolved around her. Now, a month or two later it feels different, more normalised, but still heartbreaking. It's during the mundane things we did together, like shopping or watching a film,ordinary stuff, that I miss her most.
I know, I know, this is all a normal part of growing up , but knowing that has never made it easier for any parent before me, I'd wager.

She seems to be doing okay, and most importantly having a good time. So far she doesn't seem to have fallen into any of the decadent student excesses I'd fretted about! When I was at University, I was already married, so I didn't have that lonely first day not knowing anyone. Thankfully she has all the social skills I don't have...

My job is now totally transformed even from the way it was six months ago. I won't, as always go into details, but if this was a TV show, you'd say it has a mostly new cast, a new location, new writers and a new show runner. Sadly the budget hasn't increased. I may be a higher grade now, but the lack of weekends means I'm essentially earning the same as last year. No pay rises for nurses in  the past few years either, so effectively I was better off five or six years ago (but who wasn't? you moaning sod!).

I've had a couple of new health problems, nothing too serious thankfully, but both have "annoying" physical symptoms, which, er, are annoying me, a lot.
I had to have a mammogram, which involved some retrospectively amusing contortions from me, but at the time I was simply embarrassed. As I said though, it was nothing serious (those last two words would make a good epitaph for me...)

Ballad Of A Sad Man... from yakkowarner on 8tracks Radio.

“People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately” - Oscar Wilde