Saturday, June 14, 2014

Everything's moving so fast

I can't believe we're already halfway through June. This evening I'll be on a plane to Dublin to spend a couple of days there and mainly to see one of my best friends getting married. I'm looking forward to it and really looking forward to not having to be in work for a few days.

It feels like things there are really catching up and I won't have a chance to fix everything before it all goes tits up, if you'll forgive the expression. It's not one I really like but just fits here. I stayed late yesterday to at least try and sort out the mess that is my desk and at least get a bit of an overview of what's to be done. I thought I had a pretty good idea of the very long list of stuff I need to do and was plugging away, realising I wasn't even going to get one of the bigger tasks finished when I moved what I thought were two files that I just needed to get filed and found another one underneath them. It had been totally hidden from sight somehow but contained workings for an invoice that should have been sent out the last week of April/first week of May. Crap. I couldn't believe it when I saw it and quite genuinely felt like just getting up, walking out of the office and never coming back. My stomach was in knots. I still cannot really figure out what happened but that is the second really big mistake I have made since September. And that I just have no reason or excuse for. That panicky feeling? That's the reason I tend to not make big mistakes - I loathe that feeling and would rather spend hours working extra every week to be sure everything's done properly than be a bit less picky. Let your guard down for just a little while and see what happens. I sent my boss an email immediately but what could I say really? She did read the email almost immediately (I could see it had been opened in her inbox) but didn't reply. I haven't looked at my Blackberry today. I'm kind of hoping by the time I get back next Friday she'll have calmed down a bit. But it's really bad that my annual review has to be done by the end of June. And since I'm hoping to leave before another one comes around, my evaluation for this review will be what my reference will largely be based on.

When I got home last night I was still too keyed up to sleep so I set to, finally doing the washing up that has been collecting since, I kid you not, just over a week. As I said, things are catching up with me! I have barely even opened the door to the kitchen this week as I knew what I'd be looking at. Got it all done and the place sorted out a bit. Labelled and stored the jam I made nearly two weeks ago as well.

This morning, I've been taking a long time to get going (obvious by the fact that it's one o'clock and I'm still talking about morning). I've one wash that will be finished shortly and another to go in immediately as there are things I need to bring with me that I didn't get around to washing during the week. Typical. Hopefully they'll be mostly dry by the time I need to leave. I've tidied up a bit and just finished hoovering. Need to wash the floors now. And then myself. And then find some food. I think I'm just going to go out for lunch and save myself any more washing up duty. And at some stage I have to pack, too. So I really should get a move on now.

Here's a link to some photos taken after the big storm last Monday. I haven't quite figured flickr out (after something like seven years - I really need to do something about that) so most of the photos are without captions or names but you can get an idea. We have had some spectacular sunsets, too. Although I find the sunset setting on my camera seems to make everything very yellow rather than enhance the red. But you can get an idea of the devastation.

3 comments:

Fiona said...

Parallel lives! My desk at work is a train-wreck, lots of loose ends to tidy up before the end of Monday, washing by the tonne and it's raining here so nothing is drying.

I'm looking forward to getting on the flight and sinking into a chair with nothing more to do. How long is the flight from Germany to Dublin?

I hope the invoice situation is ok. I always think the test of a good boss is how much they support their own staff when mistakes are made - as they inevitably are, we're all human. I've had one great boss who always publically supported and defended her staff no matter what - even if there were sometimes 'back-room' conversations about future areas for improvement. The boss will earn loyalty if they give it to staff. I hope you are not beating yourself up about this. People are allowed to be human and everyone makes mistakes.

Funnily at my mum's today she said, 'Did you know there have been huge storms in Germany?' She's following a Facebook weather page in Europe! I love the Flickr link, it works well even on mobile devices.

Moonwaves said...

I'll barely be on the plane before I need to get off again. It takes about an hour and a half from here to there. Kind of funny really to watch the stewardesses trying to get the full program of drinks, food, skyshopping etc. done - it's like a race to get through it all before we land. LOL

Amanda said...

Ugh, that's awful! (Although I do love your "before it all goes tits up" expression - never heard that one before!) I processed some checks for deposit back in December, signed off on them, and then my colleague lost them on her way to turn them in. She just found them last week and it was quite embarrassing to have my name attached to that (I never caught that that batch hadn't been deposited). My boss was upset but what can you do? We owned up to the mistake and fixed it - I had to call everyone who had a check in that bunch but they were all so nice to me! Thank goodness :)

Enjoy your trip!