A salad post

 Time seems to fly so quickly whilst doing nothing at all of any note at the moment...I realize I somehow kept mum through the Winter Week of Doom (5 entire days with a few inches of snow on the ground) which was a true highlight of the past few months for the Boy!

I skipped writing up a whole week of meals, which consisted of 4 Gousto recipes (Venison and Pork Burger with Figgy Onions and Herby Fries, Smoked Fish with Warm Green Bean and Potato Salad, Honey and Garlic Pork Noodles with Smashed Cucumber and an oven-baked Normandy Chicken and Apple Casserole); a home-made Pastitsio made with ground turkey; a repeat of the Romanian Cassoulet (by special request of the Boy) and a quick sausage, potato, red onion and courgette bake for an easy Sunday evening.

I moved back from my 'foster' department at work, into my 'home' department...which made me happy although it's only for a week. The situation at work is still bleak. I am on flexi furlough at the moment, moving to full furlough, then back to flexi furlough, then probably onto redundancy when the tap of government money subsidizing its own catastrophic decisions will have dried out (end of May?).

I finally saw my liver specialist (the appointment was ONLY delayed for 18 months, but why dwell on such minor details? We're all SO fortunate to have the NHS in our lives!). She's happy with my progress - or rather lack thereof. When you have a lump growing on your liver, the fact that it's not making any progress is good news. She is happy that all I need to do for the foreseeable is keep my weight where it is. I'd love to get it down, I said, but between my capricious liver function, the chronic fatigue and the inevitable reduction in physical activity caused by this whole pandemic affair, all I seem to do with the balance of calories in/out is to maintain the status quo. Of which I'm not happy. I could do with losing another kilo or two. Can I get some help, I asked - a dietitian/nutritionist referral, for example? She actually laughed at me. She said I'd have to weigh double my current weight to be even considered for a waiting list, and even then the precious NHS resources are so stretched, that I'd be on that waiting list for over a year. Gee, I wonder why 'healthy, young' adults keep dropping off like flies with Covid in this country. I don't think I would even look like a human being were I twice my current weight (which is perfectly normal by the way according to the same NHS - but there is a hint of a muffin top there that shouldn't be, and to my horror a fold is starting to appear on my back when I twist around which is definitely a. unacceptable to myself and b. not normal given my calorie intake/output). The NHS has spent way too long putting out fires and focusing on bureaucracy, and definitely not enough focusing on preventative care. That's one thing the Germans have got pat down.

In other news, I've applied for another dozen or so jobs, and miracle of miracles, actually had 2 interviews (got to the second stage, a 'chat with the CEO') with another employer. Don't think I'll be offered the job but it sure looked nice, and it would have been a great deal of fun to work with them. For the first time since THAT Mauritius job, I would have been doing a job I would have thoroughly enjoyed. Would have been truly nice but the radio silence since my second interview indicates they've probably gone a different way.

Have picked myself up after yet another missed opportunity (became really proficient at this process during our 4 years in Germany) and I carried on writing more applications. 

I'm not THAT stressed, something will come up eventually. After all, I am clever, educated, skilled and I have a lovely personality! One lucky company will reap the benefits at some point.

I stopped in the middle of writing this, to read the latest announcement on Life in House Arrest v.3/2021 edition. The Boy isn't going to school until the 15th of March at the earliest. Sigh.

Besides the damage to his mental health, social skills and the educational delay this is causing, the announcement puts a bit of a spanner in the plans of the new project I was allocated to from the 1st of March. My new (temporary) line manager was hoping I'd be able to work from the office (key work) but 8 years old aren't exactly proficient independent home schoolers, and the Husband's job is such he doesn't emerge from his screens and headphones for hours in a row on the best of days. Oh well. I suppose I can negotiate a half-day training in the office with the Husband. Wonder what I'd have to give in exchange (not to the Husband, to the Boy who has become a complete Mummy Limpet over the past year, as we are all constantly at home, attached at the hip and not seeing other human beings except on screens or from a cautious distance on afternoon walks)...