Polar bears and an imminent return to work

My last few mornings have fallen into a regular pattern. When the baby wakes up at 6.30/7am, reluctant to get up in the cold cold winter morning air, I have opted to bring him into bed with me for a cuddle and normally I can get him to fall asleep again, giving me a welcome hour's extra sleep. This is a special time and I love falling asleep with him but what I've realised is that armed with his toy polar bear, I normally end up being whacked in the face when he wakes up and stretches. The perils of parenthood...

Last week in Glasgow the weather was horrendous. It was as if someone was standing above you, throwing buckets of water down and pointing a wind turbine in your face at the same time. The storms lasted well over a week but now it is still and sunny and we're taking advantage of this by going on lots of walks with Hinba.

I'm due to go back into work starting 6th Jan, and before this I'm supposed to take what's known as 'Keeping in Touch' days. These are opportunities for me to get back into my team, see what's been going on and smooth my re-habitation experience into one big happy fluffy moment. So, y first day was about a month ago, but J had gastric flu and was projectile vomitting big time so I cancelled. I shifted it a week later and organised childcare with a very nubile and blonde young lady, called Pamela Anderson. (really). Off I skipped into work, tra la la-ing all the way. I couldn't wait to have a day of meetings (gossip), coffee and more to the point, not having to bear the responsibility of caring for a baby for a full day. I bounced up the corridor and into the lift and burst through the double-swipe security doors into our area, only to find that my WHOLE TEAM, bar one person, WAS OUT. To clarify, my boss had agreed this date with me and therefore on the face of things, might have considered this.

"Er hello?"

I squeaked, images of happy coffee sessions and a long lunch with old pals fading fast.

My one colleague, who was there for an hour until she had to leave for a funeral, took 20 minutes to run me through everything.

"So and so is off sick, so and so is working in Edinburgh, so and so has a doctors appointment" la la la.

So, my day which cost me in childcare terms, roughly £70, was to be spent 'catching up with organisational change on the intranet'. Something that may be more efficiently done in a converstation. No, I was expected to read the intranet for 7 hours.

Well sod it, I thought, and changed the password on my computer to reflect my impression of my boss.

So, I spent most of the time catching up with booking a skiing holiday, and then went out for lunch. I was so very very disappointed that this is how I was being 'welcomed' back, but at least my expectations have fallen rock bottom and I will just use the job for what I need it to do...to pay the bills.

If only I could find some motivation and crack on with my creative writing...would it be the answer to everything? (Dreams: big house, garden, flash car, private education for our children, foreign holidays...) Probably not!