Holyhead

We have just spent an absoulutely fantastic weekend in Holyhead, which is in Wales. we arrived here on saturday lunch-time and the weather has been great. It rained a bit both nights but i don't mind that as long as it's nice and sunny in the daytime.

On saturday evening we had dinner at the pub next door to our bed and breakfast. It was so hilariously funny, because I specifically ordered the lasagne with salad as suppose to the broccoly and cauliflower bake, which came with chips. However, when the dish was brought out it turned out that half the plate was full of pale, partly-cooked, soggy chips with a dish of lasagne and a tiny salad garnish.

I told the young waitress that I wanted salad instead of chips and she said in broad welsh accent "there is salad there" pointing at my garnish. I showed her the menu and said that the meal was supposed to be with salad only and no chips. She informed me that because it says "crispy" salad it means that it comes with chips. Wow, it really is true that you learn something new everyday!!! I must admit the lasagne itself was home-made and absoulutely gorgeous.

Yesterday, was a really nice day. We went on the beach and had a wonderful icecream whilst watching people launching their boats, some brave kids swimming, and people having picnics. We went for a nice walk on the sand and a paddle in the crystal clear water. The sea was actually not as cold as I expected but I wouldn't have wanted to swim in it though.

After that we went to visit Helen's stepmum. She was a lovely lady which I instantly liked even though I had never met her before. Very bubbly and talkative she was and I felt ashamed that the sea air made me so tired that I was nodding off whilst sitting there.



Last night we went to Anglesey, to a really nice pub restaurant. I had the most fabulous seafood salad I have ever had in my life. It was so nice that I had to take a photo of it. It consisted of: prawns, smoked salmon,crayfish, king prawn, olives, lemon wedges, orange slices and loads of salad stuffs. In the centre the was a pot of seafood sauce and there was also tartare sauce available. I felt like I was in heaven eating all that and didn't know where to start.





Today is the last day here and we are moving on to our static carvan holiday in Aberystwyth for a few days. It's 8am and sadly it's raining but we are hoping it will brighten up later.

Phased Back to Work Programme

Today was my first day back to work after my doctor gave me a clean bill of health yesterday. However, she did warn me that I might go to work for a couple of weeks and then end up being off again.

I went in this morning, a bit late because I forgot about the parking situation and didn't allow walking time from the car to work. Straight away I got thrown into a Health and Safety meeting, which was pleasant enough apart from the fact that I (me??) forgot to switch my mobiles on to silent and my personal one went off in the middle of the meeting. I couldn't believe it; that is something I usually sneer at other people for.

After the meeting I was asked to see HR regarding my back to work programme, so I went to see the HR manager. She informed me that I would be best coming back to work on a phased programme. IE I would work half a day today, off tomorrow, half a day on Friday, then work 5 half days next week and then I'm on annual leave anyway. That is when I'm going to Aberystwyth on the static caravan holiday. When I return, I will work 3 half days and 2 full days first week and 3 full days and 2 half days the second week.

On 19th of May I will return back full time. I guess this will avoid me getting stressed again as I found myself get wound up already about the slowness of the PC after just using it for a few minutes.

In the meantime I need to ring the HSA to arrange for counselling as it will be provided free and might well help speed my recovery. Personally. I think what I need is a place of my own but it just is going to have to wait.

Changes at work

Yesterday, I was called in to work to see a lady from OHT (Occupational Health Therapy) which went very well. She realised that under the circumstances it was not at all surprising that I was stressed and unable to work.

I must admit that I do miss work a lot but it would be silly to go back just because of that and end up getting ill again. However, whilst I was there anyway, I thought I might as well call in and see my manager to talk about the current situation and the proposed changes that are happening to our department.

She told me that the job that I had unofficially been doing the last 18 months had now been made into a position, which I was welcome to apply for. If for some reason, I didn't get it, I would automatically fall back on becoming a development assistant again, which is the job I wanted to do in the first place.

My dilemma now is that do I really want to go back to working under the same stressful conditions as I did before? We are moving offices soon but there would be no particular benefit to me from it as I would still be expected to share the phone line and the office exactly the same. That means that I have all the noise and distractions as I did before and if I need to make a phone call and someone else is using the phone I would have to wait. That in turn means that my phone call will most likely be forgotten.

On the other hand, working as a development assistant does no longer have the same appeal as it did before. I used to love having a property to myself and do everything that needed to be done with out any interfering. Now I would be sharing all the work with other people who do not have the same work ethic or the same views, which can cause personality clashes and apathy.

For the time being I have decided not to do anything. I will wait for the job description to come out for the SDM job and then decide which action to take. There is no need to make any rash decisions at this stage.

I shall keep you posted on my decision.