Here We Go Again!

A promise is a promise and today seemed as good a day as any to give up shopping for another year.

Okay, so I knew I'd be back at work today and therefore have limited access to temptation - plus I had sated my shopping desire last week with a few purchases in the Hobbs sale -but it's still a start.

Of course, nothing ever goes smoothly in the House of Hall and last night the fridge broke. It sits sulking in the middle of the kitchen floor, while its matching freezer friend smugly purrs away in its allotted space, challenging us to find fault with its frosty fabulousness.

Kevin has come over all manly, pulled wires out and announced 'It's the thermostat', so one has been ordered and in the meantime we wait, trying to remember how different our lives were when we could 'chill' things...

Luckily, we have sub zero temperatures outside and a tiled floor in our teeny tiny porch, which is now packed with everything that needs to be kept cold until we can either get the fridge fixed or (damn, it'll involve spending) buy a new one.

Hobbs has never been happier - food at floor level meant this morning's walk was accompanied by a hefty chunk of pate which he'd managed to scoop up on his little terrier tongue on the way past.

Just don't tell Kevin. He was keeping that for his lunch...

Snow Woe

There's a phrase 'be careful what you wish for' and in the last two weeks I have come to understand the true meaning of this little pearl of wisdom.

You see, my normal morning goes a little like this:

6:00am: alarm goes off and dog-walk clothes go on.

6:10 - 6:45am: unimpressed terrier gets dragged out for a walk while I dawdle behind dreaming of working from home (this dream involves long baths taken at mid-morning and delicious aromas of freshly brewed coffee drifting into my study as I type my best-selling novel).

6:55 - 7:55am: desperate attempt to find work pass, pack bag, locate the car keys I have lost from the night before (they are always at the bottom of the bag I've just packed), shower, re-pack bag without the car keys this time, dry hair, wear something smart (doesn't always go the way I'd planned) and generally try to make myself look human so I don't scare my colleagues on arrival at the office.

8:00 - 9:30ish: drive to work convinced for the entire journey that I've forgotten something massively important, while using every expletive I know to describe the road works and traffic that are holding me up.

But then it snowed here in Scotland.

It snowed so heavily that I could barely find my car, let alone drive it to the office. Trains and buses ground to a halt and for the last two weeks, my dream of working from home came true. Well, nearly...

6:00am: alarm goes off and Blackberry, mobile and computer go on.

6:03am - 7:30am: throw back cup of coffee, call work for update, throw Kevin out the door for a dawdle with the unimpressed terrier, wonder why I can't focus on my computer screen properly, panic that I've missed something important in my morning update, panic that I still can't see the computer screen properly, realise I've forgotten to put on my glasses, put on my glasses, bombard my colleagues with emails in between checking my Blackberry/mobile/inbox in case I've missed something that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

7:30am - 7:33am: have quickest shower ever while ensuring there's enough of a gap in the shower curtain so that I can still see and hear my Blackberry/mobile should a message come through that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency, worry about what might have pinged into my inbox in the last three minutes.

7:33am - midnight: check Blackberry/mobile/inbox, update my work, catch sight of self in mirror with scary unblow-dried hair, recoil, check Blackberry/ mobile/ inbox, update my work, worry I've missed something that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency, bombard my colleagues with emails in case they know something I don't, check my Blackberry/ mobile/ inbox, eat pack of Hula Hoops, check Blackberry/mobile/inbox, update work, worry I've missed something earth-shatteringly important, make coffee while continuing to check Blackberry/mobile and panicking that something which must be dealt with as a matter of urgency has pinged into my inbox during the 30 seconds I've spent in the kitchen making coffee, and so it goes on until...

12:20am - fall into bed clutching Blackberry/mobile, Kevin tries unsuccessfully to prise them from my grasp, worry about what might have pinged into my inbox since I last checked it three minutes ago, wonder what happened to that long bath and best-selling novel I had once dreamt of.

If it weren't for the fact that I know it's thawing because the water from the - previously frozen and now burst - mains pipe is cascading through our building, I'd be using my teeth to dig a channel from here to the office so I never have to do this again.

Why? Because apart from the reality of the situation completely failing to live up to my dream and the fact that I think I'll need more than a few glasses of champagne and a massage to get over the stress-ridden 24 carat World of Angst that working from home creates - I'm really missing my workmates.