Skyblogging

I wrote this yesterday afternoon on the flight....

It’s all going too fast!  Time!  NJ asked me the other day why time went faster as we got older?  I wish I could answer that question.  Days and weeks are just whizzing past since we came to Doha and time was by no means slow before the move.  The weather is starting to turn into something resembling hot and it won’t be long before the summer will be here.  It seems an age since Xmas when we were in Europe.  The week before last we were with my parents in Goa, and although it wasn’t a place I fancied at all beforehand, we had the most amazing week with my parents and both really enjoyed it.  The Larium (malaria pills) overdose I took the week before (let me be clear, the overdose was prescribed, it wasn’t me being dizzy – the doctor obviously didn’t know the difference between a prophylaxis and a cure and I ended up taking five times the amount I should have) meant I arrived in Calangute exhausted and looking like I was near death.  A couple of weeks later, it’s all rather amusing but there was one point that I had my phone in my hand ready to phone an ambulance.  Luckily my heart didn’t stop and all the other side effects (dizziness, sleeplessness, nausea etc.) wore off eventually.  Anyway, my mum and dad were extra fab and we had a really chilled week, mostly just wondering around town, chilling at the pool and eating great food, although we did take a day trip to the spice plantation where we rode an elephant; a first for both NJ and myself!

I’m now on the plane to Amsterdam after stopping over at Munich, I couldn’t bring myself to take the KLM night flight and go straight to the office; it takes me a week to recover!  Although this is the longer route, it’s more relaxing.  I have two days at the office, followed by two days on a course and then fly back Friday through Heathrow, home just after midnight.  NJ still hates me going away and we have a really long talk about it each time and what this job means for our lifestyle and the fact that I have to juggle this family by myself and I know it’s hard for him, but I’m doing the best I can… He’s getting older and he waved me off without tears at 6am (unless you’re a single mum who travels, you have no idea what a relief that was).  Don’t get me wrong, I hate leaving him and I’ve done it for the last seven years and although I don’t always mind the travel, it may be time for something different at some point in the not too distant future.  I love Doha and I am not planning to depart any time soon, our lives are so much more relaxed over there, but there’s a lot going on this year and I should hear in the next month if my secondment agreement is going to be extended.  Another uncertain year but one I’m feeling positive about most of the time. Of course I have doubts sometimes, doesn’t everyone now and again? In my opinion, the oil price means we won’t achieve the targets set for this year and I don’t see it being back where it was any time soon, but it means pressure is on and there’s going to have to be a little more creativity as projects are being cancelled left, right and centre.

We have an amazing network of friends in Doha, albeit small, but time is precious and there are never enough hours in the week.  NJ is enjoying the new school, rugby, basketball and swimming and has started to make a lot of new friends on the compound.  Since we set up the games room, there’s often 7 or 8 kids installed round the X-box, but I like it.  It must be boring being an only child, but I can’t change that for my little boy, it’s just how things worked out, but I’m glad he has a nice bunch of friends to play with, and I’d rather they were all messing up my house; at least I know where they are then !

I’ve booked our trip to Dubai in April, I’ll have to go for work next month as well, and possibly Brunei, no wonder I fail miserably to establish any kind of routine! My head seems full this week (of what is anyone’s guess) but it’s interrupting my sleep and making concentration hard, do you ever have weeks like that?  All I can do is ride it out, listen to music (trying to read whilst in this frame of mind is amazingly hard) and hope not too many people notice my head is somewhere on another planet. Also due to lack of routine, I am not looking after myself properly.  Sport has taken a back seat, I managed one run and 60 lengths last week (that was a good week) but fruit and veg… seriously lacking. Funnily I told a friend last week he should be eating more apples, I need to follow my own advice!

Although I miss people in the Netherlands, I’m not particularly thrilled about going back and can’t wait for Friday.  Our office is far removed from where my friends live, so hard to combine with a business trip, and stuck in some crummy hotel for five nights has lost its appeal (I think I’m definitely getting old, or maybe it’s just the calibre of hotels we get to stay in that doesn’t really float my boat!)

Well that’s me signing off for now, the blogging seems to be tapering off as time goes on, but for all  of you that know me, this will hardly be surprising.  Life gets in the way, and although it’s sometimes really really really hard, I chose this path and I’m going down it skipping with a glass of something in my hand! Love to you all from 10,000 feet or however high these things fly xx