Frustration

A little bit of everything equals a whole lot of nothing!

(Apologies in advance for mentioning the C word in May!)

I tend to spend October and November thinking of ideas for Christmas presents and feel relatively organised, until it comes to the first week in December and realise that I haven't actually get round to buying any of the the things I'd thought of! I am beginning to feel like that with my marathon planning - I seem to be doing a lot of thinking and talking about it, but haven't actually done anything yet!

Today I decide that this has to change! I have so many things floating around in my head that I can't settle long enough on any particular idea to make progress.  I am going round in circles and getting no where fast. What I need is a project planning book.

How fortuitous that I had the foresight to buy one yesterday - it's like I knew what was coming!

I now have a section for my Afternoon Tea, and another for Greetings Cards which I am planning on making.  I have made lists of the things that I need to think about, and am hopeful that writing them down will get them out of my head and perhaps help me to think about them in a more sequential manner, rather than the quick firing random thoughts that have been bombarding my brain day and night.

By late morning I have made good progress and am starting to feel much more organised, it's almost like I am back at work (I too am surprised my memory stretches back that far!). Then I hit a problem that eats up the afternoon and suddenly it's all gone pear shaped.

I can't get my printer to recognise that the paper I want it to print on is a custom size and it drives me to distraction! I soon discover from reading a forum on the subject that this isn't possible on my model of printer but that there is a way round it if I change the printer drivers.  I have no idea what this means but follow the instructions and manage to move on a stage but it STILL won't recognise it at the point of printing....

Time to phone Hewlett Packard.  I wish I hadn't bothered.  They want me to pay £18 for the answer! Not going to happen. I try my best to point out that this is the worse kind of customer service I have ever encountered but they won't shift, so I end up swearing whilst I tell them what I think of their company and hang up.

My next course of action is to try and think of a way around the problem - labels! I could then stick these to the back of the cards, won't look as professional but I might be able to live with it (although I think I already know I won't!). Back on the internet sourcing these, I find the size I want and look to see how much they are £18! Perhaps I should have paid for technical advice from HP after all, except now I can't as I'm blacklisted as rude woman who swore at them earlier!

In the grand scheme of things it's nothing, it really isn't that big a deal, but it feels HUGE and so unfair... why couldn't it just have worked first time at half eleven this morning and I could have had the whole rest of the day to do something else!

Instead it's 4pm and Dougal hasn't been walked (Sid went first thing), the tea isn't made, I haven't decided if I'm going for a run, the hoover is still sitting out in the lounge waiting for me to do the dining room, there's broken glass to sweep up in the garden (don't ask) and I have face like fizz. It doesn't take Al long to work out what he's walked into when he gets home from work an hour later!

Like the true star that he is, he then takes over the making of tea so that I can go for a run with Dougal! I think we both know that post run euphoric will be asking too much, but the hope that I will return having pounded out a few of my frustrations is worth taking over in the kitchen for half an hour!

It works! I return home in a much better mood, have my tea, and write this blog... I feel relaxed and rejuvenated. Time for Round Two with the printer!


M - 721
Distance covered            3.2 miles
Total Distance covered   108 miles