Wow! My 50th blog on here and this one is about tarmac and bus stops, toilets, trains, pregnancy and just loads of other things!
Now, if you can remember that far back, the last time I wrote on here I was telling you what I did last Monday and what a busy day that was. Well Tuesday needed to be a day of rest so I spent it between doing some work upstairs on the computer and some resting on the sofa downstairs. Both activities were good. I was enjoying the work bit as I was putting together a "pitch" for a new project "up north" in Chester. Being a Yorkshireman by birth I'm allowed to say "up north" in that accent they use on the telly. Up where we eat barm cakes and have whippets down our trousers. E by gum. Ecommerce, now that's a yorkshire business isn't it?
Well back to my story... the work was going well and I had until Wednesday end of play to finish it. A few other things to do but I didn't need to push myself too much. Must take it a bit easy, I was still only just over 8 weeks post surgery and they said that it would be at least 3 months before I would be able to start getting back to a normal life. Well they had said 3 to 6 months but there was no way that I could just sit at home just being "ill" for 6 months!! I would be brain dead by then!
A pleasant Tuesday evening soon turned into a good nights sleep until Wednesday morning. Well nearly Wednesday afternoon if truth be told! I was still snuggled in bed when T left for work bright and early and I thought "I don't need to be up at 7 in the morning, I'll stay in bed for another half an hour." As you probably have guessed it was gone 10.30 when I woke up on this Wednesday morning :-) Ooops! Naughty me, but I must have need it so no point in feeling guilty!
Now when I said that I woke up at 10.30 that was only in the "I'm awake enough to realise I'm late so I need to get up NOW!" So when I did get up this morning I was actually still asleep for at least another hour as my body fought it's way through the essential morning tasks. The shower didn't even really wake me up!
But work had to be done. I had to finish the design pitch work for this potential new job by the end of the day. Must work, must work, must work.... zzzzzzz WAKE UP! OK, I'm awake, really :-)
And so I strapped myself to the computer and started to pull together the final design ideas and start putting together the final presentation document. I had almost all I needed in front of me, now just needed to turn it into a sexy document that would blow their socks off. I can do this, I am good at this, I will make this work... zzzzzzz well a short nap first then back on it with gusto!
Well, I got through to about 5 o'clock and I was totally pooped again and I was about 60% of the way through finishing the document. Just 8 A3 pages but they were beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. But I couldn't go on. My eyes were getting ready to droop again and I know that if I pushed myself anymore then I would regret it for days to come. That's one thing I have learnt from fellow friends on here, don't push yourself too hard and too quick. Let you body decide your pace of recovery. 1 step at a time. You will get there. You WILL beat this things but you cannot rush the body.
And so I had to decide what to do next. Work late into the night or not complete the work today as I had promised...
Well this was sorted with a quick call to Simon who was going to print the work and bind it into a brochure before we were to travel together "up north" on Thursday. Saved! We work out the timings and as long as he had the files emailed to him by 11 o'clock tomorrow morning he would be able to get it sorted and still have time to pick me up for our trip on Thursday. Result.
So I closed the machine down and went and laid on the sofa for a doze. And relax...
But it was up early on Thursday morning and at the computer by just after 7am. But I felt rested and as I had calculated that I could finish it all off within 2-3 hours I should be ok on time.
And I did good as by just after 10 I was converting the files into pdf's for sending across the tinternet so that he could do the printing and binding down there in Bristol.
Then things went wrong. "Error, could not complete the task" Why not?!?!?!?!? Why the **** not? So I tried again. Still the same problem and all I was trying to do was a simple task that I've done hundreds of times before. No, No, NO, this cannot be happening to me!
But I thought of a plan. Perhaps if I just did a few pages at a time and then combine them once they had been converted o pdf's? Worth a try. So I started to export the first two pages. Fingers crossed. And SUCCESS!!!!!! It worked!!!
So I did the next two pages and, yep, worked again. Phew, at it was still only 10.30. Would easy make the 11 o'clock deadline at this rate. Next two.
"Error, could not complete the task" NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Try again.
"Error, could not complete the task" Nooooooooooooooooooooo ;-(
So, I left pages 5 and six and did pages 7 and 8 and it worked again. Perhaps just a problem with one of the pages? So I did page 5 on it's own.
"Error, could not complete the task"
Page 6. Success!!!
So, page 5 was the problem. Two or three more attempts then I had an idea. This page was a huge file size all on it's own. Perhaps my machine just felt a bit poorly and could handle it today. So I transfered the dreaded page 5 onto T's machine sitting beside me to have a go on there. And....
It worked!!!!
Quick transfer back to my machine and I combined all the pages back into a single document. Open up the emails and the file was soon on it's way to Bristol for printing. And it was only 11.03 :-)
I'd done it. I was dead proud of myself.
But now I had to sort myself out. I needed to be on a train to Birmingham in a few hours and I was still sitting here in my dressing gown with nothing packed. In fact, did I actually have a clean suit? Where was my suit bag. What of my new stoma kit would I need to take with me as it was going to be an overnight stay?
And I had no cash for the taxi. Must also squeeze in time to walk around to the Co-op to use their machine to get some money.
But what about all the other things I'd said that had happened including tarmac, bus stops and pregnancy?
Well, sorry, I need a cup of tea now and a Sunday morning rest for a while. You will just have to wait for blog 51. ;-)
But it will be worth waiting for.... Promise ;-)
Andrew xxx
