First cold in a while

I suppose it was unsurprising! I had had a busy week. I had my normal teaching, and in addition I had a big pile of marking, and the dissertation topic allocation to finish. It was full-on! And then I had the very cold night navigation on Saturday, and the half marathon and the citizens’ assembly back-to-back. It’s a lot! I published both the marking and allocation on Monday.

On Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat. Oh dear. That was my hint for taking it a bit easier. And I hoped that would not be hard. I decided to drive as I was not feeling too good. And I got through a lecture and a guest lecture, a student meeting with someone who was angry he hadn’t got his first choice in dissertation topic, and a staff meeting. Then I should have been able to start doing the next batch of marking.

It wasn’t to be. In the meeting I heard a colleague had gone off on sick leave for the foreseeable future. And after the meeting I got the official email from my line manager asking me to redistribute this colleague’s dissertation students. Oh dear. Bad news for the colleague! And I thought I was done with the allocation. But no.

I managed until 4pm or so and then went home. I was knackered! I made sure to go to bed early, and turned off the alarm.

The next day I had no contact hours so I worked at home. A bit more relaxed! And it was nice to see a lot of the cat. And the days after that I wouldn’t have any teaching either, for reasons of strike and first aid course. I couldn’t remember the last time I had worked myself into such a state, that’s a good sign! Not so good I did it now. But I think the rest of the semester will be ok. Let’s hope so! 

Working at home with a cold: comes with big scarves and a feline office mate stealing your chair