Today was a day where I did not want to get up and go to work this morning! I had a brilliant day on Sunday as I spent father’s day with my lovely Daddy, down in Liverpool. We took a trip to the boat museum and then went for a pub lunch which was great. The sun was shining and the soft drinks were flowing and we had a wail of a time just watching Holly run mental on the kid’s playground while we sat out in the garden. For all the fun we had it did mean that I had a 2 hour drive back to Barnsley, which I don’t mind admitting, took it right out of me. I was lucky in the fact that Holly went straight to bed as soon as we got in but I still had a “to do list” to start work on. By the time I done the washing up, put a load of washing in the machine, sorted out some ironing and made myself something to eat, it was fair to say I was shattered. I eventually found an hour to snuggle on the sofa with Kevin Costner and have a nice cup of Horlicks before stumbling to me bed.
Feeling ready for a lovely night of slumber, I cosied myself up under the duvet and then the fun began. Baby decided it was play time and I kid you not, he was proving that he is a worthy competitor for Johnny Wilkinson. He went on for hours and no matter what position I got myself into there was just no getting him to stop. As my bladder was being used for football practice, it meant that I was getting out of bed every 5 minutes (so it felt like) to go to the loo. I couldn’t tell you what time I eventually got to sleep as my eyes were so blurry I couldn’t make out the alarm clock. When I woke up this morning I was shattered and physically stiff from the internal antics. Coupled with that, Holly woke up bright as a button and wanted to ask “why” for everything I did.
Feeling like death warmed up I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, “good god Suzanne, you can’t go into a busy day of meetings looking like that”. Then I thought, “Could I? People will just put it down to being pregnant won’t they?” After a few minutes of internal debate I decided that serious work needed to be done. And so I went about putting on my war paint. That’s when I realised that getting ready for work is like preparing to do battle. Preparing to fend off the people who want to bring you problems and issues, making allies of the people who can help you and the work you do and being that role model for the team who rely on your guidance and support in order to do their jobs. I don’t for one moment mean to compare any of this to our brave soldiers who put their lives on the line to defend our country; I am merely using it as the closest example I can find.
After fixing my hair and putting on slightly more makeup than usual to try and cover the humongous dark circles under my eyes, I did start to feel myself feeling better about facing the day. It’s all completely fake as deep down I could have happily crawled back into bed, but to the outside world and my esteemed colleagues, I looked ready for battle. And this must be true as the moment I walked into my office I was inundated with problems, messages and situations that needing sorting. The war paint worked and has got me through a horrible Monday and I only hope I just wake up tomorrow already feeling better about going to war.