WHA HAPPEN?

Y-U-No write bloggy bloggy?

Auntie Shirl is busy. I quite like being busy, particularly when it pays by the hour. That's only part of my reason for not tending my darling wee blog for a while, and for missing its fifth birthday.

I'm sorry, blog. Happy Birthday.

A List of Excuses, for the Purpose of Making the Author Feel Vindicated

Big jobs part 1
Work has been hella busy. How busy? Busy enough for me to use the word "hella" instead of bothering to find a less irritating adjective. I've been writing a course for Big Client, which was delivered late last week after about a month of revisions, run-throughs, more revisions and trying to demonstrate the difference between 'keeping learners interested' and 'reading legislation word-for-word'.

Big jobs part 2
My favourite client, who throws me sporadic-but-extremely-interesting work, sent me a reasonably big job with a reasonably short deadline. The topic is confidential, but rest assured I spent several late nights learning loads and loads of detail about something I'm still not interested in, then squished it down to about a thousand words.

Little girls turn 3
In a few weeks, my baby girl who gets quite miffed if I call her "baby girl" will be turning three. She's extremely excited about it, and will run up to me with three fingers carefully displayed and shout "THREE! BIRTHDAY PARTY!" at random points throughout the day. The sensible part of my brain took a little holiday and I decided to have a party at home. It will only be small, with about 6 wee guests, but it still means invitations, food planning, finding an entertainer (NOT this guy) and organising pressies.

Late, late, late thirties
One of the best things about having a twin sister is sharing birthdays. When that birthday is a Big One (for example one with a '4' in it), that also means sharing party organisation. In the period Before Children (BC) when I had time, money and young eyes, designing invitations was one of my favourite things to do. It still is, but doing the design for this one required saving up for the latest version of Photoshop, then trying to snatch moments here and there after kids' bedtime to do a proper job. And Jo, the occasional, gentle "It would be nice to have invitations soon" had the desired effect. And yes, I will get to work on the guest list and the speech as a matter of priority.

So. Enough. Big Client will be calling for a meeting later this morning, and I want to squeeze in a gym session before then. Mmwah.