It's beginning to feel a lot like ...

It's effectively just 2 more working days until I start a fairly lengthy Xmas break :-)

Gosh - I need it. I've been hanging lately. It's been a rough year this year :

Lots of emotional turmoil (I pick up on what other people are feeling)
Stress upon stress at work (the prime reason for which is gone now)
This damn infection (so many "it's gone !!!" "and it's back")
A change of diet which went critically wrong
And lots more (getting older)

It's the infection that's really hit hard this year. While it subsided enough for it to be a bad idea for me to play cricket this summer (which I did anyway), it never really went away. Instead, it came back and very quickly became much worse than just dodgy skin on my legs. Couple that with confidence at an (almost!) all time low and you've got rough times.

I am a hell of a lot better than I was just a couple of months ago but ... it's draining. And it's having other effects associated with that Getting Older thing.

At this point, I should say - this has been a fairly (I've done longer) long day - up at 6.30am, driving 250 miles in the day in testing (ice and fog) conditions. Yes, I've done longer days and longer drives (Scotland trips started earlier and finished later) but - there's that Getting Older thing again.

Things have been improving :

Emotional turmoil - I've made my peace with this. And the reasons for it are not going to appear here ;-)
Stress at work - the main reason's gone :-) Still lots to do though and more responsibility over the next few months. Gonna be crazy when we come back in the New Year.
Infection - I think the infection has gone but it's taking a while to fix the damage
Diet - since I dropped the orange juice, I've noticed a bunch of symptoms go away. I need to kick the biscuit habit though or I'll not have my speed available come summer.
Getting older - my legs hate me. Cramps, twinges, bits that don't want to stay where they should be
(stop sniggering! - lol)

Instead of being over a fairly significant portion of me, the infection seems to be gone and the leftover damage is limited to only a few patches now. And those are getting smaller. I just need to keep up the discipline of not tearing at stuff that's itchy. Leaving it alone = healing. Tearing at it = sets the healing back.

No need to go back to the doctor's place right now, at least for the infection thing. Shoulder and hip might need attention though. One problem at a time. Hopefully over the Xmas break, the chilling out at home and other places will see some more of those leftover patches disappear.

Yeah - really looking forward to a few weeks of chilling out, punctuated by a few Xmas visits to family and friends that are now just like family.

2 more working days to go though. Tomorrow is half a day cos of work Xmas party (I don't think I'll blog that though) in the afternoon. Thursday will be a full day. Friday will be me escaping whenever I've cleared away all that needs to be done before I disappear.

However ! Today had definite compensations and boosts.

There's a stunningly beautiful woman who works at one of our other offices. Intelligent too. To have someone that beautiful favour you with a winning smile as soon as she spots you ? Makes me grin :-) Definitely. She's disappearing off to the USA for 3 years though to become a housewife (hubby gets a job but it's a waste of the brain she has)

Anyway - she let me know today :
a) surprise at hearing that I'd not been well this past year. I've been hiding the symptoms under sleeves and nervous hyperactivity while on duty visits. And the "Pete's the herald of the Zombie Apocalypse" thing erupted very quickly and the signs of it on my face disappeared fairly quickly too.
b) that I knew my stuff. That pulled out a "wow" from me, cos since jumping across into the new project I've been trying to keep up with all the stuff that's going on. It's quite a complicated project. It's not just "Deliver Something Big in a few years", it's "Deliver lots of stuff over X years". It's quite a long running project.

Always good when people who you barely know express confidence in your abilities. Funny - I think I have a better reputation with those who don't know me much than those who come into contact with me more.

Perhaps some of that propaganda I put out about myself is getting believed ... Most of the time when I give the impression of being Typical Geek-Around-House, I'm kidding to get chuckles. Or people are believing in a false impressions caused by when I'm kidding about stuff or it's junk being spread by other people.

It was pretty awesome though to have that confidence shown earlier. Gives me a big lift. Lots of people seem to think I do Stuff the Right Way. And that's very important to me.

It's been a rough year. But it's almost behind me now. 2013 will be a better one :-)