Connotations: an annual slash con in the UK

I was quite good yesterday and did only work a half day from home - well maybe a teensy bit over a half day - but it was all good as I took my personal work inbox from 275 unread emails down to 20 in just over 4 hours. Everything that needed actioning was actioned and I do have a small number of things flagged our intranet I need to read (but that's info and status updates nothing critical). I'm good with that.

Today was theoretically a half day in the office. I've been sleeping weirdly the last couple of nights (heat and humidity) so I wasn't rushing to get in. Rocked up at just after 11am and sat down to battle the shared inbox down. It had just over 1170 emails (about 300 of those had been actioned by colleagues but not filed because they've been stretched covering for me and they also didn't want to eff up my systems).

Had a quick check in with people and started triaging/filing, nipped out at 1pm with the colleagues who been covering so we could sit in the sun and chat for 30 mins and the back to triaging.

Got so absorbed in what I was doing completely forgot I was supposed to be out by 3:30pm and by the time I looked up it was 4:30pm. Leaving between 4-6pm means sitting in traffic for 2 hours so I stayed until 7pm, got the inbox down to around 450 emails inlcuding actioning a chunk of things that had been issued holding emails.

I feel much better for having done that - even if two half days morphed into 1.75 days!

Left at 7pm, pleasant traffic free journey home which only took 30 mins and stopped off in Lidl to buy healthy food so I can stop feeding myself via Deliveroo - when I had no spoons to function for the first 4 weeks Deliveroo came to the rescue.

I'm on a strict promise to not turn the work laptop on again until Monday - so that means a 3 day weekend.

Tonight I'm loading the car for a tip run, quickly cleaning the kitchen and meal planning for the next 10 days, then cleaning the bathroom (deep cleaned last week) and aiming to be in bed before midnight.

Tomorrow's plan:

1. Gym at 7am
2. Tip/recycling run at 8am
3. Focus on bedroom tidy up 9am to 11am
4. Shower
5. Crochet club 1pm to 2:30pm
6. Tip/recycling run 3:30pm
7. Back to the bedroom tidy up

I hoping that by Monday I'll have cleared the bedroom enough to be able to plan a proper deep clean as well as sorting outvthe tiny front garden.

Day 3 saw me awake early and very happy as the the overnight temps had dropped a bit so windows were open till 9am and the temp in the flat dropped to a bearable 25C.

Windows and blinds shut for most of the day which kept the temps below 30C til late afternoon but there was still a breeze so some relief could be had. Had a catch up call with friends from 7-8pm so was able to keep bathroom door open and stop cats escaping which meant for most of the evening temps dropped to a balmy 23C.

Alas the promised storms did not materialise in London overnight and the humidity rocketed - and this morning has kicked off with high temps and high humidity and consequently at 8am it feels like it's well over 30C already. It's not but it FEELS like it :o(.

I'm off to the exs at 10am to do some laundry and then home for some more sorting, clearing and a tip run before hopefully collecting dry clothes around 4pm.

But first a cold shower!