Apologies and Excuses

I am full of apologies and excuses for not updating my blog for so long. Apologies - self-explanatory. Excuses - well personally I think they are reasonable ones. You judge.

My daughter has moved home now. The moving of her was one thing. The sorting out of our home to accommodate her and her belongings has been quite a different matter. A lot of belongings have needed to be culled. Some of it I felt a pang to see it go. Other stuff felt good to have a valid excuse for getting rid of it.

One month later and the house is (almost) restored to order. Or, at least, it was until one week ago. I think the restored order also restored my ability to think about things other than the house, and one of those things was my professional portfolio which my profession demands in a short version with no rewards as part of its annual practising certificate.

My employer, however, requests a much lengthier and in depth version which requires much researching, cross-matching of information, and hard evidence that I have, in fact, actually done what I state I have done. And since it is so time-consuming and stressful an exercise, my employer is willing to financially reward those who decide to undertake the challenge.

Now, normal people would do this over a period of perhaps a month or so. Because I have never been considered quite normal by either family or friends, I decided a week ago that I was going to complete the mission in one week.

WHAT AN IDIOT I CAN BE SOMETIMES!!!

I have worked 6 out of 7 days of the past week. I didn't factor that into my plan.

3 of those shifts were night shifts. I didn't factor that in either.

So, for 4 days I was getting up early, working on the stuff I could do at home, then going to work and working my 8hr shift, then staying at work until 1 or 2 a.m. photocopying hard evidence of professional development, then going home and collating until maybe 3 a.m.
Then for 3 days I was working my night shifts, coming home and working for an hour, waking up in my usual zombie-like state, and pretty much working until going to work again at night.

However, believe it or not, I did it. I ran it past one of the assessors briefly. She gave me some pointers for areas that needed enlarging upon, which I did last night. And now it is ready to hand in when I arrive at work this afternoon.

And this is what it was all about. The green folder is my presentation folder which I will submit. The second is the "originals" file, since we are not permitted to submit original copies in case they get lost. Each and every piece of paper initialled by another person who can verify that each piece of evidence is legitimate.

And now I am exhausted through a week of not enough sleep, but relieved I made my own deadline.

Now, fingers crossed it gets approved please.