In truth the week did not start that well – having survived building a set from Romeo and Juliet, creating a giant Carnival sculpture, and entertaining twenty-five 12-year-old girls at my daughter’s party (plus the dreaded sleepover) last week, all while having the worst cold I’ve had in years, I was congratulating myself at having survived it. I’ve discovered this week, though that not taking time off when you’re ill means it drags on even longer. I really had no choice in the matter though as a carnival without the artwork just isn’t going to happen.
This week began with a visit to the vet to remove the grass seed from the dogs ear. Totally traumatised, he went berserk leaping off the vets table onto me, and losing bladder control into the bargain. I stood at the pay desk later, stinking to high heaven and covered in black hair and wee. This should have been a bad omen. Once showered and changed I began to pull together a brief summary of the proposal for the exhibition and events I’ve been working on to Salisbury City Council for the meeting that night. My husband rushed back from London just in time for me to make the meeting and to cut a long story short, as you will read in the other blog, our proposal was turned down without an opportunity to defend it.
After a brief heated discussion I rushed off to join my daughter at the local secondary school where an induction evening for new children was being held, and where my husband had had to replace me. My daughter asked how the meeting went and when I told her she said ‘ Nevermind – it’s more fun being with us anyway.’ She’s probably right but after the best part of a year’s work putting it together, it still took a bottle of wine and a plate of chips to make me feel slightly better (my husband’s remedy).
Somehow the educational projects I have taken on continue to take up far too much time, as anyone who works in this area will know, it’s my own fault for creating too ambitious a programme. Now it’s just time to knuckle down and see it through to the end of term, as I have no alternative but I’m aware that putting so much emphasis on being able to dive into my own work the instant the summer holidays begin sets quite a high mark to attain.
