Not Working

On so many levels.

Ben had the week off but it was another of those "holidays" on a short leash, meaning work might have recalled him any time this side of Wednesday. Turned out they didn't call, but it drove me nuts because we couldn't make plans; it's like purgatory, yet it counts as annual leave, and I feel cheated and disgruntled. Ben's less worried because he checks his work email several times a day and knows the situation better. I just jumped every time the phone rang.

He took this week off because there is a big festival going on in Wellington, to which I really wanted to go, but we decided we shouldn't spend money on the air fare, so you see, it was really to please me that he had the week off. I should feel more appreciative.

Still, if you have to be stranded on a short-leash holiday, Nelson is a heavenly place. We've been having long lunches at our favorite haunts, looking at art, Ben taking pictures, me talking to people, and reading, a lot, in bed in the mornings and on the couch in the afternoons.

Our garden is starting to look as bad as it did a while back, but we haven't done anything. But we have big plans for the autumn/winter and we are hopeful.

I haven't been working on or off the loom, even though I have just the little bit of the first of the merino scarves to go. It's not that I can't find the time to work, but I feel I have to do things with him when he's home, especially after I had a month a way.

Today I'm trying to reacquaint myself with my schedule and To Do lists. My next appointment with Ali is on April 1, for which I have to do a whole lot of reading and at least one chapter of the design book exercises. I have a Clare Plug collage workshop next Sunday for which I need a little bit of preparation.

Several days next week I hope to assist in hanging the Changing Threads exhibition, and Monday night we drive to Blenheim for the monthly meeting; this month the subject is weaving for garments, which is also our project for the year, and I need information and inspiration for garments, so I'm really looking forward to it. I have three warped looms, three projects in my head, and no deadline of any kind, autumn is coming with cooler mornings and evenings, so life really can't get any better than this.

Ben has another week off before Easter, and we are going to Wellington, albeit after the Festival, to have a look at the Pompei exhibition at Te Papa, and he promised this is not a short-leash holiday. Of course I wished he took two-week block, rather than one, so we could go on a road trip like we had planned, and I wished he'd be a bit more assertive about his holidays. (His time off is always subject to his colleague's schedule, not because the colleague is mean, but because Ben doesn't plan ahead nor negotiates, so he's working around our 20th anniversary at the end of April!)

Still, life is not bad and I remain optimistic about the year.