Monday 4th April

Well it's back to work with a bump!

PLC workshop day on Saturday was totally BRILLIANT! An absolutely excellent day and Paul was his usual vibrant self, great to see him again. You can't help but smile when you're around him as he is always so happy and such a live wire. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. About 40+ kids there from the two bands and they were all well behaved and enthusiastic and they all had a really great time. Lots of the parents and the kids thanked me afterwards for organizing it all which makes all the effort worth while as you can see on the kid's faces that they have really enjoyed themselves. Paul enjoyed it too and has already said he would like to do it again next year. I think he was really impressed with the kids, with their behaviour and with how quickly they picked up what he wanted them to do, and he was very impressed with how well we played 'Dark Side of the Moon', especially as some were sight reading. The only bad bit of news is that he won't be tutoring at summer school this year as he is too busy :'(. It's good for him as it means he is in great demand for composing and conducting etc. but bad news for me as I was looking forward to seeing him again at summer school. I will miss him very much.

After the workshop we had to dash home and change and go back out to help another band out for a concert. There were 7 of us who'd been at the workshop playing at the concert and cries of "Chips and mushy peas", "We eat them up" kept echoing around the changing room! (Samba rhythms). Everyone was so hyper from having such a good day. It's one that won't be forgotten in a long time! Facebook has been buzzing ever since about it too, I have put up loads of photos that I took and one of the parents took videos of the mini concert we did at the end too. It took me ages to sleep as I was still on such a high.

Unfortunately after such a high comes a low! The low hit Sunday morning, originally I woke still buzzing but a couple of hours later I plummeted into the low, and it was a very low low. Lots of tears too. I knew it would happen as it was such a high and the whole thing has been about 6 months in the planning and has taken a lot to sort out so for it to suddenly be over leaves a hole and leaves me nothing much to look forward to, especially as Paul is not coming to BBSS. Will have to start planning next years to give me an aim, something to work towards! Decided I needed to get up and get out to stop me moping so we went for a drive to Huddersfield which took my mind off it a bit.

Was also in quite a lot of pain thanks to being on my feet for most of the workshop day, with bad knees and ankle and pain in my right arm from hitting a drum a lot of the day! A bit of retail therapy helped a bit although I couldn't find a teddy bear to cheer me up further! When we got back, after phoning my parents for our usual Sunday conversation, I went back to bed and slept from about 5pm to 9pm!

And now today it's been back to work and the weekend is well and truly over. Been a pretty crap day. My line manager and HR are still doing nothing about helping me cope with the Fibro and working. I'm desperate for a decent chair that supports my back and neck and I really could do without all this travelling every day.