Photo: skyscanner.net
May and June blended together for me because I was out of the country. That makes me seem like a sophisticated world traveller, which I am not!
Rom’s mum had been in and out of hospitals throughout the winter with unknown ailments. From a distance, I couldn’t tell if there had been no diagnosis, or it had been misunderstood, or the family didn’t want to alarm us. We received increasingly urgent phone calls until it was inevitable that we had to visit sooner rather than later. We scrambled off to the UK two full weeks earlier than our planned vacation, on one day’s notice. We visited Rom’s mum in the hospital where, to everyone’s relief, she pulled through a crisis, and improved daily until she was sent home 10 days later. She is currently in good spirits and back to everyday routines, with some home care. Whew!
Because she was so much better, we were able to continue with our planned vacation to London and Paris, and you know the rest. I have never taken three consecutive weeks off work before. It was the longest stretch I’d ever spent in the UK, and the greatest amount of time I’d spent with Rom’s parents. Despite the circumstances, I was happy to get the chance to know them better.
I returned to work feeling very grateful that they’d been flexible enough to give me the time off without notice. Now I am set to work straight through until my next vacation in October, and that is fine with me. Even better, nothing untoward happened at work or at home during my absence. My family rallied to help us with the cats, house and yard during our time away. Love them!
When we left on our trip, the leaves were barely coming out on the trees, and upon our return, everything was in riotous bloom. I felt like I’d fallen into the Tardis and come out somewhere else!
What not to do
In other news, my two-year volunteer commitment in a treasurer/finance role is winding up and I am helping to orient the new person. I look forward to the break since I had spent 20-40 hours a month on it. The volunteer job had a lot of deadlines which were hard to juggle with my (employment) work. I also found that with work, volunteering (financial records) and blogging, I was on the computer so excessively that it affected my health. And I am not giving up blogging 🙂 I really learned a lot and I am glad I did it, but it made me realize I can’t continue to volunteer at that level. I am going to take some time off to decide what to do next.
This week, Rom and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a delicious meal out. I had to laugh. We had dinner immediately after work at 6 pm. As each table paid their bill, the server was asking everyone what their plans were for the evening. I was like, “Umm, this was our plan?” After a full work week, on a Friday night, I am toast! Today we are off to celebrate Canada Day, and hope the weather will hold for the evening concert and fireworks.
I expect the rest of the summer will be calm! Leaving me lots of time for Exacting Analyses…
An Exacting Life 
Lovely post! Happy Canada Day, fellow Canadian blogger! 🙂
Emory
helloscarlettblog.com
Congrats on the anniversary! 😀
Thanks, Kris, 6 years, not long in the grand scheme of things!
If you spent them with THE one, every second is worth gold and it sounds as if you and Rom are the best of friends as well as soul mates. (My autocorrect seems to think his name should be Tom!) 😉
Glad Rom’s mum is improving 🙂 I’m so happy that you were able to take time off from work and visit family!
Happy Anniversary!
Thanks, Amanda.
Happy Anniversary! Glad to hear that your mother in law improved so much while you were there.
Thank you. What a good feeling to see things go well.
Happy Anniversary! 🙂
Thanks, AP!
It must be such a relief that you could take the time off work with a crisis looming. And such a relief that it has not resulted in a diagnosis or other dire news. I am still very shocked that 3 weeks is the longest consecutive time you have ever had off work!
The volunteer job has been a huge time commitment on top of a regular full-time job – basically another part-time job on top of work. You must have accomplished a lot in that role. Well done!
Congrats on the anniversary and it will be good to return from a holiday to summer weather with lots to enjoy!
Thanks. Everything feels better now! I should clarify that my vacation allotment, until recently, was 4 weeks a year – better than most; well, non-teachers anyway 🙂 I have also had stretches of time between jobs, but it isn’t relaxing to look for work!
I refute the ‘sleep’ graphic. I’m a huge fan of enough sleep, cause otherwise, it’s harder to be positive in the world. So whilst I won’t look back on ‘enough sleep’ – not enough often makes me generally unhappy with life.
Three weeks is a nice long break, and I’m glad you enjoy it. The longer the trip, the nicer (I find) to be with a household, where home meals and laundry are a little easier than moving more regularly or racking up endless hotel bills. I thought someone in Rom’s family might have been ill, and that’s why you left earlier than expected.
Interesting you mention pet care – that’s a big consideration which we don’t currently have. We can just ‘up and leave’ without too much worry. Animals make it a lot more complex, that’s for sure!
You are right, of course. I try to get “enough” sleep but when I have extra time or no schedule (like on weekends or time off) I don’t prioritize extra sleep.
I have never been on a long vacation/trip, so I don’t really know what it’s like to move from place to place and deal with luggage!
To keep 2 cats at our local kennel is $25/day so $525 for 3 weeks! Plus they need vet checkups and flea treatments before they go in.
Must be very stressful for Rom being in another country when his mother is ill?
Do you accrue long service leave?
Yes, it is. My lovely employer gave me two weeks of family sick leave to add onto my planned UK vacation. So grateful! Rom’s did the same.