I started feeling recovered from all the December / January illnesses this week, but pushed myself a bit too hard to get a proposal done to deadline, and gave myself a tiredness migraine. All in all, it’s only since Thursday 15th January that I actually feel normal (for a given value of normal 😉 ) and fully functional. What a slog this start of the year has been! On the other hand it can only get better from here on in, right?
At work:
- Co-production resources project: another interview to gather materials for a case study, and plenty of thinking, mapping and planning for the website structure and content, and liaising with the digital team who are developing new materials for us.
- Website co-production project: developing the methods and materials for phase 2 of engagement, liaising with my project team and with the client teams, and setting up more engagement sessions.
- Project supporting team development: planning and pondering, more 121s, rescheduling the team get together I had to cancel early January, to next week.
Deliverables this week:
- Public speaking: I was asked to speak at Llais’s event, where they were launching their manifesto of recommendations to all the political parties in advance of the Senedd 2026 election.
- Social care engagement project: I finished and sent the report, finally. It had been hanging over my head since end of November. (I missed the window of scheduled opportunity I had to write it up when the whole thing with TomCat happened, and then after that December was already booked full busy, and then I thought I’d catch up over the winter break but I’ve been so ill, etc etc. It’s been a rough couple of months but the client has been an angel about it. Them being so flexible with their timings did me a disservice in a way… but they asked for it again so nicely and my guilt had got so huge I just had to get it done and off my desk.)
Development this week:
- Invitation to Quote, Action learning sets: I meant to draft this over the winter break but instead I wrote this up close to the deadline, verylastminute.com! It’s an interesting project embedding reflective practice in a statutory team, so fingers very crossed.
- Invitation to Quote, Co-evaluation: discussed with the Co-pro Lab team, will lead on writing a proposal over the next few weeks. (This has got a long deadline, which is great.)
- Invitation to Quote, Engagement events: a huuuuge project that would need many hands, bigger than I can tackle solo, and I don’t have the time to pull a team together, so I passed it on to colleagues.
- Invitation to Quote, Facilitation of an all staff conference: because of the date (24th February, so close to me returning from a trip abroad) I had to decline, and I passed it on.
- I did say yes to a prospective chat about delivering training for a new organisation.
- The proposal I submitted last week about partnership building work has been declined, which is okay. It would have been interesting to work on, but also it’s a very busy time of year, so it means a little bit less pressure.
At home:
- I’m going to be away in mid February, accompanying my mum to Singapore to visit her side of the family and see the places where she grew up. I will effectively be out of action from Friday 13th (preparing to go) to Monday 23rd (sleeping to get over the jetlag). It’s an important trip and also a little bitter sweet, as my mum is talking about it like it’s the last time we’ll ever get a chance to go together – probably true. I’m also going to spend 9 days with my mum 24 hours a day (we’re sharing a hotel room) so that’s going to be intensssssse for my neurodivergent brain that needs solitude and quiet to recharge. We’re going for Chinese New Year, which is a big celebration and the opportunity for everyone to come home to spend the festivities with family, so we’ll see everyone at once! The timing is terrible in this busy end of financial year, but it is non-negotiable and a very important trip. It’s also the week of half-term here in Wales. When I say to people that I am away at half-term I am reluctant to explain why, because people go “ooo fancy!” but actually there is a lot more to it than that, that I haven’t even completely sorted out in my own head.
- I’m wary of how much jetlag I might have in the week following my return; the only other time I travelled such a distance east to west was when I went to India back in… 2008 maybe? I remember waking up early for a couple of weeks to make myself breakfast curry, but that overall the jetlag was ok. However, I was very much younger all that time ago! So I’m trying not to cram the last week of February full of facilitation gigs, and retaining some flexibility in my diary.
Image credit: Llais