See, despite my best efforts, it’s taken almost six weeks for Lorraine to get this cold.

And she’s had a day off.

Every time I think I’ve seen the back of it, it returns. Found myself on my lunchtime walk today with aching ribs – halfway down at the back? That’s a new one on me. Don’t remember aching there before…

It seems absolutely unbelievable that it’s less than two weeks to Christmas and less than three weeks to 2018. Where has it gone? I’m over halfway on my German beer advent calendar (actually we, I do share the daily offering with Lorraine) and wondering what to do for days 25 onwards. I’m open to suggestions… Lorraine has pointed out that there do not appear to be any unsold beer calendars being remaindered. Shame, could have kept it going for a few months yet.

That might have helped getting through the dark and dull days of late-January and February. Days of cold and tedium, waiting for the days to get longer and the weather to cheer up. I am definitely NOT a winter person- if I had my way I’d spend October to March in the southern hemisphere – and the winter months grind long and hard on my joints…

Work is a series of compromises at the moment. It depends substantially on me getting my calendar and to do list properly synchronised. There’s “stuff” that needs doing for end-January but there’s other “stuff” that needs to be completed and filed this month, which only gives me 17 days, even if I do work through Christmas and weekends which I can guarantee I won’t be!

Louisa is tasked with trying to defer most potential appointees to February now, otherwise it’ll definitely be weekends and holidays at the grindstone.

Sigh.

And daughter doesn’t help – currently in the western part of Georgia (the country, not the US state) courtesy of the Batumi Tourist Board if my memory serves correctly, as if the summer holiday in Tbilisi wasn’t good enough, before travelling to Indonesia again! Makes me soooooo grumpy. Sure beats income tax returns I suppose. Grrrr.

It’s been an odd week for appointments so far. Tuesday afternoon cried off – cold/flu. Set out for Tuesday morning do to find M27 motorway stationary westbound. No prizes for guessing which way I was intending to go. Phoned the other person, did ten minutes chat in a lay-by up the road and decided to leave for this month.

Yesterday evening my aunt was supposed to be stopping off betwixt cruise (more people on holiday!) and returning to her home in the Scottish Borders for dinner and a catch up but she’s not well so that didn’t happen. Today a radio interview with a colleague regarding Young Enterprise pulled because the presenter’s in hospital after collapsing with the flu. The desperate actions people take to get out of talking to me… seriously Miles, hope you’re soon okay.

Still that’s all time I’ve been supposedly able to use to reduce the December battle, or would have done if the mind poo wasn’t clogging up the brain. Already had one nap so it would be greedy to have another before this evening. Hmmm?

But the work keeps rolling in. Another agreed in principle and another waiting to discuss by phone before moving forward. Which leads to all sorts of questions about additional tasks I could outsource. It’s still the emails that cause the most issues – another fifty between looking first thing this morning and lunchtime – because it’s the worry of missing an important one amidst all the dross.

Oh, and maybe I’ll be able to add to my portfolio of pro bono work with some interesting options at a local university. No money but the chance to increase name awareness? Watch this space.

Okay – enough blithering for another week – and hopefully enough time to progress another set of accounts on before speaking to another client regarding their accounts and personal tax. HMRC forces you one way but the mortgage application does the opposite. Which one will win? Watch this space…