As you’ll remember (see previous posts) we’ve been living in Lane Cove and working in North Ryde. We had two houses to manage and look after (as well as a few animals) and so that was the best way to do it.
Last Friday the owners of the Lane Cove house returned. While there were lots of benefits being there (see Having Staff) there were also some challenges (Three Dog Nights).
Now, don’t get me wrong – they have lovely animals. It’s just that sharing a bed with three dogs and a cat can get to you very quickly. We’re now back to being a one dog family (with a couple of very self sufficient gold fish in a pond in the garden) and it’s wonderful.
It’s a whole different world when the household population is predominantly human. We’ve started to catch up on sleep (now there’s a novel concept) and so we’re almost sane again. (I suspect ‘almost’ is about as close as we’ll get.) It’s quite amazing what a few extra hours sleep can do. Of course, if you’re the parent of a person below the age of 2 years old, chances are you’ve completely forgotten what sleep is, so I’ve probably lost you completely here. Anyway, Danita and I are feeling revived and energised and we’ve even starting talking to each other and laughing again.
The next big step is the return to the daily commute to work. For the last month it’s been a short trip (thankfully) to the next suburb which has had the effect of breaking up the day a bit. For now, it’s the trip down the passageway from the bedroom to the ‘office’.
One thing we did learn, while commuting, was to stop work at a certain time which was important so we’d be able to spend appropriate time with the doggy family. This is one practice we do need to maintain. As small business operators, working from home, one of the common challenges is to stop work. There’s always that email that needs to be sent or those invoices which didn’t get out during the day because I was distracted by clients calling or any of the other endless list of tasks which need to be done to keep a small business operating.
At the moment, Danita and I are feeling very grateful that life is greatly simplified (before moving into the Lane Cove house I was in Perth for a month and so the last two months have been unusually challenging). It’s an attitude and feeling we need to maintain.