So it's been a good month. And a good month since I last Plogged. The thing about having a baby is you're constantly kept on your toes. As soon as you become competent at - say - breastfeeding, the baby's sleeping goes to shit. As soon as you sort out the sleeping, the nappies start leaking everywhere. As soon as you've got the nappies under control, the sleeping is shit again.
But having said that, generally, without wishing to tempt fate too much, I think we're winning. I've even started something of a social life again. When I say social life, I mean inviting select people over for lunch. And when I say lunch, I mean something I can put from a salad bag onto a plate and expect hearty congratulations for.
Still, that's much better than the early days of being pinned to a sofa by a sleepy bundle of milk and poo.
This week, my friend Teresa came over for lunch. Teresa has asked to be in the Plog several times and I have never yet indulged her. I like to be spiteful. But we had such a nice afternoon together that I feel I ought to Plog a little.
Teresa was my line manager many moons ago. My job involved editing and proof-reading an industry magazine, and Teresa and I bonded over compound adjectival hyphenation, and whether or not to use an Oxford comma. (See what I did there?) Lynne Truss' Eats Shoots and Leaves remained our go-to guide to arbitrate any outstanding grammatical disputes.
It was a great team to work in; I remember laughing a lot. One of my favourite parts of the job was producing regional newsletters for various areas of the country. Each week Teresa and I would deliver project updates on each newsletter, using a suitably regional accent. I pretty much perfected my Liverpool accent whilst working on the North West newsletter, and "Eeeh, blood and sand" became the preferred oath of choice after working with a tricky stakeholder in the North East.
I might reinstate it actually. Blood and sand! The baby's woken up. Blood and sand! (Make sure to get a good flat "oud" sound on "blood").
That is all. Leave me alone.
