Tuesday 23 November 2010

Working from home: the positives and perils

Had you asked me a couple of years ago if I'd like to work from home, my answer would have undoubtedly been along the lines of "when do I start?". And five months ago, as I began my life as a working-stay-at-home mum, I maintained this rosy outlook.

However, as I sat at my teeny Ikea desk today and saw my darling 11-month old son pelting my very brand new scanner with a plastic (yet no less hefty) toy mallet, my outlook on working from home hit an all-time low.

My pros and cons for any new mothers considering this as an option are as follows...

PROS:
1. You can work in your pyjamas.
2. You get to spend all day, every day with your wonderful, amazing child.
3. You don't have any ultra-expensive childcare costs.
4. You can get up when you start work (please note, this does not apply to those with children).

CONS:
1. Whilst juggling your normal job, you must also uphold your full-time jobs of mummy, chef, playmate, etc.
2. Your partner will expect to return to a house that doesn't resemble a bomb site.
3. Your offspring is now your colleague. The latest office gossip is that he ate a FULL pack of biscuits when you left them on the side (momentarily forgetting that he's a biscuit fiend and he will hunt them down at every opportunity and eat the lot of them – true story).
4. Said offspring does not understand that mummy is at work. You are for playing with and solving problems. Nothing else.

All of the above said, I'm very lucky to be in a job that allows me to spend every day with my highly entertaining child, which very much outweighs the sometimes worringly loud negatives.

Plus, the new guy at work is pretty cute. Check him out...

Just putting together an email...

...and send.

Monday 22 November 2010

Happy Snaps

After a valiant start at keeping up my blogging, I've had a poor couple of weeks mainly due to a particularly hideous illness that managed to spread through our entire household and then was passed round a second time just for good measure. I'm now pleased to report that I am once again back to my normal self and ready to get back to this blogging malarkey. 'Hurrah!' I hear you cry!

There are three things in my life that I so wish I was good at but, alas, am terrible. These are:
1. Singing (in my head I sound like Alicia Keys - apparently I'm the only one that hears it like that)
2. Cooking (truly inedible nearly every time)
3. Photography

Despite my lack of ability at all of the above, I still retain a keen interest in all of them (if watching X Factor every week counts as a 'keen interest' in singing?!). So, when I noticed that National Geographic were holding their annual photography contest, I couldn't help but take a flick through the entries. Needless to say, I did not enter.

What's most interesting about these photos is often the story behind them. Here's a few of my favourites. Take a look at all of this year's entries here.

'Fishing' by Stan Bourman.
'My Friend the Giraffe' by Ashleigh Haworth. Taken in Glen Rose, Texas.
'Ballerinas, Berlin' by Maria Helena Buckley. A cast of ballerinas prepare to take to the stage.
'Supercell Thunderstorm' by Sean Heavey. A supercell thunderstorm works its way across a Montana prairie at sunset.
'Unsafe Journey' by Amy Helene Johansson. A woman finds a quiet spot on a packed train from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to return to her hometown to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

'Simple Joy' by Brian Yen. Taken in the slums of Bacoload, Philipines.