Role Reversal

Four weeks ago, my job went from being a cruisy 2.5-3 days of work, to being 4.5 days of full-on work. Though it isn’t a full time job technically (it's 4 hours short of being FT), it’s hardly easy going – the work is difficult, the patients are very tiring, and the organization I am working with isn’t very well organized. A lot of paper work, a lot of emails and liasing with managers and narky HR personnel. A very litigious environment to go with it (I've received the first 3 complaints of my 6 year career)

At the same time, Mushie’s job recently finished. She’s not on the beach (or the bench or whatever u call it); she’s in early retirement. Even though I’m not that excited about her laid back attitude to finding work further work (the date for her to finish 'updating' her CV keeps getting pushed back and back. Soon I'll be hearing the whole "but dessy, we're going on holidays to Dubai at the end of Jan, I can't get a job and then take holidays, and then we plan to go for skiing and then the US so it's probably easier if I don't get another job ...) it’s probably a well earned rest (ie well earned – she has worked fairly solidly the entire time we have been in London – except for the 80 something days off work/year we’ve taken)

There’s 2 things I guess – 1) Though, I like to say that I want to be the stay at home man (the housesitter!), I really do enjoy working – particularly working as a physio. I enjoy getting up early to work - my brain seems to function better (it’s the opposite after lunch/mid-afternoon – I’m usually struggling to stay awake – not great for patients!). It’s a good feeling to do a job well and to see tangible results. I’m not saying you can’t get that from being a house hubby, but I definitely didn’t feel that ‘productive’ – even if I had spent the day cleaning house and cooking etc.

2) There’s something that definitely feels ‘right’ about women staying at home to raise the kids, and men going out to work and be the breadwinner. Maybe it’s partly a society thing as in it feels right because society deems it right. For example, I hate getting handed the bill while at a restaurant and having to ask mushie to pay!

However, I strongly believe that God made men and women different, so that they could do different roles. Sure, women can mow the lawn or do labouring jobs, but males are designed to do jobs requiring more strength. I think it’s probably the same with raising kids. People often talk about the bond a mother gets with the baby while it’s in the womb. Women are also supposed to be more intuitive and better multi-taskers – surely that helps with raising kids and keeping track of them.

What does this all mean?? I guess things work out perfectly then. Mushie gets to stay at home, Dessy gets to go to work - where you want to be (keep saying that to yourself!) Oh, and Mushie no complaints when you have to stay at home and we actually have kids! In the meantime, you have to work - sorry!

The darkness begins ...

Since coming back from Africa the last 8 weeks in London have flown by. Thinking back to what's happened, it's a blur of meeting up with London friends, dinners, hanging (ie drinking beer and playing the trivia machine) at the Hobgoblin, getting re-acquinted and hearing Mushie get progressively more excited about her pending unemployment.

Being so busy with all these other things and maybe due to us having just returned from 7 weeks in Africa, but London's weather has been particularly irritating. In Africa we experienced consistently hot weather, beautiful, sigh-inspiring sunrises and sunsets, and minimal rain (it was the dry season) - perfect for getting out and doing things. London's weather really is like 4 seasons in a day - you have to rug up for the cold, carry umbrella for the rain (cause there's no cover), scarf up for the wind, and wear multiple layers in case it gets hot (e.g. when on the tube). It's much more grating than I remember.

Oh, one last whinge - the pain of waking up at 6.30am when it's pitch black outside ... it's fricken bloody terrible, and it's only the very very start of Winter! I swear I'm trapped inside "Groundhog Day". One last English winter!