It's difficult to know what to write at times like these because situations are changing so quickly. Committing thoughts to paper (or to some server in the world wide web) is threatening because a few days hence they might look completely stupid, misguided or irrelevant.
Our situation can currently be reduced to numbers: 45, 66, 650 and 5,300. The easy ones to guess are that there are 45 days till Gill and Jay fly to the US and 66 days until the due date. The less happy numerals are the fact that my employer announced 650 job cuts in the UK on Tuesday and then on Thursday announced that 5,300 were to go world wide following some poor results from the investment bank in the fourth quarter.
Last week I heard from a colleague in the US who had been part of the earlier redundancies in the US branch. He was a person I rated highly and that made it all the worse.
So we just have to carry on doing the things that are within our control. Harriet's room is beginning to take shape since we now have a chest of drawers to keep her already staggering amount of clothes safe. We've got the sterilising kit and a there are a few more bits and pieces that give bright spots of colour to the room. Today, we need to bite the bullet and go Christmas shopping and it all has to be done because I will be going up to Scotland next week.
There's no easy way to end this and tie everything up nicely. Of course we are still so excited and grateful for Harriet, while being still so concerned about her as we enter the final straight. The job situation does not help but I do still have one for the moment and I just need to keep going. Whatever will be, will be.
