"Is it any wonder I'm tired?"

Well I'm bloody jiggered, I tell thee.

This weekend has knocked the bleeding stuffing out of me. On Saturday I woken at just before 7, gave The Boy his breakfast & dropped him off to his mum. Then, with a great sense of foreboding, tootled off to work.
At this time of year we have what is known as our "shutdown". Historically, this was a two week period where all our production would cease & the vast majority of the workforce would have a fortnight's break. In this period we lab types are hyper-busy. We have to do all manner of maintenance on all our plant & equipment. A large part of this involves emptying our 8 chemical tanks on our pre-treatment line, removing & acid cleaning all the pipework & spray jets, giving all the tanks a very thorough clean & making all the baths back up to their required concentrations, etc. Two of us would take the best part of a fortnight to do this to a pretty good standard.
You may note I said historically...

These days we are given 4 days to do the same job. Admittedly we are given more staff but that doesn't really help much. So I was busy doing that on Saturday till 3. Then I dashed home, hung out with Jeff Stelling for a bit (Leeds Utd have not lost an opening day fixture since 1989, y'know) & then joined Nice in attending the wedding reception of some work people. It was a really good night which went on to explode in a cacophony of Vodka, Coke (you decide) & exceedingly good sex. I finally got to sleep about 4ish. I was up again at 9 & straight back into work. I should've been in at 8. I grafted & sweated as hard as I'd partied the previous night. I left work at 2 & went straight to get The Boy. I then plonked him in front of the x-box & later the Doctor Who website, while I put my aching legs up & read the News of the World.
Nice joined me for the evening but I hardly moved off the sofa all night.
Today has been just as manic at work as we tried desperately to get everything back to how it should be, in time for the line starting again tomorrow. I have to start at 5 am tomorrow instead of my usual 6 o'clock start, just so we are ahead of the game.

Tonight I have the evening to myself, I'm going to cook myself something yummy, have a potter around Blogland & then treat myself to that rarest of beasts; an early night.
I reckon I've earned it.