Urgh, poor WAF. I know that feeling only too well. Glad he's back now. btw, I was very cheered by your post about your jamming session with your dd. Dh used to jam with dd and ds several years ago and it was always a lot of fun for all.
Good luck in the exam, Hatty, and I hope that dd2 gets settled in quickly!
MrsS and BD, I am sorry that your respective travails at work are not getting any less.
I have decided to stop any saintly over-caring in my work, as even though the place where I work has upped my hourly rate, I am still on a zero hours contract, and logistics dictate that I spend a large number of unpaid hours there as it is. I do, however, ensure that I do all my preparation there and do not bring any home, aside from the juicy admin tasks that crop up once or twice a year. I have scaled back my expectations of myself, whilst still ensuring that I learn new stuff every day and keep reviewing my practice all the time (an inevitability, considering I retrained at 50). I am planning on doing a module on a profession MEd course after Christmas to get the next level of qualification, i.e. become an assessor. Assuming I am successful in that, I will be interested to see if that has any impact on my main client's (hey, if they insist on saying I am self-employed, they aren't my employer, they are my client, right?) attitude to my employment status.
Thank you all for the messages re: dd. I cannot tell you how bloody happy I was yesterday evening. I did tell her how pleased I was that she had called me and her news was the best present I've had in ages. And she seemed quite chuffed by that. She has a cold at the moment, but instead of claiming it was double pneumonia or some impossibly rare virus (her normal tack for the last few years), she said "Oh everyone's got it, but I've just got a scratchy throat and the snots, I'll be fine." She did not whinge once and was only positive about all the people she has met. Turns out her flatmates are all nice after all. She also took pains to tell me that she is budgeting carefully and keeping her room tidy. And yes, CV, she is back on the meds - but on a lower dose at the moment.
Despite all this sudden-onset positivity, I am well aware (as BTM says) that it could all go tits-up again at any point. I am just rather hoping that she stays on track for as long as possible and manages to develop sensible coping strategies for dealing with problems as they arise, rather than collapsing completely and taking to her bed. Because of course the more success she has in facing every-day (and not so every-day) challenges, the more her self-confidence will grow.