Life on the treadmill

Not the gym kind - although I spend quite a lot of time on there too - but that metaphorical kind that I feel I'm permanently on at the moment, and let me tell you, it's exhausting.

My husband told me the other day that he felt his airline was in charge of his life, and I suppose it is, although it's not just his life, but both of our lives, really. We have the same problems as most other families where one member is a pilot; planning social occasions in advance is fraught with ifs and buts, and the jet lag and tiredness associated with the job makes socialising tricky even when he is home. My job is stressful and fairly anti-social too, so the combination of them both can really make us both feel like our time is never our own.

Which I suppose it's actually not! We're wage slaves. We're at that stage in our lives where we need to work to build up savings and pensions and pay off the mortgage, etc, etc, and there's no option to do anything else (except win the lottery, of course, and we're trying that too!) And although we get a lot more annual leave than our American cousins (we get about six weeks a year, give or take) it still never feels like enough.

So, we both feel like we live at work, and it's not nice. I'm often so tired by the end of the day that I simply don't have enough energy to tidy up, let alone go out on the town, or God forbid, have a relaxed and chatty evening with my husband, should we be lucky enough to have a night at home together. I've written elsewhere on this blog about the effects of tiredness, and I've noticed them acutely lately; lots of ridiculous nit picking and stupid disagreements, irrationally taking against a jumper left on the sofa, or a bin that hasn't been emptied yet. What's odd about these incidents is that realise I AM being ridiculous and unfair when I'm like this, and I'm sure my husband knows that too, when he's doing the same. It's just so hard to control when you're tired. One of lifes inevitabilities, perhaps.

Anyhow, our summer holidays are coming up in a month, and I can't wait. Stop the treadmill - I want to get off! If only for a week or two...