It almost feels like I'm on holiday.

The last 3 weeks have been really hard going, with me staying up until 4am to write a report required for the following day, plus several evenings and doing work for my 'other' job at Heyford when I should be doing my own stuff. I've also been losing sleep over the 'other job', and on Wednesday was on that site from 5.50am until 5.15am with about 1 1/2 hours driving in each direction to get there.

For the last couple of weeks I've had someone working with me: a lovely lass who has completed her first year of biochemistry at Durham uni. The trade off is that I get her work free and she learns key skills (cell culture and ELISA assay techniques, plus real-world basic laboratory skills - university definitely doesn't teach those) while she's with me. This is significant because having her around means that I can't blast through my own work (or ignore it) in order to do stuff for the 'other job', and this has caused something of a crisis on Wednesday when things that I'd committed to do simply couldn't be done.

I've been increasingly aware that there was too much going on with both jobs, and pretty much since taking on the second job I've been neglecting aspects of my own company. However since Christmas this year it's escalated to the point where either company was getting a good job done, and with that comes stress, distress and more worry, leading in turn to an even worse job being done. Discussing this with a friend who has been in a very similar situation, he talked about all the time he'd spent writing lousy reports at 2am, knowing they were bad, but having to submit them anyway. Being unable to produce work of a high standard due to pressures and conflicts of interest hit his confidence, and I know, given time, this would hit mine too.

So I've taken a decision, talked it through with Chris and we're happy with that, even though it's going to potentially cause stress in other areas. But I think I can do this in faith. Where I've prayed for things to change and business to come in then God has provided, and with much greater effect than any mailshot I've ever put out.

So it feels a little like I'm on holiday, partly because the early morning men's group is also having a holiday, and I could get 8 hours in bed, getting up gradually with my sleepy wife instead of dashing out at 6.55am. But also because, although there's a huge amount of work to get through and sort out, I feel like an area of pressure and stress that I have been decreasingly in control of will now be resolved.