Yesterday was my second day of industrial work.  I had a slightly longer shift starting at 1.30pm.  What I love about industrial work:

• Watching the machines and all their intricate working parts
• Seeing the product before and after and being part of the process
• The people
• The routine (clocking in, locker, getting changed) and the reassurance of repetitious activity
• The potential to be as obsessive or creative as I like about how I stack the packs (without breaking the rules of course!)
• The focus and concentration required

What I hate about it:

• The shoes!  I'm told it gets easier after the first week...
• Mopping and cleaning - I don't hate it but it's not as much fun
• The physical discomfort after a shift, although it doesn't last

When it gets tough, as it does on a long shift, I let my imagination loose and I tell myself I'm like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance - yes, I know she was a welder but why did she do the welding job?

Thankfully yesterday I was on the same section in the same factory with the same team and a nice new team leader (last Friday's team leader is off for a fortnight having an operation) producing the same product in smaller doses.  This work reminds me of another important time in my life.  In 2007 after I became stuck in a rut of weddings and peripatetic harp teaching (at one point I had 65 students over 4 days), I gave this life up and went back to the RNCM as a mature student.  The extreme nature of my decision was commented on but I saw no other solution than to rent out my beautiful house in Wales and have my lovely cats fostered to pursue my career as a harpist.  I was generously offered an Oglesby bursary to assist me in my studies and the majority of my work was in Marketing sticking labels on envelopes.  I LOVED it!!  Similarly to the industrial work I'm doing now, it gave me some balance and it was a platform for the next phase in my life.

What I've realised is that I love the freedom and variety of my job.  Today I have a chamber music rehearsal and this evening, Aquafit.  Tomorrow will be different again and I will probably accept another shift if it's offered.  I have entered a new, exciting, and sometimes terrifying phase in my life.  I get very anxious about being away from my harp and not practising - I admit I have only found the time, energy and headspace for 2 hours over the past 10 days...  I wake up in the early hours and my head is burgeoning and bubbling with ideas.  Instead of fighting it and lying there hoping sleep will come, I get up and put that energy to good use and get about my business.  Looking back 6 months to when I was struggling to crawl from under the duvet, I know which life I prefer.