Now I have to admit that there was not a lot on my work agenda for the day in question.  But I did have student work and some writing on the list.

So I sat down in front of the computer and started my first sentence........

Except I thought I could smell gas.

I couldn’t really find anything particular within the house, so sat back down.

But the gas smell remained.  So I went outside to investigate the meter box...

Whoosh!  Well not literally, you understand, but certainly a gas leak...

So there followed a call to the emergency gas number, a visit from a gas engineer, the capping of the gas meter, and because the engineer couldn’t source that specific type of meter, several calls to the named Independent Gas Transporter with a promise of a new meter installation later in the day.

Take a breath.

So I got back to my work, with the thought in the back of my mind that I had no hot water, shower facilities, central heating or gas hob...

I was mid-sentence when I heard a scream outside.  I knew immediately one of the residents had had a fall outside, and I rushed out to help.

A couple of other neighbours also came out to help but with concerns of injuries, we had to call for an ambulance.  That took a good few hours out of my day, and when I returned to my computer screen, I had no idea what the second half of that sentence was going to be!

A piece of student work later and several blogs, the second gas engineer arrived to change over the meter and check the boiler.

But, these things happen in life! My work was certainly interrupted, but it got done in the end.

When events happen and we are mid-sentence, mid-session with a client or the middle of anything, we need to find a way of dealing with it and managing it both for ourselves and the client.

We are not always in control of events, however much we might think we are!  However much we think we “should “be.  However much we might want to be!

But it’s all in a day’s work.