"They Think It's All Over...

...It is now!" (for the time being)

This morning I had to cancel the trip I was planning to make to Nepal (a week on Friday), due to the dramatic deterioration of the political situation there (as of yesterday).

This morning has been one of adrenaline and mixed emotions: (primarily, at this point, I must confess) frustration re trying to sort out practical details such as getting the cost of the air tickets reimbursed (it is amazing how helpful an organisation can be when it comes to taking your money, and how unhelpful the same people - in fact, automated messages - can be when you want a refund...); relief, in that though I was happy to go on this trip, it wasn't one I'd pushed for, and the timing (half-term holidays) was far from ideal for Jo and the kids; more relief - if relief can be one-step-removed, on another's behalf - at not putting my extended family through worry; disappointment at letting down my Nepali friends - though for reasons beyond my control, so I'm not giving that emotion much time of day! - and disappointment on their behalf; concern for my friends, and their people at this time of crisis...

Adrenaline is good (admittedly, more useful when facing a physical threat than an automated 'phone service - which is the sort of office-based scenario that leads behavioural scientists to claim adrenaline is "a biological hangover from prehistoric stages of human evolution"...though I reckon they'd change their mind pretty quick if their plane was hi-jacked, or in countless other situations around the globe!). And emotions are good too - life would be very dull (not to mention impossible) without them. But they can be confusing, especially when they are mixed! And I don't want to be operating out of an adrenaline-emotion cocktail, especially when frustration is the emotion rallying the troops...

The psychological benefits of taking a lunch hour are not to be under-estimated...