I’m struggling a bit to write this post. Not for any of the usual reasons: blogger’s block; lack of time; difficult subject matter… none of those. There’s a cat on my lap. And she’s very fond of an iPad. In fact she likes nothing better than to drape both front legs languidly across a screen and swipe at any typing fingers. Obviously she maintains an air of cool indifference while doing so. But I can tell she’s secretly enjoying herself. And to be honest, so am I. Even though it’s hindering me quite a lot, and even though being hindered generally sends my stress levels through the roof, having a cat on my lap is really quite relaxing.

So relaxing in fact, that I don’t think I can be bothered to type the post I was planning. I was planning to write about some of the tools I’ve developed for giving myself a bit of a break, and dealing with some of the stresses and strains of everyday busy life. Most of my tools involve coffee breaks or laughing. Preferably both. Fresh air, exercise, cooking and talking also feature. As do animals, obviously. In fact, according to yesterday’s news reports, seeing birds from your office window is a highly effective aid in the quest for positive mental health. Finding the time to look out of the window at all is a pretty positive development in my book. I was also going to throw in a few hilarious jokes – mainly based around the fact that I’m actually lugging a rather hefty toolkit around, what with all those tools for lightening the load.

But I’m not going to stress about it. There’s a cat on my lap, and a threatening paw on my iPad. It’s making typing any more than this altogether too challenging. But it’s also diffusing any stresses before they even appear. So I’m going to switch off the iPad and do something different. Where there is slightly less chance of having my fingers slashed to pieces. And I’m going to encourage the cat to stay on my lap, rather than go out and wreak her usual havoc amongst the local avian population. The mental health of office workers across the city is basically in my hands.