Sometimes I wonder if this world is losing its sanity altogether, for sweet nothing but tiny amounts of money.

I've been trying for the past week to juggle responsibilites at work, meeting up with friends and colleagues before Christmas, lobbying and initiating policy reviews, and at least appear to be unstressed and cheerie, while inwardly panicking about Christmas presents and sending cards and save the date announcements, as well as the way the world is going in general. I've managed to stay calm, even if my daily sleep dosage has dropped to unchartered territories. But these two incidents take the biscuit:

First, the neighbour of my flat which I rent out (while renting a bigger flat) calls to say that apparently my tenant has kicked in doors and that because I'm his landlady, I should pay for the damage. It took me some days to establish the exact story, there were contradictions galore, and my tenant maintains his innocence. So I went around to talk to the neighbour. I listened. Responded calmly. Ignored his aggressiveness. To no avail - if I stay neutral as to which version of the story is correct, he accuses me of calling him a liar. He even threatens to sue me for the cost of the repair. He hasn't spoken to my tenant directly and doesn't intend to do so. I explained to him about three times that regardless whether it was my tenant or not, I'm not liable for him. That vandalism, regardless of who commits it, is a risk and therefore a common charge, so that we all pay our 1/7th share of it. He refuses to accept this. I tell him that this is the law, whether he accepts it or not. No, I'm to pay the full bill - for something I didn't do. He goes on, with the same arguments as before, so I simply shut up. I don't like repeating myself more than three times. Now I've got the next neighbour on my back. Funny though that it was the neighbour who let the door kicker (whoever he was) in by pressing the buzzer, and didn't call the police. Why on earth did he do that? Why did he not confront my tenant and ask him to pay the repair if he's so convinced it was him? Why make such a fuss about £19 anyway? Does he have nothing better to do or get excited about?

Next, I even heavy heartedly decided not to attend our monthly Amnesty International meeting to allow me to join our Directors for the Christmas dinner out - I missed it last year (probably due to an Amnesty meeting). The meal was organised and booked by myself, I nipped out to get a bottle of wine when realising that they don't have an alcohol license, and was surprised that in fact this was a cafe rather than a restaurant. A cheap night then, suits me fine. The first thing I learned in the UK was that you split restaurant bills equally, and that the waiter does not charge people individually for what they've had. This was painful for me at first, being an underpaid vegetarian who doesn't like to get drunk, I always paid more than I should have. I got on with it though. That night, our bill was less than £10 each, which is about half from what I had expected. A real cheap meal. One person insisted on calculating the exact amount for each person. Why? no idea, we'd really all had more or less the same. Somehow, 6 out of 7 people paid visibly with a tenner, plus a tip, and the total amount was exactly a tenner short of the bill. Everyone knew who hadn't paid their due, but no reaction. So one of us and I paid another fiver, and still there was no move from the non-payer to even add a tip. I was embarrassed for us all.

So much for a peaceful Christmas time.

Some good news: An Iranian-Armenian asylum seeker who my project supported has been granted refugee status. She's overjoyed, especially as it was two days before the birth of her son. She's now back with new motivation trying to pass the ever difficult English test necessary to get her medical qualification accredited, and return to work as a doctor. She'll have some way to go still to achieve this, but now that her efforts have meaning and she can finally, after 5 1/2 years, consider Glasgow to be her home, it'll hopefully be much easier for her.

Now, any offers for writing up the annual report for me? This thing is seriously detrimental to my mood. Bizarre to see though that I've reached my quantitative targets exactly, it's almost surreal.

Just to show you how messed up I am at the moment, I entered a state of despair when I heard today that I've been given three extra days of holiday this year, to be taken until the end of January. I have no idea how I'm supposed to manage my workload as it is, and now I'm not to come in either Thursday or before the 10th January? Can I please work? Gotta go to two other Christmas parties now. So much for that. Let's see what's in store next...