ouch ouch ouch

A painful weekend. I had jabs in both arms on Friday afternoon to prepare for Eygpt. Diptheria, polio and tetanus in my left, Hepatitus A in my right. - not a sugarlump in sight :-( My left arm was very sore all weekend and I made sure that people around me knew it (it's SO annoying when there's no bruises or similar to show for the pain). The discomfort was just about subsiding yesterday afternoon when I walked barefoot into the wooden base of my sofa - hard. Ouch. Lots of swearing at the cats and jumping up and down. Why didn't I wear my new slippers that S gave me for Christmas????
Last night my little toe went light blue, today it's moving towards black and the bruise is spreading. I'm limping like a wuss. I think it may be broken but who knows. Not much I can do about it. Everyone here at work seems to assume I was pissed at the time. In fact I was hoovering. Always knew it was a dangerous sport.
So tomorrow I have to attend an assessment centre with a broken toe, that'll impress 'em!

monday

I'm feeling a bit down today, not for any valid reason, just the post-weekend blues I guess. So any messages to cheer me up would be most appreciated. :-(

Friday

so the weekend looms again. I write this at work, living in fear that I may have to sack myself for inappropriate comments about my employer - not that I ever write any cos they're quite nice as opposed to some others I have been reading about on various blogs.

It's a tough call reading that detail, as an HR professional, but also as a blogger. I'm trying to see both sides and would like to know a bit more about the facts, but at the end of the day, I think that there needs to be a balance. For example an employee has a responsibility beyond the time they step out of the employer's door. If they are wearing they work uniform and verbally attack a little old lady they will be bringing the company into disrepute. But it is really in the same vein to be simply putting your thoughts and views in writing and happen to mention how you feel about something related to work?

On the other hand, does an employee have a responsibility not to promote bad publicity about their employer? - to me that is implied in their employment contract.

Whatever the answer, it does seem to be a heavy-handed response when the guy had offered to remove it. I don't think they'd win at a tribunal. Hmmm.. interesting ... perhaps I'll do a Phd on it. I hear they're dead easy to do.

Anyway onto more mundane things - I'm now officially NOT FAT. Having reached my goal weight, becoming a Weightwatchers Gold member, and being able to stuff my face with doughnuts for the rest of eternity without putting on a single pound! (Oh, is that not how it works? What do you mean it simply means I don't have to pay to attend meetings - damn!). I went out for a fab Thai meal with Fraser and Heather Rooke to celebrate, and to catch up on the gossip and say tara to the Burrundi boy.

So the weekend looms - I've been conned into going to see a very scary film tonight (White Noise) which I'm looking forward to with about the same amount of enthusiasm as Joan of Arc probably felt about that bonfire she got invited to. Still it means I score enough points to drag him to Vanity Fair next week.

I am 87.5% British, just likeMr Bean - "Shy to the point of ridicule, you've probably never been out of the UK."

Not strictly true but it works for me

weekend

gentle but deffo good weekend. started with a cuppa with my mum, then a curry and a few drinks, sat shopping for food, sat evening eating it and dvd, sunday lunch at a nice pub. Definate theme there really.

and now it's monday and I'm stuffed after my rather fab trout dinner.

I love my life. Food is my life.

day two

so it was day two of being back at work, and it wasn't actually too bad. yesterday my head was too fuzzy to actually achieve anything, I just sat in my office feeling sorry for myself and sneezing a lot. one of the benefits of being ginger and pasty is that when you're ill (and can't be bothered to put any make up on in the morning) people really notice when you are not well and comment on how pale you look and question whether you should go back home to bed. Boy I love sympathy!!!

We held the three minutes silence at work yesterday. I didn't really think about the length of time until I watched the news that evening and they were dicussing the rights and wrongs. On reflection I do agree that it was a good thing to do but why 3 minutes? I don't think you can categorise these things, so why have a different amount to a "usual" moment of reflection. Does that mean that we have to have 30 seconds if it was a "small" disaster - a disaster is a disaster, and the purpose of the silence is to reflect, and show some form of support in a time when you can do bugger all else to make a difference. Really I guess it's just to make us feel better - and people could say that's selfish, but personally I support it.

anyway, rant over, I'm off for tea - mmmmmm

Best laid plans..

I'm writing this from my spare room instead of my lunchtime break at work. This is due to the fact that, instead of returning to work as planned this morning, I was sneezing and coughing for England all through the night and couldn't face it. I went to bed early last night, feeling a little rough so wanting to get a good sleep before going back to the real world. But unfortunately I saw through every hour of the night, before giving up at 4.30am and watching an episode of Casualty on cable TV. Hooray for cable!!! I had planned on giving it up in the course of my economy driver (one of the many new years resolutions) but sod that - I now realise it's uses!

So, as I can hear you saying to yourself, if she's capable of writing the blog then she should be at work. Possibly true, but I honestly think that I would be more of a hindrance than a help, give all my germs to my colleagues, and I really don't think the sight of me in my fluffy slippers and dressing gown would be appreciated! I shall give you a taster of my Christmas and new year then return to catch up on the snoozing I was so cruelly denied last night.

the most important bit of news is the wonderful guy I met called Dave just before Christmas, who has (don't throw up here) ... brightened up my little world (except when it's full of sneezing) to such an extent that could almost say I am ridiculously happy! Blimey, scary stuff. The last bloke bowed out (fairly) gracefully, knowing that he was the master of his own downfall and finally returning his key yesterday. Not an easy situation, and despite my mothers early words of wisdom ringing in my ears "never finish with one guy until you have another one lined up", I wouldn't actually recommend it as a course of action. In fact there was gap, if not very long, but I guess thats just semantics when it comes down to it.

So christmas was good, quite on the day with mum and dad but very stress-free, family round on boxing day was great, walking with Dave, friends and Rach/Andy on the Monday was a welcome bit of fresh air. Fair bit of drinking in the middle, and then off to St Ives for new year. photos will be forthcoming when I have the energy/capability of showing them, with Mexican outfits a plenty. The place we stayed in was fantastic, right in the centre of St ives and great facilities and a cosy atmosphere. The company was fab and the weather kind. Visited the Tate Modern to re-emphasise my complete inability to understand or appreciate the complete bollox that is written to justify pictures that my 6 year old nephew would be embarrassed about producing. Breathed in the sea air, ate Cornish pasties and fab fresh fish, played Trivial Pursuits and Dingbats, and got dressed up, along with the whole town, for the new year. There were dalmations, Jedi Knights, Storm Troopers, nuns with beards, surgeons warning of "little pricks", ghostbusters and plenty of laughs. It's a great atmosphere and the place just comes alive!

So back to reality.... looking forward to feeling well again, seeing my sagga mates next week for a curry and catch up, cosy nights in with a dvd and also my up-coming trip to Egypt in Feb.

Happy New Year folks, lets hope its a good one.