whew - manic depression averted, just a bad day methinks.....

this evening i will be mostly attempting again the peach/raspberry cake that attempted a few weeks ago and failed miserably at, by both lacerating my finger and burning it on the outside and leaving it uncooked in the middle. Obviously I attempted to blame Paul for my errors (who else?) which didn't go down too well, so lets hope this attempt is more positive otherwise I may be dumped.....

I seem to spiralling into an oblivion of frustration and depression and I really don't know why. Life is good, nothing really to complain about, but I just can't seem to cheer up. It's so frustrating how work can start to take over your life and cloud all the good elements. at the end of the day your job isn't what you are, it's just an element of your life and in my case often a "role" that I play. but the more it sucks you in, and the more time you spend doing it, the more danger there is of it starting to define what you are and how you feel about everything within your life. It seems very hard to achieve a good balance of wanting to be good at your job, and giving your all to it, yet maintaining the energy and enthusiasm for the real stuff outside of the 9-5. (ah, if only it were 9-5!).

just reread that - it's not as bad as it sounds honest! It's sad how so many of my friends also seem to be in this work overload situation. Maybe we're all just at that stage in life/career where it seems to take off, or maybe we're just a bunch of sucessful corporate genuises or maybe it's the way that the world seems to be going, but either way I fear many of us are heading for burn out....

still - the good news is that we didn't get drowed out in the Malvern challenge and I managed to make it round the 5K racecourse yesterday raising over £300 for cancer research. Didn't get a time-check as I was too busy trying to breath at the end to remember to watch the clock but I guestimate around 30 mins which aint too bad.

so in my ongoing quest to maintain running (and give me something other than work to focus on) I have now set myself a goal of a 10K in September. anyone fancy joining me?????????

damn its sunday :-(

praise be, it's friday. bring on the sofa

I see Bernard Manning has died, very sad and all, however I never really "got" him. Guess I'm not only of a different generation, but also overly sensitive on the politically correct front, based on my job. Theres actually a classic case in Race Discrimination law which stems from a "gig" he did which was offended the staff at the place he was performing. I'm sure it was all very funny in it's day, but like smoking at your desk and secretaries sitting on the bosses knees, it's all a bit dated now (although someone obvioulsy forgot to tell Mr Prescott that).

Anway, onto less work-related matters, I'm currently typing in great pain due to a cooking injury. I knew this baking lark was a dangerous game to get into, but I took my chances armed with the shiny new kitchen knife in the valient fight against the sturdily-stoned peach. I lost. Darn it. Paul came to the rescue with a (frankly far-too-small) plaster and a smidgen of sympathy and return to his computer geekery-pokery post-haste.

That said, once bandaged up I returned to the culinary battle field and fought to the end... resulting in kitchen carnage but baking victory. well, I hope so anyway, theres certainly a lovely smell emanating from the oven as I wincingly type. Of course, my bandages prevent me from washing up, so if he's wants a piece of the (cake) action, he'll have to do his chores first.... ha ha.

forgot to say, still running (thanks for asking Melanie, and good luck with your plans!). I did a short run today and have the Race for lilfe coming up in 2 weeks (yikes). It's 5k which I know I can do but I really did struggle this morning. It's funny, I'm much better in the evening that in the morning (but then again I guess I am at most things - like getting out of bed...).

but the point of this is - if you haven't sponsored me yet, shame on you! Come on, I'm getting off my lardy arse, get your mothballed wallet out and SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

see the sidebar link........

throat was rough for a couple of days but didn't result in the full-blown voice loss, which was a relief based on how busy I am at work and how little time I have for being ill at present. Don't even have time for a holiday, although to be fair thats also in part due to the fact that we are busy nearly every weekend until August and then don't want to have to pay full whack for a holiday and be surrounded by kids. Plenty of time for that if and when I ever get around to having my own!

So not much to tell about this week apart from work work work. We went to see Cara Dillon last night was who as good as ever, such a pure voice, and ably supported by a rather attractive looking fellow who had a multitude of musical talents, such as playing the recorder beautifully, the irish pipes , penny whistle, etc ,etc. It was all very impresive if slightly annoying that there was so much talent in the room. At the end Cara joined in by playing a fiddle and by that point I almost wanted to kill her for not only having such a beautiful voice, being absolutely gorgeous, a size 10 after having twins seven months ago, and having a lovely husband, but also being able to play the instrument so amazingly as well. But hey, I'm sure she has her off days and occasionally gets spinach stuck between her teeth. Plus it sounds as though having twin's three months early hasn't exactly been an easy ride so I'll forgive her.

Today is saturday adn I have mostly slept. I got up early, and then crashed and burned about 3pm for an hour and then again at 5pm. not something I normally do but clearly my body needed it. It's a quiet weekend this weekend so will probably spend tomorrow on my new obsession, slug hunting. I can't help it, I'm convinced theres a conspiracy to eat all my lovely new plants that I planted this week, and they just keep on coming. I am SO turning into my mother.

Other than that, its a glass of red wine, a sofa and Doctor Who.