Uhm - so it's a rather been social week.....

Tuesday
So, after having a very, very relaxing bank holiday weekend getting up too nothin much, it was back to the grind.

Dorian was back in the office, I was back to more meetings, chasing up I.T., filling out security forms, chasing up the recruitment agency...... I was also trying to figure out how the hell to connect my new shiny phone to my work PC to sync up my calender.

So, whilst I'm sitting at my desk, fiddling unsucessfully with my phone, the Bernard pops down to gas with Dorian.... I can't resist playing with the camera function on my phone!!

Well hello there Dorian hmm.... very interesting!

hmmmm..... are you sure?

and after that brief encounter, time is marching on and before I know it's nearly home time! And of course since it's Vicki's second last day in the office before she leaves for bigger and better things..... well escaping Treasury is a start..... the immortal words are mentioned.

Pub?

Wine?

Old Monk?

Why, it would be rude not to!... so Vicki and I head down to the Old Monk for a couple of glasses of wine and we start to recall childhood summer holidays.

Now, for those who don't hail from north of the border, 'going to the Berries' will probably not mean that much to you;

Pickin yer drail clean?

Berry up?

Nabbling?

nippin up the drail for the lavvie?

Catching the Berry Bus at 6am in the morning?

Jam pieces?

It was bloody hard work as you can see from the photo above of me and my wee sister returning back after a hard day picking raspberries. Knackered!

Going to the berries consisted of catching the berry bus at 6am, getting bussed to a field and picking raspberries until it was berry up time around 3pm. There were no toliets, no facilities what so ever. You just stood in a field and nabbled all day, taking a break for lunch around 12, eating out jam pieces before going back to picking more rasps.

Och those were the days.....................

Glen also pops down to the Monk for a quick one, and then we all depart our seperate ways and head home.

Wednesday
Well, I thought the day was going quite well. Listening to Pink Floyd's 'Pulse' , album on the way into work. Meetings went okay. I was getting through my work okay..... then the Agency phoned.

One of the contractors I hired that was supposed to be starting working for my this coming Monday has pulled out.

Great.

Now I have to go through the whole fucking thing again.

• More CV's to look at.
• More interviews to do.
• More security forms to fill out.
• More notification forms to fill out.
• Another induction session to do.
• More phone calls to the Agency

It's just depressing.

So with that piece of good news, I sit at my desk and quietly fume, and grumble, grumble, grumble. Well until, Mary et al came over to Vicki's desk with a bunch of flowers and little leaving speech for her last day!

Awwwww....... Vicki wasn't expecting this!

He he he he he......

So, after all of that we head down to the Old Monk for Vicki's leaving drinks.

So, Vicki grabs a seat in the back of the pub...... Fenn turns up

and Glen, then Sunil with his new shiny phone, which Fenn loves

and I think Carmel also like Sunil's shiny phone!

So, after a couple of bottles of wine, Glen, Vicki and I jump in a cab and head up to Nusa Dua for a lovely malaysian/indonesian meal, washed down with another couple of bottles of wine.

A fantastic meal and converstion flows for another couple of hours and before we know it, it's gone 11pm! Ah, time to head home as we are all getting a bit worse for wear....

No, that would be the sensible thing to do wouldn't it?

And when have I ever not done the sensible thing?..... ;-)

I say my goodbye's to Glen & Vicki and head over to the CroBar and wait for Tim & Mark to turn up.

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh Boy.

Thursday

I'm not sure what time I got home. But since that bar doesn't close until 3am, and the fact that I didn't wake up until after 1pm kinda gives me a rough idea.

God I feel rough.

Oh I feel bad.

Just as well, Jim, Kieran & Joanne are all off on leave, and Dorian is working from home today!

Oh I feel like hell.

Bed, sleep. Headache tablets. Sleep. No, it's not happening.

I venture downstairs to see what I have to eat in the house. Not much. It's hangover food time. All I have is diet coke and a pack of digestive biscuits.........I'm really living up to this health kick thing.

Ah ha... I see I have some mail. Bills, bills, oh and not a bill, a big brown envelope. What is this??

I rip open the envelope...... what is this?

Ah, it's my child! I have a child!

Confused yet?

I decided to do that world vision thing, where you sponser a child in the poorer areas of the world so that they can have an education, clean water and clean home etc etc....

So, I am now the proud sponser of Nafissa Djibo in Niger. I've been sent a picture, and an info pack about the whole sponser thing......I'll read through the rest of the details after I've recovered from my hangover! Head hurts too much.

Friday

Back into work. Back to chasing up various people, back to meetings! And yet another leaving do to go to!

This time, it's Claude's leaving do. He's leaving DCLG, and moving to DfT to work in Railways. Do DfT know what they are letting themselves in for? ;-). I meet up with Kate in the Litten Tree, who is still on the 'sparkling water' - cheap round for me then!

Claude eventually turns up - typical! Even late for his own leaving do! But that's Claude for you! :-)

and then Ken

and Nishi

and eventually Tim

So we now have a full house and the banter flows;

but I think Ken got a bit too much of the amber necter.....

Cause, he seemed to get drunk really quickly! Kate, Nishi & Tim didn't stay for too long, and not soon after they left the rest of us finished up and headed out seperate ways.

Ken & Claude wandered up to Walkers of Whitehall to meet up with Bumi and I jumped on the tube and bus home! Home by 9:45pm on a Friday night.

Today

I have no plans for today. Rest, clean the house, do a spot of washing and just relax. The weather ain't to great today so I reckon I'll just stay in, watch TV and potter about the house. If I'm really adventurous I may even pop out and grab a pizza later!

Organic, Organic, Organic - Stokey Darling, Stokey!

Have I lived in Stokey too long?

What's happening to me?

Remember I told you that I picked up some messages from Fresh & Wild on Saturday. And here's was me taking the piss at all the Stokey 'trendy media types', buying nothing but organic and reading the Guardian newspaper?

I made myself a ham piece yesterday, with;

• Organic Bread
• Organic Salad
• Organic Honey Roast Ham

Oh my god!

I never knew ham could taste so good! The bread, the salad - the flavours!

What have I been missing all these years? I never knew food had all these flavours.... How could I possibly go back to supermarket processed junk?

Even the organic milk tastes so much better.

Was this how food tasted in the old days? Christ, they are right - it was never as good as in the old days!

Okay, so it is more expensive than the normal supermarket stuff, but will my tastebuds ever forgive me if I go back to Sainsburys, Waitrose, Tesco's........??

Have I become a fully fledged stokey person? Well, I still read the Independent so there is hope for me yet........

It looks like it's a quiet one this weekend.....

So, where did I get to on the last blog???

Oh yeah, up to Thursday! Well I guess I should fill you in on what's happened today and yesterday.

Friday
It was a quieter day at work.... the place was practically empty with it being August Bank Holiday weekend. Dorian was back at work, and we had a wee meeting to catch up on things and then onto lunch!

Where we sat down with Vicki, Glen and Giles to not a really appetising meal, but plenty of banter!

Then a suprise! I receive a text from Euan, he was in Soho with his cousin and did I fancy meeting up with him for a beer??

Did I?

Did I?

Ohhhhhhh. Yes. The office was empty, and it was a dead, dead day.

I headed down to the Old Monk, and Euan turned up with his cousin Kirsty.

Then Nishi & James turned up....

and to really get the party going, Tim turned up!!

and so the banter flowed........

Until, Tim and I had to depart as we had tickets to the open air theatre at Regents park to see 'A Mid Summer's Night Dream'. Shakespere darling! Shakespere!

Which was just brilliant.... I will be the first to admit that I struggle with the surreal at times, and this play is certainly surreal in some parts - and where did the bald faries come into it? But I have to say, that I did enjoy it. I think so far, the 'Twelth Night', has to have been the best one I've seen so far, but this was still good. I think Tim prefered this one better than the last one...... After the play finished, it was a case of walking out the park and hailing a cab for home - which is just as well, because the heavens opened up and it was lashing it down!

Today

I was woken up at 10am by my mum phoning me up to thank me for the luxury chocolates that I had delivered for her birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

After the birthday phonecall, it was time for me to slowly waken up and head up to the post office to pick up a parcel that had been delivered. Nothing really exciting - just a memory card for my new shiny phone - woohoo - 1Gb of memory for my shiny phone. Just think of all the extra photo's I can take!

Hehehehehehehehe...........

So, it's getting near lunchtime and I head back down to Church St from the Post Office and am in search for brunch.

Ahhhhhh... Mexican style I think - I'm just in the mood for mexican

I go to Mecado;

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant-4264.php, and treat myself to Enchillada's Verdes, an orange juice and settle down to read the paper just watchin life wander by.

After that, I nip across to Fresh & Wild;

http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/stokenewington/index.html

and stock up on some food for the weekend. Fresh and Wild is a bizarre place, full of middle class media types eating nothing but organic, organic, organic, organic.

Will it rub off on me?

I doubt it...... but it will do for now!

I get back home, and have three choices;

• Tidy my room
• Fix the shower
• Sort through my mail

Suprisingly enough, I choose none of the options above and decide it's about time I start to build my Family Tree. It's something I've been thinking about for a while - and a bank holiday weekend is probably the best time to start something like this!

It's amazing how little I know about my larger family, so I decided to start building it and I seem to have gotten as far as I can with about 78 relations - I'm struggling with Names, dates of birth, places of birth etc etc. But, have gotten everything written down, well not really written - I'm using this genelogy software to build the tree - so I've saved the file and sent it up North to Mum and Dad to get them to print it out, paste it together and pick the brains of all my living relatives to see how much we can complete the tree!

When it's finished I may even put it up on my blog for you all to see!

So, it's now 8pm and I reckon I'm going to open up a bottle of a nice red french wine and nip out to La Barca and treat myself to pizza and settle down to some mindless telly.

Oh yeah.

Living it up big time on a Saturday night.

:-)

It's work Jim, but not as we know it......

What a week!

It's been a rather, rather busy this week since I last 'blogged' on Sunday. So, my fellow retrobates, just what have I been up to?

Well.

There's been work and then there's been play ;-).........

Monday
It was work, work, work. I had a very busy day at work, Kieran was off sick today, Dorian was back from his leave after getting married and I was also interviewing some contractors with a view to getting 2 report writers in to to a bulk of work. Never enough hours in the day!

On the good news front, on Saturday I'd phoned up 3 Mobile to cancel my contract and ordered a shiny new Sony Ericsson K800i cybershot phone from O2, and was hoping that it was sitting waiting for me back home.

On the even better news front KATE IS PREGNANT!!! I get an e-mail from Kate telling me that she won't be able to smoke or drink for the next 6 months! I mean, how in considerate of her, getting pregnant - who am I going to go to the pub with now ?? ;-) I guess I'll be on the baby sitting duties at some point in the future....... :-)

So, back to work and interviewing. I loathe interviewing. It sucks. But I suppose it's better than being the interviewee! It was one of those 50/50 days, not too good, but not too bad, and a bit of a long day as I didn't finish work until 7pm.

So I headed back up to Stokey, went for a meal in 56 at Newington Green with Tim, and we wandered on home. Tim was in for a treat on Monday night...................

No.

No, now stop it!

it's not what you think, you filthy minded individual!! ;-)

I treated Tim to an evening's viewing of 'Galaxy Quest' ; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/video/misc/dreamworks/galaxy-quest/gq-home.html/002-3113507-0060840 , a most fantastic movie. Think original Star Trek, being sent up big time by Tim Allen, Alan Rickman & Sigournay Weaver. It's one of the funniest film out there. If you haven't seen it, go see it!!!!

And by the way, my new shiny phone hadn't arrived.

Tuesday
It's another busy day of work, and I spent most of the day in meetings, leaving Joanne & Dorian to get on with kicking off the PESA & DQ report development project management workstream.

I finish work after 5pm and head down with to the cruddy bar to meet up with Kate & Nishi. Now this was fun. Kate has been taking the absolute piss out of me with my 'No alcohol on a weekday' rule - it's now time for pure revenge!! Now that Kate's pregnant, she's on the 'sparkling water', and I'm straight onto the cold bottle of sweet, sweet, intoxicating lager.

Only 6 months to go Kate..... I'm going to enjoy this ;-)

Tim, Glen & Sunil pop down as well and after a while it's on Glen and me left, and the hunger kicks in. Glen and I walk (not really that far), around the corner to a wee italian place on Victoria street.

It was actually quite a good meal and I'll probably go back there again sometime, but I can't for the life of me remember what the place is called! At least I know where it is though..... So we finished our meal, went our seperate ways and wandered back home to Stokey.

I get back home, feeling a bit worse for wear and wanting my bed and find that my new shiny phone has arrived!! Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah!

But I'm a wee bit drunk.

So I fall asleep. Happy that my new phone has arrived.

Wednesday
Ooooooooo. Waking up is bad.

I slowly come to conciousness. It's a painful process at the best of times. Then I remember that my new shiny phone has arrived. It makes walking up less painful. I play with the new phone a little bit and then hop downstairs into the shower.

So, there I am having a shower, giving myself a wash (now, get those naked thoughts of me right out of your mind there - you filthy pervert!) and was just about to start washing my hair when the shower hose/head snaps and falls to the floor.

It's not a good start to the morning! I'm all flustered and arrive into work late, with unwashed hair, feeling yucky! And as about as much use as a cold cup of coffee. This is going to be another long, long, long day. Tick follows tock, follows tick follows tock, meeting follows meeting and I'm acutely aware that I really, really want to wash my hair!

But on the bright side, there is my new shiny phone.....

And I wander round the office with my new shinyness taking photo's of Chris, the Bernard and Gerald;

thinking.... oooooooo. Shiny phone. 3.2 Mega pixel camera. I like my phone. Yes I am geek. I am geek girl. I wander back to my desk, sit down, and then look over at my bottle collection at my desk.......

Hmmm.... perhaps I should think about recycling these bottles. And then that thought quickly dissappears when I receive a text from Felicity.

She's had a tattoo done!

OOOOOOOOOOOuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccchhhhhhh!

Yes, she's in pain. Yes it hurt. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow!

So, after more meetings and shuffling some papers about I leave work and go to meet Tim, up off Denmark Street at 'The Angel'; http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/20/2012/Angel/Soho for a quick drink before we jump on the tube and train and head up to his house, where I spend the evening fixing his wireless network on his PC.

Yes my life is really that exciting. An evening working on the PC after I've spent the whole day sitting down in front of a PC is just what every girl really wants to do...............

Although I did get to see Tim's music collection, and for my efforts in sorting out his wireless network problems I am awarded a copy of a compilation punk album that Tim's band 'Newform' , had a few tracks on- 1979, Cardiff Punk.

I love the 'Blockhead' song.

It's raw.

It's punk.

Now all I need is a record deck to play it on!

Today
Well, I was suppose to be getting into work earlish but the delays on the Jubilee line put paid to that ;

At least Tim was able to kill time by reading the paper, whilst I spent the trying out the games on my new shiny phone. Remember, I am geek girl with new shiny phone.

I get into work to find Kieran off sick again, Dorian's working from home as he's got a delivery coming, so I'm all on my own....... and being pulled in 5 different directions with briefings, guidance, advice and more interviews, plus having to nip out at lunchtime to find a new shower hose/head!

It's a late one tonight at work with me not finishing till after 7:30. It's straight home, food and chill out watching telly and going through my e-mails etc and updating this blog!

Sleep now.

It's just not cricket...

Hullo!

Okay, I know I know it's been a while since I last updated this - but it's been a busy few days!

Thursday
Today was cricket at the Oval; http://www.surreycricket.com/, England vs Pakistan in the final test.

I rather uncharacteristicaly was the first one there! So, I sat down and listened to 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Son_of_a_Seventh_Son, (I'm going through an Iron Madien phase at the moment - reliving my teenage years!), waiting for the boys to turn up. And that they did! Nadeem, Tim, Dave, Graham and Frederick.

We start watching the cricket, only for the rain to start! Typical English weather....... But fear not, the rain didn't last that long and play resumed!

Hoorah. Well, only for a little bit - the rain started again....

So off Tim, Graham, Frederick and I went to the bar. A few beers later and after lunch had finished, play resumed and we had sunshine for the rest of the day.

It really as Pakistan's day as they bowled Engurlund out for 173, but at least I also got to see Pakistan bat as well. The cricket finished around 7:30, and we were all knackered and went our seperate ways home. I hopped onto the 436 bus to Victoria (miracously avoiding the thousands of other people trying to make their way home!), jumped onto the tube to Kings Cross, then the 476 bus back home.

I popped into the Shakey as Mike was over from New Zealand, and had a quick chat with Felicity, Mike & Mark. I was absoultly knackered by this point - sitting drinking beer all day and watching the cricket really tires you out!, and opted to go home instead of moving onto another establishment for food.

Home, Bed, Sleep.

Friday
I was glad I'd arranged to take Friday off, as I remember what I was like last year from the cricket with the sunburn and sunstroke! Okay, so this year there was rain instead of sun, but at least it was a relaxing recovery.

I headed into Westminster to meet up with Megan (who I used to work with on the SDS Project), and some of the other guys from work for lunch before Megan heads back off to Kabul. We do lunch, several beers and I then find myself in Soho having a beer with Dan...

Dan and I head to the Crobar for a couple before deciding to head down to his place in South London so he can get out of his suit and into more 'casual' gear. So, a bus trip and train journey to deepest darkest South London - and I am hit with an over whelming wave of tierdness. We decide to stay in, order pizza and watch 'The Lost Boys'; http://www.fast-rewind.com/lostboys.htm, a classic vampire movie from the 80's.

Pizza, sofabed, crash.

Saturday
Ouch.

I wake up, very briefly not knowing where the hell I am. Och, that's right. I'm at Dan's.

Oh joy of joys, the walk of shame back up to North London.

Train, Tube, Bus, home. I get a text from Felicity, she's had her tounge pierced! Oooooooooooooouch!!!!!
That sounds painful.

That looks painful.

That feels painful.

Ouch.


And she's thinking of getting a tattoo done on Wednesday.

Ouch.

I need my Bed, Sleep, Shower.

It's now 5:45pm and I leave home to head down to Oxford Street to meet up with Tim in the Argyll; http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=149, which is absolutly hoachin with shoppers and tourists. Yuk. My idea of hell.

We have a quick drink and head back up to Angel for some food and decide to settle on Tapas and go to 'Sangria', a small spanish tapas bar on Upper Street. As usual we order way too much, but the food was just lovely!

Guess what, I'm tierd again. We head home, Tim watches the telly and I fall asleep. It's been a long day.

Today
It's down to S&M; http://www.sandmcafe.co.uk/index2.asp, for breakfast, then hopping onto the bus to get down to Denmark Street where Tim drags me around guitar shops for a couple of hours.

I really don't like shopping.

I really, really don't like shopping.

I head home, chill for a little bit, grab a pizza from La Barca and sit down with Felicity to watch 'The Empire Strikes back'. I'm tierd again.

Bed. Sleep.

Snooze. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Surfin the Crimson Tide.....

And here we are readers.

Since my last blog on Monday - where I was in a particular ranting mood, but can you blame me? Of course, female readers out there will understand - but I doubt the male of the species will be able to pick up on how bloody how annoying, irratating, inconvienent, painful the whole 'time of the month' thing is.

Grrrr

Tuesday
So, after Monday in bed, curled up into a wee ball, I woke up on Tuesday hoping to feel better.

No such luck.

I felt like hell, I was still sore, nauseous, cranky - and was giving some serious thought to staying home again. But I remembered that there was a particular meeting that I should really attend that afternoon, so off I went into work.

Boy was I tierd, absolutely knackered. It's a bad 'time of the month' this month. I last through to the meeting but am absolutely dead on my feet by 5:30pm..... it's time to go home. It's so bad, I'm actually falling asleep on the bus on the way home - I need my bed!

I get home and collapse on my bed, I've no energy left. Felicity pop's out and grabs us pizza from La Barca, and we watch 'Waynes World II'. Well I say we, but that didn't really happen... after 20mins into the movie, Felicity's phone goes off and that's her for the next hour!

I watch the rest of the movie, and fall asleep.

Today
Well, I did feel a bit better today - I'm slowly getting through this month's 'period'.

I wasn't actually in my office today as it was a change of scenary! Hoorah. But I was still in an office... Today, I was in the 'Information Edge'; http://www.informationedge.com/default.asp office. I was working with Joseph & Mark fleshing the case study out and seeing what we could agree on!

Of course, there was time for lunch to which Joseph decided he looked rather dashing modeling the latest designer wear in table napkins......

And then of course some serious conversation........

After lunch, it was back to their offices to finish up on a couple of details. We finish off around 6pm and I head home, popping into my local chinese for Singapore Fried Chow Mein, update the blog, download e-mail and watch some telly before going to bed for an early night.

I know, such an exciting life.........

Tomorrow should be a wee bit different - it's Cricket at the Oval tomorrow with the boys!

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman......

Och, Grumble, Grumble, Grumble.

It's annoying. It's really annoying. In fact it's so annoying that I'm thinking if only I'd been born a man.....And that thought is quickly shoved out of my mind. Euuuugh!

I didn't sleep at all well last night, and woke up feeling like hell this morning. Yes, it's 'that' time of the month....... surfin the crimson tide, on the blob, cramping like hell. I hate my period. I'm all sore, cranky, yucky. I HATE IT!!!!!!!! Every fucking month.

I swear if a man had to go through this every month they would have invented a medication by now that actually worked!! I mean what is it with those fucking adverts on the telly that has those wifies all smiling and running about in tight white shorts exercising when they are on the blob?

Fucking morons! That’s what they are.

Fucking morons!

Who the hell in their right mind prances about when they are on the blob? That’s the last thing you’d actually want to do. Now lets go through what I’m my ‘symptoms’;

• I feel bloated
• I feel nauseous
• My back hurts
• My breasts are swollen and sore
• My right knee hurts - (why on earth does my knee always hurt at this time of the month?? It’s not even fucking connected to my ovaries!)
• I’m cramping to hell, it comes in waves of pain that shoot through my abdomen leaving me curled up into a little ball
• And to top it all off, a fucking coldsore

I’m cranky. I'm in bed feeling like shit, trying very hard to resist the urge to pick the telly up and throw it out of the window if I see another fucking ‘feminine product’ advert.

Men have got a lot to answer for.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

It's a quiet one this weekend

Hello there,

After my quiet day on Thursday it was back to work Friday. And what a Friday it was..... You know when you get one of those days that you just can't concentrate, or seem to 'get into' the day....

Well I was having one of those. I'd replied to e-mails, finished a couple of things I was working on and it was only 11:45am.... Although Kieran was all bouncy and bubbly about work. I just don't know where he get his enthusiasim from!. So, what next? I was in a funny mood and decided to send round an e-mail to the usual suspects and see if they are interested in going to the cruddy bar at 12:30pm for lunchtime beverage.....

And so I set off down to the Cruddy bar to meet up with Steve, Kate & Tim! A few Staropramen's later, I pop into a sandwich bar and head back to the office.

It's going to be a long afternoon.....

Nope, I still can't get into the day. I finish my lunch, reply to another few e-mails and find a message from Steve.

Time to head back down to the Cruddy.

I meet up with Steve and Dan, Tim & Glen also turn up. After a while and whilst the majority of the group head off home there's just me and Glen left, and we are hungry! Off to Spicy World ; http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/3933.html, it is for poppadoms and Balti!

I hadn't been to Spicy World for a long time, but I guess I used to go there quite often. Now how do I know this? Becuase when Glen and I were sitting down to our meal, one of the waiters came over to take our order and recognised me - asking how I was, and how come he hadn't seen me in a long time! Jings, I think I've been working in London for a rather long time.....

The meal was lovely, we departed and went our seperate ways - I jumped onto the No 38 bus, then the No. 73 and off home!

Today
I was determined to have a quiet one this weekend. I slept till 10am as I had ordered my messages on-line from Sainsburys to be delivered between 10-11am. Although they didn't turn up till 11:15 - but hey, no problem as I got a £10 off voucher on my next delivery! So, armed with some fresh bread and fruit, I put a washing on and sit down with my laptop and spend the next 5hrs sorting out my library on my ipod. I did tell you that this was going to be a quiet weekend!

Felicity has headed out tonight on a 'date' in Oldstreet, and she's got another one lined up tomorrow! Lucky girl ;-)

So, it's a quite night of watching Angel; http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/angel/, and trying out my French wine (Chateau Simon, 2003 (an excellent year for Bordeaux), from the Sauternes & Barsac region that I bought from Taste of London; http://www.tasteoflondon.co.uk/.

And that's that I guess!

And my plans for tomorrow? Nothing much - sort out some paperwork, shower, maybe go to the movies..... well see where tomorrow takes me!

:-)

It's Rock and Roll man.....

Hello!

Well, since my last blog I did eventually meet up with Jim & Joe in the CroBar. Even though I was on time, the boys were late - boys will be boys! Those guys are never on time, so I made sure that I was prepared with the Evening Standard to read whilst I waited for the guys to turn up.

They eventually turned up 30mins late! Mind you Tim didn't turn up until nearer 7pm, but that didn't stop us ordering the beers in!

A few beers later, (and I am amazed that the guys actually stayed in that pub - I thought they'd be running to the hills!), and we are getting a bit peckish! Tim, wanders off home, Jim, Joe & I wander up to Nusa Dua for a fantastic meal washed down with a couple bottles of wine. We leave the restuarant, and nip across the road to the Nellie Dean for a quick drink.

By this stage, I am feeling a wee bit tierd and decide to head home, much to the protest of Jim & Joe who want to keep on drinking! The guys head up to 'The Couch'; http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/36/3615/Couch/Soho, for 'one for the road' and we depart! I jump on the No.73 bus on Oxford Street and head straight home.

Wednesday

I wake up feeling a wee bit 'delicate', but nothing major. I wander into work, do a days work with meetings, writing, re-drafting etc, the usual stuff.

But wait, I decide to have some fun... I decide to start e-mailing Kieran (my boss) telling him that he's supposed to be taking Anna & I out for cocktails! Oh he get's sooo flustered! It's fun!

I win, and we all head up to Soho to the Revolution Bar ; http://www.revolution-bars.co.uk/bars.php?bar_id=149, for vodka cocktails. But before we got there, Kieran wanted to go into Foyles ; http://www.foyles.co.uk/foyles/index.asp, and look for a couple of books on Crete since he was going there on holiday.

Now, most people when going somewhere abroad on holiday would normally buy a travel book?? That's what you and probably would have done.... Where as Kieran is a little bit different. He buys ancient history books on Crete...... we were dragged up to the Ancient History floor - I can honestly say that I have never ever, ever been to the Ancient History floor. And now I know why.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring!

I was fastly loosing the will to live until Anna spotted 'Roman Sex'. God, those Romans where a filthy pervy bunch! After we escape, we resume our quest for Kieran to buy us several cocktails! Cameron arrives just in time for Kieran to get the drinks in - perfect timing!

Several Cocktails later...... Kieran's girlfriend Vicky turns up and we have a couple of more drinks, before Vicky & Kieran shoot off and Cameron, Anna & I finish off our drinks. It's 10:30pm and there's time for another drink! I take Cameron & Anna to the 'CroBar', where I'd been the night before with Jim, Joe & Tim.

Unknown to them, this bar doesn't shut till 3am ;-)

Oh, I'm such a bad influence......

3 drinks later, it's after midnight and Anna seems to be flagging.... looks like she won't be lasting the night! We say our goodbyes and head off in our seperate directions off home.

I jump on the 73 and head home, get to the house and fall asleep.

Thursday

Waking up is always such hard work.......

It was a quieter day in the office today, nothin much happened today except that I was tierd. I wonder why???? It got to 5pm and I'd just had enough - home James!

Jumping on the 24 bus, then the 73 bus I get home in 1hr, and wait for Felicity to turn up as we'd arranged to go to La Barca and treat ourselves to pizza, and Waynes World, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/, a most excellent movie dude.

Party time.

Excellent.

Schwiiing!

And that ladies and gentlemen is me all up to speed!

See you later.

Pre Bernie warm-up

Hullo,

Yes, well yesterday was the 'Pre-Bernie' warm-up before we all head down to Brighton on Friday for WABII (Weekend at Bernie's, 2nd year running) . For those of you who don't know Bernie, his real name is actually Richard, and we went down to his house in Brighton last year for a weekend of beers, sunburn, puggy machines and more importantly, DODGEMS!!!!

WABII fantastically coincides with Dorian's wedding, which we have been invited to the evening reception at the Grand Hotel; http://www.grandbrighton.co.uk .

Now, getting back to the 'Pre-Bernie' warm-up. This consisted of me, Kate, Cameron, Tim G, Tim K, Glen and of course the grand masonic master, the Bernard,

all meeting up down in Namco ( www.namcostation.co.uk/), for Ten Pin Bowling (the Bernard won overall by scoring a turkey on his last shot!), Pool (I think this was really between Kate & Tim G), Dance-off, Camel Derby and most importantly, DODGEMS.

Now, Dodgems consists of 'Getting Bernie'. The objective is to get Bernie at all costs. We have devised serveral methods of 'getting Bernie'; i.e

• the Pincer movement
• Hammer and Sickle
• the Sledge Hammer

All of the above methods have a proven track record of either giving the Bernard severe whiplash, or by disabling his Dodgem car. Think of the film 'The Running Man' and you'll get the picture. We were thinking of not letting Bernie actually get into a car, and he'd have to wear the 'Running Man' suite whilst we try and 'Get Bernie'

Last nights missions was hilariously funny, in fact it was so funny that I fell out of my dodgem car in an hysterical fit of laughter and ended up bruising my back! The Bernard left soon after that as he was having a day doing the "Bernard stomp" around some hills somewhere..... and Tim G headed off as well as he was knackered from an all day meeting!

Glen, Tim, Cameron and I headed to Pizza Express for some food, then it was off home via the No. 341 bus and 476 bus.....

Today

I got into work at the ungodly hour of 9am. I just don't do mornings......

Meetings, meetings, meetings, but at least I got to nip out at lunchtime with Anna to head down to the Old Monk; http://www.fancyapint.com/main_site/thepubs/pub2704.html to meet up with Tim, Kate & Graham to pick up my ticket for the cricket at the Oval ; http://www.surreycricket.com/on the 17th August. England vs Pakistan.

A few Budvars later, it's back to the office for more meetings, meetings, meetings..... I head off home on a slightly different route, No. 24 bus, then the No. 38, then No. 73.

I wander across the road to the neighbours to pick up my wine delivery. FINALLY!, cart it home and just chill out watching telly, then sleep!

Cheerio for now.

Where the hell are those thunder storms?

So,

What did I get up to yesterday?

After the still heat of the night, it was the usual routine in the morning, radio, shower, commute into work with one exception....... the news said that we were going to experience thunderstorms yesterday afternoon/evening!

Hoorah! Yipee! Fantastic! Just what I want, a few good heavy thunderstorms to clear the air, get rid of the humidty, get back to a 'normal heat'. Armed with this knowledge it made the commute into work a little more bearable. So, I set about getting stuff done at work eagerly waiting for the ominus darkening of the sky above and the first glorious thunderclap, to which I was going to run out of the office into St James park and bask in the beautiful cold, heavy rain......

And I wait. And wait. And wait........ the only loud noise I heard that afternoon was our fire alarm going off and we all had to evacuate the building. Standing around in St James park in the baking heat like a spare bunch of lemons I join the boys in the cafe in the park; http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/press/current/press_release_64.cfm . I did ask them to get me a nice, cold lager but they got me an Chegworth Apple & Rhubarb juice; http://www.chegworthvalley.com/ making sure that I stick to the 'no alcohol on a weekday rule'. How nice of them.......

We wander back to the office, it's still hot and I swear that it's even hotter inside. How can a building get hotter when there are no people in it??? I'm beginning to think that perhaps this heatwave is a government conspiracy. I'm really pissed of now and very cranky with the heat.

A shining ray of light appears in my day when Anna suggests that instead of going to the gym - now relax, I have not nor have I ever gone to a gym, Anna's the bizzare health freak here, not me! - that we should do cocktails instead! Excellent idea! I decide swap Friday for Thursday on the alcohol ban and everything is now kosha.

We hop on the No. 24 bus and head straight to the Revolution Bar ; http://www.revolution-bars.co.uk/bars.php?bar_id=149 only to find that it's shut for a 'private party'! In all the times I've been there this is a first for me! So we then wander down Wardour St and head to the Intrepid Fox http://ultimatepubguide.com/pubs/info.phtml?pub_id=39 to re live our Rock/Goth days. Easy, swap cocktails for 'Rock'.

Or so I thought...... How was I to know that in the midst of this un-bearable heat and humidty so thick you can almost put a knife through it that there was a power cut in Soho. No power in the pub = no cold beer or draught beer. I settle for a warm bottle of bud, sitting in what has to be the hottest pub in London. It's so hot that there is more 'condensation/sweat' on me than there is on the bottle of beer! Cameron comes and joins us and we make a fast exit to another bar that does have power and air conditioning and more importantly, cocktails!!!!!

Several cocktails later, and another trip to 'rock' Garlic & Shots pub; http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/42/4277/Garlic_and_Shots/Soho . Cameron still had his tie on from work and was asked to remove his tie as 'It isn't that sort of pub mate'. More warm beer was consumed before we headed to another bar for more cocktails - this time I had 'An un-comfortable screw' cocktail, and since it was Cameron's round, he had to go up to the bar and ask the barman for an uncomfortable screw.......

;-)

I am evil at times.

After that, we decided that we actually needed some nutrition that wasn't alcohol based and wandered up onto Dean Street to go to one of my favourite eating places Nusa Dua; http://www.nusadua.co.uk/ for a fab meal washed down with a couple of bottles of white wine.

We depart our seperate ways, I jump onto the No. 73 bus and head home for another hot, sticky restless night. I did hope that perhaps there would be some thunderstorms overnight, but when I awoke this morning..... well, you know the story by now.

:-(

sticky, sweaty and yucky

That about sums up how I feel.

I woke up this morning feeling like that. I step in the cold shower, getting rid of the previous night's sweat & humidity and begin to feel semi-human again. Although, I know that I'm actually kidding myself here because as soon as I step out the shower, I'll feel sticky, sweaty and yucky again.

No, perhaps this time it will be different. Perhaps this time, I'll step out the shower feeling refreshed and that feeling will stay for at least 10 minutes. I slowly step out the shower, holding my breath. Could this be the day the heat finally subsides and I'll feel refreshed? Isn't that what a shower is suppose to do?

I reach for the towel, put it round me, open the bathroom door, so far so good. I walk up the stairs and and head to the bedroom.

Damm, I knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. By the time I've got back to the bedroom I can already feel the suppressive sultry heat clinging to my body. It's hot. It's darn hot. And I haven't even started the commute into work yet.

The 'natural' air conditioning in work was on top form today - I'm beginning to think that this is perhaps indeed hell. I try to find any excuse to be away from my desk, as I have the sheer mis-fortune to have a desk with a window that opens into the open area that is in effect a greenhouse. One can mistake this for Dante's 6 level of hell (Lower Hell: Violence & Fraud) - The City of Dis

"Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell."

What I wouldn't give to be in at least Dante's 3rd level of hell (Upper Hell: the Incontinent) - at least it's nice and cool there!

"In the third circle, you find yourself amidst eternal rain, maledict, cold, and heavy. The gluttons are punished here, lying in the filthy mixture of shadows and of putrid water. Because you consumed in excess, you meet your fate beneath the cold, dirty rain, amidst the other souls that there lay unhappily in the stinking mud. Cerebus, a canine monster cruel and uncouth with his three heads and red eyes, dwells in this level. He growls and tears at the damned with his teeth and claws."

Mind you given those descriptions - they could be describing any workplace! If you are interested, you can actually take Dante's inferno test. http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv

I did, and found that I'm such a bad, bad person I would be ending up in Dante's 7th level of hell:

"Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering. This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests. Beyond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level."

Hmmm, that's nice to know.... and here's me thinking that I'm not really that bad a person.... obviously Dante disagrees.

Just walking from my desk to the printer and back I can feel the muggy sweat trickling down my back. It's going to be a long, long day today.

As mentioned before I try to spend as little time as possible at my desk, I have wee meetings down in the canteen as that's the only place in the building that the air conditioning actually works! Struggling with the rest of the day, I get an e-mail from Kate asking about beer.

It's hot, I'm tempted, and the walk alone from work to the Cruddy bar is enough to work up a raging thirst in this heat. It's time to down tools and take the long walk - okay I'm using a bit of artistic license here... but you get the picture! - to the Cruddy bar. I then proceed to have;

• 1x pint of grapefruit juice and lemonade.
• 1x sparkling water with one slice of lime
• 1x sparkling water with two slices of lime
• 1x sparkling water with three slices of lime
• 1x fresh orange juice with lemonade

I know what you are thinking. What's with the lime? Well, I can't have the same drink more than twice can I? That would be sad....... okay, I'm trying to sound convincing here, but as I type this I realise that actually perhaps I should just stop digging this hole. When you are in a hole, just stop digging!

Meanwhile, Kate had a lager and 4 x dry white wines - I could only sit and watch and remember what that was once like! ;-)

After which, we departed our seperate ways. I was lucky enough to catch a no. 24 bus straight up to Tottenham Court Road, switch to a no. 10 bus going to Euston, before jumping on the 476 bus to take me the last part of my journey home.

Here was me thinking, 'Wow', no waiting for buses, I'll be home in a jiffy. I should have learnt by now, not to have such thoughts, I only end up jinxing myself! As soon as the 476 left Euston station and turned back onto Euston road - complete gridlock.

How many times, can they bloody dig up Kings Cross??? Grrrrr.

Several minutes i.e. 15 mins stuck on Euston Road, later the bus finally moved and I was speeding home for the rest of my journey.

Back to my lovely, hot, sticky, humid flat. Back to yet another night of trying to keep cool, with all the windows open, sleeping on top of the covers falling asleep to the radio......

Comedy in the heat

Och, it's not long after midnight and my room is swealtering.

It was another un-remarkable day in the office today, same old same old 'natural' air conditioning. Hmmmm..... that's why I was on my 5th bottle of water and still sweating like I've just spent 5hrs moshing away to rock and metal.

One of ray of light though, Sunil suggested that we head down to Canary Wharf (yes the place with all the big buildings) otherwise known as 'Torchwood Towers' - although I couldn't quite see any Daleks or Cybermen.......

Glen and I headed down to a pub on the Wharf to meet Cameron, and yes I was still sticking to no beer on a week day, with me on the grapefruit and lemonade with Glen enjoying a nice cold Kronenberg. Cameron turned up later , and I had another sparking water.

After which, we strolled up to Canada Sq for the Open Air Comedy Night, meeting up with Sunil and his wife Sabina.
http://www.mycanarywharf.com/whatson/calendar.html "Stand-up comedian, singer, songwriter and winner of the Time Out Comedy Award, Richard Morton will be your master of ceremonies for this special edition of the Canary Wharf Comedy Club. Outdoors for the first time, expect the same top-notch laughs that sell-out Cabot Hall. Featuring Terry Alderton, Michael McIntyre, Adam Bloom, and the brilliant Adam Hills. "

When we finally found Sunil & Sabina - as you can tell by the photo, loads of people sitting on a square of grass, kinda difficult to spot people! We sat down, had a picnic of cheese, dips, breads etc. Very tasty as there was a Waitrose across the road to beef up our supplies! And well, this can be classed as a 'special event' so I had a couple of cans of Pimms and lemonade.

I must say for a free event, it was bloody good. Lots of laughs, and even the Australian comedian was funny....

After spending most of Sunday sitting on my arse on the grass in Greenwich, my back didn't take to kindly to sitting on the hard grass again for another three hours - so inbetween sets I had a nice lie down staring up at the fluffy little clouds (if only there were some!) and at the big tall buildings.

So, here I am, back home courtesty of TfL's bus service, in bed, in the heat, listening to Planet Rock on my DAB Radio.

Time for sleep I think!

Where did it go?

Yet another hot day.

Worked lated in the office, left about 6:30ish to go catch the No. 24 bus up to Warren St Tube station where I was meeting Tim for a quick drink before home.

Spent nearly 15mins waiting on a bloody 24 bus. I got to the bus stop (which is right outside work by cutting through HMRC onto Parliment St) , and saw that the LED sign was saying 15 mins for a no. 24 bus. Surely that can't be right? It's still rush hour, and after checking the timetable there should have been a bus every 8-10mins.

There is a massive crowd at the bus stop - I just resign myself to the fact that on this blistering hot day, I will crammed like a sardine into a portable oven till Warren Street. And yes, the bus was packed.

Finally got to Warren Street, peeled myself off of the seat and grabbed a paper to read whilst I waited for Tim. And waited. And waited. I didn't realise that the Victoria line had been suspended between Walthamstow & Seven Sisters because of a person underneath the train, causing severe delays to the rest of the line.

Really. If you are wanting to end your life, do you have to do it at rush hour on one of the main tubes lines? How inconsiderate to your fellow travelers who, unlike the person under the train have decided to keep on living and go on with their daily lives. There's inconvenience, and then there's inconvenience.

Anyway, I digress. Finally met up, and I made the mistake (a glaring 'school boy error'), of choosing a pub that had the cricket on.

Result?

Not a lot of conversation as Tim's transfixed by the TV - I'm sitting there with my grapefruit and lemonade swealtering in the non-air conditioned pub.

Headed home after that, jumping on the No.10 bus to Euston, then onto the 73, and I actually managed to find a seat! Kinda got hungry on the journey home and was debating with myself to either a shish kebab, chinese or a pizza from La Barca.

I'd settled on the pizza as I'd never got round to getting one on last Saturday. By this time it's nearly 9pm, I'm hot, tierd, thirsty - got home, opened the door to find that it wasn't any cooler, infact it was hotter inside the house than outside! So, after munching away, drinking juice, watching some telly, downloading e-mail etc etc I decide to go to sleep.

All through-out the evening, I'm keeping an ear out for this suicidal mozzie that enjoyed nearly a pint of my blood the evening before. This time I'm armed with newspaper and fly/wasp spray. Just let the little bastard come near me and it's dead.

I'm starting to doze off, but am still keeping an ear out for this damm mozzie. Next thing I know, it's morning. I check over for any new bites - but seem to be mozzie bite clear!

Where the hell did it go?

Perhaps it found a tastier victim? Not that I'm complaining!

War is declared

Fine.

Great.

I was awoken last night in the swealtering heat, semi concious by a high pitch noise. No it wasn't the crazy wifie from across the road, nor was it that idiot boy on a scooter running up and down the streets - I think from now on he shall be christend 'Scooter Twat'.

I thought I was dreaming, thought nothing of it, turned over and fell back into a restless slumber................I awoke this morning (slowly), as most mornings to the radio with the lovely Alice Cooper and his own brand of humour, as I lent back in bed I realised my upper right arm was sore. What the hell was wrong with me?

On closer inspection I discovered that I'd been bitten. Not only on my arm, but also twice on my hip.

It wasn't a dream last night. That high pitched noise? A blimin Mosquito!! I've now got three huge itchy lumps! I don't react well to mozzy bites. War is declared.

That mozzy had better have enjoyed it's last meal last night, cause when I find it, it's gonna be splatted so hard my blood will be pernamently embedded into the wall of the flat, and no amount of cleaning will shift it!

I am on the war path. It's bad enough having to put up the heat, the pollution, the over crowding, TfL - but mozzies? I will obliterate every single last mozzy I find. It is a dead mozzy, it just doesn't know it yet.

Back from Greenwich, it's 1:30am....

Hullo out there.

It's now 01:45am, I've not long got back from Greenwich from the Stella Artois Film Festival and had forgotten that I'd left my laptop on, busy downloading some stuff (it's nowhere near finished, and at this rate it's still gonna take another 2 days to download! - I know, geek), so I thought I'd do a quick update to the blog before I go to bed and fall asleep listening to one of my favourite DAB stations "Planet Rock" http://www.planetrock.com/.

Bring it on! Waking up to Alice Cooper in the mornings - what more could a girl want?

Anyway, I digress..... this isn't meant to be a long blog - need to sleep at some point before the delights of work tomorrow, or is that work in 9hrs time?..

So, what can I tell you about the festival? Well, it didn't start off to well as when we got there, we find out we couldn't bring any booze into the sectioned off bit of the park - Grrrrr, so we had an 'beginners' picnic in the park polishing off our Bucksfizz and two bottles of Red Wine with some munchies to hand. But once that was done, we headed into the main part.

80's extravaganza man! Fantastic music - I felt like I was transported back to my childhood back in the Greenfield Community Centre after schoo,l playing uni hoc and running around on my roller boots to Madonna.

Plus we were also treated to the National Symphony Orchestra playing film scores from movies from that decade - everyone was jumping up to 'Ghost Busters'! Then we had the pleasure of 'guilty pleasures' , http://www.guiltypleasures.co.uk - one of the most funny wee act's I've seen in a long while.

Basically it was three scantly clad blokes (who should have covered up a wee bit more!) - doing some fantastic dance routines to 80's music. Absoultly brilliant. Teresa and I went down to the front stage and danced along, plus they also let out these huuuuuuuuge balloons which were ping ponging throught the crowd, with everyone scrambling to punch the balloons!

Afterwards Teresa and I headed back up to our patch of grass to sit down and watch 'Ferris Bueller's Day off' on the big screen. http://www.slightly-bonkers.net/dayoff/ What a classic 80's movie! Sitting in the park, wine, picnic, half naked men and movie. What a perfect Sunday.

Now for the hard part. The movie finished around the back of 11pm. By the time we got down to the DLR stop it was absoultely hoaching. Now bear with me here - you would think that, hello, wait a minute, a couple of thousand people all leaving the park at the same time - perhaps, maybe, perhaps that TfL & the organisers would have had the foresight to perhaps lay on extra transport, or run the tubes a little bit later?

Nooooooo. Stupid girl. What was I thinking? Let's make over 2000 people find new and exciting way's home from Greenwich at 11:30pm on a Sunday night.

All the DLR's were going to Poplar. Does anybody even live there? Nothing was going to Bank as the last Westbound/North bound tubes had all left Canary Wharf by the time we got there. Luckily, living in Stokey with no tube, there is an excellent bus network. So off we jumped off at Canary Wharf, popped onto the 277 bus up to Essex Road, then onto the 73 for 5 more stops to get home.

And that is where I leave you ladies and gentlemen. Home, Bed, Sleep!

Till next time amigos

-S