What a mental time......

So, it's been a while. But hey guys - I've been a very busy, busy, busy girl! And over the next couple of weekends it's going to be more of the same!

So, lets catch up on what I've been up to since the last blog. Well, two Sunday's ago (and the time of the last blog!), it was Stokefest! It was brill, the weather was great, and it was a real chiller out atmosphere.

I liked the bubble machine!

Mark and I bumped into Teresa (who was supposed to be in Sweden at a wedding, but that's another story!). Stokefest photo's can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/baskers1/StokeFest2006

After we did a few hours at Stokefest, we decided to head to Mecado's for some marghareta's! Oh yes! They do the best, and we just happened to time it right with Happy Hour! Oh yeah baby!

James eventually turned up from his rehersal from his play 'Amy's View', and we had a few more marghareta's before getting a wee bit peckish! Hmmm..... where to go? Not to fear, since we were all in a thai mood we decided to head up to the Coach & Horses for thai.

Afterwards, James headed home and Teresa, Mark and I decided to pop into the Auld Shillelagh for a wee night cap.

Ohhhhhhhh. My head hurt the next day!

Week 25th September

Well, starting off the week with a sore head... hmmmm. Haven't done that one before! ;-) I'm trying to remember what I got up to that week!!! Let's see.

I remember, it was one hell of busy week at work - Monday, it was one of those days. Nothing went right at work. Grrrrrr. But at least there was the evening to look forward too! Tim & I headed up to 56 (still one of my favourite resturants of all time!) at Newington Green

and I had a fab meal of duck foie gras for starters, and Ostrich steak for my main. Fucking nice. Wow. I'd eat Ostrich again!!! It's soooooooo tasty! And then it was back home for an early night.

Tuesday

Hell.

That's all I can say. Hell.

Tim had to get up early. I was in work for 7:30 am.

I don't do mornings.

I was dying by 9:30am.

This was going to be a very, very, very , very long day. I had the joys of a COINS workshop for the afternoon which didn't finish until after 5pm. A long day. Heather, Anna & I headed down to Tapsters (Davy's Wine Bar) for a much needed drink after a session of COINS shit!

Hmmm... it was a late one. Home after midnight.

Wednesday

Long day. Feeling very tierd. Home. Sleep.

Thursday

Well I feel a lot better after having a quiet one. It was a hectic day sorting loads of stuff out at work and I ended up going for a quick drink with Sunil and Andrew across the road in St Stephen's Tavern just opposite Big Ben. After that, I was away to head home but Sunil invited me out to his company drinks up at All Bar One on Regents Street.

Big mistake.

Even Joseph was on full strenght pints!

When he started doing push-ups in the middle of the pub, I knew it was time to go!

Me and the two Sunil's decided that hunger was getting the better of us and it was time to go and indulge in some indian food.

But as you can tell by the pictures above, we were all kinda far gone by that point! But the food was good anyway!

Friday

Ouch again I'm afraid.

Head hurting.

At least I'm not in the office today! I head up to the post office to pick up a parcel that had been delivered earlier on in the week. It was an ankle support for my still gammy ankle! I head off with my ankle support in hand down to Church Street to the Blue Legume for breakfast meditarian style!

I get back home, throw clothes into my rucksack and head off down to Euston to catch the train up to blackpool for the Dundee Uni reunion weekend!

Blackpool Weekend

Oh yeah. What a weekend! Gina, John, Joe, Rayne, Malcolm, Amanda, Adrian..... the crew is back together for a weekend of beer, tackyness, flesh and Lionel Vinyal.

Oh yeah Baby!

I jump off the train and meet up with Gina & John for a quick beer before we head to the B&B. After dumping my stuff in the B&B and chillin for a bit, we head to 'Mama's' for a rather bizzarre italian meal with the lights going out every so often....

Full photos of Blackpool can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/baskers1/Blackpool2006

Gina & John, Joe & Rayne

Amanda & Malcolm, Me & Adrian

and we ended up in Lional Vinyal's for cheesy music and cheesy dancing!

Oh Saturday mornings in Blackpool are always fun! :-(.

ouch.

The B&B we were staying in, has a glasgwegian guy running it and he takes great delight in ringing the bell very loudly at 9am in the morning and talking very loudly, knowing that we are all suffering from the night before!

Adrian went out for his usual haircut in Blackpool, then we all headed down to the seafront. And of course, we all have to pop into Coral Island and play the Camel Derby! Gina and I both won at the Camel Derby!

Then it was onwards to the Pleasure beach! There was the steeple chase, Go-carting, Avalanche, Pasage of Terror and Joe tried the Rope climbing thing, but really didn't get far...............

After all of that - the hunger pangs were kicking in and we ventured upstairs to the pleasure beach restuarant. Hmmmmmmmm.

I'm not even going in the whole Baked Potatoe scandal! If you want more info, you'll just have to phone me! Afterwards, it's time for the traditional Oyster session (and no I don't take part!), for Rayne, Joe and John. Even Adrian tried it out this time. And no, I'm not even remotely tempted to try Oysters!

Oh, we are getting old! It's nearly 5pm, and we are all knackered already! Time to head back to the B&B/ f or some R&R before we start the whole beer/food cycle again! We head off for a couple of beers and then onto a chinese we had booked for 8:30pm. We didn't leave the chinese until after midnight! Again, lots of stories to tell, but it wouldn't be fair if I told you everything in a blog ;-)

After we finally left the chinese it was onto an even tackier Karaoke Bar (Nellie Deans), for more beer and very, very bad dancing and way too much old flesh on show! Oh yeah, Blackpool at it's best!

Rob, Amanda & Yvonne

Beer. Bad. Old Tarts. Bad. Bloody good night. You need to ask me about the Kebab shop!

Ouch.

It's Sunday.

Last day.

The usual 'loud' breakfast, that I can't really stomach.

And it's off to the North Pier to blow away the cobwebs and indulge in some last minute tackyness before heading back to Londonium and civilisation.

Monday 2nd Oct

I'm tierd. I'm very tierd. In recovery mode from Blackpool. Work was busy. Very busy. And it wasn't going to finish after work. As you see, I had an 'after hours' meeting with Joseph and Anna talking about the delights of 'Performance Management & Data Quality!

Actually, it was a fab time. We met in the Revolution Bar and after a few Vodka Cocktails later it was onto Nusa Dua for some much needed malaysian food. This was Joseph's first time at Nusa Dua - and by god he loved it!

He sounded like he was almost orgasiming at the taste of the food!

Mark & I were in fits of laughter at this!

And well Anna, well she's well, just Anna!

And after that, I met up with Tim for a quick drink then off home!

Yesterday

Bad. Bad. Day at work. And none of it was to do with me. Mr Morrish sent an escape e-mail about beers and boy did I jump at that! Steve was meeting Stuart in the Feathers, and did I want to come? Hell yeah!

Several Leffe Blonde's, I hear all about Steve's 'holiday' in Croatia or not. Sounds like relgious hell!. A Cab ride home and pizza.

Sleep.

Today

Work. Work. Work. But at least I get a lot done today! I leave work early to go buy some Euro's as I'm flying out to Greece on Friday with Susan. I'm back on Tuesday, but only in the office for two days as I'm flying out to Ireland the next Friday with Teresa & Felicity for a surfing weekend.

Now, take a deep breath........... I'm not surfing! Teresa & Sandra are! Felicity and I will be in a bar drinking beer!

So, as you've guessed I'm going to be a little bit busy for the next couple of weekends and I'm off to James's play tomorrow!

Busy, busy, busy! I'll try and update the blog again as soon as possible!

Okay, Okay - I've let the blog slip a wee bit....

Hi there,

Yes it's been a while, but to be honest, laid up in bed with a gammy ankle meant that I didn't really get up to much so there wasn't really anything to write about.

So since my last post last Tuesday, I stayed home for the rest of the week resting up. By the Thursday I was going stir crazy being stuck in the house and decided to brave the pain and hobble to the pub around the corner from the house, with Felicity just to get out of the house.

Now normally it takes 1 minute to get there....

It took me 5mins.

But hey ho, it was a start!

On the Friday, Tim suggested that we meet up in 56 for a meal, so I managed to hobble to the bus stop and catch the bus (only 1 stop!), and hobble the rest to Newington Green. The meal was lovely, but my ankle was really hurting after that short burst of excercise so it was back off home! Saturday, was spent in the house not getting up to much but I managed to sort out some stuff around the house.

I spent most of Sunday pottering about the house, until at 7:30pm I hear Felicity drunkenly shouting outside demanding I come out to the pub! It's a hard offer to refuse as I'd been stuck in the house for so long

;-)

So, off I hobbled to the Shakey with a rather tipsy Felicity!

Mark and Amber also happened to be in Shakey and joined us for a few drinks.

As the night wore on, the drunken hunger pangs kicked in and Felicity demanded feeding! So off I hobbled next door to the pizza place and ordered a couple of pizza's which the delivered to the pub 10mins later!

I had ordered a Funghi pizza with an extra topping of spicy beef, although that's not what I quite got........... they had run out of mushroom, so decided to give me extra, extra, extra spicy beef....

hmmmm..... interesting. But what the hell, I was also hungry so down it went. I was absoutly stuffed and couldn't manage the last piece. But not to fear! Felicity was here, and still with the drunken hunger pangs after wolfing down her pizza kapour! Only trouble is, is that I had a meat pizza, and Felicity doesn't eat meat.

Now normally, a sober vegetarian wouldn't touch meat - but add alcohol into the equation and you have Felicity picking all the meat off and wolfing down the rest of my pizza!

ahhh......... gotta love those moments!

Monday
So, 1st day back at work and I look like I'm auditioning for a part in a pirate movie with my hobbling around central London!

Oh boy, I'm in pain. This is the furtherst I've traveled for a whole week and it's hard work. Very hard work. My other leg is hurting with the strain of taking all the weight, and jings, those stairs are a killer!

I work through my pile of e-mails that have accumulated over the previous week, and hobble back home, very, very tierd.!

Tueseday
Oh joy.

It's the same hobbling journey into work - but I seem to be managing it a bit better. It's the stairs that are the real killer. And back into meeting, after meeting, after meeting! I'm glad when the day is finally over and I head up to the Crown & Sceptre to meet up with Tim as he'd been at IE all day.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/91/915/Crown_and_Sceptre/Fitzrovia

Not a bad pub, as it has Leffe on tap! What I didn't realise that it was the actually an IE drinks night out.

You can guess what happened next......... pints of Leffe flowed.....

and the drunken hunger pangs kicked in and we all headed off to Gaylords for a curry..... oh joy! I think, Mark, me and Tim where the last to leave the curry house.......

Wednesday
Oh boy.

Ouch.

Well, at least the hangover is helping to detract from the ankle pain.......

It's going to be a long, long, day.

More meetings happen, during that day and it's very, very difficult to stay awake! Oh a hair of the dog is sooooooooooooo required.

I head down to the Feathers with Steve & Paul (the 2 new contractors that I hired), for a few hair of the dogs before I hobble back home.

Thursday
Oh my god!! You are not going to believe this!

A whole day without any meetings scheduled?? What's happened to the world? Can this be true? Am I really meeting free? For the whole entire day????

Woah..........

I was actually able to get some work done! It's a new experience.

Hoorah!

Wait a minute! Why am I celebrating getting work done??? I must be very, very disturbed! I have a quick drink with Tim after work, and head on home, still in shock that I had no meetings that day.

Hobbling a bit less now.

Friday
I had to jinx it didn't I?

Here's me thinking that my ankle was getting better, till I woke up that morning and the bloody thing had all seized up again.

Hmmm... it was a slow hobble back into work. Grumble, grumble, grumble. But on the plus side, I had yet another meeting free day! Hoorah!

I was happy, but Dorian was concentrating like a mad man at his M-pack creation, working furiously to get it finished before we send to New Zealand for building.

Afterwork, i headed down to the Cruddy bar to meet up with Kate & Pierre, bringing Glen, Sunil & Andrew down from work. Oh Pierre is such an angry swede! ;-) but he and Mr Fox soon settled into conversation!

After a while, we were all getting kinda hungry and decided to go for an 'English'!So, off we go.Chimes it is! Glen, Cameron, myself and Pierre jump in a cab and head straight to Chimes for the blandest thing on the menu; http://www.chimes-of-pimlico.co.uk/

The English food is brought to our table and we wolf it all down, helped by a couple of jugs of English cider.

And you can see how the cider had an effect on the Ice cold Swede & Kiwi!

Ahhhh.... it was a fun night. After the meal, the boys wandered down to Victoria to catch the tube home, I was really tierd and decided to get a cab instead as the last thing I wanted to do was spend the next hour doing the bus & tube dance.

Home in 20mins.

Bed.

Sleep.

Today

Oh, it's a day of washing, cleaning, sorting out mail etc etc. I've got to get all this done today as tomorrow is STOKEFEST!!!!!!!

http://www.stokefest.co.uk/

Oh yeah baby.

Hopefully the weather will hold...... but it should be fun day.

My external hard-drive decided to make a weird sound, and poof! It's doesn't work anymore.

Annoying.

All my music & photo's are on that bloody thing. I've e-mailed the shop, and wait to hear back from them, hopefully it's just an internal fuse that's gone, and they can sort that out. I'm not evening entertaining the thought that I've lost all that data.

La la la la la. Not thinking that. La la la la.

As for the rest of today, it's time to hang up the washing, think about getting my tea and maybe settling down to watch 'Shaun of the Dead'.....

A whole world of pain.....

Well my fellow bloggers, blogeees or what ever you call people who read blogs!

Yes it's been a while since I updated my blog, but you now have my fully fledged attention as I am stuck, stranded in my bed with a gammy ankle. If you want to know how I came to sprain my ankle, well I guess you will just have to read on!

Now, when was the last time I updated this thing?... Let's take a quick look.

Oh.

Jings, crivvens and help ma boab. It was the 2nd of September! And it's now, what? the 12th. Uhm okay.... looks like I have a lot to fill you in on!

So here we go.

Sunday 3rd
I met up Glen down in the Virgin Megastore on Regent Street, and saw a god awful poster!

Yes, the 'Hoff' is in London on the 15th of Sept. Arrgggghhhhhhh!Is nowhere safe?? After we made our quick escape, we wandered onto Regent Street for the Spanish Festival. Now as festivals go, this was fairly pants. There wasn't that much there apart from the odd food/beer stand and the rest of them where just handing out brochures etc. Hardely exciting, but here's the most exciting things that I managed to see.....

I don't do crowds, and this place was hoachin! So fled to sanctuary by a shop door way (Ted Baker), so that Glen could make a call...... only for the shops bouncer to tell us to move away because it was 'un-professional'.

Oh, that's like red rag to a bull for me.Now this is why I hate shopping, I hate Oxford Street/Regent Street.

Un-professional?

Un-for-fucking-professional?

I said a few choice words to the bouncer - it's only a fucking shop! And then we departed for Mile End where Glen was going to take me to apparently the best pub in London - the Morgan Arms. http://www.timeout.com/london/bars/reviews/6539.html, although it wasn't serving food, which is what we really needed!

So, we had a beer and waited for Cameron to turn up before we decide where to go for food! It didn't take us long to choose 'Matsu', http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/info_restaurant_7919.html, a japanese place which I rather quiet enjoyed!

And you can see that Glen quite enjoyed his food as well! He wouldn't even look up at the camera...... ;-)

So that was my Sunday. Crap Festival, Good beer and good food!

Monday

So, it was back to work as normal. I had Paul my new contractor starting and had to show him around, getting his login ID all sorted out etc etc, and sort my own stuff out! I was dragged out at lunchtime by Tim up to Denmark Street.... I thought I was being dragged around guitar shops, but no! I was dragged into a slightly different music shop where Tim spent £399 on a MultiTrak Recording Studio MRS-1608, http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan05/articles/zoommrs1608.htm.

We head back to our respective offices, and I have an afternoon of meetings before we meet up at his office and get a taxi back to my place with the 16 track!

At Tim was insistant on watch Daziel & Pascoe at 9pm, that didn't leave much time for food, so we wandered a short 1min walk to the Londesborough; http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/39/3927/Londesborough/Stoke_Newington, for a quick bite to eat.

Okay, £9 for a burger is expensive - but woah - bloody nice burger and fat chips. I think I'll go again at some point.

Tuesday

Off to work (with the 16 track still sitting in my room), it was day HR training for me. Hell.

• I really loathe HR.
• I really, really loathe HR.
• A whole day of HR training.

I must have some really bad, bad karma to deserve this.

Need to escape. After a full day of HR waffle I wander down to the Feathers;

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/11/1195/Feathers/St_James_s

to meet up with the Morrish Monster for a few escapism beers

which were much needed! God, what a day. We had a few, then headed our seperate ways and I popped into the Chinese for some munchies before bed!

Wednesday

It was another long day at work and I had another interview to conduct at 4pm, which went quite well, but meant that I had a mound of paper work to do before I left the building to meet up again with Jim & Joe up in Soho!

I finally made it up there for 6:30, and in time to watch the second half of the Scotland vs Lithunaia game.

Joe and Jim were already there;

and as were Tommy and Norrie:

and then James turned up eventually!

Let see, 5 Glaswegians, 1 Dundonian.... it was almost the White Heather Club! But I'm not sure who was Andy Stewart! With Scotland winning, there was much beer consumed, and even more wine consumed when we headed across the road to Nusa Dua for food.

Thursday

Och ma hied! Ouch.

It's going to be yet another long day. I'm strugglin. I'm as about as useful as a cold cup of coffee

I just about manage to get through the rest of the day when I'm reminded that I've got Robert's leaving drinks to goto in the lightwell area of Treasury at 4pm.

Ouch.

When will this madness end?

It would be rude not to...... afterall, he's spent 18yrs there

So, it was more drinks, plenty of nibbles and Heather, Stuart & Nilesh and I head to Spicy World for a much needed indian.

After that, Stuart Nilesh and I pop into the pub opposite - 'one for the road' boys before we head our seperate ways home.

Friday

Oh thank god I had already arranged to be working from home in anticipation of my new shiny hi-fi arriving!

And that it did my fellow bloggers.

My new shinyness has arrived. It's shiny. Oooooooeeee and I can plug my ipod into it as well.

Och, come on. You know I am a geek.

I set it up, and listened to my music at full blast.....

And that was my Friday really......

Saturday 09 Sept

Waking up on a Saturday without a hangover is a very, very surreal experiance! But, I had things to do on Saturday before I headed down to 'Sarfth Lonodn', for Naomi & John's wedding celebrations.

And as it turned out, just as well I did get up early as I did a washing, had a shower all before Felicity and I headed up to Church street for brunch and margareta's in Mecados

And after a wee dander along Church Street, being dragged into clothes/shoe shops by Felicity it was back home to pack a few things into my rucksack (as I'd arranged to crash at Naomi's & John's after the party), plus fit in the Airbed & pump for John's relatives!

Christ that bag was heavy!

Kate & Matt had just arrived before me and we found seats to sit down and relax in and start attacking the buffet.

Chocolate fountain.

Need I say more?

hehehe.

We adults, were fighting the kids to get close to the chocolate fountain! More and more people arrived and we ended up sitting outside as it was so hot!

Naomi & John Nishi, Sarah & Andy

Kate & Matt Mike & Eloise

Kate, Matt & Tim Mike, Tim & Andy

Naomi & John cutting the cake, and with wee Arron

More pictures of that night can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/baskers1/NaomiAndJohnsWeddingCelebrations

It was a fab night, the was a wee band as well playing some easy listening tiunes and after they had finished there was some other music put on for us to also dance to.

Now this is were it all goes pear shaped for me!

There's me on the dance floor, joogling away - nowt to strenous remember, this is me we are talking about!, when all of a sudden I feel a sharp crack in my left ankle.

woah - and I am welcomed into a whole new world of pain.

Ow!!!!

What's this all about? Sore ankle. Ouch, walking is difficult. But then again, with all the wine consumed that night I didn't think much about it and managed to hobble home to Naomi & John's.

Sunday
I slowly waken from my hangover slumber.

Where am I?

Oh yeah, Naomi & John's house.

okay, head hurts a bit, but that's to be expected after a wedding night. I gently turn over in the bed,

OH MY GOD!!

Ow! Ow! Ow!

Whole world of PAIN!

What the hell?

Then I remember hurting my ankle the night before...... I slowly peel back the covers to reveal a cricket ball for an ankle.

This isn't good.

Naomi drives me to Lewisham hospital to get it checked out. Sunday morning in the A& E waiting room in Lewisham hospital. Oh this is such is good fun. I'm sitting rather painfully with Saturday night's nutter casualties.....

The doctors sends me for an x-ray, cause my ankle is so swollen to rule out any broken bones. I'm very lucky, nothing is broken it's just a bad sprain.

Yeah, like I hadn't figured that one out Sherlock!

I'm told to keep my leg elevated for a few days to help reduce the swelling - which should completely dissappear in 10-12 days, but as for the pain and getting full mobility back, he happily tells me it will be another 6-8 weeks!

Why is he happy?

Okay, so it ain't broken, but 6-8 weeks of this??? I've got Blackpool at the end of the month, and Kerry in Ireland mid October!

I get a lift back to the station, pull into London Bridge and jump..... haha... more like hop/hobble into a cab to take me home. I can barely walk, let alone face the trials of public transport!

I spend the rest of Sunday evening filling up on painkillers with my leg elevated. Knowing that there's no way in hell that I'm going to make it into work for the next few days in this state I order messages on-line from Waitrose for delivery tomorrow.

I aim to suffer in style! Although, not getting a lot of sleep cause I kept walking up as my ankle was throbbing is my idea of style!

Monday
And here we are, still in this world of pain.

I can't walk, I can just about manage to stand up but can't put any weight onto my left leg - unless I want to be blinded by a world of pain..... and as for stairs, well they are just out of the question!

I'm popping painkillers like there's no tomorrow - and well, I don't recall most of yesterday afternoon - it kinda went by in a bit of a haze.

Tim popped in about 8:30, and we got an indian delivered - watched TV and then fell asleep. Well I fell asleep for a little bit... and kept waking up with my ankle throbbing. Even trying to keep it elevated whilst sleeping is proving difficult.

Today
I'm still in that world of pain, and didn't get a great nights sleep.

Although, I am trying to cut down on the painkillers, I hate feeling that groggy. I think the swelling is beginning to go down, but the pain isn't. But I can manage to put a little weight onto my left foot, but only for about 10secs then it's the whole pain thing again.

Hmmm, it is interesting though, as the swelling is going down a little bit, I am beginning to see all these wonderfull colours on my ankle, green, yellow, blue, purple - ooooee bruising! I thought when the bruising came out the pain is supposed to lessen???

I think I need to up the painkillers again and welcome the hazey days....

God I'm soooo bored of daytime TV.