On Pizza, Meetings and Getting A Life

I woke this morning and despite trying to plan my outfit for the day last night (not for vanity, just to save me precious minutes of sleep), still had no idea what to wear. I was reaching for my new black jeans (from eBay, worn once, £5.70, still in the shops for £35 - bargain!) as something comfy and reliable, but something told me I should dress a bit smarter for a change. So I went with a skirt and a cropped jacket (both black), with a long-sleeved dark blue top underneath (looks nicer than it sounds, honest!). I left for work a little late, but in a pretty good mood. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the trees were various beautiful shades of green and all was right with the world. I looked out at the sights I have passed on this route countless times over the past 20+ years and saw them with new eyes. I noticed things I hadn't seen before and new additions to the usual scene. I was actually feeling very appreciative to be alive. That might sound glib, but in my shockingly apathetic mind-state of late, this is progress!

As I got into work, I remembered that I had a meeting scheduled for 11am with an external contact and that it was probably good I had gone with the smarter apparel option. Well done brain, with your subconscious cleverness! The meeting went well, the lady was very nice and things went fairly smoothly, despite the tube being temperamental as usual and getting her here 20 minutes late!

We had payday pizza, a few days late due to some of my colleagues being away, and got a discount due to them getting our order slightly wrong last time. We also got a free box of mini doughnuts. Two large veggie pizzas and 10 chocolate covered mini-doughnuts, all for a bargain £3.60 each. Gangsta.

At 1.30, I had an appointment with occupational health, a referral due to my large number of absences with colds and flu lately. I was feeling nervous, but I don't know why. I seem to have an aversion to, or at least a slight anxiety with health-related appointments. As I sat waiting, I could hear someone on the phone in a nearby office, giving advice that people should "wash their hands," and laughed at everyone's paranoia lately that the first sign of a sniffle must in fact signal the onset of swine flu. The appointment was with a rather talkative but otherwise lovely Irish lady, who told me everything I already know: that I need to improve my diet, eat regularly, try echinacea to ward off colds, look after myself, be more disciplined, do more exercise, get a hobby, etc. etc. Essentially, a dragged-out and slightly nicer way of telling me to "get a life." It was slightly depressing being asked what I do outside of work and not really having that much to report. I am feeling that life is extremely stagnant lately and I desperately need a change. I am restricted in lots of ways by my own "current economic crisis," created by a few years of being extremely irresponsible with money and frivolous spending habits. I am learning to be frugal!

Not a bad day overall by any means, but I am ready to go home. A few points of note:

Best random graffiti of the day: The word 'Donut' scrawled faintly on the outside wall of the posh Lanesborough Hotel. It's a statement, but I'm not sure what it's saying, lol.

Best restrained craving of the day: Going downstairs to the coffee bar to get a banana, seeing they had banoffee pie, reasoning that it contains bananas (ok, ok, along with biscuit, toffee and cream, lol), but being disciplined and going with the banana instead. Which, by the way, was delicious.

Luckiest escape of the day: Going out at lunch to take out some cash for my pizza contribution, I withdrew £10 and arrived back at my desk missing £5. A quick backtrack of my route saw my lone £5 note on the floor outside my office. Lucky I had realised so soon and found it before anyone else had noticed it. There are lots of poor students around, I don't rate my chances of finding it if I'd left it any longer!

Best new trick of the day: Using Blogger's new email posting feature, meaning I can write a blog via email at work, without having the rather obvious Blogger website open. Result! (Or not; it seems to totally mess up your blog formatting...)