Week in Review #28

This week has been…well, tiring.  Not for any particular reason or an excess of activity.  Just tiring.  The birthday blues spilled over from the weekend into the start of the week and left me feeling a little unenthusiastic (yep, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it).  Monday was a lazy day spent at Samson's.  We had breakfast, watched TV, made a chicken curry for lunch and watched The Other Guys (at my request) while eating some of the birthday chocolates he had bought me and a slice each of the yummy chocolate cream-filled sponge cake Dad had made me (yumminess overload).

I returned to work on Tuesday all lacklustre in attitude, asked by my colleague if I had a nice day off as I arrived (What, you mean the day I took off for my birthday?  Oh yes, I did. Not bitter!) and then had a meeting with my line manager and HR that morning about my sickness absences (what fun!)  The highlight of the day was the quiz night a group of us was going to that evening at a bar on campus.  After enthusiasm and cries of “I’m in!” in response to my email about it (I saw a poster about it and thought it sounded like a laugh, so sent an email out asking if people wanted to go), lots of people ended up not coming and instead there was a small group of us (8, with one of our number only coming for a drink or two and leaving before the quiz started).  We got some drinks in, some of us ordered food, and we had a chat before the quiz kicked off.

After much discussion (and round two of the quiz), we named our team ‘Close, But No Cigar’.  There were quite a few film and music questions (the last three ‘questions’ of each round comprised of the quizmasters playing the intros to pop songs, asking us to name the song and artist), as well as the usual random general knowledge and the odd sport trivia thrown in.  There was also a sheet of paper with 22 (partial) faces of famous people, some of their eyes only, others slightly warped to disguise them, which we had to name.  Midway through, we were about third or fourth from the bottom of the table.  When the final scores were totted up, we found to our surprise that we had placed joint second, just 1 ½ points off the top score.  We were all very impressed with ourselves, especially coming second meant we lived up our name.  The quiz cost £1 entry for each team member and the winning team won the money, which ended up being a fairly decent £65.  We didn’t get a prize for our efforts, but basked in the glory of doing much better than expected. 

It was a fun evening and I got to have a chat with our rather handsome new colleague, who has started in Gannet’s team.  He seems a really decent bloke and is possibly the best bachelor we have in our department at the moment, if he is indeed a bachelor.  I need someone to set him up with!  (Why do we try to turn all Cilla Black when we get in a relationship?  This is partly how me and Samson got together, with one of our newly loved-up colleagues Shoulders turning matchmaker in lieu of his previously flirtatious behaviour as a singleton.)  Anyway, he was really friendly and easy to talk to, so I wasn’t surprised to find out he is not from London.  Badges is the same, neither of them have that unfriendly, cynical, worn-down outlook that city natives have or long-term dwellers seem to develop.  I have told her to hold on to her lovely demeanour for as long as possible.

On Wednesday after work, I went to the High St with Samson – so he could buy L.A. Noire for his X-Box (which admittedly, does look like a really good game) and so I could get some food shopping to continue my money saving by bringing lunch with me to work.  I picked up bread rolls, yoghurts, salad, tomatoes, cheese spread, strawberries, nectarines, chicken kievs and macaroni cheese, as well as a couple of drinks.  I wanted to get more, but remembered I would have to carry it home on my own, so had to reign in my enthusiasm.  I realised that other than for the food I needed to get, I didn’t actually have the desire to shop.  Those days of walking when I had no bus money last month must have sunk in.  On my way home, after we had parted ways, I realised I had just missed a train, so I popped into Paperchase to kill a few minutes looking at their lunch box/bag items.  I found a bag that was just what I was looking for – a decent size, square, was insulated, and had a cute pattern, all for just under £10.  This little purchase would be both a payday treat and a practical buy.  I need to be disciplined with making my own lunch and bringing it to work as I can’t afford to spend £5 or more every work day buying something for breakfast on the journey in and then for lunch when I get there.  This way, I thought, I have a little incentive to encourage me.

Thursday seemed pretty much uneventful work wise, but I had planned to have dinner with Lolly that evening for a catch-up, as I hadn’t seen her for a decent amount of time in way too long.  We went to Giraffe, where I have been meaning to take Lolly for ages, as the food there is yumtastic and I knew she would approve.  I was right.  I had their Chicken Rodeo burger (a grilled chicken breast with garlic and herbs, topped with onion rings, mushrooms, cheese, a bit of salad and BBQ sauce) with fries and Lolly had the Chicken Schnitzel Kiev (a grilled and bread crumbed chicken breast with garlic and herb dressing, mashed potato and rocket).  For desert, I had their Chocolate Chunk Brownie (with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce) and Lolly had their Banana Waffle Split (a belgian waffle topped with roasted banana, vanilla ice cream, chocolate & butterscotch sauce).  Most importantly, we had a good catch up, were our usual crazy and silly selves when we get together and had a lovely evening.  I had been feeling tired and a little low, but felt loads better after seeing Lolly.

All in all, not a bad week.  This weekend will hopefully be a better one than the last.