Blast From The Past

I arrived home today to find I'd received a message, a bolt out of the blue, from a person from my past: an old boyfriend with whom things had ended somewhat awkwardly (my fault), our relationship and communication coming to an end rather abruptly. I have sometimes wished that we could have at least remained on friendly terms and have often thought of him and wondered how he was and how life was turning out for him.

The message began with "It's been nearly a decade..." and I was astonished to realise that it really has been. 10 whole years have passed since I last heard from him. I had pretty much written off the idea that our paths would ever cross again and hoped that he at least didn't think ill of me. He was a great guy and although we were very young when we met, he was one of those people that I had just connected with, in a way that doesn't happen especially often in life. Imagine my surprise when I read this unexpected message, wondering how I am, hoping that I am well and wishing me all the love and happiness in the world. There was no mention of any negativity from the past and no real suggestion of any further communication in the future. Just a simple message wishing me well and a little touch of nostalgia. He said some wonderful things about me and I was so taken aback, my eyes welled up and I immediately felt the tears start to fall.

It's weird that you can make such an impact on someone early on in life, even after making mistakes, that can transcend time. Maybe we will always be stuck in each other's minds as how we were 10 years ago, when we were younger and carefree, full of lust for life and hope for the future. For a second, I remembered how I was back then and wondered where my positivity, sense of adventure and love for all things fun had gone. I miss that girl and need to get her back.

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...)

Quotes of Note #2

"When you soar like an eagle, you attract a hunter."

In other words: keep your pride down, or you'll get shot down. Just a thought I'm mulling over.

Treat of the Week

...coming into work on a miserable, grey, rainy Monday, feeling a very strong aversion to work and already counting down the hours till home time and the days till the weekend by 10.30am...then realising I had completely forgotten I have booked Friday off work! Four-day week for me! Woo hooski!

Roll on Thursday!

The Week in Review #15

Another week has passed and we're just a week away from another bank holiday weekend (Woo! Another reason I love Spring!) and another 7 days closer to my birth month (Woo! Any excuse for a fun time out!). Life doesn't get much better than that. :o)

Deceptively, this positive mindset of mine doesn't accurately reflect my attitude this week, which was a little moody as usual. But the beautiful sunshine today really lifted my mood and got me feeling all energetic - even though I ashamedly didn't actually go anywhere, other than the corner shop (for baaaad stuff) and the Indian takeaway (which is even closer than the shop). Still, best to write when I'm feeling good, especially if I'd like to keep any readers I may have. :o)

OK, so this week in summary form? Here goes:

• We had a week of fine weather! It was warm, sunny and really quite pleasant. Not quite warm enough for the over-abundance of bare legs that I was subjected to this week, although I did have fun checking out whose legs actually matched their upper bodies for skin colour (one of fake tan's many drawbacks). It was especially not warm enough for the many bare chests (all male, it wasn't quite that scandalous) on display on the lawn outside our office window. My boss jokingly suggested we petition for a dress code for that lawn. Seeing scrawny 19 year-old students with their pale chests out feels slightly wrong and is a tad off-putting when eating lunch.
  
  
• My mini-me colleague was still off work unwell. I'm concerned that she gets better soon but doesn't rush back to work before she's well enough (very easy to do when you're a temp and don't get paid for sick days), but am also concerned that our management seems to think that because we appear to be 'coping' without her, this implies we don't actually need her. *Sigh*
  
  
• My wonderfully vocal colleague, Miss T, was back in the office after having half term off work. It's always fun having her back. She tells us about completely random things, whether we want to know or not, but I love the banter. I also love that she brings us treats into work - this week, extra chocolatey biscuits from M&S.
  
  
• The Mrs broke up with her boyfriend. It was a tough decision in many ways, but one that seems to have been a very sensible. Sometimes, there are things that people can change, but quite often, it's just a case of incompatibility. We exchanged a few emails and had a couple of nice long chats about it. Luckily she can laugh about it, for the most part. Among many other things that just weren't quite right (and should not be repeated here), he had terrible taste in music. The final straw, I tell you! :o)
  
  
• I exchanged quite a few emails with Lolly, which we've not done for a while. We seem to possess our own unique shared vocabulary, made up of words we have either completely made up, or appended with a French/Spanish/Italian-sounding suffix (see 100 Things). She observed that whenever she emails me, spell-check goes utterly haywire. I cracked up because I had noticed exactly the same thing when I email her.
  
  
• I had quite a bad week, relationship-wise, in the sense that the distance was extremely apparent to me this week and rather difficult to cope with. The Boy had a busy week at work. His employer announced 1700 job cuts (that's in addition to hundreds they already cut before Christmas) and so he was working extremely hard and was very busy. It meant we didn't get to talk much while he was at work (which is when we have the majority of our contact due to the time-difference) all week. It's hard to talk about how difficult things are when you have very little contact. Plus, it doesn't feel like the best time to say "I'm not coping too well," when your guy is at work and is so busy he barely has time to have a quick catch-up chat with you. But we spoke about it and I discovered he has been feeling exactly the same. He doesn't always really show when things are getting to him and it's easier for both of us to hide those things because of the distance. At times, it can feel to me like I'm having a much harder time with it than he is, but now I know that's not necessarily true. We had a good, albeit brief chat about it and it felt a lot better to know I'm not in this alone.
  
  
• I made plans with my Uni girlies for another Sunday lunch date in June. I'm really happy we're trying to see more of each other. They are such good fun and we always have a really good time. Even though we were planning for 2 months in advance, we still didn't get a date on the first go!
  
  
• It was my Ma's and my friend Lolly's birthdays on Friday. I called Lolly at work and tried to put on my posh telephone voice to throw her off the scent, but since I did this and managed to fool her last year, she knew it was me straight away this time around. We had a nice chat and we made plans for her to stay over at mine next weekend (to make up for the fact that I couldn't make it to her Friday night birthday jollies). I went to the rents' as usual on Friday night and found my Dad had made Mum a chocolate birthday cake. She was the last to arrive from work (Big Sis got there before me), and as she walked in the front door, I was instructed to light the single candle on her birthday cake. Dad opened the door in dramatic fashion and promptly blew out the match. We had a giggle, Mum opened all her cards, we had dinner, went to a quick talk at church and returned so Mum could open the flowers we'd had delivered and have a bit of cake (at Dad's instruction - "you have to at least taste your cake on your birthday!"). So she did. Here's the proof:
  
  What's that? You can't see? Shall we go in a bit closer?
  
  Oh, there we go! :o)
  
  
• I got paid! You cannot underestimate the joy this brought me. The fact that the joy dwindled as the funds depleted is by-the-by. I spent so much money on pay day (withdrew my tithe in cash, ordered my Mum's birthday present [an external hard drive for all her photos], did a toiletries big-shop, bought some vests and a tee on sale in Gap) that my bank stopped my debit card working and made me talk to fraud prevention over the phone for a £7 purchase in Boots (two bottles of Lucozade Sport and an eye-shadow, if you're wondering). Lol!
  
  
• I'm going through an eBay-obsessed phase again (it comes and goes; it has been a while). I've probably bought more than I should have lately (although all of it is stuff I really wanted and like - when I start buying crap that makes me question my sanity when I receive it, it signals the obsession has reached a very dangerous peak), but I've also been selling quite a lot. I say I have become obsessed because I even dreamt about things I was bidding on last night. It wasn't even abstract or symbolic, the items were the real items I was bidding on and I was panicking I was going to be outbid. Get a grip, woman! For the record, I just won one of the items I dreamt about, with the starting bid! Wo0t! Here's a pic:
  
  
  I probably won't wear it with quite that amount of pout, but hopefully the smug look is optional. :o)
  
  Big Sis played foot model, rather delightfully, for me today. I took pics of her feet wearing the approx. 15 pairs of shoes I am selling. Yes, I said 15, virtually all of which I have worn less than three times each (some not even once) and none of which I have worn in the last year at least. Yes, I have that many shoes. It's a disgrace. Don't even get me started on the unwanted clothes, jewellery and bags I still have to list this week. I haven't even mentioned random nik-naks (old mobile phones, ornaments, soft toys, etc.) I also have to list. I'm going to have to start my ticket-to-New-York fund from these profits...

Can you believe how fast this year is passing? My next Week In Review post will be in May. May, I tell you! How did we get here? I'm thankful for all that happened this week and for the anticipation of the week to come. If nothing else, I only have to count down 5 days till the 3-day weekend of fun and games with Lil' Miss Lolly Lil! Can't wait. I hope you all had a blessed week, or at least had a nice weekend to make up for a not-so-great week. Huge congratulations to all the London marathon runners who probably sweltered in the mostly-blazing sunshine for 26 miles today. Wishing you soothing balm for your many blisters and massages-a-plenty for your poor, aching limbs. Here's hoping for lots of Spring sunshine for the 7 days ahead...

Because I support the underdog beneath the underdog: Watch your back, Susan Boyle!

Or not. 49 year-old Clare Morton lives the dream. A very short dream that lasts, ooh, about 1 minute...



Who knows if Simon can sing, but at least he buzzes in time. "I did notice that the audience thought it was tremendous..." That's one way of putting it, love.

Friday Fill-In #31

1. Apparently there's some sort of financial crisis going on. Hello, welcome to MY world!

2. You can never underestimate the positive impact of a sunny day (especially when you live in grey ol' England).

3. 2009 has just flown by way too quickly so far, and sadly, not because I've been having fun.

4. 2008: if there ever was a year of nothingness, that was it.

5. For too long I've been a miserable cow. Hey, I see you nodding! Cheek!

6. I am not obsessed with mulling over my insecurities; I am not!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner at the rents' for Mama's birthday, tomorrow my plans include lunch at the rents' with some dear friends we've not seen for a couple of months and Sunday, I want to continue with my eBay magic, and hopefully enjoy some sunshine (come on weather, don't let me down)!

Friday Fill-Ins come courtesy of Janet. Click the button to play too!

Birthday Girls

Today is the birthday of two fantastic women: my wonderful friend Lolly Lil and my very own Mother. I was talking to Big Sis yesterday about what we were doing about presents, etc. for Mum.

10 minutes later, we were talking about something different and I said, "...because it's Lolly's birthday tomorrow as well."

Her reply? "As well? Who else's birthday...? Ohh."

I was cracking up, "You know, the Mother? The lady that gave birth to us?" We both giggled.
Classic.

Anyway, I want to wish both ladies a very happy birthday and lots of love, happiness and progression in the year to come. Love you both!

The Day of St. George

Today is the day that William Shakespeare's birthday is traditionally celebrated. I don't even know that it was his actual birthday, but the date may have something to do with the fact that it is also St. George's day. I don't celebrate feast days for 'saints'; to be honest, I just want an excuse for another national holiday. It also makes no sense to me that there is now a St. Patrick's Day parade each year in London, while St. George's day goes almost unnoticed. St. George, the patron saint of England, wasn't even English, but was born in Turkey and died in Palestine. Most people know nothing about him, other than the fact that according to legend, he fought a dragon and won. He's not even unique to this fair ol' land. He's also the patron saint of Portugal, Catalonia, Georgia, Greece, Ethiopia and Palestine, among several other countries and yet more cities.

But my favourite fact of the day is that among many other things, he's also patron saint of chivalry, leprosy and syphillis. How's that for a combination?

Lazy, Hazy Sunday

For the first time in ages, I had some definite plans for activity on a Sunday. Yes, real-life plans that didn't include housework or boring errands. Plans that would necessitate me leaving the house and seeing people, real-life people! I clearly need to get out more.

I was meeting the girlfriends I went to uni with (S and N), for lunch. I've got into a very bad pattern of late nights this past week and couldn't quite shake the pattern on Saturday night, so woke up on Sunday feeling groggy and unable to get my act together as quickly as necessary. I was running late and after checking TFL's website, realised that Transport for London was not on my side, either. No overground trains on the route which would make the journey infinitely quicker. No underground line at all, which is my other alternative. I'd have to get the overground train on the less direct route, which was due at 11.30. I got my stuff together and had a quick chat with Big Sis as I located my shoes and got my coat. Checking the clock, I realised it was 11.33. Oops.

I ran to the station, thinking I had completely missed it, but found that the 11.30 was delayed to 11.40. Delays almost never work in my favour, but perhaps things were looking up? After being randomly greeted on the train platform with an excited "Hello!!" by the cutest little blond-haired 4-year old boy, I texted Big Sis, "Yes! 11.30 train delayed till 11.40. Woo hoo!" 20 mins later, after the 'time expected' on the train updates changed from 11.40 to 11.45, to 11.47, before settling on 'delayed,' I was regretting my premature enthusiasm. So was the little boy.

Did I mention I was meant to meet my friends for lunch at 12.00? Somewhere about 45 minutes away? Eek. I texted the girlies and get one back from N: “I must have misread the email because I thought we were meeting at 12.30 – I’m running late too!” Phew, not just me then. I resorted to plan B/C/X and walked to the bus stop. Which is right near my ex's house. Desperately hoping I wouldn't run into him, I reassured myself that he was very unlikely to be awake at that time (I'm so not joking). Relaxing slightly, I looked up who did I see instead? His parents, just about to turn out of the road I was about to cross. It's weird when you think about something happening and then it happens. I had a quick chat to them and we wished each other a pleasant day. They are such lovely people that, as I walked away, I felt a pang of sadness that I can't be in more contact with them.

I get to the bus stop and wait a good 5 or more minutes. There are two buses I can get, that run from different stops not far from each other. One is faster; one takes the back-street route. I see the slow bus coming down the hill and decide it would be better to get that, than potentially wait a while longer. As I get on the slow bus, I see the fast bus pull up to the other bus stop. Today is just not my day.

I finally make it to a tube station and get a train the nine stops to the station I need, arriving at the café 50 minutes late! Feeling drained after my epic journey and embarrassed at my terrible tardiness as I result, I give my apologies, which my lovely friends accept very graciously. We share big hugs and smiles and I have barely sat down before I am quizzed by S, "So, what happened to the guy in New York??!" We launch into a long conversation, lots of laughs and interjections, with very patient waiters appearing now and then to find we still aren’t ready to order. We catch up on each others’ lives and realise that it has been 18 months since we last met up. N has only recently moved back to London after 6 years in Birmingham. We enjoy our meals (various kinds of pasta) and order dessert and tea. We take it in turns to visit the bathroom and laugh when we return to find that S has rather efficiently already split the bill exactly three ways. We commend ourselves for our clever thinking as both S and I brought vouchers with us entitling us to a free main course (unfortunately we could only use one). We end the day with a photo of the three of us to mark the moment, exactly as we did last time. As we leave and walk to the bus stop, laughing that we are each wearing a Mac (albeit in a different colour each), there is talk of birthday plans on the horizon and barbecues over the summer. We hug and promise to meet up again soon, not leave it more than a year like last time!

I get the bus and take in all the sights as if I was a tourist visiting for the first time. I debate going for a wander to take photos, since the sunshine is so glorious, but feeling the onset of a headache, I decide against it. However, I still find time for a quick spot of window-shopping and people-watching. I get to the station and find there are 20 minutes to wait until my train. Luckily, I need to use the bathroom, so don’t mind. I go to the ones in the small shopping centre above the station – they cost 20p to use instead of the 30p downstairs. Yes I am that cheap. Lol! I mainly want to waste a few extra minutes, so I also pop into a few shops when I’m done. I get home and collect a parcel (new shoes!) from my neighbour that was delivered while I was out. As I drop my stuff indoors, I realise I have unknowingly been carrying around a sweaty bit of brie tied in a plastic bag from lunch at work on Friday. Laughing at how incredibly trampish that is and feeling thankful that the bag was tightly sealed and therefore not giving me or my bag an odeur de fromage, I immediately put it in the bin before it morphs into another life form.

Cheese aside, it has been a good day. I feel happy to be alive and optimistic about all that is to come.

The Week in Review #14

It was a short week. Maybe I should rephrase that. It was a short working week. We had an extended Easter break at work, so I returned on Wednesday and still felt like I worked a full week. I've had way too many late nights and consequently not enough sleep. Yes, it has taken its toll. Just call me The Grumpus! Lol. All in all, it was a good week. Here's a recap:

• The weather has been utterly pantsola of late. The week I was bed-ridden with the 'flu, there was blue sky and blazing sunshine that was unable to enjoy and I had to block out just so I could sleep. Typically, a bank holiday weekend arrives and what happens? Rain and never-ending grey sky. I just couldn't get motivated. The utter dullness of the atmosphere made me want to crawl straight back into bed and stay there. On Sunday, the sun magically appeared at about 5pm and brought my motivation with it. I ended up vacuuming the entire house! Shocking, I know. See what a bit of sunshine can do??!
  
  
• I actually got around to putting some stuff for sale on eBay and made quite a few pennies. However, my original plan of selling stuff and putting the profits towards a holiday seemed to fade as my eBay fever grew. I ended up buying about as much stuff as I'd sold and sort of defeated the object of selling stuff. But at least now I have some stuff I actually want, rather than having unwanted things taking up unneccessary space. Or so I tell myself.

• I cut my ex out of my life. I don't want to explain the details here, but a couple of events that occurred over the weekend made it crystal clear that having him in my life is just not healthy. For either of us. It was sad and quite difficult, but to be honest, it has been a huge relief. I've felt guilty, anxious and a little upset, but I know that's just a temporary part of the grieving process. I know deep down it is absolutely the right thing for us both and I am not going to take any further responsibility for dealing with his difficulty in accepting that. I've done all I can and he's just not my problem any more. *Sigh*
  
  
• My poor work colleague was off work on Wednesday with terrible unidentifiable pelvic pains. She'd been to A&E over the weekend because of them. When she came in looking rather pale and in pain on Thursday, I suggested she might want to go back home. I received messages from her mum on Thursday evening and Friday morning saying she's been admitted to hospital and might have to have an operation. The poor love. I'm worried about her. I do hope she's ok. :o(
  
  
• This week I realised that sometimes, you should lower others' expectations of you or your abilities, for your own sanity if nothing else.
  
  
• I shared some information with my Boy that I had been dreading to. It was an awkward conversation, but the awkwardness was brief and it was a relief to get things of my chest. I think we're closer as a result. Sometimes the truth hurts, but the truth will set you free. His understanding and mature reaction to what I had to say is one of the many reasons I love and respect him.
  
  
• On the way home from work on Wednesday, I walked right past the singer James Morrison at Victoria station. He was walking towards me with a companion and looked completely unassuming, so no-one really noticed him. I recognised him immediately and he caught me looking at him, so I smiled and he smiled back. I texted Lolly: "I just totally walked past and smiled at James Morrison at Victoria station! The end." 30 seconds later, she texted back: "Er...I'm at Victoria station. I didn't see him!" Laughing, we tracked each other down and ended up going for a quick drink at Starbucks (she took pity on my broke ass and treated me). We had reduced each other to hysteria within 5 minutes and were laughing uncontrollably in the way only we do. We had a good old natter and I was home in time for The Apprentice. Paula Jones was fired. I was very disappointed about that, she didn't deserve to go. Especially because she has such fantastic hair, lol. (This pic does not do it justice.)
  
  
• Thursday evening, I went for dinner with Bigger Sis and had a fantastic time. We let off lots of steam, she gave me lots of fantastic advice as usual, and I learnt a little bit more about what makes her tick. It's a weird but quite nice adjustment now I'm getting older and can talk to her more on a level. We had great fun, great food (Turkish, if you're interested, lol), great conversation and fresh mint tea to end it all (I drank it, she ate all the leaves once I'd finished, lol).
  
  
• I made some progress with getting the recognition for my months of working above and beyond my job's responsibilities. Not massive progress, but I've made some enquiries with the necessary people, made use of the sound advice Bigger Sis gave me and have good support from my manager. But what will become of it its yet to be seen. But at least the ball is rolling.
  
  
• I had a surprisingly quiet week at work. There is always lots to be getting on with and I was still busy in many ways, but for now it seems people are still in Easter holiday mode. It makes a change to not feel the panic of impending deadlines, at least temporarily. It's also nice not having an over-abundance of emails to deal with, while being interrupted every half an hour by a phone call or a student at the counter. Watch out, next week will probably have me back in manic mode. Can't wait. Hmm.
  
  
• On the way home to the rents' on Friday, I got caught in the rain. I'm not a fan of umbrellas, but I wore my hooded coat and assured myself that would be sufficient. I had not anticipated having to wait 30 minutes for a bus at a bus-stop without a shelter, in increasingly heavy rain, while cars whizzed past spraying up water from the increasingly wet road. I started to get the shivers and was sodden and miserable by the time the bus arrived. I had to stop myself shouting "FINALLY!" at the driver when it finally arrived. I arrived home with my coat soaked through to my clothes underneath, but was greeted by my Dad with a hot cup of tea waiting on the table. Between that and a quick chat with my Boy, the grumpiness had subsided in about 15 minutes.
  
  
• I stayed up later than I should for the third night in a row. I ended up talking for a good while with my Mum on Friday night, as we did the previous Friday. I love talking to my Mum. Sometimes I don't really think about it, but I really do appreciate that we can have a good old conversation about things. I could probably have done with an early night, but I wouldn't trade these conversations for anything.
  

'Twas not a bad week really. I really need to blog more often, instead of having random bursts of writing energy and coming up with an essay once a week or fortnight. I've been on an unintentional blog hiatus lately. I just haven't found the time or energy and my Google reader currently has 299 unread items. Eek. Granted, many of those items are daily photography blogs that won't take much reading, but if I put it off any longer, I'll need to take a week off work just to catch up! So take this as my apology for not keeping up with y'all and what's going on with you (even though half the bloggers I follow don't even know about it. I'm a lurker mostly, lol).

I'm hoping you all had a good week, one way or the other. It's the weekend! Hurrah! Yippee! Woo hoo! Any other exclamations that you might fancy! Hope you have fun, whatever you get up to.

Sums Up Spring

Have I mentioned that I love Spring? In particular, have I mentioned that I love, love, LOVE magnolias? For me, seeing them start to bloom is my sign that Spring has begun. There's nothing quite like seeing blossom trees in full bloom all over London and I felt exactly the same when I visited NYC in April a few years back. Visiting blogs via Friday Fill-Ins, I found Alicia's blog, A New York City Life and what must be the best photograph of magnolia I have ever seen. I have Alicia's permission to share it with you (thanks, Alicia!), so enjoy! Magnolias, New York and fantastic photography - three of my absolute favourite things, all on one blog. She is from Brooklyn, too (home of one of my favourite people). Stop by and pay her a visit if you get a chance.


Isn't it beautiful? *Sigh* :o)

Friday Fill-In #30

1. Join me in the art of snark.

2. Put a little bit of what you like in your day!

3. Happiness is "to know the Saviour, living a life within His favour, making a change in my behaviour; happiness is the Lord." My Mum used to sing this song when we were little. That's made me feel all warm inside!

4. When in doubt, I play unaware and confused.

5. I'm waiting for the day that's been a long time coming (it's gonna be great!).

6. Talking without thinking is hard to resist, but very unwise.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to being 'home', tomorrow my plans include spiritual refreshment and Sunday, I want to go for lunch with some old friends I've not seen for ages, then do some boring reading up on HR procedures for work!

Friday Fill-Ins come courtesy of Janet. Click the button to play too!

Friday Fill-In #29

Janet had the following to say this week:

'Last week, Anonymous left this comment: "*sighs* The last two of these have sucked royally...I love this thing, but now I'm having to go back in the archives and find ones that aren't totally ridiculous and moronic...". This week, I'm dedicating #1 to Anonymous :-)'

And...here we go!

1. Anonymous...should probably take this a little less seriously. After all, we're not paying for a service; Janet graciously provides a fill-in once a week for our fun - I'm sure she has bigger things to worry about!!!

2. Having a conscience feels like it is a curse sometimes (in the nicest possible way).

3. Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, because you look like you could do with a hug.

4. The extra-long Easter weekend with 4 days off work (not including Saturday or Sunday!), magnolia trees blossoming, and planning for my birthday is what I look forward to most about Spring.

5. Who needs therapy when you have friends, free mobile minutes and dessert?

6. Cadbury's creme eggs and a few caramel eggs and maybe a Lindor egg or two MUST go into the Easter Basket (aka my belly)!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to chilling with the renticles, tomorrow my plans include spending time with my church fam and Sunday, I want to tidy the living room, get more stuff on eBay and revel in the fact that there is no work on Monday!

Happy Easter to those that celebrate it!

Friday Fill-Ins come courtesy of Janet. Click the button to play too!

The Week In Review #13

My week can be mostly summarised in just 3 words: influenza-induced misery. Seriously.

I went to sleep early on Sunday night after feeling gradually more tired all day and then feeling a little sniffle coming on. Knowing I've had quite a few days off work due to illness lately, I really didn't want to have to take any more time off. So I tucked myself in bed by about 10.30pm, thinking that a good night's sleep would keep that sniffle at bay. I was wrong. I proceeded to have the weirdest night's sleep I can remember. Feverish, I woke several times during the night, which is extremely rare for me, and felt slightly more delirious each time. I kept feeling like I was having weird dreams that I couldn't understand and somehow felt that the next time I awoke, the meaning of them would become clear. The meaning of my delirious mind state did indeed become clear when I woke to my alarm at about 7am, aching over every inch of my body and in the throws of a fever. I've no idea where this 'flu even came from. Big Sis and Bro-in-Law have both been in good health. No-one at work has been sneezing their germs all over me. I called into work and made my apologies, trying to ignore the incredulity and minor irritation in my boss' voice. I slept most of the day, eating here and there and trying to drink enough.

Each day since then is pretty much a repeat of Monday. Feeling unable to eat too much solid food, I had to text Big Sis and ask her to bring me some soup home. I've slept more than I can ever remember doing before, but have felt gradually more miserable as the week has gone on. The aching muscles abated a little, but the slight sore throat I started with soon developed into coughs and sneezes, streaming eyes and a runny nose. After three days of this, I thought I was bound to feel better on Thursday and should probably return to work that day. When I woke up on Thursday feeling no better than the day before, and very possibly even worse, I burst into tears. I have never experienced 'flu like this before. I thought I was usually OK at dealing with feeling sick, but man, I could feel I was turning into the patient from hell. In sheer frustration, I called my Mum, who is a nurse, for her medical opinion. "What can I do?!" I asked in desperation, trying to hide my tears, "I don't feel any better at all! I'm fed up of it now!" Mum had some work stuff that she couldn't rearrange, so she offered to come and see me afterwards. 5 minutes later, she called back. "Why don't you come here? Dad is going to come and collect you, then he can look after you. Get your stuff ready!"

As much as one wants to be independent, sometimes, one just wants to be looked after. :o) It was such a relief to be able to rest, knowing that there was someone there to take care of me, to prepare some soup, to make sure I was getting enough fluids and generally helping me to not feel so miserable. By mid-morning on Thursday, I couldn't see me being fighting fit in time for Friday. My interview for that job I have been raving on about was scheduled for Friday morning. I contacted the lady who had notified me of the interview and was able to get a new interview time on Monday. The Professor who heads that department will not be available for the interview panel on Monday, so I am praying that this won't disadvantage me. As I've said before, God has worked things out for me in so many ways before now, that I am just having to trust that if He wants me to have this job, He will work it out for me.

It's now Friday evening. To be honest, I don't feel a whole lot better than I did at the beginning of the week. I have never felt so miserable with such an everyday sickness before! I am just praying that I will be well enough by Monday to do well at my interview. To make matters worse, I had been summoned to meet my best friend's new boyfriend tomorrow night and am just not well enough to go. I was really looking forward to it. I wanted to meet him, I haven't seen my friend for what feels like ages and I haven't had an evening out for a good while. Being ill sucks!

As much as I usually love sleep, 5 days of enforced rest has not been my favourite way to spend a week. Perhaps my body is sending me a clear message that I need to look after myself better, and that if I won't, it will incapacitate me so that I have no other choice! I hope the past week has been kinder to you. Even if it hasn't, I hope there were experiences you could learn from. If not? Don't worry, at least the week is over now. :o)

Friday Fill-In #28

And...here we go!

1. Angel or not, I will fly away.

2. No, you can't have me any way you want me.

3. As my mother used to say, you're full of bad influence, stay away from my children!!! (I'm so kidding, lol.)

4. I smell absolutely delicious after I'm done working out or doing something strenuous.

5. Even in the most crowded of rooms, I can find a place to hide.

6. A day without dessert is a day fraught with peril.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a nice hot shower and then going to sleep, tomorrow my plans include getting better and Sunday, I want to finally be rid of the 'flu and counting up the pennies after some successful eBay sales!


Friday Fill-Ins come courtesy of Janet. Click the button to play too!