Last night was lovely. Maija (friend who has married a Mexican guy and is now living in Boston) met me from work and we went for drinks and food and Simon came and joined us when he was allowed to leave work! He was v tired but think he still enjoyed catching up with Maija - I certainly did! Am supposed to be meeting her for lunch today too which will be good.
Off to Bristol tonight to spend until Sunday with my two best university friends. Should be fun. Rachel is getting married later this year so we can spend lots of time discussing that sort of thing which is always fun! Anyway hope the weather cheers up as it is currently just like October or February (my two worst months of the year) and wet and grey and just horrible.
But it is a bank holiday weekend so to some extent it doesnt really matter!
I went back to see my parents last night. There really is nothing like going back to the home you grew up in. It is weird as it becomes increasingly obvious that there are distinct differences in the way my parents conduct their lives from the way i do. But everything there is so familiar that is just all fits together somehow and I really like it! Especially as my Mum makes me a wonderful roast dinner! And Dad re-arranges his plans to take me to the station in the morning. V cool. And I popped round to see my friend Cathryn and her new baby boy Edward. Edward really is gorgeous. All very pleasant. I stayed over with mum and dad as Simon was away with work which meant I had some proper time with them. It was v nice.
My goodness, did it rain last night? I went to the dry cleaners to collect some things and when I came out (without my items- I think they have lost them which is absolutely far from impressive and another story entirely!) the road looked like monsoon season had arrived in London! It really was quite incredible- not sure I have ever seen rain like that in England before. So we went to the pub to drown it all out a bit... So not too much of an exciting evening but really nice to spend some time with my husband before he disappeared away on business (today/ tomorrow) and then away with his mates at the weekend (well I admit that I am going away with mine too!) and we have our friend who now lives in the US coming to stay tomorrow night - which is fantastic and I cant wait to see her. So last bit of quality time for a week or so!
My attendance at the gym has been slipping- partly to do with a migraine i have had for a whole week now. But I need to keep it up so that weight keeps on disappearing off !
It really might be on the way! We have had a lovely few days. I indulged in a free tuk tuk ride (on man-driven wheels ie like a bicycle) from the ferry this am because I had my lap top and a heavy file etc etc. It was really quite a pleasant experience- better than getting far too tired from walking 10 minutes with heavy stuff (not to mention shoes that are still too big even after the insoles being in them!). Does losing weight make your feet smaller I wonder?
I have lost some weight. not loads but some. My wedding and engagement rings are now too big again and my clothes seem to do up without so much of a struggle! So I am quite chuffed about that....
Was working from home again yesterday- by far the better way to get stuff done!
So what news? Edinburgh really is a lovely city. We stayed in a lovely hotel down in Leith which is on the waterfront- rather like the area I live in in London I guess. Quite modern and funky. But clearly most of the charm of the city is the amazing castle and wide streets and wonderful old architecture. It is just lovely. and the people have such top accents and are so friendly and welcoming. I would love to live there! Our meetings were useful and interesting and it is always good to get to know my colleague a bit better on these trips. Knackering though! I have had a migraine since the dreadful flight up there where the turbulence made us feel sick for most of the rest of the day. Still hasnt totally gone away. But at least I am back on home territory in the office again...
Simon and I have a lovely weekend just for the two of us to look forward to (we try to have one of these every now and then). We have stuff to do (of course) but it will be nice just to spend some time together (esp ahead of next week when Simon is away on business mid-week and then we are spending the weekend apart!)...
If anyone hasnt visited the East Midlands, you should. It is gorgeous! We spent the weekend there, seeing various people but mainly Simon's friends from school who are getting married later this year. We had the best pub meal ever and found a gorgeous town to walk round and a river to walk along etc. I admit it is scary that we all enjoyed finding antique shops to go and browse in but we did so that is that ! But catching up with people is our favourite thing to do so we were happy ! Shame about the traffic into London on the way home, but that is the way these things go...
Off to Edinburgh with work later this week so it is all a bit frenetic in the office. But should be good to go somewhere else at the work's expense! (and only for one night or i'd be really complaining!)
I was in work by 8.05 today! This really is quite early for me so lots of 'well dones' would be appropriate... I had a 9am meeting which I had to lead so I needed to read the material in advance! But it all went fine. So I am feeling v virtuous. And neither of my managers are in to know what a good worker I really am! Need to take long lunches to make up for it or something, clearly...
Last night involved me going to the gym (I know- again- and still I dont have the body of a famous model. need to keep on going i guess!) and doing ironing. V exciting life I lead, dont I?!
I can recommend an excellent Tapas bar near Waterloo if anyone fancies going to one! I went there with a friend last night. It is just gorgeous. Really busy but a great atmosphere and wonderful food that isnt too expensive. Really nice to catch up with my friend too. Recently I have adopted the strategy of putting the next date for meeting up with my friends when we are together. this means we get to see more of each other as you dont have that few weeks passing by before you think about ringing them to put a date in and then another few more weeks passing by again! Once a month is enough to see most people and feel that you are still involved in their lives... We were investigating the area near Waterloo last night- it is definitely up and coming. Lots of lovely new bars etc. It was really pleasant. And I got home to find that Simon had been busy tidying and sorting stuff out so it was win/win! (OK so he is out tonight and it is my turn to return the favour but it feels good!)
I posted a really long blog earlier and it seems to have failed. How annoying. it had a link to my friend Lisa's site and everything. I cant be bothered to repeat it all.
But Yorkshire was brilliant. lots of walks and wine and chats and really good fun. Healthy too ! (well it was for me- less so for all the beer-drinkers who insisted on trying every sort of local ale in each pub we stopped in...)
Hope all is well with you all out there. the reason for the gap in entries was that i worked from home on thursday and intended to do a blog from there but access to the internet was totally down...
Actually I am nicking the title of my friend Lisa who has made it back to blogging already after only giving birth a couple of weeks ago. Amazing, as she hasnt been 100% well in the meantime. Welcome back Lisa! The Yorkshire Dales were amazing. We had such a great time. The weather was totally dry and even a bit sunny on some occasions. Our walks really were between pubs so everyone drank far too much and became v de-hydrated - not good to combine too much beer with 10 mile walks up steep hills! Of course i dont drink beer though so I was fine! Lovely to spend time with close friends and great to get to know their really lovely friends as well!
We came back on sunday evening and had yesterday to catch up on boring housey-things. Simon continued with the painting and i cooked, cleaned and ironed! And went to the gym of course!
We managed to pretty much avoid the traffic on the way home and it wasnt too bad on the way there as we left quite late so we feel quite fortunate really.
Sorry for the gap of a few days- i wanted to post one of those clever departure boards but I was working from home on Thursday and didnt have any internet access for some strange reason....
that I get the ferry to work each day? Not sure whether I did or not. I live very close to where I work and it is a great way to travel. Especially on days like today when the Jubilee line and the Northern line are both up the spout and not working properly ! If you live in London it is big news when one line (the J line) announces that there has been a serious failure and that it wont be fixed quickly. Perhaps if it hadnt been completed in a rush in the first place we wouldnt be in this fine mess! However it hasnt affected me in the slightest!
We are off to Yorkshire for the long weekend to go walking in the Dales with some of our friends. Cant wait.
Two more days at work (including today) to get through first though!
So how was your weekend? Up to anything interesting? Mine was a bit non-stop to be honest. The kitchen was completed (looks wonderful!) so we had to spend some time putting it back to rights- ie deciding where to put stuff in the new cupboards etc. Quite a nice task that soon becomes tedious! I went off to meet some friends for lunch in Marlyebone High Street- a previously never discovered part of London for me that is lovely! Really much quieter than the usual nasty parts of the West End and quite classy! We went out in the evening for my sister-in-law's birthday (she introduced me as this to some of her friends- hadnt heard it before applying to me and it sounded weird. but nice!). Then on sunday my parents came along and we went out for lunch and for a lovely walk along the river in London. In addition to this I went to the gym and did flat cleanings. So quite a successful weekend !
Was out for the evening last night in deepest darkest Essex to meet for drinks with my friend. I actually quite like the area she lives and will defend it to anyone who asks- so noone should be offended by my comments! I admit that I dont think the man in the bar was used to people saying 'i dont really like shiraz dont you do any other red wines by the glass' - he offered for me to try their house red! We ended up getting a bottle of something else in the end- it was far nicer ! Anyway I got to bed far too late but I feel totally fine today- so perhaps this new exercise regime is paying off in terms of not feeling too bad after wine!
Kitchen is looking wonderful. Our new tiles are great. I was worried that we had chosen the wrong ones- on the drama 'Passer By' on the other night they had our very kitchen! But they had black tiles. Ours are a lot lighter than that. but they actually work very well and probably lighten up the room more than black tiles would have done.
It gets better and better! Not only does our kitchen now look a bit like a kitchen again- more so each day- but MFI are sending us some money as compensation for all the messing around they have given us. It was much more than I was expecting too so I am v pleased about that (although I havent actually received the cheque yet of course!).
My colleague who I had been covering for is now back in the office so I am hoping to offload some of my workload.
