A Series of (Un)Fortunate(?) Events

So, today was pretty eventful.

1. First up, it's Pete's birthday today. I'm disappointed to hear he's not throwing some wild and lavish bash but that's not the reason I'm not going to see him. We have already made plans to pick up rellies from Purley and take them to Tottenham. A long trip and one we cannot cancel. So, maybe another time Pete...?

2. An email came around saying that Bisi, the long-suffering temp receptionist who faces the sack at the end of the month, has found another job in Homes for Islington (with some colleagues from my college course, funnily enough!) so she will be leaving us shortly.

3. Another email then came around confirming once and for all that my senior is indeed leaving us for Lordship Lane. She said that she knew some of us were glad she was leaving and so was she. I was very very tempted to reply-all on the email and tell her that we were ALL glad she was leaving, not just some!! But I didn't.

4. Dad called me at work and asked if I was coming over today. I said no, I was meaning to come over next Friday, Good Friday, as I'm not here for Easter. He said okay and hung up. Weird...

5. Then, early in the evening, my Dad came over with Pam. It would appear that they're 'thinking' about getting married. But since Pam has a ring and they're telling everyone about it, I'm guessing that 'thinking' is now replaced with 'doing'. They then wanted to know if I was happy for them...

So yeah, eventful day...

Bienvenue d'Angleterre

Reuben's uncle and aunt came over from Mauritius this evening - that is, his real uncle and aunt, not his uncle and aunt twice removed or the cousin of his parents...

Anyway, its the first time they've ever been abroad and Reuben hadn't seen them for eight years since he was last in Mauritius, so we picked up his parents and headed off to the airport. Hugs and air-kissing ensued and everyone spoke French. All evening. I felt like a lemon, catching only the odd word here and there, and by the time I had processed what the words meant, the conversation had already moved on. Wish I'd spent more time listening to Madame Gill now!

And then there were eight

I can't believe Sir Alan voted Jo off in The Apprentice. He loves that woman, only because she's an absolute nutter! The other women can sense her popularity I think, so they bring her into the room at every opportunity in an attempt to get rid of her. From a business point of view, though, she wasn't that much of a threat. She was too hyperactive and unpredictable, not to mention completely unable to sell or haggle for anything. And apparently she trained salespeople for MG Rover (no wonder they collapsed!)...

But I'm sad she went. She was good fun to watch. I was semi-routing for her to win, but now I definitely want a win for Ruth or Paul. Both know about good business practice, get on with everyone, and are straight and direct when it comes to doing their job properly. Next to be voted off? Please be Syed, Samuel or Sharon. Oh, and I promise it's nothing to do with their names beginning with 'S'.

Four things (as requested by Omouse)

Four...

Siblings
1. Anna
2. Heather
3. Christopher
4. Rosemary

Places I've lived
1. Bush Hill Park
2. Enfield
3. Canterbury
4. Cheshunt

US states I've stayed
1. New York
2. California
3. Kansas
4. Pennslyvania

Alcoholic drinks
1. Jack Daniels and Coke
2. Cosmopolitan
3. Strawberry daquiri
4. Sambuca shots

Things I can't live without
1. Coffee
2. Purse
3. Nokia 3330
4. Ka

Games I can play reasonably well
1. Scrabble
2. Monopoly
3. Black Jack
4. Bowling

Fave music at the moment
1. Green Day
2. James Blunt
3. Hard-Fi
4. Kaiser Chiefs

Films I've never seen (oh, the shame!)
1. Goodfellas
2. Alien
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Lawrence of Arabia

Films I should never have paid to see at the cinema
1. Batman and Robin
2. Message in a Bottle
3. Armageddon
4. The Avengers

Cars I love
1. Ford StreetKa
2. Lotus Elan
3. Madza RX8
4. Hyundai Coupé

CDs in my car
1. Green Day - International Superhits
2. Savage Garden - Truly Madly Completely
3. Britney Spears - My Prerogative
4. The Beatles - 1

Dinner Party III

We invited my Dad & co. over for a buffet-style get-together, in hopes of endearing my father a little more to Reuben, and so we have have my other relatives around for dinner or whatever without offending my immediate family.

So there we were: Reuben and myself, plus Dad, Pam, my Nan, Anna and Rosemary, Chris and Cem, and Pam's kids, Lynne and Ian. Somehow we all managed to squeeze into the lounge and have a bit of a laugh. The chocolate fountain was another success, although a lot more was left over this time - about half. It was okay, though it started off a bit awkwardly, not to mention that my Dad said he hadn't received my text so hadn't picked up my grandmother and he had go to back!

But I think it was a success. Reuben wasn't ignored... so that's good. And when my brother left early to go to the pub to meet some mates, Reuben went forward to do the continental 'cheek kissing' as a laugh, and my brother just grabbed him and gave him a full cheek smacker!! Rosemary was horrified and said that I should start to look for a place of my own!! She's all so innocent, the cutie!! So yeah, success I think.

Needed vay-kay

Due to work transfers it's common sense that all my holiday time this year may not get carried over into the next financial year (end of April) so it's best I take it all. However, I have 11 days left, and with day release to college every Wednesday, I haven't been using all my holiday time due to the endless game of catch-up I'm doing at work. So I decided that since I don't have college during the two weeks of the Easter break, I might as well take one of those weeks and have a holiday, unfortunately sans Reuben since he only has about 5 days. Being at home all day (or all week, rather) would bore me so I might as well go away.

Then I had another thought. Instead of taking the holiday alone (which doesn't really appeal to me anyway) I could hook up with a friend or two. And then another thought: Jenny works in a school. Schools have Easter breaks. I should hook up with Jenny 'Stateside' and make use of the brilliant flight deals.

So, whaddya think?! Ooh, and if Mel has the holiday too, that'd be even better!!!

BTW, a very happy birthday to Tara, Heather and Lynne. What on earth happens in June?!

My first ever!

Yep, first ever St V's day when I'm not single. Hoo-yeah! It must be noted that Reuben and I don't 'do' the mushy thing and tend to send people funny cards on their birthdays/anniversaries/etc rather than sentimental ones that make us heave. However, this is a one-off. We did give each other cards but they were funny and cutesy rather than flowery and mush. He got me chocs, while I got him Million Dollar Baby, not romantic but I knew he wanted it and I didn't want to get anything predictable. I did unexpectedly get flowers in the evening though. He's pretty soppy at heart I think... (and he'll probably kill me when/if he reads this!)

BTW, thanx Jenny for the card. Don't feel bad about being single at the mo. In my 25 years of being single I think I'm experienced in these situations, and there's nothing better than a grande white chocolate cappucino with sprinkled vanilla and chocolate dust to make it go away. :) Calorific heaven. :)

Restructuring

My workplace are carrying out yet another restructure but this time it is for an actual purpose! As a service, we are transferring out of the local government and into our own company at arms-length from the Council, known as an Arms Length Management Organisation, or ALMO (or Alamo as Reuben calls it!).

As a result of the restructure, I get a pay rise (not much, but enough!!) and I don't get to be managed by my current senior, but by the surveyors I support. So two good things came out of today. Restructures are usually pesky things involving office moves and title changes. But this one just involves a new ID and being managed by the people I should of been managed by in the first place. Yay!

Hippy bathday

My brother turned 20 today. Finally out of the terrible teens. Only Rosemary to go now...! I didn't get him a pressie because Christmas has only just gone and he's probably bought everything he wanted but didn't get. He says he'll let me know if he thinks of anything.

Birthdays scare me. Especially when they involve my little brother and my sisters. Seeing them grow up and remembering celebrating my birthday at their age makes me realise how old I am and how fast everyone is growing up. I remember my 20th birthday. I was in 2nd year at UKC and Peter and I played pool in Rutherford bar for a couple of hours. Dad came down at the weekend with the siblings and we went to Pizza Hut in Margate. Exciting huh?

Happy birthday Chris. Enjoy it while it lasts!! Heheheheh!!

New Year's party

Yeah, we're thinking up every excuse under the sun to host a party! Since the success of the first one, we decided to hold another party with a different group of people. We were a little bolder than before and put out a bigger spread which included the chocolate fountain as the centrepiece.

We invited Amanda and Steve, Suzy, Bruce and Jason. Suzy didn't know that Bruce and Jason were coming and hasn't seen them in years. Screams of delight ensued when they arrived and the whole party was definitely a louder affair than the last one. The food almost disappeared completely and the chocolate fountain was the highlight of the evening. We did prepare sponge fingers and fruit for dipping (satsumas, apples, strawberries and bananas) but found that people were happy to dip anything in - breadsticks and nacho tortilla chips being the favourites.

Yeah it was kinda wild and weird and I met some more new people along the way. Again it was really late before everyone left and Reuben and I were left with about 200g of solidified chocolate in the fountain base. Considering we melted down 800g of it thats a lot of chocolate consumed within a short space of time! No wonder everyone was bouncing off the walls!!

War of the Worlds

Contains spoilers about the film!!!

I bought Reuben a War of the Worlds DVD for Christmas (among other things!) and we finally sat down tonight to watch it. It was okay but I was a bit disappointed that they just died out by themselves and didn't need some sort of gung-ho American hero in the form of Will Smith. Well, it did have Tom Cruise but he spent the whole film running away or hiding in a basement.
Me: "So they just died by themselves?"
Reuben: "Well, because they were eating and drinking our food. We're dying, what chance have they got?"
"But they weren't really eating food. They were killing people and feeding off their blood."
"Well that's the same."
"I guess aliens have AIDS and bird flu too then...?"

We laughed a lot. I think we're tired... This isn't as funny as I remember it being...

Again...?!

I won Employee of the Month for January. Again.

Yeah, people at work are becoming suspicious since no one has ever won it twice. And I've won it twice. And when it came to the Employee of the Year awards I won for the department.

The bad thing was I was nominated by my line manager, the one person I really do not like very much and am currently undergoing proceedings against (secretly, of course). Reuben thinks it is a way of putting the cat among the pigeons: my manager suspects that her staff are petitioning against her removal so she awards one of them to make it look as if we're lying and she actually does appreciate us. Which is a lie. If you appreciate someone, do you yell and scream at them? Treat them like dirt? Be short and curt with them? All the time? Exactly.

So its hard going. I didn't want to throw the award back in her face although it was tempting (despite it being a bottle of champers). But now everyone thinks I'm her little model employee and I'm being teased about being her bodyguard. Ugh! It's tough.

Happy New Year?

Reuben and I had influenza over the New Year period. We were okay Boxing Day and a bit sniffly on the Wednesday but by Friday evening we were not happy bunnies. Saturday we were determined to stay up until midnight but after that we were bushed and went to bed in a mountain of tissues, coughing and sneezing. Well, Reuben was coughing and sneezing, having the sinus variety. I had a head cold and a stomach bug. My legs felt cotton woolly and all my joints were seizing up.

So neither of us were well and we were sick with different things so we were desperately trying not to cross contaminate our germs. It was bad. Possibly the worst New Years ever. Not as bad as that party I went to in an old converted country house where the ceilings were so low I couldn't stand up... but nearly!

Christmas Day

Oh. My. God.

It is every girl's dream to have that one Christmas when everything is perfect. The Christmas tree lights, the food, the pressies, everything. It is even better when your boyfriend gets you a really cool pressie. Now, I know that men find it hard to buy for women. I admit we are strange creatures who are happy to talk to our girlfriends about every detail of our relationships but woe betide a bloke who does the same thing with his mates. I know.

But then you find that one guy who finds the perfect present. You know what I'm talking about? Oh, yes - the Chocolate Fondue Fountain. So you can imagine my absolute delight in finding out that's exactly what is sitting on the dining table amongst all the wrapping paper I've torn off the box.

Oh. My. God.

I have a Chocolate Fondue Fountain.

On my dining table.

For me.

Complete with two 500g bars of Galaxy and a super-large pack of mini marshmallows.

Holy fucking shit!

It's perfect!!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas is here yet again. Every year I try to prolong the feeling of excitement which usually lasts until about five days before Christmas. This year was no exception. Before it is even here I'm already fed up with the songs, the food, the endless "What do you want for Christmas?" requests. ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!

Anyhow this year will be different. I know, I say that every year. But this year I know it will. For starters, I'm not living at home, meaning that I won't be woken at some ungodly hour of the morning to open 'Father Christmas' presents. (I'm a bit old for it but you have to keep the secret going for the lil' 'uns). So, nice lie in Christmas Day! The second thing is I'm not spending the day with my family. I'm spending it with Reuben's family, which should be a cool gig. I know for one thing it'll be quieter...

We went to my Dad's this evening for a Christmas shingding. Pam told us it was dinner but when we arrived, my mum's sister was there with her family as well and there was a small buffet on the table, enough to feed 10. The house was bursting full of people: my dad, Pam, three sisters, one brother and his g/f, my mum's sister, her husband and their two kids, Pam's two kids, and me and Reuben. See? Too many people in a small space. It was invariably loud, food and drink was littered all over the place, and it was very warm.

We made our excuses about 9:45pm to go to 10pm mass (midnight mass apparently is in Italian and therefore a no-go) and then got home around 11.30pm. I begged Reuben to open one present. "Please, please, please, pretty-please...?" with the puppy-dog eyes. "No" came back the no-nonsense reply. I stuck my bottom lip out and stomped off to bed. I wanna open a pressie dammit! The car boot is full of 'em!! I guess Christmas hasn't changed much at all...

Pre-Xmas meetup

I can't believe its been a month since I last posted! Where does the time go?

Anyway, Reuben and I did our whole 'lets-have-a-party-and-invite-everyone' thing yesterday evening. I invited everyone just over a week in advance and got the usual lame excuses from people who couldn't be bothered to make a bit of effort (how dare I ask people to travel outside of London?!). However, some people did come and it was a very good evening to be had by all! Tara and Peter came, along with Anne, Suzy and Debbie, who unfortunately had to leave early so she could be at a family 'do' by 5pm. So it was a party of six, meaning everyone could sit on the sofas (just about) and the conversation flowed as freely as the food and drink! I got to light candles all over the place and do a nice table centrepiece; Reuben got to be 'nanny' in the kitchen. (Heheheh)

To be honest, we were secretly worried that no-one would turn up at all. It is a bit close to Christmas and all... But it was a great night I think and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We even managed to squeeze a bit of alcohol into the evening and got a bit merry (not much, but I think Reuben was just a teensy bit pissed, considering he went to bed humming some dreadful Christmas song that I won't embarass him over). Just wish I'd taken a photo or two...!

Tagboard

I'm taking Jenny's lead and have taken my tagboard off the page. I agree with her that there are too many spamming posts and not enough regular ones. I couldn't do much with it anyway. I'd sign in but couldn't sign out, so I'd have to close the browser each time. It wouldn't let me ban anyone from posting. Pile of crap really.

Christmas shopping - part 1

Today Reuben and I started a bit of Christmas shopping. The idea is that we spread out the cost over the next few weeks so our bank managers don't have heart attacks. I already have Mel's and Jenny's wrapped and ready to send so we head to the PO, which has decided to change their opening hours so they shut earlier on Saturdays, a stupid move which leaves us standing in the sleet and cold Arctic wind trying to work out when we can come during opening hours. They shut at 12.30pm now so I need an early Saturday morning next week. (Damnit!!)

We hide the pressies under the car seats so they don't get nicked while we're shopping, and browse around posh Fishpools and buy some items in not-so-posh WHSmiths, Argos, and Boots. I got quite a few pressies (okay, eight), and I found all the cards I need too. The best bit? I spent about £50, thanks to special offers and 3 for 2's. I'm dead pleased with myself.

I really wanted to buy a tree and decorations. The problem is I'd want to put it up immediately and it's way too early right now. I'm easily excitable around Christmas. I have this crazy idea about us inviting ALL our mates round at the same time for drinks and snacks. There's no way everyone would fit but I reckon it'd be a right laugh. :)

Near death experience

Reuben and I wanted to spend the morning browsing in Waltham Cross so we parked up in the car park by the post office and paid for a ticket at the P & D machine. I cross the zebra and... suddenly look up to my right and see a Chelsea Tractor inches away from me!!

I quickly back up, holding my hands out as if to stop the car (like thats ever gonna happen!). The woman starts blaring her horn and telling me to watch where I'm going. I'm like, ""Excuse me, ZEBRA CROSSING!" and walk towards the car, visibly upset. Shit, I nearly died!!

These things are lethal death traps. Why on earth does someone want a 4x4 with bull bars for a drive around town? They are very environmentally unfriendly with heavy fuel consumption, not to mention that the bumpers sit higher than all other cars, so if one hit your car, it'd be halfway through the back seat before it stopped.

Chelsea Tractor drivers are now the new Kings of the Road. I feel sorry for the Kensington & Chelsea schoolchildren...

Return of the Jedi - 2004 version

I need to add George Lucas to Mel's list of film-makers we want to kick in the nuts.

Let's get one thing straight: It is okay to digitally remaster old films. It gets rid of the grainy quality, makes it a better viewing experience, and the sound is quality.

However, it is NOT okay to change the actors playing characters. Seriously. At the end of the digitally re-mastered Return of the Jedi, the remastered version of the remastered version (i.e. the re-re-release in 2004) the ghosts of Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi appear. Cool. Only Anakin is being played by Hayden Christenson. Yeah, you heard me, an actor that wasn't (probably) even born when the film originally aired! And for some reason, this really incenses me to the point where I was fuming and did nothing but rant and rave for a good ten minutes about the absurdity of it all. How could they do that?! I can only add that the only film's saving grace was that they kept Alec Guiness and didn't change him for Ewan McGregor. That would really have gotten on my goat...