wagwaan?

Goodbye 2005 - good riddance!

So this is it. The last day of 2005. It has been a funny old year. One I don't particularly want to dwell on. The good thing is 2006 is going to be GREAT!  My brother and SIL and the kids left on Friday, despite a severe weather warning. We were told to expect snow but instead we had rain and wind...  Then, in the afternoon I left work at 4pm and tried to call Wayne when I got home. He sounded harrassed again so I didn't hang around. 10 minutes later the doorbell went, and there he was, on my doorstep!  I really wasn't expecting THAT!  It was lovely. We had a good laugh last night, and then I went up to bed, cos I really don't think I've slept properly in days, what with being in France and then having people stay at ours. I'm a creature of habit, evidently, and need my beauty sleep.   This morning we had a really nice lie-in, and then a fry up for 'brunch' (must have been about 1pm).  Claire had a prescription for antibiotics that I had to go out and get, so I bundled up at around 3.30pm. The nearest pharmacy was just shutting, so I had to walk into town. Superdrug didn't have the antibiotics so I had to walk all the way down to Boots, where, thankfully, I was able to get her meds.  It was quite busy but I wasn't up to window shopping or anything, as the cold that I thought I was coming down with seems to have set in now.

I'm sitting here in front of the fire on Wayne's laptop. He's just been out to get some wine, and is rummaging in the kitchen for glasses. We're having chicken for dinner and then a game of Monopoly is planned!  What an exciting New Year's party :)   I'm happy cos I'm no party gal, so a night in, in front of the fire is just what the doctor ordered.

Next time I log on it will be 2006 and 'Let the good times begin'.  Happy New Year!

Friday funny

There's something about the New Year arriving that makes me want to put my affairs in order.... so I am clearing out the junk on my PC at work (oops, should really be working shouldn't I?). And I came across this again:

You have GOT to listen to this!

My neighbour's son, Michael (the one we went to see at Chipperfield in October or November), is going to be touring with this new musician, Ben Lee Tyler, and you can listen to his music here.  I f that doesn't work, try here.  I love the whole album and think he really is going to be a STAR. Pass it on....

Ever had one of those days?

Well dontcha just know it... back to work today, and everything seemed to be going wrong. Much too boring to go into, but just let's say that the day could only get better. And it did!  Tonight the kids are next door with Michael, jamming - or in the girls' case, just admiring the boys and their prowess on guitar and drums. Oh to be a teenager again. Not!

We're home!

Well, we're home...   The run up to Christmas was such a rush, it's all a bit of a blur. We left very early on Thursday morning to get to Waterloo by 7.30am. I am NOT a morning person, needless to say. Usually I get really stressed out travelling, but this time it was ok.  The train to Paris is only 2 1/2 hours now, and the time flew by. We got to Gare du Nord at lunchtime and the plan was to leave the luggage at Gare St Lazare and then go have lunch at Hippopotamus near the Opéra before checking out the window displays at the Le Printemps and The Galeries Lafayette. Unfortunately, due to the 'Plan Vigipirate', or the French authorities being terrified of terrorists, all left luggage places have been closed down. Our option, therefore, was to find somewhere to have lunch, with our luggage, and then hang around the department stores, with our luggage, until it was time for my sister-in-law Joan to meet us at Gare St Lazare.  Luckily we had wheely-luggage and we found a really nice Brasserie where the garçons were really helpful in finding a corner for our stuff.  We had steack-frites as they call it, and really enjoyed our lunch. 

After a fleeting look at the window displays (I could just feel all the Parisians thinking "why 'as zat madwoman come shopping wiz 'er suitcase??") we gave up, went back to St Lazare, stopping only for a crêpe au Nutella at the marché de Noël, and in desperation called my nephew reverse-charge, asking him to call his mum on her mobile to see if she had finished her shopping. Great minds think alike, as she was in the shops thinking "oh gosh, another 2 hours to kill". So we were able to meet up and get the train to her house before we all collapsed in a heap.  It was so great to see her and her family, but also my darling mum and, on Christmas Eve, my sister Steph too.

Apart from the dishwasher packing up on Christmas Eve, everything went smoothly, and a great time was had by all. I was TOTALLY spoiled (thank you especially to STEPH!), and Claire was too. Her favourite present of all being her iPod from Wayne of course. I made sure she got that last, for fear she would not even LOOK at any other presents!

On Boxing Day my brother and his wife treated us to a delicious meal at their favourite restaurant, before my brother drove us back to Paris to catch our Eurostar. I refused to look at the time because I didn't want to get anxious, but we did get stuck in traffic and eventually we jumped out and caught the metro for the last two stops. This worked really well, because we got to the station in plenty of time for our 5.10pm train home. Of course, London Transport does not run at Christmas and only part of the way on Boxing Day, but we were lucky enough to get a quick connection to Rickmansworth and a taxi home from there, so we were home before 9pm. Tired but happy.

Photos can be seen here

Back online at last!

First of all, thank you to all of you who have expressed concern about my sister's health, in my temporary absence from Typepad! The latest news is that she has been discharged from hospital after 10 days, still having migraines, and that she is resting but slowly getting better. Except that yesterday she phoned my mum to say that she had lost her sense of smell and taste, which is probably linked to her head trauma. I was concerned about that, and asked my mum to get Jackie to inform the consultant neurologist who was looking after in hospital. She has been seen by her GP, but in my (humble) opinion, the consultant whose care she was under  is the best person to advise on this. Just because I work in a hospital, of course :)   But all in all, good news. She obviously won't be travelling to the South of France for Christmas, but will be having a quiet time at home with her husband and youngest son.   

In the meantime, I have been back at work part-time, and had my latest meeting with Occupational Health this morning, where I was still a bit stressed out by recent events and trying to do my job in half the time...  I am going to Paris for Christmas on Thursday, so I have been allowed to work again part-time today and tomorrow, and will come back to full time after the long Christmas weekend (next Mon and Tues being 'Bank Holidays' in England).  I am looking at my options, but the most obvious one at the moment is resigning and going back to work full time in London in order to make a more sensible salary!  I am also working on my e-commerce project, that I hope will eventually make me enough to enable me to work from home.

So glad to be back!  I missed being able to upload photos etc to my diary, so tomorrow I hope to catch up on my news and photos here, before leaving early Thursday. Ahhh, Christmas!

Bad news

I had quite a shock today. My mother phoned this evening and asked if I was sitting down. When she mentioned my brother-in-law's name, I thought the bad news would be about his mother, who has recently been in intensive care and had a pacemaker fitted, but in fact the news was about my oldest sister. She was out shopping today when she collapsed in a shop, went back and walloped her head against some shelving. They called out the emergency services and she was taken to hospital. Her husband, finding she was taking a longer time than expected, phoned her mobile and I believe the hospital staff answered. He was by her side 2 1/2 hours later but she didn't recognise him, which must have been scary. She had a brain scan and we have been told that she had a small stroke (accident cerebral in French).   Another 2 hours later she was talking to her husband, luckily, but then she was airlifted to a larger hospital in Orléans, where they have a neurological unit. She has a large wound on the back of her head and a fractured skull. Obviously, my brother-in-law was deeply shaken, and my mother sounded worried when I spoke to her - a combination of "it shouldn't happen to my child, it should have been me" and the distance (my mother lives in Normandy which is hours away).   What a scare!  All I know is that she is being kept in hospital and I guess we shall know more tomorrow. I hope she is ok. I imagine her alone in hospital, feeling frightened about what is happening to her. Prayers are going out to her tonight.

I embrace my age and looks!

.... well, I'm no Spring chicken, but as I'm usually behind the camera I thought I'd post a pic of me - seeing as how I missed Self Portrait Tuesday hee hee.  Funny how middle age creeps up on you. All of a sudden you catch sight of yourself in a mirror and it's "since when have I had a double chin? When did I turn into my mother? And where did THAT come from????" (the latter on seeing my tum in profile).  I swear in reality I'm only 30 years old and a size 12. Sigh. The only good thing about the exclamations above is that I don't really mind turning into my mother 'cause she is FANTASTIC and THE BEST so it's a compliment.

Every day I pore over the ads on Reed.co.uk and Guardian.co.uk and there are loads and loads of jobs going for experienced PAs. I have sent off dozens of applications but only one agency has so far replied that they have found someone "more suited" to the job.  I called one agency today, and the young lady was very keen for me to email her my cv immediately so she could call back.... That was two hours ago and so far no news.  I am intrigued by job agencies, really I am. Every time I go to sign up somewhere, the "consultants" are all about half my age and I wonder how they even know what to look for in a cv!  No matter. I am very positive at the moment, and I know there is a perfect job out there for me.  It's just a matter of time.

.....

A few hours later, and following a discussion with Wayne, I have done some more sums: there are temp jobs going in London at a rate that is 50% more per hour than I currently earn. 50%!  I see no reason to stay where I am while I search for that elusive "perfect" job. I could resign and start temping and be better off within a couple of months. Why did I not realise this before?   There is even a receptionist job going in the City of London, conversational French required. Salary? £12,000 per annum MORE than I make now.  Nuff said.

Venture!

Cool!  Today we got a parcel in the post that my brother had told me to expect: an early Christmas present.  My niece and her boyfriend had a photo shoot at Venture and to cut a long story short, if they sold a voucher to give to someone else, they got extra pictures worth a lot of money. Luckily my brother thought of us. I have been dying to have a Venture photo shoot and Claire and I are so looking forward to it!  I know we get a small framed photo, and I will be very tempted to get the bigger one, which we won't be able to afford!  I wonder how long they hold onto the photos for? I mean, maybe this time next year I'll be able to get the huge poster sized version..... Yay! Watch this space :)

Self portrait Tuesday

... Well I haven't taken a picture today, so that's a stoopid title for a start.   So as I realised it was Tuesday I tried to sit next to Wayne on the sofa and take one of the two of us, surreptitiously like, but he's no fool - he kept pulling back or sticking his hand out. SO no picture today.

Day 2 back at work. Yeah, it's ok, but I realise I can't do this for ever. Wish the agencies would start calling me back. Maybe I'll call a couple of them tomorrow afternoon instead.

This afternoon Claire and I walked all the way to the College she wants to go to. We found out recently that she should have applied as soon as Open Evening was done!  Oh boy, she was really freaked that there'd be no room left on the photography course she wants. So we had to take the application form in TODAY. She'll be called to interview, at which point she'll show her portfolio of pictures and wax lyrical about photography. Fingers crossed!

My brain's tired. I'm off to bed.