Three days to go...
Wow, it's been a busy week. And it's only Thursday...
On Monday I visited marycloud, and her seven cats in Viikki. She's making a shirt for me, and needed some (many) measurements. It's going to look very cool :) And be very expensive, as tailored clothes are wont to be, but I'm willing to pay that every now and then to get a really unique piece of clothing that fits me perfectly. I'm very petite as it is, and with my corset, it's a nightmare trying to find clothes.
And no, she isn't a scary cat lady. Normally she only has three Siamese cats, but right now she has two kittens from the last litter, and two from the previous one who got returned. Such sweet little creatures! How I wish I could have taken a couple of them home with me... Siamese cats are very affectionate; they all came to greet me in the hallway and all the kittens tried to climb into my lap when I sat on the floor.
Monday morning I skipped half a day from work to check out new possible housing for mother with my father. The place was ideally close to us, and it would be very easy to visit there, but other than that not really suited for mother.
There was nothing even resembling a yard, and mostly rooms for two or three people. Mother gets really upset when she lives now, if she only hears other people's voices through the door to her own room. There's no way she would be able to live with someone. *sigh* We'll see what the social services can come up with next.
On Tuesday N came to pick me up from work (on foot, though), we went to my place and did my semi-annual cleaning. Yes, you read that right. I do this twice a year, and wash the floors once. I am allergic to nothing on God's green Earth ;)
Everything looks so pretty and pristine at the moment, and my only worry is to keep it looking like that at least until Christmas Even. After that, all bets are off. When I'm big and rich, I'll definitely pay someone to come and clean after me once a week. Yup, that's the plan.
Yesterday, that'd be Wednesday, went by in a blur. The days before Christmas are crazy at work. The doorbell keeps ringing every few minutes, and delivery people carry in sack after sack of presents from banks, companies, banking companies... You name it. So far our portfolio managers have received enough wine to fill a swimming pool, cards to paper all the office walls with, chocolate to build a castle of, and then the odd pair of mittens or a portable safe.
By noon it felt like the longest day ever. Fortunately, then it was time for the administrative department Christmas lunch as Raffaello (though 'department' might by pushing it, as there are only seven of us).
The food was delicious, though the proportions were the smallest I've ever seen. My fillet of beef, smoked bacon, wedged potatoes and port wine sauce included a 5x5 cm piece of beef, one tiny slice of bacon, two pieces of tomatoes, five potato wedges and a slap of sauce. This is the first time ever I've exited a restaurant hungry, and I'm very glad it wasn't my 22 euros that went into that meal. Their tiramisu was excellent, but so sweet I simply couldn't finish the last few spoonfuls.
When I got home, I had just enough time to grab some presents, then N came to pick me up (this time with a car and all), and we drove to S and A's place to celebrate exchange gifts and spend some time with them and L and A2 before our families would cruelly tear us apart for Christmas.
N got me a huge present (twice as big as last year's monstrosity--I'm already dreading next year), L got me a tiny present, and S got me half a present (the other part is supposed to arrive before Christmas Eve).
Today is indeed Thursday, and I was supposed to out with father to do the last bit of Christmas shopping. However, our car broke down and he spent five hours at a friend's place fixing it. Needless to say, we'll be doing our shopping tomorrow with the rest of the country. Looking forward to that, really..