I'm a sponge for culture ... and booze, so it seems...
What a crazy week it's been! Although I'm home, someone living with me, quite rightly, might point out that I'm treating this place like a hotel. However, despite me leaving my towel in the bath, the chambermaids were quite lax and just left it there to go all mouldy, leaving me with nothing to dry myself with but toilet paper.*
So, you might ask what's been happening in this bunshine life of mine to make it so eventful. Well, lots actually.
On Monday, my colleague and good friend Jeh went for an interview and got the job. I'm over the moon for her and she deserves it. I will be very sorry to see her leave as I love working with her. A very, very small part of me was a bit disappointed that it wasn't me moving on first, but moreover I'm pleased for her. We had a drink or two to celebrate and I was home for the fairly respectable hour of 9pm.
Also that day, I had a good chat with my bosses about my career. I had had some thoughts during my week off about my life and where it was going, and I decided it was time to aim for something a bit better than what I have now. My bosses were great and I think they appreciated that I spoke to them first about my professional restlessness. They suggested speaking to HR to see how they could help me progress. It was a good, constructive chat and it's given me the green light to look for something better. I wouldn't want to leave without them having an inkling that I was a bit unhappy where I was. It also helps in terms of not burning my bridges and getting a good reference from them.
On to Tuesday, and off to the IMAX to watch Harry Potter, with a meal beforehand at Wagamama's to satisfy my lust for noodles! Some of the trailers and the last 20 minutes of the film were in 3D. This involved watching the film with glasses much like Brains out of the Thunderbirds. I soooo wanted to keep them but alas it was not to be as there was a big amnesty at the end. It was really freaky though. There was a sort of Monsters of the Deep trailer and it was as though a shark was swimming right over our heads - aaargh! Really enjoyed the film too, and I came out of the cinema with an elated feeling to the point where I didn't actually nod off to sleep until very late, probably about 1am
One of the other decisions I had come to during my week off was to share my 'funny' with the world. But to do this, I needed the help of other 'funnies' who, at one time or another, had suggested that I write comedy with them. It made sense to introduce them to each other - call it a socio-comedic experiment, if you will. There was me (Ginger Spice), Julian (Gay Spice), Gillian (Actress Spice) and
keithlard (Come On Down The Spice Is Right) and we all got together on a rainy night under a big umbrella in Cargo. The idea was to have a couple of drinks, a chat about what we might find funny followed by a trip to the Comedy Cafe across the road. We knocked the idea of going to the comedy on the head. What was interesting was having four very different brains and all of them hilarious in various ways, getting on so well. Free flowing booze helped, I'm sure, but we all had a grand time. We will have a little get-together in a month's time once we've completed the homework entitled 'a week on cheddar'. Watch this space, or at least a space quite closeby. Bedtime was about 1.30am.
Then Thursday was the night of agency doo. We'd had our Quarterly Review in the afternoon aka Death by Powerpoint, and the company hired out the Metro Club for our agency bands to play. The bar was subsidised for the first couple of hours, so I proceeded to drink white wine. Lots of it. I had a thoroughly good boogie right near the stage, and Arcadia Works were brilliant. Yeah, baby, I still got the moves! I managed not to miss the last tube homeward bound and decided to stop off for a kebab, which is rare for me as I'm normally a cornish pasty girl after a few ales. Talked bollocks to this guy with really big headphones and asked for advice as to how my snack should be prepared for an unexperienced kebab eater such as myself, then took my tired feet back home in a taxi. Don't worry, my body was attached to my feet so don't think you're going to see Footless Me dragging myself along the pavements of Balham, because you won't. Lights off at around 2am for sleeping, with the scent of raw onions in the air.
All this craziness made me very achey and rather delirious on Friday in work. Thankfully Jeh was in much the same frame of mind. Even though we sit opposite each other, we were on MSN for much of the afternoon talking about how my bum has teeth, I have to bend over when I get a check-up at the dentist's and I wasn't looking forward to my root canal. I really didn't want to stay in work any longer than I had to so I popped into my favourite health food shop on Warren Street for one of their yummy curries to take home. I'd forgotten what home looked like, so it felt somewhat strange to be vegging out on the sofa. But it was absolutely lovely! I was battered so got into bed at 10.30pm, which was luxury.
Yesterday was a much more mellow affair. I hooked up with Kit and
keithlard again to go to this really cool photo exhibition 'Sorry We Cannot Connect Your Call'. I was intrigued because oftentimes you get people who have the most mellifluous voices, but turn out to be proper mingers. Because the subjects were photographed where they were comfortable, there's a beauty to seeing the owners of these disembodied voices that pepper our everyday lives. Voice of the Speaking Clock, Brian Cobby, looks like a cuddly old man who I'd love to invite for tea. Then we went for coffee and then a lager before Kit and I made our way back to catsit at Clerkenwell. As it was a very grey day we had comforting tea of mackerel and mash, washed down with polish vodka and Bulmers cider (NB: not in the same glass -yuk). We put the world to rights, watched some DVD and generally chilled out with the cats until the wee small hours. I hung around for a bit this morning for breakfast and a couple of cups of tea before heading home. I had been a bit distracted all morning and had a very strong urge to do something impulsive up to that point, but that gave way to annoyance after missing 2 trains in a row - boo! But got home just in time to make some food and watch Tootsie on the telly. Yay!
Turning in early tonight. This week shouldn't be quite so manic, but one can never tell...
*not true.
So, you might ask what's been happening in this bunshine life of mine to make it so eventful. Well, lots actually.
On Monday, my colleague and good friend Jeh went for an interview and got the job. I'm over the moon for her and she deserves it. I will be very sorry to see her leave as I love working with her. A very, very small part of me was a bit disappointed that it wasn't me moving on first, but moreover I'm pleased for her. We had a drink or two to celebrate and I was home for the fairly respectable hour of 9pm.
Also that day, I had a good chat with my bosses about my career. I had had some thoughts during my week off about my life and where it was going, and I decided it was time to aim for something a bit better than what I have now. My bosses were great and I think they appreciated that I spoke to them first about my professional restlessness. They suggested speaking to HR to see how they could help me progress. It was a good, constructive chat and it's given me the green light to look for something better. I wouldn't want to leave without them having an inkling that I was a bit unhappy where I was. It also helps in terms of not burning my bridges and getting a good reference from them.
On to Tuesday, and off to the IMAX to watch Harry Potter, with a meal beforehand at Wagamama's to satisfy my lust for noodles! Some of the trailers and the last 20 minutes of the film were in 3D. This involved watching the film with glasses much like Brains out of the Thunderbirds. I soooo wanted to keep them but alas it was not to be as there was a big amnesty at the end. It was really freaky though. There was a sort of Monsters of the Deep trailer and it was as though a shark was swimming right over our heads - aaargh! Really enjoyed the film too, and I came out of the cinema with an elated feeling to the point where I didn't actually nod off to sleep until very late, probably about 1am
One of the other decisions I had come to during my week off was to share my 'funny' with the world. But to do this, I needed the help of other 'funnies' who, at one time or another, had suggested that I write comedy with them. It made sense to introduce them to each other - call it a socio-comedic experiment, if you will. There was me (Ginger Spice), Julian (Gay Spice), Gillian (Actress Spice) and
keithlard (Come On Down The Spice Is Right) and we all got together on a rainy night under a big umbrella in Cargo. The idea was to have a couple of drinks, a chat about what we might find funny followed by a trip to the Comedy Cafe across the road. We knocked the idea of going to the comedy on the head. What was interesting was having four very different brains and all of them hilarious in various ways, getting on so well. Free flowing booze helped, I'm sure, but we all had a grand time. We will have a little get-together in a month's time once we've completed the homework entitled 'a week on cheddar'. Watch this space, or at least a space quite closeby. Bedtime was about 1.30am.
Then Thursday was the night of agency doo. We'd had our Quarterly Review in the afternoon aka Death by Powerpoint, and the company hired out the Metro Club for our agency bands to play. The bar was subsidised for the first couple of hours, so I proceeded to drink white wine. Lots of it. I had a thoroughly good boogie right near the stage, and Arcadia Works were brilliant. Yeah, baby, I still got the moves! I managed not to miss the last tube homeward bound and decided to stop off for a kebab, which is rare for me as I'm normally a cornish pasty girl after a few ales. Talked bollocks to this guy with really big headphones and asked for advice as to how my snack should be prepared for an unexperienced kebab eater such as myself, then took my tired feet back home in a taxi. Don't worry, my body was attached to my feet so don't think you're going to see Footless Me dragging myself along the pavements of Balham, because you won't. Lights off at around 2am for sleeping, with the scent of raw onions in the air.
All this craziness made me very achey and rather delirious on Friday in work. Thankfully Jeh was in much the same frame of mind. Even though we sit opposite each other, we were on MSN for much of the afternoon talking about how my bum has teeth, I have to bend over when I get a check-up at the dentist's and I wasn't looking forward to my root canal. I really didn't want to stay in work any longer than I had to so I popped into my favourite health food shop on Warren Street for one of their yummy curries to take home. I'd forgotten what home looked like, so it felt somewhat strange to be vegging out on the sofa. But it was absolutely lovely! I was battered so got into bed at 10.30pm, which was luxury.
Yesterday was a much more mellow affair. I hooked up with Kit and
keithlard again to go to this really cool photo exhibition 'Sorry We Cannot Connect Your Call'. I was intrigued because oftentimes you get people who have the most mellifluous voices, but turn out to be proper mingers. Because the subjects were photographed where they were comfortable, there's a beauty to seeing the owners of these disembodied voices that pepper our everyday lives. Voice of the Speaking Clock, Brian Cobby, looks like a cuddly old man who I'd love to invite for tea. Then we went for coffee and then a lager before Kit and I made our way back to catsit at Clerkenwell. As it was a very grey day we had comforting tea of mackerel and mash, washed down with polish vodka and Bulmers cider (NB: not in the same glass -yuk). We put the world to rights, watched some DVD and generally chilled out with the cats until the wee small hours. I hung around for a bit this morning for breakfast and a couple of cups of tea before heading home. I had been a bit distracted all morning and had a very strong urge to do something impulsive up to that point, but that gave way to annoyance after missing 2 trains in a row - boo! But got home just in time to make some food and watch Tootsie on the telly. Yay!
Turning in early tonight. This week shouldn't be quite so manic, but one can never tell...
*not true.