I have fallen down on the job!!!

I have to confess...I like to be the first one to send out Christmas cards. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to know that I am the most efficient of the people I know. Well thanks to my cousin in Scotland this is not the case!!! Drat!

I love Christmas cards...and am always hopeful that I might get them in return - and this year have decided that I will begin culling my list (well next Christmas anyway). I had got into the habbit of sending them out to both my list of friends and my mother's also. The funny thing is that even though I am 35 a lot of them think that I am a kid and therefore send a card to my Dad and include me - along with my brother who has never put a pen to paper on this front - in the salutation. I know one should not be doing things in order to receive something in return - i.e.: I should not be expecting to get a message back just because I am sending one out...but it would be nice to...none-the-less! But I am not holding my breath. I think the thing is that without them sending me a note I don't get to hear the annual gossip about what their kids (who I grew up with) are up to.

This year is my first Christmas boast...er...ahem...Christmas letter. The thing that is good in our family is that we really don't have to work too hard at sharing information which might be off-putting and sound like we are boasting. Thanks to a collection of geniuses (that's us) we are pretty much covered! ;o) Oh and there is the fact that for the most part we are a happy lot! Go US!!!

In other Christmas card news...I would, however, like it if my cousins (who I grew up less than 20 miles away from but never knew) would send me a note at some point. My mother, in the last few years of her life, had managed to make contact with them again, enjoying their company and friendship, and when we met at her funeral they expressed a desire to keep in contact. So - my gauntlet is down...sent the cards this and last year - will see what happens.

But what I was saying above about culling is based on this (well all except for the kissin' the ladies part):

Caledonia - Dougie Maclean

I dont know if you can see, the changes that have come over me
In these last few days, I've been afraid that I might drift away
And I've been tellin' old stories, singing songs
That made me think about where I came from
That's the reason why I seem so far away today.

CHORUS

Oh but let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia your callin' me and im goin' home
But if I should become a stranger
You know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia your everythin I've ever had.


Well I've been moved, and I've kept on movin'
Proved the points that I needed proovin'
Lost the friends I needed loosin'
Found others on the way
And I have kissed the ladies and left them cryin'
Stolen dreams there's no denying
Travelled hard with contience flyin'
Somewhere with the wind

REPEAT CHORUS

Now i'm sitting here, beside the fire
The empty room the forest choir
Flames that couldn't get any higher
They've withered now they're gone
But I'm steady thinking my way is clear,
And I know what I must do tomorrow
When the hands I've shaken and the flown I will dissapear.

REPEAT CHORUS

Christmas...land of discovery: real and imagined

Ah....Christmas...land of the party and the secret meetings between odd pairings of office mates. Yes...drinking too much with your adversary....worthy...or otherwise...and having that heart-to-heart. This always seems like both a good idea and filled with new information that will create a bonding "team" moment - but really only gives them amunition to use against you at an opportune moment when it will cause you the most personal and career damage!

As we get older...and hopefully wiser...it is one of those things we hold to our hearts and remember: the "walk of shame" to our desk on the day following our "great" night out!

I have been in an odd situation for many years prior to moving to the United Kingdom. I have never really attended a work Christmas "do". So when I first began where I work I did not actually know how to get on. I spent a lot of time drinking - as one does when one is still in the college frame of mind - like a savage. I got quite drunk and was my usual self but with a difference. The difference being that the group of people I was with were not using the opportunity to drink themselves full...but they were using it to maneuver and climb and basically reenact various scenes from The Prince or The Art of War.

My first year in the current job...I made an ass of myself by staying at my bosses place and being the last to leave. I must admit that I have never managed to get back into her good books.

So this year I have approached the Christmas party season with a far more professional approach and have decided, in advance, the kind of behaviour appropriate to each of the events I am planning on attending. I have decided that at the party where the big wigs will be in attendance I will be the wing man to my newly instated colleague who I want to make into a friend - and prevent our boss' fumbling and cringe-worthy introductions from happening...and allow her to prevent me from making a shit-faced looser of myself. I have decided that at the luncheon on the Friday which is our section Christmas "do" I will have A glass of beer or two (at the most) or a cider even...but leave it at that...and then later on that day...dance my ass off at the "fun" party everyone is looking forward to where there is a DJ and my husband will be coming to meet me!

Planning...all events which successfully executed cannot do without it!

My next installment - my ire at being piped to the post at being the first to send Christmas cards! Darn that efficient cousin in Scotland!!!

That tingle at the back of your neck...

Weird confession time with a lengthy explanation

I sometimes joke that I have a girly spidy-like sense that let's itself be known by a tingling in the back of my neck and shoulders. This sense would be really great - if only it were to portend the arrival of something important - sadly it is restricted to when I am out shopping or at the hairdresser and I feel that I am being looked after. This is actually sort of sad - for more than the obvious reasons - because it indicates that my usual level of operation is so low that when I get good service or someone is taking care of me I get a euphoric feeling...can you say sad indictment of my experience and of my self-worth?

All this to say that not only did a get a suit (a steal at 155.00 pounds when you throw in a tailored shirt and really good camisol)...but walked out of the shop feeling like a million quid!!! Thank you helpful ladies at Mexx - Covent Garden shop!

P.S.: Those killer shoes I have only ever worn on my wedding anniversary look FAB with the new suit...my man will want to get me a burkha I look so smoking!