At long last

Having been reprimanded by the blogging community for dropping off the face of le cyberplanet, I have kicked arse in to gear and got back on the blogosphere, however, now I'm here, am struggling to sort the random events of the last few weeks in to anything resembling order or coherence.

The seasonal season was middling, at best. My cousin got married, which was random but lovely, and it is always good to see people you love really happy. It was sodding cold though, and I was rather stressed out by sudden immersement back in the UK, complete with trains, rain, 5hours of daylight, the cost of everything and family politics. Had a lovely day or so walking round london with Lakshmi, including bumping in to Jodi/Dan and later Mr Etheridge, which fully Dubaiized my London experience, a novel yet strangely pleasing phenomenon. Cambridge was a bit greyer, and apart from a lovely punt down the river listening to ghost tales and drinking mulled wine complete with brollies, hot water bottles and blankets, it was rather uneventful. NYE we had a nursery rhyme sing off. Enough said. I did get to spend time with my eldest cousin's daughter, who is now 10, and a complete character. She has opinions on everything, and is reaching the age where you realize that you are an individual, and quite like it that way, yet everyone else is striving for anonymity. She told me that she's looking forward to going up to secondary school as there may be more people there to solve her 'friend crisis' as the girls she knows are getting a bit silly and only like to gossip and be nasty. I felt very old, until she then asked me what stage of school I was in, and when I tried to explain that I had finished, she asked if I'd ever thought of babysitting. As careers advice goes, it was probably some of the most honest advice, and made me wonder how I would explain PR to this worldly wise yet so innocent and trusting young lady having a terribly serious conversation with me on the couch. As her mother used to do the same thing for me when I was younger, though the age gap is not quite so dramatic, it felt quite cyclical to be able to help Thea. That's when you miss having family around. Certainly not when they are lustily belting out nursery rhymes at 11.15 on new years eve. So it all balanced quite nicely.

On the return home, I properly moved in to the new pad - well, I say that, but I still have boxes left at Mum&Dad's to pick up at some point. It is coming together, and I'm comfortable there - and very happy in the knowledge that when I finish this post and saunter out of the office, my comfy sofa is but a five minute walk away. Rather a wonderful feeling still being at home at 9am and knowing I'm not really late yet. Late is at 9.25 when I'm still in bed, and I could still make it in for 10. Not that I did that, though I did join an agency girls night out last night... somehow managed to confine myself to vodka, and take myself home at 1am... unheard of, perhaps I am getting old! I was certainly the oldest round the table last night at the bar, which was odd, it seems most of my colleagues are 25. Hooray. Hmm. Interesting chat though, and met a woman with the most plastic surgery I have ever seen - not a line on her face, cheekbone implants, eye lifts, nose reduction, lipo all over .... probably more but I'm not expert enough. Problem was, it hadn't been done that brilliantly, so talking to her was a challenging experience - I kept having to try to remember to listen and not just study the angles of her face. Evil I know. But very distracting. Fortunately when I came in today I found that Sofeena had the same issue when talking to her, so I wasn't the only one.

Not much else to report, work ramping up which is good, should be doing the beach polo event alongside our islamic finance work, and a big thing launching on sunday... nice variety! Desperately in need of new hires, and had some recruitment blokey in today giving us the spin - just like you should never sell to a salesman, never try and spin to a group of PR women. It doesn't work.

Home now, to stare at my wardrobe, wonder what is missing, and attempt to look amazing for H's boss' birthday dinner tonight at Budda Bar. This will take approx five seconds before I give up, plump for great jeans, great heels and average top, slap on some mak-ee-age and jobs a goodun. Or something. Love to anyone who passes by, and may 2007 bring you legwarmers, lentil soup and lots of love. Or other more useful things, your call. xx