Yes, OK, I'm Stressed

You cannot believe how busy the last few days at work have been. Frantic & mind-numbing doesn't even come near.

I've been churning out reports like a mad-woman, while everybody around me seems to be fairly relaxed & not too busy. I realised that I'm totally stressed out when my brain, when I got asked to talk about one of my recent projects in a meeting, went like this

For a good 30 seconds, I didn't know where I was & what that person opposite me was talking about. Thank god the rush of blood to my brain got me going again, and apparently I've turned it all around quite impressively. But that total blank was scary.

And just when I thought I'd finally had some breathing space, my boss agreed to turn around a report that takes about 1 day just getting the data ready in, you guessed it, a day. I almost burst into tears when he told me. Cue another afternoon & morning of intense busy-ness, but I made it. I produced spreadsheets of doom & in the end wrote a nice 2 pager, telling him to please check the data as, honestly, I wasn't able to tell anymore if it made sense or not. I then had to disappear to a meeting he didn't go to coz he was too busy, but one of us had to go.

Turns out he didn't check the data & the next morning we got hit by an email asking us if a certain percentage is right, because it contradicted something we'd run in another system (which does happen, they're two totally different beasts). So we ended up checking everything, and of course it was just that percentage that everybody wanted to talk about that was wrong (I'd run the data on the wrong time period, go me).

I don't make mistakes very often, but it seems that if I make them, I go for the big, important fuck ups.

We managed to correct everything without looking too stupid, but since then I'm beating myself up about it. Because I'm like that.

By Friday afternoon I was so burned out that I spent the last 4 hours at work just bimbling about, running data & trying to look busy. I really couldn't think anymore.

I so need a holiday.

Friday evening was much better. I went into town after work to meet up with John, we went to that lovely vegetarian South Indian (Sagar) I've been to with Arnon & Cara when they were visiting (it even has a VEGAN menu!!!) & caught up on what's been happening in our lives since we've last met. Really good & it helped de-stress me a little.

Today I trekked over to North London for a bit of Burning Man planning. Cue major excitement (Yay! Squee!). We've sent out emails to the RV companies asking for quotes, and once we've secured a vehicle we'll get on to booking flights & hotel rooms. I'm so looking forward to it, it's going to be so much better than last time because this time I'm involved in the planning.

But first I'm off to India in about 5 weeks. Still need to sort out camera & travel insurance, also need to loose some weight because otherwise I won't have anything to wear.

At least in terms of travel, this year is looking a lot more promising than the last :)

The Edges Of The World

This week has been a totally mixed bag. I think I might've messed up my probation *again*, due to sending out a report with data that I thought was ok, but actually it wasn't. Apparently one department had known all day, but had neglected to tell anyone else. I thought the data looked a bit dodgy, but it had been looking like that since a week ago, so decided to send out the report. Big mistake. I don't know if they can really hold me responsible for this, as I honestly didn't know about the missing data logs that were causing problems, but they're probably going to say I should've spotted discrepancies etc. etc.

Due to all of that, I've spent the last 4 days nervous & quite anxious & really not very relaxed. I do like the job, although working with a certain person is hard, stressful & not very fulfilling at the moment. But the rest of his team are nice, I feel like I can move something. I'm very worried that my boss is going to tell me tomorrow that they're not going to make me permanent.

I have decided that, no matter what happens next week or on the 23rd (the official end of my probation), I'm going to try & get certified as a translator. It'll mean studying & exams again, something I thought I had left for good when I started working, but it would also give me a second leg to stand on, career wise. I'm not sure if I'm actually cut out for corporate life.

So, at the moment the light at the end of the tunnel quite possibly could turn out to be a train.

In addition to that, I'm preparing for moving to Acton next weekend. I've packed half of my room, have to sort out actually details for the man&van early next week, the furniture is built & as soon as Lynn has the hoover fixed I'll clean my room to get it ready to move in.

Oh, and I'll get the permanent crown fixed next week as well.

Not sure if that's what they mean when they say when it rains it pours. I'm glad when August is over, no matter which way things go, at least they're settled. This uncertainty is killing me, I just want to sit down & relax & just not have to worry anymore.

To get my mind off things for a little while, I met up with John today to do some culture. We hit the Hayward for Ernesto Neto's "The Edges Of The World", which also featured some Design exhibition which threw up the age-old question what actually should be considered art. We weren't exactly sure, but we were certain that none of the exhibits excited us much. Ernesto Neto, though, was stunning. You could touch it, smell it (cinammon, lavender...), walk through it & over it. It was so much fun!

To round the day off, we ate some al-fresco sushi at SoBa. While all of this didn't totally relax me, it was nice.

My boss is back tomorrow, I'm very apprehensive going to work & having a meeting with him. I so hope that everything turns out alright.

Wish me luck!

Things That Make You Bounce

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It's actually been a full week since I last posted. I blame this on being busy at work & having somewhat of a life.

This week has been a mix of excitement & just staying in at night, which was good. Work is still keeping me on my toes, my boss is now handing over lots of reports I will have to do in future & he really is the King of the Spreadsheet. I'm sure it'll all be easy peasy in a few weeks, but right now I'm struggling through massive tables to update without a clue. It's cool to have full responsibility for a set of channels, to be their point of contact & handle the everyday stuff. My boss has announced that he expects me to take over once I'm up & running with everything. This both scares me to death & really excites me. 

To take my mind off work stuff & because it was planned months ago & I really wanted to go, I went to Camden on Tuesday after work to see Dan Le Sac v. Scroobius Pip rock the Koko. And rock they did! Awesome! Unfortunately they also made me & my friends suffer through two abysmally bad support acts. A girl rapper/shouter that not only had a very annoying voice, but wasn't easy on the eye neither. Thank god Catherine was there to have a little bitching session with me :)

The second support was a fat American guy who also rapped or something & sometime through the gig decided to take half his clothes off. I mean, come on, who wants to see this?

Dan Le Sac & Mr. Scroobius Pip were worth the wait (& it was a very long wait, doors opened at 7pm & they got on stage around 9.30pm), though. Funny, bouncy, great lyrics & awesome show. 

I had plans to meet up with Lynn on Thursday to have a catch up & dinner at Westfield, but she'd only had 2 hours of sleep the night before & wasn't really up for being sociable, so had to cancel. Boo. This freed up my evening somewhat, so I had a brief exercise session (I so loves my trampoline!) & vegged out on the sofa.

Yesterday was Play Time! I ran off at 5.30pm (i.e. on time) from work to the V&A where Playgrounds was about to happen as part of the V&A Late Nights. Having been to the Sandpit last months I sort of knew what to expect & that you had to be there early to get on the lists for games. They did it a bit differently at the V&A, there was no central sign up desk but you had to go to each game individually, which was a bit of a drag as you might show up at one game only to discover it was full already. Managed to meet Benjy & group most people together by simply texting them the room we were in. In the end formed a little group with Benjy, Taynor & later Ellie, which was really cool. We played a Silent Relay, where we were secret agents getting instructions via iPod & had to run around the museum to hand over code words, letters & cameras. It was tons of fun but also a bit stressful as the guys who had planned it had totally underestimated the amount of people crowding the rooms. After that we signed up for Mr Mirrors & had to find our lost identity by solving puzzles & finding people with top hats in rooms that would give us lost emotions. We also played a rather naff version of twister with questions. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening & I think most people (my flatmate being an exception by the looks of it) had fun.

We stayed & played until the ushered us out. Benjy & Ellie went home, me & Taynor went up to Camden to meet up with Minh. It had started raining & Minh had moved from a really quite cosy pub to the World's End (of all venues). Got to meet some of his friends, but due to an incident with a really drunk girl that they had to take care of the evening was cut short & I was on the bus home at midnight.

My legs really hurt today from all the running around, I miraculously have put on almost a kg (I blame that on bingeing on chocolate the last 2 days & my period starting on Monday, I really hope it's not there to last) and I'm somewhat undecided what to do tonight. Emma's celebrating her birthday by having a pub meet & going to a barn dance thing. There's also the option to go to Whirl-Y Gig, but I kinda ruled that out as the next weekend's going to be a mahoosive party. There's also the rather tempting option to just stay in, be boring & watch a DVD. I'm favoring the latter, really, but know that I'll probably get bored halfway through. I think I'll venture over to Manor House for the pub meet & then play it by ear.

My Home Is My Castle

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I really enjoy having the flat all to myself. It feels a bit weird as I'm so used to always having people around me, but all in all it's very, very nice to have space for a change. 

On Saturday I met up with Cherelle at Waterloo & together we took the scenic route (thanks to various tube lines not running) to South Kensington. I had wanted to go back to the V&A for further exploration since having been there for Decode and Cherelle was up for a bit of culture. The V&A is pretty amazing, lots of fashion, theatre & things from lands far far away. We visited a few galleries, the shop, had a little rest outside at the cafe, then went back for more. I very much enjoy letting my brain out to play in this way.

Afterwards I went up to Piccadilly Circus to see whether Lillywhite's would have the rebounder I want. Apparently they're London biggest sports store, but quite frankly, they're just shite. No selection at all, staff that didn't have a clue & they're not very big by my standards. They did have trampolines which I found without any help from anyone in there, but not the one I wanted & it turned out that they're pretty heavy as well, so I decided to opt to buy a bit more locally or get it delivered.

I checked out to new Japan Centre so the trip into town wasn't a complete waste of time. Found some rather tasty (& fairly cheap, all things considered) sushi & spent the tube ride home munching little rolls of rice & fish. I was craving fish like mad, which was a bit disconcerting. I usually assume that any reasonably healthy craving has a reason, I'm not entirely sure why I crave fish (raw salmon, to be precise) occasionally but suspect it's because I don't get enough omega 3 fatty acids. According to my web research there really is no way of getting them in an easy way in a vegan diet (the jury's still out on flaxseed) and I don't mind eating fish, really, so I guess I'll have a chunk of raw salmon every now and again. I've been having tuna & chickpea salad the last 3 evenings & whatever it was I was lacking, I seem to have stocked up supplies now.

On Sunday I woke up rather early for a weekend, around 10am. Argos didn't open until 11am, so I lounged about for a bit, had a lazy breakfast & then walked down the road to claim my mini trampoline. The Reebok rebounder was selling for £30 & was exactly what I wanted. Carrying up the road proved to be somewhat traumatic, the box was heavy & bulky and for some unexplained reason people develop the urge to walk right into you. With arms hurting I made it home & extracted the trampoline. I didn't try it out right away because I still had some grocery shopping to do, but I did have a little bounce later in the afternoon. It's huge fun! It's also harder than one would think, but I have been bouncing every evening now for about 15 minutes & am hoping that I can keep that up once the flatmates are back.

Work has continued to be hectic. My colleagues are still more or less avoiding me, although it seems to be getting better now. The girl that's come back from maternity leave is majorly getting on my nerves now. She's always complaining, about anything & everything. She now feels she's not getting any important work & obviously that can only be because she's got a baby now, not at all because she's been out of the loop for 9 months, is slow & more interested in chatting with everybody around her than doing her job. I don't have to work with her lots as she's got a different manager, but due to a reorganisation of the channels we're covering I will have to help her with one of them. I'm not looking forward to cooperating with her, but I do like the channel and anyway, I'm better than her in the work we do & I'm totally planning on making this job count.

I'm not doing anything exciting this week, but this weekend will hopefully feature another trip to the museum as I want to go to the Darwin Centre with Pinky. Other than that I'm staying in to take full advantage of being able to enjoy some time on my own.

Catching Up, Catching Down

My last update was when?! I think we agree that I've been somewhat busy/preoccupied/stressed out.

But now I'm back, and I'm bringing good news indeed! First of all, I GOT THE JOB! Hooray! It came with lots of kudos from my now-boss & stony silence from my colleague who obviously didn't get it. I'm now working full time on the movies channels & premiere/free cinema tickets were mentioned somewhere along the meeting. Since then I've been working my ass off, apparently they're in the budgeting process & not very organised in their research requirements. But work is still fun, which is surprising as I've been there for what, 4 months now, and the honeymoon period is definitely over by now. Some rough patches were to be expected, but all in all I weirdly enough do kinda enjoy going to work in the morning. Although the commute is a proper drag...

Then there was Planet Angel last weekend. It was a very quiet party, the dancefloors didn't fill up until late & then emptied out pretty quickly again. The music was absolutely banging, though, I danced through the full set of Jurrane & had another boogie to Celladore. None of my friends who aren't working for Angel were there, so I was on my own most of the time. This was a tad strange for a while, but then I made new friends & had a good time. Seeing that there wasn't an afterparty planned I stayed sober the whole night, turns out I do natural highs pretty well, but I did get tired eventually. So I made my way home around 4.30am & collapsed into my cosy bed. Subsequently there was still a lot of weekend left over when I woke up. I took it easy on Saturday, only went down the shops & otherwise lounged about.

On Sunday I went into town as I hadn't been to Oxford Street for ages. I'm not that much in the mood for shopping as I feel too fat, but I thought I have a look around what's up & coming for spring/summer. Turned out, nothing much. Bought a long blue sweater but nothing else.

Wednesday saw me heading to Waterloo after work to meet up with Babs & Stu for dinner at Wagamamas (tasty) & then hook up with a few more people at the IMAX to watch Alice In Wonderland. It was one of the more successful Facebook events I've organised & great to see everyone outside afterparty boundaries. The movie itself was alright, some good ideas, some nice visuals, but overall it felt a bit flat & uninspired. Still, watching 3D stuff in the IMAX is rather awesome.

3 out of 5 disappearingly grinning movie stars, by the way

This weekend will be quiet, I'm staying in tonight & I'm meeting up with Cherelle tomorrow for a bit of culture at the V&A. The flatmates are out for the coming 10 days, which is nice for a change. I'm also trying a one-compliment-a-day approach, in which I make someone (friend/random stranger) an honest compliment. It feels really nice, the world would be such a better place if everybody did it.

It seems I have amazing job, money & bus fu and I'm totally intending on expanding this to being lucky in love. Just watch me!

Stressed Out

 

Things are a bit difficult at the moment.

Woke up yesterday feeling decidedly NOT GREAT. My eyes were swollen & burned, my nose was still blocked and I was tired despite having slept all night. I contemplated calling in sick but then thought that all my ailments are probably down to the party weekend & it's all my fault & I should just get over it. So I got myself out of the house, the train was delayed & the damn shuttle bus was nowhere to be seen, so I took the normal bus that subsequently got overtaken by the shuttle bus.

I was looking forward to a relatively quiet day at work & hiding behind my computer screen, having finished lots of stuff on Friday. Had a brief fight with my new computer at my new desk (which is a bit chilly) and once I had everthing up and running I got hijacked by our boss boss who wanted some analysis. I then spent most of the day running analyses for her while doing the other things I had to do. My colleague spent the day happily chatting away to the colleague that had returned from maternity leave & actually had the nerve to ask me if I could take care of some of her request because she was "busy". I'm still proud of myself that I didn't kill her.

Left work late & stressed, the bus managed to hit a car on the way to the station & it was a surprise that I made it home at all. By the time I got in I really just wanted to go to bed.

Today was slightly better, nothing imploded on me & I think I did reasonably well in the interview. I know my colleague is going for the job as well but I'm far better qualified (maybe even over-qualified) & would hit the ground running. I still feel rough, it definitely is a cold & not the after effects of the party. I blame Stu.

Cooked some batches of creamy spinach spaghetti for the next few lunches & am now snuggled up in front of the TV waiting for The Vampire Diaries to start. I'm aware that I might be feeling slightly more gloomy than necessary & it all will pass. 

My horoscope for this month looks pretty much awesome, by the way. I hope it's right.

The Sun & The Rain

 

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"It's like being molested by a sleeping bag that speaks Comic Sans with little love-hearts over the i's."

"It's not that I mind that my steerage cocoon is a slut, but if I don't get some decent conversation en route, I'll go mad before we arrive."

Charles Stross, Saturn's Children

I'm loving the new book I got. It's beautifully written (although I do have the suspicion I've managed to happen upon sci-fi porn) & so far I've found the story quite engaging. It's definitely the right thing to keep me from having to look at (or talk to) fellow passengers on the train. Not that I mind too much, but they're mostly boring & tend to freak a little if you smile at them.


To no surprise, after that really nice day on Wednesday life threw some minor curveballs... we drowned in rain on Thursday, work was extremely busy & I'm slowly getting fed up with not knowing if I'll get a permanent contract coz I think I'm doing a brilliant job. I probably wouldn't be so pissed off if the pay was any better, but not being able to save money & having to think twice about buying certain stuff annoys me. I know that in some ways I consciously fuqed up the interview at MTV (I didn't really prepare for it, for once) & am now having doubts that maybe that job would've been better than what I've got now. I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't have enjoyed doing sales research again that much, tho.

I didn't go out last night & ended up watching a really bad vampire movie. It wasn't even bad in a good way, it was just plain bad. I still watched Bitten till the bitter end, hoping it would maybe get better, but it just didn't. What a waste of almost 2 hours. The director should be shot, please.

Today, after a nice lie-in until 11am, I trecked over to Camden to spend too much money at Whole Foods, but now got tasty vegan cheeze, tempeh & some other expensive, but presumably tasty snacks. I'm going to Antidote tonight, which I hope is worth the journey to Old Street. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, I really want to go to that vegan restaurant in West Kensington, but people are broke and/or not interested. Maybe I venture down to Oxford Street & have a browse around the shops. Haven't done that for ages, mainly because I still feel too fat to go shopping & have been quite uninspired as to what look I'd want to go for.

Can we have spring now, please?

Cheerfully Psychotic & Dangerously Cute

 

Avatar on Thursday was great, but deserves a separate, less sleep deprived entry. I've got home about an hour ago, after leaving last night (Friday) around 10pm. 

Had a nice lie-in Friday morning, after arriving back home in the early hours still buzzing a little bit from the amazing IMAX Avatar session. The afternoon at work was quiet, had another little chat with my boss who basically let me know that he's put in a good word for me with his boss and suggested I have a talk with her in the next two weeks, because he probably won't be able to influence things as he's taken on a new role within the company. So now there's 2 jobs going in my team, one as SRE and one as manager. Eeeep. Haven't heard back from the interview so am assuming I won't be going for a second round. Still, the mind boggles.

As per my usual routine & after looking forward to Planet Angel for most of January, I couldn't really be bothered to go on the actual night. Had a minor wardrobe crisis, brought on by the 3 kgs gained over Christmas that have simply refused to shift so far. Decided on something pretty low-key, but managed to do my hair rather nice with braids & ponytail. Then listened to uplifting music & dragged myself out of the house & in the broad direction of Vauxhall. Arrived at the venue at 11pm, it wasn't particularly busy, said hi to all the people I know & got sent to the mustard cress & wish workshop. Fraser competently & in his usual random fashion led me through the steps of making a wish, putting it into a test tube, adding damp cotton bud & seeds. Then hope for the best. 

I seem to have done something right, coz a nice young man materialized just minutes after I put the lid on my bright orange test tube (I also got called dangerously cute by a girl I chatted to, not sure if that was related as well). We got chatting & subsequently spent most of the night together. I think I totally confused the dancefloors, hence spent too much time on the wrong one wondering why the music was so shite. It obviously didn't occur to me to check the other one. Anyway, we talked a lot & kissed a little and he invited me over to his for a post-party cuddle & movie. I made my usual speech, pointing out that if he's looking for a ONS he'd have to go look somewhere else, which didn't make him run away (!) but instead point out that he wasn't expecting any of this. More kissing & talking ensued and we left for the Docklands sometime around 5 or so. 

He put on "Inglorious Basterds" (really don't see why that movie is great, it was dead boring), we snuggled up on the couch & had an extend cuddle session. Nothing more. Towards the end of the movie he fell asleep in my arms, I waited until the credits rolled & then got ready to leave. Numbers were exchanged (with a little hint from me that if he wants to see me again he'd probably need it, I really hope it was post-party forgetfulness & doesn't mean he's not interested in me) & I left for the bus to take me to Canary Wharf station. From there I called The Zoo, where everyone was still alive & kicking, so I made my way up north & arrived munching baclava at 9am. The afterparty was in full swing, lots more people there than I'd expected. And it was very good! People stayed alive & talkative, I got hugs & a massage, pizza was ordered in the evening & generally a grand time was had. I even got a text from the gentleman from PA. All in all a very pleasant development after my rather irritating confusion earlier.

I'm pretty tired now, but not sure if I'm tired enough to sleep just yet. Out of experience it's no use to try catch the ZZZs before I'm sleepy, so I'll probably spend some more time on the interwebs until I am. I have all of today (Sunday) to recover, I don't feel too wasted so I'm hoping all will be fine. 

Let's see what the morning brings.

The Lazies

 

I had those grand plans for Saturday. I didn't really execute any of them.

The day started quite good, I woke up around 10am, pottered around, then realised I had to go to the Post Office to post a BookMooch book. Things got a bit hectic as I didn't know when they close, got there in time but was faced with a mahoosive queue which thankfully did move pretty quick. Book posted I ambled towards Holland & Barrett to see if they had a) vanilla soy yoghurt and b) some other tasty stuffs. They had both. I then popped into Superdrug/Boots & went a bit mad shopping for shower gel & nail polish. Ahem. I seem to be entering a girlie phase again, which normally manifests as me wearing a bit more make-up & suddenly develop an interest for decorating my nails. Found lovely (& cheap) pink/purple & black with colourful sparkly bits nail polish.

I then also went to get some groceries & happily skipped back home, thinking I'd got everything done & now only have to make up my mind if I want to hang out with small children or treck down to Clapham. Once home I realised I wasn't up for either. I really just wanted to relax at home, do fuck all & not talk to anyone. No, I wasn't feeling down, depressed or in any other way bad, I just really didn't want to see people. It was when I was trying to decided if I want to write stuff or just surf the webs that our shower drain felt like clogging up. I'd also discovered that I had forgotten essential foodstuffs. Cue another trip up & down Kilburn High Road.

Was afterwards totally convinced that hell is other people & that I need rest. The remainder of the day was spent not doing much, really. Which was very nice.

Sunday had me feeling slightly more sociable, so I bussed over to Camden for a little bit of shopping. Found a decent tutu to go with corset for TG (I hope, I haven't tried the combi yet) & a cosy, half price fleece skirt. Unfortunately I'd run out of cash when I saw a lovely wrap skirt, which obviously means I have to go to the market again soon.

Promised myself to be totally, entirely more fun & a people person next month (February). 

At some point during the weekend I baked a batch of Chai Latte cupcakes, which are tasty, by the way.

The last 2 days were mainly filled with work, a bit of yoga & train delays. And there was an interview. Yesterday, at that music tv channel. I really can't say how it went, I think I said what they wanted to hear, but all in all the atmosphere wasn't as good & friendly as the one I encountered when I met for the interview at my current job. I haven't heard from them so far, which probably isn't a good sign.

Things at work are changing quite rapidly at the moment, one of my colleages has quit, it looks like there might be a re-shuffle in the team etc. Not sure if that's positive or negative for my cause, I don't really want to compete for the senior exec role with my colleague, who's been there a year but has a lot less experience than I have. If the role's there to apply I will go for it, of course. I'm actually starting to feel slightly stressed again, I don't like things being uncertain like that, especially if it's my money we're talking about.

After all that not doing much on the weekend I've been majorly productive tonight. I came home, did some yoga, dyed my hair (cyber purple, which seems to be neither very cyber nor extremely purple, I'm a bit disappointed), had dinner, did laundry & the dishes, made bed (fresh sheets & duvet cover, hmmmm), attempted watching Howl's Moving Castle but so far have failed (damn you, interwebs).

Tomorrow I'll be going to the IMAX to finally watch Avatar (hooray). Friday I'm going to Planet Angel. Might be spending the rest of the weekend at afterparty & recovering. Or maybe something totally different will happen, just to go with the flow.

Oh, I really don't know at the moment.

Frost Flowers

 

It's gone cold (aka below 0 at night)! We don't have snow (yet), but it looks like the temperature is dropping & the news will soon feature "the big freeze" again. I'm hoping to finally get a proper snow day, not that public transport needs a lot to totally break down in the first place but it's been holding up pretty darn well so far. The latest delays were due to, errrr, something else but snow makes a much better excuse.

The week's been quiet news-wise, apart from the unexpected interview action. I haven't decided what to do with the weekend yet, tomorrow I'll either wander over to the Monkey House for little monkeys birthday or treck down to Clapham North for Big Jaco's birthday. Sunday might feature a trip to Camden to find skirt to go with red corset & very gothy boots and quite possibly have a chai latte & some food at Inspiral while being all artsy & hippie reading a book.

Today I've had a little chat with my boss, inspired by a call from another agent letting me know there's a research role at Sky going. Neither  my boss nor his boss knew of it, which is kinda weird. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to test the waters re: going permanent. As suspected my boss is really happy with my work & would want me to stay. On that note I pointed out that I like working there very much and carefully hinted on that IF I get to stay I would expect to at least get a senior exec role, which was fine with him but would not happen right away (meaning I'd be on the somewhat depressing pay for a bit longer should all of this happen). The whole discussion was on a purely hypothetical basis anyway as the girl I'm covering for is still in negotiations to come back part-time & I don't know if they have the budget to have both of us. He promised to have more substantial information by end of next week.

I will definitely do the interview, I would be crazy not to. I will be in real trouble if I end up getting two offers. I'm expecting to get at least one.

Oh, and I've started doing yoga again. Only managed 5 sun salutations A and one sun salutation B last night before collapsing & my arms are hurting quite a lot today. I really want to get back into practice again, it felt so nice once I got beyond the initial everything-hurts-OMG-die period. I also very much want a rebounder, which seems to be the posh name for a mini trampoline. I have this crazy idea that it would fit into my room & the thought of happily bouncing about while getting fit, toned & burning calories is very appealing. Have to go stalk trampolines in the near future.

My head is full of ideas & words at the moment, which unfortunately tend to mainly want to come out when I don't have a computer at hand. Like on the train, or in bed. In my head I've written a million blog entries already, but no one will ever read them coz by the time I get home/am back at my computer they have evaporated & are merely shadows of the brilliant things they were. I'm considering having a notepad with me at all times to catch them words before they escape, but writing by hand feels so alien to me now! I used to have a very pretty handwriting back in the days which seems to have degenerated into some awful scribble over time & neglect. Scary. It probably is a good idea to get more practice in, then. I'll be the crazy old lady frantically scribbling away on the train, if you need me.

Words are delicious.

The Breaking Of The Day

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We've been to the movies.

I've probably mentioned that my expectations for Daybreakers weren't particularly high. After seeing the movie I think I should've started expecting much lower.

It's not that the film is absolutely rubbish. The premise - a virus turns people into vampires, human blood supply is running low after a decade of feeding on them (& subsequently turning them, should they survive), a giant corporation is trying to develop a substitute & is not at all interested in finding a cure but only wants to make more money, some cute scientist finds the cure and is subsequently hunted - was all great, interesting & deserved to be made into a gripping movie. The execution of this premise, however, was shoddy, listless & rushed. There were some great ideas, like day-proof cars & subterranean walkways & human "blood farms" & the cure they came up with, which made it even more of a shame that all this genius didn't translate onto screen.

Don't get me wrong, the film is perfectly watchable. It just leaves you with a stale aftertaste that it could've been so much better if they'd just tried.

2.5 pale bat-winged stars. I hope someone picks this up to do a re-make that does the story justice one day.

On another, much more cheerful note, I've just finished watching 2 back-to-back episodes of Big Bang Theory, which was excellent. It's a bit scary how much the protagonists remind me of my friends & that I get most (maybe not all) of the geek in-jokes. The new season of Skins starts next week. I'm making Thursday my stay in & watch TV day. Well, unless something more exciting is going on.

I've also been contaced by one of my recruitment agents who sent me the job description of a maternity cover at MTV. It sounds interesting enough, I can do what they're looking for, it pays decent money & they're based in central London. Unfortunately I've never gotten as far as first interview with any job I've applied for at MTV so far. My applications just vanished in the sand. Let's see if this one's any different. Anyway, I'm still entirely happy working at Sky & won't abandon them that easily. It has to be worth it & I definitely won't leave before the girl I'm covering for is back. I love my team too much (& Sky is a huge company you don't want to get on wrong terms with) to upset them. If there's any way I can stay after finishing my contract, I probably will.