Mission to Magdalene

Lunch time again at work. Alcina's not here which is nice. It's also not that busy, although I've loads of projects to finish and send off this afternoon, including one which is 20 different Languages which should be fun.
I've been eating peanuts and they've given me a headache. Must put them away! I didn't eat my fruit thismorning, better wait a bit or my tum will be sore. Yum! my yoghurt, I can eat that!
The cycle to work is definitely getting easier, once I've had the granny bike serviced this week I'm going to start cycling in on that, the wheels are bigger and I'm in no danger of needing to fold it here, so I might as well use the big one. We went down Oxford street on Sunday to spend our M&S vouchers, Toby got 3 ties and I got a bra and some tights. We came out side and I had a flat, the inner tube broke at the valve. So much for going to the trocadero to play dance wassisname one the pads. We walked back home via Waggamammas next to the British Museum, had a 2 for 1 meal there then as we left I saw 3 people deciding what to eat on the main road, so I gave them my second voucher. Good eh?
I left the granny bike outside Bikefix, I'm going back there to take it into the shop tonight. I hope it's still there, it should be, the lock's big enough. I was accompanied by a strange rasta fellow for some of the walk there. He was strange because he was on a bike and he stopped and cycled with me walking all the way from the bus stop on the top of Thobalds Road to Bike fix. He seemed to be kind of chatting me up but I couldn't work out what he wanted other than to accompany me. I held it together despite visions of him stealing the bike, my bag or attacking me. As soon as I got to Bikefix and locked up my bike, he carried on without me and cycled off. No harm done. I was polite to him and tried not to appear like I was a bit scared, I'm not sure how good I was but I certainly didn't come across as vunerable.
Anyway, we didn't make it to St Paul's afterall and Monday I spent most of the day on my lap top downloading cartoons and games from www.i-am-bored.com and I was. Toby had to finish his CV and homework for TLP so I was 'supporting him' by not distracting him. I should have gone down the gym really but there you go.
Toby's applied to a whole handfull of job's thanks to his spanking new CV and has already had some response. New adventure this way comes...

It's just started raining, I don't care I'm at my desk even though it's lunchtime. I seem to spend most of my day in front of a computer either at work, at Landmark or at home. Yesterday, after work I cycled over Waterloo Bridge (my favorite view of London) up to sainsburys Holborn for a chicken thai wrap, apple turnover (on offer) and a 3 pack of kinder surprises - one for Melanie, and I've still got one left! As I stepped out of sainsburys I bumped into Christopher wassisname, one of the very poshe people I did ILP with. He's also a fitness instructor, unlike me he's a top financial advisor blokey for some big legal firm, he seems happy enough. Then up to Russell Square to deliver said kinder egg to Melanie. I folded my bike up outside the Hotel and carried it in with me to the Forum evening session, David Ure was busy pepping up the team, Melanie said straight away, ' are you here for me?' 'Yep' I said and told her I wanted to make sure we got some quality time to prepare for this next year's program. We've got a meeting with ML on Thursday which is a real result. Then I headed up to Landmark, did me stats and cycled home for an episode of Friends, a warm apple turnover (see first paragraph) and some ginger beer.
As far as my agreement is concerned I've finished my accountability as ITA team leader but until I find a replacement I'm still it, that's partly what I need to talk to Mel about. It's been really good cos it's brought up all my usual stuff, being a dogs body and reactivated me. Rather than doing what I so want to do, tell 'em to stuff it I'm doing the home work and getting off it and not being a conversation for no possibility.
Talking of no possibility, I've been told at work that I can't have any time off at Christmas which really pisses on going to Holland for Chrimble. I'm really pissed off, I'm here a week and they say, Oh by the way, your here all the way to new year, save public holiday, sorry, and you'll be on your own and there will be nothing to do, so bring a book. Hurry up Toby and get a job in Cambridge is what I say...Am I doing my usual job tart, or do I have a right to be pissed off. I didn't expect to be left with the baby and the way I was told really sucks. I'll talk to Toby, either we spend Christmas here (toby's parents won't be here either) or I find another job!
Tonight I'm going swimming somewhere in the west end, I'm going to find a posh LA fitness (I've got LAwide membership with T) . Hopefully it will be 25m long instead of crappy 15m.
Time to search the web for my pool....

Maaike and Janet at Nanny's. 

Maaike really is a little girl, there's not much toddler left. 

Who could resist that smile? 

Small town america in Reading 

What does one say? 

Is she sleeping? is she poo! 

Nice nothing weekend. Well I didn't do nothing, but I did do something other than house work and the washing but not that much. I've been crafting an enormous wedding planner spread sheet. I have more than 10 tabs, one for each aspect including one which, when complete will be the mailmerge for the wedding invitations. We currently have 96 guests for the whole day plus about 20 for the evening only. The budget is currently about £16500. It looks like to embark on our marriage without being in debt we will be moving out of London to Ely. This will involve finding work in Cambridge. Toby is getting inspired by finding something in Cambridge, the biggest thing holding him back is confidence. He read me his 'resume' which is a knock down 1 page CV and it was really really impressive. An hour later we got out of bed again, we were due nooky and both of us were rather too serious and worried about our situation to relax and be intimate together. We spent time together clearing each other of our concerns, fears and thoughts. We both agree that we are loosing money living here which is quite distressing and if we don't move soon, we will end up with a slowly growing pile of debt we will have to shake, which won't be easy whilst getting married and starting a family. There's enough money in the flat that we'd have a good chunk of a deposit to buy a whole house in Ely. We should be able to buy a whole 3 bed house for less than this flat is worth. Our quality of life would change but I wouldn't say deteriorate, it would be swapping starbucks and leicester square for fresh air and a decent size house. I will miss Oxford Street, Spitlefields, the thames and Covent Garden but they'll still be there an hour away on the train.
I took the sponge bob square pants cookie jar back to boots today. It was on offer on the internet from boots (very dangerous with me) and I've always wanted something from Spongbob that made spongebob noises. This was really crappy and I immediately regretted it as soon as it arrived a fortnight ago. I've spent 2 weeks worrying about if I could get my money back, then yesterday I plucked up courage to take it back and they gave me a refund, phew! I then went to M&S and spent ages trying on bra's and bought a nice lavender and cream one with the M&S tolken I got from the COLP.
Told you it was a pretty dull weekend. Ah well that's what comes of being broke and having a very nice comfortable flat and a wedding to organise. I say the most exciting thing was making a wheat free toad in the hole for Saturday dinner with dessert, which was fresh strawberries, miniature M&S Belgian chocolate meringues and icecream. Yum.

As promised, back to friday. Last day at the City of London Police, I started the day dressed in my favorite new red skirt, flesh coloured fishnets and a brilliant white flowerery embroidered kaftan shirt, pretty, sexy and my best for my best last day. I spent most of the day filing and completing stuff. Mark took me for a square pie and mash at lunch, his treat and we had an extended lunch with the approval of the grade five in the office, namely Gary, soft and easily persuaded...
I had a white wine spritzer, the first time I've had a drink in my lunchtime, my last lunch in the square mile, it was perfect, in a swanky bar with a gay guy wearing prada shoes.
The afternoon went really quickly and at 4pm I was in the Blue Lamp Bar in the police station with a half of lager and by 5pm with a pool cue in my hand, we won one and lost one I think.
They got me £15 worth of M&S vouchers which is very useful.
We walked back to mine, emptied the fridge of beer, toby went out for more, then finally the sainsbury's order arrived with yet more. The mexican food I planned didn't get eaten but the evening went completly different tot he way I expected, everybody left apart from Simon and his lady friend, Andrea. Then Kari arrived. It was a cosy little gathering that went on until gone midnight, it was brilliant. Andrea is lovely, not what I expected Simon's taste to be at all. She reminded me of Jose so I automatically fell in love with her. I hope I can keep in contact with them. It's up to me. Today I created the possibility of being fearless and cause in the matter of my life. It was relating to my Landmark training, the fear and scrabbling round in the dark I'm having for the enormous project I'm about to take on in my spare time but it will be useful all over the place.
Saturday was Charmed day, back to back. I know it's eye candy but I love it so much, good ole fantasy, sisters vanquishing demons while looking absolutley georgeous. Saturday evening I read a good deal of my Samuel Pepys biography in the bath.
Sunday we went to Rudi and Melissa's in Amersham, had lovely meat balls and cheese cake, kissed the baby and played Cashflow. I won again of course!
Today! finally!
I got to my new job just on time, the bike ride to work is 40 mins at 8.30 as appose to 30 at 7am due to traffic. There is a shower there so I will be making use of that to shower there and get there early and sweaty.
After cooling down a little, I was presented with 2 copies of my contract to sign, one for me, a job description, info sheet for me to fill in my bank details and next of kin, three folders of policies and proceedures, health and saftey, and bit's to initial to say I've read it. It was brilliant, the first time I've ever started a job the way it was meant to be done, prepared and empowered. Then the afternoon being trained in the computer system, quick, well thought out and extensive. I asked if it always worked this well and all she came up with was it was a bit chaotic when they first installed it! Am I dreaming! My desk is large and I share the office with 5 women from portugal, france, germany, poland and denmark. I arranged translation jobs in denmark, belgium, sweden and germany in 14 languages; latvian, slovac, czech, slavian, lithuanian, danish, dutch, swedish, norwegian, french, german, portuguese (european) there were 14 and I can only think of 12! Most of my conversations are in English but I did speak Dutch to a belgian and the girls were really impressed with how I handled myself on the phone.
I went to lunch with Karolina from Poland. She wears a hopi silver wedding ring, they got married in Las Vegas and she's really nice to be trained by and pass the lunch break with by the thames on a dull and dusky august day.
The afternoon was quite slow, I'd learnt quite alot, I was looking forward to knowing more, with my own projects to manage at my own desk. I know I've got loads to learn and I have to be patient. I've been very present and even though I had energy dips I managed myself with energy and enthusiasm.
I've never been so close to battersea powersation, it's an amazing building to be working next to and have as view from our office.
That's enough don't you think?

I can't believe I've not written anything about the last week, I've told a few people in emails, Richard for one in New Zeland, Chantal a little bit and I think some others but they are the most memorable.
Since Monday, Tuesday was unsual in that I took not only the minutes for the supervisors meeting but also the Crown Prosecution Service Meeting which was an interesting catalogue of mis-comunication and conversations for not much possibility. They are all over worked, undervalued and hindered from doing 'a good job' by their inability to communicate effectively, same as everywhere I suppose. It's disheartening to hear that trials are ballsed up by the powers that be at so many levels such that it's a long way from doing justice for anyone. Then again, I think on the whole they do a good job and have it better than say, the Met who have worse infastructural issues in their prosecutions than the COLP. I did manage to take most of the issues and account for it just enough and filter out the action points in a way that the meeting should be a success if they actually get round to reading the minutes.
Tuesday evening was Landmark and a bit of a funny aggreement, I did what I did, mostly stats and paperwork but didn't have much creative juice left in me. I'm kinda waiting for a good brainstorming sessoin with Mel so we can set to work on making the Assisting Program really rock and roll.
Wednesday we were off to Ely via the storage place in a hired van. I stocked up our newly aquired cool bag (free from M&S) with a plastic ice block from the freezer, water, fresh fruit and most importantly a mint aero, kept lovingly cool. We took all the stuff out of the storage place in Crouch End to be stacked in Ellen and Dan's garage which they have thankfully agreed to. It wasn't as much as we feared and there were a few things that either they could have or make use of and better still give to charity. We will at least also not be paying £100 a month to keep it in storage. It was designed to be a temporary measure but as we are not selling if at all, until probably the new year, it makes sense to store it somewhere free.
When my mum arrived in Ely, we'd had lunch and unpacked the van, the phone went around 5pm. We drove down to the station to meet up there, Mum got lost and when I called her she was pretty irritated having been round the one way system 3 times and each time found that the signs to the station disapear at the same crucial turning. Luckily she got round it and I saw her drive right past us, I jumped up and down, she did see me and all was well.
Ellen made a magnificent roast lamb and they all got to know each other, Dan and Mum shared a healthy if extensive knowledge of early modern history and I enjoyed filling in some of the gaps in my historical knowledge, prompting them to tell me more. We chatted well up to nearly midnight when we finally flopped and needed some rest, Toby had already been asleep since about 9pm next to me on the sofa but that's OK. I learned alot about both sides and it was interesting how many paralells there were as well as the differences.
Toby and I had a rough night on an inflatable mattress in Dan's study, Mum had the spare room and the other two bedrooms are Ellen's art rooms. Apart from not being able to close the door and having light from the front door outside lamp flooding in, an alarm went off in one of Dan's drawers, we did eventually find the little culprit as it played yellow rose of texus or something equally chearful to it's hearts content. Then there was the clock in the living room with it's westminster chimes, you don't hear that from up stairs. We did get some sleep but it was, shall we say, a little interrupted.
Thursday morning we had a leisurley continental breakfast and walked through the town to the Market and the river, had coffee down by the river ouse then back up for a walk round Ely Cathedral, Mum loved it as much as I did. So far, Ellen and Dan have taken us to service on a sunday as well as Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve but I've not had the chance to really wonder round, it was brilliant. Ely trully is the most magnificent cathedral I've seen so far in brittain and rivals Strasborg easily.
There is the newly opened Lady Chapel with a highly contravercial statue of a rather pagan looking Mary with curves and blond hair. I rather like it as did Toby, I think both sets of parents found it gaudy and in bad taste. I suspect my Dad would like it, time to get him to Ely too...
We came back to the house for lunch and Mum left for Reading and we left for London about 3ish. Mum and I both left our umbrellas drying in the garage and I'm now given the task of returning it to her.
While carrying Mum's ridiculously heavy, enormous suitcase down the stairs i slipped and the suit case took out one of the bannisters. Whoops. I think it will glue back Ok and everyone took it well once they rationalised that at least I wasn't hurt. Ahem.
I had a wonderful time and I think they all enjoyed it too. Toby got a little reactivated by both his parents and me at various times but once we left we talked about the whole exercise and got everything complete and aired. It's always the ones closest to us that push the buttons. I can't really remember what got to him now, little things.
Thursday evening in a break during our Sex and Intimacy seminar I rang Mum and thanked her for coming and acknowledged her for making a large detour to do it. When I got home, I sent a thankyou e card to ellen and dan to add to the thanks I'd showered on them throughout the two days. On the way home, I fantisised about what I could create to fulfull my new possiblility I'd created of getting to know everyone on the planet.
It really is time for bed now, I could go on but I've got my first day of work tomorrow. I musn't forget to write about the party on friday and the weekend!
Night.

We had our -1 year anniversary on Friday and on Saturday went to toby's cousin's wedding in Essex somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It was effing hot, so hot, so hot plus it was in an old farm which is all wood and that warms up and stays warm well into the night. The wedding itself was well done with a similar day to ours, all in the same venue etc. I thought her dress was really lovely but she was very slim and the dress was more designed for the fuller figure, she could have really gone to town with something svelte and backless and probably alot cheaper or a Chanel master piece. Her bouquet was nice but the organsa isn't a patch on a proper hand tied bouquet. That sealed that for me. It was perfect preparation for our wedding next year, the chances are we could end up with a day that hot. I think I'm going to give out elegant fans and maybe battery ones too. I wouldn't be surprised if 500 year old stone buildings stay pretty cool and we may not have too much problem inside, we shall see. Jo and Colin (the couple) can come to our wedding along with their parents, Silvie and Dave, Silvie is Dan, Toby's dad's sister. She's a lovely looking lady, as is her daughter.
Ellen gave us her first draught on the invitation, it looks great, I recon it will be only the wording and the rsvp card to work on and it will be done. On Sunday we went through the menus, I've sent the veggie one to Janet and Wale to get a good choice from them and we've chosen a Lamb and a fish main course choice so there will be three in all. Thinking about it we might scrap the fish main course and have the Lamb be the adventurous one, a chicken one for the boring bastards and veggie for the veggie bastards! I can see that going down better.
Today I had my leg scan to see which valve wasn't working and causing the wobbly veins on my left leg. The scan was fascinating, seeing little black holes appear and disappear with the red and blue blood to show which way the blood was flowing. My deep veins are all good and fine, it seems to be one valve at a junction between a deep vein coming up to the surface, or rather the other way round, the vein goes up and then as it goes inside my leg to join the deep vein, the valve doesn't hold the blood back.
I bought a new floor mop today, very exiting I know, but it does a bloody good job of the whole flat, no bucket needed. The flat is looking very nice at the moment.
Last week at the City of London Police, a bit of an end of a mini era. It will be great to start a permanent Job, I'm really looking forward to that, but I will miss Gareth and the gang. There are always intentions to stay in touch but it rarely happens, London is just so big. If I'm lucky I'll bump into someone on a tube platform or in a shop.
Time for bed, night.

Hot and sweaty! Busy busy busy, just one thing I wanted to write down. I was sharing with Gareth at work about how I say to toby that he gets 50% extra free (re my ample frame). Gareth said ' and it's always the good deals that are snapped up the quickest' I thought that was lovely!
just needed to remember it.
Had a great night leading an ITA all by my self. I will have words with Mel on the support side to this agreement at some point. It's a little too freestyle at the moment.
Time for bed. ;)