High on sugar… then the low

I’ve just spent the afternoon with my friends at a local hotel having a very British time with “afternoon tea”.  Small smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise, cheese and tomato finger sandwiches to start with followed by scones with clotted cream and jam, mini selection of cakes and fruit cake slices. With copious amounts of tea I’m now all full of sugar and caffeine. I’m not hyperactive like kids are after eating sweets and drinking sugary drinks but feeling a bit low after the initial sugar rush. It’s also causing me to have a lack of focus while writing. I’ll most probably read this tomorrow and wonder what I was rambling about.

I’m having a serious lack of focus at the moment – made this discovery last week after chatting with a friend about having a lack of time when it came to organising a corporate event. It’s actually lack of focus and not lack of time that is the real problem, my friend said.  How true that is and my life seems like that all the time at the moment. And I thought it was because I was just lazy! Maybe I am lazy with a lack of focus – doomed to do anything constructive.  So, how to change my lack of focus – well, with work it’s just a case of getting the work done but with home life I need to get some positive attitude back for my running and to try to stop worrying so much.  I need to get back in to learning HTML and getting the redecoration of the house finished. Sorting out the household filing. Clear out the loft of all my rubbish. Order a new bookcase so all the books can be moved out of the spare bedroom. I don’t want to write a long list of things I need to do on here but I’m going to start tomorrow with some running, ironing and sorting out my wardrobes as a start.  A new year resolution-style commitment – bring back some focus, stop worrying and stop being so lazy. BTW – I had a lovely time with my mates!

Talking crap

I’m having one of those moments where I believe I’m talking crap on here – I suppose it should really be writing crap.  Maybe I think this is because my blog hits have taken a dip over the past two days so I must be boring people. Maybe the weather has something to do with it – it’s been very spring-like in London over the past week or so, with lots of people outside the pubs at the end of the day, instead of reading blogs.  That is the problem with writing everyday and not having a specific subject for my blog. Also, the past few weeks have been mental at work so having the time to think of anything witty or interesting is hard.

Maybe things will pick up in the next few weeks with work calming down and with March starting next week. February has flown by without me even realising it. Great for pay day, a nice short month but depressing in the fact that I can’t think of anything but working for the month of February. Oh, sorry I was ill last week. Tomorrow I am meeting up with my best friends for afternoon tea. My best friend is back from Australia and another friend who moved out to the depths of Essex will be there, both I haven’t seen for ages so I’m really looking forward to seeing them.  I have a feeling that I will be doing some more work over the weekend but it feels like that is the only way to get back on top of things so I can have a sane week and get back to more enjoyable things. Happy Friday everyone – I’m off to make an another Manhattan.

The three Rs – reading, running and writing

Some random thoughts in my own unique rambling style, well that’s why I started this blog. By the way, I know writing is spelt with a “w” but if you come to Essex you might miss it when someone says “righting”. Working long hours over the past few weeks causes me to remiss on a lot of activities that I should be doing outside of work. I’m still trying to get back into reading War & Peace – it is a really enjoyable story but when I’m tired it’s hard picking it up and looking at the tiny text. Also, I get hand-ache as it is such a big book, it would be easier to read in three separate books like Lord of the Rings. I’ve got until May to finish before I go on holiday. I’ve set this deadline because my husband laughed when I said I would finish it by then and I like a challenge to prove him wrong.

Running is also the other thing that I have been neglecting. Getting home at around 8pm hungry, running is the last thing I think about but I’m hoping to get back in to this weekend. I’m still rubbish at running so I need to get back in to it and try to improve. Keeping in touch with friends is another item – either by phone, email or text is proving difficult at the moment. The other more boring item is ironing – this morning while running late I couldn’t find anything suitable for work that was already ironed. Luckily after a bit of rummaging in my wardrobe I found a plain white t-shirt. Shame as my CEO and other work colleagues were in the office today and it was a good opportunity to wear something nice or at least something smart. I can go back to jeans as it is casual Friday tomorrow. My blog is the only thing that I’ve managed to keep up with surprisingly but I do think that’s because it’s an addiction now.

Corporate events

As most of my regular readers and friends will know I have been complaining and moaning a lot lately about organising an event for work.  Well, now the event is finally over – two day events for 15 people and one evening dinner for 50. Thank God for that, is all I can say. It is a bittersweet moment as organising it all (considering I only took over the project halfway though and half the work was already done) was really painful but the dinner was a very enjoyable event.  Most of the stress came from the fact that I was already busy with my normal job and event organising just took over my life. A 14-hour work day yesterday and up at 6am again this morning, might just have topped it off.  I did managed to get back to normal activities this afternoon and started to tackle the 285 emails in my in-box.

The day events I can’t really talk about as I didn’t attend them, just arrived in the morning to make sure everything was set up well. They were held at the Sofitel St James, which is a really nice French-owned hotel in the centre of London. The staff were great and I loved the fact that they always said “boujour” to me.  The evening event was at Hibiscus in Maddox Street and a 2-starred Michelin restaurant. The whole of the restaurant was taken over by my company and the restaurant staff were amazing at keeping everything flowing and running smoothly.  The food and drink was amazing, as was the people on my table who were very friendly. This is the first time I have met many of our clients, many of whom I have known their names for over 10 years – putting faces to names was a rather pleasing experience.  As I’m not an analyst at my company I was limited on ‘work’ conversation but I did get asked a lot of questions about what I do and everyone was intrigued by my company’s working from home policy especially about how many of my American colleagues who work all over America from the East Coast, to the Midwest, to the West Coast. I hope the clients enjoyed the evening and my trivial conversation. As I said above, I’m just relieved that it is all finished now.

One long day

Okay, this is going to be a short one. Hadn’t really planned for a whole night out but got persuaded to stay for dinner by my bosses at the event I was organising. I was only going to stay to make sure everyone turned up, got their name badges and have a couple of cocktails. But who can say no to their CEO if they want you to stay on. Dinner was nice and luckily the people I was sitting with where really nice and friendly. Sitting in a room of 50 odd CEO/managing director types from publishing/information providers is quite daunting – for me anyway. I finally relaxed after the starter and I did enjoy myself. Now travelling home wondering what I’m going to wear tomorrow (not much ironing done this evening like planned) as I’m setting up another event and have to be back in London by 8am. Well, the event went well and it seemed that everyone enjoyed it. I’m just glad it is all over now until the next one.

The Oscars

So the Oscars where on last night, not that I watched any of it, I’m not foolish enough to stay up late to watch it for three hours. Actually I’m not even sure if it is shown over here, maybe Living show it. But we do get all the good bits condensed down in the news and I watched the Brits picking up their awards on the BBC site at lunchtime. Danny Boyle’s impression of Tigger is what I remember most. I’ve not seen any of the films that won last night but I’m a bit patriotic when we win something so I’m looking to seeing Slumdog when it comes out on DVD.

I might have mentioned before but I don’t do the cinema so instead we have lots of DVDs or wait until Sky Movies show something interesting. Speaking of Danny Boyle, Trainspotting has got to be one of the best UK films made. Gritty and with a great soundtrack, and course Ewan McGregor is in it. Back to last night, I’m pleased that Kate Winslet has finally won an Oscar and Penelope Cruz winning one as well (I’ve always liked her as an actress). Sean Penn is a great actor and a most deserving for winning (he should have got one for just being married to Madonna). Lastly, I have to mention Heath Ledger, a brilliant actor and rather gorgeous with it, shame that his life was taken so young but at least his daughter can grow up knowing he was a truly great actor.

Personality testing my blog

While looking at other sites on the net, as you do on a Sunday evening, I came across Typealyzer, which I actually found on the Mark Logic’s CEOs blog so I can’t really take much credit for stumbling across it.  Typealyzer tells you what type of personality the writer has by analysing the blog according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It says in Wikipedia that “The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.”  I first heard about MBTI from my American boss last year and I did a bit of reading about it (which most properly means that I read the Wikipedia page about it), but it is quite an interesting way of assessing personality. I’ve always had an odd fascination with trying to find out why my personality is the way it is.

When I was a teenager I went through a phase of learning about star and sun signs and am always intrigued by other cultures and their own astrology signs like my recent post about the Chinese Year of the Ox. I’m a Capricorn, therefore a goat – I like to climb mountains and I’m bound to end up with bad knees in years to come but I don’t eat everything and anything!  My Typealyzer results said I was ESPF (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Perception) – The Performers. The best bit about the results page is that there is a picture of lady holding a drink – that just about sums me up (always with a drink!). This is what is says about me:

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.”

As with all these things there is always part of it that I don’t think I am like at all but I still find these personality tests/theories interesting.

How do you eat your eggs?

Scrambled is my favourite especially when it is on English muffins.  I’ve never always been a great fan of eggs. The only egg dish I remember while growing up was egg and soldiers, which I do still love (not had it in a while, though) but I have this strange phobia of solid egg white. I think it is the texture of egg white that I don’t like – odd, I know.  That’s why I like scrambled eggs and omelettes. I like egg mayo as well but have to force myself to eat the large pieces of egg white.  I do love a bit of the yummy yellow egg yolk though which is what soldiers were made for.

I remember when I first realised that I liked egg mayo sandwiches and being able to have another choice at lunchtime apart from cheese or tuna sandwiches. Then I had my cholesterol tested and this being quite a few years ago I was told by the nurse that I should cut down on eggs! The recommended amount was three eggs a week. So for years I have monitored my egg intake but with a slight skepticism as I also check everything else that contains saturated fat and cheese contains so much more sat fat than eggs. Imagine my surprise when a news report came out last week saying that the amount of cholesterol in eggs is so insignificant that it is now OK to eat eggs!  This is great news but I still wonder how the Food Standards Agency can keep changing their recommendations on what you can and can’t eat.  Moderation is the best way but there are times when that extra drink or piece of chocolate (or extra egg) is what is needed in life to make us happy!

Friday night and ill

This is going to be an even less of a post than yesterday’s post as I’m not feeling that well – I’m sure it was the curry I had at lunch yesterday.  It was a nice curry so I shouldn’t complain too much, but it just means I’ve not eaten much all day and just don’t fancy a drink. So that means no Friday night Manhattan, which is a terrible way to start the weekend. So on that depressing note I’m going to call it a night and I promise to write something more exciting and cheerful over the weekend, which I’m hoping will be written with a few catch-up drinks. Happy Friday!

Stresshead

Oh look, another moan post – maybe… I’m not really sure. Too stressed to concentrate on anything, not sure it helps my blood pressure either. Earlier on the way home I couldn’t decide if to cry or hit someone. Funny how stress can do that especially as I’m now home, have eaten (not much but had a huge lunch) and checking my emails, it doesn’t seem all that bad now my workload. In the past I have moaned about the lack of emails that I got except for spam but now they come in thick and fast as I’m covering our CRM lady while she is on maternity leave. I did plan to get lots done tonight but after replying to a couple emails and checking a few others I’m too tired to work on them.  I would just make mistakes so I’m planning to get up early tomorrow and crack on with everything in the morning. It might be a late one again tomorrow but I wonder, as it is a Friday I could get some beer or wine (I don’t really like wine but needs must) and stash it in the fridge for early evening drinking. Then again that might mean I create more problems by drinking too much and falling asleep on my keyboard. On that note I’m calling it an early night and only writing the one paragraph! Standards are slipping.