She’s Got a Ticket To Ride. Unfortunately, there aren’t any trains in service

Saturday we had planned to meet up with John’s college friends for their annual Christmas extravaganza. We were supposed to meet in London, at a club near Oxford Circus. John checked the directions before we left so he would be confident in his abilities to get us there.

We decided to get off at the tube stop before Oxford Circus (Piccadilli Circus) and walk from there in order to see the Christmas decorations. This turned out to be a less than perfect idea, as it was very cold this weekend and there weren’t really very many Christmas decorations anyway. There were some lights over the street that went on for a long way, but it wasn’t really anything to get excited about. None of the shops were really decorated or anything. After walking for a while I got so cold that I had to go into H&M and buy a hat. I was getting an earache from the cold.

When we got near Oxford Circus we started looking for the club. We walked for a long time and never ran across it. We turned around to see if we’d gone the wrong way, and we still didn’t find it. Called some of his friends and they couldn’t tell us where it was. We went into a random pub to ask directions, and when I walked in I saw Gemma’s netball friend having a drink right by the door! Pretty random considering we both live in Basingstoke, were only in London for a few hours, and it was a small pub.

We finally found someone who could point us in the right direction, and as we were heading off we passed Paul (one of the guys we were meeting) and his girlfriend, who were also not having much luck finding it. Between the four of us we finally managed to find it.

The night was a lot of fun. Everyone was in good spirits. The boys gave their usual jokey gifts to each other. Caroline and I were trying to avoid any talking about the X Factor, as it was the night of the final and we’d each taped it and didn’t want anyone to spoil the results. Click the picture to the right to see more photos from the night.

The night went really quickly, and before we knew it it was time to go. The last train to Basingstoke left at 1:05, so we left the club about 12:40. Got to the tube station and it was shut! So obviously the underground does not run as long as the national rail lines. This was good information to discover at the end of the night, especially when it happens to be -5 degrees outside.

So back to the club we went. Luckily most people were still there. We found Steve and Ruth and they kindly agreed to let us stay at theirs for the evening. Thinking about it now, it’s really lucky that Ruth drove and I wonder how everyone else got home as they would have been dependent on the underground as well.

So we piled into Ruth’s car, and promptly got lost trying to drive through London. It didn’t help that we kept having to pull over so Steve could be sick. While we were still driving through London we had to pull over about 3 times for Steve, and instead of just leaning out and being ill he insisted on getting out of the car and walking into various alleys so we couldn’t see him in order to be ill. The only thing this accomplished was us worrying about him (obviously the alleyways of big cities is not the safest place to be at 1 am) and John getting out to find him. We finally found the motorway and only had to pull over onto the hard shoulder once for him to be sick.

The next morning the kindly drove us home, which is about ½ hour from where they live. The upside of the whole fiasco with the trains was that we got to see their new house, which is lovely. Saturday night we had been going on about how we had to get together in the new year and go to their house, and how the girls would have to set it up because if we left it to the boys it would never be arranged. So John was boasting all morning about how we’d said the boys couldn’t arrange a time for all of us to get together to see their new house, but they’d managed to do it in a very short time, blah blah blah.

Sunday afternoon Michelle came to Basingstoke with her new boyfriend Bruce. We enjoyed meeting him, seems like a very nice guy. We went to a pub for lunch and I had a ginormous plate of mussels. They were delish.

They couldn’t really stay for long after the meal, so when they left John put on the footie. Later we watched the Colts lose their first game this season. That was upsetting, but good to have gotten that loss out of the way now as (hopefully!) opposed to in the playoffs.

Coldplay and Christmas do

It’s nearing the end of my workweek, and all I really want for Christmas at this point is to be on my couch asleep at this very moment. It’s been a great but exhausting week.

Wednesday night me, John, Scott, and Gemma went to London to see Coldplay at Earl’s Court. Really good show. Gem and I are convinced that Madonna must have been there backstage or something, because they broke into her new song, whatever it’s called, the one that goes ‘time goes by… so slowly. Time goes by…. So slowly slowly..’ for a few bars. That was the only non-Coldplay song they did that with.

It made for an enjoyable but long evening, and we didn’t get home until 1. I was tired yesterday.

Work Christmas party last night. No rest for the weary! Although saying that I went home right at 4 yesterday to give myself time to rest before the do. The guy who sits next to me was going to pick me up at 6:15. Set the alarm on my mobile to wake me a little before 5:45. Doorbell woke me at 6:15. There’s Richard, standing at my front door in his tux, while I’m standing there in my jeans with line indentations down the side of my face from the couch.

He had to pick up Anita, too, so he said he would go pick her up and come back. I ran around like the house was on fire and managed to get ready in 7 or 8 minutes. I even had to phone them to see where they were, because they didn’t show back up. Turns out they hung out at her house for a while to give me time to get ready.

I had intended not to drink very much as I didn’t want to feel too hungover at work today. The memories of my last bad hangover at work were too fresh in my mind. However, having 6 bottles of wine per table and free drink tokens made that idea pretty unfeasible. I mean, it’s rude not to get a little bit drunk in that circumstance, am I right?

There was good food and we were on a good table of fun people. Also lots of dancing. And I went in the bumper cars three times. Today people keep making fun of me because we did the bumper cars in pairs and I kept making my partners wear their seatbelts. Safety first!

So, I did drink more than I intended to, but I must not have been too bad, as I’m just tired today instead of hurting too much. We got in about 1:40. I am not the rock star I once was (surely at one point in my life I was rock star?), and two late nights in a row make me very, very tired. I was going to leave dead on 4 again today but I need to talk to my boss and she’s not free until 4:30. And she might not even be free then, I have to wait and see!

This is my fave pic from the night. My friend and colleague Rob's expression looks really, really good. Look out ladies!

Nita's Hen Do

This weekend was Anita’s bachelorette party. Several of her friends met her in Bristol to celebrate her upcoming nuptials. Gemma, Helen and I arrived on Friday after work. Everyone wore shirts that had a big picture of Anita on the front and a nickname for the wearer on the back. I was ‘Yankee Doodle’, although when Anita’s sister picked up the shirts a couple of weeks ago it said ‘Vankee Doodle’, so the maker of the shirt had to do some creative handiwork to turn the V into a Y. Vankee Doodle could have been good too if I had some eastern European roots.

There wasn’t much time to eat, so we grabbed some dinner from a burger van on the street (luckily for me there was a veggie burger option), and then on to a fairly posh bar where we were able to lower the tone of the atmosphere with our willy headbands and Anita’s willy wand she had to carry round. She had a leopard print thong that she had to put on 20 guys over the weekend as a task. She was able to complete some of those throughout the night, which provided ample entertainment for us girls and the innocent bystanders we can across throughout the evening.

From there we went to a club where we danced around for the rest of the night, while Anita did what was expected of her and got pretty drunk. On the way home those of us who were left (Anita, Gemma, Helen, and Nit’s friends Louise and Jenna) decided that it was a really good idea to do cartwheels for most of the walk. I was impressed I still had it in me; I thought I would likely lose my balance and fall down but all my attempts were successful!

The next day Marianne, Gemma, Helen and I went for a walk through the shops for some fresh air before meeting up with everyone for a nice lunch. Lunch was followed by some more shopping and a nice nap.

In the evening we all went out in our police women fancy dress outfits. We danced, and danced, and danced some more. And yesterday and today my legs have been very sore so hopefully next time I’m in that situation someone will go over the dangers of excessive dancing.

Spent Sunday recovering. Watched the Colts on Sunday! 13-0 baby!

Click the pic of me, Nita, Marianne, and Helen above to see (lots) more photos from the do.

Reality TV's biggest fan?

Quite strange actually. There is a meeting taking place in a conference room nearby, and there are a bunch of people in there who aren’t in my department. One of them is this big wig director guy who I’ve never met, but for the last two days when he comes by my desk he comments on my iPod or messes with it. My colleague Rob who sits across from me hasn’t seen him do that, but he just IMed me the last time everyone came out of that conference room for a break and said ‘You were getting checked out by a director.’ So I asked him if it was who I suspected it was and he said Yes, so I told him how he kept messing with my iPod when he walked by. You have to laugh because men are so stupid.

Anyway, that’s not why I’m updating my blog. Actually, I don’t suppose there is a clear reason why I am updating my blog, except for the fact that things have now officially slowed down for me at work due to the end of the year. Yesterday I lead two meetings which will hopefully result in 2 big projects for next year, which would be very promising prospects indeed. However, there isn’t much I can do for those things until they are approved, hopefully in January.

So in the meantime I have been preparing for Christmas! I’ve been sorting out addresses today for Christmas cards. Tonight I am hoping to put the final touches on all my Christmas shopping. Anita’s hen do is this weekend so I also have a couple of things I need to pick up for that. And assuming I find some Christmas cards tonight then if I’m feeling like going for the gold then I might even start on those before the evening is through!

This weekend was great! I got my hair cut on Saturday morning, then did some Christmas shopping while I was there. The appointment was at 9:00 so by the time I was done there was still some time to shop before it got absolutely packed. It gets crowded on any given Saturday, and this close to Christmas I would not have braved the crowds once it got really busy. When I got home John and I cleaned the house, then I took a nap while he watched footie.

In the evening we decorated for Christmas! Then, sadly, we turned into reality tv junkies. I don’t know what has happened to us. We watched Strictly Come Dancing, followed by X Factor, then I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, then the X Factor Results, then I’m a Celeb Results, then the recorded Strictly Come Dancing Results! What a couple of saddies. But wait, I haven’t even said the worst part yet. We had some wine while we were watching the shows, it being a Saturday night and all, and I guess we had too much because before we knew it we were actually VOTING. That’s right, I picked up my phone and voted for Brenda in X Factor. And then, even after I’d had some time to think about what I’d done, I voted for Thatch in I’m a Celeb! Needless to say, I haven’t been able to look at myself in the mirror since.

Anyway, Sunday we went to our friends Jon and Marianne's parents house (Jon's parents, Maz's in-laws). John lived with them for a short time out of university and they only live about 20 minutes away. It was really nice. I hadn’t really spent much time with them before, but they are really lovely people. I could have talked to them for ages.

Last night we went out to dinner with Mike and Debbie, who just got engaged in Asia! I can’t remember if it was Bali or Singapore where the engagement happened. Anyway, it was great to see them. They had a brilliant time on their trip through Asia. After dinner we all looked through our photos from safari. They had been in Kenya on safari last year so it was fun to talk through what we had done the same and differently. Then we all watched the results of the grand finale of I’m a Celebrity. Go Thatch!