All packed.

Sneezing like a good’un. Caught the boss’ cold, damn her eyes! Still, hopefully the worst will be tomorrow, when I will be travelling.

Haven’t ordered a taxi yet, but I can’t imagine there will be a rush on at 7.30 on a Saturday morning. Then it’s a train to Heathrow airport. But for some reason, the company which my company uses to book travel hasn’t booked me on either the cheapest or the quickest route - rather than booking me on a train to Reading, and then the Heathrow Airport bus from there, I am supposed to go all the way into London, then wait 20 minutes for the express train from Paddington. This ticket has cost 3 times what the quicker option would. I will see if I can go the quicker route tomorrow.

I have been invited out for dinner by the company running the conference on Sunday night (after the cocktail reception) and Monday night. This is because they so want us to buy their software, and they must know by now that we are probably not going to. I am not high enough up the food chain to make any decisions, but there will be people from the company there who are, and all representatives from my company have been invited.

Free food. Even better, free drink.

Sunday afternoon I have been invited to the company box at the baseball, but L has rung me today (three times in fact, still, it’s her mobile calling me from America, so no cost to me), and we may skip this in favour of a trip to Alcatraz, which she needs to book today if we are to go on it. I said she should book it - we may just about manage both.

Gosh, it looks like it’s going to be such hard work out there.

A, the creepy arsehole bloke at work has reset one of my passwords.

To ‘wishbone’.

That’s weird. Just plain weird.

We got onto words and phrases last night, and LELI was saying how where in the UK we say “give an inch, take a mile”, in Italy this phrase becomes “give a hand, take an arm”. I was very good. I didn’t make any rude comments at all.

Then LELI asked for an explanation of “pot calling the kettle black”. I launched into “it’s where someone accuses someone else of something, but they are guilty of it themselves.” “Yes, yes, I get the meaning, but I don’t understand where it comes from. Why is the kettle black?”

Bless.

Kettles are such peculiarly British things, that he always think they have come in white plastic, which you plug into the wall!

Last night a bloke I used to work with before I moved to America was in town, with his girlfriend. They are here for the weekend. I invited them to stay with me, only she wouldn’t let him (he came to see me in Smalltown a couple of years ago, and she refused to come with him, but wouldn’t let him stay with me - she doesn’t trust me apparently, although if I was ever going to do anything with him it would have been long before she ever came along, silly cow).

Anyway, I invited LELI along too, and off we headed to an untested Morrocan restaurant. And what a wonderful surprise that was. Often you go to restaurants and they have menus which are pages and pages long, only for all of it to be crap, and only 2 or 3 things on there be actually worth trying.

There was nothing on this menu I didn’t want to try. It was quite small - maybe 8 starters and a dozen main courses to choose from, but every one of them looked delicious.

They didn’t have a dessert menu, but they did have one dessert, if we wanted to try it - honey and nuts and pastry…… So four of those were ordered too.

Then we headed off to a bar not too far from work (they were staying in a hotel not far from there). I am convinced this bar was gay - there were an awful lot of men at the bar, although there were a lot of couples in there too. It felt very much like a lot of the gay/mixed bars I have been in in New York. The others wouldn’t have it though.

Tomorrow I am back at work. I wish I had more time off though, I have been very crafty the last few days, and have made quite a few cards with all my new purchases. I would like to carry on being crafty, but once I am back at work I know I won’t have much chance.

Still, America here I come! 6 days and counting.

1.   Made up words - the current one which is getting on my tits is ‘moisturisation’. Just fuck off!

2.   That woman on the wax strips advert. And for god’s sake, it’s Immac!

3.   The Cadbury’s adverts at the beginning of Corrie - they are so obvious in the changing of the current ‘bar of the day’ - same advert, different chocolate. Tonight’s was particularly annoying - as if anyone in their right mind lies on a white duvet and breaks off a chunk of flake!

4.   How every quiz/test has to have a 10 second ‘wait’ before any result is announced. I am guessing it is meant to build tension. Well it does, in a way, but the sort of tension that just makes me want to put my foot through the screen.

5.   That ginger wanker Chris Evans. I know he’s not on the telly, but he’s on the radio far too much - why didn’t they just let him die off in oblivion, when he was there, why did they have to bring him back?

That’s it for now. Don’t watch much telly, so this about sums it up.

I have just gone into my bank account, to check my statement.

There is a £50 internal transfer, on 17th April, to my savings account. This put me overdrawn by £15.

It seems very odd. Very odd indeed. Why would I transfer £50, knowing it would put me overdrawn? Especially as I get paid tomorrow - normally I wait until payday, and any money left over in the account I move across to my savings, I don’t do it the week before.

I have just rung the bank, and the transfer was authorised on Saturday 15th, it just took until the Monday for the money to move.

I was here on Saturday night. I even remember checking my account then (although I couldn’t swear to the time). I just don’t remember the internal transfer.

Now, if it was someone else, getting into my account and transferring some money, wouldn’t they have transferred it to another account? And wouldn’t they have transferred all the money from my savings to my current account, and then transferred it out?

It just seems odd. I have left it for now, but will be keeping a close eye on the account.

I have finally got around to making the curtains for the living room. Pulled down those old crappy blinds. Even made some nets, so people can’t see all my worldly possessions.

I have also moved the bookcase in the hall, and sorted out some books and some jackets for the charity shop.

This afternoon I drove into town. I drove around for 15 minutes trying to find a parking space close to the Cancer Research shop, and eventually just parked on a double yellow line outside. After all, I didn’t plan to stay in there for long.

I ended up staying there even less time than I thought.

Cancer Research was full.

They turned me away.

So instead I went shopping in my favourite craft shop. Which, to my delight, now have a loyalty card - for every £10 I spend, I get a stamp on my card, and every 10 stamps is worth £10.

I managed to spend £30.

I have spent a good half an hour when I got home going through my two card ‘goody bags’.

I just need to get my arse in gear and actually make some cards with them. Maybe tomorrow……

He’s been back home for a long weekend. He got back this evening, so we went out for dinner. I can’t believe, after living in Britain for so many years, he’s never had steak and kidney pie before! He seemed to enjoy it.

Today I have been doing a lot of house stuff. A bit chunk of my time has been taken up with vacuuming - a long haired cat is a nightmare! I have only done the upstairs, and I had to empty the thing 3 times.

I also had to clean up the cat sick from poor Ed last night. Well, the little bit (well, stains mostly) that were left after KK had finished with them (so disgusting - and so bloody quick too, she had the lot up in seconds).

I also managed (and this I am quite proud of) to cut some of the poo out of KK’s fur. Not a pleasant job at all, and one which she herself doesn’t enjoy. She doesn’t particularly like anything near her nether regions. Yesterday I managed to get the bit that was stuck in her tail while she was rolling around enjoying the grass, and I am not even sure she noticed.

However, the bit’s right near her bum were a different kettle of fish. So, while she was nice and compliant, rolling around in submission on the bed, I quickly threw a towel over her and tried to wrap her up. It wasn’t too successful the first time, but the daft cat didn’t make a run for it, so I tackled her a second time, and got her reasonably secure.

Oh what a noise. You’d think I was withdrawing her claws, slowly, with a pair of nail clippers. So pathetic.

I managed to get part of the job done, before she wriggled free again. This time I left her - didn’t seem right to keep tormenting the poor thing.

She seems to have forgiven me, so maybe tomorrow I will have another attempt.

Also this afternoon I finally got around to looking through some of my old magazines. Some of them seem to have some interesting things in, but I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that most of them I am not interested in at all. I now need to decide if I want to bother trying to sell any of them on ebay (even at 10p a magazine, I have so many of them I might make a tenner).

Monday - got a shitty email from someone quite high up in another department. Well, actually, the email he sent to me wasn’t too bad, only he forgot to get rid of the whole email trail before the one he sent to me, in which there was a whole trail between him and another head of another department, basically slagging me off.

I had received a phone call from one of the guys in Scotland, but I had been in a meeting, so he left a voice mail. I got back from the meeting to find the email, so replied before ringing this guy back, only to find he had already gone for the day.

Regarding my reply - it took me over an hour to draft it - I wrote, it, went for lunch, came back, rewrote it, then rewrote it again. Even ONB, on looking over my shoulder commented that it was the “longest email in the world”. I think I was very restrained. I simply listed the facts as they were, explained what had happened, pointed out that the initiative wasn’t really anything to do with my department other than actual implementation, and shot to bits his recommendation, saying that the saving of a piddling £25,000 would cost the company millions.

Tuesday morning, the guy from Scotland rang me back. “I tried to warn you yesterday, sorry missed you. But I just wanted to say, that was the best email response I have seen all year!”

Yay me.

Even better, in my response I had copied in Z. In my inbox on Tuesday was an email from Z, to one of my accusers. That was short and to the point. Saying he found the whole tone “accusatory”, how he “was proud of his people looking after other departments interests” and the final sentence ending “and in future, if you have a problem with my department you go after me, not my people!”

Yay Z.

Tuesday we had more problems with a monthly file. The one they ballsed up 2 months ago. The one we requested extra checks, but which still haven’t been put in place because it is “low on their agenda”. The one where I had negotiated Z down from the the full blown checks he wanted to something more manageable for them to run. The one which now Z is accepting no substitute, which is going to cause them considerable work in the future. Hey, serves them right! But it meant I had to postpone a critical procedure for a week, so I don’t care - the quicker they get it sorted the better.

Wednesday actually wasn’t too bad.

Thursday I got an email from one of my colleagues from oop norf, who is also going to San Francisco, concerning the hotel. Basically saying, while the hotel itself was okay, the area was awful, and people were fearing for their safety every time they stepped outside the hotel. The hotel which is a mile from the conference hotel, which we are expected to walk since the company refuses to pay taxi fares.

Eventually, after several emails and complaints, it was agreed we could change hotels. Only it seems the people from oop norf have approval to stay in the conference hotel. I do not. I complained. Hopefully this will be solved by the time I get back.

Friday was my dad’s birthday, so I went home. My family drive me mad. The longer I am away from them, the more I can see how destructive they are. I am astonished at my nephew, who really is very quiet and shy and wouldn’t say boo to a goose, at how he has turned out. Even now, when he is finding his feet, starting to discover the outside world, they are constantly running him down, saying things which will knock him down, then saying how he can’t do anything because he has such low self confidence. I believe I am the only member of the family who actually treats him like an adult.

As usual, I can’t bear the family for too long, so headed off to bed fairly early.

To be awoken, around 12.30 by some very loud banging. And some muffled shouting. I got out of bed, and looked out of the window, but couldn’t see anything. I opened the window wide, to see if I could hear anything more, but it all went quiet, so I got back into bed. 10 minutes later, there was more shouting. All I could make out was, “Open the fucking door, you fucking bitch!” Nice fellow.

At this point I can hear my mom murmuring, so I go into their bedroom. Turns out it’s all happening on that side of the house. We still have no idea what actually happened, but there was police, and cars and bikes turning up and leaving, people walking up and down the street. Snatches of conversation overheard included, “he’s had a row with his girlfriend” and “he is unpredictable”.

This morning there was a letter put through my parents door from the police, saying a young man had been arrested for damage to vehicles, and if we had any information, to contact them.

It was all very exciting, me and mom whispering and giggling. It was just like old times, when I was a very young girl and we lived in a very rough estate, when there were always ‘domestic’ fights going on.

This weekend I have been mostly spending time with real people. Doesn’t happen much!

Friday evening, people from work were talking about going to the pub. To be honest I had had enough of people at work, so turned them down, saying I was going to go home and spend quality time with my pussy cats.

Less than 10 minutes after they all left for the pub, my phone rings. It’s Andy. “I’m driving in my fixed car, heading towards the bay, do you fancy a drink?” Oh alright then!

After a drink, he decides to brave his cat allergy, and we head back to mine, with the intention of me cooking him a nice meal.

Nice thought anyway.

Less than 10 minutes, we were out the door, with his face starting to explode!

Still, it meant I could go for a nice curry.

Saturday I met with Andy again (I think he had a pass out from his missus), where I parked (illegally) outside his flat. We went for coffee, and then wandered around the shops. And I once again proved I cannot be trusted in a busy shopping centre. It took me 15 minutes to spend £50 on cd’s in Virgin, and even less time to spend £60 on more face cream that I don’t need (because I got a free bag with other bits of makeup and face cream I don’t need - what a bargain!).

Headed back to the car via the wonderful cheese shop, which even though it was closing served me some delicious cheeses.

The cheeses were needed because I was thinking of making some cheese scones for the delightful Mr Em. Only in the end I couldn’t be bothered. He had to make do with caramel chip cookies instead.

Sunday was a day of no people, but I did a great Delia impression. Loaf of bread, coconut loaf and Easter biscuits (in the shape of chicks, eggs, lambs and bunny rabbits) baked. Easter biscuits iced (white for lambs, yellow for chicks, pink for rabbits and yellow and pink for eggs). Four shepherds pies made (it’s great having a microwave at work, these are great for lunch).

Monday was Italian Stallion night. He is heading off to Italy for Easter, and it’s been absolutely ages since we went out. So we headed off for meat at a Turkish restaurant. It was fun.

Today I think I am getting a cold. Personally I blame Andy.