It’s a funny thing, how the regions of the country (and I mean the wider definition of country here…. don’t jump down my throat please…), while we all speak the same language (well, mostly) have completely different ways of saying things.

Over the last few days I have spent a lot of time with people who are local to here, so it’s been even more noticable.

However, the thing which is unnerving me the most is my new minion. He is a happy married man, with young kid. He is several years younger than me (not sure how old he is, but he is only about mid-20’s). And he keeps calling me ‘Lovely!’

It really makes me feel old.

And it just seems a tad inappropriate to call your boss “Lovely!”

I get in in the morning. “Hello, Lovely, how are you today?”

I ask him a question. “Yes, my Lovely?”

As he left tonight. “Have a great weekend, Lovely, see you on Monday.”

I know it’s just a regional (and probably sexist) thing, but it just feels a bit weird.

Spent another morning in meetings with the people from the department I will be working closely with in my new job. Had my ego boosted big time by one of the managers saying how they had all been very happy when they heard I had got the job, because they felt the project has stagnated over recent months, and they thought I would got around to making things work.

Made me feel good - especially as there are a whole load of things I’ve not actually managed to get finished when I wanted to!

This wasn’t entirely my fault, since some of the things I was planning to run today I couldn’t, because my old department decided to take away some software, since that department bought the licence, and my new departmen will have to buy their own! I did suggest the next licence they need, we get my new department to pay for (since they actually don’t need the licence for my software right now anyway), but apparently that is not an option. I also suggested maybe they swapped the licence from the guy who moved from my new department to my old department, and that is also not an option, since that licence was purchased by a different department entirely. Although nobody had actually told that other department, who themselves are purchasing licences for all their new staff. I say are. They aren’t looking to purchase one of them any more, since I happened to mention to the manager there that my old department had one extra…..

Shit - I am already doing the politics thing.

I finally got my software back by playing the secondment card, so still technically employed by the old department.

For god’s sake, we all work for the same company!

Went out to lunch with my old team, since it was ONB’s last day in the office before he is off to get wed next weekend. That was nice. Apart from the fact the place we went to for lunch was full of people from work - LELI’s team on one big table, a team from my new department on another table, a bunch of people from the old department with spouses and babies. The restaurant was half full of people from work!

Then tonight my ‘friend’ B rang me. It’s been ages since we spoke - the last time she tried to ring me I was in the middle of a belly dance class! Hopefully it will be ages again…. I was on the phone for over an hour, and I think I managed to say 20 words. I told her about my new job, and all she could say was, “Really? You’ve moved out of that area of business? That’s incredible…” then launched into how she met up with people we used to work with, and how that has all changed and how she is glad she moved, and so on and so on. She slips in how she is working so hard, and is so tired because she works so late, wanting me to sympathise with her. However, it is her choice, when I ask her why she works such long hours all she can say is, “I don’t know.” Well, if you don’t fucking know, don’t fucking bitch about it!

I received an email this evening, before I left work, from a colleague from my old department. He is a nice guy, and we chat at work, but I am hardly what you would call close to him.

The email just contained this link. No title. No words. Just the link.

Does he want me to buy it him for Christmas?

LELI sent me a link to a job he is thinking of applying to. It is internal, but not local, it would involve a move oop norf. To a town he doesn’t really like. To a job he is not really keen to do.

I made semi-encouraging noises, suggesting he should wait until he sees a job he wants, where he wants to live. His answer was he is moving in 6 months time anyway, and he might as well get as much as he can from the company in the meantime. I couldn’t really argue with that.

He is making it so hard for me though. He sent me the application form he has completed, and asked me if I would look over his CV tomorrow, before he sends it off. I agreed to check over his CV, but when he sent the form it was all I could do to not laugh out loud. Although, to be fair, he did admit that when he came to filling it in, he realised how little he wanted the job!

Where, when I applied for a job I had filled two pages of stuff in the four little boxes they ask you to complete (why do you want the job? what have you achieved? all that gubbins), he had put one line in each.

It would have been oh so easy to say, “That’s fine,” knowing he would never even get an interview with that.

I didn’t. I sent him a copy of the application I did for the job I am in now, to give him an idea of what he should say.

I think I deserve a bloody medal!

Still busy at work, arranging meetings with everyman and his dog. Oh, and one woman. Trying to manage one member of staff, preparing for another to come back from holiday, answering phone queries, trying to sound like I know exactly what I am talking about.

But it’s a lot of fun.

Then, tonight being Wednesday, it was off to aerobics (or Legs, Bums and Tums to be precise), then jumping in the car to drive to belly dancing. As usual I forgot my belt - it seems to make it easier when I am wearing one - all you want to do once it’s around your hips is wiggle! And I can’t wait to get my new costume (it is fabulous Daisy, isn’t it?).

I hope I sleep okay tonight. Monday night is aerobics and yoga night. Yoga is supposed to help you relax - which I suppose it does. However, I did not get a good night’s sleep Monday night. I was too hot. This is, I suppose, a good thing, since it was a deep down hot, meaning my metabolic rate was in overdrive, burning off all that fat. However, I wish it would do it during the day, when I need to be awake, rather than at night, when I need to be asleep!

I suppose coming home and having a bar of chocolate is bad?

….let’s get busy!

Been a very busy weekend.

Friday went out for drinks with people from work (old team - nobody from new team came, think they are not so into going out drinking so much). Lot’s of people at the start, whittled down to just four of us at the end - me, X, Baby J and T. All got very drunk. From what I remember it was fun.

Saturday, I managed to get up, showered and dressed just in time for when a certain Lion was due to arrive. And then he was 20 minutes late!

Still, up he turns, in his new toy from Toy Town. You can see a picture of it on his site, obscuring the excellent picture of my house.

We went off in said toy, and it was a lot of fun, although it did leave my hair in a very fluffy state, and for so long I have had very short hair, that carrying a brush or comb is just not going to happen, so he had to sit in a pub with me looking like a dandelion.

Saturday night I went off to a wedding reception, by the sea. That too was a lot of fun, and I did loads of dancing again - and sober this time too!

Sunday I managed to sleep most of the morning away, then spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone to my sister, and then my mom. My mom has agreed to buy me this for Christmas. The only bad thing about it is I have to wait until Christmas before I can wear it…..

Sunday night was LELI time. We were going to go for dinner to a Middle Eastern place we have been to once before, but when we got there it was closed. Big time closed. With a sign over the door saying ‘opening in October - new Sushi bar’. Bugger.

So, off we pootled trying to find somewhere else, ending up on the road where the Greek restaurant we have also been to before is. Only that was closed too. So we turned around, heading for an Italian LELI knew, only we somehow managed to drive past it without noticing…. It is now approaching 9 o’clock.

Suddenly, LELI shouts, “Lebanese!” so I stamped on the brakes, left the car very illegally parked on a yellow line, and in we went.

And it was fantastic.

Good choice LELI!

That boy needs to start inviting me in when I drive him home. Yet again we sat outside his flat for over an hour and a half chatting. When the weather gets colder, I am going to insist on it!

Email conversation between myself and LELI -

me - How are you? I am tired, had to get in early this morning because C gave me a lift in. Are you going to come for a drink tonight?

LELI - I’ll leave the office at 3 and going home to study . Must do . What about toss it Sunday evening ?

me - Sunday is good (I assume you mean by ‘toss it’ that you want to go out then instead?) (by the way, don’t ask J to explain ‘toss it’ to you….)

LELI - Yes with toss it a mean celebrate it with a drink . I was told about the slang meaning of toss some times ago

Eventually we got to the bottom of what he meant - he meant toast my getting promoted with a drink. God, sometimes he is so cute it hurts.

All this going out with real people is seriously interfering with my internet social life!

Had my hair done on Saturday, and I now have the ‘negative badger’ look. Or maybe ‘negative Cruela de Ville’. It’s platinum blonde all over, apart from a flash of black right at the front. And it’s not so spiky, it’s a bit longer. I love it.

However, not a single person has said anything about it in my new department. I am thinking working with a bunch of accountants may turn out to be slightly dull.

Started new job on Monday. It seems to be going okay so far - I have loads to read, and also need to be pulling data from sources I have not used before, using tools I’ve never seen, so it’s a lot of learning to be done. And I really hate not knowing what I am talking about - but then, moving areas after 10 years this is going to happen. It has been fun so far.

New minion needs to smarten up though - I took him homebaked cookies on the first day, and he said he didn’t like them, they were too sweet!

Still going to aerobics and belly dancing. I didn’t go on Monday though - too tired from first day at work, combined with period pain from hell. So last night we went to a class at a different leisure centre.

God, it was awful. The instructor could not have made a more complicated routine if she had spent 5 years devising it. And it is entirely possible that is what she has done. I got the impression that a lot of the people in the class have been going for years, so it is possible she has evolved it over time. But for someone new to the class it was a nightmare - I spent most of the hour walking around the room with a glazed expression on my face, banging into my friend L who was equally as confused but often in the opposite direction to me, so when I was stepping left, waving my arms, she was stepping right, lifting her legs.

We won’t be going there again.

Tonight was aerobics and belly dancing. It was the first time L came to that aerobics class, and she said it was much more enjoyable than last night. She got lost occasionally in the routine, but it was easy to pick up again.

I am exhausted.

Not helped by another 2 hour conversation with LELI. I have hardly spoken to him for days, since he has been busy studying, and now we work on different floors, in different departments.

I still don’t want him to go. I can’t keep telling him so though, so I have to smile through gritted teeth, and wish him luck with his job applications. Sigh.

Have gone to the O₂ website, to check on my bill. While I was there, I thought I’d check out what other monthly plans they have on offer, since I have had this plan for 3 years now, so it is entirely possible I can get a better deal.

Clicking on the ‘pay monthly’ tab takes me to a page which tells me about ‘long weekends’, about how all the plans, if you commit to them for any length of time they offer an extra 50% for free, and a link to the plans available in store. No plans for online. Nothing. Stupid.

So, I spot a link which says ‘best plan advice‘. It’s great. Apparently. It tells you how they will look at what your usage is (subject to terms and conditions) and find the best plan for you.

But no clue as to how to get it. No phone number. No link to another page. Just some spiel about how great they are.

Have I missed something? Have O₂ online sort of disappeared?

My parents were down, and me and my mom came up here this morning to play on the pc. She wanted me to scan some photos for her, and also wanted to look at a website one of her friends had given her (got to love those silver surfers!).

Anyway, I tried to show her how ebay worked. It was fine, I was showing her some crafty stuff, until it came for me to sign in. For some reason I couldn’t get access. I just put it down to a bug, maybe their system was down or something.

They left earlier tonight, so I decided to come up and check my email.

Only I can’t get in to my yahoo account.

I try ebay again.

Hmm, can’t get into that either.

I check the other account, which I have set up as the alternate account for ebay, and that is fine. I immediately change the password. Then I go to yahoo, and go through the security questions, and get sent a new password.

38 emails are waiting for me, all from ebay. Most about what I have ‘bought’, a few questions about the items I am selling, one from the trader I have ‘bought’ from with abuse about me stealing money, one with an invoice to someone for over £1,000. And thankfully one from ebay saying they have spotted my account has been compromised, removed all the items for sale and reset my password.

It’s all almost been resolved now I think. The items I ‘bought’ are still showing in ‘my ebay’, all put into payment dispute. There also appears to be some nasty feedback left by me for the trader, which also has comments by them about me being a fraudster. Hopefully that can all be cleaned up.

Bastards!