Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Thank you whomever sent me a parcel from play.com. Alas, there was nothing on the outside to say who it was from and a very cautious peek inside suggested the gifty wasn' t wrapped so I ventured no further. It's been put in a safe place so I'm not tempted to peek until Thursday :)

Work was painless and now I'm free, free, FREE!! until Jan 5th :D

Ahhhh *loafs happily*

I don't normally bother with decorations because I'm lazy, mostly, but I've put up some tinsel and I've got some ceiling decorations to go up and I think I'll put the fairy lights up around the glass in my lounge door. It does make the place look more cheerful, I must say.

Got ShitStirrer's Sekrit Santa pressie tonight - small bottle of Southern Comfort - and that's all wrapped and ready to go, so I'm all organised. It's the office Xmas lunch tomorrow, when we'll do the present exchange. Looking forward to that, we always have a good time and it's a proper Christmas do, usually, with crackers and stuff :D

I got my letter from the Occupational Health Doc today, which I'd already seen, because Foghorn had shown me her copy at work. He said what he said he would, although I didn't expect him to actually put in writing it would be good if the flexible hours of working could continue after the Christmas vacation :D Not that I thought they'd get arsey about it but it's nice to have it in writing - "Look, the Doc SAYS I'm gonna be tired!" I've done 3 days of 5 hours this week and I'm doing OK. I think I'll try for six after Christmas, see how it goes. I can always step down for a couple of days if it feels like being too much.

And now I must go and watch a gruesome programme on Discovery about machines of execution :D Do excuse me!

I had my early night last night (I was in bed by 10pm!) and guess what? Yeh, I didn't get to sleep until gone midnight anyway. *sighs* I was really restless all night, actually, even though I was tired. Hmf. Well I'll go to bed at midnight tonight and see if I sleep better. Expect I will :)

So that's the Christmas cards done, the washing done, I'm all showered and hair's been washed and I've successfully recorded a greeting for the rec.arts.mystery Christmas vid. Now I'm loafing and watching the football.

I do love lazy Sundays :) Not as much as lazy Saturdays but they're the next best thing!

I've booked my Christmas leave and I'll be off from Mon 22nd through to Friday 2nd January 2009. So that'll give me a nice long break. I'll have to find out what hours I'll be doing when I go back as I'm pretty sure I won't be managing more than six. I hope that's ok with work, but I'll run it past them next week :)

And it's our office Christmas bash on Friday, which means the afternoon will probably be cancelled due to lack of interest :D Oh and PartyGirl thought of what I could get ShitStirrer - booze! - so that's sorted :)

*settles back* Time for tea, methinkest!

Merry Christmas, work is over! :) Finished work at 4 today, scampered about town picking up last minute items, dropped my keys off at the cat feeder's house and then scurried home. I'm all packed and ready for the off tomorrow, which I hope will be before 7.30am. Yes, I know, me and early mornings don't go, but frankly I'd rather do the bulk of the journey with fewer idiots on the road, given the foggy weather.

My car still goes vroom and it is good.

So Exeter tomorrow until Wednesday, when I scamper up to Wales (weather permitting) to visit therealsherbs until the Friday. Half a day's rest then I go over to Rainham on Saturday to visit Aunty Eve. Then I get Sunday and Monday to snooze/recover until it's back to work again.

Hee!

I'm sure I'll be online over the next week but wanted to post and say

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

to you all. Have a wonderful holiday :)

*scampers off like a happy mousey*

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061219/ap_on_fe_st/bad_crack

Bwahahahahaha!

In other news, today's away day was great fun. There were two serious talks, neither of them very long, that I pretended I was listening to, and the rest of the morning was filled with silly games cunningly devised by PartyGirl and BigBouncy and "Girl from the other department I may need to think of a nickname for." We played Bingo, only the numbers were the LEA numbers of the schools and in the final "get a full house" round, we were only given the school names :) That was fun. There was "That was the year" competition, all about 1966 - we did well in that. (I should explain we were all in teams named after cocktails this year. I was in Harvey Wallbanger. I'm sayin' nuthin'.). There was also "The Price is Right" which we were moderately crap at, and a bonus round of "Guess the children's cartoons from the pics and give us the year it was first broadcast in the UK". We did better at that but didn't get the years - nobody really got close :) Anyway, we didn't win but lots of fun was had.

Then there was lunch. *holds tummy, whimpers* I ate too muuuuuch! I had duck and port pate for starters, with herb crostini. It was very tasty, but there was a huge amount of pate and not enough crostini, so I scoffed two small bread rolls as well. *attempts to look innocent* Then my main course was pan fried pork loin in cider sauce, with vegetables and roast potatoes. YUMMY!! And dessert was profiteroles with cream. You'll be totally unsurprised to know I'm still not hungry, even though it's eight hours later :P

After lunch, we all cleared off. No-one went back to work - we're allowed to claim from 9-4pm for an away day - so FogHorn took me over to WGC, as she wanted to pay bills and I needed to go and buy my Sekrit Santa present. Which I did, eventually. However, inspiration failed me, so TooBrightTies now has a not-too-bright but attractive new silk tie :P

I was looking forward to watching Liverpool v. Arsenal in the Carling Cup tonight but the game's been postponed on account of thick fog. Bah. I foresee an early night, actually, I'm sleepy. Not that we'll do any work tomorrow, it being the office Christmas do at lunchtime :) I love the last week before Christmas *cackles*

Last week was hectic as hell at work. In between assorted Christmas meals, I shifted a metric ton of paperwork off my desk without recourse to fire, flood or creative binning.

To follow up on the office Christmas meal on the 8th, we had the School Funding/Financial Service for Schools Away Day at a very nice hotel in Ware. In between the serious stuff about formulas, Year End and regulations (I dozed during those) there were fun party games, like match the baby picture to the grown person, and Little Known Facts About Your Colleagues. Great fun. Then there was a splendiferous lunch, one of the best I've had. I had a starter of "Chicken Liver Parfait" (pate to you and me) which was not only gorgeous, it was extremely plentiful. Then my main course was the most delicious Baron of Lamb. *drooools* So tender and tasty! This was accompanied by the usual veggies that were, miracle of miracles, not overcooked but Just Right. Dessert was scrumptious chocolate profiteroles with chocolate sauce. Mmm-MMMM!

The following day, we had our Office Christmas lunch in the Staff Canteen. I was still so full from the previous feasting, that I only had the main course. Just for the heck of it, I had the turkey - I knew it would be the only time I would have a turkey dinner this Christmas, so I figured I may as well. Pretty good value and pretty edible, but suffered in comparison to previous meals :)

PartyGirl finished work on the Thursday, so we were very busy trying to clear the last of the adjustment forms for the Nursery Grant for the Autumn Term. Did I mention I worked the previous Saturday for five hours shifting paperwork? Well it took us most of the following week to finish up but we got it done, hurrah!

Saturday I went over to see Aunty Eve. As you may recall, I had been going to see her on the 11th, but there was this nasty bang over Hemel Hempstead way and I voted not to risk the roads. So I went on Saturday and had a lovely time with Aunty Eve. We went to lunch at the pub/hotel place called The Honourable Pilot (WIll Adams was born in Gillingham, just up the road from Rainham) and had good food. I had such a good time that I told Aunty Eve I'd visit her next week too, probably the Wednesday when folks are back at work. She's probably going to have Christmas lunch with her next door neighbours. I was welcome to visit her Christmas Day, but I declined. Not because she's not lovely, but because I feared what the stress would do to her. She really looks her age (94) now and she scared me with her talk too. "You'd best take those videos of your Mum's back with you, I don't want you not to get them if ....." That's the first time she's really done that, admitted that she might not be around much longer, which is far worse than seeing it. I get the sense though that she's made her peace and is kind of ready to go, so I'll not begrudge her her rest. But dammit, I'd still like to keep her around as long as possible, I'll miss her so much.