Which dwarf are you?

Apart from the beard and the hat, this could very easily be me. I don't remember being bitten by a tse-tse fly, but I certainly have sleeping sickness. I could sleep anywhere, any time (except at night, of course, when I'm often wide awake into the wee small hours). Yesterday and today I got up around 8am (not bad for a weekend!) but by 1pm I was napping on both days, and woke up around 6pm. That's not a siesta, that's half a night's sleep! Maybe I should take some vitamins, or eat more fruit, or at least attempt a more balanced diet. At the moment I seem to be living off sandwiches and I read somewhere that they give prisoners a high-carb diet because it slows them down. It probably wasn't true, but it's stuck in my mind, and I do feel slow most of the time.

Trouble is, I don't have time to cook, so my attempts at healthy eating don't even pass the starting blocks. Perhaps I'll make a proper shopping list and a week's menus while I'm watching the television tonight. That's if I can stay awake ...

Barcelona or bust!

When I told my friend Bunny Anne that I was going to Marseille with another friend in October there was a black hole of a silence on the other end of the 'phone. Bunny Anne has been saying for a couple of years now, 'Oh, we must get away for a bit of a break, my treat.' Of course, Bunny being Bunny, nothing has ever come of it, although she has managed to organise 'a bit of a break' for herself and other people in Morocco and Venice.

Bearing in mind the old adage, 'If you want a job done, do it yourself ' I've succumbed to another offer from my friend Ryan - Ryan Air - and called Bunny this morning at work to see if she wanted to go to Barcelona in November. I did issue the stern warning, 'You won't let me down, will you?' because she has let me down on occasions too numerous to mention and if she does it again this time that really will be it. Friendship has its limits, after all!

But I'm not thinking along those lines, I'm just thinking about what a lot I have to look forward to - early October in Marseille, early November in Barcelona and ... (sssh, it's not booked yet and 'many a slip' and all that ...) the week before Christmas in Gran Canaria with work. Yippee!

I do feel a tad guilty about my carbon footprint, however, I haven't flown anywhere in 3 years, my bin is always empty because I recycle everything, I buy 'green' and I don't leave anything on standby, and after these 3 trips this year I probably won't be able to afford to go anywhere for the next five!

Marseille, here I come!

Marseille, here we come!

Well, after going through three different telephone 'menus' and holding on for 14 minutes on the 'help' line to the bank yesterday morning, a chirpy little girl called Jade (pronounced Jide) told me that my card had been refused for a deposit on an hotel. I knew that, I said, that was why I was calling, to find out why it had been refused. She didn't know. I asked if she could put me through to someone who could and she said she'd put me through to the internet helpline. I hung on for another four minutes before hearing the same telephone options as I had done 18 minutes earlier. At 29 minutes (it's helpful to have a phone that times the call. It's so much easier to be indignant when you know the exact amount of time you've been on hold) a familiar voice chirped, 'You're frew to customer services, this is Jide speakin', 'ow may I 'elp yooooo?' So much for getting through to internet banking... Jide was still unable to help me but did say that if the transaction had been refused it was probably because someone had entered the wrong information. We went through my information on the phone. It was all correct. Well, that was a half hour of my life wasted ...

So I made a fourth attempt to book the hotel in Marseille on the internet, and even 'phoned them up to tell them I was booking again. After a nice little chat with the monsieur who answered the 'phone and assured me that they would hold the room for me even if my credit card didn't work, the transaction went through with no problem. Yippee! It may only be 4 days in Marseille in October but it's been several years since I've had a proper holiday. I've had the odd 2-day break 'sur le continent' but they've been specifically to see concerts, and have involved a flight, a taxi ride, a concert, an hotel, a taxi ride and a flight home. Not what you'd call a holiday! So I'm really looking forward to going away and am already planning clothes, shoes, holiday reading, and all the different sights that I want to see.

Four days isn't going to be enough, but it's a start!

Race for Life

Over 10,000 women walked/ran/stumbled around the Race for Life course on Southampton Common yesterday lunchtime to raise funds for Cancer Research UK, and I was proud to be one of them. When I dragged myself out of bed in the morning I thought that it was the last thing I wanted to do, and that it would be my last year (it was my third) but when I got there and read everyone's dedications and saw the fancy dress outfits and listened to people talking as we were going round I knew I'd be doing it again next year! And, as every year, I swore to myself I'd get fit and run round, or at least jog a bit. My excuse for walking this year was that I was walking with a friend of mine who had persuaded her 80-year-old mother to take part, and I couldn't leave them behind, could I? Actually, at one point, it was as much as I could do to keep up with the older lady - she was surprisingly fit!

So I came home feeling quite buoyed up and positive, only to put my 'Grumpy' head back on when I got an email from the hotel I've been trying to book for a mini-break at the end of the year to say that my credit card had been refused AGAIN. I know I've given the right details. I know the card works because I use it for my regular shopping, so NatWest Card Services are going to be given the benefit of my displeasure if they cannot come up with a suitable explanation and, of course, profuse apologies.

Watch this space, as nothing in my life is straightforward at the moment!

La Vie En Rose

No, not ma vie en rose, ma vie is anything but rose at the moment, more like darkest noir, however ...

I went to see La Vie En Rose this evening, the marvellous new film about the life of 'La Môme', Edith Piaf. If you don't like your emotions being hit by a sledgehammer, if you don't like drama and tragedy, if you don't like the music of Edith Piaf, if you don't like subtitles and you don't speak French, if you don't like long movies, don't go.

If, like me, you love all things French, love the music, love the huge spectacle, then go and see this film. Do not wear mascara (unless of the waterproof variety) and do take tissues. Go to a late showing so that it's dark when you come out and no-one can see your tear-stained face.

To (partially) quote Norma Desmond, 'It's the pictures that got small.' La Vie En Rose is a return to the big picture.

I wasn't particularly grumpy this morning when I put on my Grumpy T-shirt (it's dress-down Friday here at the coal-face). I wasn't grumpy at all driving in because, miraculously, there was very little traffic and I got here in half an hour instead of the usual 40 minutes. I did become very grumpy, very quickly, however, when I got into the office and found the triffids had landed. Having been in our new building for 6 months we'd got used to the idea that we'd only have plants in reception, where visitors could see them, but the Board of Directors is coming over next week from the US, so we have to look all smart, and that means that, overnight, huge corporate plants have popped up in the most inappropriate of places. Like between my desk and my colleague's, so that we can't get to the window to close the blinds against the sun (when it chooses to shine). The plants are too heavy to move and, perversely, the sun is shining now after a month of rain, and I'm squinting at the screen, getting hotter and crosser. It's like a bloody greenhouse in here. I'm hoping that they will all go back once the BoD has gone.

I'm also pretty grumpy because I've had such a hectic 3 weeks - this will be the first weekend in 3 that I haven't worked - I was hoping for an easy day, but alas, it's not to be. Some of the BoD hangers-on have changed their minds about when they're going to London and when they're going home, so there's going to be a last-minute flurry of activity on my part, booking dinners and cars and hotels. So much for a lazy day! And I'm going out tonight. Right now it's the last thing I feel like doing ... Hey ho, such is life.

Of should that be Hi-ho?