Weirdest moment at work

- I'm finishing up in the ladies bathrooms and reaching to hitch up my trousers when my phone rings. The place is empty so I answer. It's the lady at church in charge of the kids and is worried about a projector not working and needs me to direct her to someone in the know. I help out best I can, suggesting one or two folks, before finally making it out to the sinks. Luckily no one walked in mid-conversation. That would have been weird.

Yay, it's December! Happy Advent, everyone! I can feel myself crawling closer to Christmas, which makes me very happy. Best time of year ever. Si claims to be coming home purely for Christmas dinner, I think he really missed it last year whilst in Thailand.

It's spookily quiet at work today. It has been for the past week or so. It's nice not to be overrun with students, but it does make things a mite creepy, especially as I go past the mortuary at the end of my shift. It would be worse at Halloween methinks.

St Trinian's was as wonderful as promised. Seriously fun. A great big dollop of Britishness, fighting for a cause with anarchy and awesome teamwork. Gemma Arterton knows how to work a pencil skirt! I'd dress like that at work if I thought I could get away with it. Offered an article on the film to my Damaris editor and he said he'd like something brief. Um....oops? It's not long, just not brief either. Am hoping to get it done and polished for the week of the sequel's release (18th). I am channeling Miss Fritton's fantastically barmy and supportive spirit, only without the whiskey, smoking, and dog.

Am very much intrigued by Guy Richie's take on Sherlock Holmes. The film comes out on 25th December and am hoping to persuade my family see it with me. Richie is a tad hit and miss for me, I very much enjoyed Snatch though. And the trailer was very much inticing. I do like me some Robert Downey Jr. I've still got to see Iron Man. Bad geek girl! Anthony is a big Sherlock Holmes fan so maybe we can go see it in January. He may not appreciate the rough and ready reimagining though.

The power just cut out here at work for five seconds, rendering me in the dark with a suddenly off computer. It was very disconcerting. Thankfully normal service has been resumed, though I am now eyeing the strip lighting suspiously. Dear God, please may it not happen ever again?

This time next week I'll be done with full work days - yay! I just feel kinda ground-down about the whole thing, though I've managed to keep crisises at bay, managing to change the copier toner, deal with multiple deliveries and a new academic moving in. Just gotta get my hands on some black sacks......

Been reading a lot of stuff over at het_reccers. It's been a revelation. My favourites so far include:

Bones fic: As Empty as The Inside of Me (Booth/Brennan) by _missmargaret_ Incredible
Star Wars fic: Rumours of My Demise (Obi-Wan/Padme) by dee My first ever reading of a SW fic and it's so sad and beautiful.
Iron Man (film) fic: Proof (Tony/Pepper) by gabby_silang so cute and snarky and them

Also a Stargate: Atlantis fic, care of marcicat and her awesome reccing abilities: My Home and Native Land by copperbadge

* Two weeks of overtime whilst co-worker Bill is in Turkey for a well-earned holiday with his missus means minor amounts of sleep but much overtime on the payslip so I am dealing. The early mornings feel as though they're killing me though and I have the urge to buy some concealer to banish the dark circles under my eyes.

* The bank holiday was spent with Dad and Lynda aka father in law and stepmum in law. We hardly ever spend time with them so it was lovely and extra lazy. Anthony really loves being with his Dad so it was awesome for him. We explored Tonbridge Castle which was great fun, I love castles, and watched lots of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which makes me so unbelievably happy. Also watched some West Wing series 1 which reminded me of the pure joy of that show and renewed my desire to actually watch every series of it.

*I have developed a real love for Tinchy Stryder, the melodies always give me emotion. Nice job, sir.

*I have had my first experience of Bones! Thanks to Paul and Becky lended me the first series boxset and it's as gleefully bantery and made of win as I was promised. I've put off getting into the show before now as I knew once I started I'd have to watch each episode and really the amount of crime shows I'm into is ridiculous. But there's always room for more and Bones definitely takes pride of place with the best of them. I'd gladly recieve any fic recs!

Ouch! My new shoes have given me a blister on one of my toes. Gonna have to wrap it in a plaster before I head into work tomorrow. C'est la vie, the cute shoes are gonna be worth it once my feet get used to them. Wearing heels every day, even little ones, is gonna take some time to get comfortable.

Another school strategy event today which meant listening to ideas on how our school can reach success and lots of plannings. So it was lots of academics and admin bods like me trying to make the management see things from the ground floor. I worked early today so that I could go to the afternoon part and arrived, thanks to a kindly lift from Jackie, in time for lunch. I stuffed myself with cheese and pickle sandwiches (big surprise there) and made an attempt at healthy by also having liberal quantities of strawberries and grapes. Plus I got a big hug and a kiss from Dee and caught up with some lovely campus people who I miss seeing every day. Also David entertained our table with stories of what he and his research team get up to in their labs - on one occasion getting hold of some wound fluid they needed in exchange for a quantity of human skin they had for reason and then there was something to do with rats bladders. I'm gonna have to visit the labs real soon to see all this in person!

I never feel entirely comfortable at hen parties (batchelorette). I don't know why. The one on Saturday for Kate was tremendous fun. We had cakes and drinks in the garden, all of us in summery dresses, and then we went onto a great place called Funstrokes where you buy something to paint, like a bowl or a statue. It was really a lot of fun. And there's the wedding in two weeks, on my birthday, which is really exciting. Plus I got to catch up with Emily V who got engaged after dating her fiance for only two months.

Websites have been screwing with me. Trying to book train tickets on trainline is very difficult sometimes as they remember the last account used and send everything through that account. So Anthony got all the insurance emails, even though I'd signed in and used my account. Well, I paid for the tickets themselves and they should arrive in the post soon. Fingers crossed.

Got my mind blown when I realised that the school strategy event this week is actually on Wednesday, not Friday, as I'd thought. So a full day of work for me as I'll work in Bill's place in the morning and then go to the event in the afternoon. There is a free lunch though and if its as delicious as last time, it will be worth it.

Bought a new pair of shoes! Very cute black leather with a decent heel and buckle straps. A little bit school-marmish but also make me think of Paris. They are my new work shoes. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, I have developed a weird way of walking with my right foot as the heel of all my right shoes ends up worn down on the right-hand side. It ruins shoes for me and makes me very self-conscious and it's already started on this new pair. *frowns* I'm trying to correct my walking, but no luck so far. I've no idea how the whole habit started either, which is so frustrating.

Ahhh, must go to bed. My eyes are starting to droop shut and I keep zoning out. Clearly, I have been awake way too long. So when I try to sleep, naturally it will evade me. Darn my screwy internal workings!

Mum arrived here safe and looking as glam and breezy as ever. We ate at TGI Fridays, where the music was loud (and so against Anthony's taste he literally headdesked, it was very amusing. Should I have not laughed?), and the food was delicious and filling - both Mum and Anthony told me I eat very slowly, hey the whole world just eats fast, okay? I have a small stomach and I need time to digest and I happen to talk a lot because dinners are social times. Also the waitress who was delightful and attentive throughout, managed to charge me almost £5,000 for the meal before realising her mistake and refunding it. Seriously, £5,000?! I wasn't phased, but my companions were. I'll be going to my bank tomorrow to check it's all accounted for!

Wedding dress shopping tomorrow with the dream team of Emma and Kendra. Included is an appointment with Oxfam Bridal. I'm hoping it's not too hot as one of my academics, who is totally strong and forthright in her speech, took my aside today to politely and firmly tell me that I smelled quite strong. Translation, the hot weather has made me stinky. That would be because of the heat of my domain, Bill and I call it the Dungeon as we're on the ground floor, and because I travel in a sweatbox of a bus to and from work. Still, a small canister of deoderant will be bought tomorrow for work purposes.

There's a voice in my head, which is male and swears a lot. I think I've watched and read too many of Spoony's reviews recently. Darn you, Anthony, for introducing me to this! Check it out people, he talks/writers sense, most of the time :)

Behold! I am working normal work hours and as a result, feel a lot more alive than I have these past two weeks. Joy is unconfined lol. I actually am feeling very buyont now and bubbly and I really hope it's showing. I hate it when I feel down because I feel like it affects other people and I hate that a lot.

I don't think I've shared this yet, but everyone has to check out the wonder that is That Guy With The Glasses. An awesome site that my fiance introduced me to, it's full of videos reviewing video games, TV and films. It's absolutely hilarious and just a wonderful ode to the joys of really loving or really hating something. My personal favourite is The Nostalgia Critic who reviews films and TV shows of ages past and always has something hilarious and usually rageful and scornful to say. He also manages to be very constructive, if it was all rage all the time I wouldn't be able to stomach it.

If you're gonna check out any of the videos, watch The First Anniversary Brawl which shows what happened when all the site's contributors met up in Chicago and violence ensued. I guarantee it'll make you laugh.

I also recommend The Spoony Experiment, a partner of TGWTG, who makes me laugh and reminds me of my fiance, really a lot. I clearly have a thing for angry young men who are proud geeks and also argue their points intelligently and with humour :)

Ah my two exhausting full days of work are over. I can't believe how tired it's made me! And I have a full week of them next week, there won't be much left of me come the end of it. I really need to get some stamina and staying power. I don't want to be getting snappy with people just because I'm tired.

Abysmal Champions League football final tonight between Barcelona and Manchester United. Man U were just terrible, giving the ball away. But I got to watch it at Nick's house, after the tail end of the Living Room team meeting that I got there for. It was nice to just chill and chat afterwards during the football, we so rarely get to do that together. And there was tea and cheesecake so I was happy.

I've been wearing a beautiful nightgown that belonged to Granny P recently - it's deep turquoise silk and has an ankle length skirt so I feel endlessly elegant. And it's sheer over the breasts but still covers what it needs to. Even in her nineties, Granny P remained stylish, from her nightwear to her underwear. I should have kept more of her nightgowns but this was the one that caught my eye. Maybe wearing it is the cause of the vivid dreams I've been having about her recently. They've been nice, like she's still around. I certainly feel her presence when I'm trying on wedding dresses, imagining what she'd say. The colour scheme of the wedding is going to be purple, which was Granny P's favourite colour. I like to think she'd approve.

Raretelevision.com is closing down! So now all their stock is half price. It's a completely awesome resource of old TV shows that haven't been officially released on DVD yet put on DVD for you, and new shows that aren't available either. Go buy people, I highly recommend it.

My first corporate day yesterday when every single member of staff gathered in one place to discuss the future and how we think we could improve. It was really great to see people I haven't seen since I moved from campus to the hospital and Dee was her fabulous fiesty self. She always makes me smile. The catering was amazing too. That's important at events like this. I was super not-looking-forward-to-it but it was okay and we got let out early so I was home two hours and a half earlier than I usually am. Which is a win.

I keep watching this video of Team Mambo on this week's episode of Dancing with the Stars because it just keeps making me feel all kinds of happy and smiley. Lacey in particular is in amazing body-shaking form, seriously it's the best I've seen her perform in the two seasons she's competed in.

Darn, I managed to leave my beret on the bus. I only noticed when I was taking my coat and scarf off and realised something was missing. I've rung the company and left my details for if it turns up again. *sigh* What is it with me and leaving hats in public places? I've lost two really good hats at the cinema that way. I'm getting more absent-minded every year. It's actually kinda scary.