Live life with joie de vivre

there were a number of amusing notices warning the unwary promenader not to “climb on the groynes” leading me and my ace sister-in-law to make smutty comments about slippery groynes ahem ;)

_{what the hell is a groyne anyway?}

But then I came across this rather ace “do not drink 10 pints at the Sole Bay Inn and then fall off a cliff” sign which I feel is worthy of commemoration.

I can continue to wallow in crap and languish in the Gloomy Trap beating myself up about all the stupid things I’ve done and the things that have happened as a result and wishing it could all be different.

Or I can say “Enough already, leopard” and take some positive action.

I am now going to put some music on, clean up my flat, remember that life is short and needs to be enjoyed as much as possible, and cheer the fuck up!

thought-provoking and well-balanced article on the subject of happiness in today’s Grauniad. Lots of food for thought. Am posting it here so I can come back to it in times of crisis!

I may have found a new favourite drink for the summer! I had it at the Ritz where it was called the Dark and Stormy. However my version is simpler and I’m tempted to call it the Pale and Lazy ;)

• rum – Sainsburys had Morgan Spiced Rum on special offer so I went for that which seems to be doing the job very adequately
• juice of half a lime
• ginger ale
• ice

Bung in a tall glass, swish around a bit… can’t be bothered to faff about with sugar syrup. You don’t even need a cocktail shaker! It’s refreshing and zingy. Mmmm!

Finally, a decent photo _{if you want a job doing properly etc. etc…}

Spitting image, I say!

for future reference to cheer me up! My darling Cuth, le plus beau chat du monde, next to Big Bad Tig, on the shelf above the radiator. The difference in size is not entirely due to perspective ;)

After 24 hours of nailbiting tension, ex-best friend D has just accepted my FB request! Supexiting!

_{am happy}

The long-awaited school reunion took place this evening, in a restaurant on Cavendish Square. I have to say it was an interesting evening. There were only a couple of people there who I’d classify as former friends, but fortunately I managed to sit with them so we were able to catch up on things.

One of them, V, turned out to be rather a hard-nosed, slightly impatient no-nonsense type, which she sort of was at school but more so. The other was M, who was in the same brainy clique as me but I have to be honest, we never liked each other very much. We managed an amicable conversation this evening and she’s packed in being a lawyer and is now working for the civil service, doing good things of which I approve. I found myself enjoying talking to her about politics and she was very self-deprecating which was quite endearing.

V had been to the lunch today and dished the dirt: apparently the bossy person who organised the whole thing started making allegations that something really awful must have happened in our class, as so few of us were there. And started blaming people for not providing more photos! And moved people round half way through the meal so all the waiters got confused about who was having what.

It’s true there weren’t many from my class there this evening, and I was sad that my ex-best friend D wasn’t there, but at least it avoided bringing up the reason why she excommunicated me. D still sees a lot of ex-arch-enemy M so I suppose it’s possible I could get to see her in future. Perhaps it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie, I don’t know.

Am still reeling slightly from the weirdness of it all, but am glad that I went this evening, it was good to see people and the general atmosphere was very jolly. I think I’ll have to give some more consideration to joining Facebook.

I sent my new minion, D, off to go and get her ID card which involves a trip out to another building some way away. Our relatively new admin assistant, who’s part time and gets in at about 9.30, thought D hadn’t turned up for work i.e. had lasted just one day!

Now admittedly I was joking last week about how the finance team’s long service awards should be presented to people after 1 month, as opposed to 25 years of service, because they drop like flies, but one day is taking the biscuit! ;)

_{paws crossed D lasts a little longer, she’s doing well so far}

inspired by a letter I had to deal with at work today.

One day, back in my accountancy training days, I was preparing a set of accounts for a small business, think it was a farm of some sort. They had a manual cashbook, and each month a small payment, of around £20, was made to someone called Nico.

I remember thinking that Nico was a nice name, and each time I saw that entry in the cashbook I began to construct a mental image of him, seeing him as perhaps a tall dark handsome Italian. I spent some time speculating about what service he provided for the farm that earned him this modest monthly payment. In my mind he was perhaps the lawn-mower, or the window-cleaner. It was all very Lady Chatterley.

To cut a long story short, eventually I realised that NICO stood for National Insurance Contributions Office. Not quite the same, somehow. It still amuses me though…