.....and Breathe

Boy am I glad that's over and done with!

I got there a few minutes early so that Bruce and I could set up the computer and make sure everything was going to work ok, sure enough it worked fine....DAMN!!

Then people started to arrive, one, two, three......fifteen...sixteen?

Ergh

I was introduced and got up to start my speil, I was a bit shakey and nervous, but then the nerves REALLY hit about 30 seconds in.

There was a little bit of stuttering and 'Ummmmmmm'ing as I stared at the ceiling watching an internal movie that showed me breaking and bolting for the door. I could feel myself shaking, it was horrible.

But then I forced myself to settle down and concentrate, and once I was in my flow it seemed to go ok.

I'm not sure that I got across all the points that Laura really wanted me to get across in quite the way I was supposed to, but for my first attempt at an actual presentation of anything since my dissertation in 2005 I think I did ok.

I've already been asked to check over the plans for an upcoming project etc etc...I think I'd better get cramming that Prince2 textbook again. It'll be good to get my teeth into something though, this is definitely knowledge that needs to be used, or you'll lose it quicksmart!

*Massive sigh of relief*

Now....onto all those millions of other jobs that have been piling up that I haven't been able to think about!

THE FEAR!!

No, it's not spiders (though I don't like those either), it's not snakes, it's not ghosts or heights or.....buttons.

It's back, the fear of public speaking.

I have a presentation to give tomorrow. Though I must admit, I'm not (at this point) as worried as I was last time. However...there's every chance that at 10:30am tomorrow I will be kacking in my knickers, wondering why I didn't call in sick.

The presentation is on Prince2 project management, the course that I bored you all to death with for a week about a month ago, ten minutes. I think I'm about as prepared as I'm going to be. I've practiced twice on Jo, who said that it had improved markedly between the first and second inflictions, and once on Grant, who said it all made sense and then faffed around with one of my powerpoint slides before screaming 'Close it, close it!! Don't save it!!'

My darling sister Nicki produced the powerpoint for me, and very nicely she did too. It would have been functional, but horrendous had I done it myself.

*Mental note to attend powerpoint course*

So, I have my powerpoint, my notes, and my mindmap:

Good old trusty mindmap, when I find myself floundering, it'll be there for me.

Wish me luck ladies and gents, I may need it!

Updates to come :)

Humbled

A wee pre-amble....I just caught sight of the time on the bottom corner of my window and saw it was 10:45am. I almost leapt up and ran into the kitchen. This is tea time at work, it took me a couple of seconds to realise that I am in fact at home on the sofa, and I already have the biggest cup of tea in the world staring me in the face.

Just give me a moment whilst I put my world back to rights.

In my defence I'm quite ill, the cute Doctor yesterday has put me on 2 x tablets, 4 x a day, for ten days. I'm not sure quite how infected he thinks I am...but I'm sure there's an insult in there somewhere.

So if this is a bit haphazard, blame the burning fever!

Back to the point of the blog....how dare you distract me.

I'm a little bit excited because I've been given my first Blog Award by fellow blogger Ms Humble over at Not So Humble Pie. Please do feast your eyes upon the Fabulous Sugar Doll Blog Award:

*Tiny scream*

I wonder if Ms Humble is regretting this yet? Haw haw.

Ok, so, before I pass this award onto more excellent bloggers, I have to share ten things about myself, for your information and amusement:

1) Despite being one of the most gabby so-and-so's you ever would meet, I have an intense fear of public speaking. In fact, at this very moment I should be perfecting a presentation I have to give on Monday morning......ho hum

2) I once got a guinea pig stuck in a slinky, head sticking out one end, bum out of the other. My dad had to cut it off with wire cutters.

3) In 2005 I spent a month on a Vervet Monkey Sanctuary in South Africa, I was mummy to 11 baby orphans.

4) On 4th April this year I shall be jetting off to Bangkok to start a 3 month adventure around South East Asia, finishing up with a week in Sydney, Oz.

5) I'm a volunteererererer. I volunteered at London Zoo for 4 years and I'm still a member of St John Ambulance. I suspect it's an underlying uniform fetish.

6) I feel a strong sense of responsibility to start cooking more now that I've recieved this little award. I shall bake some locust cookies sometime over the next few weeks and post the disasterous results, purely for your entertainment. (They'll look like locusts, I hope....if they end up tasting like locusts I'll accept no direct responsibility).

7) My bessie mate is a stand-up comedian on the open-mike circuit. This means I get to go and watch a lot of comedy, whilst drinking a lot of lager. This plays havoc with my intention of losing weight before I go travelling....especially when we call Dominos upon arriving back home...

8) I work at a university and every morning I have a cup of Earl Grey from the student Café across the way from my office. I get VERY twitchy if I don't get my Earl Grey.

9) Once upon a time, for a little while, I was an Ann Summers party lady. Those of you who don't know what that is.....don't judge me when you google it. Ladies only, ladies only!

10) I've lived in 4 different places over the past 3ish years, every time I move I tell myself I'll chuck out a load of stuff for the next round.....I never do. I think my dad is ready to throw all my university textbooks out of the window, he has the pleasure of helping me every time I move.

Now to pass on the award. Everyone that I have chosen deserve the label 'fabulous' for one reason or another, and I know they can cook...hence.....

Seeing as this is a food (SUGAR!) related award, to keep the spirit of the Sugar Doll Blog Award alive, I challenge each of you to bake something yummy sometime over the next few weeks if/when you have time, and post the results :) If you don't have the time....just buy something from Marks and Spencers and eat it! We need to keep our strength up in this cold weather.

Violet Dear @ http://www.madnessandbeauty.com/

Wiluf @ http://laphotishere.blogspot.com/

Maureen @ http://www.ratherbeblogging.com/

Michelle @ http://ohmishka.blogspot.com/

Oggers @ http://joblogden.blogspot.com/

Wendy @ http://wendysees.blogspot.com/

accidentally, Kle @ http://accidentallykle.blogspot.com/

Natalie @ http://www.chickenblog.com/

Erm......Jo and Wilf, I'll be wanting to try your creations...and don't think you'll get away not trying my locusts :D

Muahahahahahahaha!!

If Looks Could Kill.....

......then this one is designed to kill slowly and painfully.


This is Vicky's cat Lillie, this is her angry face, she has two faces, angry and happy. Unfortunately, when she's happy she moves around too fast and I can't get a decent picture. So below is the closest I got to it:

She always looks like she's got a bit of a grump on, but you can see a definite difference right? That's the difference between 'I'm hungry' and 'Mmmm, full belleh'. When she's happy she chirrups at you when you call her name, it's exceptionally cute! Although you can't really tell in these pictures, she is a tiny little diminuitive kittie.

This next one here is Vicky's pride and joy, Mister Neelix.

Such a poser! Neelix is possibly one of the most malleable cats in the world, you can get away with squishing him into any weird position you like. Try doing that with the little monster giving you stinkeye (thanks #167 Dad) in the first picture.....do you WANT to lose an eyeball? Cos you will!

Mister Neelix once went missing for 17 days during Autumn/Winter. Being a purebreed he has severe food allergies, and going missing for 17 days is bad enough without having that issue on top. I think most people had given up by the time Vicky put an ad in the Croydon Advertiser....but lo and behold it worked, and someone called her up a few days later. He's a miracle puss.

Mister Neelix hovering for warmth over the radiator.

You may have noticed the gorgeous curly coats this pair have. Part of the reason Vicky got these guys is because they don't shed, and the person she was living with had bad cat allergies.

Mister Neelix is a Cornish Rex, and Lillie is a Devon Rex. Cats normally have 2 types of fur, the undercoat which is to keep them warm and is all downy and soft, and the upper coat which is more waterproof and more tough and wiry.

Mister, the Cornish Rex, has only the undercoat, which means that his fur is gorgeously soft and downy, Lillie has only the upper coat and so her fur is quite rough. The curly coat is characteristic of both their breeds.

They're quite closely related to Siamese cats, hence the big bat ears and slanty eyes. Steve (who lived with Vicky before I moved in), said that Mister Neelix was the devil who had been sent to kill him. I can't say I blamed him after he told me this gem of a story:

( I'm on MSN with him right this second and asked him to reiterate the story so I have it in his own words. His response was 'VICIOUS EVIL BASTARD!!!!!!!')

"Right so i'm there in bed having nice dreams that didnt involve cats.

I subconciously hear a click and open my tired little eyes, I notice my bedroom door is slightly ajar and raise my head.

The door swings open to reveal a terrifying beast.

Neelix is stood there on his hind legs with his front paws held aloft in a deadly looking ninja stance, CRAZED LOOK IN HIS EYES!

IRISES BLAZING RED LIKE A DEMON CAT FROM THE VERY PITS OF HELL.

SAMURAI SWORD IN HIS HAND.

Luckily I am trained in multiple unarmed combat techniques and I dove across the floor commando stylee.

Before he had the chance to pounce I slammed the door in his little mush and latched it behind me.

He clawed the door but luckily it was made with high grade ply wood, he issued a mournful cry and walked back to his lair.

I lived to fight another day."

Ok, ok, so, maybe I shouldn't ask men to tell stories, I think that part of that may have been slightly embellished, in order to make The Steve look like Steven Segal or Jean Claude Van Damme....or someone cooler......Spiderman?

A quick story of my own...I once left a pair of shoes at Vicky's house after a night out, a nice pair of diamante/black satin latin dance shoes (although they were already shagged out by that point). When I next saw Vicky, she gave them to me in a plastic bag with an apologetic look on her face.

" I found one of them in the cat litter box when I cleaned it out"

Mister Neelix clearly has excellent taste in latin dance shoes and had decided to drag one into the litter box to keep him company whilst he went about his business. Much like one year Vicky heard some strange noises coming from the other room, and found Neelix trying to pull a christmas ham through the cat flap. Who knows where that came from? He's also a bin raider.....allergies? What allergies? I don't care if all my hair falls out!

Ahhhh, cats, you gotta love them....especially these two!

My Lovely View at Work

*snort*

It must be someone from the Slade School of Art...look at the detail

Sproglets Festive Season - Summed Up!

Let it never be said that I am original and unpredictable!

Yes, after a day of rolling my eyes at the gasps of 'snow!' on Facebook, and the endless parade of pictures scrolling across the BBC news website...I have posted my own snow pictures.

Let's face it, we love snow in Britain, only, we love a reason to complain even more. Even in the summer, when the sun finally comes out, we love it for all of 5 minutes before we're all complaining how warm it is. Let's get used to it people, with the way global warming is going, we'll either be baked or frozen to death.

Either that or languishing somewhere under 50 metres of water, with nary the time to evolve gills....darn.

So, back at work after the Christmas holiday. I don't think I've ever had a holiday that seemed to go so fast! Here are some little snapshot of Sprogs Season:


The Sproglet family tend to go a bit nutso with presents at Christmas, and this year we toned it down!! Here is the family beaming with excitement at all the lovely gifts they recieved....and some tat too.

Daddy Sproglet

Mini Sprogs

Mummy Sproglet

Nicki will be exceptionally happy that I chose this little gem

How many hats can one person wear??

These pictures typify a Sproglet family Christmas meal. And look how we dress up all speshil.

Ok, ok, I confess, these pictures were actually taken last Sunday. It was decided that we 'needed' another Christmas meal in order to use up the excess Christmas crackers (some of which I believe may have been sitting around for roughly 3 years) and...ahem....Bucks Fizz.

Basically we needed an excuse to sit around, eat ourselves stupid, get a bit drunk and make lots of racket whilst wearing silly paper hats.

Bucks Fizz is a staple at Sproglet Christmas. Even mum has some (albeit roughly 2cm at the bottom of the glass topped up with lemonade), mother NEVER drinks.....so we all know who to blame MY drinking habits on don't we now....daddy Sproglet!!

So, Christmas over and done with, there were a few days grace. My last day at the zoo, complete with a compliment of 8 volunteers, including my good self. 4 of us hardcore vols went out for some drinkies afterwards, thankfully no pictures were taken!

It was soon time for Vicky's birthday. I went round to hers and took some pictures of her two kitties, Mister Neelix and Lillie. No pictures appear here because those little diamonds deserve a blog post to themselves once I get around to it.

We went out to Annas Thai Restaurant. Vicky and I make sure that we visit at least twice a year. For so many reasons it's one of my favourite places to eat EVER! I mean, even if there were nothing else excellent about the place, check this little beastie out:

The chef hand-carves little birdies out of carrots, and little roses out of carrots and radishes.

This you see here is a sharer starter platter, you have chicken satay, fishcakes, prawn sesame toast, spring rolls, some kind of deep fried fish, and a meaty thing (get me with the Thai lingo). It's delicious beyond words.

For mains I had fish (I believe it was salmon, though they didn't specify) fried in seasoned flour and topped with thai green curry sauce....and a carroty bird. It was delicious.

The food is amazing, but I'm also always amazed by the service in the place. I think I've only seen it packed out once, it always seems to be quite quiet, so this may explain it partially. This time round, our table of ten seemed to have our own personal waiter. Whilst we ate he just sat patiently (but not pressurisingly...word?) at a table behind us.

I was extra impressed this time because he took a cake someone had bought Vicky out the back and came out after the mains with it and loads of little candles, we all sang happy birthday and then he gave her a little gift of packaged wooden chopsticks in a woven case and a little elephant charm on them.

Gawd, I'll stop gushing...I love Annas! That was a lovely evening.

New Years came, I didn't take any pictures!! FOR SHAME!! Oggers provided a lovely 3 course meal at her house pre-drinkies. Red onion, beef tomato and mozzarella salad for starters, pasta filled with veg with roasted veg sauce on tops for mains, and chocolate cheesecake with double cream for dessert.......nom!!

Her comedy matey Rachel came to meet us and we headed off for a few bevvies at the local Rose and Crown where they had a swing night on.

We had a bit of trouble getting into the drinking after all the foods, but by the end of the night we'd had enough for a little bit of a boogie-woogie.

There was a little bit of drinks trickery at the end...but I shan't go into it for fear of getting them in trouble...safe to say it was a good evening....and CHIPS on the way home...always a good way to round it off.

And a few days to recover before back to work....where it's been dead because people still remember how they got away with the 'snowed in' excuse of Feb last year :D

On that note, I'll leave you with another picture of the gorgeous snowy garden in the Stow

The New Year Cloud-Buster

I have a mate who has the New Year blues at the moment. So I thought I'd do a post with all her favourite things together and see if I can raise a smile

Rubi and Gabriel with mum Abi

And, the pièce de résistance....

Can anyone see? Is she smiling yet?......

More Guinness maybe!