Overheating Neurons

Ohhhhh how I despise my occasionally surprisingly traditional subconscious. Let it just be said that I am not one of those women who has been planning her dream wedding since she was 5years old - as American women are apparently want to do according to the media (so it must be true); I have never in my life hankered after a husband, a white picket fence and 2.4 children, in fact I'm not sure whether I am particular bothered about being married at all, so why oh why oh why should it be that in graduate trainee assessors training today – yes I am giving up my weekend to be an assessor for the new batch of applicants for our graduate trainee program, what a selfless employee I am - with just one person sat between Strategy Hottie and I - ah Shafi how I envied thee - did my subconscious brain automatically put my first name and his last name together upon hearing him introduce himself to see how it would sound if we were married!!

What the chuff!!!

Seriously where did that come from? I can only assume it was proximity to his general Hottness that addled my brain. It generally happens when I am within 5 feet of him on the best of occasions, so it's to be expected when I accidentally find myself less than 5 feet away, but still, I was mortified when I realized what had happened; such a betrayal from my own subconscious. I am only thankful that I didn't say it out loud when it was my turn to introduce myself.

A beautiful day for a wedding

My fabulous friend Melissa is getting married this evening. It's so exciting!! The wedding is being held in this old carriage house in the village called Alger House. It's such a beautiful day in New York today it's a shame that it's not outdoors, but then who'd plan an outdoor wedding in NYC in March? Only an idiot!! It's crazy warm and sunny today, it's supposed to hit 75F which is 20degrees higher than average. I am so glad Melissa and her fiance have nice weather for the photos they were hoping to take in Central Park this morning. "I know he's not supposed to see me in my dress before the ceremony, but I really want some photos taken in the city."

Heavens to Betsy, get her breaking with tradition, she'll be telling me she's not a virgin next ;-)

I've started the process of getting ready anyway, I popped out for a mani/pedi this morning and I've just styled my hair, so I've got 2 more hours to put some slap on and shimmy into my dress. I'm going quite old style for this one with peep toe kitten heels and a retro print dress which is fitted snugly under the bust, but has a clever pleating detail at the front so that it's not too tight and I will be able to conceal my wedding cake filled belly ;-)

I like to get ready slowly for these things so that if anything goes horribly wrong I have time to fix it. I did have a mad half hour this morning of tearing up my apartment in search of the toe-less pantyhose I need to wear with my peep toe heels, but thankfully I finally found them in a canvas bag that I've shoved to the back of my closet. I was thinking for a second that I was either going to have to run to Macy's, the only place I could get them when I bought them to wear with the same heels for Clo's wedding, whip up my own by taking the scissors to the toes of another pair of tights or, God forbid, go bare legged. Fingers crossed that was the worst of it. I've had a trial run of the outfit and aside from a worrying moment when I couldn't get the zipper past the waistband - this is why I need a boyfriend - it's all gone well. Just the make up to tackle now, the biggest job ;-)

Bring on the antibiotics

Phooooo!!! My breath absolutely reeks of garlic today. Good job my Strategy Hottie crush is away in Miami this week. The garlic oil didn't have a positive effect on the ear infection either so I finally caved and managed to finagle a doctor's appointment for 3.30pm this afternoon. I wonder if the doctor will be able to tell that I poured garlic infused oil in my ear last night? I'm half expecting the "the only thing you should stick in your ear is your elbow" chat. Hopefully I shall have some lovely antibiotic ear drops in my clutches in the not too distant future.

Re: my crush did I mention I actually managed to strike up a conversation with him last week? In fact this is the reason I know he's in Miami this week and not because I have been stalking him on Facebook or something lest you were wondering. He seems pretty young up close to be honest, although breathtakingly cute, but I do suspect that I really am old enough to have given birth to him, which is a depressing thought. Perhaps I should switch my attention to the Creative Cutie who has been giving me the eye, since he seems like he might be closer to my age than Strategy Hottie. I've been trying to smile at Creative Cutie to encourage him to move on from just staring at me as I walk down the hallway when he is on our floor playing ping pong - our floor has become infinitely more popular since we got a table tennis table - but he refuses to rise to the challenge and ask me out for a drink. Men eh!!

Have to say Strategy Hottie picked a good week to be in South Florida since we have a corker of a snow storm blowing. They predicted sleet that would turn to snow at some point today, but it seemed from NY1 this morning that they were thinking it would change around 3pm this afternoon. When I left just after 7am it was sleet-like, but around 8.30am it turned and now we have these massive flakes of snow. It's very pretty to watch, but I am not looking forward to walking 3 avenue blocks in it to my doctor's appointment this afternoon.

Poor Me!!

How do you fancy cuddling up to the little fellow to the left? He's a cutie isn't he? He's soft toy replica of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacteria responsible for ear ache, and can be yours for just $7.95 from this site.

Personally I have no need for a soft toy replica having been laid low with the real thing for the past few days. It's no fun I can tell you. I've been laid on my sofa with a hot water bottle pressed to my head hoping my body will reject the little bugger pronto without my having to resort to getting a prescription for nausea inducing antibiotics and while the pain seems to be lessening it's unfortunately not disappeared quite yet, so this evening I tried an old Indian remedy of garlic infused oil drops into my ears. I'm serious. I thought my Indian colleague was having me on when she suggested it, but she backed it up with this article from Organicauthority.com and, well, who am I to question the Organic Authority, when the word 'authority' is right there in the name.

"It doesn't work," said Ian, fellow sufferer of ear infections. "I tried that once, I bought this really posh garlic infused olive oil, warmed it and dripped it into my ears and it didn't make a blind bit of difference."

"You're not supposed to buy the oil from Dean & Deluca," retorted our Indian colleague huffily, "you're supposed to use fresh garlic and infuse it yourself. It doesn't work if you buy ready infused oil from the gourmet deli."

For some reason I have this image of Ian with bits of cotton wool and thyme garnish sticking out of his ears ha ha!!

Whatever anyway tonight I cooked up 8 cloves of garlic in a quarter of a cup of olive oil, then scooped out the cloves and dropped 10 blobs of infused oil in my offending right ear. The reserved cloves were all lovely, soft and mushy after being cooked slowly in oil for 15-20minutes. It would have been a shame to waste them, so instead I spread them on crusty french bread and enjoyed them with a nice Californian Cabernet. It's the only way to treat an ear infection ;-)

P.S. I'll let you know tomorrow if it's worked on the earache, but the treatment wasn't nearly as unpleasant as I was anticipating. Quite soothing in fact. Next week I'll likely be back to tell you how to treat for olive oil on the brain ha ha!! No, but seriously, do you think that could be a side effect?

Plan B - Stay Too Long

LOVE IT!!!

Embracing the celery sticks and neo-Ludditism

Bloody hell it’s almost February. I can’t believe how fast January has flown by. So how are those New Year's resolutions coming along? Are you managing to keep them? Clearly I am doing oh so well on that resolution I made to update my blog more often in 2010. Ahem!! I also had lofty ambitions of not drinking for the month of January, but I really don't know what I was thinking with that one. It just wasn't realistic. I didn't even manage 2 days, which is quite pathetic isn't it? There I was making beef, ale & wild mushroom soup from the New Covent Garden Food Co's Book of Soups - delicious - and I’d added in the stock, the 8ounces of ale the beef and mushrooms and all was left to do was leave the whole shebang to simmer for an hour and 15minutes and clean up. I may as well just drink the 4ounces of left over ale I thought. I was halfway through it when I realised I wasn’t supposed to be drinking.

Bugger!!

It was only 4oz, not a big deal and if it’s not wine – my tipple of choice – does it really count? However to be honest it’s been kind of a slippery slope from there on in so my resolution was quickly amended from not drinking to drinking in moderation. I was doing quite well on that one until brunch at Megan's last weekend when 6 of us polished off potent Bloody Mary's and half a dozen bottles of champagne over the course of the afternoon, including an odd almond flavoured champagne Megan had picked up at Trader Joe's. It was like drinking marzipan, and a bit too sweet for my taste, but I forced it down for the good of the team ;-)

Otherwise there’s not much doing. I’m busy at work as usual, but I am making a concerted effort to have more of a work/life balance this year and have renounced the Blackberry. It hadn’t been working so well and I brought it into the office to get it sorted, but ended up chucking it in my desk drawer to see what would happen if I stopped regularly checking my work emails of an evening at home to make sure nothing blew up and so far the sky has not fallen in and I am a much less stressed out employee because of it, so it’s all to the good. Of course I think the increase in gym going (5times a week so far) and all the endorphins whizzing around my system may well have something to do with my elevated mood. My limbs ache permanently, but in a good way and I’m thrilled to have lost 3 of the 6lbs I put on last year by exercising and cutting my calories to 1500ish/day. I have learned to love celery sticks and have definitely lost that dismaying sausage thighs feeling I had every time I put on my jeans!!

It’s all good anyway and generally I am feeling happier about 2010 than 2009 so far, although I am not at all happy about the pimple blooming on the end of my nose. Seriously, how is the Strategy Hottie ever going to fancy me when I have a giant zit on my face that makes me look like a witch? As you can tell my other new years resolution to wean myself off my smittenness with his handsome good looks is failing miserably. What's that you say? Why on earth am I even considering weaning myself off him? Why not just enjoy a harmless crush? Well you have a good point, but the thing is, just before Christmas I was extolling the virtues of Strategy Hottie to Miles who asked if I would send him a photo and well, I was absolutely horrified when I saw the photo he has posted on the company intranet. He looked about 22years old, admittedly an incredibly gorgeous 22year old, but still, 22years old which set me off pondering whether he really was that young or in the region of 30 as I’d initially thought!!! Not that it's likely my crush will be reciprocated, but the possibility of him being 22 bothered me immensely. I don't know about you, but there's nothing like finding out that I may well be old enough to have legally* given birth to my crush to put me right off him.

"Two words for you darling, cradle snatcher" said Miles when he saw the photo.

Ugh!!

Anywayyyy the weaning was all going very well until I found myself squashed up very close to him in a crowded lift last Tuesday and my resolve completely failed me. My knees weren't far behind either. I was so close to him I could smell the laundry detergent he uses and well can I just say eau de Tide Fresh Scent has never smelled so sexy. I was a complete puddle!! Although you can't really blame me for having a moment of weakness in such a situation, it was the lustful equivalent of a recently reformed 20 a day smoker having 200 Benson & Hedges waved in their face.

On the positive side at least the consensus on his age has improved from 22/23 to 28/29ish so I am free to break my resolution and enjoy my crush. Phew, the relief is palpable, I'd been feeling like such a dirty old woman. He appears to be out this week anyway so while my days are not quite as enjoyable as they would be if he were around I am free to dress slovenly and cultivate my pimple. Not!!

And speaking of men, who should pop out of the woodwork last week but Catweazle!! He IM'd to wish me a happy new year and he misses me apparently. I didn't really know what to say to that so I left my response generically pleasant. Not that I don't miss him either from time to time, but....well I'm not sure exactly what he's after given all the time that's passed. Still he would have been very useful during my foray into the world of interior decoration over the last few weeks as he has a great eye for that type of thing. My apartment's been driving me crazy lately, but I decided that rather shell out the expense for a move - I've been pondering moving to Boerum Hill in Brooklyn - that I'd save money and instead rearrange the furniture to revamp the old place a bit with some new throw pillows. Actually Catweazle would probably still would be useful because I am not at all sure how to fasten my CB2 Helix shelf/desk thing to the wall. The jury is split on whether I need to anchor the shelf/desk thing to the wooden studs within the wall or just screw it directly into the dry wall screws. I would have assumed yes on the former, but my friend Nigel pondered why cb2.com had provided dry wall screws as opposed to wood screws since surely if they had intended me to attach it to the wooden studs they would have included wood screws. Hmmmmm!!! He raised a valid point I thought, but then lost me when he babbled on about dry wall screws expanding or something while I pretended to listen before he finally admitted that he didn't really know what he was talking about, but if I needed someone to help me lift things and hold things still while I drilled holes in the wall then he was more than happy to oblige. So far the count is 2 for 2 with my Dad and one of my team members being of the opinion that I should screw the desk/shelf thingy into the wall studs or risk pulling the plaster down - goodbye second bedroom, helloooo through lounge - while in the other corner we have Debs (knows almost everything) and Nigel (knows almost nothing) who think I should be fine to drill straight into the dry wall. Hmmmm, personally I'm thinking I'm going to have to engage the services of a professional on this one.

*The age of consent in the UK is 16.

Happy New Year!!!

And.....I'm back in New York!! I flew in yesterday and was zonked out fast asleep come 11pm. I just couldn't make it through that last hour until midnight to see in the New Year. I was pure exhausted from getting up at 6am (1am NYC time) to pack a few last minute bits and pieces before getting the 9.52am train back down to London in time for my 4pm flight to NYC for which a lovely friend with airline connections managed to pull a few strings and get me upgraded to business class. Result!!! It was a vast improvement on the flight over to London, when I was sat at the back of the plane, one row from the loos next to a hefty bloke who kept trying to encroach on my space. Not fun. I wasn't planning to indulge in the vino on the plane, but how can you turn down the good stuff when you're unexpectedly upgraded to business class and it was New Year's Eve after all. I just couldn't bring myself to say no when the flight attendant asked "can I bring you a glass of champagne madam?" And the dish of prawns and lobster in a garlic sauce that I had for dinner was completely divine. The diet started today. I'm such a New Year's cliche!!

I'm not usually one for making weight loss resolutions for the New Year, since although I usually put on a couple of pounds over Christmas it doesn't bother me too much, as I know that after a couple of months of my normal routine of healthy eating and exercise I'll shift it, but this year I was completely horrified to discover on my annual weigh in at Miles' place - I don't own a scale preferring to just go by how my clothes fit, but I can never resist checking when I visit Miles at Christmas as I enjoy that smug feeling I get from confirming that yes, I've maintained my weight for another year - that I'd already put on 6lbs before the festive season had begun!! 6lbs!! I know that doesn't sound like a massive amount over the course of the year, but I haven't weighed more than 8stone 4 (116lbs) in over a decade, so to suddenly find myself weighing in at 8stone 10 was quite disturbing and it certainly put the mockers on over-indulging in the mince pies.

"Too much work, wine and not enough exercise my darling," said Miles.

He's not wrong there, especially the wine and exercise part. I used to be one of those disgustingly healthy people, in the routine of going to the gym every day, but this year my exercise regimen has been primarily carrying my gym kit back and forth to the office with good intentions of working out after work, but never actually making it. It didn't matter how many times I promised myself that after working late I would take a taxi to the gym near my apartment and work out on the arc trainer for 30minutes, it was always much more appealing come 9pm to take a taxi straight to my apartment and enjoy a nice glass of wine with my feet up in front of the telly!! Not anymore though. As of today Operation Muffin Top has commenced and I am going straight out to Bed Bath & Beyond tomorrow to buy one of those fancy scales that read and analyze my weight, fat, muscle mass and water retention and then goes into the kitchen and whips me up a nice egg white omelet!! Yup, it's all carrot and celery sticks for me for the next few weeks, although to be honest after 2 weeks of stodgy food and glasses of mulled wine I'm quite looking forward to a few salads. My high school friend Liz also challenged me to renounce the drink for the month of January, so I am doing my utmost to resist the mischievous bottles of Cabernet calling from the wine rack behind me.

Only 30 and a bit more days to go before I can have a glass ;-)