Camera

Just a quickie, as really I don't have anything to divulge, other than the fact that I got my camera! I am very excited, and have been snapping away like a crazy person!

I don't think my pictures have got any better, but I think that the results will be better as I get to grips with the camera and how it works etc. It's really nice to just carry it around and take pictures of random stuff and not feel like an idiot because I have a decent camera. I do think that because I'm trying to pursue it a bit more, it is important to have a pretty good camera to do so.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, I'm just very over-excited!

Also excited as I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Saturday afternoon and it was AMAZING! I want to go and see it again it was so good!! I am a bit of a geek I know, but it was brilliant!!

Anyway, I don't think I really have much else to report now, but hope everyone is well, and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Much love

Becky xxxx

I've been thinking a lot recently (and yes, it did hurt before you even think of asking!), and I have come to the realisation that I think I must be quite an annoying friend... I am always so down on myself and I can see why people wouldn't really want to hang around with me while I'm in that frame of mind. I guess if I don't like myself, how on earth can I expect other people to like me? Well, today marks the end... I really just want to pick myself up and be happy! I have had a lot of pretty sh**ty things happen to me, but then again, so have lots of other people, and they're not all mopey! I just want to start following my dreams and enjoying things a bit more. Obviously, I'd love to get a really well paid job where I can take photos and sing and write all day, but being that it's highly unlikely, I am just going to write when I can and take pics all the time and just enjoy the process of doing them. I'm 27 for f**k sake, I can't keep waiting for something interesting to happen, I need to MAKE it happen! I know I've said in previous blogs that we need to realise what is important, and I just haven't done anything about it, well no more people, a page has been turned and I am going to make something of myself. Watch out, I'm a-coming!!!
I heard that George Lamb had split up with his Mrs (HOW excited was I when I heard that!!), so Sally, if you ever see him in the BBC bar again, please give him my number! I'm so totally going after him!!!! ha ha ha! Highly unlikely that he'd be remotely interested and probably will think I look like a gargoyle (and he'd be correct!), but hey, I think he's hot, so I'm going after him!!!!!!
Anyway, I hope everyone is keeping well, and I hope to see you all soon!
Big Love
Becky xxxx

Do you guys ever stop and wonder how you got here? Here being in this particular place and time. How did I become a 26 year old, unemployed, married, uni student?

Here We Go Again....!

I'm back! It does concern me somewhat that I seem to be one of the only ones who actually writes anything at all on this blog... Does that mean that I have an excessive amount of things to share with everyone, or does it simply mean that because I have time to blog, I have no life? I am actually more inclined to go with the latter...

It is such a beautiful day today, and I can't believe I'm having to sit in my dark and dreary office working. We should all be outside playing Pooh sticks!!!

I'm still obsessed with Twitter, I think it's that weird feeling that the celebs that you're "following" might actually look at what you're doing and will possibly "follow" you back... I'm such a freak it's unbelievable!! I do love it though!!

I've not really been up to much of late (obviously - when do I ever do anything of note!), just working, blogging, tweeting and watching tv really!!! However, I've been spending a bit more time reading, and more time out in the garden with my camera snapping away, I'm really getting into photography, and am actually getting not too bad at it which is good! I really want to get a new camera though. I love my little Sony one for snaps and taking on a night out, but I'd love to get a dSLR so I can get some really edgy and decent nature shots... I'd like to do more pictures of people also, there's something so fascinating about human behaviour, and to be able to capture that in a photo just excites me! Just need to basically carry my camera around ALL the time and then I should be able to start building up a decent portfolio.

Well, I think I've managed to talk about myself for long enough - there's only so much of myself I can take, so I'm sure y'all reached your limit after the first 2 sentances!!! - so I will sign off.

Hope you're all well.

Big Love xxxxx

Tweet!

Oh Lordy, I am now completely obsessed with Twitter! How ridiculous is that?! I seriously have no life! I just get up, go to work, spend the majority of the day either blogging or tweeting (and working obviously!) and then I go home and watch TV and then it all starts again the next day. How did get into this rut, seriously?! I need to do something about this! Any suggestions??!! (apart from sticking me in the asylum were I belong!)

Anyway, had an interesting weekend... Had a half day on Friday and went shopping, stayed in on Friday night to look after Logan as my mum and dad were out visiting my grandparents, went food shopping on Saturday morning and then met Dilip, Max, Gary, Wes, Christian and some others for a few drinks in Kingston which was cool. Got up on Sunday and gave blood and then had a really severe reaction which left me bed-ridden for the rest of the day - still not feeling great now - My nan came over for a visit yesterday which was nice, but quite hard work. I think she thinks I'm stupid. We played Scrabble and she won and she kept saying things like "oh, well I wasn't trying that hard" and stuff like that, made me feel like I was an utter retard (excuse the un-pc term, but that's honestly how I felt).

Back at work today and my boss is in a foul mood. I honestly don't know how the entrance of one man can so drastically change the atmosphere of the office. He's always so angry and moody, it just rubs off on everyone else. Really not fair. Ah well, he's on holiday next week. Whoop whoop!

Right, that's enough of me now. Hope you're all well!
Much Love xxxx

calling all sexy ladies!!!

hello ladies! how are you? my goodness it has been a while! i am sooo rubbish at this.
i see Becky and Renee has been busy!!! good girls! so how are we all? i am still at this shitty job which is getting worse by the minute! where do i even begin to tell you??! i just can't there are no words to describe it! ha ha ha.

so renee! love the car and the town house! you gonna get it! i want it! it is beautiful!!!! when u coming to uk? we have to have a proper night out! (i really need one) have you got a dog yet? i want to get a dog too! kayne loves them! but i don't know.. it's a little too much for us right now. maybe in the future!

becky! have you thought about when we are going to go out? are you going to the race in june?

i need to find some time for myself before i go loopy!
miss you all!!!!!!!

Ugh, Work Again!

I've noticed a pattern in the majority of my titles for this blog and they all centre around the fact that I really don't want to be at work! I really realise now that I really don't want to be doing what I'm doing at all, it's fine for paying the bills, but why should I settle just for something that pays the bills? I obviously have all my debts to contend with which is why paying the bills is very important, but I don't want to be sat trying to sell over door heaters all day everyday for the forseeable future. That's not fun! I shouldn't really complain because I am close to home so can walk to work and go home for lunch which means my work life balance is better that it was when working at IAP, but I am not happy here. I get on well with everyone, and I don't get a sense of dread about going to work (always a positive!) but I know that I just don't want to be here. Ah well, I guess I just have to lump it for now!

Anyway, on a more positive note and following on from Renee's blog about her puppy, we brought home a new friend on Friday afternoon. He's a 3 year old Labrador Cross, we got him from a rescue home and we've renamed him Logan! he's adorable, a bit of a nutter, but we love him!

Went to see Coraline yesterday which was actually really good! haven't been to see a 3D film in YEARS, so it was actually great fun to sit there with the 3D glasses on!!!

Apart from that, nothing exciting is going on!

Hope you're all well!?

Much love
Becky xxxxxxx

After many conversations with Pikey and another move, I am finally getting a puppy! My dream come true! I know most of you already have kids or are thinking about kids, but I don't think I can quite do there just yet. A puppy will be my supplemental baby for now. So, meet Brooke!
First off, we have to change her name because I hate the name Brooke for a dog. Any suggestions? I was thinking Coco. Earlier, Chris said he was going to be supportive of my efforts to find a dog, but since I found 3 in the last week he has now said that I am crazy. I think he's a little upset because he's not going to be the center of attention anymore.

Okay, so I'm not sure if I told you guys, but the big moved sucked ass! I was meant to move last Friday. I got up and was all excited about the move. I went to the leasing office to get the keys and they said they couldn't give them to me because they have to do an inspection on my current apartment before leasing me a new one. Well, hello! Why didn't you say anything earlier? And apparently they couldn't do it then because the manager was out of the office. Retards! So, I sat on my bum on Friday with boxes all around not knowing what to do with myself. Poor Chris thought he was going to come home to a new apartment. So Saturday we got all our stuff together and the manger inspected our apartment around 11am and we got the key to the new place at 12pm. Moving stuff is not easy. The hardest thing was the King size mattress. At one point I gave up and was just going to leave it in the middle of the parking garage. Chris was really great, especially since the move was my idea. We finished moving everything on Saturday and I went back to clean on Sunday. It all caught up with me on Monday when my back was hurting like crazy. I hurt my back about 2 years ago and every once in a while it will bother me a bit, but this week it has been insane. I couldn't get out of bed on Monday and barely got up for class on Tuesday. Chris has been putting Icy Hot on my back and said that it was one of the unsexiest things ever! I've been on the vicodin for the last couple of nights and have had some bizarre dreams. Last night I had a dream that I told some gang members where the accounts hung out and then they got machine guns and killed all the accountants. Not sure what that dream means, but I'm sure there must be some kind of interpretation to that.

Anyways, hope you're all well......talk to you same time next week.

Drinking with Terrorists

It's been a long week, but at the same time it's gone by really fast.

Sunday Chris and I joined my aunt and her husband at the beach. I was really excited because I wanted to work on my tan. Chris wasn't feeling well, but still came along. We brought the SPF 50 with us so that he wouldn't burn to a crisp. I put on some tanning oil while Chris sat under an umbrella. At the end of the day, I come home looking like a lobster and Chris looked white as can be. He did miss one little spot on his ankle which turned a bright red. Not sure how he manages it, but he always seems to miss a spot when he puts on suncream. Last time he missed the area around his hairline and looked like a devil with red horns. He had to go to a funeral looking like that. Classic. Anyways, the burn seems to have gone and I'm nice and brown now. Mission accomplished!

I don't remember most of Monday. I think it was spend studying for my Intermediate Accounting 2 midterm which was on Tuesday. It was actually easier then I thought, which could be good or bad. Either I did really well or I thought the problems were easier then they actually were and I totally screwed up. Guess well have to wait and see. Wednesday was another midterm. My professor was walking around the room and I could feel her standing over my shoulder. As soon as she moved she told everyone to double check their algebra. Ummm....was that a big hint or what? So, I went through my exam again and sure enough...I totally messed up and was able to correct it.

Today's been okay, but the stress of the week has really caught up with me. I didn't realized how tired I was until I sat down on the sofa this evening. I couldn't be asked to make dinner so I made popcorn instead. I also felt a glass of wine was in order to celebrate the end of my second round of midterms. Half the bottle is now gone. Um.....lush indeed. Somehow I started watching a film on terrorist and suicide bombers thinking that it would entertain me.

Hi Ladies,

Sorry I didn't post last week. No excuses. Just didn't feel like I had anything to say and didn't want to bore you with stupid stuff. It was the nicest weekend of the year and so I dragged Chris to the beach. Yes, Chris Pike went to the beach. He piled on SPF 50 while I put on tanning oil and sat out in the sun to fry. And fry is what I did....


Not the smartest thing in the world and now I'm feeling the pain. Chris thinks I should try to get tanned gradually, but you all know that I don't do things gradually. I want things when I want them and I don't want to wait for my tan! Still trying to figure out what we're doing about moving. There was a brief period of time when we thought we might buy a flat, but that soon went out the window. I can barely get Chris to commit to getting a dog, there is now way he would commit to buying a flat. So, we may stay in our building or might move a couple roads over. We're buying a new car next week. My cousin works for Acura so we decided to get a TSX since he can get us a deal. This is the car we want....


Since Chris doesn't drive, I get the car all to myself. I deserve a new car. You guys should see the crappy little thing I'm driving. Every time I start the car, I pray to God it will start. One of the back windows is broken and gradually slides down as I drive down the road. It's a bit distracting.

Anyways, not doing much this week. I have 2 exams this week (Tuesday and Wednesday) but free after that. Man, student life is hard!

Missing you all!

Easter Weekend

Here we are back to work after the Easter weekend! It's been so lovely having time off, but it has made me feel more that I really don't want to spend the rest of my days sat in an office. I really need to think about what I want out of life!
I'm actually shattered after the long weekend as I spent most of it up and down a ladder and covered in paint! I'm re-decorating my room, which is great fun and will look lovely when it's finished, but the mess it's in at the moment is a little stressful!
I don't really have much else to share as I've not been doing anything apart from decorating!
I hope you're all well and have had a lovely Easter!

Much love!

Becky xxx

The health issues continue from last week. Still have allergies and have them bad! This entire week I've woken myself up by sneezing. How is this possible? I'm not sure. According to Chris it has something to do with air coming into the apartment. When I asked him how this happens he said that it's good because we need air to breathe. My husband is a genius and a smart ass. In addition to having sneezing fits and very itchy eyes, I now have a twisted ankle. On Tuesday, it was raining in San Francisco. As I was walking to class, I guess I must have slipped on something (to be honest I think it was my cheap Wal-mart imitation Uggs which has no grip on them at all) and fell right in front of two girls. One of the girls asked me if I was okay and my response.... "I'm sorry". What? What the hell am I saying sorry for? For falling in front of them? I don't know. Chris says it's a British thing. I've seen him run into walls and say sorry to the wall. Anyways, I got up and ran off in embarrassment. And the result is a twisted ankle.

Chris and I viewed a townhouse tonight. Looks like we are definitely moving which I'm really happy about. Love moving! The area is really nice and it's just down the street from where we are now. It's a little bigger than our place, but still a 2 bed.




Now that we have the place, we just need a puppy. So the question is, what kind of dog are we going to get? Any suggestions? We can't get anything too big, but I don't want a small yappy dog. I'll leave you guys to decide what we should get.

Oh, an update on the book I'm reading - Confession of a Shopaholic. I'm half way through and have decided that the main character is a combination of Colesy and Sal. The main character is really in debt and it trying to figure out how to get money. At first she decides to cut back and makes cheese sandwiches for lunch! Sal - this is totally you! I remember when you used to do this and because we made our own food, this just gave us more time to shop! Then the main character decides that she needs to make more money. Colesy - this is totally you. I remember when you were trying to leave IAP and were looking for jobs on ridiculous amounts of money. Anyways, love the book because it reminds me of my favorite places. In the last chapter I read, they had dinner at Pizza Express! But it makes me sad and I miss you guys loads!

4 Day Week!

Monday is here again! Ever noticed that the weekends just go too quickly?! I even had a 4 day week last week, and the weekend was so busy, that I don't feel like I've had any sort of rest at all! :0(

I did houseworky type stuff on Friday morning, and then got myself ready for an evening out and weekend with my friend Emily (it was my birthday surprise, on 2 months late!!). Had a bit of a nightmare though, as the train was delayed due to a fatality at Wimbledon - I'm not sure what happened, but as we went through Wimbledon there were hoards of police officers on one of the platforms and someone looking like they were trying to clean off the platform, so god knows what occurred. I finally reached Waterloo, where she informed me that we were meeting some of her other friends (that had obviously slipped her mind in the first place). We made it to meet them, and none of them made any effort to talk to me. I was trying to ask them questions etc and try to be friendly, but they weren't interested at all, and Emily ignored me for most of the evening. Not an ideal way to start your "birthday" weekend. Anyway, we went to see Chris Addison - who is a comedian - and his show was very entertaining, so that certainly went some way to making up for the lack of acknowledgment I received from Emily & her friends. After the show Emily and I headed back to her house in Guildford, where she put me to sleep in the sitting room(!).

Saturday morning was quite chilled with copious amounts of breaded goods for breakfast (not ideal considering I'm on a diet at the moment, but hey!), then we headed back into London, where she took me to the V&A where there is currently an exhibition on called "Hats: An Anthology", which is a major exhibit of Stephen Jones' fantastic collections. Not only were there his hats, but hats from throughout the ages, including a papyrus headress from about 700BC! Johnny Depp's tricorne hat from Pirates was there, along with some vintage contributions from Dita Von Teese! Also got to get up close to the Phillip Treacy creation that SJP wore to the SATC premiere! Amazing!

After walking around for hours, we headed back to Guildford, Emily made us dinner, we watched a bit of TV, and then she dropped me home. I was exhuasted yesterday and apart from a quick trip into Walton to join the library, I spent most of the day lolling in front of the telly! Very productive! So now, it's back to the evil place where they keep my paycheck, but thankfully only a 4 day week this week and next!

Hope everyone is keeping well.

Much love to all!

Becky xxxx

Not much to share this week. I've had really bad allergies. It started last weekend when it was stupidly windy and pollen filled my eyes. On Monday, my eyes were so itchy - I couldn't stop scratching them. I actually went blind for a few hours. I guess I rubbed my eyes so much that they were very blurry and all I could see were white spots. I've just now started to take hayfever tablets. Hopefully I'll feel better soon.

I saw someone who looked just like Healy today. It was really odd. Have you ever thought you've seen someone, but obviously it couldn't be them because they don't live there? I used to think I saw people from America in Kingston all the time. Actually, I thought about Healy earlier this week as well. For some reason I was thinking about when Mongo took us to Spain and we were convinced that the hotel had given us Mongo's room because it was so nice. I also remember Healy coming to my room in the morning asking to borrow my straighteners. I've never seen hair so crazy in my life! Love you Healy!

Nothing much for the weekend. Work Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Meeting up with some friends on Saturday night. It's actually the couple that has asked Chris to be in their wedding. Chris loves hanging out with them.

Oh, reading Confessions of a Shopaholic. I love it! It names all my favorite stores. She even talks about how she loves to get point with her Boots card! That was my favorite thing to do. I ended up buying 10 nail polishes because they each gave me 300 points. Marks and Spencer's is mentioned too. It makes me think of home! :( Miss you guys so much. If I run away from Chris and jump on a flight to London, will someone give me a place to stay?

Yuck, Monday!

Why do they still have to muck around with the bloomin' clocks?! It drives me mad! Lose an hour here, gain an hour there, I know it makes for longer evenings, but I don't think it's important to carry on changing the clocks all the time. We're no longer a farming industry, so it's not like we require it to see later into the evening to sow or harvest our crops. And even if we were still a farming industry, then there are such things as flood lights!?!?!

Right, rant over! I'm just tired and been suffering with a bad cold over the weekend and the end of last week. You know when you're getting a bit ill and you begin to lose all control over your own limbs? Well that was me last week! I am surprised I managed to do anything at all, I spent most of the time banging into stuff (I have the biggest old lady bruise on my hip!) and flinging things on the floor - I am actually stunned I managed to even feed myself considering the majority of my food ended up on the floor!

My parents were away last week and they got back on Saturday afternoon, so it was nice to spend some time with them over this weekend.

Now it's back to work. I've been feeling really positive about work recently, people have asked me how it is going and I have really not been able to say anything negative about it, but over the last week or so, things have felt really tense, and I just sort of feel like there is a horrible dark cloud hanging over everything. I'm trying to ignore it and just get on with my job and do what I'm paid to do, but I can't help but feel a little worried. I'm not sure if it's because I'm worried there will be more redundancies, or if it's something else?! I know that my colleague Sally who I get on with really well is not in the best of moods at the moment, and I know that she can't be chipper all the time, but it does start making me feel a bit down when she is p*ssed off every time she steps in the office. I don't know if it's me, or if it's something else. It's just getting quite frustrating because I don't know what to do.

Anyway, enough of my chat...

I hope everyone is well?!

Muchos Love!
Becky xxxx

Some things you may not know about Nae!

This week is meant to be my spring break from uni, but it's been nothing but busy busy busy. I've worked every day since Friday, but I get the weekend off. Finally! Besides working all week, I've started my duties as matron of honor. Don't you think matron sounds weird? But that's what I am because I'm a married lady. Monday night we went bridesmaid dress shopping. We must have tried on 20 dresses between the 6 of us. I'm not really sure how the dress was picked, but it is the ugliest dress I've ever seen in my whole like. And the bride didn't even pick it out - a bridesmaid did! Idiot! Of course the night didn't end without it being said that we could always shorten the dress and because it's black we could wear it again!

Tuesday night I was out for another dress shopping adventure. This time it was for the wedding dress. My cousin Jaime (the bride) had no idea what kind of style she wanted so she tried on every different style possible, but didn't really find anything she liked. She left feeling kinda bad, so I suggested we go to another place. We did and she found "the dress". I didn't want to encourage her to buy it because it was the first time we'd been out shopping, but she looked lovely in it. So, she's going to take some more people down to have a look at it the weekend. Hopefully she buys one soon because the wedding is in August!

Oh, the reason I need something to mother is because I got to spend some time with my godson this week. Jacob is almost 3 months and is so adorable. Jaime brought him with us on Tuesday and I got to hold him when she was trying on dresses. At one point he started to cry and I had no idea how to make him stop. He was giving me the pouty lip and everything. Eventually I got him to stop and he fell asleep in my arms. It was amazing! Babies are not in the picture for Chris and I right now. Nature - well, actually medicine - has denied my womb of a baby for the next year or so. I'm on a mission for a dog. The only thing stopping me is our apartment. This brings me to share some things you might not know about me.....

1. I have to move every year. Where most people don't like moving, I love it! Chris hates it, but has accepted its a part of me. Our current apartment doesn't allow pets, so I want to move so we can get a dog.

2. I have an addictive personality. If I like something I do it over and over and over again until I get bored. Variety doesn't exist for me. Currently I'm having a pepperoni bake (like lasana) for lunch everyday.

3. There is a lot in my past I would change. If you ask someone if they would change anything in their past, most people will say no because it has made them the person they are today. I, on the other hand, think I would be a better person if certain things didn't happen in my past. Even though I know things in my life would change, I still think I would be better off. But of course, certain things in my life wouldn't change like being married to Chris. Chris and I are meant to be so obviously we would have always meet. Corny, I know.

Weather

Is it just me or is anyone else completely confused by the weather situation?! Left the house this morning to lovely sunshine - went out on my lunch and it was raining, walked out of M&S with a sandwich and it was hail stoning, then by the time i got back to the office it was sunny again?!?
I am very confused by it all
Bet certain people who live in California don't have this problem!!

xxxx

REJECT!

I know it is slightly stalkerish of me to friend request celebrities on facebook, but they must realise that people will look for them and friend request them - surely they, as celebrities, must enjoy the attention and the fact that so many non-celebrity people would want to be their friends, you would think they would accept a request for friendship whole-heartedly. In my case, however, I am REJECTED! I have friend requested 2 "celebs" on facebook (they will remain nameless in order that the shreds of my street cred remain intact!) and they have both rejected me. I know they don't know me, but one would hope that they would see a lovely profile picture and think "Wow, this hottie wants to be my friend, I'll definitely accept and get a piece of that action". But obviously, they see my profile picture and think "Oh God, weirdo wants to be my friend! I hope I never meet her on a dark night, I think I might have a heart attack and die of fright!" I am well versed in rejection, but when someone I don't know is able to reject me, that's a whole new level of rejection I am not sure I am ready for! :0(

Anyway, last week was quite a long week, and while nothing of note really happened, I was so pleased that the weekend finally rocked up! I met Caroline for a few drinks in the Slug, and the evening ended up descending into chaos as we met Dilip and Gary and one of their rather strange friends - who thought it appropriate to ask me about my sexual experiences, and asked me to describe my nipples. Now, I am not a prude, and am usually happy to discuss my breasts - they are lovely after all - but seeing as I'd just met this person, I was a little taken a back that he thought it appropriate to ask such intimate questions that not even close friends would necessarily ask!

I went for a walk on Saturday morning and then went into Kingston to return a few bits and get some photos printed. I then met my friend Emily and we went to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was actually really good. Emily really wanted to see if and I wasn't really bothered, but I actually really enjoyed it - it made me really want to go to Barcelona!!!!

My parents went on holiday yesterday, so I just spent the day sorting out my ironing and chilling out. I really need to start achieving something other than housework during the weekends, I don't really have anything to show for my life at the moment.

Hope you're all well.

Big love!
Becky xxxxx

The week has been a mixture of things. All of which have sucked ass big time.

Because I'm a "nice person" I agreed to go to downtown San Francisco to pick up some coffee pots for my boss' wife. She found some insulated coffee pots advertised on Craig's list (like Gumtree), but they were in SF and she could get down there. Stupid me opened my mouth and said how I was in SF all the time. She organized for me to go to this hotel to pick up the coffee pots on Tuesday afternoon after my classes. The hotel was really posh and so I sat there in the lobby reading a book because they man I was supposed to meet was late. Turns out he was late because he was at a funeral. I let him off the hook because he had a good reason. Turns out the stupid coffee pots were only $2 each. She wanted 4. I just feel like it was such an effort for me to get down there and get them - it was clearly out of my way. I thought they were going to be made of gold or something. Nope. They weren't. Anyways, needed to whine about that. Oh, and when I brought them to work this morning, I carried them in my reusable shopping bag. She never took the bloody things out of it and asked if she could take them home in the bag!!! What did I say? Yes of course! Why do I do things I don't want to do?

In my tax class, we were given a tax return to do that was due today. OMG, that thing kicked my ass. You would think because I do tax returns pretty much everyday, the bloody thing would be easy for me. Nope. Not at all. It was way more complicated than anything I do at work. The couple had a live in nanny, so I had to figure out household employee tax. They had new rental properties, so I had to do depreciation. The wife sold pottery and I had to figure out if it was a business or hobby. All really retarded stuff. Please don't sell pottery. Anyways, I had been working on it over the weekend at work. In class on Tuesday, the professor went over a few things so I knew I needed to revise it a bit, but couldn't actually go into work until this morning to finish it. Was cutting it really close. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I'm done with tax. Done. Don't want to hear about it anymore. At all. Period.

Also, if I get another text telling me not to go to Wal-Mart today because of a gang initiation to shoot 3 women........ Seriously. Come on. How many Wal-Marts are there? I think I'll got to freaking Wal-Mart and take my chances. In fact, the gang will do me a favor by shooting me because I won't have to get that bloody text anymore!

So, Chris and I have been on a diet for 2 weeks now. We decided to eat whatever we wanted tonight. Chris made himself a huge sandwich. I found some bread, turkey, and cheese and thought a turkey melt would be lovely. I fixed everything and put it in the oven. After 10 minutes of thinking about my meal and waiting for it to melt, I checked on it and noticed there was mold on the cheese. What! Moldy cheese! So, I checked that bag of cheese, and yup, there was mold all over it. My meal.....failed. I threw it away and gave up on my dream of eating dinner.

Hope you guys didn't have to deal with moldy cheese this week.

What era am I from?!

I am trying to decide if I'm a 1950's housewife or a 1970's hippie/rock chick, I'm not sure I can be both!? I've been both this weekend anyway! Friday night was 1970's time, out in KTown with some old IAP'ers in my 70's finest dancing the night away to such wonderous tracks as "Come on Eileen" and "I Want you Back". All that was missing was a light up dance floor!

I was wearing my 1950's housewife hat on Saturday, baking a blonde mocha layer cake and making fudge (all from scratch I hasten to add, no packet cakes here!) for my niece's birthday which is on Tuesday, but we had a party yesterday (Sunday). All that was missing from my cake baking activities was set hair, a petticoat and perfect make up!

Imogen got a slide from her Nana & Grandpa (that's her grandparents on her dad's side!) and we set it up in the living room and she was up and down it like a yo-yo, it was the cutest thing ever! I don't understand how one child can be soooooo adorable!?

Back at work today and not really happy to be here, so I've just been being completely out of control and spent over £100 on internet purchases. Mmmmm, I love spending!!

I have nothing else to share, my life is just soooooo dull and boring. I hope it gets interesting at some point soon!!

Hope everyone is good.

Muchos Love 'n' Stuff.

Becky xxxxxx

Nigella better watch out!

Hello Everyone!

I can't help but feel happy that it's the week. Also, the sunshine is making me feel extra happy. I remember what it's like to be in California now! I've finished my first round of midterms. They went okay - I could always do better. In my intermediate financial accounting 2 class, the professor gave us a talk about the job market and the different fields we can go into with accounting degrees. He seemed to be a little biased against government jobs because he said they were mindless 9-5 jobs which hardly give promotions and that we would spend our lives in a little cubical. Let me tell you, this is the best sounding job ever! I would love to work somewhere I didn't have to think, don't have to work overtime, and was left alone in my space to get on with my work. So, now I feel I'm destined to work in government. And to seal the deal even more, I got an email from my tax professor saying that the IRS is getting a buttload of money and is hiring everyone and their mother this year! Fantastic! IRS here I come! I will make sure none of you get audited.

In other news, Chris and I are on a diet. Chris is not weighing himself at all, while I am on the scales every hour. The first day I lost 5 pounds! um.... doesn't seem quiet right. The next day I gained 4.5 pounds back. Why do the scales lie? I have no idea. It's one of those cruelties in life. Actually, I feel a lot better because of the diet. I feel less bloated and my clothes feel looser. I also decided to stop drinking coffee. I was getting up to 3 cups a day. So, I went cold turkey and cut myself off and I have had the worst headache ever since! I guess I'm not through detox yet. You know when you can't have something, you always notice other people with that certain thing. Well, not only is everyone in the world walking around with cups of coffee, but I can smell coffee everywhere! It's like the world is trying to rub it in my face. Not nice World!

Besides that, same old thing really. Just school and work. Oh, I finished my duvet cover. I really don't know why I wanted to make one so bad, but I decided I wanted a new fancy duvet cover so I went to the fabric store and picked out something nice. I had to go back the next day because I didn't get enough fabric. I didn't really bother to measure the bed or the duvet, but it all came together in the end. I even made some pillowcases. Chris was really impressed when he saw it. He said he was surprised I had finished it and had written off the cost of the fabric thinking I would screw it up. I'm glad my husband has faith in me. Now that I have sewing out of my system, I think I'm going to make lampshades for our bedroom. I saw this cute design on a website where they used ribbon and stuck it on lampshades to make their own design. Doesn't sound that hard. Will let you know how they turn out next week. I'm a domestic goddess!

Here we go again....!

Back to the grindstone again! I so hate the fact that the weekends go so bloomin' quickly! I personally feel that the working week should be 4 days long and the weekend should be 3. I feel that we'd all be more productive during the working week and be able to properly rest and enjoy our weekends if we just had that extra day. Perhaps we should petition to see this happen?! Who decided that the working week should be 5 days anyway?!

Didn't do much at all this weekend (I'm seriously becoming a hermit, it's not good!), just spent most of the time trying to fix my laptop which has decided it hates me and doesn't ever want to switch on again. Thankfully I've got all my work etc backed up on my external hard drive, but it doesn't really matter if I can't access it!!! I might have to get myself a new laptop, so I am going to have to find at least £250 from somewhere. Not good. :0(

Went to a great exhibition at Westfield Centre with my dad on Thursday afternoon, it was a getty images exhibition called "Fabulous People, Fabulous Lives" and it's a collection of photographs of celebrities dating from the 30's through to the 80's. I felt a little underdressed and a bit like I shouldn't be there, but hey, I wanted to go look at the pictures, and why shouldn't I?! I'm as entitled as anyone else!

I popped into Kingston on Saturday morning to take a top back to Primark and get a few bits in Boots, then came home and spent the afternoon with my dad recording our version of 'Spooky' by Dusty Springfield!

Sunday I got to go and see 'Watchmen' which I have been excited to see since I saw it advertised. I've been aware of the graphic novel for quite sometime, but have not got around to reading it (I will now!). The film was amazing, it was beautifully shot, the fight sequences were really well put together, and it was cast really well. I really enjoyed it, and I can't wait for the dvd!

Back to work today, and I am really not in the mood to work, I've got the worst headache, and I just want to go home and spend the whole day watching tv! Very lazy I know, but that seems to be a trait of mine that gets worse as I get older. Oops!

Anyway, I'll stop babbling now!

Hope you're all well.

Love 'n' stuff

Becky xxxx

Birthday Stuff!

I have yet to be late on posting, until now. Yesterday was nutty! I had a midterm in my Intermediate Accounting 2 class and then met up with my mom in downtown SF to do some shopping and grab dinner before going to see Wicked. If you haven't seen Wicked, you must go! It was fantastic! I've been wanting to go for ages, but never got around to going while in London. I told Chris back in November that I wanted to go for my birthday, but do you think he got around to getting the tickets... NO! So, I had to take charge and by the tickets for my mom and I since we had birthdays a few days apart.

Speaking of birthdays, mine was wonderful. Thanks for all the text messages, emails, and messages on facebook/myspace. Chris spoiled me rotten and got me tons of presents.

I got a few books, lots of great bath stuff, a couple different perfumes and 2 Coach bags! What can I say, I have my husband in check! So, he definitely made up for not getting me the tickets to Wicked. On Sunday (my birthday), we went to my mom's house and had dinner and cake.

Chris got me a really cute cake from a place called "Nothing Bundt Cakes". He chose the "center of attention" cake. It totally makes sense because I love my birthday and love people making a big deal over it.
I'm sad that I have to wait a whole year for another birthday. I don't like the idea of getting older, but I love celebrating my birthday. Does that make sense?

As mentioned before, I had an accounting exam on Tuesday. I studied for it like crazy and was even dreaming about it! Doing accounting in your sleep is not fun. Anyways, the worst thing happened. I finished the test and had a couple of minutes to go over it. There was one question that I was a little concerned about, so I thought I would change it a little. I erased it and then the professor called time! I was gutted! I can't believe I would be that stupid to not know how much time I had left. Idiot! Oh, well.

Anyways, not much else to report. I officially hate tax season. Old people should not be able to file their taxes. Old people just bring in all of their receipts and don't understand that it takes me 30 minutes to copy all their crap and then 30 minutes to input all of their retirement. Stupid old people. Hate them.

But I miss you all!

Bored & Alone

So, I'm sitting on my own in my office today. I have to admit I feel a sense of power sitting here because I am the queen of my castle, but at the same time, I do feel a sense of dread and cold sweaty palms that I will have to deal with everything on my own for the day. My colleague Sally has the day off today, and she knows everything about everything, so I do struggle a little when she's not here. I think impotent can describe how I often feel working here! There is so much to learn that is so technical, and I just struggle sometimes to get my head around it all. I will have been here 4 months tomorrow, and while I know how to do things on the computer like orders, quotes and invoicing, the second I pick up the phone or one of the factory boys comes up to ask me a question, I feel like they're speaking in a foreign language! I am hoping the knowledge will come with time, but I feel a bit like I'm sinking at the moment. :0(

I haven't really done much recently, apart from having a night out on Thursday to meet Max Shuter (ex IAP) for a quiet drink, which ended up being me, Max and Dilip then me, Max, Dilip, Wes and Steve Lambert. It descended into a completely raucous evening as Max proceeded to get more and more drunk as the evening progressed. It was highly amusing, but not at all what I expected of the evening! Also bumped into an ex-boyfriend which turned me in to a gibbering and quaking wreck. I looked like a total tramp and just wanted to come across and cool and funny and aloof, but I actually think I came across as a total loser (but then again, at least by coming across in that way I was being true to myself!). Did a bit of shopping on Saturday (not enough for my liking, but I am rather skint for some reason) and then went to my sister's for the day yesterday which was lovely, and got to do some painting with my niece. After what seemed like about 2 hours sleep, I'm back here again. The weekends are just over far too quickly. Wish I was a lady of leisure sometimes!!

Anyways, hope you're all keeping well and had fun weekends. Happy Birthday Renee, I hope you enjoyed your day!

Love 'n' Stuff

Becky xxxx

Twitching is not a good look for me

It feels like this has been the busiest week ever. I even have a tired/nervous twitch to show for it. Under my left eye I can feel my eyelid moving. It's been doing it for the last couple of days and I can only hope that with some extra sleep this weekend, it might go away. Anyways, it all started with a friend's birthday bash in SF. Chris and I had such and good time, but I think Chris had a better time with some of the guys. Tim (my friend's Annette's fiance) and Chris were all over each other the entire night. But Annette and I can forgive them since they took the cutest picture ever! Saturday I had the a friend from Utah visiting so we had a bunch of our friends over to visit with her, her husband, and her daughter. It was great having everyone over, but I was so exhausted from a wonderful night out in SF, that I don't think I enjoyed our evening catching up much as I wanted to. Nevertheless, it was great to see her and her little family. I have to say that it did give me baby urges, but they went away as soon as the little one started to cry. She's so cute, but way tired after being in the car for so long. She's a trooper! I worked on all day Sunday and Monday. Tuesday I had uni. It seemed to be the week to be sick because I had two classes cancelled as the professors had the flu. The one person that wasn't sick was my Tax professor who decided it was a great idea to have a midterm 4 weeks into the semester. I didn't really get a chance to study for it because of my busy social schedule on Friday and Saturday nights. Plus I wasn't going to study for Tax after I was doing taxes all day Sunday and Monday.

Every Wednesday, Chris and I try to have a "date" because that's the one day we don't get to see much of each other. He leaves for work early and I have an evening class and don't get home until 11pm. So, each Wednesday we try to meet in SF in the afternoon. Normally we just have a coffee date, but this week we decided to make it a lunch date. I spoiled myself by having clam chowder in a bread bowl - my favorite! Chris had a steak sandwich which he kept trying to get me to eat, but I told him to get it away from me and that I didn't want crappy steak in mouth because it would take away the wonderful clam chowder taste. After lunch it was off to class....WHICH WAS CANCELLED!!!! Why can't professors email when they aren't going to class? I had to sit around SFSU from 4-7pm because I had a test in my 7pm class so I couldn't go home. My 7pm class is Internal Audit which I thought would be interested, but I can't decide if I like it. Some days it interests me, others I find really boring. Anyways, got home around 11pm and went straight to sleep.

I woke up this morning with a dull pain on my tailbone. Not sure what happened in the middle of the night for it to hurt. I have no recollection of anything happening, but I don't doubt that Pikey probably kicked me in the middle of the night. He tends to sleep with his knee out. I try to counter act that by sleeping with my elbows out. Today was college once again. I got back my Tax exam and actually did a lot better then I thought. When I got it back I noticed it was a 85% which I was totally happy with since I didn't get to study much. Then the professor said that a 85% is an A. THANK GOD! I was totally happy with that, but then realized that I could actually pass the class with a 50%! That's just wrong.

Has anyone seen American Idol? Every year and try not to get into it, but it just grips me. Love it!

I'M ALIVE!

Hello ladies, I must admit, I all but forgot about this blog until I was just clearing out my old emails and realised I had never really written a proper post so thought I'd enlighten you on what I've been up to.

Firstly my day has been shit as I was awake all last night with what felt like swords attacking my throat, I grumpily dragged myself into work today at 10am only to leave at 3:30pm as I was very tired. I managed to get a cancellation at the docs who told me that I have a severe throat infection again and this is not down to me being run down but due to my shit anaemic blood being to crap to fight any virus that goes around! Anyway since I have been starving all day, I have now decided to take the hit and cook a load of oven chips to see if they help - clearly not! I am also pissed off I'm now on antibiotics which 'technically' means that I can't drink this weekend. Although I never really listen to 'technically'.

Life in general - I'm extremely busy planning the wedding, and I fear I'm turning into bridezilla as I do not communicate with Tej any longer - I simply bark orders at him over the phone to chase things up. He has kindly responded to these barks by buying me a new mini which has made me joyous - seems being a bitch really does pay off! Anyway I went for my first drive in it on saturday and it feels a bit like a go-kart to me since it's an automatic - not a good thing really since I wrote off the last one and that was manual. I am scared for my life.

What else is news? Um I seem to have been drunk every weekend for the past 8 weeks and I kindly abandon Tej every weekend in favour of the girls, which I think he's getting slightly annoyed about but as I tell him - I need time to relax - planning a wedding is stressful.

I'm also house hunting at the moment in Richmond, however I cannot seem to find anything I like - my only criteria is that there has to be enough bedrooms for Tej to build me a walk in wardrobe - easy!

Wedding plans are actually coming along nicely and my tick list tells me I am doing everything on time. My job is still ridiclously easy and easygoing and in general, apart from my killer throat, life is all good.

I saw on facebook the other day that Debbie Coope (sales) had a baby with Ian Bernhadt (IT) is this old news? I didn't even know they were dating!

Anyhows I am enjoying catching up on all your blogs.

Take Care,

Perhaps I'll enlighten you with another post again soon.

Big love to all, especially the american baxter.

Over and out

Colesy x x

Erm...whatever you want it to be

hey all

Sorry i've been a bit absent the last few weeks!! It's been so long i couldn't remember how to add anything to the blog!!

Last week was pretty crap I had the dreaded cold / flu bug (bad times) so i was only in work for a day and a half (good times!). Went back up north on Friday to my mum's home made roast beef dinner and bloody hell it was gorgeous!!

Met up with my cousin and her little baby for lunch and she's moving back to harrogate from scotland so that's good because i'll get to see little Hayden more often and he's grown loads already.

I went out for dinner on saturday with some old friends - good old girls night out but having taken copious amounts of tablets over the last week the wine fuddled my brain and i was found by my mum at 7am sunday morning asleep at the kitchen table with a half eaten curry next to me. All that alcohol obviously helped though because my sore throat had gone. Or maybe it was just that the hangover was so bad I barely noticed my throat. It was one of those 'i can't be around people or mix with the public cos i feel totally wierded out' kind of hangover which was unfortunate because I had to get a train back to london and sat next to a strange looking foreign boy that smelt funny and had big hair and had some kind of ongoing nose bleed so he kept dabbing a tissue to his nose and then laying it out infront of him so i got full view of the artwork he was creating. It's a small miracle i didn't throw up over him. Watched Quantum of Solace on the way home and I don't know if it was my alcohol addled brain, the 2 inch screen I was watching it on or just because i'm stoopid but i found it all a bit confusing!!

As for other big news my housemate Helen is moving out to live with her 2 best mates who are also moving out of their flats so for the 50th time in the last year I am having to spend my nights showing random wierdos around my flat and try to hide the mouse traps that are dotted all over the place. I'm not even going in to the mice problem cos the thought of it just stresses me out.

I'm going to the theatre on saturday to see Nigel Harman (off eastenders) and james mcavoy in Three Days of Rain which i'm really excited about. And on Sunday i'm supposed to be meeting up with this guy that i was seeing for a few months a few years back - he text me when i was drunk on saturday so of course i called him at 5 in the morning and arranged to meet up.... like you do!

Well that's enough ff my grotesque stories - oh and only 2 and a half weeks til my holiday yey!!!!!!

Take care, over and out.

xxx

hello all, havent posted in a while as i have not been doing anything worth discussing!
I had my job changed at work the other day and I am now Event Manager (pause for round of applause) basically this means more work and no pay rise but i now have people i can boss around which is always good!
Other than that just plodding along as ususal. Been going to the gym and exercising for a change and although i have not noticed any difference, Sean did inform me the other day that 'your gut looks smaller' - such a way with words that man o mine!
Anyhoo peeps - i will leave you to your day.
xx

Thinking about what's important...

Looks like I'm safe from redundancy at the moment, but things are still really up in the air. Having to take on lots more work, and waiting to have a meeting with my manager today about everything. Hopefully things will make more sense later on today.

I've had a bit of an epiphany this morning though, I'm sitting here at my work computer wondering what it's all for?! We've had so much sh*t happening over the last few weeks here, and obviously in the world, and I'm just really starting to think about what's important. I realise that although I need to work to pay off my debts, it's not the be all and end all of existance. A colleague of mine, Bob is not in work this morning as his wife has cancer. She was diagnosed just before Christmas, just a few weeks after their daughter gave birth to their first grandchild. We knew she was very poorly, but found out this morning that she only has a matter of days to live. My ex-colleague Carol (who took voluntary redundancy last week) found out her brother has terminal spine cancer and it just seems like there is so much of this happening, it's started to make me think that we all need to start concentrating on the important things in life, like spending time with family and friends, going out and spending time in the fresh air and with nature, doing more things you enjoy and DON'T put off things til tomorrow that you can do today! I know I'm starting to sound like that "Sunscreen" song by Baz Luhrmann, but it's true. This isn't supposed to be a lecture or anything, I just realise that we all need to concentrate on the important things in life, like love and laughter. Don't dwell on negatives. Enjoy life, because we don't know how long we have.

On a more positive note, I went to Kew Gardens on Saturday and spent a really lovely afternoon with my mum and dad, and went shopping yesterday which was good too!! hurrah!

Anyway, I hope you're all well.

Love 'n' stuff, Becky xxxx

What is wrong with the world?

I don't have much to say about my week, so I thought I would just talk about how the world is going to hell. This is partly coming out because I'm watching the news and partly because I've had a rough day. I first noticed this when I was coming home from school this afternoon. The train I come home on is normally full. A man was sitting in front of me in the seat next to the aisle. A older woman got on and said excuse me to the man so that he would move over and she could sit down. The man then moaned and slowly moved over. Now, I could only see the back of his head, but I knew he had an attitude about moving. The woman noticed this too and responded with attitude of her own telling the man that he shouldn't sit in the aisle if he didn't want to move. The man then told the woman that the world didn't revolve around her. Needless to say, it was a heated conversation and was awkward as they had to sit next to each other for the next 30 minutes. Too much rudeness for me.

I just saw on the news that a family had their car broken into at the airport. The thieves took their garage door opener and their car registration information which had the family's address on it. The thieves then drove to their house with the garage door opener and stole tons of stuff including TVs, money, and their Mercedes. Not a nice thing to come home to after going on holiday. I just thought it was a bit nuts that they would do all that with a garage door opener and registration information. Just goes to show you that you are really never safe.

I just heard something so weird. The US equivalent to the Job Centre is talking about how the job market really sucks and that everyone is getting laid off, but because everyone is out of a job the Job Centre is hiring 400 people to help with the new people coming to the Job Centre. Does that make any sense? Is that ironic or what? If infinity people were laid off, does that mean there are infinity jobs at the Job Centre? Someone please explain this too me!!!!!!

Also, it seems like every business is going out of business and as having going out of business "sales". I don't know why they are calling it a sale when clearly they just brought their prices down to normal levels. Buy everything from Amazon.com so you don't get ripped off.

A volcano in Chile has erupted.

Barack Obama has gone to Canada and bought his daughters maple leaf shaped cookies.

It's 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) in San Francisco, but rain this weekend.

Sickness & Redundancy

OMG, what a ridiculous week this has been so far! Last week didn't turn out to be the best as we were all told that there was a possibility of us being made redundant, not the most enthralling and exciting thing one wants to hear! Had 2 meetings last week with another to follow this week (either Monday or Tuesday). The week continued with everyone feeling quite forlorn, but looking forward to the weekend. I met Caroline on Friday night and had a great time, and then went to Kingston on Saturday with my friend Emily, did a bit of shopping and went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - which is AMAZING! Got home about 9 looking forward to chilling out for the rest of the evening and weekend, only to spend the next 4 hours puking my guts up! I managed to get some sleep at about 2:30am but woke up the next day feeling absolutely horrific with stomach cramps etc (you know what I'm talking about, but we won't go there!) and could barely get out of bed. This has continued until today (when I have returned to work) but I'm still so weak and drained and am dragging my legs around like they are made of lead. Not good. So, being that I've been bed ridden for days, I missed my consultation meeting yesterday. My boss apparently had the audasity to ask if I was actually off sick, I couldn't believe it! :0( So I've come in today and noone can talk to me as they've had their meetings and can't tell me anything about them, I am hopefully having mine this afternoon. I just want to know what the f**k is happening, I don't know if I should be looking for a new job or not, you know? It's soooo frustrating, coupled with the fact that I still feel like death warmed up - not really condusive to a productive and happy day!
Anyways, I hope you are all keeping well.
Lots of love
Becky xxxx

Being Rubbish

Hello all! I must apologise for the fact that I've been hopeless at this, but am here now as HaeNa gave me a good hard kick in the pants and told me to do it!! Life is mad at the moment as it always seems to be - ticking along at work, Hae NA and I are managing to just about keep each other sane - although HaeNa went deaf somewhere along the line! I'm buying her an ear trumpet for Easter... x x

3 years of being married makes me tired!

I can't remember the last time I was this tired. It seems that all my energy has been zapped from my poor helpless body. I feel physically okay, just mentally feel like poo. This week was all about work, school, and planning our anniversary/valentine's day plans. I can't believe it's been 3 years already!

The week started off great. Chris and I went to the SAP Open (formally the Sybase Open) and saw my all time favorite tennis player - Pete Sampras. He can still play. He's just a little slower and slightly balding, but might actually have more body hair if that remotely believable. Going to see him totally took me back to when I was like 14-16 years old. When I was really into tennis, I used to sit in front on the TV, holding up handmade signs for Pete thinking he would play better because I was watching him. The last time I saw him was at the Sybase Open when I was 16. It was valentine's day and I made him a handmade card. I was too embarrassed to give it to him. What a retard! Anyways, so the SAP open was great. I think I embarrassed Chris by yelling "go Pete" every five minutes. I'm sure I saw him covering his face at one point.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was more of the same old thing. Just college and studying. I had a quiz in tax which was open note, so not too hard. I also had a pop quiz in Internal Auditing which was really hard. I guess I'm not spending as much time studying for that class as I should. I just realized that on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have 3 hours of classes, but travel for 3 hours of the day. It doesn't seem right to me to be spending the same time on BART as I do in class. But, I am trying to get all my studying done on BART so I don't have to do it at home. I had a very weird experience on BART today. I get out of class around 4pm, so I go home on BART at the beginning of rush hour. Normally the train is full, but today no one wanted to sit next to me. I noticed that no other seats on the train were vacant except for the one next to me, plus there were people standing up. Would someone choose to stand than sit next to me? Do I have really bad breath or some kind of strange body odor? I'm not sure, but the whole thing has given me a huge complex. The thing that really got me was when this fat old man that smelled like a ash tray sat down next to me and then moved as soon as another seat become free. HELLO! If that's not a hit, what is?

We're getting our new TV tomorrow morning. It's our anniversary/valentine's day present to ourselves. It's for the bedroom so I can lounge around and watch TV in bed like a sloth. Good stuff. We have yet to get a stand/dresser for it though. I'm not sure how it's going to work having the TV on the floor. Not the best viewing position considering how high our bed is. We're planning to spend the morning downstairs at Pete's Coffee then off to the mall for some shopping. I think we've decided to go out for lunch instead of dinner since it will be crazy busy - probably going to the Cheesecake Factory. Maybe this time I'll actually have the cheesecake. After that we'll probably just come back to the flat for some Rock Band and movies. He's promised that I can get Papa John's for dinner - I love pizza. So, that it. Not the biggest or best plans in the world, but the main idea is to just spend time together. Because after 3 years of dating and 3 years of being married.....I'm still in love with Christopher Andrew Pike. Cheesy, I know. So, I will leave you with a picture of us on our wedding.

Back at work

Following my rant in my last post, I was sent home at 12 o'clock and although I was desperate to make snowmen, I spent the rest of the afternoon asleep!!

Tuesday was a full day at work again and it was MANIC! I think I should turn to the literary genius that is Peter Andre to conclude that it was, in fact, insania! I was on my own and had so much to catch up on from Monday. Ended up staying later, but I got everything sorted before leaving for the rest of the week. I did, however, manage to make a snowman at lunch time! Sadly, he has now lost his head.

Wednesday was my birthday and I had a really lovely relaxed day with my mum and dad. We went ice skating in the afternoon which was amazing. I love to ice skate, I really should do it more regularly, but it's such a nightmare to get to the Spectrum. I spent the rest of the week feeling quite ill, I've had a throat infection (which still hasn't gone) and now have a really chesty cough, so I'm not exactly feeling full of the joys of spring (not helped by the fact that it's p*ssing down with rain at the moment!). I did manage to drag my aged and decrepit carcus into Kingston on Friday morning (and bumped into Parky - was lovely to see you!) to purchase myself a Freeview + box which was paid in the most part by money I received for my birthday!

Managed to drag myself to the supermarket on Saturday morning and then collapsed for the rest of the day - gutted I couldn't make Nicola's birthday drinks. I hope you had a wicked time Nic?

Yesterday I had to be on top form for my niece, but I don't think I really managed very well, I was struggling to stay awake!! It was lovely to see my family though, and I got some great presents for my birthday - mostly baking related... I'm starting to worry that I'm turning into an old lady in the fact that I'm excited about kitchen utensils!

I can already feel that this week is going to be a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG one, I can't wait for the weekend already! I don't have any plans (considering I am a singleton!) although the idea of sleeping for the entire weekend is looking more and more appealing as the seconds tick by!

Hope you're all keeping well, and hope to see you soon!

Muchos love 'n' stuff

Becky xxxxx

Receptionist

hello ladies,
i was just covering reception and the phones have finally stopped!
i think i may have cut off a few people but managed to put through most of them to the people they wanted to speak to. so i'm doing ok!
so i guess you might be wondering what am i doing on reception?
well since Sam left, they have not got a replacement! you know IAPG trying to cut down costs once again. so me and caroline have been given extra responsibilities of covering reception when Maria is on lunch or whatever.. you know becasue me and Caroline are not busy enough and have so much time on our hands and we Finance girls don't bring any money in (according to you know who). Cherrie and Joanna is also in this groupie thing we have going on and sometime it does get ugly.

well, today Maria phoned in sick and so is Caroline! so i had to start my covering shift from 9 this morning until 11.30. so not long left! and the rest of them will fight over when they are covering..
but i will stay well away from that fight since i have done my share without any complaining as usual! well except to you guys now.. ha ha ha

we should have a album where we can post our picture! only becasue i am still finding it hard to use Facebook! it's so confusing! is it just me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I'm slowly dying....

As the title reads, I fear that I am slowly dying. I have come to this conclusion because my brain has decided that it does not want to cooperate with me any longer. This makes things like driving, crossing the road, and operating heavy machinery very interesting. Okay, nix the heavy machinery bit, but you understand what I'm getting at. I spent all of this morning (before I left for college) checking on the blog to see if a new post was up. Nothing. So, I checked again when I came home. Nothing. Um... I guess someone forgot to post. No, dumbass....it's my day to post. I guess if that realization didn't come to me, I would have been sitting there for awhile. In other news, I am drinking day old ice tea from McDonald's. I'm not sure why. A mixture of being too tired to look for anything else to drink and trying to deprive myself of water. All of which are good reasons, I think.

Yesterday was the stupidest day ever. I worked from 9am-2pm. Jumped on BART (underground) and then had class from 4pm-10pm. I grabbed a coffee on the way into school and was so rushed to make all my connections that I didn't get to drink it until I got into class. I put the coffee on my desk and started to get myself settled in - taking off my jacket and getting my books out - when I knock over my coffee all over some girl's bag. I was devastated! Not so much for the girl with coffee in her bag, but for the fact that it was my only chance at caffeine that day. Coffee was everywhere and I had to run back and forth to the bathroom for paper towels. Needless to say, it was a sad scene. In addition to the coffee incident, I also forgot to bring food with me. All of the food places on campus close early - even though some of us have late classes. I had to feel my stomach acid eat away at my insides until I got home at 11pm. Oh, the joys of student life.

Valentine's day is our anniversary - 3 years. Seems like forever. The more anniversaries we have, the more I realize that getting married on Valentine's day was not the brightest thing ever. On top of that, my birthday is 2 weeks later. We decided to get a joint Valentine's day/anniversary gift - a new TV for the bedroom. I let Chris pick it out which now means that we're getting a 40" for the bedroom. I love watching TV in bed. I know you're not suppose to do it, but it's my favorite thing in the world. Hi, my name is Renee and I'm a sloth.

Why does it have to snow when I'm not there!!!!

Not fair!

Look at me! I'm on the role!

When Renee came to London... We met up for some Tony Roma loving...

Awwwww... don't they look sweet! lol... missing you Renee!!

SNOW ALERT!

Well, this picture is really only for Renee, because everyone else would have had the pleasure of the lovely snow!

i have never seen so much snow in England. the last one i remember was the sudden snow in the middle of April about 10 years ago? or was it less? but this is horrendous.

so i made it into work as well but i don't know why i bothered... Chris my lovely other half was so proud this morning that we had a 4*4 and that it was the best car for this kind of weather!

you can see Chris as i was taking a picture of him he decides to get a snow ball and throw it at me. he really is a big kid in man's body!

so we got out onto the main road dispite the foot deep snow and no cars in the road we were doing fine until we came to a hill in front of Cambridge Estate. It was not fun at all! we were sliding down.. i don't know how i am going to get home later..

So there is about 6 people in the office. And it's freezing here! i might go home now since two people have already gone. Stay home! don't even bother coming out!

Renee! Don't you miss this place?!?!?!?

OMG! Snow!!

Right, well, I am surprised I managed to make it into work this morning! Luckily I only live round the corner, but it was the hardest walk ever! The snow is so deep I was nearly up to my knees! (although that could have something to do with the fact my legs are so short!!) I am currently the only person in my office; annoyingly the girl who works in here with me who lives closer than I do has mysteriously not materialised for work this morning. What a surprise!
There are about 4 people in today in the whole place, so it just seems a bit silly to pay for the electric & stuff, surely they'd be better to just send us all home!! Apparently they might send us home at 12pm, but to me that just seems utterly pointless! I don't mind coming in, but if there's hardly any staff here, they're going to waste more money than they're going to make today!! Send me home now! I want to make snowmen!!!! Anyway, rant over!!

Saturday was great fun! Thank you Louise and Caroline for making it! Sorry that noone else could, but these things happen! Caroline, I hope you're feeling OK now - getting you to that bus stop was the most surreal and hilarious 20 minutes I've ever experienced! That coupled with Dilip's passionate rant and subsequant dribbling made for a great evening!! I am looking forward to being the birthday girl on Wednesday, 27 eh?! Where does the time go!?! Although most people seem to think I'm still only about 20!! Not sure if that's a compliment or not at present! I think when I'm about 40 and I still look 20 that'll be great!!! ;0) I have most of this week off (Wednesday through Friday) and I am planning on going ice skating on my birthday with my parents, they both have the day off which is lovely! Thursday will be a wonderful afternoon of doctor's appointments, and I haven't decided what I'll do on Friday yet! All part of the fun!!

Anyway, I think that's enough from me right about now!

Love to all!
xxxx

Excuse me, but are you from England?

Okay, so someone recently asked me who Chris and I met and so I thought it might be interesting to share it with you.

I’m not sure if everyone is aware, but I’ve had a fascination with England since I was 12. When I was 12, I was off school for a month due to an illness. During this month I “found” The Beatles. It was around that time that The Beatles Anthology came out and their movies were on TV all the time. I was convinced that I was meant to live in England *cookoo*. Flash ahead 6 years. When I was 17/18, I was not getting along with my mom at all and decided the best thing to do was to leave right after high school graduation. I knew I was moving down to LA for school, but wanted to be gone for the summer as well. So, I got a job at aYMCA summer camp just outside San Francisco (where the english go to do Camp America). This is where I had my first encounter with the English.....which was not anything I had imagined. At the camp, I started a relationship with an English guy which lasted through the first year of uni. Needless to say, that relationship ended VERY badly. I decided I had enough of living on my own in LA and wanted to come back home...free from boys (especially English ones)! So, I transferred to San Francisco State University (SFSU) and vowed that I was going to be relationship free (and english free) for awhile.

– Enter Christopher Pike –

On Thursday September 26th 2002 (within the first month of school at SFSU) I met Chris. SFSU provides a free shuttle service from Daly City BART (underground) to the university. One morning, I got on the shuttle and there he was sitting in front of me. I didn’t actually see his face, just the back of his head. He was talking to his friend and it just hit me! The sexiest accent I’ve ever heard in my life! Once we got to uni, I followed him and his friend trying to get up the courage to say something. So, I just went for it. “Excuse me, but are you from England?” was all I could come up with. I went on to say something about how I wanted to study abroad in the UK and if they had any information about it. It wasn’t actually Chris, but his friend who asked for my email address – NOT PHONE NUMBER – what’s with these IT kids? When I got home from uni, I had an email from Chris’ friend asking if I wanted to go out on a date. Later that evening I was on MSN Messenger when Chris’ friend came online. We started to chat online for a bit. After a “polite” amount of time, I asked where Chris was. Chris’ story is that after his friend took my info, he wouldn’t share it with Chris. Chris had to force this guy to give him my email, even after I was asking after him. Anyways, a while later Chris came online and we started chatting for a bit. He asked for my number, I gave it to him, and we talked on the phone for a bit. He asked me if I wanted to go on a date with him that Saturday (his 20th birthday). How could I say no to a guy asking me out on his birthday?

Our first date was to the cinema in Daly City. We saw Sweet Home Alabama, but I can’t really say I saw the entire movie! We did the normal dating stuff and then in Dec 2002, Chris’ student visa was expired so he had to go back home. We had tons of conversations about what we were going to do. In the end, after only 3 month of dating, I decided to move to England (my dream come true!). I moved in Jan 2003, lived there for six months and came home in June to go back to uni. Again, we couldn’t live apart so I move back to the UK in Dec 2003 for another six month period (that’s how long student work visa are for). I moved back home in June 2004 to go back to uni again. We were only meant to be apart for another year – Chris was going to move to the US when he graduated in June 2005. When his graduation came around, he decided it was best for him to take a job with a consulting firm in London. I was devastated! I just felt so drained with flying back and forth and trying to keep our relationship together. After many arguments and lots of crying, we decided to get married. So, I made plans to move to the UK to get married and thought it would be best not to tell my family. I’m still a little sad that my mom wasn’t there to see me get married, but in hindsight, it was the best way to do it. And as you guys know...that leads us up to Chris and I moving back to the states in Aug 2008.

Chris and I have been together for 6 ½ years (will be married 3 years on Valentine’s Day). It definitely hasn’t been easy for us – long distance never is, but it all worked out in the end. So, I guess I can’t complain too much.

Thanks for letting me share that with you. If you would like to post your "how we got together stories" I would love to read them.