This month is going by far faster than I could have credited when I dragged myself out of bed and onto the 7:18 to London on 4th January. Experience tells me it's usually February that I find difficult though so I won't wish this month away just yet! I'm now into the third week of my new job. So far it's going well but I'm still being eased in, I think. There are a number of IT issues that are being slowly resolved (I need a new laptop and a Blackberry, apparently) and it was only on Tuesday that I was actually granted access to the floor our team work on! It's a secure floor so I needed extra security clearance. This was a real pain because the toilets are on the stairwells, so I needed someone to let me in and out every time I needed to pee! The job itself is shaping up to be very interesting and I'm glad I made the move. When the work really kicks in it's going to be very busy, but I don't mind that at all. The only (very minor) gripe I have at the moment is that, while the train journey down to London is fine, the train journey home feels like it takes forever. This is made worse by the fact that I'm usually too tired to really enjoy reading. I think I might start bringing some knitting or crochet with me. Writing isn't really an option because I just can't get on with the little tables they have on the train - the pull out bit has an uncomfortable ridge and I can't rest my elbows enough so that writing isn't really tiring on my arms. Oh whinge whinge whinge! The good things are that it's miles better than going into the office in Birmingham (which I hate) and it's round the corner from the Fever shop, and the job is good and I like the people. There, enough about work now!
The lovely Darling dress that I ordered from the Frock closing down sale finally arrived last week (I ordered it on 23rd December. They were closed over Christmas, in fairness, but I think £5 postage is a lot to pay to have to wait for so long!) and it was even cuter on than I had hoped. I wore it to Mrs Z's baby shower on Saturday:
You can also see the beautiful Firetrap shoes my brother bought me for Christmas. Aren't they lovely?! I never would have thought of Firetrap shoes, but he obviously has a good idea of what I like!
I had never been to a baby shower before so I didn't really know what to expect. Mrs Z is the first of my friends to get knocked up, so it was new for all of us. There was a wishlist set up on the Mothercare website, but I already had a very clear idea of what I wanted to get for Baby Z, which was a little rotating night light. Nic and I were able to find one in Blooming Marvellous but the photo they have of it on their website is so crappy I'm not going to put it here! My dad gave me a very similar one when I was about 18 - he thought it was cool and it had VW Beetles on it, so I liked it. I was so pleased to be able to find one for Baby Z. It was a very lovely afternoon and good to spend time with Mrs Z before the baby arrives. I also put in some quality time with her guinea pig, Button. I think we have a lot in common:
(I haven't got as cute a pout as he has, unfortunately.)I spent the rest of the evening eating Tuscano's pizza and watching the Sex and The City movie with Sugar Plum. The idea had been for us to do that while Nic and N (Sugar Plum's lovely husband) watched some sci-fi films. The men watched their sci-fi, but Sugar Plum and I paid little or no attention to our movie and concentrated instead on gossiping. Which is okay, I think, because the SATC movie pretty much sucks. It was an extremely girly day and I spent most of Sunday recovering from all of the sugar (there were lots of cakes at the baby shower.)
I worked from home yesterday and at lunchtime Nic and I had a browse through some of Leamington's finest charity shops. We had a wee look at lunchtime today as well, and were very successful. I picked up the complete This Life for £4 and Nic bought me these gorgeous Typhoon scales for £7 in Oxfam:
I had seen them last week but decided I didn't need them, but when we were in yesterday we thought it was a shame to leave them there so they came home with us. They're practically brand new as well, and considering they retail at around £25 I think I got a good bargain! Nic had similar luck today when he found the new Peladon Tales box set in CEX. This only came out on Monday. As he had some DVDs he wanted to trade in he got it for £4!
I'm very excited about watching the two Peladon stories. I've seen The Curse of Peladon once before, and thought it really enjoyable. It's loosely based on The Hound of the Baskervilles, features David Troughton and has an amazing scene in which the Doctor sings a lullaby to a scary monster. Caroline and I had a little conversation over Twitter about the relative merits of new Who versus old Who and I recommended Jon Pertwee-era Who to her. She felt a little dubious about classic Doctor Who because of seeing some of the less good Sylvester McCoy episodes in the 80s, and I think that's fair (although, I have come to like McCoy quite a lot after watching some of the better serials like The Curse of Fenric and Battlefield) but, as a relative newcomer to Doctor Who I have enjoyed every one of the Jon Pertwee serials I've seen. It's a very different beast to the Doctor Who on our screens today, but it is lots of fun. And look at Jon Pertwee's wee face, he's so cute!
In fairness, you could say I have eccentric taste, but I love all of the Third Doctor and UNIT stories, mainly because I think that Nicholas Courtney is so wonderful as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Just for good measure, here is a wee photo of the Doctor, The Brigadier, Benton, Yates and Sarah-Jane Smith:
Enough Doctor-chat now, I think! The only other exciting shopping I did was to buy a pair of red tights from QS. As I have so many red dresses, these will go with lots of my clothes and I think they'll look good with some of the things I bought in the sales, like the Irregular Choice Flick Flack shoes and the Ruby Belle Sailor dress that I bought a while ago, but which it has been too cold to wear. I think I need to give my poor wee debit card a rest after all of that!
It's been a while since I included a list on my blog, but I'm going to end on one today.
Reasons to be cheerful (1, 2, 3)
Nic is very very lovely
I have some very good friends, and I'll be spending time with them this weekend
It was sunny today and the evenings will soon be getting lighter
I'll be going home to see my lovely family in February
I'll be going to the seaside next weekend
I've found two Hornsea heirloom teapots on eBay
Hurrah!
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