and relax…
I post from the cosy corner of my mini-office having spent the last few days starting as I mean to go on, that is to say, with peace and quiet, gentle movements, proper food and as little actual physical or mental exertion as possible outside my favourite yoga (and less favourite Zumba and Body Pump) classes at the gym, along with the requisite swimming and sauna-ing.
As a few will have already noticed, the almost-complete break has had the desired effect and recuperation has been achieved, therefore I will be back taking a few incalls here in the coming week although availability is sporadic (mostly down to the gym classes, amongst other things including more decorating) and I will be off again completely from Tuesday 22nd (birthday – yay!) until Sunday 27th. I’ve even taken the hastily-cobbled-together temporary voicemail thing off although it being the weekend, I won’t be answering calls until Monday. The kitchen cupboards are tidied and stock rotation has been achieved (find of the day: a packet of Hartleys lime jelly cubes circa 2007 which I must have actually brought with me when I moved house in 2008), the next bit of decorating is prepared and ready to roll and the accounts are all up to date, although I thank God I have a lovely patient accountant and am not currently ploughing through a tax return like several folk I know. Bleuurggh.
In technical news (sort of), for anybody who was wondering what’s happened to the Formspring question-box widget over there on the right (and specifically why they can no longer just type in questions to ask, as before) the people running the Q&A site have in their infinite wisdom decided to remove the anonymous asker feature – you can elect to hide your name so I won’t know who it is, but you do now have to sign up to use it. Obviously you can sign up as whoever/whatever you like so no, they haven’t really thought it through, have they? We’ll see how it goes, and if the thing dies on it’s arse we’ll think of something else. Hey ho.
Despite envisaging ten days or so of lying motionless on the settee in my pyjamas being somehow fed by miniature railway/helpful pixies/osmosis, it’s surprising how the amount of jobs one has to do will expand to fill whatever amount of time is available to do them, and bar a handful of shiny new pictures (which I still hope to get organised next week, daylight permitting) tour dates are organised, travel and hotels are scouted and booked – see the About Amy page – the apartment is set for the next phase of improvement and even my long-suffering WeightWatchers plan is back on track after the carnage wreaked by Christmas pudding, stollen, mince pies and nearly ten days of the Hotel Room Worker’s Diet, consisting of Cup-A-Soup, biscuits, bananas, muesli (to be mixed in and eaten out of a mug) and kettle-boiled eggs, plus various delights from M&S, Burger King and my new absolute favourite thing in the world, Hillbilly’s fried chicken with curry chips, a fabulous delicacy discovered on my first night in the People’s Republic of Cork and utterly unmissable.
In the interests of securing more of said chicken, I will be back in Cork to finish off my next Ireland trip in April, early-to-middleish. The usual suspects will be included prior to this, with the new addition of Limerick and possibly Portlaoise (which I am far more comfortable about visiting now that I know how to pronounce it) which will sadly mean I’ll miss travelling through Urlingford, the coaches rest stop at the garage midway between Dublin and Cork which will be familiar to many – the fire station across the road sitting shoulder to shoulder with Ahern Fuels (We Sell Kindling!) is one of my favourite sights in Ireland and never fails to make me smile. Plus the toilets at the garage are nice.
Other pending visits include a return to the Isle of Man prior to this years’ Frightfest offering in Glasgow next month (putting them together seemed to make sense at the time) then New York the following week and of course more London – yay! The upcoming trip is filling up slowly yet steadily and as much as I like the Christmassey stuff, it’s a relief to get back to normal; I guarantee it’ll be the usual scrap to get over Westminster Bridge in under ten minutes, I will eat far too many Salted Caramel & Pecan Nut cookies from Millie’s and my favourite lady cashier at the nearby LloydsTSB will ask me each morning if I’ve got a busy week, if it’s much colder up in The North and is it still raining outside (answer: yes to all).
And it’s my birthday in ten days – yay! Special birthday blog will be on it’s way as usual, but in the meantime, anybody who would like to visit whilst I’m still in my thirties has a little over a week to do so – just get in touch. For now though, it’s back to the settee for Final Score. Brilliant.
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