in the last few years i did a running count down to my birthday, but this year I am too old to do stuff like this, so i have just let it pass this year. but i did do something different, and that was to go to madrid to visit my brother and my sister in law. I left work half an hour early on thursday, got to gatwick, and found that my phone had broken...great way to start the holiday! i arrived in madrid to be welcomed by both of them. i basically had a great weekend. i managed to spend a lot of time with my brother and talk so much through with him. i had so much that i wanted to talk to him about, so many many things. it gave me time to think about what has happened to me in the last few months, and he was able to give me a lot of wise words, and i realised just how much i missed him not being in the same country as me. i was spoilt so much by them, rounded off on my actual birthday with a three course meal cooked by davina. i flew back home yesterday evening, and got home at 11, way past my bedtime!

today was back at work which was good, i had a laugh, and then did some more fieldwork at court. i had so many emails to sort through it was silly, but i managed to do it all which was good, and now i am concentrating on the paper i am helping to co-write. I always wanted to get some work published in a journal, and if this goes well, then it looks like it might.

the only bad thing about the weekend, was that i forgot to take my medication, and towards the end i started to feel ill, proper withdrawal symptoms as it is almost like cold turkey. i am back on them now, as over the weekend, unfortunately, i realised that however much i tried and try, i realised that i need them.

this week has been a very strange week as it has only been four days at work - next week will be three and a half what with me going out to Madrid for my birthday weekend. i love my work...this week i have done my perosonel development plan and chatted through it with alexy, and i have some very interesting things coming up. we have gone out for team drinks which was lovely, and yeah, i have been knuckling down, and having a much needed laugh with some members regarding some of my nick-names....and at the pub after a few glasses, they made me say out loud in front of my boss how i had been dared to end some of my emails...luckily the funny side was seen by all those around me!

other things have been getting on my nerves a lot this week, but i am just trying to forget about such things, and say sod them if it happens again, as at the end of the day it just isnt worth it. i am not 100% with how things are going in my life at the moment, but i dont have to be laughed at by others.

and just to say, am soooo glad peep show is back on channel 4....it makes staying in on friday worthwhile....many laughs came from me - hurrah

what a strange easter weekend i have had. It started on thursday, after work i got home, rushed down some tea, then headed to church as i had to be there early as Fr Bryan had asked me if i could be one of the people having my feet washed in the service, so I was basically a server for the service. it was a lovely service though. i then waited up to see peter and davina, and went to bed feeling normal. however, on friday morning, i was anything but normal, and infact i have bee descrived as limp, weak, feeble, and very yellow looking, and had an ambulance called for me and everything. 5 hours of being on a drip, and having various medicines injected into me at hospital, and having to drink re-hydration solution, and waiting for my very low blood pressure to increase, and racing pulse to decrease, i was released from hospital armed with some tablets, and spent the rest of friday passed out with a temperature on the sofa at home! saturday morning, i was still not great but a lot better then friday morning, but ihad to go to confession and get a few bits and bobs for my bros and davina for easter. by the evening, i had some of my strength back, and we went to the easter vigil.

easter sunday, i was feeling much better again, and now able to keep food and water down - hurrah! helpful, as Polish easters are very plentiful food wise! we had a lot of family round, and a lot of fun was had....

the result of all this is, I have finally reached my target weight that I have been wanting to be for about two and a half years! i have lost almost a stone since leaving nottingham now - feeling better for it, but some of what i have lost on the past few days, are easily going to be put back on again, especially as i can eat chocolate again...but i havent really done so due to awful stomach bug!

so this will be one interesting story to tell work tomorrow! i have a brusied hand from where my drip was, but i am feeling much better now...it would have been very interesting to have seen myself with a yellow face....but i am reliably informed that it wasnt really very pleasant!

i hope everyone else has had a very lovely easter - the weather has been lovely! and i am glad that it is a four day week at work this week - as i will be having my "talks" with my bosses about what new projects I can get involved with.

Take care everyone
xx

work the last few days has been a bit crazy...not busy, totally the opposite. i have had nothing to do. my boss has been ill, and so I have not been able to help her in her research, and as we have just published three documents, and its coming up to easter, its all been on a bit of a go slow. i have been doing some background reading of old reports that we have published, and also i was that bored i started tidying the office. also completed some lame dares set by some team members, and now i am 1 1/2 points ahead on the point bored, owed some glasses of wine, and won fifty pence. "hang loose, my career rock already, rock on, laters, and peace out to the max" i would like to say now are not appropriate signing off's for emails I do recognise, but to when dared to do some things (quite lame really) i am well up for it...and the person i was emailing to seemed to like it, as i had some just as bad responses!

a four day week, this week is going quickly, and next week is a four day week too - should be good. and hopefully, by then i may have something to do

on the by, i have a monthly check up tomorrow...am not looking forward to it much. it has been a bit of an up and down month, not that people would notice as i am hiding things better than ever before - i consider it a talent of mine, not one of which i am proud, but a talent nevertheless. i am making a joke of one thing in particular, when it really is bothering me a lot, and i could really kick myself sometimes.

but hey, at least work is good