Oh dear, things have been slipping away from me again. Lots has been happening, but I just haven't had the time to document it. Work is unbelievably busy and everyone wants a piece of me at the minute. Telling people where they can go and what they should do there would certainly make me feel better, but probably would result in me receiving my P45 not long after.

So, going back to Friday, I started the day really happy still on a high from the exam results. Coming back into work burst that bubble pretty damn quickly, let me tell you. I did manage to go out for a celebration with my department at lunchtime which was good. However, the rest of the day was a nightmare. I did have my review though (which didn't help with the work situation as I did not have enough hours to get everything done and spend time talking about myself) However, my manager is happy with me and what I'm doing so hopefully that will mean a decent payrise in September. Friday night I was so stressed and unhappy I went round to my parents for as much sympathy as they could scrape together for me.

Saturday I went to test drive the car I want to buy. As a result I am definitely going to buy one and so started talking finance with the dealer. I haven't made a final decision yet as I want to go to another dealer to see what they can offer me. I plan to do that tonight assuming that it isn't raining again. Saturday night I went to dinner with my parents and my sole grandparent to celebrate the exams. My Mum announced that she was buying me a watch for me as a present for qualifying. I told her that I didn't need another watch and could I please have a personalised numberplate for my new car. Unfortunately, she wants to give me something special and the numberplate isn't special enough. I can't see why not - I'll keep it forever!

Sunday friends Pimp Daddy Rothschild and Lydia Hott came up to visit. I hadn't seen them properly for a while so it was good to catch up with them both. We went out for lunch and then had a quick walk round the lakes - I've turned into my parents. That's what we always used to do when I was little and my parents friends came to visit. I should've taken them to the leisure park and tried to recapture my youth!

My BIG grievance for the last couple of days has been that someone has been parking in my car parking space at home. I've got home late from work for the past two days and there has been a souped up N-reg Vauxhall Vectra in my space. I hate myself for getting wound up about this, but it's really annoying. I find the car incredibly funny as it has one of those strips across the windscreen which says Stud Muff. I mean anyone who thinks they look cool driving round in that kind of car is obviously a total wanker, and therefore will park where they like. I was really angry last night and had to resist the temptation to key the car as I walked past. I wouldn't mind (actually, that's a lie I would still mind) if the person actually lived in my block, but it's definitely someone's visitor as the car is gone late evening. I just don't see why I should have to rush home to be able to park in the space I've been using for the past year. I'll have to try and have a word with this guy, but short of sitting in the car park waiting for him to leave it'll be hard to catch him. I refuse to become the person who goes to move their car whenever he's not there so I can park in my space. For the time being at least I can still get parked elsewhere, but I haven't paid all this money for my 'luxury apartment with allocated parking' for some tosser to park in my allocated parking space just because he get home earlier from work than I do.

I know I said I'd make a posting, but yesterday afternoon things really got away from me a bit. However, this was all in a good cause as I passed all 4 of my exams! I am now a qualified accountant (God help the world of Finance) To say I was happy yesterday would be an understatement, although when I first found out I burst into tears in the middle of the office and there was the tense moment for everyone else who were trying to work out if I'd passed or failed. My department manager was lovely and the first thing he did was give my line manager some cash to take me out to celebrate. We didn't go as the rest of the department wanted to come to and we weren't all allowed to go, so the celebration is lunchtime today. Last night I went out with my Mum and my sister but it wasn't a big night as I was so tired from Wednesday night out and the stress of the day. To be honest I don't want to be here today, but the 2004 budget won't do itself. I feel really bad as people were calling me yesterday afternoon wanting to know what the numbers were looking like. I had to confess that I hadn't done any work and wasn't planning on doing any either!

I can't tell you how happy I am and I don't really think it'll sink in until later in the year when other people are doing their exams and I don't have to!

It's finally here...

The BIG day

Before I leave the office tonight, I know what my future holds - a new car and a well deserved holiday or another 6 months of studying and more exams.

Yes, it's results day and I feel terrible. That probably has much to do with the fact that I was out on the beers (on in my case sangria) last night to celebrate friend Donna Cumming's birthday. It was a fantastic night as the old school posse caught up in a tapas bar in Clapham. The waiters kept topping up my drink so I never saw the bottom of my glass and so I have no idea how much I drank. I didn't get home till late so I didn't get as much sleep as usual, but thanks to the combination of alcohol and tiredness at least I slept! This has served as a reminder as to why midweek drinking is a no-go once your are over the age of 21.

The cleaning agency people came yesterday morning. They've given me a quote which seems expensive, but I can make them do anything for that money so they will definitely be cleaning the oven and the windows at some point. I have contacted another agency for a comparison quote, but I expect it to be a similar price. IF I went to a small one person business it would probably cost me less, but I feel more confident about handing my keys over to a stranger via an established agency.

My last thoughts about the results. Much as I would love it to be over today, my gut feeling is that this isn't the end. I think it's going to be a not quite, but nearly situation. I think I might have failed either Business Strategy or Financial Strategy. I will be gutted if I've failed more than one exam and to be perfectly honest I will be even more gutted if the one exam I failed was Business Strategy as I passed the mock exam for that a couple of weeks before I took the actual exam. I won't be getting a new car until I pass all of the exams. The test driving of cars has probably been me taking a over-optimistic view of the results but it's been a fun way of passing some time.

I will make a posting later this afternoon once I know.

This is going to have to be short and sweet. I have to get the 2004 budgets done this week and I have nothing towards it yet. That is mainly because the Customer Services directorate whom I support, in their wisdom decided that my time would be better spent finding money for 2003. I've got just under 6 months to sort out 2003 but only 6 days to get them some money for 2004. Priorities anyone?

So I fully expect this week to be somewhat stressful with the added bonus of exam results on Thursday. I dreamt last night that I failed one of the 4 papers - that could well be prophetic. I desperately want to pass now as I have decided on a car. The time not spent last night thinking about exam results was spent thinking about what colour I should get the car in!

The weekend was average. I spent all day Saturday cleaning in expectation of Wednesday's visit from the cleaning agency and I went out with my family in the evening as my Aunt was down. Unfortunately, I turned my ankle whilst we were out. It wasn't bad, but I rested it yesterday as it was a bit sore. That gave me time to watch one of my favourite films ever - What's Up, Doc? recently delivered from Amazon.

This is cheesy, but made me giggle...

Last night as I lay sleeping
I died or so it seemed,
Then I went to heaven
But only in my dream

Up there St Peter met me
Standing at the pearly gates,
He said "I must check your record
Please stand here and wait."

He turned and said "Your record
Is covered with terrible flaws,
On earth I see you rallied
For every losing cause."

I see that you drank alcohol
And smoked and used drugs too,
Fact is, you've done everything
A good person should never do.

We can't have people like you up here
Your life was full of sin,
Then he read the last of my record
Took my hand and said "Come in."

He lead me up to the big boss and said
"Take her in and treat her well",
She used to work for (insert company name here)
she's done her time in hell".

We had the Commercial Finance quarterly team meeting yesterday and in an attempt to improve social relations within the department it was decided to hold a barbecue afterwards. After 2 weeks of blisteringly hot sunshine it started raining mid afternoon. It was probably a blessing as the hotel the meeting was held in is right next to the A1 in Boringwood (yes I had to go back there again) and if you sit outside there, which I have done on several occassions, you get a fantastic view of all the cars hurtling past. Add onto this the sound and the fumes it makes for a lovely environment for a barbecue! So we sat indoors to have our barbecue and in time honoured fashion of every department socialising event I have ever been to we were all sat with our own teams.

Unbelievably, I ache all over today. The guest speaker was Dusty an ex-clown who tried to teach us to juggle. However, if you spend an hour bobbing up and down to pick up your balls it provides a bit of an aerobic workout. Especially, if like me you were wearing a skirt and had couldn't just bend over! After an hour I still couldn't juggle, but am closer to being able to juggle that I was before.

I finally got round to calling some cleaning agencies. They all have to come round to see the flat to assess it for health and safety and to see how big it is. The irony of this is that I am going to have to clean it before these people arrive...

I went to a barbecue at friend Bonnie Sin's house last night. There is nothing unusual in that but one of her guests I hadn't seen since school when I used to sit next to him in my GCSE Art classes. So we did a brief catch up of the last 10 years and everything was going OK until we started having a conversation with friend Kinky Malibu about the bloke she likes at work. On Saturday night she had finally taken the plunge and texted him to say that she liked him and wanted to be more than friends - he called her late Saturday night to talk about it but nothing was really said and then she didn't hear from him on Sunday. So we were having the 'why hasn't he called?' conversation with this guy who was helpfully providing some insights into boy behaviour.

I guess at this point I should probably also mention that I had a bit of a thing for this bloke when we were at school and to cut a long story short basically I ended up telling him (although I think I lied and said I was over it) Anyway, last night when the conversation went down the 'you should tell someone that you like them' route it brought back a lot of embarrassing memories for me. I don't think it was like he ever rejected me - I put the 'over it' caveat in the conversation so he couldn't. However, seeing him again freaked me out and brought back a lot of stuff I'd forgotten/repressed from when I was a teenager.

Whenever I see some one who hurt me when I was younger (be it intentional or unintentional) I wish I looked different. I don't feel like I've changed much since school apart from the fact I swapped the braces for glasses! Wanting to be thinner especially, is some kind of defence mechanism I've got - almost as if I'm a different person so they can't hurt me again. Also my competitive side also wants to come out on top in being more attractive, more successful and generally having a better life than the other person. I think I failed on all 3 counts last night which is depressing. I guess I've got the next 10 years to remedy the situation!

I am trying to find a cleaner - although 10am on a Sunday is probably not the best time to try really. I don't know anyone in my area who has one so it is proving a little difficult. I am far to lazy to clean my flat on a regular basis myself - I tend to wait until it gets really disgusting and the I have to spend an entire day cleaning everything which I hate. If I can get someone in for an hour a week then I think that will be enough to keep the place looking respectable.

Much of this wanting to have pride in my surrounding is due to the fact I received my mortgage cheque on Friday. The really annoying thing is that the bank sent it to me, but (at my request) made it payable to my solicitors. I have money which I am paying interest on since Thursday, but hasn't actually been withdrawn. I don't see why my solicitors should make money on it so I'm going to have to push them to get everything sorted asap.

I went to test drive the Ford Puma yesterday. I am totally the wrong shape for those cars so I won't be getting one. I got in and I was looking out of the top of the windscreen - if I'd been raining my vision would've been obscured as it's the bit of the windscreen that the wipers don't clear. The seat wouldn't go down any further which meant I had to sit a long way back to be able see properly which I meant I had difficulty reaching the gear sick. My knees were bumping the steering wheel because the steering column didn't adjust. All in all not a spectacularly successful drive. Looks like I'll be reduced to getting a ridiculously priced German car then. It's a tough life!

It's a beautiful day out again and I am stuck here in an office again. I am mangerless this week so theoretically I could skulk off and go home early (she obviously knew something about the weather I didn't this week) Unfortunately, I've been booked into a meeting at 4.30pm with one of my directors to discuss the 2004 budget. The whole budgeting process here is a joke anyway as we go through this ridiculous charade of asking people what they want. In actual fact the number they get is probably the original figure divided by the number of children the director has and then take off 10% in case of padding. I waste lots of time putting budgets together and finding savings in each new version as the total is further and further reduced. They may as well give me my final number now so I can spend the next 3 months working out how to meet it.

The weekend looks as if it will be quiet, but after the excesses of last weekend I think I need it. I am going to drive a Ford Puma as part of my ongoing quest to find a new car. I was hoping to drive a Mercedes but the dealer don't appear to answer e mails and I really can't summon the energy to call them up to arrange it. I am picking up my sunglasses tomorrow so that will guarantee a change in the weather - don't say you weren't warned.

I have been invited to the wedding reception of colleague Pussy Paradise next month. She and I get on OK, but we aren't really good friends. Another colleague and definite friend Jamal Jupiter is also getting married next month and I was going to be invited to anyone's wedding this summer, I thought it would be his. However, he has heard the stories of my drunken behaviour at the wedding of friends Pimp Daddy Rothschild and Lydia Hott last year, so maybe he deliberately hasn't invited me...

I didn't get the job I applied for here. I am not unduly concerned as I didn't think the interview went well. In fact it was harder for colleague Juan Sex to give me the feedback as we know each other quite well. However, he's given me some stuff to work on and some information to help me in future. I might wait for a couple of weeks before I apply for any more as at least then I will have my exam results which hopefully will put me in a better position.

I am not happy. I had just written a load of stuff when due to a strange combination of keys pressed (although I think delete might have been among them) I lost it all.

I've just logged for the first time in a month and everything is different. I know I've been a bit lax about posting recently, but that was no reason to change it all when I wasn't looking. However, I intend to try to keep things a bit more up to date as things have slipped a bit recently. Work has been to busy to allow me the luxury of updating regularly, but I will now make the effort to find time to do it.

A brief update of the last month
The flat buying is progressing nicely. The mortgage is signed, sealed and delivered and I am just waiting for the legal stuff to go through.
I've been out test driving cars in anticipation of passing my exams. I have driven a new Audi A3, a VW Golf SE and a BMW 316 and 318. So far the BMW is just ahead of the Audi, but as I still have several more cars to drive, the editor's decision is not yet final.
I applied for a new job here. I was interviewed on Friday, but it didn't go all that well. I am still waiting to hear if I will be called back for the second interview but I wouldn't have employed me based on that interview. The only (tiny) ray of light is that I know the recruiting manager, colleague Juan Sex, as he is in the same department as me (in fact he sits 2 desks away from me) so he knows what I am capable of and is able to judge me based on my actual performance.

I have been out and about visiting long lost friends (although I was probably the one lost in a cloud of CIMA books, not them) I spent a weekend with friend Boopsie Venus where we spend an inordinately large amount of our time together shopping. I was in London for friend Hard John Rod's birthday. There were also guest appearances from friends Pimp Daddy Rothschild, Lydia Hott and Deedee Lustley. I didn't see them for long due to security issues at Kings Cross Station, but short is always sweet.

This last weekend I was in WideSteps (think of it as a cryptic clue and you might work out where I was) with my posse from school. I even managed to make time to see friends Patty and Peter Pierce and their new canine arrival. We rented a cottage which as friend Kinky Malibu commented on numerous occasions was bizarre. However, it was close to the town and housed all 6 of us nicely. We didn't do much apart from catching up, eating and drinking, but we did play World Cup an idea pioneered and developed by friend Pimp Daddy Rothschild and associates. For those not in the know, you take several beings of your preferred sex and species and play them off against each other in a knockout fashion as in the World Cup (or Wimbledon which is actually a better example as it doesn't have the group stages) Anyway, the whole thing degenerated into a bit of a farce as votes were being sold in exchange for downing vodka shots. Friend Jacqui Buttocks was championing Martin Shaw, a little known actor who made it to the semi finals as a result of her downing a number of shots. In the end myself, Donna Cummings and Debbie Dicks all had to down 2 shots each to get him knocked out. Friend Debbie Dicks also offered to streak down the road if Robert Downey Jnr won (another wildcard who knocked out George Clooney in a drinking race) which we were tempted to let happen purely for the comedy value. However, the final decision was a 5-1 win for Brad Pitt which probably was a foregone conclusion but it was fun getting there. Throw in a few conversations which wouldn't seem out of place in an episode of Sex and the City and that pretty much sums up the weekend.