Our systems are on a go slow so I thought I’d start an update. I’m trying to think of what has been going on in the last couple of weeks. I guess the biggest event was the work summer barbeque last week. I had such a good time as although I enjoyed myself last year I didn’t know that many people. This year I spent most of my time with people outside of Finance. I spent a long time with my Regional Managers and Operations director and as a result have got myself invited to several regional meetings (I think that is a good thing) I drank lots, danced and generally had a good time. The weather even managed to be quite summer like so we were outside for most of the evening.

Friday I was tired and hungover so it was not a good time for the Liverpool District Manager to call. He did an excellent job of upsetting my equilibrium especially as I have spent months trying to convince myself that I don’t like him. Basically he wanted me to make some changes to his budgets for him and I refused. He begged and offered me a number of things which under normal circumstance I would have jumped at, but as I am a consummate professional I still refused. After getting both of our managers involved I ended up making the changes (my manager was the one who relented, not me. I can be hard even with the object of my affections) Once I’d made the changes I sent an e mail to him with the details and got the following reply “Many thanks for your help, I owe you a large one !!!!!!!” I really should have left it there. However, I was persuaded to reply by my so called colleagues/friends and manager. After much debate I simply wrote back saying “Promises, promises!” which was quite tame considering some of the suggestions I had. My problem is that I’m now mortified that I even responded as I have to work with this guy and that might have been a step too far. I’m hoping that we have a quiet few weeks so that by the time I next have to see him we’ll have both magically forgotten that I ever sent such message.

I went to Rhythms of the World in Hitchin at the weekend. I went with my sister and her boyfriend and it was lovely spending some time with them, which is more than I can say about the festival. I’ve never been before and as so much was being made of it I thought I’d pop along. Personally I really couldn’t see what all of the fuss was about – no one appeared to be even listening to the music. Really they could ditch the music and just call it an excuse for lots of random people to get drunk in the town.

I’ve hit 3 stone of weight loss now. I managed not to put on any weight after the excesses of the barbeque which I was really happy about.

This weekend I get to see friend Jennifer Jackme who is back after 10 months after travelling the world. I also have the Christening of friend Boopsie Venus’s baby. If anyone has a brilliant idea of what I can get the year old ankle-biter I’d love to hear it. I’ve only ever been to one christening before and that was when I was little. Not having been Christened myself I have no idea what I am supposed to buy!

Well so far I haven’t drowned in all of this lovely rain we are having. Luckily I live on top of a big hill so I’ll probably be OK for a while yet! I can’t believe how wet it has been. It’s the work summer barbeque next week – last year we were so hot that we couldn’t be inside. This year it looks like we won’t make it outside for our soggy sausages.

Not much is new. My new place is still miles off being finished – I tried calling recently and it took 3 weeks for me to get a really vague answer. Basically they will have a better idea of when they will be finished in a month’s time. I think I’ve heard that before…

I’m still doing Slimming World and have lost 2 stone 10. However, the weight losses are slowing down a bit now. I’m going to try to get to 3 stone this week if I can to speed things up a bit again but I am officially the class success story. New people who join the group are amazed that I’ve lost so much in such a short space of time. I keep being asked how many dress sizes I’ve dropped! The answer is quite disappointing as it’s only about 1½. I guess I still don’t feel that enthused about how well I’ve done as I’ve probably got another couple of stone before I’ll feel like I’m getting anywhere.

Work is busy – it’s our financial year end although things haven’t been helped by all of our reporting systems dying so we have no idea of what the year end numbers are. Last night I went to a thank you dinner with my divisional director and his team. He’s really good like that – I think this is the third thank you dinner I’ve had this year! However, it was the best one. He got up and made a really nice speech about everyone who was there and how they had helped him and his team during the past year. I got accused of fancying one of the Regional Managers as he always wins the monthly finance prize and all of the sales incentives (not guilty - I can’t help it if he has the best financial performance) and told that I was getting too good at badminton (my director and I play on a Monday night, although I don’t know what he is worried about as he is miles better than me!)

Final thing – the last posting was a false alarm. Inappropriate Crush v3 has come to nothing after a better acquaintance. Not that he isn’t a nice bloke, but no. New goal is to try and meet an unattached eligible bloke in his 30s which would really be progress.