I'm amazed that my blog is still here. It's been nearly a year since my last post. I was just reading back and so much has happened in the time that has passed. However, I suspect that is probably true of anyone's life. So I guess I should explain why I stopped posting. I think it would be fair to say that last year turned into one of the worst years of my life. I alluded previously to some issues at work and these never got resolved and actually got a lot worse. Things were so bad that I ended up ill. So I went out and found a new job and jumped before I got pushed. Bizarrely once I'd resigned things got better again, but by then there was too much history to go back.

I’ve been at my new job for 5 months now - I started on the 2 January as part of a new year, new start ethos. I'm working for another high street retailer but this one is much bigger. To put things into context the 2 areas of the business I look after now, which are relatively small parts of the overall business, make more sales than the whole of my last company. The other big change is that I am now based in London so I'm a commuter now too. My job is interesting and varied, I work with some great people and I have a fantastic manager. My manager has unknowingly allowed me to rebuild my shattered confidence. Who knows one day I may be able to thank him for that!

Commuting has been OK - as long as the trains are running without any problems I can get door to door in an hour on a good day. It's actually also giving me a better work/life balance as I make sure I leave work earlier as I have at least an hour journey home. The time spent on the train is also quite good for unwinding from the day.

I finally moved into my new apartment just before Christmas, only 3 months later than expected... I'm really happy here and things are coming together now. It's a lovely place to live, so peaceful. I still have a distinct lack of decent furniture, but things are on order and will hopefully arrive soon. I'm still living on a building site which can be a pain, but the builders are making progress. I think they should be finished by the end of the year. Most of the heavy building work and hard landscaping around me has been finished now so it's not as noisy as it was. It took me ages to get a new laptop and my broadband access sorted. For the first few months I could only check my e mail once a week at my parent's house.

I've continued losing weight. I've been on a diet for over a year now, but have lost nearly 8 stone. I'm beginning to get tired but I think I don't have too much more to lose now. I haven't decided on a final weight as I've not been this thin my entire adult life so I have no idea what I will look after losing another stone. I'll stop when I feel happy - I'm not quite there yet as I still feel like a fat girl. I’m also back at the gym to help things along. The gym is on site so it’s nice to be able to pop in there for an hour. I’m also going to Streetdance classes there. I have no coordination and the memory of a goldfish but I enjoy it. It’s also quite funny as the class is full of girls like me 20/30 something white girl trying to dance like black teenage girls with attitude!

My family are all OK. My sister still hasn't got married, my parents haven't killed each other and my Grandad still looks like he is going to outlast us all! My friends are good. A few more have married or are engaged now. I will officiating as bridesmaid for friend Boopsie Venus in November. A few more babies are also on the way. As ever, I'm still a million miles from all that. I do have what I'm calling an appropriate crush. He's 34 and was single when I met him (unfortunately he's now got a northern fishwife who he's intermittently seeing) However, she is 200 miles away and he sees me sitting opposite him every day at work. The downside is that he's nearly, but not quite my boss and obviously we do work together. He’s proving slightly resistant to my charms, but as I’m taking in sweet decorated fairy cakes tomorrow (don’t ask) and he has the world’s biggest sweet tooth that should get me some credit...

So today I'm having a quiet one as I've been really tired recently. I haven’t taken much time off since I started my job and it’s showing now. I just have to make it through another 7 days at work and then I get my reward - I go on holiday. I'm off to Alicante with friend Kinky Malibu to get some sun and sleep!

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.

Here we go again - Inappropriate Crush v3. I'm sticking to the tried and tested formula of an older colleague with children. Unlike mark 2 who at least had the decency to be divorced, v3 is married I think and if not, is as good as.

I think I may need professional help....

God I’m terrible at doing this. I started an entry last Monday and never finished it so it has sat in drafts since then.

Saturday night the week before last was brilliant! Being at the first concert at the new Wembley Stadium was a great experience. It was really good to see Wembley whilst it is still new and shiny and I am happy to report that it is a very impressive stadium. As for George Michael – he was fantastic. I’ve been waiting the best part of 20 years to see him live and I wasn’t disappointed. My only gripe would be that he didn’t sing ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ which I absolutely love, but all of my other favourite songs were there. In fact my gripe might not even me justified as I was dragged off by the people I went with before the end. They foolishly believed that he was done after the first encore, despite me pointing out that the stage lights were still on, the stadium lights were off and he hadn’t thanked his band. We were outside when we heard him back on stage again. I suppose that the positive side of leaving a bit early was that we got home quite quickly.

The stage set was amazing, but what was even more impressive was that it was just George Michael, his band and a few backing singers. For most of the concert it was just him on stage by himself, which I don’t remember seeing before. Usually there are dancers, special effects, pyrotechnics etc. and I have to say I don’t think that the concert suffered from a lack of these things. It was still as impressive as seeing someone like Madonna (who I think had the biggest stage show I’ve ever seen)

Anyway, I could talk about the concert all day but I won’t. The tickets arrived on Saturday for The Police who I’m seeing in September at Twickenham. In fact as I type I have ‘Wrapped Around My Finger’ playing on my ipod in preparation for it!

Work is really quiet – it’s our financial year end next Friday and so everyone has gone on holiday before we get really busy then. I’m jealous as my holiday is nothing more than a dim and distant memory! I would sort something out for later in the summer, but I’m in limbo until I get some concrete dates for my new apartment.

My weight loss is continuing – I got my 2.5 stone award last night. However, there is still a way to go before I get to the point where all of my clothes fit me. Having said that, I have skinnied myself into a few things that would never have fit me in March. It’s nice when people ask me if I’ve got a new top or skirt and I can say no, it’s something old I have shrunk into!

It's a quiet weekend my parents have gone out today - thank goodness. Much as I love them I'm finding that I'm happiest at home when they are not here, especially at weekends. I guess I'm used to just doing my own thing and seeing them all of the time is a bit much. They are away overnight next weekend, although I won't benefit from that too much as I'm going to see George Michael at Wembley Stadium with some work people. I'm quiet excited about going as not only is the first concert at the new Wembley, but I've wanted to see George Michael for years. I'm seeing The Police at Twickenham later in the year as well so have been downloading their greatest hits from itunes!

Most of my friends are away this weekend, but as the weather is so nice I'm not that bothered about doing anything. I sat in the garden and read a complete Louise Bagshaw book yesterday - how productive!

It's been so long since I logged in everything has changed!

I'm not going to dwell too much on the past 5 months as things haven't been as wonderful as I might have hoped. There are still some issues which I have to work through, but hopefully things are on the up again.

So a quick update on where I am now. I am between homes - my flat sale went through in March and I am now back living with my parents until my new apartment is completed. Current completion date is October/early November. I went for a look at the weekend and nothing appeared to have happened since I was last there about a month ago. At this rate I'll be lucky to be in before Christmas.

Work hasn't changed much - still doing the same thing at the same place and still enjoying it. I've been to some more exotic locations - last week I was in deepest darkest Dorset. However, I did get to go to Leuven in Belgium - home of Stella Artois and mecca to the lager drinking world.

My family are all well. My parents are both currently gainfully employed, although I think the only reason my Mum got a job was to get her away from my Dad occasionally. A few weeks later and she needn't have bothered as my Dad set up his own consultancy business and now has a contract with a high street chain of shops.

My friends are all doing well. One of my schoolfriends got married in March (it's been so long since I did this that I can't remember anyone's aliases!) since then, 2 of my other school friends who were in long term relationships have got engaged. It seems that the old adage - one wedding brings on another - is more than true in this case! My university friends seem to be leaving the country en masse. Most of them are now in Australia! Those that are still here seem to be having children. The latest arrival was a little girl born to friend Tiffani Holiday (I managed to look that one up) in March, in fact on the same day as the wedding I was at.

I think that's everything. More later