DAY 231: Gracias Madrid

It only seems right that I end this blog in the hungover state in which I have written so many of these posts.

It was my work leaving party last night...or "despedida" as they call it here and I think everyone enjoyed one too many drinks. The 9 of us in the department went out for a lovely dinner to Mabel´s favourite restaurant, Makkila, and the amount of food that was ordered was ridiculous. In classic Spanish style, it all was all made to share, and we had croquettes, Spanish omelette, Spanish ham, bruschetta, pork, a goats cheese salad, spicy Spanish potatoes and lots more - all the food I love and am definitely going to miss. And of course with that all, we were all on the "cañas". A "caña" is a wee Spanish beer that everyone orders here. The guys were sweet enough to get me a wee leaving present as well, a photo of all of us in a beautiful frame, sweets and big card with lots of lovely comments signed by all of them, and of course I cried, which of course is now caught on camera. Cringe. Then I had to make a speech, which after a few beers and in a "fragile" state ended up being a complete mess. Anyway, we then headed on to a bar, after ditching the Big Boss who, (shhhh - no one really likes), and a many gin and tonic were ordered and the conversation moved on to sex, cocaine and Geordie Shore. Here it´s called "Gandía Shore". It´s fair to say that this morning, everyone is looking a little bit pale. 

So that´s it, my time in Spain has come to it´s end and I can´t quite believe it. Highlights - I don´t know, there are too many to choose from. The girls at work have been so lovely to me and I am really going to miss them all. Yes, there have been some days where I have had shit all to do, but generally I am kept reasonably busy - for Spanish standards anyway - and it is a fantastic experience to have. Events Management is definitely something I would be interested in doing in the future. The Spanish way of working life is damned relaxed and although in some senses this can be great - arriving into work late and no one caring, taking your time to do tasks, lots of coffee and fag breaks and a middle-day siesta - it also pinpoints the reason why the Spanish economy is so bad, and although I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, it is sadly not where I want to live in the future. I think my department is special, we all get on so well and there is a sense of humour between us all, which is what made last night even more great. As Mabel said last night "I wish we all went out together more".

Of course there are also all my British and American friends I have made and I have good memories with them too. The number of pre-drinks I have hosted at my puny flat, having the neighbour complain far too many times, and the number of nights out finishing at 7am - is something I will never forget. Spanish nightlife is pretty crazy and it´s fair to say that everyone effectively dies the next day. Clubs in the UK are closed by the time people start going out here, and arriving back in daylight is something I wasn´t entirely used to. Kapital, Shoko, Joy Eslava, Starstudio, Space Monkey, Ocho y Medio - been to them all. Best nights, hmm, our St. Andrew´s day party where we all dressed up in tartan and painted the Scottish flag on ourselves, whilst Jared, a guy we all think is a bit of a "legend" turned up with his Ohio flag, not really understanding that it wasn´t just a "where you are from party". Any nights out with Andrew have been great, and very drunken - I blame him for all my chunders. The top one being a spontaneous Tuesday night out which ended up with us dancing on a bar, getting cava poured down our throats and people dressed up as LMFAO in their underwear dancing around the place. I have to also mention Oktoberfest which was absolutely brilliant. Cheesy music and some good old routines, whilst chugging litre glasses of beer and high fiving a terrible Elvis tribute act. I had my 21st birthday in Kapital, the 7 floor club which I absolutely love, but sadly I don´t remember much of that night. I´ve been told I was having a good time though as I ran up and down all the floors with no shoes on. Kapital the other weekend with Emily was pretty good as well, running away from creepy Spanish men and Emily telling a guy that he was a 5 after he asked her to rate him. 

With these friends I have also traveled around Spain, taking the party with us of course, and those weekends that we haven´t traveled we have found something else to do. Madrid has so much opportunity for that. The Retiro Park is genuinely one of my favourite places in the world, and generally Madrid is just a really beautiful city and always thriving.

Living on my own has been a challenge certainly and it definitely has advantages and disadvantages. I would, however, recommend it to anyone. There have been days where I have felt lonely and it is with that that you really have to push yourself to either meet up with people or do something productive. It´s good to keep busy. And there have been days where I guess I have had too much time alone with my thoughts, and I am a mahoosive overthinker, and this can really affect you, and make you feel sad, worked up, or even a little bit crazy. But, as I have mentioned before, there are advantages and generally I have loved it. It´s so relaxing and so free and as cheesy as it sounds, you learn a lot about yourself. 

The first blog I wrote was "La gordita inglesa" as I very much worried I would put on lots of weight here because of the Spanish food. Sorry to say, I have, I feel like a whale right now, but at the end of the day I have enjoyed myself and in a few days everything will be back to normality and back to a healthier lifestyle. People talk about the "Mediterranean Diet" and how healthy it is, but let me just say something, Spanish food is NOT healthy. EVERYTHING is fried, dripped in olive oil and salt and practically everything is full of carbs. Beers aren´t seen as alcoholic drinks here, it´s just the same as having a coke, and so you drink it whenever because seriously, that´s what they do.

My flight back to Edinburgh is on Sunday night and it is a weird feeling knowing that it is not a return. 2 hours left in this office, and I can feel that the tears are building up. 

Madrid, Spain - you have been fantastic. Te querré para siempre.

DAY 219: Barcelona

Spain is keen on their bank holidays, or "puentes" as they call them here, so after only being back for four days of work, last week we had 3 days, or in my case, due to being ill one of them, 2. The plan had originally been to go to La Rioja with Liz, but with a lack of funds, Liz unfortunately had to bail and so I was left to decide what to do. Taking my mother´s advice, I spontaneously booked flights to Barcelona for 4 nights, as not only is it a great place to visit but I have a few friends from uni who live there. Unfortunately, about an hour after I had booked it though, I fell ill. I had a fever and a headache, was being sick and generally felt like I couldn´t move, once again, this is just a classic case of dehydration for me, but after then missing work the next morning and sleeping til about 3pm, I was fine to head to Barcelona Wednesday night.

Now I´ve never come across this before, but apparently airlines can overbook their seats?! How, is beyond me, as surely with technology these days stuff like that shouldn´t happen. However, I arrived at the airport in plenty of time, and when I went to check in they told me that my seat was on standby and that I might not be able to get on the plane. What the fuck? I was incredibly angry, and so storming through to the gate, I waited for everyone to board before they told me if I could get on or not. Luckily....I could, with the slight inconvenience of them then checking in my bag and a hefty 45 minute wait to get it back when arrived in Barcelona. However, there was Hannah waiting, all hugs and kisses, and as we hadn´t seen each other in months, there was a lot to catch up on. Once into the centre of town, we then headed to a restaurant, each buying a delicious steak, and of course, being in Spain, we were eating them at midnight!

Thursday was beach day and as my pale-skinned, heat.suffering, Scottish self, I felt I should be prepared, so I lathered on the factor 30 and bought about 4 bottles of water (which wasn´t even enough). Of course though, being me, my back went the colour of a lobster, and whilst everyone panicked and thought this was horrendous, I sadly just had to admit that I was "used to it"...sore skin from sunburn is now something, that especially living in Spain, I have become accostomed to. The beach was packed but very beautiful, and at about 6pm, Hannah and I decided to take ourselves off for a big jug of sangria....it´s a tough life. 

Now, if there is one thing that Madrid needs more of, it´s brunch places. There are several in Barcelona and they are so so cute and so so yummy. On Friday "brunch-time", I had a beautiful quinoa salad (my new favourite word as I don´t really know how to pronounce it) and Becky had these amazing pancakes which I´m sure I would have just inhaled if I had ordered them. It was such a cute wee cafe and served everything from donuts to cakes to salads to sandwiches to eggs benedict on waffles. Our next stop was Barcelona´s famous cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, and wow, it is impressive. First of all, it´s huge, and secondly, the sculpturing and artwork of it is just so intricate and beautiful. Every single part of it is so detailed. I didn´t actually go inside, cba with the queue, but it was lovely to see anyhow, of course with a few sneaky tourist snaps. Hannah and Becky then dropped me off at Izzy´s flat, who amazingly lives right next to it, and we chilled on her balcony in the sun with some good old cups of tea.....where of course, I burned even more.

That night, the four of us, plus 3 of Izzy´s friends, went to a really good tapas restaurant called La Tosca. Really good food for a really good price, and on top of that, very very cheap cocktails. I lost my Amaretto Sourz viginity (twice) and also indulged in a very strong caiprinha and some bitter lemon thing. It was fair to say that by the end of the night, we were all feeling a little bit "tipsy"...and then there was Izzy...pissed, with her classic sleepy drunken eyes on, and stripping off in the living room when we got home :P (Sorry Izzy, just thought I would mention that). However, being a morning person, she was up bright and early Saturday morning all dandy and chipper, whilst I reached for the bucket full of water and begged for some ibuprofen.

Saying that, it wasn´t long before I was sipping on the booze again as it was time to meet Vicky and we hadn´t seen each other in a long loooong time. Like our regular nights in Newcastle together, where we went to either Bar Berlise or Bar Ru on our favourite Ozzy Road, we ordered some nachos and potato skins with a mixture of cocktails, of which was mostly persuaded by our very friendly waiter. After that, now verging on obese, we went off to Parc Guell which is a park showing Gaudi´s main pieces of work through mozaics and beautiful buildings. Unfortunately, the wait to get into the actual "Guadi bit" was far too long, so instead we just walked around the open park space, but it was still lovely and the view of Barcelona was beaut. That night, we met up with Izzy to go and see the "magic fountains" and I have to say that this was probably my highlight. It probably sounds corny, but I´ve never seen fountains like it before. They changed colours, changed effects and music was playing alongside the "show". We also got soaked whilst at it, trying to take one of our many selfies with it in the background. Anyhow, it was a really good way to end a great day.

Cultural time for Sarah on Sunday and a trip to Barcelona´s big museum, the MNAC, which I kept accidentally calling the MCAT, causing the others to think that I was now into all that mcat jazz. I don´t think Vicky even noticed when I told her that we are going to the MCAT, it´s an easy mistake to make! It was cool, and definitely very different from the Prado in Madrid, with less portraits and less paintings of Christ. There was also a cool terrace on top of it, which again was great for a few cheeky snaps. Unfortunately that morning, we had also tried to go to this big food market, which from what I´ve seen pictures of is pick n mix heaven (my favourite thing everrrr), but it was closed for the puente darn it. On our way there we also encountered a grotesque old man who stopped in front of me and oggled at my (not even on display) boobs whilst moving his tongue around his mouth and making horrible sounds. Grim. Once again, I HATE Spanish men. We then joined Hannah and Becky for lunch in a sushi restaurant, right beside Barcelona´s Arc de Triomf. Izzy had kept mentioning this arc, and I was getting so confused thinking, I sweaaaar that is meant to be in Paris, but turns out, it´s just another wee one. 

I was really sad leaving on Sunday evening because I had had so much fun and Barcelona is just so cool....I might even prefer it to Madrid (!!!) ...did I just say that?! The city has so much character and there was so much to do. I struggled with the heat, of course, but that´s nothing new, and I think also there were a lot more toursits than there are in Madrid. But no, great few days and I´m glad I did it before I leave in a few weeks time!

DAY 195: La Semana Santa Viene

So another 4 months down in Madrid and it´s time for my Easter holidays and I´m really looking forward to a relaxing week at home. Spain definitely has had both its fun times and hard times and the whole experience is something I will vividly remember.

If I think about work, I came out here terrified, and speaking Spanish all day every day was so intimidating. Luckily my Spanish has improved a lot but with Mabel speaking to me in English all the time, perhaps I should be better. I think the whole thing when learning a language though is confidence and the more you speak it, even if you do make mistakes, the more you will improve. Anyway, despite her always speaking English to me, I have to thank Mabel for a lot. She´s so kind and has always been so supportive of everything and she is a really fantastic businesswoman. On top of that of course we have the fact that she is bloody gorgeous. I know I´m not a lesbian but I definitely am attracted to her ha. Her boyfriend is a lucky lucky man! The rest of the team are lovely too and Mariangeles is another girl who I ´ve really appreciated here. She sits opposite me and we chat all the time (this time in Spanish)…mainly about Ryan Gosling! It´s been really nice sitting with her for the past 8 months and despite her being a good 15 years older, she´s really been a friend. We of course have the people I don´t like though, and for people who know me well, the list of people in this world who annoy me is probably far too high! But anyway, first we have Noelia. Noelia came about a month ago and she is an intern like me but a few years older. Anyway, if I´m going to be honest here, she just absolutely loves herself and I can see her judging me every day and she always makes snide wee comments which piss me off. She´s so patronizing as well and thinks I can´t speak Spanish so just doesn´t like talking to me. Almudena is another one, or “Almu” as she gets called, which I don´t know why cracks me up. She´s nice I guess but just very…very.. dull. Finally, we have the German girl, Alex. It´s very much a love-hate relationship. For an 18 year old she is very close-minded and judgemental and comes across quite rude, but at the same time I do go for coffee breaks with her a lot and today we got on ok so I haven´t closed my opinion completely on her yet. I think she´s just complicated to understand, plus I guess we are just very different people. Anyway, enough of that bitching and back to work – sometimes boring, sometimes difficult and sometimes enjoyable – the matter of the fact is though that it has been a very good and possibly rewarding experience for me.

When I come back after Easter I will hardly have anytime left here and I know I´m going to miss the friends I´ve made out here a lot. I don´t really socialize outside of my work with my colleagues but of course I will miss them too.  If I´m honest we have probably had too many nights out of drinking far too much, doing silly things, kissing boys and munching on McDonalds but that is part of what the year abroad is about, in my opinion (that´s coming from the view of clearly a drunken mess). And of course we have had fun travelling…..Valencia….Lisbon….Toledo….Salamanca… - I literally just want to travel all the time now!

It also took me a while to embrace the Spanish culture. First of all…they eat so bloody much! I still don´t understand how most of them stay so thin – I swear they are eating at every moment of the day whether it be a “snack” (although to me a sandwich is not a snack?) or a big 3 course meal…with of course lots of bread and litres and litres and litres of olive oil. Olive oil is literally put into every single food they have here. You see people buying 5 litre bottles of it in supermarkets and that’s just to get them through the week! I for one am looking like a plump pudding. In addition to that, it took me a while to get used to them eating so late. I have lunch at 3/3.30pm every day and I´ve been out for dinner with friends at midnight, which isn´t even unusual! Spanish timetabling is something else as well…it´s so relaxed and mightily inefficient – the amount of times I have complained about at it this year has led me to write my assessed university essay on the year abroad this year about it. We also have the culture of the men, the very pervy, very sleazy, very sexist men. In clubs they want to grab you at any chance they get, so much so that two of my girl friends have ended up punching men in the face, and I´ve left the club fuming ranting my traditional “I hate men” speech. In the streets they yell at you and ask you to sleep with them and the sad thing is, that you just kind of have to get used to it!

However, as much as I do complain about things though, and I do like to complain, Madrid is a great city. The madrileños are incredibly friendly and welcoming people and the city is beautiful and always thriving. It feels like a city that never sleeps and everything is also all so cheap (apart from make-up…almost every British girl I know here really misses Boots). I can´t really complain about the weather here either – blue skies and well today, its 27 degrees. Of course I am sunburnt, and of course the Spanish are still going round in their unfashionable polo-necks!

Anyway that´s me off for just over a week. A nice big lunch with Sanderson after work today to celebrate and then Newcastle tomorrow followed by HOME. Here´s to my final stint in Madrid after Easter!! Not much longer to go!!!

DAY 145: Estoy harta de España

Yesterday I was helping out at an event for people who claimed they had "too much money". Our business was to advise them on what they could invest their money in or spend their money on. As I arrived at 7.30am at the office, there to help out with the setting up as per usual, Mabel came up to me and said "So Sarah, do you have a boyfriend? There´s a lot of good looking rich men coming and you know, you could do well here". Bingo Mabel - you wise wise owl. Luckily, as it was an event, I was dressed smartly and had tried making an effort with some sexy (yet murderous) red heeled boots to top it off. These boots seemed a bit of a stupid idea later on in the day, as I ended up with blisters after walking to and from to and from to and from the meeting room with clients. Anyway, to my disappointment, all these men were really a bit too old for me....and married, so my dreams of being spoilt rotten with Michael Kors, fancy restaurants and romantic getaways went out the window. 

Apart from that, work has been pretty shit lately and I´m not enjoying myself as much as I was previously. I´m working with this girl Marta, who is lovely and all, don´t get me wrong, but she really is not the most interesting/logical/organised person to work with. My days are filled with checking bloody excel sheets against databases to make sure that all details of clients are correct and honestly, after doing about 2, I´m checking Facebook as a way to "interest" my life. It´s a shame because I liked Marta before, I´ve been out with her and she was very welcoming, but working with her is a whole different matter. This is why maybe its good not to "mix business with pleasure" - my social life and my life at work are two different stories.

I´ve also been ranting recently about Spain in general and how backwards I think the whole country is. Horrific timetables of businesses prove inefficient; the service industry cannot even compete with that of the UK (which only in comparison I have now noticed is much superior); men are sexist; and women are far from equal both socially and in the working world. There are a lot of other things that spring to mind, but I´ll save that for another day...

Living alone can be quite hard too. Yes, most of the time I like it, I can do what I want, have my own space, not care about washing up etc etc etc, but it does get lonely. It´s probably not the best idea that I spend my "lonely" time streaming episodes of 90210 instead of doing anything sociable or productive, but sometimes after work, I just get so tired (and fed up) that my wee bit of "relaxing time" turns into hours of tv, sleeping and eating. There´s a reason why I am getting so fat here! And socialising here, from my experience, consists mainly of drinking beer and nibbling on the free food they give you with it. Not that I´m complaining, I love my beer, but my belly really doesn´t and my professors back at uni most certainly wouldn´t either...

Anyway, fed up of all this, I have decided to go home this weekend, take a break from Spain and spend some time with the fam (and my dog...). Of course Mabel was fine with letting me off yet another day to go home early (she really is the most chillaxed boss) and my mum has been asking what I want in the fridge for when I get home (ahh Mummy you treat me well). Djibril (my dog) will be awaiting, and my Harry Styles cardboard cut-out from my 21st will be standing there beautifully. I´ll have the car and not be afraid to use it because of crazy Spanish drivers and my tv will be just a little bit bigger ;)..the only thing lacking is the beautiful Spanish sun - but I´ll be back in front of that next week (to "top up" my (very very fake) tan)!

DAY 139: Pedro

I had started to think that beautiful Pedro from when I first came to Madrid had forgotten me! I saw him when I first came and since then hardly ever. However, today as I was working on some boring excel with my ears completely blocked by blasting music from my headphones, Pedro appeared, beautiful beautiful Pedro, and naturally, I went all red. Either it´s the fact that he is just so handsome or my difficulty in understanding sexy Spanish accent, but literally my mind always fails me when I speak to him and he now thinks I´m a retard who still can´t speak Spanish after 5 months here. Anyway, being all charming (it is Valentine´s day after all ;) ), he invited me for dinner with him and his family. How lovely and very kind, but also, how awkward....let´s just say..things with his nephew, Alvaro, the fittie Hollister model from a while ago, did not end so well....*cough* asshole *cough*.  After Pedro left, you could see all the other girls giggling and smiling and then they all came up to me and asked "who is that Sarah?"...yes beautiful, beautiful Pedro is still well and truly "smokin hawt".

So I did something I hadn´t done in a while yesterday...I slept in through work! I thought those days were past me now that I am a mature 21-year-old, but sadly no. I knew I shouldn´t have been going out on Wednesday night in the first place but it was Sanderson´s friend´s last night in Madrid so something had to take place. Fair to say, the night did not end up so smoothly though....my neighbour now literally hates me and was buzzing on my door all day yesterday (of which I never answered because I´m too scared), I got into an argument, got punched, failed to make it to the club, got a taxi home which I couldn´t pay for and called my friend back home crying my eyes out...total mess. It´s times like that I just think, wow I´m an idiot, and that it really is time to cut back on the alcohol consumption. Saying that, I am going out tonight BUT I aim to just drink some beers...(come on, not not going to drink at all..).

So apart from a cheeky wee day off yesterday work has been pretty dire this week. My life is filled with boring databases and excels at the moment and the highlight this week, as always, has been getting the left over food from events - fat pig here. I´ve tried to be healthy, I really have, and I managed it up until Wednesday, but when Thursday came and that hangover was bangin, salad just wasn´t going to suffice.

Thank God it´s Friday though, and I plan on being a little more chillaxed this weekend. Also I´ve been thinking about the fact that if I hadn´t extended my job until June, this would be my last day, which just seems crazy. I don´t want to leave - I love it here! Viva Madrid.

DAY 90: La Vida

I haven't written in ages so memories are becoming pretty vague, what with my excessive drinking that my friends keep commenting on, so let's see what I can say....

Work is goooood and my Spanish is getting better and better, so I'm pretty chuffed. Thankfully, without sounding like too much of a bitch here, the new girl left. She was meant to stay here for a year but clearly just couldn't hack it like savvy Slaw can....Don't get me wrong, nice girl, but you know, I just couldn't help but be a bitch to her because she really was just irritating. She would do things wrong and them blame it on me or she would try and delegate her tasks to me etc..it was just like, babes, get a grip. Anyway, she left...wasn't enjoying it...so now it's just me and I have a lot more work to do now she's gone. It's quite good as it does keep me busy and I often stay until about 7pm doing stuff, but it can also just be a bit like eurghhhhhh and many fag breaks are taken. 

I'm obsessed with my boss, Mabel. She's soooo pretty and I think I just fancy her. I literally always try and dress fashionably so she thinks I look good because she is so "on trend" with everything. The others are all pretty great too. Sometimes annoying and sometimes soooo unorganised, like this morning I was woken up at 6am to be told to get into work early - thanks for the warning - wouldn't have stayed up watching the finale of Breaking Bad if I had known. To be fair though, at least I wasn't hungover... 

What pissed me off today though is this guy in the office. So he only arrived last Thursday and sat in the desk in front of me and I did not think anything of him. We spoke no words and I don't think I gave him a second glance. Then when I was packing up my stuff at 7pm he told me to wait and handed me a piece of paper with his phone number on it. Now being classic silly me, I just kind of giggled, which probably came across kind of rude thinking about it now, but hey, who cares - I'm the one being given the number :P. Anyway, I felt it was rude not to text him seeing as I would be seeing him at work today (we had Friday and Monday off). So I texted him and just said it was me and then he proceeded to ask me out on 2 dates over the weekend, both of which I declined - I hate dates with someone you don't know, so bloody awkward. So today he came into work and it was just so incredibly "uncomfortable". He kept staring at me so I pretended I was focussing on my work and then he kept texting me and I just pretended I hadn't seen my phone. No banter whatsover, not the kind of guy I am interested in. One of the texts was like "isn't it funny how no one here knows"...I'm like dude there's nothing here to know and actually they do know because I was taking the piss out of you with them earlier. So then he asked me out for drinks after work and again I declined and he responded with "that's ok, means I can go back to working out in the gym"...really? Did you really just say that? Gag.

I've been getting quite lonely recently in my wee apartment, the novelty of living alone is kind of wearing off. I come home and I have no one to talk to and so the amount of tv watched is becoming ridiculous. I'm considering just taking my dog back with me from Edinburgh after the Christmas holidays. I miss my wee cutie. 

And of course there have been a few drunken nights but I can't remember anything silly I've done....oh no wait, that's a lie. I poured a beer over a guys head the other night because he was insulting Scotland, which was fairly amusing. He then got me back by pouring his vodka over me and I got raging yelling "but I have hair unlike you!" Damn hair was so sticky the rest of the night. Need to learn. We also almost got robbed the other night but luckily my friend Michael was there to save the day as I claimed he was my husband. 

Just over a week now until I am back home and I CANNOT BLOODY WAIT. Can't quite believe I've done 3 months here now, time has flown by and I have absolutely loved it! I am so excited to go home though and see my family, my doggy and my friends, eat Mum's cooking and have my 21st birthday party (woop). Until then, I am munching on purely celery sticks as I'm very very worried that my outfit for my party isn't quite going to fit....yum.

DAY 14: La Siesta

I am one lazy-ass motherfucker. I thought I could never get into the Spanish way of life with a nap in the afternoon, but wow, I LOVE them. It's not even that I've had many late nights, I'm just fucking lazy. So with the food as well, I am going to be a whale by the time Christmas comes (and I'm hardly going to lose weight then what with the mince pies, roast potatoes and wine). FML. However, I've promised myself I'll join a gym...I just need to move my butt to go and find one!

The past two days have been pretty chilled, a couple beers with Lara now and again, lots of good girl chat going on ;) and really yesterday the only exciting thing I did was erm...clean my flat. I'm so wild. I had gotten into the habit of leaving dishes everywhere and it was really pretty ming. What motivated me? My disgust at myself? No. Sophie who is also a Spanish student at Newcastle arrives today and is staying at mine tonight. Got to make my guests feel comfortable! Saying that, it looks so much better, so I'm going to try my hardest to keep it this way.

Work is a lot better. My new boss looks like Cheryl Cole, so as a secret lesbian admirer of Ms Cole, I'm pretty happy ha. The team are all lovely as well and young and fashionable - that's right, it's back to the pencil skirts and stillettos - the sexy businesswomen is back ;)