Post title roundup

It’s a wonderful surprise to see your shoes and your spirits rise

I was asking strangers but no-one understood me

Every thousand years I’ve learned to take a breath

Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say

Post title round-up

You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out

She’s the one that keeps the dream alive from the morning past the evening till the end of the night

Post title roundup

Don’t get me wrong if I split like light refracted

Nagging little thoughts change into things you can’t turn off

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness, like resignation to the end

Another shot of whiskey, can’t stop looking at the door

A man can never dream these kinds of things

I wish my heart was as cold as the morning dew but it’s as warm as saxophones and honey in the sun for you.

 Blouse: New Look via eBay. Skirt: Oasis via eBay. Boots: Duo via eBay. Necklace: made by me

Today has been a day for breaking out communication techniques. Discussing the application of slightly different ones to address particular problems, applying different sets of rather standard ones to several different but particular ends, and the invention of acronyms for when all else fails.

Day in the life of a marketing professional, or just day in the life of an average office worker?

What have you been reading you smart girl?

 Blouse: Miss Selfridge via eBay. Skirt: Oasis via eBay. Shoes: M&S via eBay. Necklace: made by me. Belt: thrifted

Oh dear, more gassing on the phone to my mother! That’s Tuesdays for you – entertaining for me, but perhaps not fascinating blog material.

This week, we have:

• revitalised the shopping facilities of the town in which I went to school – which badly needs revitalised shopping facilities and really should allow me and my mother to run the show
• discussed possible Christmas and Big January Birthday Celebration arrangements in several formats
• agreed upon the appropriate cut-off point for trick or treating (12. Little ‘uns we welcome, but we can’t help feeling that teenagers should have grown out of it. They still get sweets, though, because we always overbuy and what can you do?)
• and, of course, caught up on the gossip.

The mother daughter relationship is a strange one, really. We rubbed each other up the wrong way while I was in my teens – I think that’s the case with a lot of girls and their mothers – but we get on very well now, and I’m incredibly pleased about that.

My friends say I’m acting peculiarly

Top: Topshop. Blouse: Bravissimo. Skirt: Oasis via eBay. Boots: Duo via eBay. Necklace: a gift

Oh my. We have been discussing the office Christmas bash at work for weeks.

Various activities were suggested and grumbled about by various non-suggesters, and even the fairly standard plan to just book a restaurant and demand everyone turn up was very nearly scuppered by someone who really dislikes eating out.

I don’t get this. It’s happened absolutely everywhere I’ve ever worked so I guess it’s just how people are, but… surely it’s obvious that you’re not going to find any one activity that will form the ideal event for everyone? As long as you either choose something fairly neutral or build a bit of variety into your events, you should cover everyone, more or less. We’re not booking a dream holiday, here, after all – it’s just a chance to kick back and let your hair down a bit with your colleagues.

You can’t sleep, you can’t eat. There’s no doubt you’re in deep.

 Top: TopShop. Skirt:  Oasis via eBay. Boots: Duo via eBay. Necklace: made by me

Kind of an uninspired outfit today, for my first day back in the office – a pencil skirted version of my usual ‘something that doesn’t require too much thought’ formula for Mondays. I employed the cunning strategy of going in early to plough through the inbox, which was definitely worth doing but eeeesh, it makes for a long day!

As it’s Making Monday, what I spent most of last week making was time to write fiction. I’m not ready to share any of it yet – and it won’t be up everyone’s street anyway – but I feel really good about being back in the groove.

I used to write every day, pretty much, but writing for work does sometimes sap that out of you. I’ve never stopped jotting down ideas and the odd paragraph here and there, but the purely creative slog of getting (and editing!) exactly the right words onto the page takes more mental effort. It’s something you need to nurture, though, so I’m making more of an effort to do so, even if only in short pieces here and there.

I’d forgotten quite how at home it made me feel.

If I can make it there I’ll make it anywhere. It’s up to you.

 Blouse: Miss Selfridge via eBay. Skirt: Oasis via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: Next

Living in my head a little at the moment, so apologies if I’m strangely uncommunicative at the moment. Having postponed a planned one for business reasons (well, you can hardly start a new member of staff and then bugger off immediately!) I’m long overdue a week off work – but fortunately, I have one next week.

It has, of course, already filled with various plans – but they’re plans of my own devising and will balance sociable stuff with pure chillout stuff.

I’m looking forward to the soul food.