Dum dee dum...

Half an hour to go before the shift's over, and I'm waiting for the last of the work to be handed out. We're all off at three tonight, not just me, 'cause we're having our team Christmas Meal. It's in a bar called 'The Yard', run by Wales' most famous brewers, Brains. It's fairly new, so I haven't been there yet.

Today didn't start well, 'cause I just couldn't get out of bed. Then Rowan kept changing his mind about whether he wanted to have breakfast, which put me behind as I also needed to wash my hair. As a result we were late leaving the house, and the buses are completely unreliable that time of morning. So naturally I was late getting to work.

That was a bit of a regular occurance a few weeks ago, so I'm pretty annoyed to have done it again after a week or so's 'good behaviour'.

Really not in the mood to go out. Won't be staying long as we're eating at abour 4.30 and I don't want to sit around watching everyone else get hammered while I sip on my cola. Might do a little shopping on the way home, as it's late-night opening now Christmas is on its way. Still gotta get Rowan's main birthday present. Plus it's comic day. Might go there before the meal, since there's likely to be at least one person in the store this evening I don't want to encounter.

The invite acceptances for Rowan's party are coming in more frequently now - I must have answered my phone about six times last night. It's really un-nerving as I really, really don't do telephones..... Mind, it's always amusing to hear their reactions when Rowan answers for me *grins* If he's awake he insists on answering, and the screaming ab-dabs he lets rip with if I don't aren't worth it. For a start you wouldn't be able to hear the person on the other end.

Right, better get a little more done before we head out. Only about fifteen minutes left now.

Might catch y'all later, once I've picked Rowan up from Dad and put him to bed.

Note to self: email work account with list of icon keywords....I can't remember more than a few of them....

(no subject)

Well, I survived the meal.

I hate the things - I always feel like a social pariah, as I have very little in common with anyone on my department and they all have their own cliques that I am so not a part of.

Wasn't like that eighteen months ago. The team I was on then was a great bunch of people, and we even used to go down the pub at lunchtime. Been a long, long time since I've done that, my change of hours (and therefore much, much shorter lunch break) notwithstanding.

And I get so sick of having to explain why I choose not to drink anything stronger than cola. *sigh* It happens at least once every social event - twice tonight.

I don't like being around people who are drunk, or smokers. I make no apologies for this fact. It just makes me uncomfortable. And unfortunately, I live in a culture where people think the only way to have a good time is to get so shitfaced they can't remember what they did the next morning.

I managed to get through the preliminary drinks in the pub before we moved on to The Yard for food. Things got better from then, as I was able to chat to my Operations manager, one of my seniors and a couple of my team members about some fairly easy topics. I guess it's just easier over food than it is over beer.

George, the Ops Manager, commented that I looked like I had the worries of the world on my shoulders at one point during the meal. I shrugged it off with a smile and told her I was just constantly tired. Which is no lie. This lead to a conversation about sleep, and I was surprised to hear several of the people near me agree that they usually went to bed by about ten o'clock. This was surprising because when I was a teenager I had to go to bed by then myself or I'd be a wreck, and I got laughed at by one of my college lecturers for being such a lightweight! In recent years I've tried to stay up till about eleven or midnight - I guess as much as anything to give me some kind of 'me time' once Rowan's gone to sleep. I spend most of the evening tired though, so it's not much help.

*rubs eyes* I won't be going to bed much before eleven tonight as I want to see Sports Night. Though I have the DVD boxset winging its way to me from Canada, thanks to my wining a £20 gift voucher of my choice in work monday night. I chose to claim it from Amazon, so I could order it.

All I need now is a TV that can cope with NTSC signals....