Christmas, NYE, back to work

And we're back. Following a week and a half's mental haring around Manchester I'm back in the office to relative normality. It's a bit of a slow day here today as you can imagine - the alarums and hysterics I'm used to on the first day back are apparently unique to retail. It seems this doesn't filter down to (or percolate up to?) agency level for a couple of days yet.

Christmas was lovely. Following a cautiously enjoyable Christmas party with work on the Friday (taking it very easy on the beer, leaving in time for the last tube, don't think I offended anyone) we drove up to Manchester, taking a full 5 and a half hours to do so. We stayed in a reasonably smart apartment in Ancoats, just behind Piccadilly station, sort of, which is real inner-city Manchester, in the first throes of redevelopment and feeling a bit like Shoreditch did a few years back. It's still distinctly edgy, with some of the old rag trade offices still open for business and some of the old alleyways still ripe for lurking in, but the tell-tale bars and cafes are starting to creep in, along with the posh apartments and new businesses with shiny nameplates proudly displayed outside.

Bouncing between our apartment and friends and family all week was great, so good to see everyone again and spend time with them over the week - just as nice to be able to retreat to our own space when we needed to. The Thursday in particular was one of these times; the Kiwi went shopping whilst I settled into a pub with a bit of Orwell and some decent northern bitter. Brilliant. My wonderful Kiwi had managed to find me a Wii for Christmas too, which has shamelessly made me fall in love with her even more, whilst at the same time ensuring that I'll pay her marginally less attention in future. Funny paradox, that.

And so back to London on the Saturday, leaving at 0700 and taking about 2 hours 40 to make it back, in stark contrast to the outward journey. We spent the afternoon with the Hatter and his family out in darkest Hampshire; he's getting married in 08 and as I'm to be his best man (hooray!) we thought it about time we met the rest of the brood, and a very happy man he must be, with three ridiculously cute and (apparently) well-behaved kiddies and a rather idyllic part of the country to call home.

New Year followed, with a small group of mainly Kiwis round at ours, me drinking unusually heavily mainly in order to numb the pain of a minor mutilation which occurred whilst preparing bruschetta (middle-class credentials firmly intact there). New Year's Day was spent almost entirely on the sofa with both of us alternately freaking out about returning to work and (mostly me) worrying about January's finances which, in the context of 2008's plans, are some way off course.

There we are then. New Year's resolutions? I don't normally, but here we go: more exercise, more reading of books, more saving of money, more earning of money, more ruthless career progression (hahaha), more wearing of good shirts. Less drinking (not sure about that one), less eating of the bad food, less procrastination, less chopping of fingers. Oh, and possibly the purchase of something shiny before too long. And that's all I have to say about 'that'.

Bad boyfriend

I've been told off today. For being a bad boyfriend, not once, but twice. I'm staying at home in penance whilst the Kiwi goes off to watch a film with another kiwi. To think about what I've done.

The second thing that happened was this. I'm in the kitchen, debating whether to finish the Jaffa Cakes in order to throw the box away and make space in the cupboard (honest), when I turned around to see our white duvet cover in the hallway, full of Kiwi and thrashing around somewhat. She'd got herself completely inside it and was giggling quietly to herself. Soon though, giggling turned to a panicky 'I'm getting claustrophobic now - help me. HELP ME!' accompanied by more urgent thrashes and struggling.

I'd love to say that I sprang to the rescue like the valiant boyfriend I am but, dear reader, it saddens me to say that I was paralysed and helpless with laughter, and could do nothing but wait until that lovely little red angry face eventually appeared from under the cover, with words like 'how could you' and 'why didn't you' and 'worst boyfriend in the world' spluttering from it.

The first time was when she called through to me from the living room to the kitchen. It sounded urgent, but I had my hands full (with eggshells, which I hate) and called back 'wait a minute'. It turned out all she wanted was for me to put some music on, but the fact that I'd thought she might've been in terrible danger and yet decided she could wait until I'd dealt with the eggshells (which I hate) was enough to tick off a few brownie points.

So I'm ruminatively finishing the Jaffa Cakes, reflecting on how I've never enjoyed spending time with another human being quite as much as I do with my Kiwi, who's so thoughtful and brilliant and lovely and who gets lost in duvet covers and who talks to her mechanical cat when I'm not there.

I really do love her very much.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Talk about feet not touching the ground - I was in front of clients at 1100 this morning, no time for induction, straight into it. Naturally I sat there for two hours like a stunned rabbit and didn't say a word. Way to go, newly-fledged business consultant, really knocked them dead.

Anyway, sniffly man-cold and muteness notwithstanding, it looks like I've definitely made the right choice in the move. First impressions speak of a bunch of highly intelligent, insightful and experienced people who're all more than happy to share all this wonderfulness - I'm sure the honeymoon period will wear off at some point but right now I'm sort of in awe of all this - someone asked my opinion today and not only seemed to actually care what I had to say, they seemed to take my feedback to heart.

That sort of thing rarely happens on the client side. This is a genuine eye-opener for me. So add to that a working laptop and email account being in place prior to my arrival and I'm sold.

On another note - mentioned my lovely girlfriend the Kiwi in my last post, very remiss of me not to expand... together for an amazing 2-and-a-bit years, living together for just over a year of that, sickeningly happy and pondering a move to New Zealand at some point in the not too distant future. She has, as always, been unbelievably supportive since I've started looking for a new job, including dealing with gloom and grumpiness and generally atypical behaviour during the process. Love? God yes.