A truly dreary and pointless piece of writing

Well since my first and only blog the update is this.  The final weeks of work passed slowly with the space in my brain that used to be taken up by stress, thoughts of presentations and firing people now being filled with 80s and 90s classic pop songs - good times!


Work wrapped up in September but still managed to haunt me for the two weeks following leaving as I had nightmares about my psychotic ex-boss and having to fire people.  I managed to fire 40 people over 6 months in 2011 - needless to say as soon as that situation was over the stress of the emotions I'd managed to suppress came to the surface. 


The nightmares eventually subsided and I now have the wonderful perspective on workload and stress - whenever I feel down it serves to remember that I would be working 9am - 10pm every day from October until February (life is good)!


Things I have discovered bring joy:

• Taking long walks through London
• Drinking hot cocoa under a blanket when it's cold outside
• Mince pies
• Cooking experimentally
• Writing
• Spending time catching up with old friends
• Meeting new and incredibly interesting people
• Travelling

No shockers there - you could probably find all of the above in some cheesy self help book in any less-than-quality-bookstore.

So other than these exciting flights of fancy that, let's face it, equate to a completely idle life - what is trending right now in your life?

• Thoughts of presentations are back!  Like a bad fashion that just won't die, presentations seem to have permeated every aspect of modern living - even in the first two months of my Masters I have need to present no less than 3 times, the final one of which is due on Wednesday.
• Cooking! with the winter months upon us in the northern hemisphere it's time to channel our talents towards homely pursuits.  I have made some pretty mean choc-chip cookies, banana bread, discovered a talent for making lasagne, I have such overestimation of my mediocre talents that I've contemplated changing this to a cooking blog
• Walking! The fabulous pursuit of the poor, it is life and adventure for those of us that can no longer fulfill our dreams of trekking in Nepal for 3 weeks (hang on, that's also walking)
• Driving! Probably the most beautiful part of not working is not catching the tube on a daily basis.  Whilst I appreciate the pungent aroma of 40 of the closest strangers collective armpits, the odour of damp coats that are drying in a congested underground tunnel or the one person that triggers a coordinated coughing fit - it is fabulous being able to hurtle along the highway with a constant sense of danger in the morning.
• The radio! They really should allow these in more office blocks - they have a profound ability to distract you from the mundanity of even the least thrilling tasks (preparing a presentation anyone?!)
• Overuse of exclamation marks!!! Everyone enjoys a little excitement! However when it reaches the point that you appear to have written some sort of speech disorder!!!!  It's crazy!!!!!  But I love it!!!!!!!!  What was the point of this again?!?!?!?!