Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Bleurgh!

Well, here I am, another year older and wiser(?!). I had a superbly fun birthday, which involved negotiating airport security (and managing to unwittingly smuggle a lighter through, despite undergoing rigorous x-rays which required to stand in various poses reminiscent of Charlie's Angels), and convincing my lovely airline to upgrade me to business class cos it was my birthday. I was then welcomed to New York by an enthusiastic (and rather cute) immigration official, who winked at me while I was queuing, and then, upon realising it was my birthday, insisted on 'high-fiving' me and gave me a chocolate muffin, before stamping my passport and merrily sending me on my way.

I arrived chez shark, soon after, and after some lovely birthday champagne was whisked on a whirlwind cab-aided mystery tour, involving picking up my beautiful birthday present, encountering Abraham, a friendly (if somewhat manic) driver, who was the embodiment of how I perceive New York cab drivers should be and who got so engrossed in converstaion with us that he drove a fair few blocks past our destination - bless! Lovely cocktails, accompanied by awesome views, in the Rainbow Room followed, and then another cab ride to amazingly delicious tapas at Tia Pol.



The remaining 9 days of my trip went by in something of a whirlwind, involving a number of fine gigs (Erin Mckeown, Jamie & Michael Leonhart, Kate McGarry and Massive Attack), walks around central park, visiting assorted friends, adorable puppies and eggplants and much fun!

Arrived home, smug in the fact that I had a full four days to recover, and then, whilst out at a flamenco show on Sunday, the dreaded lurgy hit, and it is not pleasant... struggled into work on Monday, armed with a plethora of tissues and remedies, as felt I couldn't really phone in sick on my first day backafter a 2 week holiday, and survived just, so went back in yesterday, before heading off to the BBC with the Eggplants in the evening. Have a rather irritating cough today, so, rather than drive everyone in the office mad, I have opted to 'work from home'....

Normally I'd enjoy this, but its somewhat frustrating at the moment, as I have lots of work to catch up on, and there are exciting potential developments occurring, a couple of meetings for which I really need to be there for...not to mention the fact that the eggplants are in town - grrr!