29th March 2011

Today my boss gave me my ten-year long-service loyalty award pin badge. I've actually been at my company for over 12 years but they've only just introduced the ten-year award and so they're giving them out retrospectively to people with between ten and twenty years service.

16th March 2011

Today we had a work team day on HMS Belfast, sadly though there wasn't enough time between presentations to explore this old World War II battleship.

2nd February 2011

This afternoon I went to a meeting at the British Chamber of Shipping. Fortunately I consulted with my colleagues before heading off to the meeting as it was located in a complete different place to what I thought!

1st February 2011

This is the moment Mr W arrived home tonight after running back from work. I'm impressed he's still smiling after 2h 40min on his feet and nearly 17 miles added to his weekly tally! Or maybe the smile is just because he can see his tea waiting for him on the side...

14th January 2011

Unfortunately Mr W had to work late tonight and so as I was hungry when I got home I cooked my tea straightaway. Fortunately it was only heating up some bolognaise sauce from the freezer and cooking some pasta, so it was easy for me to prepare our two separate portions at different times.

4th January 2011

Christmas may be over for another year, but this present brought a smile to my face again when I slipped my feet into them on my return home from my first day back at work.

15th December 2010

A couple of months ago when I changed jobs I got given some M&S vouchers as a leaving present, however rather unusually it has taken me until now to start spending them. I have just bought this rather fetching leather overnight bag, although sadly the photo doesn't quite do it justice as in reality it is a lovely bright purple colour!

14th December 2010

The company I work for is 250 years old this year and to celebrate we've all been given a commemorative book documenting Lloyd's Register's history over the last 250 years. It's quite a hefty tome...

8th December 2010

It was my work Christmas party tonight and there was supposed be a 'Cocktails and Dreams' 80s theme, so we couldn't quite work out the significance of the flamingos on the tables...
It was a good night though and I ended up staying out much later than I expected to!

1st December 2010

A new month and more snow - it took me an hour and a half to get to work this morning for a meeting and then I headed home straight afterwards to try and avoid chaos on the trains. The plan sort of worked in that the train wasn't rammed full of people but it still took me two hours to get home. Once home I took the opportunity to make a snow angel before getting on with some more work!

23rd November 2010

Today has been a busy day - work, sweet-making with the Brownies and the running club AGM. Bed is looking even more inviting than usual!

12th November 2010

The desk of one of my colleagues overlooks an atrium area on the ground floor occupied by another company - the two armchairs have been there for ages and in two months I never seen anyone sitting in them. However even more bizarrely this morning a giant swordfish appeared next to them...

11th November 2010

Every week our work canteen posts the menu for the forthcoming week in our coffee areas so we know what to expect when we head up there at lunchtime. Tomorrow's main course sounds exciting, but I bet it was a bit tricky to catch!

3rd November 2010

Our work canteen likes puddings in a cup. Today was banoffee pie in a cup - the biscuit and caramel were good but there was too much cream as is often the case with their puddings and bizarrely the bananas on top were dried rather than fresh.

31st October 2010

After yesterday's carving efforts today we got to eat the spoils of our labour in the form of soup! Fortunately it tasted good too as there's more in the freezer for another day.

25th October 2010

Lunchtime walks are supposed to be good for you, unfortunately that rather goes to rats though when whilst out you end up buying chocolate to stash in your desk for when hunger strikes in the afternoon!

20th October 2010

Mr W gave me this mug a couple of weeks ago to take to work. Not quite sure what he's trying to say about me, but it's certainly been a talking point amongst my colleagues, who either think the sentiment is apt for their department or have seen similarly themed items in the shops!

6th October 2010

This piece of junk is my work laptop. My department wanted to get me a new laptop when I came back from IACS last month, but IT insisted on a reconditioned model claiming it would be as good as a new one. Well if that's the case then they need a new supplier as three weeks in my laptop spluttered through a meeting this morning before fatally crashing whilst I was trying to write up the minutes after lunch! Not impressed. The only saving grace was that I did a back-up last night - how's that for a sixth sense, unless of course it was the process of backing it up that caused the problem!

30th September 2010

I have officially been back at LR for one month now, although I have only worked for half of that time as we were on holiday for the first half of September. I'm slow getting used to be back in a big office again. Of course it's all helped by the fact that very little has changed in four years - there's still a free canteen for lunch, the computers are still tempermental, it's still difficult to get things done and they've still got this interesting water feature in the front courtyard.

17th September 2010

Not very rock and roll, but just back from a couple of after work drinks with my colleagues and having an Ovaltine before bed!