Living Life the Trinny & Susanna Way

Spend some time on the Time Out website trying to find a suitable restaurant for first romantic meal out with husband in (probably) 15 years.  Perhaps we have been out with each other to a restaurant once or twice - I have a picture in my mind of us in a restaurant with no children, so perhaps that was in the last 15 years.  Husband is a bit puzzled by the whole idea consequently, but not hostile.

One trouble with T&S Survival Guide to the Year is that there isn't really enough to do, hardly a thing a week or things that don't take long to do.  I more or less did all the suggested things in the first week and am now hanging around waiting for February when I can do some more stuff.  Of course I have peeked a look at February and I'm not that impressed.  It's mostly about booking weekends away.  Well,  thinking about this was suggested in January, so I have been trawling around trying to decide where to take husband for his birthday before my pre-demotion salary runs out.  I am zeroing in on Budapest, but it still seems to amount to around £300 quids for this so am wondering if I can really afford it.  Any views?

Spent what should have been a glorious day at work today – without meetings.  However, was a bit bored.  Had set myself (or rather had set for me) the virtuous task of drawing up the directorate equalities storyboard.  No wonder they are making me redundant.  I had tried to ignore this workstream all year – not because it is not worthy – obviously it is, but because it seemed mainly to consist of filling in lots of workplans and performance tables and involve target setting – the lifesludge of the bureaucrat in other words.  I had tried not to get contaminated, but felt sorry for the person who was trying to get me to do it so when a day became free, I promised to do it….

I was only partially cheered by the outcome of my exploration of e-bay.  The Xbox 360 game ‘new & sealed’ costing £40.  Currently has a bid of 99p against it.  Someone saw me coming.  Only slightly better is the outcome of the bid I have made for some dishes to match existing where I have clearly bid too much as mine is still the winning bid after 3 days..  Some people have just got sucker written all over them.

I had my first Trinny & Susannah event on Saturday   - the duff xmas present swap. Felt especially pleased as there was a Guardian feature on swap events that very morning, so felt unusually of the moment.  It was no work to organise.   I got youngest son to design the invitations – another tip for T&S.   Also made mince pies as it was the last day of Xmas.  That was some work as I had to take them to my friend’s house to cook as our oven has been irreparable for the last year. Things brought were       Marble cheese slicer        Faux Italian trattoria style presentation plate        Irish coffee presentation set        Mulled wine set        Cranberry shot set        Clothes which weren’t the owner’s colours        How to be a better parent books – it’s too late for me now The first five items remained unwanted.  Take note-  do not to buy those things for any middle aged, reasonably well educated women in future.  I came away with an ice blue skinny v-neck jumper, a variety of men’s eau de toilette and some lily of the valley soap.  Also two oblong garlic bread dishes (they will be going right back) and served the mulled wine from the kit . People who came were women, mostly my book group plus some other primary school parents.  One man came, but he sat in the kitchen with husband.  It’s always nice to learn something new about other people.  One woman whose current occupation is a mystery – she tells me what she does and I am no wiser – revealed that she trained to be a teacher.  However, she was put off by the experience of her much larger friend who was locked in a cupboard. As it was  the twelfth day of Christmas I tried  to eat all the mince pies before the end of the day – but didn’t quite make it – a last burst of hedonism before I have to return to The Guardian eatright diet.

I need an alternative source of self esteem. Most people like me are too busy & clapped out or antediluvian to read blogs so I don’t know who is going to read this but it’s my New Year’s resolution to do things differently and this is one of them.

I have a job, but I have it on sufferance until I find another one. I am not quite hopeless enough to pay off immediately as that might be seen as a waste of public money, but I am not well paid enough either for it to be worth fighting for the right to be made redundant immediately. I have a mortgage, the prospect of university fees and a husband whose affection I do not wish to overburden with financial worries.

It has been suggest to me more than once that I work too hard. Some have said I try too hard. Both the Director of Finance and my youngest son have suggested that this is manifested in dressing too smartly, although for different reasons. For youngest son, it is about embarrassment at the school gate. Perhaps this is why he has insisted that he walk to school by himself now. Blimey. I thought that I was investing in my future employment opportunities. So in 2007 I am going to have better work life balance. To achieve this, I am going to follow Trinny & Susannah’s survival guide “ A woman’s secret weapon for getting through the year”. This is not a book focused on career advancement but more about being organised and looking fabulous, which I would like to do of course.

It reminds me in a nice way of getting a diary when I was about 12. It has lots of things to fill in at the front about birthdays and important phone numbers. I wanted to enter into the spirit so I filled in all the birthdays but not any telephone numbers as they are already on my mobile which synchronises hourly with my office address book. Hint number one for T & S. The other useful numbers T & S have kindly given me starting with ones which everyone knows, e.g. 999 and moving onto to numbers for problems I am glad I haven’t got (yet – mustn’t tempt fate), e.g. Talk to Frank (drugline for young people)– I know about that too because eldest son did some GCSE coursework on it, and Overeaters Anonymous. I am sure I am one of these, but only in a pedestrian – too many mince pies kind of way.

There is also a space for Major Event dates, but I I cannot think of any major events that are happening this year. My mother is 70, but I have already written that in the Birthday planner. For people in my situation, there is a list of Holidays and celebrations covering a variety of religious, national and arguably pagan dates like Summer Solstice. This would be one way to get through the year – by celebrating as many of these festivals as possibleMy workplace is very diverse, so perhaps I could ask my colleagues if I could join in.

The last part of the introduction to the T&SSG is all about family sizes – very tactless, as I am hoping to be a different size by the end of January), so I will leave that blank. I am hoping to be a different size because I am on The Guardian Eat Right diet. I am not really fat at all, but have the misfortune of a lot of thinner friends. This is good when I want to moan about how fat I am – only they really understand but depressing when you go to Prague with them and they all look thinner and better than me. I lost 5lb before Xmas, but have put back on at least 2lb over Xmas so have given up until I am back in the office.

The main thing that T & S advocate doing in January is having an unwanted present swapping event. I am having this on Saturday. I’ll let you know how it goes.