Lazy list type blog entry

The buffet for the party will contain the following items and is largely sausage based, which will keep a certain Harry Potter birthday sharing teacher happy:

• Sausage Rolls
• Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
• Smoked Salmon Blinis (but they're all for me)
• Beef tomatoes with mozarella
• Goat's cheese and cherry tomato puffs
• Pizza slices
  
• Barbecue chicken drumsticks
  
• Mini souvlaki pork skewers with red pepper
  
• Mini sausages
• Crisps
  
• Olives
• Cheese and bacon turnovers (they're all for Tom)
• Other things that catch my eye in supermarket

Beverages:

• 36 pint polypin from King's Arms
• Wine red, white and pink
• Sangria
• Mini bottles of beer
• Juices for Kate
  

The weather is set fair, the guests have been invited, the valuables (?) have been cleared out of the way and my obessive fear of failure has just set in. Should be an interesting weekend.

My bovine friends

Well I am now free of Norwich Union forever and it feels sort of good. The victory, I'm afraid, felt rather hollow as when I walked into the office only a few people seemed to care that I was there. It was as if a giant fluorescent pink elephant had just cartwheeled in to the room but everyone was pretending not to notice it and going about their business. I felt like screaming 'I'm leaving now forever you f***ing morons and you'll never see me again' but I just bowed out quietly and didn't even need to be escorted off the premises kicking and screaming as I had hoped.

The thing about most NU staff is that they're like cattle; they graze together in herds, moo pleasantries at one another every now and then and exchange gossip about where the best cud is to be found, but when one of their number is lassooed and shot, they look up, acknowledge the event and then get on with their disinterested masticating (you'd be scared if you realised how this barely counts as metaphor as its almost true). So I am better off out of there as I am not a cow.

So that's a chapter of my life ended with very little fanfare and a curious sense of resigned sadness about the whole sorry affair.

The end is nearly nigh

Things are becoming real, the enormity of our move is beginning to dawn on me as we are starting to say our goodbyes. Last night we went for a meal with my boyfriend's mum and said goodbye, tonight I went out with a friend from work; James who is the nicest 19 year old one could ever wish to meet.

Tomorrow I'm going into work to collect my things and say my goodbyes to people who I have worked closely with for six years but will probably never see again. I'm feeling a chunk of melancholy rising in my throat and am realising that I will miss Norwich a lot.

I have a party to arrange on Saturday night which should be good fun even though it will be poorly attended. The main Norwich friends are there so that's what really matters (apologies to Kate for the sarcastic comments left on her blog, you know we love you and Chris so don't take it too seriously).

Looking forward to the weekend and beyond. A camera phone is wending it's way to me soon so I may be garnishing my next blogs with photos, something to look forward to indeed.

Burnt fish is not a nice smell

First of all I'd like to blame Marco for the fact that I am writing this in a haze of salmon smoke as his many bloggings over the weekend averted my attention from the fact that there was a strong smell of burnt fish wafting up the stairs and I should have taken it from the oven.

Things are going well on the Devon front, we had promising interviews with Marsh in Exeter yesterday with the view to getting jobs as soon as we get down there. The cottage is still being referenced and the letting agents are being arses, which is no suprise but I'm still confident we will get it.

I have been told by NU that I never have to go back as they will pay me up until 3rd June even though I am only signed off until 25th so I am done with that insidious pile of corporate crap for ever.

I met up with an old friend last night which was really nice as I don't see her as often as I would like, there were tears as well when I told her we were leaving soon which felt weird as we have been so bogged down in the practicalities of sorting out the move that the emotional side hasn't really featured as yet. I'm sure when the time comes I will be bawling my eyes out as I am going to miss our friends so much.

I'm not sure how to play things either as we will be having a leaving party a week before we go, do you leave it at that and say goodbye or should I have a few close friends over in the week for a meal to properly say goodbye. I don't know the protocol of these things having never left anywhere properly before, all I do know is that time is running out for me in Norwich and there is so much I want to do but can't figure out how to fit it in.

Good news for people who like good news

Although today will hardly go down as one of the best in Britain's history with only 22% of the electorate voting for the party in power it will go down as one of my best. I have handed in my notice at work and all things going well on 4th June we will be vacating this fine city and moving to Devon.

I went down to Exeter on Tuesday and found a tiny thatched cottage to rent in the idyllic Devon village of Silverton, ( www.eclipse.co.uk/silverton/ ) I just found myself having major deja vu when posting that link, how bizarre? Anyway although we do not yet have jobs we have decided to bite the bullet and get a house hopefully allowing jobs to follow on very soon as Exeter has virtually nil unemployment. Silverton is a picture postcard village off the beaten track so not too touristy, it has three pubs, views of the rolling Mid Devon pastures and hills, a really good Greengrocers and butcher. The cottage is small but lovely with a really beautiful garden and pretty facade. We have to pass the referencing first so it's not 100% but I am almost certain that we have got it.

So after six and a half long painful years at Norwich Union I am leaving and the best thing is I'm still signed off until 25 May so I only have to work for a week and a half before I leave, I am both scared and ecstatic at the same time.

Today also I am hungover and tired because I stayed up to watch the election and drank the lion's share of three bottles of red wine with my friend Sarah. The highlight was George Galloway for me, the biggest endorsement of the anti war ballot in the country. I did not however enjoy all the smirking Tory bastards thinking they'd done well by being bigoted racists. Hopefully although Labour did win the election as it was with a much reduced majority they may find some humility and stop steamrollering the country into places you should not be going with a Labour government. I wont hold my breath though.