On Saturday we went to a 40th birthday party.

My Cousins birthday and one twin arranged the party without the other knowing. It was a great evening and good to see the family. However the venue was amazing and had to be seen to be believed.

It was held in The Conservative Club, nothing funny there, but as my dad and brother's were both miners and my mum is a member of the Labour Party it isn't a place you would normally see our family
Still Working Mens Clubs are now mainly frequnted by the unemployed so who am I to argue.

The party was in a little room to the side of the bar, which initially I thought to be the function room. Oh no, this was the club's concert room, and came complete with cross eyed pub singer as a turn. When the singer went off we were treat to a game of bingo! Now I love bingo but whenever someone called house they all sang "oh la, oh la, oh la" We were pishing ourselves with laughing!

The bar area was full of the BBC, no there weren't a load of cameramen making a documentary. It was the Blades Business Crew, the hooligan element of Sheffield United. This made Lee quite nervous as he still has a death threat over his head from when we ran the only pub in Sheffield to ever bar his members. But they kept quiet. it was the women who were fighting!!

One of the customers went to the buffet table and began taking all the meat off the sandwiches, leaving the plate full of bread. D (whose party it was) said "I don't mind anyone helping themselves but please take the whole sandwich" Well this girl flipped, dove over the table and tried to attack D. D's hubby removed her from this room and this girl carried on wanting to hit any and everyone, eventually being kicked out.
We fell off our chairs when 1/2 hr later the girls fella came in and picked up a baby seat from under a table, complete with baby that they had forgot!!

We had to leave early as Abi had an asthma attack, as we were leaving the club steward asked if we wanted him to turn on the air conditioning as it may help!!!

We did have a good night though, I love people watching and the place was full of people worth watching. I have to say though, I have been to many parties, sometimes in 5* hotels and none have them have served up food as good as the landlady in this place.

Only bloody work!!!!!!

On Friday 3rd March 2006 I left my position of Customer Service Manager to begin a role of Out of Hours Services Manager (a sideward step due to getting peed off with "backstabbing" on the Insurance side of the business) I went for a meal and a few stellas with colleagues to celebrate, after all I'd moved desks!!!
Saturday morning I woke with kidney pains, and thought perhaps mixing Stella and red wine hadn't helped (NO not in the same glass!!) The pains worsened and so began 10 months of varying pain relief, incompetent doctors and me off sick.

After being really bad at New Year my GP suggested I try a different drug, this acts on the pain receptors in my brain, effectively blocking the pain (No I haven't tried holding my hand over a hot flame to see if it works!!) After two weeks with minimal pain, going from 8 tramadol a day to 6 co co codomol this week I decided I would give work a try.

My trial today consisted of 5 hours at work. I started, once I could get past people saying hi, by having a back to work review with my manager. This was really positive and she made no secret of the fact she wanted me back, but wasn't willing to let my health suffer. We then attended a finance meeting. Before the meeting began the finance director was informed I was there to observe and wouldn't be taking any actions. Well it seems management is like riding a bike! I was questioning the budgets, advising on actions, and even taking notes!

My last hour at work was spent at my PC, deleting the 1500 emails I had received since I lost home access to work emails.

The plan is to see how I feel tonight and tomorrow and if all is ok I will return to work next Monday on a part time basis initially!

Yippppeeeee D