Hen do hijinx and work blues
11.07.14, 6:40 pm

Apologies for it taking me so long to write an entry. I got busy and then soon there was a backlog of events to write about, which made writing seem more and more of an uphill challenge, until eventually I just blocked it from my mind completely. However, I'm here to rectify all of that, sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my knee, trying to distract myself from yet another dire England cricket performance on the telly.

Last weekend was Mel's hen do weekend. I'm sure I've mentioned this about 700 times before, but I HATE hen dos. The actual event itself turned out to be OK, but I'll admit that it was bloody great to get back home on the Sunday night and revel in the fact that it was all over.

Me, Mel, Mel's two sisters and 9 of Mel's friends that I'd never met all journeyed up to a cottage in the middle of nowhere in County Durham. Friday night was the awkward meet-and-greet part, but there was booze and pizza so it was all OK. Saturday morning was spent on a high ropes course and it was FANTASTIC, easily the highlight of the weekend. I mean, it pulled every single muscle in my body and covered my hands in rope burns, but was totally ace. Saturday night we all had some Asian food (I had to have the depressing gluten-free menu due to MSG intolerance nonsense, but hey ho) and then had a night out in Durham. God, I don't want to sound 900 years' old but I just can't do that stuff anymore. Everywhere was incredibly busy and there were just loads of drunk dickheads and slappers brawling and screeching wherever you looked. And the music's so loud you have to bellow at the person sitting next to you, and soon everyone gets a bit bored of that and just start taking endless photos of each other. I'm going to stop; I sound like world's most miserable fishwife in existence. Saturday night was the least fun bit though. And then the taxi driver on the way home had some kind of death wish and I genuinely thought we were going to end up in a flaming car wreck.

Sunday was spent in a spa, which was fine. I was genuinely crippled from the high ropes, so spent most of it dozing on a lounger. My period was kind've due, so there was low-level worry that it might turn up just as I was clad in a snow-white robe, but in the end my body was genuinely amazing and didn't let my period show up until Monday. This is excellent because I am going on holiday on Sunday, and was kind've sad because I was convinced that I'd either have my period on the hen do weekend (awful) or on my holiday (awfuler). Brilliantly though, I managed to squeeze it in between!

Yep, off to northern Spain on Sunday. It's the most rushed, unplanned holiday ever, but maybe that's a good thing. I'm just so pleased to be off work � I haven't had any time off since Christmas. I'm also kind've frustrated work-wise, but I'm reticent to write about it for obvious reasons. Basically, I've put in for promotion, which is fine and a good thing, but in the process have discovered that I'm massively ungraded to start with, and should've been hired at a higher grade in the first place, and blah blah blah I wrote more about this but have just panicked and deleted it all. The point is, I feel like I've been screwed over, and it's a huge injustice, and yet the people at the top don't seem to be particularly bothered. I think if people just apologised then I'd feel better, but no one seems to care so I just have a huge amount of internalised rage. Injustice always makes me ragey, and when it's injustice against yourself the rage builds exponentially.

Anyway, hopefully this will be sorted with me being promoted, but the promotion is in no way guaranteed so we'll have to see. I like to think that if I don't get it then I'll quit science, but in honesty that will definitely not be happening because I still need to pay the mortgage. It's a nicely dramatic thing to think though.

Hmm, what else has happened? I went to see Dad and Bloody Amanda's new house a few weeks' back. The house kind've sucks, as I expected, but the trip itself was OK. Amanda was OK � I think she was a miserable old harridan about something, but I can't quite remember what. We went to a wedding up in Falkirk as James' cousin was getting married, and there was a ceilidh band, and we all got to dance an Orcadian Strip The Willow which is just the MOST FUN THING EVER. I've made an appointment to make a Will, which is exciting and not all depressingly morbid. That's probably about it!

Right, Bumble's home which means beer and crisps time. See you all post holiday.

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