I'm just an ordinary girl living in extraordinary circumstances.

May 05, 2005

Caffeine? Can It Be Injected?

This morning I have to take my driving test.

That's right.

I'm 31 years old, I've been driving since I was 15, and the last time I had a car accident that was my fault was 1993 (the days of Salt 'N Pepa and Nirvana were reigning high that year, I remember).

The insult is massive.

I read a book about all the rules on the train last night, and I felt like a right dick doing it. The businessman next to me didn't seem to have a too-high opinion of a businesswoman carrying a massive projector and reading a driving instrcution book on the train either. (Psst-hey, business guy train asshole? If you are underwhelmed by my driving prowess, how about looking out the window and not at my fucking perfect breasts, ok?)

Then I am off to a remote location to get in about 5 hours of fights and arguments with one of my vendors. You know. 'Cause my life isn't stressful enough.

Then I get to come home and try to catch up on the 60 or so work emails I missed yesterday by being in London that I didn't finish reading last night, plus the emails I'll receive today and my private emails. I also want to make the house spotless and have to go to the shops with Angus-Melissa and Jeff arrive tomorrow for a long weekend here and I want the place to be great for them.

I am also trying to be happy and calm for Angus despite my stress sending me into a crying jag yesterday afternoon-he's really depressed about the house in Brighton not selling yet and about the mysterious crack that's appeared in one of our bathroom sinks. Said crack may necessitate us replacing the sink (I have no idea how it happened, but it did happen when he was away. Maybe I was sleepwalking and lobbed 5 kilo weights at it in my sleep. Or I did if I had any 5 kilo weights, anyway).

Yesterday I had to meet with some of my vendors to talk about the next version of the Rocket Riding Gerbil, which I have also been put in charge of. Since it's my project I've decided to be a girl about it. Not only is it getting performance adjustments and new streamlining, but I am making sure it will have a nice sparkly matching handbag and stunning strappy shoes.

I hear gerbils like those.

Said vendor took me to a rather impressive place-we went to Clairidge's, of the Gordon Ramsey fame. The whole interior was fabulous 1920's art deco and it turns out a lot of Jeeves and Wooster has been filmed there. The staff were all French, and there was an individual waiter for everything. One guy distributed the champagne. One guy brought bread. One guy refilled water glasses, another refilled wine glasses. One brought the appetizer, one the little drink for the palate. At one point I tried to get the water guy's attention but wound up making eye contact with the pepper mill guy, so he started rushing over despite my frantic efforts to wave him off grinding said pepper mill on my salad of artichoke hearts, asparagus and truffle shavings.

It was nice food and really was a business lunch, but then again...I'm a pretty ordinary girl.

I wonder how Gordon Ramsey would feel if I told him homemade macaroni and cheese just makes my day.

Probably would be enough to get vol-au-vents and mushroom croute lobbed at my head.

More tomorrow, for now I'm going to be cramming for my driving theory test.

-H.

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 07:26 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 615 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Good luck on the driving test!

Posted by: Marian at May 05, 2005 09:35 AM (H/ZIM)

2 Drive 'em crazy babe... ;-)

Posted by: ~Easy at May 05, 2005 01:01 PM (npJc/)

3 Oh, good luck Helen!

Posted by: justme at May 05, 2005 02:42 PM (6CkIl)

4 I'm fairly sure ol' Gordy would pfft, snort, and mutter, "Americans!" at your claim of homemade macaroni and cheese making your day. That's okay, though. It makes mine, too.

Positive thoughts winging your way with that whole driving theory, too!