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Birthday girl

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Sneeze and the week is over in a flash - I think probably the way it's going to be for at least the next few months if not the rest of the year.

This week it was my birthday and I was all ready for a bit of an anti-climax given I was working and hence in London most of the day but as it turned out I had a lovely time. Work was a bit manic - meetings pretty much wall to wall from the moment I arrived - so much for my diary taking a while to catch up with me being there. Despite me not having said anything to anyone (it's a bit early to be sharing birthdays with my colleagues, the Company Secretary had obviously clocked in from one of the many forms I've had to fill in and mid afternoon brought me a card and an emergency chocolate biscuit "to break in to when the madness gets too much!" What a lovely gesture. Her card said it all "welcome to the unique madness that is G4S"I can see this already and although it is mad, and under invested in and all a bit frenetic, I'm enjoying it. So far so good.

I got away at a good time and headed home, really not expecting much at all in the way of presents. I walked through the door to find the whole family waiting for me (dogs included) and flowers, cards, presents - the works. Glenn had taken the girls shopping after school and Abi had chosen 2 lovely new tops for me, Izzy had bought me some smellies and Glenn some new headphones that I wanted. We all had a cup of tea together and then went out for pizza at our local pub, All in all I  couldn't have asked for a nicer day!

The weekend rolled around way too quickly in many ways but has been lovely despite the weather - it seems to have done nothing but blow a gale and chuck it down recently. I managed to get Friday with everyone at home, so the girls and I snuggled down to watch some Rom-Com film that made them cry despite me saying it would have a happy ending. At least this time it did! This was followed by a trip into town on Saturday with both of them taking a friend along (so I got to have a pedicure uninterrupted), then Saturday night just me and Abi (Glenn at the rugby and Izzy at Grace's) then a long run today before pottering around the house, mostly in peace and quiet. I was supposed to be running the Reading Half Marathon but I just couldn't face all the admin of getting in and then having to hang around in the cold for 90 mins before the race actually started. I opted instead for running it from home and did the 13.1 miles in bang on 2 hours - not my best time by a long shot but it was so windy in places that I was running hard just to stand still. All things considered I was happy with my time and it certainly beat the 5 hours it would have taken to do the same distance at the actual race.  Just looking back at that, I've managed to pack in a pretty full weekend - no wonder I'm ready for bed and its not yet 9pm!

So early night for all of us before I head to Portugal tomorrow for the G4S Leadership Conference in a hotel just outside Lisbon. Hopefully the sun will be shining and I'll recognise at least one or two faces!

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