Happy new year!

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, and I'm pleased to report that knees are much improved and apart from a little numbness seem to have suffered no lasting damage.

Christmas was a civilised affair with plenty of food, drink, pressies and excellent company, and we managed to keep going until nearly 2am. The most important point I should mention here is that mother does the best brandy butter on the planet. Seriously.

I caught up on some films I've failed to watch previously, over the holiday period. Most notably St Trinians with the wonderful Rupert Everett - Camilla looks like a lady of my acquaintance, but I daren't tell her! - who gets to camp it up. Even the kids are mostly not annoying and even pretty good - I thought it a good little film.

Captain America is good with clever CGI, and Chris Evans is extremely nice to look at - it falls short of brilliant only because the action in the second half takes up too much time - good for a potty break and making a cup of tea without having to hit pause.

Profiteroles can be gooey as well as scrummy.

Thor has the most amazing CGI for Asgard, and is worth watching in HD for that alone. The rest of it somehow doesn't quite work, as the characters don't really engage with the viewer, which given the very talented credits both behind, as well as in front of the screen, is surprising.

New year's was also a civilised affair with each person contributing a course for dinner (and washing up after that course!), lots of wine and glammimg up in posh frocks and heels.

Scarily, the 2012 diary seems to be already heavily booked, with work events, racing fixtures, girlie weekends, visits to the Harry Potter attraction and canal holidays scheduled.

The trains on the first working day of the year were bad both ways, but can't hold it against southeastern as it was all due to trees and recycling boxes being blown over the lines by that howling gale. Let's hope it's not a sign of things to come.

The first big event of the year is the anticipated arrival of number one nephew later this month and excitement abounds. Watch this space.

Trees and knees

My Christmas Tree arrive ten days ago, and it's very pretty, if I say so myself, hee!

I've been to lots of Christmas events over the last couple of weeks, with much alcohol and high-heeled shoes involved. The irony is, I had an accident that did not involve either, which irks me greatly.

I was doing well, had spent the Wednesday (7 Dec) at an industrial estate in Basildon, and managed to have swift Christmas lunch with a friend in Chelmsford along the way.

On Thursday I had lunch at Aldwych One, a place I'd been to before, that has a little theatre with popcorn where one watches the presentations one was there to see.

One glass of wine for lunch, and some time to kill before the next event, a couple of us went to TGI Piccadilly Circus - halfway between the two events - to indulge in some work type activities over a couple of diet cokes. Honest.

We then walked to Portman Square, where we were due to meet people at Home House. Unfortunately about 200yards away, I managed to trip over my own feet in the middle of the road and face-planted in the most inelegant way possible.

Because I couldn't feel my legs, an ambulance was called and failed to arrive. After five mins or so, I had enough feeling to crawl out of the road, after about twenty minutes my knees de-numbed enough that I could feel my legs, and as it was also raining and ice cold, we managed to hobble to the Starbucks about ten yards away. There were several passersby who were wonderfully helpful, and my colleague was a complete star.

We called the ambulance to see where it was, over half an hour after it was called, and it hadn't been dispatched. With our destination so close, we decided to cancel it and hobble to Home House. The staff there were gorgeous and helpful with the first aid kit, and after finding the people we were there to meet with, I spent a couple of hours with my feet up gossiping, eating chip butties and working my way through a couple of large glasses, before heading home.

This is the spectacular knee...

...and this is the knee I actually did damage to.

This was a task that was made surprisingly easy with colleague and I taking taxi to Charing Cross and station and Southeastern staff looking after me, and finding me a taxi home from the station. With Friday and Monday off, I spent all weekend with my feet up.

I now have one spectacularly bruised knee that I show everyone, because the knee that I've actually pulled ligaments in, doesn't look like I've done anything to it, hardly.

With wraps on my knees, this week has been very civilised, with lunch at Mosimann's on Wednesday, which was just divine.

Thursday I went clay pigeon shooting near Oxford, and I killed 28 out of 48 clays, which I hought was quite good for a first time. Although I will totally admit to loads of help from the instructor which basically involved me just pulling the trigger when he whispered 'bang!'. And we won't mention the M25.

However, we will mention the enormous gigantuan fork-lift farm vehicle carrying three hay bales that didn't see us - me, my boss and two colleagues in my little car - pootling up the farm track to the shooting. It was stopped in a yard when we went down the track that ran past the yard. He came barrelling out the gate and on to the single lane track straight towards us. We tooted, and I thought he'd seen us and was moving over at one point, but no, he was clearly negotiating a pot hole.

His forks were quite literally about go straight into my baby's engine, so with all four of us screaming, I hit reverse and shot backwards faster than Michael Schumacher could have managed. The driver heard that, and braked so sharply his hay bales all fell off.

We were all okay though, and we all waved and laughed, and I now have super-lightning-fast-reflex-hero status. *beam*

Friday was the office party, on a quirky boat on the Thames which was very cute, and I lay in this morning til 10am, so it must have been a good party.

The way home last night was a bit of an adventure, as I got to Waterloo East to find trains cancelled left right and center. My train came in ten minutes late, hobbled along minus three motors for a while and then dumped us off at Hither Green. To give them their due, Southeastern made the next Ramsgate (via Ashford) train stop to pick us up, which was excellent and reasonably prompt decision-making on their part.

Unfortunately, Hither Green couldn't make up it's mind which platform the train was coming in, so four platform changes for two hundred people via a little footbridge was not fun. My knees weren't impressed either. Bizarrely, I bumped into an associate from one of the organisations I deal with, so we chatted for a while, and then I sat next to lovely gentleman on the train and we gossiped about planning applications, which made the journey pass very quickly.

People and places visited and worshipped

Such a lot has happened since last post. Most importantly was viewing the very last Harry Potter film, which was as fab as the others. I think that the films were very well done, keeping in the spirit and bringing some of the magic alive. But no one who has seen them without reading  the books, should for a moment think they know what's in the books, because the films only really concentrate on the main story arc - Harry himself, and his war with Voldemort. Even Ron and Hermione have much more to say than they did in the films, and there are many more characters that were lucky if they were hinted at in the films, each with their own story. So if you haven't read, but enjoyed the films, go read. Now.

At work I've been out and about almost more than in the office.

One day was spent at Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea FC stadium. I've been there a couple of times before and I can report that it's still standing.

Me and a photo op with Mr D.

The last Friday in November was our industry awards, which are ours soI have to work through it. Well, sometimes do bits of work. When not eating. Or drinking. Or admiring the MC, which this year was Lawrence Dallaglio.

The next day, I went to see a very special car - a 15 year-old replica Nomad, which is still being raced in the UK and South Africa and winning races - and looks and sounds gorgeous. And I can even fit in it, with my too long legs!

Last week I went to the National Motorbike Museum next to the NEC. With around a thousand bikes, all (but one) British, it's awsome if you like two-wheeled vehicles.

And then on Thursday, I was had lunch at Sketch (Oxford Circus) which is full of art, from the egg-shaped loo pods to the squillion-pound sculpture of a diamante girl with syringe Afro hair that I should probably know the name of, but don't. It was seriously an experience - an excellent one if you're into art.

I have another couple of full weeks of being out of the office to look forward to, so onwards, upwards, and hoping I don't get lost. Or eat too much.