What Lippy Did Next

Dog Days

2011-08-05T00:49:00.000-07:00

The weather (despite childish protestations in the newspapers) is actually lovely, it's sunny and warm in the mornings and it rains in the afternoon. As a result everywhere is green and not too dusty, what's not to love?

My house is covered on one side in Virginia Creeper, it's a constant battle to stop it colonising the roof space, but in addition to turning a stunning red colour in the autumn, just now it is alive with bees, the whole of the wall seems to be buzzing as you walk past, a bit unnerving I grant you.

Two days ago I found out that back in February I made a mistake on a case, I am waiting to hear from counsel whether that mistake is fatal or salvagable. I have felt sick and woken up sweating at 4am for two days now....I can't do any more, I can't change what's happened. I just wish that after all this time I was better at this job and mistakes didn't happen at all any more. I bet if I look back in this blog there are a number of posts where this has happened, so clearly I have survived before....not sure why that doesn't particularly help.

Emotional Wreck

2011-08-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

My Dad is ill in hospital, he has an unexplained obstruction in his gut that we are all secretly terrified is a tumour.

He had a small stroke about a month ago and we had hoped he was getting better. But over the weekend he took a turn for the very much worse.

We all know , or think we know that everybody dies, so why are we shocked when it's someone we know and love? The shock is absolutley profound and over whelming.

Work is a struggle, I don't want to be here and I would really rather all my client's fucked off and sorted it out for themselves. But then I would have no money and something else to worry about.

My summer with Summer.

2011-07-29T04:37:00.000-07:00

At the moment we loan this lovely horse, Summer, from our friend Natasha. She is a 17 year old thoroughbred mare, her racing name was Lunch In Paris. In 1999 she had 5 starts over hurdles and her best finish was 9/15 at Worcester, after which she was understandably retired.

We have had Summer for a year now and it's been a fab year..with only a few glitches, like a bad foot.

But I think it may be time for us to buy someone of our very own.

Last Thursday we went down to Essex to see a lovely 6 yr old Irish Sport Horse, a completely different proposition. Going to see him again next week. And trying another Irish horse this afternoon.

But for what may be our swan song, Summer and me are taking part in a charity ride for Breast Cancer Research on 21 August, we will be decked out in everything pink and I will post the pictures later.

Lunch - again

2011-07-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Going out for dinner in highly rated restaurants has proved to be a dissapointing experience on more than a few occasions recently. Not so lunch. Some great restaurants have fixed price lunch menus which are fantastic value (watch what you drink they make the money up on the booze!) .

Today I went with a friend to Maison Bleu in Bury St Edmunds , one tip for this restaurant ask for a table at the front, I find the back room claustrophobic. Their summer lunch special is a "provencal" menu , I went for the seared tuna starter, guinea fowl with green olive sauce for main course and strawberry and pistachio tart for pudding, all lovely and all for under £20.

My London reccomends for the fixed price lunch special are the splendid Bistro du Vin in Clerkenwell and the fabulous Orrery restaurant on Marylebone High St.

So tip of the week, go out for a lovely lunch and then treat yourself to a mildly intoxicated and thoroughly disreputable afternoon .

Lunch

2011-07-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

There should be a blog called "what I had for lunch" and there isn't, why is this?

I work from home so every day at around this time, the big question , regardless of the content of the in box, is "what to have for lunch?". Too often this is solved by a trip to the co-op for a rotisserie chicken to pull apart and a baguette. Whilst this is lovely it clearly lacks imagination.

I am not big fan of cheese. Soo any sort of cheese arrangement is out.

In my worst ever lunch phase at university years ago I subsisted on something we called "tuna fish rissotto" - tin of tuna, fried onion, tin of sweet corn heated through with some ready cooked rice...actually sounds quite nice I may have to ressurect it.

This is clearly a subject requiring further thought and research.

"Waves"

2011-07-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Heaven's last post 2009!
.
And apparently I was even missed.

What's happened, well some blog people have become real life mates. Which is lovely.

Still lawyering, still married, child grown bigger, new horse.

Anyway to break myself back in gently. Things I like; Horses, my Jack Russell terrier but not necessarily other peoples, chocolate, raspberries, raspberries and chocolate together, coffee, my nespresso machine, facebook, Lewis, books by Henning Mankell, Holkham Beach, Fit Flops, my blackberry, clean ironed sheets with a bit of starch,white walls with paintings on them, London, my house, the Law Society Library, the smell of bookshops....

Really not dead!

2009-05-21T01:18:00.000-07:00

Not sure where to start really; the over riding theme of the last couple of weeks has been commuting in to London to work for a couple of days, then working like mad to catch up when back out in the sattellite office at home.

If it was just easy straightforward cases it wouldn't be so bad, but some of this stuff is so difficult that it's frying my brain to the point where I am having problems stringing a sentance together.

One high point was AB's school concert on Tuesday, where, in addition to the usual recorders and squeaky violins there was a top drawer rock outfit playing some Chilli Peppers and AB's jazz group with some rocking Nina Simone covers... and they are only 12!

I also seem to be having a social life which is a bit of a shocker, went to dinner and a jazz night last friday and discovered that my ability to drink a bottle of wine and not fall over has not been lost due to lack of use. And we are all off to London en famille to the theatre next Friday to see a Little Night Music at the Garrick - hope it's good!

We had mates round for lunch on Sunday - and had a bit of a lemon meringue pie disaster, the lemon tart bit was fine, but cooked the meringue too hot and not for long enough so it melted rather than cooked - gross! I have taken advice and am going to practice before I attempt it again.

Been back to yoga - "root flow yoga" to be precise, and it's killing me far more than the very fit and lithe pensioner on the next mat, which is more than a bit depressing. Horse all good - but other pressures have meant less dressage schooling and more thrasing round the country side at high speed, jumping ditches to work off the stress!

OK really got to go and finish this brief. Will try to have a more interesting life.

Oh dear dear dear

2009-05-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, I've horribly neglected my poor blog and have taken to twittering like a duck to water. It requires so much less effort to put together one sentenance than a whole , hopefully cohnerent paragraph for a blog. It also panders shamelessly to my borderline ADHD personality! I will do better.

A shamelessly lazy Sunday here - no guests, not much dog walking in evidence and no one but the AB has cooked anything since breakfast. She made chocolate fairy cakes with sugar sprinkles and I've eaten three!!!!

I've played a little badminton ,read the newspaper (nothing so taxing as a book!) and tried to write a bit.....the dismal ongoing saga of my attempts at writing a detective story is not something I shall bore you with. Suffice to say I am writing words - I am not troubling myself at the moment with trifles such as the appropriateness or relevance to the plot of the words that are being written!

Hate objects!

2009-04-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

Some times I really hate lawyers . I have an opponent on a case who has resorted to hectoring emails because I won't do what he wants me to. And although I can see all sorts of holes in his case, when someone shouts at you for long enough and loud enough I (at least) really start to doubt my own position. Of course I'm not admitting that, but I would really like some nice barrister to hold my hand on this case now - so part of this morning will be dedicated to trying to pursuade the client to pay for one!

Things I did last week;

1. Took the skin off my feet walking around London in new shoes.
2. Fixed my cousin up with a blind date.
3. Got cross in a committee meeting - I'm amazed that I could summon up the energy!
4. Got my blackberry charged up for free by the nice man on the vodaphone counter in Harrods.
5. Had a 7am breakfast meeting.
6. Made a great lamb curry.

Must work, there is great piles of the stuff wafting around the office!

Wii.

2009-04-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

We don't actually own a Wii (or an X-box or anything) we are of the pre-gaming generation . But one of the AB's mates came for a sleep over and brought hers and what a hoot! I was mocked mercilessly for having a Wii fit age of 52 when I'm only 46 until the AB had hers assessed at 25 when she's only 12 and the TB who is 44 came out as 72!!! Serves them both right for laughing.

I cannot race in Mario Kart and was heard frequently screaming "Why is eveyone else going the other way?" with replying screams at even louder "turn round". But I'm a passable ski jumper and a "YOGA MASTER" go me!

We may have to buy one.

Lovely weekend though - of doing very little, sat in the sun , went swimming with the fam and walked the dog along the river. And ate and drank. Isn't it spring though, everything is growing so fast now. All the flowering cherries are out and some of the May, most of the daffodils are over and the tulips are full on and the wild garlic in the woods is starting to smell REALLY strong.

Have a nice Monday!

So what's been happening?

2009-04-17T03:58:00.000-07:00

I finished teaching the second part of the law diploma yesterday, the students all seemed very happy. Which, as they are all perfectly well qualified solicitors, barristers and surveyors who are just doing this as an "extra" qualification, was quite hartening. And I've written my exam questions and sent in my invoice! So that's that until next year!

Other than that, driving along the M25 is a dreadful bore, and isn't Windsor castle close to the M4??? The Queen must get terrible traffic noise!

I have a new blackberry - which I fiddle with constantly as I'm still trying to work it all out. The TB is most dischuffed that BT gave me a better model on my business account than his firm gave him...he's actually right, it's not fair. I can also now send people irritatingly long text messages with proper punctuation.

Must do some actual work now, so far today been riding and had mate round for coffee ..,.this does not get the billable hours in!

Later!

Reality blogging in real time!

2009-04-14T03:18:00.000-07:00

I'm currently on hold waiting for the Uxbridge County Court to answer the telephone and as this state of affairs is likely to continue for some time I thought that I might update my blog.

I love Easter, it's SO much better than Christmas, less pressure, better weather. On Sunday we decided we didn't fancy our leg of lamb, so had curry and then ate the lamb yesterday. I can't imagine deciding on the spur of the moment to eat Christmas dinner on Boxing Day instead, can you? But then why not? And it's very telling that a few chocolate eggs seem to make people just as happy as expensive Christmas presents. It's a ll a matter of expectation, legitimate or otherwise.

I can't say I did much over the break, slept, walked the dog, went swimming and watched a bit of telly - I loved the Dr Who special and thought Michelle Ryan was fab....she does need her own decent action woman type show. She's fun and "the Bionic Woman" was awful.

I've given up and sent Uxbridge an email insteand - I shall expect a response in October.

It might be summer?

2009-04-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

Winter isn't always kind to those of us who work from home. No christmas office parties and no after work drinks, no sneaking off to the pub for a gossip at lunch time and the same long hours as everyone else can make you feel very mushroom like.

But summer! We come into our own, I can get up early do a couple of hours work then head to the stables or the beach and make up the rest of the time in the evening. And if I'm not feeling quite that keen, then my wi-fi link stretches into the garden, in celebration of which I've just bought a new parasol and a new barbeque - hurrah! Oh and since the picture of my office was taken it's acquired doors and blinds so it looks a bit less spartan.

For those who have been paying attention, brother didn't go down in a hail of bullets in the African bush, he and his family made it out. And now, in a demonstration of OUTSTANDINGLY chav like behaviour, his current wife , his ex wife and all his children are living in the same house in South Africa, whilst bruv has taken a job in Dubai. Next installment will be the wives embarking on a lesbian affair . innit.

Advanced Law Diploma thingy!

2009-03-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

I've been "doing teaching" this week , it was the first time I have worked on this course, in fact the first time this course has run. And boy it was hard work. It was presented in a "team teaching" format, which involved in effect being a group tutor from 9am to 7pm for 3 days.

My head hurts. I'm not sure I can remember my name now let alone any law.

College life is fundamentally not meant for grown ups. Being in a group that big for that amount of time constantly, and meals and the bar after .....I found exhausting! And the little turrent room that I had, whilst cute, was basic in the extreme, less "en-suite" , more "en-cupboard".

Will write more next week when head back on shoulders!

I wanna be sedated!

2009-03-23T02:03:00.000-07:00

I spent Friday afternoon in hospital having tests , laproscopes and stuff, just to make double triple sure that I don't have cancer. And, as we pretty much knew, I don't, - excellent.

The sedative was amazing, knock out drops WITH muscle relaxant, the knots in my shoulders have gone completely and I slept for two days. I think litigators should get a six monthly shot of this stuff on the NHS!

Clients don't really get the concept of "I'm in hospital" and were still hopefully ringing my mobile at 8pm on Friday night!

I'm away teaching on an advanced law diploma for most of this week. So, see you Friday.

Kate Moss

2009-03-17T01:42:00.000-07:00

"Kate Moss!" screams the fashion press, "what a style icon, what a goddess!"

I think the whole thing is a bit Emperor's New Clothes, and one day a little boy at the back of the crowd is going to say in a very loud voice "Mummy, aren't those men funny all taking pictures of that raddled old hag!"

And Kate, as one raddled old hag to another, it's not such a bad life, but you don't need the Botox nearly so often if you stop smoking.

Siblings

2009-03-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

When asked I will tell you something vague about my brother being "in security".

The truth is that , as we speak, he is hunkered down in the bush with an ousted African president being shot at by half the Madagascan army.

He's a jammy sod my little brother - but today he really , really , really needs to be.

A Day at the Races

2009-03-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday we headed off to the Gold Cup Meeting at Cheltenham. So here is Lippy's on course guide to a day at the races;

First of all check the form;

Then stick on some slap so that you don't frighten the horses!

Getting to the course on time helps!

Check out the runners in the paddock and see if there is one that you fancy. You might also get to see the Queen..

Fight your way through to the bookies and have a bet.

Then watch the race - only I didn't get any good pictures of that I was too busy jumping up and down and shouting. Although I did pick the winner in the first race the final score was Lippy - 1 Bookies-6

Oh well.

There is no getting away from the fact that Cheltenham on Gold Cup day is rammed, with the crowd pretty evenly split between Essex boys with black shirts and Grant Mitchell haircuts and those found drunk in charge of an Irish accent! I don't really quite understand why it is such a boys day out, with suited and booted blokes out numbering the women about 15 -1.........well I suppose those are slightly better odds!!!

Litigation 101

2009-03-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

Well here on planet legal it's all happening.

There are definate trends and waves in the sorts of proceedings before the courts. To put things in perspective before we start, the sort of work I do - business and property disputes - is a minority interest. Over 60% of the work of the county court is family proceedings - divorce and children actions. When economic times are bad divorce courts are extra busy. I don't do that sort of work as it gives me hives but when the courts are full of family work (which gets priority) it means that my clients wait longer for cases to be heard.

Anyway on the menu today we have;

Bankruptcy - only available to a creditor where the debt which is owed is undisputed. So we have a debtor trying to manufacture a dispute in order to avoid a petition and it's my job to put together the evidence to show that his so called "dispute" is merely fanciful and has no basis in either fact or law ( and yes I am planning to use that in my submissions, I think it's aposite!)

Application to set aside Default Judgement - if you ignore a court claim form your opponent gets judgement by default and the baliffs still appear at your door regardless of how the judgement was obtained (so sticking your head in the sand is not an option). In this case though the proceedings were served at some seemingly random address which has no connection with the debtor company - so we're asking to court to set it aside, strike out the action and give us costs. Which won't please the PLC on the other side will it?

Claim for Unpaid invoices - about £130k's worth. At the moment if your opponent can pay it's worth having a judgement debt as the interest rate is 8% pa which is more than you will get anywhere else.

I need to get the desk clear by end of the day tomorrow as I'm off to the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday - hurrah a day off! Can't wait.

2009-03-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

I'm sort of dreading writing this post as Tickers is going to say "I told you so" - I've felt knackered since I got back from London last week, couldn't put one foot in front of another. I finally ended up in hospital yesterday and came back with a new inhaler and huge antibiotics, I've apparently been walking around in the throes of a major asthma attack and a chest infection for about a week..........I thought I felt a bit rough.

Added to this the business has spent rather more than it has earned over the last two months - quite a lot (the tax bill, the VAT bill ) has been absorbed by savings and even more is the huge annual items like law books which are annual editions at between £500 and £1000 a time. It's a bit worrying but I think it's turned the corner, I don't owe anything I just don't have much of a float any more.

And the financial arises just when I want to spend some cash going to Hydrabad for a wedding. My best friend's cousin's wedding to be precise. The TB (my toy boy husband to save you scrolling down to the bottom of the blog for a translation) is not keen on such a big spend on travel right now. My best friend on the other hand is desperate that I go to India. I can just see this panning out in a way that means I am in trouble with both of them.

Right - chargable time is ticking away, timesheets await! Onward! - do I need to blog about all that stuff ?!

Busy

2009-03-01T23:59:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to be crazy busy which is good - me too. Worked in London end of last week, 7am starts, 8pm finishes - and not all of it chargeable unfortunately but you have to lay the ground work with clients , so there it is.

I couldn't get through to the Fox to book a room and ended up in the Malmaison. It's a lovely looking hotel but christ on a bike the beds are hard. It was that "hall of residence bed" experience , where you sit down on the bed too quickly and it's so hard that your spine almost jars out through the top of your head! Ouch ! I slept, but only, I suspect, because I was completely shattered .

Luckily, as I was off to Starbucks I met the manager of the Fox and Anchor who had had an empty room on the nights I was stuck in the hard bed - so bless him I now have his direct line so it won't happen again. Hurrah!

I also got my make up done in Harvey Nicholls by the lovely Eddie on the Trish Mcavoy stand which was fun - and confirmed that all the colours I already own are the right ones.

And it's Lent and I've given up two of my favourite things for the duration - bread and booze, 5 days in and it's going OK , I even fished the croutons out of my soup!

What's in your bag?

2009-02-23T04:54:00.000-08:00

Ages and ages and ages ago , Frobisher and Beast set a "what's in your bag" challenge. And I did take the picture but never posted it.

So here it is, ipod , phone, business cards, mirror, notebook, cheque book, purse, book and lippy (Mac natch!)

I think we looked good!

2009-02-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking that this blog needs photos. So ...showjumping today.

They are horribly blurry, and I was a wimp and entered a really easy round ( and still got 4 faults) - but horse is still a bit green and tends to bolt!

The AB won her class though - red rossette - groovy.

And we've done the shopping and cleaned the house so this evening she and I have awarded ourselves pizza and popcorn - yay!

Sod's Law

2009-02-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

However deadly quiet work has been , the minute the AB gets any time off school it goes fricking mental! And it's been the same this half term. 2 new instructions a day - papers arriving at 5 for meetings at 9 the next morning. Cases I thought had gone dead magically resurrecting.

The whole nine yards.

So sorry about the short , borning posts, but I need to clear the decks and we have indoor show jumping tomorrow - got to do better than the flat on my arse effort at Christmas!

All that glistens.............

2009-02-18T00:26:00.000-08:00

My sister is off to the Brits today and is staying at her posh hotel in Park Lane. She has the outfit, she has the shoes, she has MY Italian handbag.

But sometimes it seems, glamour is only skin deep - the catering at the Brits is not, apparently, all that it could be. As, along with her tickets to get into the venue, she also has a food voucher which entitles her to..............................a can of Carling and a pasty.

I am not kidding.

Chance Encounters

2009-02-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

Some years ago I fell in love with a man who was funny and sporty and had loads of mates and seemed to me to be everything I wanted to be in life. He fell for me fast and hard and then fell out of love with me equally fast - being slow to catch on I took longer to figure that out. He was quite difficult to be with, moody, changeable , quick to take offence - and even I , thick as I am , figured that had something to do with his cocaine and marjuana consumption.

Life moved on , I have another relationship, happy , stable, quieter.

I've always known where my former love is and how he is doing and we talk from time to time - and so we did yesterday. And he's living on his own, not sporty in fact so thin it's quite scary (got to have a bit of meat on a bloke) no mojo, no band - just an even bigger coke habit. And just to break your heart properly there were snatches in the conversation of the guy I used to know. I am left with this stupid desire to go round to his house, clean it , get the shopping in and cook his dinner - but that way madness lies.

Bored now!

2009-02-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

There is definately a point around the beginning of February, when all those winter things that seemed so appealing back in October have definately lost their shine.

I am now officially fed up of the following things ;

"Bracing" walks with the dog - bracing in this context means frozen solid and miserable.

Comfort food - particularly anything involving either chips or mash.

Cosy evenings at home by the fire, which in reality occur because we are snowed in/cut off by flood water/too knackered to go anywhere*.

*delete as appropriate.

My sister , on the other hand, has won tickets to the Brits - from Tesco of all places. They are putting her up in the Park Lane Hilton and she gets to go to the after show party too! Obviously she is having a "what do i wear?" crisis and for some reason is ringing me about it. WHAT DO I KNOW????? I am in my mid 40's and live in the middle of nowhere!!!

What is occuring.

2009-02-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

My buddy in Victoria and her family are all fine - hurrah and still have working internet so even better.

What's happening here ? - work mostly to be honest. I'm giving out lots of free initial advice still but some of it turning into paying jobs which is not to be sniffed at. It's a sign of the times that I am off to an "Advanced Insolvency Updater" course on Thursday morning - bet that will be a bundle of laughs, and it's in Holborn.........yukkky.

The conclusion to be drawn from "snow week" was that sitting indoors on your backside does you no good at all. I rode only once last week and the horse went brilliantly once she realised we were going to be indoors! She did give me a rather "old fashioned look" as I led her out of the stable into the snow, it was clearly intended to convey the phrase " you have got to be fucking joking!" But once in the relative warmth of the indoor arena things perked up no end. The downside was that after a week of inactivity an hours show jumping training meant I couldn't actually walk properly the next day!

This week I am not repeating the same mistake , I am walking and riding come sleet, rain or snow. And there is no excuse really as there is a heated pool and sauna just across the road that I can go to to warm up after.

On the voodoo front, I've now had two sessions of accupuncture and two of hypnotherapy. I think I'm calmer - a bit, and the pain seems to be subsiding. I have to give it a fair go, can't expect to go from feeling crap to feeling brilliant over night and frankly chaps - I am all out of other options.

The Italian students have been and gone. They ate all before them and watched a lot of telly and didn't really say much - so that was money for old rope.

Friends

2009-02-08T14:50:00.000-08:00

I am very lucky in that I have lots of good friends. I am even luckier in that I have two very exceptional ones, S &S who I have known since I was 18 and would do anything for. Sadly for me neither of them live in the UK anymore, S1 is in the Phillipines with her family. S2 is in Australia.

I hold powers of attorney for both of them which means looking after their UK property, and in one case their parents ashes!

S2's place is in rural Victoria. I was speaking to her on Thursday and she said temperatures had been over 45 degrees for weeks only going "down" ha ha to 35 degrees at night. She was sending the kids to school with their lunch boxes frozen solid so they had a chance to make it to lunch without "turning".

So having seen the bush fires on tv tonight I am now officially shitting myself. Not sure what the chances are of her having internet or phone. She isn't in either of the towns that have been completely burnt out so far. Fingers and everything else crossed here.

They put me through it these two - S1 was in Sri Lanka on a beach holiday when the Tsunami struck , she was fine, here's hoping our luck holds!

Week ahead

2009-02-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

It's going to be a busy week. Plenty of billable stuff to do - hurrah! Another article to write - on personal bankruptcy this time and gearing up for the second rounds of accupuncture and hypnotherapy which are happening on Thursday and Friday.

In addition we've got a couple of Italian students staying with us until Saturday. I am officially a freak in that I don't find looking after people work, I will quite happily iron your shirts, cook your dinner, bake cakes and ferry you around the place. I enjoy it. It's also nice to be bought presents and thanked for looking after people, not many legal practice clients do that.

Lets face it what people really want in litigation is for the judge to say "oh you poor dear, how could such a terrible thing have happened to you, let me put it right," and that is , of course, never ever going to happen. So there is always some degree of dissatisfaction at the end of a case, the only question is how much! Although, I did have one very nice email from a client this week saying how pleased his company were with the service they had from me, so that was nice.

It snowed today and should still be white over tomorrow , I love it , so pretty!

Voodo

2009-01-30T01:15:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of days the work has arrived - and it's all very weird , very convoluted and not conducive to the use of standard paragraphs Tick! In fact my brain hurts quite a lot.

I have been through all my horse pics and she doesn't look suitably beautiful in any of them so I will take some more tomorrow and see if they work out any better.

Meanwhile I have been dipping my toe in alternative medicene and so far , much to my surprise, it works! I have had two sessions of accupuncture and it's as if someone has turned the pain switch off. I am I admit, amazed and very relaxed and sleeping really well. The needles do hurt and when they are in place they feel hot. So whilst I am not exactly looking forward to next week's sessions the results are enough to make me keep trying. And as conventional medicene can't do anything to help - it has tried its best bless its heart but its no good. Why not? Part of the plan is one session of massage and hypnotherapy - I'm not entirely sure how a control freak like me is going to cope with that but we will see!

Today

2009-01-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

Had the BEST just the BEST horse ride for ages this afternoon. It helped that it was a lovely crisp sunny afternoon and it helped that the horse was not in a mood. But it wasn't anything fun like a hack, or show jumping or even hunting, ..........................it was dressage training. This is the "doing very hard sums" of the horse world. And it went like an absolute dream. Rode without stirrups for the first half hour to get my seat right and then rode long, and actually managed to think up a decent schooling sequence. M y friend who was watching and offering "helpful" (*ahem*) comments said at one point, "that's just amazing you look like a German dressage rider!" hurrah the holy grail achieved.

And I've made bread again today - getting better, my loaves are now getting "high" as well as "wide". And I baked a cake, it's an almond cake with clementines where the clementines have to be boiled for two hours - I admit I forgot them, killed a saucepan and filled the house with smoke but they were resucable and the cake is lush!

And yesterday went to the gym for the first time this year - it was dreadful and I'm trying not to think about it but I'll go back tomorrow.

You will gather from all this that I have absolutely bugger all work........well OK not none. But I have taken the decision not to worry about it. What's the point.

Before I forget , did you watch Barack's inauguration? I loved it all, I liked Michelle's frock, Aretha's hat, the "Washington crossing the Deleware" quote and I didn't cry until Beyonce sang "At last". This morning I looked at my "to do list" complete with all the difficult dog end type clients and thought - hell Barack's is roughly my age, he's a lawyer to and his list is a damn site worse than mine is so stop whining and get on with it !

Being Freelance

2009-01-15T02:31:00.000-08:00

Being Freelance is easy when you are busy,honest you just start work and go. Running round all day on a little rat run between the computer the kettle and the loo ! There are lots of people to talk to on the phone, meetings and court hearings to go to, no problem.

Quiet patches (with the benefit of 18 months experience) are MUCH MUCH harder. You have to be "out there" chasing the work, but out where? Marketing is an art not a science and if you are too much in someone's face then you may lose work that you would otherwise have got down the line.

Do you go out? What if the phone rings and it's a job? Do you take on time expensive but relatively lower paying stuff to fill in the time? I've taken on four days teaching for March which is great but I know I will be busy in March, I can just tell!!

I am crummy - I tend to stretch little bits of work to fill in stupid amounts of time because I hate the feeling of being "finished" and having nothing at all to do.

So today I am not going to spend 4 hours playing "Free Tetris" and waiting for the phone to ring - today I shall bake bread, finish the ironing, read the pile of legal journals on my desk and do my nails - all before the telephone hearing I have at half past three!

*update it's now five past two and I've done the bread, the ironing, read the journals and walked the dog. Going to do hearing then go for a swim. Still waiting for all the people who need to send me stuff so I can get on with the next stage of my work to send it though!

My brain has gone awol again.

2009-01-06T01:39:00.000-08:00

As an "end of the holidays treat" I took the AB and her friend to the cinema to see Twilight , it's all the go with the tweens, a vampire love story type thingy. The film is very slow and very dull but the Washington State scenery is amazing and the house the vampire family live in is amazing. One of those modern glass and wood structures, all clean sweeping lines.

And it started me thinking that your activities would be restricted if you lived in a house like that. Not no sex on the sofa, because the neighbours could see in ! - it's in the middle of the woods. No, becuase certain activities just would feel wrong , you couldn't sit in that perfect modernist sitting room in your jammies, watching cartoons and eating baked beans out of a tin. It would just be wrong on a cosmic level. In fact I'm not convinced that the house would permit tv watching at all, it would prefer you to read books and listen to Debussy! If you tried to cook a burger in the open plan , stainless steel kitchen the fridge would open up and consume you in anger. Burcher muesli would be the only permitted breakfast cereal. Beautiful to look at but having a house that you had to live up to would be hard work.

2009

2008-12-28T00:21:00.001-08:00

I've been "writing" ( I use the term writing in it's loosest possible sense of course!) this blog for over 2 years now so I'm able to look back on my new year resolutions for 2007 & 2008 and go me I've acheived a couple of the things that I wanted to do in each of those years. Noteably I've failed on the travel plans - due to lack of money and giant school fees, but hey, what can you do!

Most pleasingly (and despite slippage!) I'm a whole 12lbs lighter and a dress size smaller than I was this time last year. And I managed to keep my little new business on the road despite a couple of non-payment by clients disasters and I at this point I owe no one anything. On the horse front I acheived my NVQ1 in horse care, competed for the first time in 20 years or so (OK not to any standard but a rosette is a rosette) and only fell off once! My gym attendance was sporadic but I walked for 40 minutes every day.

So rather than resolve I'm going to make some wishes for 2009. I wish that in 2009 life will be;

- more sociable. Some more parties and some more laughs would be lovely.
- turn up a NBF ( New Best Friend - or at least one who doesn't live miles and miles away!)
- prosperous ( probably a slightly demented wish in a recession but I can wish!)
- fit and healthy!
- feature me being a steady size 12 (not a vascilating 12-14!)
- involve travel! (although I concede that will depend upon the prosperous bit)

And I wish for all my kind and forbearing readers everything you would wish for yourselves!

Happy 2009!

Excellent.

2008-12-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas, and therefore everyone has flu, or variations thereon, some involving continuous sneezing and others involving vomiting. This makes for an interesting and somewhat challenging combination of nursing requirements.

When I say everyone, I mean of course everyone but me. By the law of Christmas mothers are immune from illness until Boxing Day only after I've cooked the ham, the goose, the trifle and the chocolate log will my immune system succumb. And on Boxing Day afternoon (with the fridge stuffed with enough cold food to last a week) I shall inevitably stricken by a combination virus which includes both vomiting and sneezing ( hopefully not both at the same time!).

Until then I'm enjoying solo nights on the sofa, eating Quality Street in front of the fire and watching repeats of "Love Actually", I've just realised in fact that I had never seen it all the way through, uninterrupted, until this evening....excellent.

But don't forget Christmas isn't about religion - it's much more important than that (which is why all this avoiding it to not offend other religions is such nonsense) it's very lack of religion is made clear by the alacrity with which all faiths join in, turkey, silly hats and all. Christmas is about the human spirit, the hope in the depth of winter that the sun will come again and the earth will be warm. Which took a bit of beleiving when you were in a cold cave I bet. So to "SOL INVICTUS" the invincible sun and to you all Happy Christmas .

London

2008-12-19T07:19:00.000-08:00

Just back from the smoke with an only mild hangover!

Manged to ;

Get lost on the way out of the Xmas lunch venue, so totally failed to go with everyone else to pub on Kings Road, ended up on Wandsworth Bridge and had to jump in a cab back to the hotel (thank goodness for black cabs!)
Now stayed in fave hotel so often that I'm getting free drinks off the manager - may be a bad sign. He is a nice bloke though bless him.
Got to 8am breakfast meeting even with lunch hangover.
Have 3 new instructions today - do they not know it's nearly Christmas! Great to have the work but clients need to work on their timing.

Have shamelessly stolen good line from teen movie that I know old mate won't see and told him his mood swings give me whiplash! It's true but I fear it may have something to do with his current cocaine content!

All Clear!

2008-12-16T00:51:00.000-08:00

So now I feel stupid . Cancer scare was just that , a scare. My biopsy has come back clear and very fast (thank you BUPA). I have to go back in 6 weeks to double check but really it's just paranoia,

On the upside, I now have sufficient life insurance! Weird that was all I was worried about , leaving the family in a mess with not enough money.

Have v little work today so I ought to do it all quick, then go to the gym. Whether I do or not is a different matter.

Bruised!

2008-12-15T01:28:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, the Riding Club Chritmas Indoor Showumping - what a complete disaster that was!

The AB was off ski-ing that evening and I was in two minds as to whether or not I really had time to go and compete in the afternoon. My dear horse clearly picked up the vibe and thought "well Lippy if you can't be arsed neither can I" and chucked me on the floor at the second fence.

In front of all my mates and all the AB's mates. I should have got back on and made her jump the course - but to be honest, I was completely winded, my head was ringing, I felt sick and more to the point I didn't trust the old cow not to chuck me on the floor again.

I did go round the course at the end - on someone else's very sweet and well behaved pony.

Time for a re-think when the loan agreement comes up for review in the New Year I think! - one credit crunch side effect, lots of horses up for share or loan with financial terms being very "negotiable"!

The Jumbo Jet

2008-12-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

Time was that if you owed a sufficiently large sum of money, your creditor could obtain a judgement against you in the High Court, he could then obtain a writ of feria fericas and instruct the Sherrif's officers of the relevant Balliwick to levy execution against your belongings. (in other words come around your house and take your stuff).

And so it came to pass, in the year of our lord 1992, that an African National Airline, had conspicuously failed to pay for their aircraft fuel and owed Shell at Manchester Airport a suitably large amount of dosh.

At that time, there was an articled clerk (me) working in the office of the Under Sherrif of Cheshire, within whose Balliwick Manchester Airport fell. And so armed with our sealed writ, one Wednesday morning the Under Sherrif and me headed off to Manchester Airport. Where we were met by the head of airport security and chauffered down the run way in one of those little brown cars with the orange light on top and the siren (always wanted to do that!). When we got to the plane, we stuck a sealed writ on the door, while the airport mechanic took the battery out of the engine. We went up to the cockpit - where the amount of loose wiring hanging down everywhere was scary - and stuck another writ on the dashboard (is that what you call it?) . And then we all went home.

Boss had a much more interesting time later when I was back at law school - evicting Swampy and his mates during the Manchester 2nd runway protest.

I am a Writer ! (well, maybe not!)

2008-12-11T01:48:00.000-08:00

Today has a definate writing theme as on the to do list it says;

* write legal column for this months "Living in Bumpkinshire Magazine"

* write firms monthly client newsletter

This is rich Lippy I hear you say - you cannot spell and your grammar is atrocious! Yes I know Darlings, I have editors. And the aforementioned editors cannot complain as it is all done for love and no pay.......well for free advertising and PR and no pay at any rate. So you will appreciate that it is with no small degree of jealousy that I note Colleen Rooney (nee McLoughlin) is being paid £47,000 a week (!) for churning out 500 words for OK magazine! That's nearly £100 a word! At that rate this blog post is worth almost a grand.. What do you think , is this drivel worth that kind of money?..maybe if I just stuck in a few pictures of me and the toy boy? Although the Toy Boy bears less resemblence to Shrek and is more a taller, Brummie , Ray Winstone! No? You don't think the family outing to Hunstanton would cut it in the same way as the Rooneys honeymoon in Vegas? Damn.

But seriously, can "celebs" continue to be recession proof? The poor souls still toiling away in my old law firm have just taken a 15% pay cut which wipes out their last 5 years pay rises in one go! My work has stayed pretty steady I have to say - which as I am a new start up business I'm very pleased with. But so many people are struggling it's just awful. Even the liquidators aren't making any money because all the firms and people going bust have no assets ( liquidators get paid out of what they raise from the assets and book debts of the company for themselves and the creditors).

I keep telling myself that I've lived through two recessions already and the fortunes of me always seem to be curiously out of synch with the economy as a whole. While everyone else was a "yuppie" I was poor and desparate. In the early 90's recession my life picked up and I had a good job. During which good job I must admit I spent a lot of time reposessing other people's houses. Have I ever told you about the day I reposessed a jumbo jet on the runway at Manchester Airport?

2008-12-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

I knew I'd be embarassed by that last post - so hey - lets all pretend it's not happening! OK?

The Messiah in St Paul's last week was lovely but honestly, Handel doesn't really do it for me. That makes me a Phillistine I know, but there it is, too much trilling and not enough tune for my taste. Beautiful cathedral, very hard chairs, but of a draft up your back.

My meeting in London for this Thursday has been cancelled so an extra day! - I actually took it today if I'm honest. I've done no work at all, went riding this morning and then out for a very long lunch...shameful self employed behaviour.

I do need to work tomorrow and variously sort my life out. And I will.

Oh shit!

2008-12-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

I really really don't want this to turn into an "ailments" blog. You know the kind of thing, bravery in the face of invasive medical procedures. I admit I do moan from time to time about what's up with me - but that's I hope, a reality check in what would otherwise look like a charmed life.

But today life sent me a bit of a curve ball - an unrelated bit of my anatomy is playing up and in the next week or so ( basically as soon as they can sort out the appointment) I have to go for tests to see if I have cancer. I probably haven't and I will in all probability regret this post as a bit of over dramatic self pitying rubbish. I contemplated not making it on that basis. Particularly as I don't pretend for one minute that this blog gives full and frank discolsure of everything that's going on in my life..........it doesn't, I'm too much of a wimp for that.

I am pissed off though - with everything else I feel I have gone through my legitimate share of medical "poking in prodding", it's not fair!!! Lifes not fair Lippy get the fuck over it!!!

However, I need to frame this fear in words. My immediate family know but I can't exactly ring my friends going "Hi how are you? I might have cancer." So I'm imposing my fear on you instead. Sorry and all that. When it turns out to be absolutely nothing then you can share my embarassment.

Love

L xx

Sugar Rush!

2008-12-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Update on annoying case - client took my advice. Admittedly only after I told him he was running his commercial dispute like a divorce case, ie too much emotion and not enough looking at the bottom line! Which was a bit of a harsh thing to say, even for me. But.....the advice worked ...result! OK it's a small battle in what may prove to be a very long war, but hurrah!

Nicey's asking about love. To which my instant knee jerk response was, "don't ask me, I've been married for nearly 20 years!". And then I thought about it a bit more. I once made the mistake of asking the TB why he loved me and he said "because you are really kind to me" - I was furious, I wanted to be told it was because I was beautiful, fascinating, sexy and irresistable. When you first fall for someone, in that initial "sugar rush" maybe you are, fascinating, sexy and irresistable. But then you turn out to fart and sweat like the rest of the world. And what counts, is someone who is nice to you and loves you for who you are - not what they thought you were or wish you would become. And how do you tell when someone loves you ? When they cook you beef in red wine with dumplings, because it's your favourite, even though they really don't like beef in red wine with dumplings. Guess what we've got for tea tonight?

Solicitor, thinking beautiful thoughts!

2008-12-02T01:50:00.000-08:00

I am at the end of my patience with a case - probably because being in pain wore me down a bit. This is a difficult position to be in because, honestly, to be useful as a professional adviser to some extent you don't have to give a fuck how the case turns out.

It's my job to tell you that what you are doing is stupid. It is not my job to stop you doing whatever stupid thing it is you are proposing to do - you see the difference??

One of the fascinating things about my job is the brilliant (and sometimes slightly mad) people that you get to work with. In consequence whilst walking the dog around the forest this morning I was able to take some on the mobile advice, from a very expensive barrister. The advice was very good and I now only owe them a pint. A pint of champagne maybe, but still. So what was the advice?

Either get back to a place where I don't care about this case, or hand it over to someone who genuinely doesn't give a toss. Handing over the case or involving a barrister is the £500 an hour option. The cheap option ?- "solicitor walking dog through forest, thinking beautiful thoughts!"

Less Carbs, More Yoga

2008-11-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

On a mission NOT to feel as bad as I did last week ever again! So as the title says, less carbs and more yoga.

Isn't this relentlessly grey weather depressing, like living at the bottom of a bucket!!!

Even the Xmas market in town failed to make me feel better today, it was too crowded, too gaudy and too full of "Christmas tat!". Bah humbug and all that.

I am very fortunately going to hear the Messiah at St Pauls on Thursday evening, let's see if a bit of high culture can't do the trick.

The AB is off ski-ing with school in a couple of weeks, I am envious if only that she will have snow and mountains and hopefully a bit of sunshine. The actual skiing, not so much, I'm a bit of a coffee skier, "I'll ski down this green run and then I'll have a cup of coffee!". Toy boy off to Holland tomorrow working having been in Germany last week. I'd like to be in Norway now though , I've only been once and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Beautiful place, lovely people....maybe I could sneak a weekend flight to Oslo....

2008-11-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

The "old trouble" (endometriosis) has kicked off again - which means pain, at the minute to the point where it hurts so much I feel sick.

And it's cold - what I call "Fen Cold" a deep damp accompanied by a biting cold east wind that pushes the cold and damp deep into your bones.

Viz - I feel shitty!

Sorry.

Survivors

2008-11-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

God I loved the original series of "Survivors" when I was twelve. It inspired countless kids games and as many fantasies about how I would live if I was "the only one left alive!" - having a small swarm of younger brothers and sisters you can see how that fantasy was quite appealing.

The remake is on BBC 1 tonight and I hope, beyond hope, that it matches up to my fond memories. Otherwise it's back to working out whether it's better to stake out a supermarket or take over a farm early on!

When you're stacking shelves in Tesco's you'll wish you'd listened to your mother!

2008-11-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

It's exam time for the AB - and as the pampered public school educated offspring of doting professional parents she's not worried - why should she be?

Because I, her screaming harpy of a "first generation to go to University" mother say she should be that's why! I didn't battle my way through the 11 plus , 10 o Levels and 4 A Levels so that she could be a slacker! No - that isn't the way it's supposed to work.

So she is subjected to a constant barrage of questioning about how may Latin declentions she has by heart and whether she has really done the practice French comprehension that she said she had - whilst listening to the sound track of High School Musical 3, obviously.

I periodically scream "it won't be my fault when you're sweeping the streets! I've done my best!" not sure it's helping.

Buy this Book!

2008-11-20T06:31:00.000-08:00

Among the links to this blog is one to "Skips Acorn Treasury" the delightful blog of the Fabulous Mr Goss.

What you may not know is that he has written the latest Torchwood novelisation "Almost Perfect"...and not unexpectedly it's wonderful. A delightful combination of watching Torchwood and spending an evening getting mullered on daiquari's and setting the world to rights with Goss. And whilst each of those things is great fun together they are a combination I've found both entertaining and utterly compelling - so go, buy read....honestly there are many many worse ways to spend £6.99. It may well save you from wasting another evening watching "I'm A Celebrity" and if it sends you out to look at the world through a wholly more cynical eye then so much the better.

7 Things - Stolen from Everyone!

2008-11-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

7 Things I plan to do before I die:

1. Take a month’s holiday in India and Sri Lanka
2. See the Northern Lights
3. Own an Irish Draught Mare
4. See my daughter grown up, independent and happy in whatever way works for her.
5. Have mad curly silver hair (ok it’s mad and curly now but when it’s silver I think it will be wicked!)
6. Tango in Buenos Aries
7. Spend a summer travelling around Europe from Norway to Portugal and all points in between.

7 Things I do now:

1. Cook from scratch all the time. Everything – even curry and crispy duck with pancakes and make my own bread.
2. Ride horses.
3. Take my Jack Russell on Long Walks.
4. Do yoga
5. Tap dance in private!
6. Read books – all the time.
7. Iron sheets – because they are just better that way. (Yes and duvet covers and pillow cases)

7 Things I can't do:

1. Eat Marmite (eww yak ewwwwww!)
2. Be at any kind of a height without my knees turning to jelly (who had to close their eyes and be led across the glass bridge into the Bull Ring Car park? yes that would be me)
3. Run. Well Ok I can run, a bit, but I hate it; my chest and running are ergonomically incompatible.
4. Make meringues – it’s a mental block thing
5. Sew – as in make clothes sew.
6. Draw or Paint
7. Watch soaps – East Enders or Corrie or whatever else there is, not my thing.

7 Things that attract me in the opposite sex:

1. Tall and well built (call me shallow but I just can’t find it in me to fancy a short, skinny bloke)
2. Rough accents – Cockney, Yorkshire, Geordie – I married an almost Brummie for heaven’s sake.
3. Wearing something other than a suit to work; suit = no vote
4. Doing stuff – don’t care what you are into so long as you are into something, no couch potatoes please.
5. Competence – not being able to cook or iron or look after yourself is a major turn off
6. Being chatty – life is too short for strong and silent
7. Not being shy – in my humble experience all shy people are arrogant bastards who just can’t be arsed to think about any one else.

7 Things I say most often:

1. You haven’t got a hope in hell of winning this case.
2. I’d love to help you but I’m afraid it’s only a practising certificate not a magic wand.
3. Please pay me £2000 on account.
4. In my respectful submission
5. Which one of us went to law school?
6. You aren’t going to be happy with the outcome unless the judge says he loves you and wants to have your babies. And I think the chances of that happening are frankly slight.
7. £180 an hour.

7 Celebrities that I admire:

1 Stephen Fry – the brain, the delivery, what a guy!
2. David Tenant – he’s the Doctor nuf said.
3. Amanda Redman – I just think she’s cool
4. Eva Green (Big Girl crush on Vesper Lynd)
5. Ian Rankin
6. JK Rowling
7.Richard Armitage ( or is that not the kind of admiration you were thinking of?!)

7 Favourite foods:

1. Roast Lamb and Mint Sauce
2. Chilli Squid
3. Fiorentina Pizza
4. Chocolate Mousse ( the kind with no cream and made with very dark chocolate)
5. Roast Goose and Apple Sauce
6. Brownies
7. Digestive Biscuits with Philadephia Cheese

Your bog standard weekend.

2008-11-17T10:49:00.001-08:00

On Friday's the standard form of email sign off seems to have become "have a good weekend" - which is nice. But slightly leaves me feeling as if I'm missing out on something.

My standard weekend follows the same basic format that it's done for years, it goes like this -

Saturday - get up and clean the house right through, do the washing and ironing. Take the dog for a decent walk.By then there is only time to make some tea and watch some drivel on the telly current drivel position is occupied by Strictly Come Dancing and Merlin.

Sunday - either swim or go to gym first thing, home for a big breakfast then head off to stables and ride for a c couple of hours . Snack lunch - then more dog walking, both weekend days it's usually 5 miles or so per walk. The home cook a giant roast for everyone , have some wine and collapse in a heap. Go to the cinema may occasionally substitute for collapse in a heap.

I've done a quick straw pole of my mates and really - not all that unusual. Probably go to about 6-8 parties a year, less than 1 a month! And to the pub once in a blue moon, because I don't know anyone at the pub so what's the point?

Crackered

2008-11-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

Working in London for 3 days I spent one night in a fabulous suite at the Fox in Smithfield - can I say wow, TWO flat screen tvs and a huge slipper bath and my own balcony. Such a shame it was work and I was on my own. Day 3 was an emergency stop over however - it's ages since I've done a emergency shirt and knickers run to M&S - and there were NO hotel rooms in London anywhere.

Fortunately I was saved by a lovely friend who lives in Brockley, I went and stopped at her house, which was fab and involved the obligatory couple of hours in her local wine bar, "Mr Lawrence" - if you are in Brockley do call in, it has nice wine, nice big comfy arm chairs and food too.

After spending 30 hours in meetings over 3 days came home last night and slept for 11 hours straight. This morning I'm off to ride the horse.

And nicey - have been to the gym twice this week and done yoga every morning. I still hate the treadmill but I'm slowly learning to live with it.

Bang and Sparkle!

2008-11-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

So Lippy where have you been?

All over the place mate!

This morning I schooled my friends horse for her, he's a perfect little gent but tends to canter like a rocking horse. Making him stretch out is a bit of a stretch for both of us, so after three quarters of an hour we were both pretty sweaty and decided it was job done! Then came home and did some work.

On the work front at the minute I seem to be spending vast amounts of time explaining to other lawyers that it is NOT POSSIBLE to be a "sleeping director " of a company. You took the money - therefore you have to go to the board meetings. I honestly feel like asking " Did you actually go to law school ?Or were you just asleep at the back of the class?!"

Many thanks to Nobody Girl for holding my hand over hotel rooms - yet again! Just my luck to be searching for last minute accomodation when there is a huge travel conference in town. And I need my beauty sleep as I have a scary meeting with HSBC in Canada Sq the next day - eep.

Went to the AB's school bonfire party on Wednesday night - hence the bang and sparkle in the title, And it was fab - have a sneaking suspicion that some of this terms school fees may have gone up in smoke that night the fireworks were so spectacular. The kids went feral around the grounds with their mates and all the adults stood coooing over the fireworks. Typical! Going to see some more in the Abbey Gardens tomorrow. And I bought our New Year rockets from Waitrose today - they are huge, the TB will have a fit!!! And they were on "two for one" so he is going to be outside shivering for hours letting in the new year - oh well, maybe we should just line everything up (all 30 of them) and light them at a run?!

Have a banging sparkly weekend - and catch you next week.

Oh and if I'm a bit absent I'm trying to write a novel this month. I know, joke, I can hardly string a sentance together at the best of times. If you would like to monitor my progress go to nanowrimo website and look for andien. I may even post an extract for general mocking!!!!

Haloween

2008-11-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I'd bought mini milky ways and little packets of maltesers and did we get a single trick or treater? No.

Our kid went out and after last year's dissapointment ; 3 granola bars , an orange and an apple - we live on a very middle class road, full of doctors! She had clearly managed to educate the neighbours and came back with what I thought was a massive haul of smarties and mini mars bars. But I was brought up to speed by her mate who said " we did much better when we lived in Essex, all the chavs give you loads!"

Hunter Trial

2008-10-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Didn't fall on head today - did however get beaten by 12 year old daughter, which on reflection is how it should be....I now have two pairs of filthy dirty riding boots to clean!

"Come On!"

2008-10-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

"Come On" - said in a Stoke accent a la Robbie Williams in Rock DJ to reflect my roots. Stoke, that is, not Robbie Williams, although I did work in his Dad's pub once. The Red Lion in Burselm when I was a student - I think Robbie was about 2 at the time!

It's grey, it's raining, I need to go and get some practice in for the Hunter trial on Monday - it would not be cool to go around the course having not ridden at all for three weeks. I fear this may only serve to bring foward the part where I fall on my head from Monday to today but never mind.

OK I solemnly sware that at 4pm today I will shut the door on my office and not open it again until Monday afternoon (Hunter trial in the morning) whatever happens.....

Supper Club!

2008-10-22T01:28:00.000-07:00

I have got such a cooking head on today...it's just a lovely crispy, autum, lets make the most of having a massive kitchen day - don't you think?

So as a dedicated home worker I will settle my two sets of court papers, send off the cheque for my new practising certificate (the Law Society are robbing bastards -£1000 a year just to stay on the roll in return for which I get precisely nothing, thanks boys!). And then I shall get the old apron on.

I am planning - chocolate/cheesecake brownies (where you alternate brownie and cheesecake mixture in the tin so it comes out marbled), spiced pumpkin soup and a sour Goan chicken curry. Not to be eaten all at once obviously - hmm, might even try to make some Nan bread, I'll see how I feel. Bright sunshiney kitchen, baking smells, Radio 4 - heaven! I am SUCH a cheap date.

French and Saunders, wop a doey ooh!

2008-10-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

So French and Saunders - the Still Alive tour. I had front row tickets for the first night - and honestly the place was so packed with celebs I didn't know whether to look at the stage or the audience. I was "THAT" close to Gok Wan who was sitting in the row behind, with an exquisitley pretty blond boy who I sincerely hope was his boyf, and I didn't scream "Gok Gok I love you please be my new best friend" - which I thought showed commendable restraint. Lenny was there (obviously) and Jane Horrocks and all the Dibleys and Catherine Tate (with her mum), Lisa Tarbuck (oh my God I'm WAY thinner than she is ! I was amazed!).

Anyway, yes , yes the show.....the good bits of F & S are funny and make you wince at the same time. There was a sketch about public school kids left in the boarding house for Christmas which was so spot on I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, or yell "I know her, it worked out OK in the end!". Too much big screen if I'm honest, and for me too much slapstick - although the two old men sketch at the end was horrifically hilarious. The original Ab Fab sketch with Dawn as Saffy was as good as I remembered and all in all I had a stonkingly good time. Thanks girlies!

Skiving

2008-10-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Oh bollocks to it - I have awarded myself a couple of days off! - I'm going to see French and Saunders at the Drury Lane theatre on Thursday with a jolly good mate of mine, hurrah.

Will be back on Friday evening - hung over and no doubt poorer but at this point I'm not sure that I care all that much.

Crackered!

2008-10-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

I am working my second Sunday in a row - which is good for the finances but little else.

To tell you the truth after practically jogging around London to see clients at the end of last week , I was hoping to a quiet start to this one - but no chance. Got to be in Chancery Lane at 11am tomorrow and need to be ready for it. And I don't even feel as if I've turned myself around properly this weekend either. There is still a big pile of laundry that needs finishing off and I could do with a weekend in the spa from the look of me.

How to balance this out ?

I am deeply jealous of anyone who has had a "go rip it up" weekend - no chaance of one of those, and I am not even sure that I could stay awake long enough to enjoy it.

Survival tips warmly welcomed!

So who do you want to win Strictly?

2008-10-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

Strictly Come Dancing is the only "reality" tv that I watch..I can say with hand on heart that I have never seen the X Factor or Big Brother or anything else but when it comes to Strictly I'm addicted.

Why? - apart from a bit of a Len crush which is disturbing enough in itself. I like all the spangly bits and thinking "with a few lessons I could do that" . It is clearly a girl thing as while the AB and I become frantically excited the TB retreats to his office and works and even a scantily clad Lisa Snowdon can't tempt him into the sitting room.

So back to my question - who do you want to win?

I really like Jodie - I think because she reminds me of a very old friend (who was also very tall and an ex-model) who died very young and who I still miss dreadfully. But with my honest head on she hasn't got much of a prayer.

Cherie I would love to go far, as the standard bearer for all of us who aren't 20 any more.

I think Rachel Stevens may well win which would just be really annoying.

And out of the Tom/Austin stand off - haven't made my mind up - but hopefully I have several weeks of delicious lechery ahead of me before it's necessary to make a choice!

How did it go yesterday?

2008-10-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well as you ask - not very well.

In the novice dressage test I only got a 4th place - nice try but no rosette. To say that my daughter is gloating over my fall from grace doesn't begin to express the true depth of her feelings.

And then in court I lost, due to the fact, as the judge commented to me in the robing room afterwards, that my client was " a lying little toe rag"..........well spotted Ma'm.

What's New?

2008-09-30T08:12:00.001-07:00

Honestly doesn't it drive you mental when people ask that ? My life is not one unending search for novelty thank you all the same.

Actually what is new is pretty scary. The "financial crisis " can seem distant and esoteric but to put some personal spin on it. If the American insurance company AIG had not been propped up by the US government and had folded, more than half of the solicitors practices in the UK would have had to close their doors over night. At least while they found themselves new professional indemnity insurance. AIG is the biggest provider of PI insurance - which is of course compulsory and without which necessary evil no solicitor can work. Fortunatley for now - until they turn out to be the next victim - I'm with Zurich!

Lots of litigation is also funded by after the event insurance - a client of mine has just concluded a deal on a case which was so funded. And this afternoon (3 weeks after it was promised ) we have had to have the "where is the fucking money?" telephone call.

Unsurprisingly I'm not lifting a pen without being paid on account!

Freelancing for the Faint Hearted

2008-09-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yes it's true, I sit around the house all day, staring at a computer screen and waiting for the telephone to ring. I don't drag into the office on a train, I don't wear a suit every day anymore (just high days, holidays and court days!) and I don't have to worry about having partners in a law firm.

But I still haven't got it sussed yet, although having read the Sunday times this week I'm not as bad as some!

Stuff I don't do;

- take naps
- watch day time televisiosn
- lie face down on the carpet drooling
- sit in my pyjamas all day
- eat chocolate
- spread my work all around the house

Stuff I do do;

- walk the dog every day
- keep all my work in the office
- work odd hours if I feel like it
- ride the horse first thing in the morning instead of going to work
- have a bad addiction to celebrity gossip websites - mrpaparrazzi (don't go there, it's just wrong!)
- have a very, very tidy office with fresh flowers and scented candles - you sad indulgent bint Lippy!
- cook nice dinners every day (did this malaysian salmon recipie last night - stole it out of the hairdressers copy of OK magazine and it was yum! maybe I should post it?!)
- go out to business networking events at least a couple of times a month

Stuff I wish I did;

- went to the gym every day instead of a paltry couple of times a week
- understood my own tax returns instead of just bursting into tears and throwing the envelopes at my accountant - but he's a nice man and his wife is a lawyer who does exactly the same thing so he understands.
- really kept on top of all my legal research so I didn't have to rush around like a nutter trying to get all my CPD points in the last 3 weeks of the training year like everyone else.
- have enough self discipline not to leave all my really horrible phone calls until 4pm thus ruining the rest of the day!

C'est la vie de Lippy!

Freedom

2008-09-24T01:23:00.001-07:00

The flexibility of being freelance is mosly lovely, but it can lead one to make appointments in a fashion that may strike others as well, frankly, a little bit mental.

For example next Friday I have a dressage test in the morning and a fast track trial in the afternoon..........................hmmmmm

Autumnal

2008-09-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

It is very definatley autumn isn't it. And no sign at all of that Indian Summer that we all convinced ourselves we were going to get, on the basis that, after such a lousy August - WE DESERVED IT!

The weather God clearly disagrees.

The mantra for everyone seems to be "spend less and save more" - and it's certainly true Chez Lippy, in a fit of thrift I promised the TB that I wouldn't buy any new clothes for the next six months. As I've gone down one jeans size and am well on the way to dropping another this could be pretty interesting. So far I've stolen one of his belts, punched new holes in it and am adopting the baggy "boyfriend jean" look.........this isn't going to work quite so well with the suits that I wear for court. I may have to negotiate a "new frock for court" exemption and a "new suit disclamer" - but I'll allow the financial weather to make up it's mind first.

Even more disharteningly all the really crazy clients have decided that "Lawyers are not an essential business spend" . I am overwhelmed with nostalgia. Oh for the heady times when client's would fill their next door neighbours sewage outflow pipe with expanding foam (just in time for Christmas), the case of sunken floating restaurant which was owned by an insolvent partnership both partners in which promptly died, the grandmother who , when her son died, discovered he had been ripping her off for years and promptly (before the funeral) issued proceedings against her grandsons who were the executors of his estate. Ah well.....those were the days........

Quarks and Strangeness.

2008-09-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

Well a couple of 5.30am starts this week (to get to London for 8.30 am meetings) led to some falling off the waggon. Having got myself to Liverpool St for 8 am I awarded myself a Cafe Nero skinny cappucino, twice - oh dear! And whilst I still haven't had any bread - a bit of pastry but no bread. And bizarrley with the cappucinos and some large glasses of white wine, and only going to the gym once - I've started losing weight again! Hurrah! But how weird is that - apparently tight lipped, hanging on in desparation is a self defeating posture to adopt. I suspect though that unless I climb back on the waggon pretty sharpish the gains will soon turn into losses.

Talking of losses - I can't actually worry about money at this point. I've taken my disaster on the chin and I'm carrying on. My poor Mum and Dad are very concerned as they have pensions and investment income only, quite a lot of it in the Halifax. But hell, if the worst comes to the worst, we've got a big spare room they can sell their house and move in. It would have to be pretty hairy for them to volunteer for that though - whilst we get on pretty well it's an exceptional family that gets on THAT well.

How was London? London was fine, very good meeting, very good conference. Ended up in a rather fabulous pub just off Kensington High St. It looked like a spit and sawdust boozer from the outside, but inside was all blonde wood and squashy leather sofas. We fell into conversation with a former "Miss Teen New Zealand" and her rich English boyfriend. The boyf had , like my brother before him, acquired a full on South African accent on the strengh of a six week stay in Cape Town and as a result was virtually incomprehensible. Almost makes you glad you are not rich enough to fritter your life away in Kensington Boozers every day.

Planet Legal

2008-09-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

Well here on planet legal insolvency is the hottest game in town and let me tell you it's not much fun.

I am a litigator, all of my client's are therefore, by definition, unhappy people. As things stand in the world of business many of them are also desparate people. And there are limits to what can be done to help.

If your business is looking shaky don't hang around hoping that things will get better - chances are they won't, draw a line, call a halt, get some help. And keep chasing your debtors hard - very hard and if you haven't got the knackers to chase hard pay me and I'll do it for you.

So keep your costs down, and your product development up - and don't ask me how to do those two things simultaneously, I've spent a small fortune on training updates for myself this month which is what passes for "product devlopment" in my profession....well that and going to the gym so you don't have a heart attack in the court room. I do sometimes wonder whether the old school litigators had it right, the ones who had to be fetched from the snug at the Dog and Duck when it was time for closing submissions. On the other hand the last one I knew who had survivied chirossis went bankrupt.............

When John McCain dies it's going to be very bad!

2008-09-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

Well you may think it is high time that I took my head out of my arse and had a look at the outside world...and you would be right.

Oh dear I know Barack Obama had many reasons not to want Hillary as vice president but I think that is a failure of nerve that he is going to live to regret for ever.

Sarah Palin is clearly a bloody nightmare ; doesn't believe in sex education in schools (doesn't look like the parents did a very good job in her house!); doesn't beleive in global warming; has never travelled any further afield than Canada and Mexico. And has all the empathy and intellecutal depth of the moose heads she sticks on her walls. But she clearly has the "Daily Mail" factor going for her in spades. Putting the governor's private jet up for sale on ebay was a political masterstroke. If you don't think about her policies for too long they almost sound sensible - "We are importing a lot of oil - that's bad" "We could dig up Alaskan oil that would be good. And so if a few polar bears die there's plenty more and this global warming stuff is a myth anyway."

I admit that she gives me hives. But I think part of what makes her so scary is that she represents the America that none of us card carrying lefty Europeans want to admit even exists. The red necked bit in the middle. We've seen Deliverance. We know they are out there - looks like they are coming to a White House near you very soon.

Doing something right?

2008-09-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Our lovely French exchange student goes home next week. We will miss her she is so sweet. And she said "I am really going to miss all the lovely food you cook when I go back to France.."

So I'm not totally hopeless!

Head down...but doesn't that leave your arse exposed?

2008-09-10T02:50:00.001-07:00

So how is it all going? The family are OK - TB is working hard as his factory gears up for their annual insanely busy phase. AB is back to school and loving everything about school apart from the actual lessons. She tried "forgetting" to do her homework on Thursday, nice try, but it only resulted in her being woken up at 6am and having to finish it before school, don't think she will try that one again in a hurry. Her father never shouts at anyone but he is really difficult to argue with.

As for me, I have stuff to do..which is good. But I have a confession...........although I work hard for my clients I don't have a really giant legal brain (although when I go for the complete head and body transplant I'm going to ask for the brain augmentation chip as well, might as well get the whole package). I had an interesting trial in Manchester on Monday where although I won I did come out thinking "Lippy not one of your best performances, in fact face it babe you were more than a bit shit." Client is happy enough but I am really really not.

I want to be on top of my game and doing my best work, but I seem to be skidding along from one fire fighting job to the next. And my confidence in my own abilities is pretty low to say the least. Added to which I am having to go out and "sell" what I do in a competitive market and what I really want to say is " actually, I'm a bit shit at the moment, I would go and see someone else if I were you."

Oh well, keep trying eh, it's never going to improve if I give up.

Diet and fitness wise , I'm also at the point where I have to stop moaning and just accept that it will never get any easier. I've lost a stone since the beginning of the summer and am a fairly respectable size 12-14 (except shirts, I think I just have to give up on shirts, boobs and shirts are just never going to be comfortable together, at least not with all the buttons done up!). I walk the dog every day for 40 minutes, ride twice a week and go to the gym three times a week so not too shabby for an old bird. I kind of feel as if I'm getting nowhere - I've entered the loan horse and me for a local mini hunter trial in October and another dressage competition. But she is the sort of horse where you have to work for every stride so if either of those is not going to end in disaster I need to be fitter!

Back to School

2008-09-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

I always liked going back to school for a new year - new pencils, new uniform, nice new exercise books. And it's even better now that it isn't actually me who is going back to school!

But in sympathy with the atmosphere today I made sure I cleared off the lingering nasty cases last week so that I could attack some new ones today with vigor! And low and behold a couple of new cases turned up to be attacked , hurrah! And went and did the marketing thing at lunch and networked my little socks off, then had payback and went for coffee with a friend . She is off to do research in Egypt for 10 weeks the lucky thing.

Anyway came home, finished the accounts and did some admin and everything is still looking shiny for tomorrow.

In other news - don't look now but I've been coffee free for a whole week, shhh , don't jinx it. White tea with pomegranate and a blueberry yoghurt fruit tea - in other words just drinking vats of hot water.

Letting the side down...

2008-09-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

I have to say that it is very difficult to lecture my child on being a responsible citizen when between them her aunts, uncles and grandparents have variously;

- run off to join the circus,
- been the bodyguard of the president of an African Country,
- been sent to prison for telling a judge to fuck off during their divorce case,
- had 5 children by the age of 23,
- had the pub close on the day of their funeral because it had lost it's best customer
- travelled overland from London to Australia in a Land Rover pausing only to have a baby on the back seat en route
- defended a charge to a public order offence on the basis that none of the witnesses had seen them or they would have mentioned the naked man with purple bollocks.

There is no hope, or at least.............very little

Credit Crunchie

2008-08-28T00:29:00.000-07:00

So Lippy - enough of the eating habits, how is the business going?

Well the summer has been very patchy to tell you the truth. Some work, but not what you'd call steady and while we won't starve we won't be booking a Carribean cruise any time soon either. It seems that work is picking up as we move into September but there is a common thread of people with very horrible problems who are at a high risk of not being able to pay my fees. So am i offering them a no win no fee deal? No I AM NOT, in the interests of self preservation I am making them pay on account. If they want to take stupid risks they can do it with their money not mine.

But I've not been able to avoid the universal problem of the bankrupt client - unfortunatley i had stupidly instructed a barrister to act (because I had known this client for a long time) and now I have to pay £10k of barristers fees out of my own pocket....ho hum...........that will learn me.

What's to be done then - two things really, head down and do the work, and get out and meet the people who have the work to hand out.

And at the end of a year of moaning about being self employed would I go back to being a salary slave - NO!

I would really really like

2008-08-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Really really really like .. a cup of tea and a slice of a victoria sandwich (with jam and fresh cream).

I am developing a dreadful masochistic streak and have taken to watching the Hairy Bakers just to torture myself with their tales of chocolate chip cookies, scones and home made bread...........

Testing my resolve!

2008-08-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

I have now completed four whole weeks of this no wheat no dairy thing, and I'm sort of getting used to it and some of the choices are becoming more automatic. Always the salad, never the sandwich , black coffee, no ice cream for me thank you - oh,and definatley no cake *sigh*.

I'm gearing myself up for another major challenge in September - the caffiene has to go! I am down from 8 cups of coffee a day to 2 anyway as I don't like it nearly so much without milk so hopefully the last effort shouldn't be too bad. And the diet coke and the dark chocolate - those little life rafts in a pure water sea have to go too.

I may well sink in a sea of self pity this week - I am being abandoned, the AB has gone to my Mum's for a week and then her Aunty's for another 3 days after that. And the TB is off to France with work - ho hum..........I shall hit the gym (re-assessment session booked for 9am on Tuesday in a rare fit of enthusiasm), ride the horse, swim and walk the dog until his little legs fall off. I shall do lots of work and my office shall be a shining beacon of efficiency and toil. Either that or I shall be slumped on a sofa watching Casino Royal on DVD until the telly screams for mercy!

Summer Reads

2008-08-19T09:28:00.001-07:00

Lippy reccomends books to see you through the rest of the summer and into the autumn ;

1. A Bit of A Blur - Alex James (didn't like him but a good read)
2. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo -Stieg Larsson (I love Swedish Crime writers and this one is an absolute corker)
3. The Steep Road to Garbdale - Iain Banks (son of Crow Road and none the worse for it)
4. The Bellini Card - Jason Goodwin ( I love love this series - fascinating)
5. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen (drippy chick lit with more than a nodding aquiantance to Practical Magic, for when you want to turn your brain power down to "low")

I couldn't finish Sepuchure by Kate Mosse, or Down River by John Hart both of which I found tiresome and utterly predictable! Today's Waterstones haul is Exit Music - Ian Rankin, Ghost - Robert Harris and The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason ; I'll let you know how I get on!

Beaming with Pride!

2008-08-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

"Hairspray the School Musical" starts it's run on Sky soon - why do I care, because the director is my gorgeous and hugely talented junior relative Katfish. (No I'm not telling you how we are related we just are, and no I'm not her mum!)

She has been working so hard that I haven't spoken to her for ages, apart from a few voicemails telling me that "Denise is lovely"

So do watch, and do be nice.

I'll be sure to pass it on when she comes to crash in the country for some much needed R&R!

Landlady from hell?

2008-08-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

I don't mind house guests, really I don't, but for the last couple of weeks I seem to have been running a small boarding house!

We have the permanent residents; me, the TB, the AB (who is becoming markedly less Angelic as teenagedom approaches but that's a different post) and the French exchange student.

Additionally in the last 7 days we have had at various times, my best mate and her daughter (all the way from the Philippines ), my sister, her husband and her son (all the way from the West Midlands) and the FES's boyfriend. And it has been lovely to see everyone - shame about the monsoon weather that the brought with them. But goodness it's hard work for the catering staff - i.e me. I have done the full reportoire of roasts, lasagne, chinese noodle things and now I am truly running out of ideas. I suspect a few evenings with the cookbook collection are in order.

And whilst we are on culinary matters, having given up almost everything my chilli consumption has gone through the roof - I've moved on from chilli sauce ( bit girlie with all that sugar) and on to Capstan Full Strength Sri-Lankan chilli oil. It's so good it should probably be illegal!

Purity Update

2008-08-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

I completely understand why people walk out of rehab in a strop after two weeks. In week one you get the instant payback - quick 5lb weight loss, better sleep all the nasties from your initial habit start to fade away. Week two brings the set backs - I didn't fall off the waggon don't get me wrong but yesterday had major "attack" - hideous bout of pain, in the middle of a shopping centre 30 miles from home, I had to sit down for half an hour and wait for the horse pill pain killers to kick in. And that raises all the "what the hell am I bothering with this for?" questions.

I hope it's just things "shifting back into place" rather than getting any worse - but fuck me it's depressing and it's raining, and it's August so nothing much is happening....well apart from a constant stream of visitors. Best mate and child last week and sister, husband and child arriving on Monday...which is nice, hope it stops raining so we can go out somewhere.

Sorry to be such a miserable git.

Wrong phase of the moon????

2008-08-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

I can't help but feel that the first week in August is not my luckiest time of year.

This time last year I was in hospital, on a men's ward .in the next bed to a convict who was chained to a prison warder - being pumped full of drugs that I didn't need for an illness that I didn't have!

Splendid!

This year I'm short of work and stuck with a bunch of slow paying clients. I really hate threatening clients with bankruptcy proceedings but when you know they could pay you and just won't - even though they were more than happy with the work, then breaking point does arrive. So the first threatening letter has gone with another to follow shortly. There are only two thank goodness, that are really really taking the piss.

I know I am in much better financial shape than many, I don't owe anybody anything (no loans baby) and I have savings.

I had one potential client on the phone today who almost made me cry - working their ass off in a pub business and making less than £100 per week - because the brewery are taking all the profit. I am not sure there is much I can do, I'll certainly try but I think they just signed up to the usual brewery shit deal.

Whatever you may think of me - promise me one thing - never ever take on the tenancy of a pub.

Purity Sucks!

2008-08-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

I have been wheat and dairy free for just over a week now. And the early morning craving for a Venti Latte with a double shot and cinnamon syrup is not getting any less...but I persevere. Honey and lemon juice isn't the same at all.

Caffiene and sugar are a much bigger problem. I am still drinking a black coffee with one sugar at least once a day - a huge improvement from my 8 cups a day habit but too much caffiene non the less. This is next weeks mission - lose the diet coke and the black coffees and drink lemon tea instead. Vile stuff I know but frankly anything that can help the pain levels here...things are pretty desparate and desparate measures are called for.

I am hoping that at the end of two months I can move on to a slightly less restrictive regime which will allow me to have weekends "off" - I've found a chocolate almond cake that I intend to bake on my very first weekend "off". Meantime Indian Food is pretty much my salvation - a wheat and dairy free treat with plenty of chilli.

Feral and Partially notcturnal.

2008-08-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Work is still deadly quiet, I hope something turns up soon.
In the meantime the work I have I'm doing early in the morning and at night,

Otherwise in the lovely daylight hours I've been riding, been to lovely Holkham Beach (twice) unfortunatley not with the horse (that would have been fantastic) I love love that Beach, white sands for miles and pine woods behind them and lovely clear water. Swimming in the sea wasn't actually all that cold. Swimming in the river at St Helens in Thetford Forest was THAT COLD but beautiful all the same, and you get a view from the middle of the river when you are swimming that is so different and so much better than what you can see from the bank.

I did do one thing I went to a business networking coffee morning - there are so many business networking organisations that you could go to an event every day and meet more web designers and reiki practitioners than any one would need in an entire lifetime, but sometimes they throw up a good lead. The thing is to work out which opportunities will work for you and which won't!...it's a puzzlement.

10 things I've never done

2008-07-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

As I'm a bit short on inspiration. Things I've never done;

1. Kissed a girl ( or any other sort of girl on girl sexual activity)
2. Been arrested
3. Taken illegal drugs
4. Been in a fight
5. Been in a car accident
6. Been to Disneyland (or world or any variety of Disney theme park)
7. Fitted into a pair of size 8 jeans ( at least once my age was in double figures!)
8. Been in a rock band
9. Done a parachute jump
10. Drunk Tequila

I realise that makes me sound terminally boring, so a few things I have done;

1. Eaten kangaroo ( and shot it first)
2. Milked cows for a living
3. Surfed on beaches with no Shark nets
4. Been on a night safari in Natal
5. Dived over coral reefs in the South China Sea
6. Spent the night in a bothy on Rannock Moor
7. Sailed a yacht across the channel over night
8. Climbed the Pyramid at Chichen Itza (back when you still could and the pyramids of the Sun & Moon)
9. Run down 5th Avenue to get the last elevator to the top of the Empire State building last thing at night. Way better at night........
10. Applied to be a judge ( and got knocked back!)
11. Taken too many degrees!

Still sound like a boring fucker!

I should have done this ages ago

2008-07-28T00:16:00.000-07:00

It only takes 6 weeks to break a habit apparently.

So, it a bit of a last ditch attempt to aviod any more surgery, I am doing what I should have done 12 months ago and cutting wheat, dairy , sugar and caffiene out of my diet completely.

I already eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg and red meat only a couple of times a week so those things aren't a big problem. The meat I eat is organic so no hormone issues there.

However for a "venti latte with two shots and cinnamon syrup" junkie like myself this is horrible. Thank goodness it's really hot so that I'm not missing my mid day coffee but mornings are a bit rough.

Still if Ronnie Wood can do his de-tox without keeling over or giving in I can do mine!....at least I can still have a couple of white wines on a weekend!

Other people's lives

2008-07-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

Do you ever long to know what it is like to be someone else or is it just me? Judging by the proliferation of celeb magazines and websites it clearly isn't just me, but I'm not just fascinated by famous people.

I find myself on the train into Liverpool St, looking at the windows of all the flats in Bethnal Green and thinking "what do they all do?"

At school I was fascinated by a girl at school,we will call her Tracy, who lived in a big glass sixties "pad" complete with white shag pile carpets and a swimming pool, her Mum drove a lotus and looked quite a lot like Farah Fawcett Majors. I didn't actually like Tracy that much and we were never particular friends, but I just wanted to know what her life felt like, mostly because it was so different from mine.

Currently I have the same fascination for Alice who keeps her horse at the same livery as mine, and I suspect is how Katie Price would be if she had never been Jordan - i.e normal chest size, really good rider (pushing at the boundaries of international standard), extremely pretty and married with a couple of kids. Also very good company. I like her a lot more than I liked Tracy!

That's part of the fascination of blogs isn't it? The insight into other people's lives, or at least how other people perceive their lives to be - which may be something quite different.

Reverse Phsychology?

2008-07-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Work is still a bit quiet, ticking over , but hardly busy.

So, as yesterday was the hottest of the year so far, I packed up the kids and the dog and headed for the big sands on the north Norfolk coast. And I have to say it was lovely, blue sky, blue sea and soft sand. We picniced and I did fully intend to swim in the sea, but between walking the dog up the beach and reading Alex James "A Bit of A Blur" I never got around to it.

I had left a message on the office voicemail to say I could be contacted on my mobile phone ...I lied, Orange mobile network coverage in Cromer was patchy to say the very least. This had the heartening result that after a very relaxing day I then felt loved and wanted (in the professional sense) due to a barrage of voicemails and incensed email messages! Hurrah!

It is all in the timing.

2008-07-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

I am a morning person, and whilst in it's own way this is all well and good, it means that I don't really do evenings. At least I don't do them well. It's as much as I can do to eat my dinner, drink a couple of glasses of wine , read a bit of a book or watch a bit of telly and then pass out on the sofa about 10 o'clock.

Don't misunderstand me I can work of an evening - in fact some of the best legal work gets done when you can tune out a few of the multitudinous channels in your brain and just focus on one. But proper evening activities - classes, going to the pub, exercising in an evening are all a bit...well beyond me really.

My mother is a complete night owl and has always found the fact of my early bedtimes a matter of intense annoyance. In fact when I was a child she used to come to my room and wake me up and make me do things - like tidy up and bake cakes. Apart from the fact that this was clearly slightly insane behaviour it also made me even more intransigent in my view that evenings were for sleeping.

Later on they became for sleeping and sex...obviously. In fact once I had found someone that I could have sex with at home of an evening , without all the hassle of going to parties and copping off, I pretty much stopped going to parties. Which is a bit sad as I was only 24 at the time. But frankly I really hadn't been much good at parties, hardly the life and soul, usually I was either trying to cop off or had given up and was asleep under a pile of coats in the corner.

I do like dancing though, but it's better in the afternoon. And I like talking to people..and I can be quite chatty and charming ...but I am way WAY better company at lunch than at dinner, and at breakfast when no one else wants to talk at all...I'm a wow.

Mamma Mia

2008-07-21T23:36:00.001-07:00

Towards the end of the movie, my daughter whispered "I'm really glad Daddy isn't here, he'd have been grumbling This is drivel! all the way through the film!

He would.

But we loved it - it was sunny shiny happy and had lots of Abba songs, and Meryl Streep looking fab and having the option of getting off with a selection of (only slightly) younger blokes - hurrah!

It also gave rise to a phenomenon not seen since lines of kids were practising the Saturday Night Fever dance routines on my Mum's lawn in 1976. The trying to copy the movie ...only this time it involved me jumping on the trampoline trying to do the "Streep Splits" to Dancing Queen. I am happy to say that I did manage it at least twice and that nobody had to call an ambulance!

Chav Central!

2008-07-19T04:08:00.000-07:00

Took the day off and went to Alton Towers with the fam yesterday. And enjoyed the very fast roller coaster, (Rita Queen of Speed) but this thing "Air"

Made me feel so sick and giddy that I couldn't walk, eat or see straight for the rest of the day - yuk!

I shouldn't be rude about the Towers, having grown up spitting distance from them, but if you want to feel thin and well dressed in comparison to everyone else who is there it's the place to go! Lots of fat people in tracksuits eating burgers and drinking bottomless cups of coke.

Anyway - the kids all enjoyed it, and my sis had got free tickets for us, so it didn't cost £93 per family as it should have done. So guilt assuaged and job done.

I prefer my adrenaline of the horse riding or sailing variety really. Heights and me are not a good match at the best of times!

Those of a delicate disposition look away now...

2008-07-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

This is all going to get a bit medical and yuk so you may want to skip this one and come back tomorrow.

The reason that I only have one kid is because I have severe endometriosis, this means that the lining of my uterus has gone walk about in my pelvis, where it bleeds randomly causing some pretty severe pain. This is not so bad.

However, my endometrium (uterine lining) has also set up shop in my ovaries, where the bleeding doesn't dissipate but causes cysts - think giant blood blister the size of a grapefruit - now these babies hurt like a bastard. And if you've been hanging around here for a while you may remember that last May there was some surgery to try to dispose of them. And while it worked for a little while there, - THEY'RE BACK!

And it hurts to the point where I have to take two giant co-codamol tablets before I can get out of bed in the morning , this is boring.

The only option is more surgery - more radical this time, as in take an ovary out. Yes I know you can't see it and so it doesn't seem real, but it's mine all the same. And having gone through all of this a year ago, I don't feel like doing it all again - the oxygen tube up your nose is SO not a good look when friends come to visit.

I feel bad boring you with all this again - you were bored with it last time. I like my girl parts, even if they don't like me and I don't want to have them or any bit of them removed. I suspect I will wimp out yet again and go for the "minimum surgery " option. And face the fact that I may have to go through all of this again , again.

They try to make me have a hysterectomy I say NO NO NO!

Relentless

2008-07-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

The trouble with pets; husbands, children, horses, dogs...is that they are so demanding! Not only do you have to work to make the money to pay for them, but then you have to feed them, wash them, exercise them and clean their houses out. It's relentless! And then after you've done all that - you're expected to look after yourself! Shine up the house and still have neat painted toe nails and non- hairy armpits!!!

Still have managed to tear myself away from the never ending chorse to do a few other things. So far this week;

Work is still quiet - a few new enquiries so as this is the second time around with the "bumpy work" scenario I shall try to be cooler about it.

I got to the beach! - yay! And then it went cloudy - boo! But now that I live only an hour from the coast. I can go again, whenever I like all summer! I haven't lived here for a year yet so all of this is still a novelty that I am getting used to.

Came 4th in dressage competition - bit dissapointing but we had gone up a level from "preliminary" to "novice" so it wasn't too bad, AND it was the first time we had done an outdoor competition and poor horse was a bit spooked by the white boards that form the boundary of the arena. She tried really hard though bless her.

Going to Alton Towers on Friday - thanks to little sis coming up with free tickets. It's bound to pour with rain but who cares.

C'est tout!

Weight loss

2008-07-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well team, I may have finally cracked this one.

The secret is - work out every day, ride and swim and walk the dog and in an ideal world go to the gym and do yoga. AND only eat the same amount of food as the 22 year old French lodger.
Works a treat - lost 5lbs in a fortnight and she is here for 3 months! - hurrah! Tell you what though I am a bit pooped with all the exercise, not sure I am getting any fitter just more knackered.

It is summer - you can tell, because between the torrential rain and the thunder storms the sun does actually come out, and I have a shocking "farmer's tan" from riding in a v-neck t-shirt, red neck, red arms and terrifyingly white everywhere else! ewww!

Still , I seem to be going to parties and barbeques, listening to dodgy folk groups, having friends in camper vans staying on the drive and saying endlessly "I'd like to go to the beach" without ever actually getting there. Lets hope for progress in this area soon!

Observation

2008-07-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

It is always one of those clients who reject my advice, and insist that a case follows their agenda.
(which one of us went to law school Mr Client? - hey that would be me. And the Legal 500 entry, oh what a shocker that's me again!)

It's that client who then sacks me and complains that the costs in the case spiralled and no progress was made. Has it not crossed your mind numb nuts that if you had followed the advice that you paid for things would have turned out differently?

Obviously not! - so hey, I will just send you a final bill and make myself feel every such a lot better!

Fishing

2008-07-09T00:48:00.000-07:00

We want to go to the coast and have a morning's mackrel fishing ...how hard can it be?

Well according to the internet pretty bloody difficult, looks like there is one boat, it's a bit of a serious charter and it's booked for 8 hour trips every day until September. There has got to be something a bit less hard core than that hasn't there?

I will ring tourist disinformation this morning and see if they know anything. Otherwise may just have to content myself with a swim in the north sea! Boo!

In the spirit of "holiday reading" I bought "The Beautiful Game - a WAG's tale" . I knew that it would be bad, but good God it was appalling! With the life of the heroine being SO boring why did the author chose to go into lots of detail about the endless beauty treatments and not give any detail at all about the sex, "we shagged lots" - well don't we all love, but I've paid £6.99 and I want to know a bit more than that!

Well.............. Actually I didn't pay £6.99, this year I've bought all my law books from Waterstones and collected the points on my Waterstones loyalty card. As my annual law book spend is about £2k I've got lots of points and lots of lovely free books! Thank goodness this was one of them.

Holidaying at home!

2008-07-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

We took a family decision to go feral in East Anglia rather than taking a break abroad this summer - maybe we will go away in the autumn, maybe we will change our minds and head for Spain at the weekend? Who knows!

For now the TB and the AB are both knackered and mooning around the house like zombies.

I'm trying to finish off some of those "nagging boring" jobs that have been hanging around for ages, writing articles for newsletters, finishing instructions to counsel for learned associations who aren't paying anything - all that demotivating stuff that you have to do to try to make sure that the next paying job does turn up. I am off to a business women's networking lunch tomorrow for the same reason.

If the sun does come out then I'll take the dog for a walk and may even go for a bike ride!

Just you watch, the sun will come out and the office telephone will start ringing!

Older, wiser and more beautiful? - I wish!

2008-07-06T11:16:00.001-07:00

Today is my birthday, I am 46 years old, not an age you dream about being but what the heck I'm fit, solvent and pretty much living the life of Riley so who cares?!

I had a lovely day today; - flowers, cards, presents, 14 people round for lunch , which admittedly I cooked but friends brought pavolva and wine and stuff so it was really nice. And I'm too old to think that "nice" is a bad word, it's a good word, and it was a good day. The adults drank wine and Pimms and the kids had a water fight in the garden. I overcatered massivley so we have a freezer full of food and a beer fridge full of drink. A beer fridge in the garage is one of the useful things that comes around with age, that and a really good king-sized bed.

The technology gives a whole new dimension to birthdays too - I've had cards, texts, facebook messages and emails ! Yay.

Hedwig lives down our way.

2008-07-03T01:28:00.000-07:00

This morning after I crossed the river I could see a large white bird, it's wings flapped slowly...it can't be..........I got closer, hoping that the dog (who being a Jack Russell has no interest in anything he can't eat, fight or shag), wouldn't scare it off. But the bird was too busy hunting.

And I was right, a large white snowy owl was hunting in the water meadow at eight o'clock this morning. It looked well, magical.

Insomniac I wonder or just hungry? Or after the adder that the dog tried to pick a fight with yesterday morning?

Anyway - thank you Universe, white owl against bright blue cloudless sky , what a sight to have seen!

Your Actual Fun!

2008-07-01T12:25:00.001-07:00

I actually went out at the weekend - twice in two days, good grief!

Friday was a long lawyer lunch in a west end restaurant, so long in fact that when we finally got turfed out at 4pm we went around the corner to the Dover St Wine Bar and carried on until closing. The thing is with the whole "responsible professional" gig is that you can't go out and get mortal unless it's with really old mates or with other lawyers. Other lawyers is the safer option as you know that none of them are going to grass you up to anyone else. So yes, I drank solidly for eight hours and felt fine - which probably says very bad things about my liver.

On Sat morning I was up early and off to Liberty's sale, having made the effort to be there at 9.30 am you would have thought I would have bought something, but now. Even hungover £175 for a pair of jeans didn't seem like a good plan. The mate I went with though spent £600 in two hours, her old man is never going to let her go out with me anywhere, ever again.

Then on Saturday night I went to a ball, which was lovely, large country house , big tent, nice food, lots more wine, three rock bands (including the most amazing Motown Tribute group ever!), a trad jazz band, a string quartet and a disco (different rooms obviously) - I listened to them all, and ended up bopping away to northern soul in the disco tent at 1 in the morning. Up at 8 again to collect the AB ...and then at 11 the French exchange student arrived. The most impressive aspect of the whole weekend was that I managed to speak French!!! - didn't do a fat lot of work on Monday however.