Skating on thin ice

Thank you all so much for the many excellent suggestions on policy issues I could concentrate on. Sadly, I was not able to pitch Michaela's "lock up southern men plan." As I predicted, the boss did most of the talking. I did, however, manage to utter the word Microsoft (the first of the so-called serious suggestions in my arsenal) and well, I guess that is what it will be. He wants to be Microsoft's Number 1 friend in Europe and it's my job to make it happen. Wish me luck!

I figure if I'm going to shill for big business, I might as well shill for a company whose products I use. And I really can't think of a company whose products I use more than theirs.

The meeting went well, but as soon as it was over, I began to feel ill and had to leave work early. (Btw, see how I said "ill" rather than "sick". Brits use the word "ill" to denote colds, flues etc. Apparently to them "sick" means you have a mental disease. So, best to avoid that). I was so ill that I also had to stay home Wednesday.

All that walking in the rain has finally taken its toll. I picked up a copy of Katherine Mansfield short stories and her description of a rain soaked morning reminded me of Brussels:

"Drenched were the cold fuchsias, round pearls of dew lay on the flat nasturtium leaves. It looked as though the sea had beaten up softly in the darkness, as though one immense wave had come rippling, rippling--how far? Perhaps if you had waked up in the middle of the night you might have seen a big fish flicking in at the window and gone again..."


I couldn't sleep last night and around 3 when I got up to make myself some hot milk, I couldn't resist the urge to peak out my window. Alas, not a fish in sight.

Just rain.

My illness caused me to miss not only a reception hosted by a former Prime Minister of Holland, but also the short program of the Ladies figure skating competition. At the time this depressed me, but now after watching the long program I've decided that I HATE FIGURESKATING and I am never going to watch it again. It's extremely nerve wracking and it never turns out the way I want.

I was rooting for both Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya and both of them lost the gold medal to some boring Japanese girl with yellow teeth. Seriously! Yellow teeth! Isn't Crest toothpaste a sponsor of the Olympic Games? Couldn't they have done something about this? I am officially boycotting Crest. From here on out it's all Trident all the time for me.

I was so upset I cried on the (white) couch in my boss's office and now it has mascara stains. I know it was a fair result considering Irina and Sasha's performances. But I'm actually even more upset that it was fair. I wish it hadn't been!

The whole evening was not that great. Elena Sokolova, a blond Russian who was one of my favourites when I saw the World Championships live in 2003, disappointed me. She skated well, but her outfit....it was so ordinaire. I felt ordinaire watching her. It's a sad result of globalization that a girl from Russia manages to dress like American trailer park trash.

So well, I came in to work in an unhappy frame of mind, but of course it's impossible for me to stay unhappy considering how blessed my life is. I think I mentioned that will be going along for the plenary session in Strasbourg the second week of March. On Wednesday of that week my boss, a few other Tory Eurocrat types and I are going to take a boat tour of the city and visit Notre Dame de Strasbourg (which I looked up on the internet-it is considered by many to be the world's finest example of a medieval cathedral.) My boss wants to go climb the cathedral's tower. Hmmm... I think I may have to try to think of a way to get out of that. I hate climbing towers.

I was asked to make the arrangements for our sightseeing. Of course my first reaction was to panic and think that no matter what I did, I would ruin everything and we would end up standing on the dock watching the boat sail away.

Yesterday before I got my Katherine Mansfield book, I was reading some chick lit Theresa lent me. Those books are like potato chips: you just can't stop munching them even though you know they are no good for you.

So... after freaking out about the Strasbourg arrangements, I reflected that the lead character in the chick lit book is an events planner. If an annoying halfwit who comes to work hung-over each morning can be reasonably portrayed in a bestselling novel as an events planner, then I think I can manage to book a boat tour.

And so I did.

On that inspirational note...I'll wish you all a good weekend. Carpe Diem!