• too tired to do anything, but wanted to update, since it’s been a week
• the downside of an upcoming long holiday is having a ridiculous amount of work to do before jetting off
• i have been working nonstop this week
• at work, before work, after work
• staying 1-2 hours late in the office daily
• and my room has fallen into disrepair as i ignore the cleaning and the massive pile of dirty dishes (and the light in my bathroom has just gone out)
• but this evening was nice – i was working late along with another colleague, who will be out of the office till next wednesday now, and so we won’t see each other again till i get back. and it is so easy to talk to colleagues when you are the only ones left behind, on a friday night, no less; we spent our last half hour or so there basically doing no work and having a good long chat about the internships we did to get where we are now, what we want to do in future, crazy ex-colleagues, sustainable farming, regional accents in sign language, and the stupidity of the Home Office (can you tell the conversation became increasingly random?). it was the longest i have ever talked to her, and it was lovely :)
• i SO need this weekend
• and i SO need the coming holiday

We sold out two shows on my birthday, one of which we’d been a bit worried about – how’s that for birthday magic – and my colleagues surprised me with a chocolate cake which I had not been expecting (birthday people at my company always get cake, but they don’t necessarily always get it on their birthday, and I didn’t think I’d have mine till next week because hardly anyone was in the office on thursday!).

And then yesterday was the big brochure copyedit session where we all gathered round the meeting table and went through next season’s brochure proofs with a fine toothed comb, and I discovered to my delight that I’m not the only grammar nazi in the office, and had colleague Tom to back me up on nitpicky issues like “Mothers’ Day” vs “Mother’s” (second is obviously wrong but no one believed us), and eradicating/inserting commas and apostrophes as appropriate.

We all then troop to the pub after work and Tom and I proceed to discover, on top of both being grammar, spelling and punctuation freaks, that we both love Mulholland Drive (literally exclaiming “I love that movie!” at exactly the same time when someone else mentioned it), that I am currently reading and loving one of his favourite books (The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas), that we both first picked said book up at the bookstore because it has a pretty cover, and that we both habitually judge books by whether their covers are pretty.

At which point Tom is like, hang on a sec, are you my long lost twin, only five years younger?! and we realise that we’re probably just the same person in two different bodies. It was all a bit creepy, and very funny. Did I mention he is also a bit of a techie geek and is the only other person in the office who knew what i was talking about when I mentioned how hysterical the “Total Eclipse of the Heart” literal video version is?

It was a good night out. I’ve never been to the pub with them before because I’ve always been busy on previous pub nights, and it was surprising, and refreshing, to be at a pub night where we were discussing Mulholland Drive rather than getting laid, which has been generally more of the norm at English pub nights so far. There was an impromptu birthday song and talk of Christmas and holidays, and surrounded by an incongruous conglomeration of wreaths, pine cones and pumpkins, chatting excitedly with the rest about my upcoming trip back, that festive, restless mood that has been welling up in me for ages now got even stronger.

This afternoon, following Japanese class and lunch at Carluccio’s with the usual suspects, was a hugely enjoyable board game houseparty involving a number of obscure but madly addictive games (mostly German, as they tend to be); tomorrow if the weather holds up will be a trip out to Brick Lane with Debbie in one of my rare East End forays. The next week promises to be a mad busy one as we start finalising the brochure and working on the big push for Christmas, but every weekend that passes brings my trip home ever closer, and I have had a lovely week past to see me through.