Atisshoo, atisshoo....

You must be thinking "Wow, Stephen and Kerry must have had a really busy weekend, as they've not posted for a week now". Sadly not! And it was a holiday weekend too...

We were out with Paul, Paul, Dawn and a lovely girl from Chicago we are trying to recruit on Thursday. Nice meal in the Warehouse, drinks in O'Connells and then Stephen drove home through the slush (it snowed on Thursday, but was thawing by evening).

Work was stupendously busy on Friday. I was booking travel for about half the office, including one difficult cross-country trip by one of the BD guys which was getting increasingly complicated, and started with a flight to Dallas. I got him flight details to Dallas/Fort Worth, but then he tells me he wants to fly into Dallas Love...which is a different airport! The travel people came back with really convoluted flights, and I thought I should just check where exactly it was in relation to Dallas/FW....turns out its only 30 minutes drive away!! Problem solved, get a rental car. So, finally, we get all the flights sorted out and then he sends me an e-mail telling me the Dallas meeting was cancelled...he did buy me a Starbucks to make up for being a pain (his words!). As well as his complicated tour, there were people flying off all over the place last weekend - and one person who was doing a simple trip in over a weeks time. He is incredibly uptight about his travel and you have a 5 minute window to get his trip booked before he starts to get agitated. Not always possible given than our primary travel consultant is resident in California!!

We finally staggered out about 5:30, and I came home for a quick sleep before we headed out. This should have been a warning sign!! We went along to Mai Thai for dinner (and had some of the most disgusting steamed dumplings I have ever tasted!), but by the end of the meal (which was better than the dumplings!) I was feeling rather cold and shivery so we came home rather than heading to the weekend office for hot jazz and cool drinks.

I don't think either of us stepped over the door on Saturday. Stephen spent it playing his guitar and I spent it on the sofa in front of the fire either asleep or watching movies. Feeling decidedly ropey.

Sunday was a cold day. I think the temp bottomed out about -6C during the day and -12C by about 11pm. I was supposed to be going to Tanner's with Alyssa for a girls night with catering courtesy of the Marine Corp (Stephan). I realised about 11am that I was not going to make it, so had to call off much to my disappointment. After an hour or so sitting on the sofa in front of a roaring fire wearing 3 jumpers and wrapped in a couple of throws I was still cold, achy and shivery, so I went to bed and piled on the quilts...and didn't get up until today. I think I managed to worry Stephen a little with the "so cold" moments, despite (apparently) being the temperature of a blast furnace!!

So, as you see, once again I succumbed to the flu/cold thing that is doing the rounds. We seem to be cross-contaminating each other in the office! Just when you think you've got rid of it you get it back again!! I made a joke last week and said that the office was like the rail yard scene in Gone with the Wind - sick people stretched out as far as the eye can see. I didn't expect to be one of the casualties!! "Dr Merryweather? Oh, fiddle-dee-dee, where is Dr Merryweather?"

Stephen had a much livelier time. He was out with the two Paul's for a boys curry and beer night on Sunday. He had chicken tandoori, which appeared to be chicken in tomato soup! (But as tomato soup is hard to come by, perhaps he shouldn't complain!). They were just settled in to a bar to watch the final few minutes of the playoffs for the Superbowl, when he got a call from the other Paul saying he's locked himself out of the office (again) and could he be rescued as he needed his laptop...Stephen had already done the Lone Ranger thing earlier and ridden to his rescue in the afternoon!!