Paris je t'aime

Woo-hoo, my first late night 5:00 o'clock in the morn post and just got back from clubbing in Bastille and wanted to big up Paris as I'm in love especialmon avec Buttes Chaumont where I spent the whole day and everyone I speak to lies to me and tells me that my French est tres bien. Woo-hoo.!!!! Now to sleep for an hour and a half as mon amie dois prende le Eurostar dan la matin a 9:15 demain. Merde!!

Disorganisation... the root of all evil

                                  

As some elements of the blog has alluded to, I get stressed and down sometimes, thinking what a horrid and incompetent  person I am who doesn't get things done, doesn't make time for her friends and family and the more I think about it, the more I am driven to inaction, preferring to engage in self-flagellation as opposed to solving the problem. I have come to the realisation that the root of all evil in my life is disorganisation and lack of discipline, so in order to solve this, I need to blog about being organised and actually apply it in practice. I am primarily a yes person and this also contributes to the stress, as I say yes but then find I have to cancel things as I've double/triple booked myself (the amount of the times this happens is ridiculous!) and then I feel bad and it becomes a horrid cycle and I don't carve enough time out for myself or value my time. I also waste time as much as I waste money and I'm the greatest procrastinator and of course that further adds to the stress. So you get the general picture.

Anyway new resolves for my 29th year:

• Learn to say NO - absolutely nothing wrong with saying no.
• Do not even think about catching a train for work trips that leaves before 7:00. Putting my foot down on this one - they either pay for me to stay overnight or I don't do it.
• Create a routine and stick to it, come hell or high-water
• Collate all birthdays and important dates and set a functioning reminder system

I'm sure there'll be more to add to the list, but for now, going to design my get organised programme, with a lot of ideas borrowed from Regina Leeds 'One Year to an Organised Life' but really don't want to take that long, so will typically fast-track and do in half a year. (Cos I am (deluded) superwoman).

Money, money, money.....

                                  

Right, the first thing to do towards solving any debt problem is to draw up a realistic budget and I have done one below, which I will review at the start of every month. On returning to London, I need to sort out my finances and create a realistic picture of where I really am given the overspend in Paris, cancel my income protection insurance and just trust that I'll not lose my job. I will also, post-Vegas try and find a weekend job (yup I know, with all the things I have to do to achieve my challenges, but hey I thrive under pressure :), so that I can clear the debts faster and have some savings for La Reunion.

Goodbye to consumerism - hello to buy NOTHING for a year challenge

Sat in bed in my gorgeous rented Paris apartment and totally alone as sis went back to London this evening to get A-Level results tomorrow (lawd I pray she gets the 3As she needs) and newly acquired little sister has gone home after subjecting me to another of her nightly horror movies (kids these days) and I'm well and truly alone and at the very start of creating this blog, promised myself it was not going to be a stream of consciousness - I've got my journal for that and given that my readership is dwindling (probably due to my only two readers doing better things like getting ready for a wedding - seriously excited Rach) its like my normal talking to myself skit anyway, so stream of consciousness away. I haven't blogged for forever - Paris has been great, but not life-changing or soul-touching yet, Ghana was really AMAZING, and deserving of a dedicated post - so not noted anything on the UK riots (go eff yourself, racist prick Starkey - is my astute take on that for the moment), my Paris experience or anything. What I am going to note about my Paris experience apart from slight culture fatigue

Ode to the beautiful Lucy Cliberry, nee Marler-Love

Attended the perfect wedding of the two most lovely and deserving of all happiness people. As the band played on at 3:00 in the morning and we all chanted 'Dan and Lucy, Dan and Lucy, Dan and Lucy'. Beautiful, beautiful, and BEAUTIFUL!! Every aspect of it was mired in their total goodness and down to earth-ness, from Lucy's giggles and face pulling during the ceremony, to the fresh flowers in her hair, to their barn-stomping, audience participating first dance, to Dan channelling Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins with his broom-sweeping routine, to them being so un-precious about everything and allowing me to make my dj-ing debut at their wedding, to Lucy making her own wedding cake and them providing games and entertainment for the children (where most couples don't allow children at their wedding - blooming wierdos). Anyway I could have continued with the longest sentence ever describing how perfect their wedding was, but I'll stop and go onto how perfect Lucy is and how much I adore her. She is GORGEOUS!!!