i only keep a bottle of vodka handy..

just in case I see a snake. Which I also keep handy.

I love that. So funny. I don’t know why, because it isn’t actually that funny. But I’ve been starved of laughter recently.

I go to Uganda three weeks on Monday. I’m so scared, but so excited. I can’t wait to be there and see what it’s all like, to meet the children and settle into my own house, but somewhere lurking at in my mind is the fact that I’ll be there for an entire year. As long as I push it right to the back and ignore it, then it’s fine. But sometimes I forget and see it, and then I get so scared.

But enough about that.

Work is still going great. I love the people there. It was Lydia’s birthday today – she took the afternoon off so we had her birthday party at work last night. She and I and Daniel who works in the call centre ended up sitting in the large boardroom until about 10:00 drinking company wine. We managed three bottles between the three of us, before going clubbing (another bottle on the way) where we drank a jug of cocktails, another bottle of wine and various other drinks. It gets a bit hazy there. At about 3am we wandered down to Trafalgar Square, where Daniel and I proceeded to strip off (not completely!) and go swimming in the fountain, followed reluctantly by a slightly less drunk Lydia, who still managed to flash to the entire square by taking her top off. It was so cold. But I met a Russian builder and we chatted away in Russian. Well, I said hedgehog and hairdresser and counted to ten. Which is frankly all I’m capable of. After that Daniel made us run for a bus (which later turned out to be the wrong one) and then had to walk, soaking wet and freezing, through the deserted streets of Clapham to Dan’s flat. He’d neglected to mention he only had one bed, so eventually the three of us squidged into his bed and passed out. I was beneath Lydia’s elbow and my feet were sticking off the end of the bed, but I slept like the dead. I almost died at 7:30 when we had to get up and go to work. When I got to work, I wished I had died. Never felt pain like it before…

So, it was a pretty good night, all in all. I am, obviously, never drinking again (well, not till tomorrow, when Lydia has her proper birthday party).

Rose and Amy are back from South Africa and Australia respectively which is so nice, because I really missed them both. On Monday we’re all having a nice big picnic. I love Bank Holidays.

I’m loving Stacie Orrico at the moment – got a few of her songs downloaded, unfortunately Diane deleted Kazaa because apparently people are getting arrested for downloading things. But I don’t think somehow that the record company would waste their time arresting me.

Anyway, I have a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Night,

Ems

xxxxxxxxxx