After the disappointment of not getting very far with a job that I would’ve dearly loved, I’m back on my horse and have filled out one application yesterday with hours to spare as the deadline was for midnight last night. Talk about close shave. I’m in the midst of filling out another application, with yet a third one to be completed and sent by the 16th. No resting on my laurels, no sir. It’s funny that after all the time I’ve taken to write my CV that all the vacancies I’ve gone for require you to fill out an application. Well, not really funny, ‘cos I’m not laughing at having to spend hours on each occassion making sure each application is bespoke to the vacancy to which I’m applying, whilst my CV collects virtual dust on my hard drive. C’est la vie.
I’m really hoping to be back on civvy street by the time the Olympics come around. I know ladies down here in London are smacking their lips and relishing the thought of all that extra business that may or may not come their way. I don’t know what the case may be, never having experienced the Olympics in London in my lifetime. It’ll be an interesting experience, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile the second part of the Level 1 course soon comes to an end. Can you believe it’s been a year and a half since I first started studying? The psychology part, the part I’m studying now, I’ve found to be absolutely fascinating and I’m sorry to see the end of it. I have an on-line quiz to complete as well as an assignment this time so you’ll see even less of me blog-wise these next few weeks, ‘though I will try my best to pop on and say hi, even if it’s to moan about something that irks me. But it won’t be too bad as I have a week to complete it and it’s something to be done in my own time. We’ve been given a couple of quizzes to do in our weekly activities so I know what to expect. Then two weeks after that at the beginning of May is the final assignment and the course itself ends shortly thereafter. Then it’s a long break of about 4 months as Level 2 doesn’t start until the end of September this year, which’ll be nice as it means I don’t have to study during the summer.

I managed to squeeze in a couple of jobs this week, two bookings yesterday at London Bridge, which isn’t too bad considering it’s the Easter holidays. Traditionally I write off the holidays, especially Easter and Christmas, because not much goes on. I could’ve had a booking today with a regular client had he text or called this morning instead of emailing me at 9.20am whilst I was shopping for a large (Easter) bird at Tesco’s. Not seeing the email until I sat down to lunch at around 1pm I mentally kicked him for not contacting me via phone. If I had known he was free today I would’ve been in and out of that store so fast the cashier would’ve still been chomping at my dust. He’s one of my favourites that I always think “phwoar!” whenever I know I’m going to see him. I call him Clark Kent in my diary, because he’s the horniest toad I’ve ever met but you wouldn’t believe it looking at him. It’s always the quiet ones isnt’ it? I’ve admonished him accordingly and I’m hoping next time he’ll call or text. Strangers I don’t like texts from, regular lovelies I mind not a jot.

Yorkshire P’s trying his luck again next Wednesday afternoon. Remember he was thwarted by the trains on his last attempt to make it “dahn sarf” back in March just before I left for New York. Fingers crossed all goes well this time. My booking with him is around 2…something, (crap, must check diary) for an hour, so if anybody’s free either before or after, drop me a line or give me a call. Remember it has to be before 5pm.

Happy Easter.

Okay, hands up. I admit my timewaster radar went into overdrive last week and I read a situation wrong. It didn’t help that it was fueled by the fact that my booking turned up late.

My appointment made a booking on the Monday for late afternoon Wednesday. He confirmed in the morning as requested but I got the vibe from him that he wasn’t fully commited. I don’t know, sounded like he was having second thoughts. Anyway, he had taken the time to confirm so I made my way to the hotel and got ready as per usual. The top of the hour came and went and nothing. I just started spouting all sorts of expletives when the phone rang at 5 past the hour – my booking was at the tube station and awaiting further directions. All in all it turned out well and we had an enjoyable time. I apologised to him for all the curses I wished on his head and he was pretty forgiving. He thought it was funny knowing I was sitting on the bed cursing him into oblivion whilst he was on his way. Apparently it’s his usual demeanor so I need to bear that in mind if there’s ever a next time. I would still prefer to listen to my radar though. It may have been wrong on the odd occassion but it’s not something that happens very often. At the end of the day it’s all we ladies can rely on in this job.

The rest of the week went by without any other bookings. There were the usual last minute calls but I switched my phone off on Friday and took advantage of the current lovely Spring weather and went out. First of all I went to the South Bank and found that market I went to with Warrior Amy a few weeks ago. Apparently it’s called the The Real Food Market, by Real Food Festivals. They have events all over London and hold various food festivals. According to their website they have a Taste of India Festival in April which sounds like something I might want to visit. There was a mango and ginger chutney I had bought that was just gawwjuss and wanted to see if I could get it again. I found the stall that sold it and bought two jars of chutneys and a jar of rasberry curd for a tenner. Scrumptious, never had rasberry curd before. I did find that they have a website where they’re sold a wee bit cheaper but I’d still have to pay for delivery, so it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. I also bought a slice of cheesecake which turned out to be awful. I never thought I’d ever say those two words together in a sentence. It was supposed to taste like Bailey’s Liqueur, so a bit of Irish Cream I thought. I couldn’t be more wrong. I managed to get through two-thirds of it later on that night at home before I gave up and binned the rest. What a waste. I had had plain cheesecake from this particular stall before so I just assumed that all their food was lovely. From now on I’ll stay away from Bailey’s flavoured cheesecake, methinks.

Then instead of jumping on the tube and as I had time to kill, I got the bus from just outside Waterloo Stn to London Bridge and enjoyed the sights along the way. It beats a sweaty old tube any day. I ended up at my favourite place, Borough Market, and went a little bit crazy. Not too much, just a little. Picked up a few delicacies and made my way back home for around 4pm, which was just about perfect as I avoided the evening rush hour. The rest of the weekend was spent studying and doing the housework, which was why I wanted to enjoy Friday.

The sun is back out and gents are getting a little horny. Last minute horny which doesn’t help me. I’d be happy to make a couple of bookings for next week; as always a little notice would be brilliant. Meanwhile the job search continues.

Yes, I know, it’s been a while.
I’ve been home since Tuesday morning and I’m afraid it’s taken me this long to get back to normal. I’ve been catching up on my studying, plus I had a couple of bookings yesterday and Thursday, including my lovely regular in Shepherd’s Bush I didn’t get to see before I left as work called him away Up North. Thank God for him who had contacted me the night before. Although I had taken another booking the day before that for approx. the same time, I somehow didn’t think it would come to fruition. When the chap started going on about his 11′ member and if I could handle it, it was all I could do to stop my eyes rolling up to the heavens. Something told me this wasn’t going to happen so I told Shepherd’s Bush chap that I would check in with him on Friday morning at 9am, when the 11′ at 11am was supposed to confirm. There was no suprise on my part when he didn’t, so off to Shepherd’s Bush I went yesterday. I had a booking at London Bridge on Thursday and I managed to avoid Borough Market and (literally) stay on the straight and narrow (road) back to London Bridge Overground, instead of veering off across the road toward the market. You’d have been proud of my display of such restraint. And the little Italian market wasn’t on at Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush, so no temptation there either.

I stayed overnight at Heathrow with Amy as she had come down from Scarborough earlier in the day. We had seperate rooms and both had clients the night before which was handy for me as it paid for the room with a bit of spare cash for duty free the next day. The flight over was wonderful and New York was brilliant. I could’ve done with a few more clients but c’est la vie. If you’re going to have a time where for some reason or other all your clients don’t come to fruition, New York is the place. I was out one place or another during the 5 and a half days we were there. My girl Amy was a bit more fortuitous and during the times she was keeping the men of New York happy I was out making myself happy. During one day, the Thursday I think, whilst Amy was holed up at our hotel and I had a couple of cancellations, I took advantage of the unseasonable 70 degree spring sunshine and went for a walk. We were situated near Times Square so I made my way down towards 42nd St. and 5th Ave. I did a recon of some reading tablets for my supervisor at The Other Job at Best Buy (open for all of a year and bit here in the UK before they closed all their stores down) and also had a look at the Nook in Barnes & Noble. He was thinking of treating himself to something. They were so gorgeous I nearly bought one myself. The fact that they were manufactured for the American market wouldn’t have stopped me, such is the techy wiz that my supervisor is, he would’ve tweaked it every which way to make it more UK-friendly. But again, my willpower came into play and I told myself that I really didn’t need it, my Kindle was enough. And in the end he decided not to get anything. Anyway, after that I walked further down to Grand Central Stn. and the Chrysler Building and snapped a few shots there. I then walked across 42nd to the New York Public Library where I sat for half an hour to rest my feet. It actually felt a little blasphemous taking my Kindle into the Reading Room but nobody batted an eyelid so neither did I. After that I did want to do some more walking but by then my feet was beginning to hurt me and I needed to pee. So I made my way back up to Times Square, stopping to replenish my Clinique skin care regimen at Sephora (these stores are worldwide and why there isn’t one in the UK I’m truly baffled) and finding Crumbs. I bought a couple of rather large cupcakes for myself and Ms. Vergnes which went rather well with a glass of milk later on that evening.

Inbetween work we also went down to Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park. There wasn’t as much going on as there normally was still being a bit wintery in weather but we did happen upon a chap playing classical music on a baby grand piano (see Amy’s blog for more pics). A wee bit surreal in the middle of the park outdoors, but that’s New York for you. I also showed Amy the red townhouse where Will Smith “lived” in I Am Legend (if you’ve seen it, you know where I mean). We then walked up to Union Square where to my delight the market I’d encountered a couple of years ago was there in full swing. They had such delicacies as ostrich eggs and their bones – it looked like a tibia, imagine trying to get one of those in your suitcase. We then caught a bus up to 34th St. where we went to one of our favourite stores, Old Navy, where I could’ve easily spent a ton of money and again, I had to call on Will Power to hold me back (although I did go back a couple of days later and bought a maxi dress for the summer, approx £30 for something that would’ve cost me £45 here). That was the Saturday.

Sunday we went to Harlem. I was dying to take Amy to one of my old haunts from way back in the 80s and it was wonderful to see it had transformed in the past 20 years. I wanted to try Sylvia’s Restaurant where they sold proper Southern home-cooked food, but the queue to wait was just ridiculous. With it being a Sunday afternoon I thought that might’ve been the case. Harlem consists of a lot of African-American Christians and I figured they’d be going out to lunch after Sunday Service. We tried another restaurant that wasn’t quite as popular but still had a wait time of about 20mins or so and we had to put our name down on a list and wait to be called. It was called Amy Ruth’s and the food was just scrumptious. There Amy had her first taste of cornbread and catfish and she loved it, which I thought she might. We were too stuffed to have dessert so we doggy-bagged the rest of our food and caught the bus downtown back to our hotel.

Although Monday was our day to go home, we couldn’t help but squeeze in a bit more shopping. Amy bought herself an MP3 player at a store called B&H Photovideo. The name is slightly misleading as they sold everything electronic under the sun. Everything I tell you, including telescopes, surveillance equipment to studio lighting. The store covers a whole block and is one of the very few city stores that also offers free parking to its customers. It was absolutely massive. It’s owned and run by Hasidic Jews so they’re not open on a Saturday (Sabbath), which is why we had to wait until the Monday. We just saw a tiny corner of the store, if you’re a techy geek this place would’ve been Nirvana to you. Although at one time I did want a laptop, I kind of changed my mind when I saw that one of my sprogs bought themselves a refurbished Dell not too long ago for less than £300 which looked like new. So I know when this one kicks the bucket I can just go to the Dell Outlet website. It’s brilliant when you know a techy nerd, you find out so many things you otherwise wouldn’t have a clue about.

Anyway, inbetween rushing back to the hotel to check-out and meeting the surly countenance of the guy at reception when I asked him to give me another half an hour as we got carried away shopping, we dumped our cases in the hotel storeroom and resumed our mission to shop some more. I had had one last booking on the Monday morning, I really
should’ve packed the night before. We went a little crazy in Fossil on 5th Ave, where I bought a messenger bag and a vintage watch which, on checking the UK websites, I saved approx. £55 between them by buying them there. Remember our VAT’s what? 20%! In New York City their sales tax is 8 1/2%, so you can see where I’ve saved.

By this time my feet were beginning to go. Apart from the Friday I had done quite a bit of walking the whole time I was there and I reckon the working-out I did at home paid off. I think I did pretty well keeping up with Warrior Amy, although I know a lot of the time she slowed her pace to suit mine, but OMG can that girl walk! There was an instance where I had to tell her to go on without me, the heels of my feet were just excrutiatingly painful. When I got home Tuesday morning and went for a nap, having not slept at all on the plane, I got up about 1pm to get some food for the house and I nearly fell out of bed, my legs had just seized up under me! I swear I’ve never done so much walking. But it was brilliant. The weather was lovely, I had great company in Amy which I knew I would and I’m happy with my spoils. I’d go to New York again. Not to work, I’m done with that, but maybe for a long weekend, maybe do some shopping and this time catch a show, which we didn’t get to do this time around.

Back home to normality. I got a 79% on my latest assignment, I still have a week’s studying to catch up on and the job search continues. Work has already commenced as you’ve read and the usual rules apply. Please don’t call me on the same day asking for a booking for later as a chap has just done whilst writing this. A chap who has been in contact in the past (I recognised his voice) and should really know better. As I say, back to normality.

This week is a busy one for me as I prepare for New York the following week. The bookings and enquiries are coming in and I’m feeling a lot better this time around than I did last year. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been busy spending last week advertising on the appropriate US based websites and steering clear from others that haven’t worked in the past for me. Packing needs to be done plus any last minute shopping that inevitably comes with going away on a trip.

My latest assignment has to be completed by Tuesday week and it’s a big one so I’ll be making a start on it today. This is my main priority this week. I’m taking the day off my Other Job tomorrow and just do one day on Tuesday. If I’m not done by Wednesday which is likely I’ll be taking that day off work. The phone will be off at least until the evening.

As for the rest of the week, I have a booking with Yorkshire P on Thursday afternoon at London Bridge. If anybody’s around in the area between the hours of 1 and 3pm give me a call. I have an outcall to Shepherd’s Bush next Friday, which gives me a good excuse to sneak in a visit to Westfield afterwards. Then it’s the weekend putting any finishing touches to my essay and getting ready for the trip.

The new photos are very well received, I don’t think my phone’s ever been so busy during the month of February. It’s a shame a lot of them have been last minute, the kind of calls where the chaps call first and ask questions afterwards. Bless the gent who couldn’t quite get why I couldn’t drop everything when he called at 6pm for a booking at 7.30pm, assuring me that he was “really nice”, which is kind of irrelevant as I didn’t know him from Adam.

And yes, nearly two months later and I’m still working out in front of the telly. You didn’t think I’d last did you? I can tell the weight’s coming off me because my clothes are starting to fit differently. I just may now be able to keep up with Amy. I was hoping to fit in three workout days this week but I’m not sure how feasible that will be, I may have to settle for two and give it some welly. And no, I no longer look like a banana.

Have a good week.x

Work started off quietly but suddenly seemed to have gotten hectic these past couple of weeks. The phone’s been ringing merrily away and last week I saw a couple of my favourite clients at the hotel I use in SW7. Wednesday it was the chap I call Clark Kent, an unassuming-looking gent who looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth but is the horniest toad in the bedroom. Thursday it was Yorkshire P’s turn, having missed me over the holidays. I’m hoping to catch up with him just before I go to New York and he goes off on holiday. This week has been an early morning (9.30am is early morning to me, alright!) outcall to Central London to see a client I had only seen once before but is blessed with one of those lovely names that one can’t easily forget. That was up near Marble Arch/Oxford St. way. I forget how much I love walking around London, and at 11 in the morning it was relatively quiet after the morning rush hour. It was nostalgic seeing the iconic red phone boxes complete with sex cards, didn’t realise they were still around. Then it was a leap (okay a step) onto the No. 73 bus to Victoria where I wandered about in the freezing cold a little bit until I couldn’t stand it any longer and waited inside to meet up with Warrior Amy for lunch at a restaurant I had tried once before, Dim t. As usual it was wonderful seeing her, catching up since we last met just before Christmas. We did our now customary catch up with what was on our Kindles, she now the proud owner of some Kindle books that *cough* fell off the back of a mobile library (remember those?). That’ll keep her going for a while. We’ve also started making plans for New York – discussing things from where to advertise to what we’d like to do whilst there. It’s just over a month until we’re off. Which reminds me, I promised her I’d look and see what’s playing off-Broadway that I’d like to go and see. Would’ve loved to have seen a Broadway show, but at around $200 a pop for tickets….no. Not when tickets in the West End is the equivalent to approx. $100.

Whilst YoSushi remains one of my favourite quickie eateries, Dim t had a glorious menu and I must admit we did have a bit of difficulty choosing what to eat. I settled on a better version of Chicken Katsu Curry than I normally get at YoSushi, Amy had the Chicken with Lemon Sauce. We also shared some dim sum, which was just scrumptious.
She’s back in London for one day next week Friday before she goes back home to Scarborough. I’m hoping to catch up with her again and hopefully we can make a stop at Konditor & Cook.

My work-out’s going really well. It’ll be about a month since I first started it and look, I’m still going! I only managed it twice this week (Monday and this morning) as I had the early outcall on Wednesday morning. My lycra top no longer rides up and bunches up under my boobs as it first did, which means I’m toning up as it’s fitting better. The cat still has this innate need to jump down off the sill and climb on top of me whilst I’m doing the Legs, Bums and Tums section of the dvd. It’s just weird, I work out for nearly an hour and it’s not until I’m lying on the floor that she decides I need company. I think she thinks I’m going to sleep.

My Psychology course is going well. I exceeded my own expectations and got a whopping 80% for my first assignment. On my last course they were all mid-60s. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m better at psychology than sociology, or my tutor is a more lenient marker. Or maybe I’m just getting better at writing essays, who knows? I admit, as this is more to do with the study of peoples’ minds, I’m more engrossed in the reading of this book than I was on the previous course. I’ll see what happens. I may even change the course of this course (see what I did there?) if it looks like I’m more suited to the Psychology side of Criminology than Social Policy. At the moment I’m trying to keep on top of, and even a little ahead of my reading so I can make sure to have my next assignment submitted before New York. The proof will be in this next assignment as it’s a 1500 worder. The previous was in two parts, 250 and 800 words respectively.

This weekend I have a booking tomorrow at 12pm for an hour. I did have another at 2pm but I’ve just cancelled it. Some gentlemen seem to think that after they’ve made a booking they can then bombard me with texts and think it’s part of the deal. I think from now on I’m going to switch the phone off when I’m not working or expecting any confirmation calls. After work tomorrow it’ll be switched off until next Tuesday evening. I’ll put it back on until I’ve got enough work to keep me going for the week then it’s off again. Last week I had to turn it off for a few days after a particularly unpleasant and abusive character called from a new number to make a booking and cannot seem to fathom for the life of him, why after he’s racially abused me I’m unwilling to drop my big panties for him. He’s been trying on and off for the past 5 months and I’m thisclose to calling the police, something I’ve never had to do before. His accent gives him away so he won’t be getting far with me. Unfortunately now I’m at the stage where I’m becoming less and less inclined to keep the phone on. I know it’s hardly customer service, but to be honest it felt really good not having the phone on. Sorry to have missed all the genuine chaps, but if you want me that bad you’ll get me. And if anybody wants to get in touch you’re always welcome to email me.

But if anybody’s in the London Bridge area tomorrow around 2pm, even for a quickie half hour, do feel free to give me a call. I’m going to do my darndest to avoid Borough Market, but I can’t promise anything.

…..is going to be limited as life and Christmas get in the way. This week is a prime example of that.
Today I have booked another day room at a hotel and I have a couple of bookings to keep me busy until 4.30 this afternoon, which is perfect as the room has to be vacated by 5pm.
The only other day I’m available for work is Saturday if anybody fancies a pre-Christmas treat. But remember, please give me some notice so I can book the hotel room. Tomorrow morning is the dreaded big Xmas grocery shop. This is where I cash in all the change that has accummulated in the coffee jar from the past six months. It usually adds up to about £30-£40 and goes very nicely towards the Xmas food bill including the purchase of the turkey. The stuffing, pigs in blanket and posh cranberry sauce have already been bought so it’s left for me to buy the big bird. I will be up and at ‘em first thing in the morning.

Then tomorrow afternoon I have lunch reservations with Wonderful Warrior Amy, who no doubt is leaving a trail of satiated men in her wake this week in London. It’ll be lovely catching up with her and letting her know of my latest acquisition of some Kindle books that *cough* fell off the back of a lorry, of which I’m going to try and get some on a usb stick so she can maybe upload a few to her laptop. Borough Market will also be open and I do love being there this time of year. And at Borough Market is Konditor & Cook. I still mean to treat myself for the pass of my course.

Friday I’m also busy. My unenviable skills as a mummy are called upon during the middle of the day, which will make it difficult for me to entertain the mere thought of working. Saturday is the only day left this week in which to get your leg over if you wish. Email or give me a call, let me know if you prefer London Bridge or South Kensington.

Next week is somewhat of a change as I give up one day a week at my Other Job. I will be free Monday 19th as I give myself a break from this particular job (somewhat, I’ll still be busy on Tuesday) to start another volunteer job in the new year. I’ve been thinking long and hard during the past few weeks and have now decided what I want to be when I grow up and I consider this new volunteer position to be the perfect launching pad into the career I truly desire. I really don’t mean to be opaque, I hope you understand that I really can’t give away too much of myself. I always have to bear in mind who reads my blog. Let’s just say I’ll still be helping people, they’re just a bit more of the vulnerable side of society and it’ll be more hands on. I’ll still continue to be at my Other Job, but that’s now reduced to one day a week, which is still Tuesday. January will be two years (can you believe it’s been two years already!!) and it’s time move on a little bit. Basically I’m still only available between Wednesday and Saturday.

So next week will also be a bit of a dodgy week. I’ll be free Monday, Thursday afternoon and Saturday. Wednesday is Xmas lunch with my extended family and Friday is my day at the National Gallery Museum – can’t wait for that. I’ll take pictures, if I’m allowed.
During the week inbetween Christmas and New Year I’ll be available for a few days. I do have one lunch date to keep and I’m also doing a day on the phones at my Other Job. The best thing to do really is to keep an eye on my diary. It’s updated regularly so it’s always best to check.

Have a good rest of the week.x

I hear you cry! Yes I know, my apologies. I know it’s been over a week since my last entry. Where was I? That’s right, last Friday I was going walkies, the plan was to go to Westfield to do a bit of shopping, have a bit of lunch, read a bit of the Kindle. Well, I achieved 2 out of 3. I had lunch and read my Kindle, but due to a broken down train at Shepherd’s Bush I got as far as Clapham Junction. Platform 2 was totally closed off and unless I felt like taking 2 tubes to Shepherd’s Bush from Victoria it wasn’t going to happen. So I hopped back on the train and went into Victoria instead and had lunch at YoSushi’s at the station. After lunch I went for a stroll and to my delight there were a few stalls from Leadenhall Market at Victoria Plaza. I bought a few items including my first Christmas present so it didn’t turn into too much of a wasted day.

That was last Friday. Saturday I had a booking at one of the hotels in the SE1 area. I tell you what, all this meeting clients in different hotels makes it all feel naughty and a bit clandestine, like I’m meeting various lovers but having to stay one step ahead so as not to bring any suspicion on myself. Anyway, last Saturday’s client was a lovely fella from Glasgow (no, he didn’t come from Glasgow just to see me silly, he lives in Peterborough) who had been trying to get to see me during the week but I needed to take those few days off. He ended up having such a good time he wrote a review about it here. It was great that he thought I was the epitome of professionalism. He was a very forgiving chap, considering we were approximately 15mins late in starting because my train decided to make a like a snail and crawl its way from Croydon to London Bridge. I remember in my rush to get ready for Peterbro’ bloke I put my thongs on the wrong way and ended up with the crutch on my left hip, and you know, I wouldn’t have known had I not looked in the mirror when getting dressed. Anyway, I made sure Peterbro’ fella had a good time and made sure he went home with a smile on his face. Mission accomplished – a lovely wee chap who’s welcome back anytime.
After the booking I hung around to see if I could pick up another booking but it was destined not to happen. The nearest I got was a timewaster who asked if I was “free today”. Yes I am, I says. “Do you have a nurse’s outfit”, he asks. ‘Fraid not, I reply. “What about a schoolgirl outfit”? And it was at this point where I can hear his voice getting lower and lower as he started masturbating. I just sighed, hung up and decided to call it a day. And of course on the way home came the ubiquitous “are you available today” enquires whilst I’m snailing my way back to Croydon. That’s life.

I had a couple more bookings this week. I picked another hotel for Wednesday’s liaison just to mix things up a bit and Thursday’s was an outcall to one of the Hiltons in Central London. I didn’t get home until gone 10.30pm and got to bed around midnight and I thought I’d be shattered but I didn’t feel too bad yesterday. I know, I thought, I’ll take another trip to Westfield seeing as I didn’t get there last week. Guess what? Yep, thwarted again! This time somebody thought they’d try death by train, didn’t quite succeed and ended up injuring themselves and stopping the whole of the Southern Rail network whilst they were stretchered off the tracks. Absolutely no trains going in either directions, said one of the train station staff, with no idea when things’ll get back to normal. I’m just not supposed to get to Shepherd’s Bush am I?? I admitted defeat, touched back out of the station and got a bus to Croydon town centre and just did a bit of shopping there. I figured even if I did make it to Westfield I can only imagine the hell of trying to get home again, so there was no point in even trying. I will get there dammit *as she shakes her fist at the general direction of the train station.* That was at midday. I got home around 3.15pm and trains were running again but subject to “severe delays and cancellations with no notification”. Can you imagine trying to get home in the rush hour on a Friday? Yeahhh, no thank you.

Study day today (I managed to read a couple of chapters of my text book on my Kindle on the way to my outcall Thursday night, brilliant) and SJ’s come down to London for the weekend, so I’ll be seeing her for lunch tomorrow, very much looking forward to it. Warrior Amy’s back in London in a couple of weeks so I’ll be seeing her for lunch too. I also have a tentative lunch date with my study buddy from the course inbetween Christmas and the New Year. Talk about ladies who lunch, I don’t think I’ve had so many lunch dates in one month. It is nice to be out and about, I must admit.

Still waiting for my course results. No word yet.

It’s been a good one. Studying commenced (well, last week it did), I had my last training course for the year on Tuesday and I had a couple of lovely bookings with clients whom I hadn’t seen in a while.

Even though, according to my old tutor, I’ve passed part 1 of level 1, I’m still waiting for the results. At the end of every course our assigments have to go to moderators to be double-checked after our tutors mark them, so it takes aaaages longer than usual, about 6 weeks. So I won’t officially find out until “early” December. You’ll know when I know. I’ll be the one doing the happy dance.

Meanwhile I’ve started part 2 of level 1, my psychology module, and I must say, it’s very interesting. I’ve learnt words like authoritarian personality (did Hitler have one?) and ethnocentric (when a person believes their race to be vastly superior to others, again, think Hitler) and that’s just Chapter 1. Another big plus is that somebody at the OU has dragged it into the 21st century and we can now upload our textbook onto our e-readers. I did have to update my ePUB software but I have now uploaded the first three chapters of my textbook onto my Kindle, which means I can read it anywhere. Do you remember earlier on in the year when I dragged my 500+ page book up to Glasgow, and then I tried to go one better and just print off the chapters I needed instead when I went to Manchester? No more dragging large text books around, no more wasting printer paper. Now I can just get it on my Kindle. Whoever thought that up, brilliant idea. Who knows, I may be even able to squeeze out another tour now that it’s easier to bring my work with me *cough*.

Anyways, on to my adventures of still working without an incall base. This week I had a couple of 90min bookings, both lovely in their own way because they were clients I hadn’t seen in a while, one of them I hadn’t seen in about a year. I know this because the last time I saw “G” was at the old Victoria address, before I moved to the new Victoria address in November 2010. Wednesday’s booking was at one of the hotels near London Bridge where I booked a dayroom for our liaison. Friday’s booking was an outcall to Shepherd’s Bush, where that little Italian market was back again, just outside Westfield shopping centre. Do you remember, I’ve mentioned it before? There weren’t as many stalls but there were a still a few, one selling really strong stinky cheese, another selling different types of biscottis. Scrumptious.

I still have had no luck finding a new incall place, so for the moment I’m a bit of a nomad. It’s been adventerous to say the least, flitting from hotel to hotel. I do have to be careful though, not to be seen too many times at one place. It’s easy to become complacent when you’ve found somewhere decent to work from. It’s also unfortunate, for my pocket that is, that the hotels I’m using aren’t too far from Borough Market. I’ll have to learn to curb myself. Meanwhile I’ll keep looking, see what comes up. My landlady in Earl’s Court has definitely disappeared, as her website has too. So I hope whatever it is, she’s okay. I’ve had my webmistress update my site to reflect the changes. There’s no point in saying I’m in Earl’s Court if I’m not, is there? As for my diary, it’s all “a bit up in the air”.

Next month I have an exhibition to go to. Most of Leonardo Da Vinci’s works will be shown together for the one and only time from now until the first week in February at the National Gallery in Trafalger Square. An opportunity I can’t let slip by. The tickets finally came in the post yesterday after I ordered them about 10 days ago. I was beginning to get a little worried. With that and a visit to this wonderful cheese shop in nearby Jermyn Street, it’ll be a lovely day out for me. I just hope it won’t be too cold.

Just kidding!! Well, almost,lol.

Last Friday as it was such a pleasant day, I made plans to go to the Tate Gallery in Central London. I got off at London Bridge and I thought I’d take a walk through Borough St. Market first as I hadn’t been there in about a year. Oh, they had some wonderful delectables there. If I didn’t have the willpower I would’ve gone spending crazy, but I did give into something. I ended up buying a small box of Fairtrade Crumbly Fudge made by a company called Burnt Sugar. Goodness it was good. There were only a few pieces in the box but I was determined to make it last until today.

I had a google and found the owner’s website, plus another website which stocked it called the Ethical Supermarket. Which was good but I’d have to pay £3.95 for delivery for a packet of fudge for £2.95. Either that or spend over a tenner for free delivery. For a simple treat I don’t want to have to buy six packets.

On further research I did find stockists that include Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, which I’ve never seen at either. But if anybody does find it please let me know. I might even pop down to my local Sainsbury’s tomorrow to see if they stock it. That’s how much I’m on a mission right now.

I never did make it to the Tate Modern. They actually had a mini festival outside their entrance, with tents selling food, showing mini plays, even a tent where you can join in a chess game or two. I stayed outside on the green, read my latest book and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Then I took a saunter alongside the river and walked to Waterloo Station and headed back home. What a lovely day it turned out to be, Next time I’ll actually make it inside the gallery.

Described by The Observer Monthly as "the best fudge in the world."