Is this thing still on?

Well, it's been a crazy couple of months since I returned from overseas. Williams broke his leg 2 weeks before he was supposed to fly out and meet me in Madrid, so I ended up finishing Spain alone, then flying to Paris for 5 days and coming home. So now he owes me a European holiday, because I'd saved all the good bits until last and then didn't get to do them (except Paris).

South America was amazing. My favourites were Peru, Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Tulum was breathtaking. My favourites in Europe were Napoli, Fussen, Bretagne, Sevilla, Granada, and, of course, Barcelona. That city is so fucking amazing, you have no idea. The food market! Gaudi architecture! The baby squirrels! It's just fantastic. I had such a great time there. In fact, I would fly there just to go to the food market, and then fly back home again.

But I can't be arsed recapping my trip after having written about it every day while I was gone. If you want to read it, let me know.

Since I came back, I had to plan a cocktail party, which was themed on the countries I visited, and everyone had to dress up in something inspired by one of the countries. I was supposed to go as Marie Antoinette and had ordered a gown from a woman in the US. It was custom made and she was supposed to ship it to me at least a week before the party so I had it in time. She tells me 2 days before hand she hasn't shipped it yet. So now I'm fighting for a refund. She's giving me excuses after excuses about why she can't afford to pay me. I'm giving her 90 days, and then I'll be contacting mediators in the US to sort it out.

The cocktail party was a success though. I (and Giggles and my friend Size 0) cooked hors d'oeuvres from each country I went to. And there was a chocolate fountain for dessert, which went down very well.

I started back at work only to find the girl I had hired was a complete disaster. She didn't even bother to look up the manual I left her, and so I now have major issues to fix up. Some which can't be fixed up because they occurred in the last financial year. Moron. Not to mention she apparently tried to get me fired while I was gone. She kept telling my boss I hadn't done certain things, and when I got back he had a go at me, until I pulled out the stuff he was talking about. Then Moron tried to say she didn't know about that, so I pulled out the manual, went to the right page, pointed it out and said, "oh, you mean you didn't bother to look up this section? Even though it's labelled "XX" and Boss was specifically asking about "XX"?" She just gave me a blank look. I had a two week handover with her and I swear, the amount of times I had to say, "did you look in the manual?" I should have had it tattooed on my forehead! And she was angling for a permanent position as my assistant! I simply told her that her contract was up, and then hired a new one.

She starts on Thursday. I'm very excited, because I think she's pretty clever and seems very keen to do the work. And because I'll still be here, I can train her and keep an eye on her to make sure she's capable of it. And fire her if she's not before it gets to the point where she's made horrific mistakes that can't be fixed.

I went to my graduation ceremony in August, and got to wear the cap and gown for the degree I finished last year. It was a very odd experience after so long at uni. One down, two to go!

I've started doing gymnastics on Tuesday and Thursday nights with Giggles, just for some fun, and a bit of exercise. The first hour is a work out and strength exercises, and it's really difficult. The next hour is learning a cool trick. We're tried back tucks, front and back saults off the trampoline, round offs, and whatever it was last night that we were trying to achieve. We're not very good, but it is fun, and it's way better than going to the gym. We're going to be starting ballet soon too, and I'm also looking at doing piano and singing lessons.

I'm currently trying to convince my boss to do a complete overhaul of our office. When the assistant starts, we don't really have anywhere to put her, as he hasn't utilised the space up here very well. He has a massive office, of which he only uses half the space, and also a lounge room and bedroom at the back which he never uses. I'm proposing to take over the lounge room and turn that into his office, keep the conference room as is, divide his office in two and make one half the reception (where the new girl will sit) and the other half an office for myself, change the current reception to a foyer with lounges, and the current waiting room to the library. It's a much better use of space. Plus, the current plan is to build me a little office inside the conference room, so the only additional cost of doing my plan is building the floor to ceiling book shelves in the current waiting room. We'd just be moving the furniture around otherwise, and still installing a wall and a custom desk for me. But I seriously doubt I'll be able to get him to give up his office. Wish me luck.

And I think you're pretty much caught up. There are other things, but I'll leave them for next time.

Adios, muchachos!