Kung Hei Fat Choi! I’m not sure exactly how to pronounce it but I wish it to everyone celebrating the cultural amazingness of the Chinese New Year. The festivities in London were bright and lively, despite the incessant grey rain soaking through and creating lake-like puddles. The turnout was huge, and around the main stage in Trafalgar Square the scene resembled a cross between a Renoir painting and Mary Poppins.
Most people were sporting boring black umbrellas but I proudly spun my oversized, multi-coloured creation that always bashes people in the face. Or, I should say, bashed – past tense, as it sadly got caught in a sudden wind attack in Leicester Square and flipped inside out with a silent scream and the sickening crack of metal rods snapping. Umbrella-less, we took shelter in the National Gallery where, on this particular day, the cakes were more tempting than the artworks.
We then had to briskly walk a mile and a half in heavy rain to get back to the car, thus providing me with about two weeks’ worth of exercise. This bookended what’s been a very sporty weekend: on Friday, one of my clients invited me to join their team for a night out at the bowling alley overlooking the now defunct Olympic Park. So it was sport sport sport all the way for me.
I don’t work in their offices but I blog for them, write industry articles and web content, and tweet, so it’s very lovely that they include me in their fun. After being well fed and plied with red wine, they took me bowling. I haven’t been for at least a decade and expected to be completely rubbish, but actually I wasn’t bad. I scored two strikes and (I’m whispering now…) threw four balls along the gutter. The rest of the time I think I gave a reasonably acceptable performance and managed to not show myself up, despite drinking even more red wine.
Thank you for including me, all of you at Nordens Chartered Accountants and Strategic Business Advisers. It was good fun.
You may already know that I do have a history of embarrassing myself in front of clients. I’m pretty sure I’ve already told you about the time my silk skirt slid to the floor during a training session? It was when I was contracted to provide Plain English training and business writing support to my local council… Twenty men and only one other woman in the room, me standing at the front – and swoosh…!! My face looked like a tomato but theirs were very smiley. It still gets mentioned with sniggers on a fairly regular basis when I visit the town hall.
Hopefully that won’t happen when I run my next social media training day on March 26th!
Have a happy Valentine’s Day, and remember to share the love: retweeting is nice, chocolates are nicer… The thought of that is very exciting!
And when I get excited, my little China girl says “Oh baby, just you shut your mouth.” She says “Sshhhh.” She says…
I don’t have a China girl (or any girl, for that matter), although after yesterday I do have a Chinese lantern – and I do tell people to shush. I’ll never tell that to you though – you can chat to me any time. Here I am: @WeekendWitch
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