The musical stylings accompanying tonight’s post in the Don and Carol haus (Don in absentia) are provided by The Paper Scissors. Whom I have yet to see live, but am quite keen to.

And you should totally go and listen to them while you are reading this – for atmosphere.

Today, I applied for six-ish weeks Annual Leave: from 25 March 2010 to 10 May 2010. Yes, we’re going back to Europe and it doesn’t do to leave the planning too late.

Because Don has been searching for Europey accomodation, I (in jest) mentioned that I wanted 6 weeks off and Dishy Boss (also in jest) suggested I apply for it. So now it is all approved and stuck to the wall above my desk to motivate me. This does mean that I have accepted that I’ll be at Marie Celeste for another 2 years, but really, I wasn’t going anywhere anyway. They do quite well by me – for all my griping. But I feel there needs to be much saving in my future.

Our “must visit” destinations are

• Rome (but you knew that already, I can’t wait to get back there! I would live there if I could)
• Milan
• Madrid

Maybe Paris, maybe not. Heather suggested Nice, which is kind of appealing (and his suggestion of Cinque Terre was genius, so I’m keen to apply any suggestion he might make). I suggested Monaco for glamorousness. I also suggested Amsterdam (because of Peter, Bjorn and John and because of my nickname).

Time to get your holiday recommendations in, folks.

Where in Europe should we spend a week?

Saw Band of Horses on Tuesday night at the Metro. They have a much better stage presence than when we first saw them at the end of 2006 – they even did an encore this time – and no mention of hugging koalas that every touring band seemed to mention at that time (dudes, we are kind of underwhelmed about hugging the damned koalas, just play another song!).

Nonetheless, I still prefer that first gig at the Gaelic club – first band Don and I saw together (altogether now – “awwwwwwwww”). And the first album is so very much better than the second.

Don and I ended up with our photo on one of those scenester websites. Under observation I look as though I will be totally photogenic in Real Life (and on video, I look teh awesome!), but in actual photo form, to say that I am a Sad Disappointment is an understatement.

So, upon viewing the photo, my hair looked so very ghastly that I was compelled to have it cut the day after I saw the photo. I even used a blowdryer this morning (I think the last time I used one was in 1994) because I was so conscious of the potential horror.

Some described my new hair as “foxy” – which is kind of an awesome description and one I want to try to live up to going forward.

For the first time last year, part of my salary was an “at risk” component, which means that I only got that bit of salary if I met certain targets (peachy! I work myself into the ground to meet my targets) and if Marie Celeste as a whole meets certain targets (which is teh suck!). This year I received not all of it (because of the utter failure of various projects which I had no impact upon – stupid “at risk” payment), but enough to make a nice-ish sum (but don’t even talk to me about tax!).

Enough to make a big contribution toward the credit card and to squirrel a little away and to buy myself an entire new wardrobe of bras and undies and chuck all the old ones away! What I was getting about in was, shall we say, perfectly ghastly and not a little nanna-ish. I could just imagine Don saying, “and she just wore these horrible bras all the time…” (yes, we’ll get to my freak neuroses on another occasion).

Anyway, now I feel all glamorous and such, and I tend to prance about the house in my new, lovely underwear. Amazing how nice it can make one feel!

Now I just need to (slowly) revamp the wardrobe, which is looking a little sad.

I’ve realised that getting back to the size I was when Don and I hooked up is not going to happen any time soon. And when I see darling Bessie (who is a VERY skinny 12 year old) wearing the clothes I wore at that time, I’m not really keen to get back there – Skeletor, much? I look at Bess wearing my jeans and shudder to think what I must have looked like back then

I need womanly clothes in a size 10-12, stat! If they are foxy, all the better!

And “proper” clothes, I think that at >40, you can’t get away with clothing from the cheap Asian stores that you could at 39.5.

Also, I feel compelled to say, life is very good. I’m really very happy and content indeed – moreso than ever, I think. Utterly wonderful partner, totally excellent offspring, job that I enjoy and remunerates me well – what more could I ask for?

Except for a source of foxy clothes?