Embracing 2013

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After a long relaxing holiday break, eating far too much food and generally lazing around, I was glad to get back to work. My fear of actually morphing into a bean bag was perilously close to becoming a reality and all the movies I had watched were starting to blur together. The children were definitely ‘ready’ to go back to school. The novelty of Christmas and new toys had definitely worn off and the “he said” “she said” battle had resumed. Besides I wasn’t sure my poor feet could cope with standing on yet another lego brick.

If I had thought at any moment we would slowly nuzzle back in to the flow of work, I was mistaken. January 2013 was crazy busy. Meetings and lunches needed setting up and resulted in a flurry of press coverage for clients. We also had a presentation on social media to put together for Personal Touch Live at the ICC in Birmingham later in the month. I have to note at this point that this would be my second ever presentation whilst working at Mitchell Moneypenny. Fortunately with a workload of social media pages to set up as well as the slides to finish, I had no time to concern myself with the actual presentation itself.

In amongst the dates set aside for press lunches Nic also needed to travel to London for her regular role judging the Money Marketing Awards. As with any judging panel there are always some minor disagreements. Luckily then that judging alongside her was the amazing ‘LangCat’ and a world leading authority on financial technology to help make the final decision!

As the date of the conference came closer, the weather turned colder, and we were faced with the news that snow was on its way. Waking up the next morning to an unchanged landscape filled my poor eight year old son with immense dissatisfaction. When I suggested we check the next weather report for an update, he responded “What’s the point, they just lie!” leaving me bemusedly wondering how one so young can already be so cynical. As we all know, the weather man, whilst slightly premature, had not been lying about the snow. A few days later the whole country was completely covered in the stuff, resulting in the closure of nearly every school and the building of hundreds of snowmen. The trouble with snow is that the novelty wears of fairly quickly. By day three we were all hoping that it would disappear so that we could get on with our lives.

When it became apparent that the snow was not shifting we all somehow managed to muddle on (albeit carefully). The date for the conference had arrived and Nic and I decided that the train would be the safest option. As we arrived at our room I realised just how many people I would be presenting to and suddenly felt slightly queasy. Watching Nic confidently deliver her part of the presentation I managed to just about collect myself and on cue headed over to the lectern. Opening my mouth and expecting nothing more than a tiny squeak to come out, I was amazed at the level sound of my voice. The presentation was extremely well received, and by the afternoon session I had my nerves completely under control. I just hope nobody saw my legs shaking!