Time for some new good intentions

Been doing a 'leadership development' course at work recently. I always have trouble with these courses - but only beforehand - it's the idea of spending a whole day or two away from the office, when there is so much going on at the moment that absolutely requires me to be sitting on my email at all times and letting everything get on top of me (because of course that's the mark of a good manager, oh yes...). But inevitably, taking a day to reflect on past activity and behaviours exhibited is actually always a worthwhile experience and makes me feel far more able to take things in my stride moving forward.

Part of the day today was about planning for 2008, and I set myself some pretty overarching targets: attitudinal, business objectives, and personal goals. The personal ones are always the same - more 'us' time for Ali and I; exercise more; go on a proper long holiday. Some kind of fit in with the very loose theme of this blog, in that they are good intentions but might not get carried out very often. But I hope that I will have the willpower to see them all through.

One I thought of but didn't write down was to get more DIY stuff done around the house and garden, and make use of the new toy we bought 2 weeks ago. My mum was in a slight state of shock when I told her we'd got a shiny new sewing machine for me to make things with - after all, I was never what you'd term creative when I was younger. It was the purchase of a stupidly expensive pair of jeans when we were in Edinburgh the other week that did it. Having lost some weight, and also due to the fact that my dearest, best loved and constantly worn Earl Jeans are starting to fall apart from over-use, I splurged on a pair of James Jeans from Harvey Nichols. Size 26!!!!! (sorry had to get that in) but so dear I can't even disclose the price, it's too shameful. Anyway, the smaller size still obviously couldn't make up for the fact that I'm a short arse, and needed about 4 inches taken off the legs so I could wear them properly. The last time I took a pair of trousers to the tailors in Oxford they made a balls up of them and hemmed them too short, so a sewing machine was the clear way forward. Only about 16 more pairs of jeans to go and I might break even. I have to say, although machines have got a lot more sophisticated since I was at school - the one we bought is computerised, and excitingly does all sorts of very posh embroidery stitches of leaves and stars and suchlike - it was relatively easy to get the hang of it and now I have a pair of jeans I can wear with pride without tripping over the extra material. If I get round to making anything more adventurous rather than just sewing hems I'll definitely start posting more photos. Which is another good intention.

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Quick SCD update, for those of you who care (and knowing who reads this blog, that's probably only one or possibly two of you, but why should that stop me, it's my blog after all). After Saturday's show my allegiance, hitherto firmly with Alesha and Matt, is now wavering quite distinctly towards bloody gorgeous Gethin. WHAT A SALSA!