mad props to trinny and susannah aka sylda and catherine personal shoppers extraordinare

*warning slightly girly post*
Really, really appreciating the idea of 'the weekend' again. Although work has been mad busy I've surprised myself by still actually being able to do my job. Then yesterday, after work I got to meet an old friend of Mark's - Sandra - who in all our years I'd never managed to meet. Within about 15 minutes I think Mark was regretting our introduction as we seemed to be in agreement with each other against him several times. So, after lovely pints in Kennedys we then headed out to see Rachael & Phil's place. I'd seen Rach a couple of times since I got home, but only out in t'pub and not for proper general chit chat. As luck would have it they had brought Mal & KK over from their shiny new but floorless apartment so there was hours of natterin had. It was 3am before we got home. I blame KK. To paraphrase her, she said she can't leave anywhere ever if there is still one drop of craic to be squeezed out of the evening, for fear that she'd miss anything - fun / scandal / playing on Phil's fancy new G5 - that kinda thing. So subconciously we may have taken that as a challenge to see how long we could keep her there. Jokes on yous I say - they had to get up at 7am to meet floor-delivery man.

I hauled my straw-haired self out of the leaba at 930 this morning to go on my Challenge Anneka (or Sylda & Catherine) shopping mission at Dundrum shopping megalith. We've a wedding to go to next month, Mark's mate Jonny. Now, for the very few weddings I've been to besides my 2 appearances as a bridesmaid for my sister, I've just 'made do'. Put something a bit shiny or whatever on and tarted me up a bit. A year in Canada does not a dressy wardrobe make. So it was about time for me to get proper ladies clothes on a teeny weeny visa-funded budget. Oh, they made it so easy. They went 'yeh' and 'meh' at the appropriate times, they found tops that went with skirts, and best of all, they made me try on a dress that I thought looked nice on the mannequin and thought would only look lovely on a very tall lady. It was me. It may as well have had 'This is Jill's' sewn into it in invisible thread. Scruffy Jill is all grow-sed up. So after a lil lunch in the Harvey Nichols cafe (not posh or expensive like you'd think) it was shoe-time. And I get all the credit for those. 1st pair I picked up were purrrrfect for the dress and half price. Yay me. Then it was onto Blackrock to help Sylda pick out a pair of glasses - posh versace ones they were - and finally to Lisa's house for some niece-worship. Oh it paid off. A couple of hours a banging stuff together and building and knocking down and teddybear-hugging and the big moment arrived. I stuck out my arms to try take advantage of her giddy mood, and lo! She ran into a dive-bomb style cuddle in my arms. I have broken down the defences. Ella knows and loves her deadly auntie Jill.

Tomorrow plans only include so far: veggie sausages; Brokeback Mountain. Yow-za. The loveliest weekend of 2006.