Office Secret Santa can be the source of a lot of laughs.

Notably, today, one of the Partners of the firm got a Borat-style mankini in camouflage print ... because last week, he locked himself out of his hotel room still drunk and butt naked, after the Client Christmas party in Melbourne.

Someone else got a half-emptied bottle of cognac with the message: "sorry, the other half took the gift over the budget ... so I removed it." And then was gifted with the actual gift - a (whole) bottle of wine.

I gave my victimperson a Kid's Bathtime Fun Shaving Kit (plastic razor, plastic mirror, bubble foam, and a brush) with the message "Pre-season training for Movember 2008" because he had been involved in the Movember fundraiser this year.

What did I get? Well, there's a dude in the office, and he's new. We get along well. We talk cars, amongst other things. He knows I drive a ricerHonda Civic EK Gli, 1.5L. He bought me a model Integra Type R and a 2 litre bottle of Coca Cola. His card read "Sari, I know you love your Hondas so I bought you one! Now you also have a considerable upgrade to your 1.5L Civic - fix the 2L bottle inside the engine bay, and you'll go faster! VTEC, yo."

Haha =X It made me laugh so hard. =X

I was woken up twenty minutes earlier than my usual wake up time by a call on my mobile. The receptionist from work was calling to say she had stomach cramps and was going to the doctor, could I please cover reception from 8am?

I usually start at 9am, my travel time is around 50 minutes.

I went from asleep to on the road in 25 minutes. Fortunately I had decided what I was wearing to work the day before, and already packed my lunch (leftovers from dinner).

I got in at 7.55am - whew! And I will be having an early night tonight, I can assure you! Bring on the sleeeeeeeptime.

Saw the physiotherapist yesterday morning. I woke up at 5am (dogs barking) and finished at work at 7.40pm that night. Ugh.

Anyway, I was out of the house by 7am (alarm set at 6.10 - everything happening an hour earlier than it normall has to) for an 8am appointment. She was pleased with the progress and healing - especially since I purchased a wrap brace for my ankle and went to completely flat shoes. Not sure what my work thinks, but the ankle brace is evident so nobody has pulled me up about it yet.

A side note. Two physiotherapy visits (in Sydney) have cost me $150. I never realised I had it so good in Adelaide were our family physiotherapist of 12 years only charges $45 a session. Yikes. At least some of it is redeemable. Whew!

Work day was horrendously busy, as evidenced by the time it was when I finally left the office (7.40pm).

And overnight, I think I was bitten by either a mosquito or a spider. I'm leaning for a mosquito, although I never heard any whiny buzzing. If it was a spider, then it was a relatively inconsequential spider - evidenced by the fact that a) I am still alive and blogging (much to your dismay, I'm sure, hehe) and b) my foot has neither swollen up, fallen off, turned blacked, ulcered or anything. In fact, it looks like a mosquito bite, which is why I guessed that over the spider bite. Still, there was a smallish, pointy looking spider in my bed last night. I flicked him out, politely, and then begged the Powers That Be to stop with the spiders. Is it some sort of signal or something?

I swore an affidavit today.

O_O

An Affidavit of Service.

Which means, I went and served a subpoena on someone, and then came back and swore an affidavit to serving said subpoena on said person.

O_O

It was funny, I was escorted by security to the relevant level of the building. I then said to the receiver "I have to ask you this." She nodded. "Are you employed here?" She replied in the affirmative. So I told her I had a subpoena to be left at this address. And then I left.

It was sort of reminiscent of a highschool class room roleplay ... where we were both feeling sort of silly for having to observe the forms and official dialogue.

Performance review in fifteen minutes. Arrrrrgh!

I had an enjoyable weekend. Although I misplaced my keys in the morning (I had a bad night prior and was exhausted on the Friday morning) by leaving them in the door of the letter box, even as I was telling myself not to forget them!

Friday lunch was spent with one of the new girls at work. We really click. Click. No, wait, let me make it cleared because that just doesn't quite cut it: we Click. Ok, that's better.

Friday afternoon was hectic like whoa, followed by drinks for one of the partners in my cell, and then more work drinks in the bar downstairs. I drank more than I usually would, and on no dinner as well - bleah.

Saturday was spent sleeping in, and then playing WoW with Luke. He levelled twice (35 - 37) and I reached the second to last marker on my XP bar before I hit 40 (which might be tonight!). I'm very excited by this - mountiness here I come (translation: at level 40 I can purchase a mount and train in riding which will make my travel time much quicker).

On Sunday we played more, and cleaned the house. I also logged into a different server (Icecrown) than our usual (Thunderlord) which came after I discovered a certain LJer was no longer resident on the server that I remembered them playing on (Azjol Nerub). I logged into the new server and found them, and created a new character. I was, perhaps, a bit ambitions. As a level 1, I convinced them to take me to Duskwood (designed for level 20-30 I think) but the XP for the level 20+ creatures there was no better than killing loads of level 1 creatures in Elwynn Forest or Northshire (the starting point for human characters).

Still, I'm now level 5 there and will continue to occasionally play that character in an effort to get to a level where I can play more effectively and in fact, at all with said friend.

Back at work today ... =)

I currently have 25 giant Christmas stockings made of felt on my desk. And 23 name tags, one for each person who works for this company.

Said to my boss just before leaving at the end of the day, yesterday -

Sari: Hey! I need a payrise. I mean, since you changed my role from customer service consultant to Santa's Helper Elf ... Also, does this mean my dress code has changed?
The Boss Type: When you come into work dressed appropriately for your new role as Santa's Helper Elf, we'll talk payrises then.


I think I've mentioned before the strange things that seem to come under the control of my department.

(I'm seriously tempted to turn up to my next review in a Santa's Elf costume. lol.)