break you to make you

this evening, at 5.50pm, my negotiation training begins.

i'm on a 4 day course. in the middle of nowhere. no phone signal and internet is intermittent. a letter with strict instructions has been left in my hotel room.

i have a feeling this is going to be hardcore.

colleagues that have already been on the course aren't allowed to give too much away (apparently everyone experiences some form of epiphany half way through) but pulling together some of the hints and snippets of information has led me to believe they break you down to build you back up again.

i'm excited but i'm also slightly petrified.

i'm hoping to learn a lot though. these guys are the best in the country at teaching buyers like me how to negotiate successfully.

so here goes......

if you don't here from me in say, 2 weeks, call someone!

dear dentist, you are a jerk

i don't know if were just having a bad day or if you consider it appropriate to be a jerk to your patients but, either way, you made me cross.
i get that you may not always have the answers and you may not know exactly why my front tooth is wobbling all over the place. but would it really have taken much for you to put me at ease just a little?!

all i wanted was a 'don't worry, your front tooth is very unlikely to fall out anytime soon' or a 'your fear of being a toothless bride is a silly one'.

but no. instead, you spend 30 seconds pulling my tooth from side to side, loosening it even further, you swear at your computer for being unable to read the x-ray, and then you let me know, with no sensitivity whatsoever, that there is a possibility that my tooth may fall out with no explanation as to why.

london dentists are mean and useless.

my home town is 2 hours away but i am taking a train there tomorrow morning to see a real dentist.

even if she tells me the same things, at least she'll do it nicely.

my first self-made dress

after a number of saturdays spent crouched over my wonderfully shiny and new sewing machine, i have finally finished my dress!

i'm so excited because, believe it or not, it is actually wearable!

sure, the zip isn't completely straight and one pocket is ever so slightly larger than the other, but for a newbie, i think the results are pretty good.

i have to confess, i'm actually kinda proud of myself.

the only other dress i've made was in a class - and, if i'm being honest, the teacher took control of most of that. i really didn't think i could do it on my own. but yippee! i really did manage it.

and, most importantly, making it was so much fun! i cannot wait to get back down to the fabric shop and start all over again.