Sunday Summary | Your whisky, sir. And one for the ... road. Lovely.*

* Chocolatey prize due to the first person to place the paraphrased quote in this week's SS title! Answers to be posted here please (or if you're not a Facefriender, by text/WhatsApp if you know my true identity, mwahahaha ...).

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This week, I have mostly been ...

Reading

Excellent, another novel full of characters with absolutely no redeemable features.

Call me picky (who, moi?!) but I'm a little 'over' the literary trend for anti-heroes.

I want protagonists about whom I can give a flying frog.

... Time to reread The House of Mirth, perhaps?

{See, Lily-Bart-era Gillian Anderson, she approves}

Watching

Grey's Anatomy

... Against my better judgment, damp little puppy-boy George O'Malley is growing on me. A little like mould, admittedly, but I'm warming to him.

This whole sequence, though, from Season 2:

... I should not have watched right before bed.

And poor Christina-Ricci's-wet-behind-the-ears-paramedic left with her hand holding a bomb inside a body cavity (until she understandably wigged out and Moany Meredith took over).

As yer do.

Ahem.

... Oh and Izzie. IZZIE.

YOU IDIOT.

Fall for a patient (a patient with truly noteworthy dimples) then try to kill him just to get him a donor heart, would you?! Fool. FOOL.

{She's not alone in that, fella.}

{See? Idiot.}

... I'm way too invested in this 11-year-old season.

I have also been watching ...

Clouds of Sils Maria

A very strange film.

Not negatively so, just ... strange.

As ever, the trailer is misleading -- just putting that out there.

Actor Maria (Juliette Binoche) holes up in a Swiss cabin with her awkward yet oh-so-hip assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart) to prepare for a role in a play in which she played the younger character 25 years previously.

Not a lot happens. Also, not negatively so.

But there is a natural, amicable chemistry between the two women that keeps the momentum going. (Binoche is infinitely watchable in whatever she does, especially this where she is a wonderfully 'Sad Ham' taking her craft just a little too seriously.)

Also, epic scenery.

I also tried watching Wild ...

but y'know, the magic of the book was in the lyricism of Cheryl Strayed's writing. And as much as I appreciate an opening scene that involves

***POINTLESS SPOILER ALERT***

Reese Witherspoon (Without-'er-spoon) having to tug off a dislodged toenail (I feel ya, sister), the film lacks the engagement of the book itself.

Think I'll park that one and move on to Eat Pray Love instead.

Leaving, On a Jet Plane Southern Train

{Last evening commute | See, I like the river ...}

... and managing to use the expression "totes emosh" only once on the actual day on which I left work for the last time on Friday.

{0652 selfie ... | Scary.}

All right, not all work forever, just my current -- er, now past -- workplace.

It was truly odd.

I had the strangest compulsion yesterday to log in to my work emails (why?!), and the realisation that I'll probably never catch the 0646 to CLJ followed by the 0739 to SPB, or the 1653 to CLJ and the 1727 home again is still only just beginning to set in.

My Work Peeps gave me a week of splendid sendoffs, from an inadvertent (i.e. completely unintentional) nod on Monday during the cake sale:

to lunch on Wednesday with team-friends Sarah and Charlotte at the Garden Bar:

{Quesadillas, apparently vying for a role in an 80s romance
movie | #softfocus #greasylens}

{Winesday treat}

and again on Thursday with former-manager-friend Catherine, and even a cheeky cookie-and-coffee break with Martin (my 'work husband' of yore).

Then, finally, on Friday, I was treated to a scrummy raspberry Danish by my train-buddy Tiffany.

(... I like food, what more can I say?)

The official sendoff shenanigan (can a shenan be singular? Well, it can now) was top-notch, complete with the wonderful if suitably embarrassing-but-not-mortifying speech (yes, I'm into glitter, camels, Sheldon Cooper and hats, but none of these is a real surprise if you've worked with me for almost nine years, so all is well).

Young Katie, Queen of Bake-offs, made a whole plate of B biscuits:

and my workmates gave me leaving gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh beautiful stationery (notebook and pen in two of my signature colours), a voucher to buy myself a fabulous new bag for the new job:

{Er, maybe not this one ... | Too weird even for me}

a truly beautiful necklace:

and an amazing leaving card, in homage to Ant and Bee:

Love it. Love it. I also received gifts from two of my friends -- fluoro paperclips and some beautiful herringbone earrings from Pritty (the lady responsible for curing my hands and my cold) and a so-very-apposite mug:

(there's definitely a theme here, isn't there)

{Yes, Oprah, we geddit ...}

and a working-week's supply of chocolate from Catherine.

Thank you all. Muchly. I shall miss you crazy people.

My leaving drinks are this week, so photos of us all looking a little ruddy-faced, and me hugging people in typical awkward fashion will follow. But as last days go, that was a pretty darn good one.

I should leave places more often.

Pinterest Pin of the Week

{... but if you are, it is | thanks to Monika for sharing this}

Weekly Web Finds

Appeal: Can anyone suggest a new, fun source of links (away from Facebook)?

• Goldsmiths to honour 'Topsy and Tim' creator Adamson | on The Bookseller
• NSFW** WARNING! | 29 Kids' Books with Innuendo ... | I definitely recognise number 11 from many years ago! | on Dose.com | (Some of these are just disturbing on many, many levels ...)
• Joanna Goddard of 'A Cup of Jo' lists 8 Instagram accounts worth a follow | via here

Feeling a lot of love for Dean the Basset hound ...

{via here}

And finally: 

• Ma QB, I think I've found my 2017 walking challenge ...

** Not Suitable for Work

Big shout-outs and squishy stuff to my now-ex-workmates -- you know who you are, and I hope to see you on Wednesday evening for drinkness, and hopefully no spillages of red wine on white shirts, ahem ...

Also to Charlie and Jos (just 'becos'), to Fernikins, to Jess (get better soon, no more gastro-pyrotechnics, please), and to my bay-ootiful bestest Natalie (who sent me that letter I've been waiting for and it was magnificent and now I need to reply, don't I, such is letter etiquette!) and to Georgina for sending me hilarious messages and streams of quirky emojis. Cow Monkey Cow Camel Bee Camel Alien Live-Long-and-Prosper-Hand-Gesture Wine Poo Pink Heart Purple Heart Tornado Smiley-face-with-heart-eyes to you.

(This all makes sense if you use WhatsApp. Trust me.)

qb xx