I have not been feeling great the past couple of weeks, nothing serious, just a total sickness of winter and bad weather... every time it looks as though it is going to improve, the weather has a relapse. We even had snow this week, and right now it is raining heavily, with a strong wind, so any idea of a Sunday walk is out. I may go out for a drink later with Giulia, my Italian colleague, who is returning from Rome today - normally she has the same weekends off-site as I do, and we travel to Schiphol together on those Fridays, but she has been kept at home all week for family reasons.

Yesterday I went to the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle, and I bought myself a few presents, as it was my birthday. Well, a lot of presents actually, including five Blackbird Designs Reward of Merit charts (new ones from Nashville!), some Kelmscott Elizabeth scissors, some French General patchwork fabric, a few issues of "Handwerk Zonder Grenzen", a Dutch magazine I really like, and the latest SANQ. It was very crowded of course, as these things always are, and it took me about three hours to make the rounds - I've got quite a list of shops to go and visit at a later date. I really enjoyed it, and thanks to Harmien for alerting me to its existence!

I did need cheering up, because work has been really dire. There are a couple of people there who are, frankly, unpleasant. They do things like verbally savaging their colleagues, which is bad enough, but in front of the client as well, which is a no-no. Of course the client manager reported this to our manager, and we all got hauled in to explain ourselves. The three of us who were the savagees, so to speak, were honest about our thoughts, in the face of some more savaging from the two colleagues, who I think have probably dropped themselves right in it with the boss. If I were her, I would be having a word later with one of them in particular, whose manner was so incredibly aggressive.

We don't normally have these problems on our projects, but this one is different...... sigh...... I wonder how long I will have to stay here?

Amazingly I have managed a bit of stitching, although I haven't photographed it - I am about halfway through Mademoiselle Paris, but will not get it finished by the end of February, which I had thought I might.