TOTAL MORGANISATION AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!

I can hardly contain myself I am so happy and excited. Yes, we are now engaged to be married. It is wonderful! It was our year anniversary at the weekend and I had always said to Phil that anniversaries are more important than, say, Valentines Day as it is a unique day for us. So we had always said we’d do something special, but I didn’t expect that special! It was a complete surprise, as he had been totally throwing me off the scent. Only a few weeks ago he was saying, he wasn’t ready for the commitment of engagement and two years of going out was the right time for him to propose. I think I actually asked him what he’d say if I’d propose and I think he said he wouldn’t like it as that’s his job. He’s quite traditional and romantic like that. But, as he’s a terrible liar he had told me he’d got me an expensive present, so I was quite excited anyway. I’d roped in people at work to help me guess what it was, telling them that it wasn’t an engagement ring as he had said he didn’t want to get engaged. So based on his clues (could fit it in a skip, it was ‘heartfelt’, and I might not like the package) the best guess was a rowing machine. They also came up with a waterbed and a Nile cruise. The reality was much, much more amazing! Not only a propsal of marriage from the person I'm incredibly in love with, but the most bling diamond solitaire you could find – a carat with a hexagonal setting on a platinum band. Absolutely gorgeous. And I have a certificate which shows the pattern of the cuts – which is beautiful in itself. He went down on one knee at ‘Mr UnderHill’s’ in Ludlow, where we’d gone on a gastro-camping extravaganza, after I presented him with some significantly cheaper Art Nouveau gold plated cufflinks. I suppose the correct thing to do is cry, but I couldn’t stop laughing I was so happy! It was the happiest day of my life (so far) as I’m hoping my wedding day will beat it, not to mention taking my children home for the first time! Of course, I said of course straightaway. He is the most wonderful person in the world and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. Thanks Gorgeous and I love you very much!

Tattontastic Morganisation! xxx

Significant presence

I had managed to stop counting my blessings for the past three days as I was still buzzing from visiting the Houses of Parliament. It was so amazing – a feeling of togetherness, unity, ‘solidarity’ (mentioned three times on their platform!) with the nurses. Then we went to the lobby, a wonderful historic room with glistening stained glass windows with seven gothic passageways off the beautifully tiled central area, with us lobbyists sitting on lovely sofas waiting for our MPs. It is no wonder that the beautiful Noun begat the verb, ‘to lobby’. It was busy with nurses seeing their MPs, campaigning to save the NHS from all over the country (England that is). The lobby is very church-like, with mosaics of the four saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales in New Romantic style. Virtually as soon as the mosaics were finished, they must have been out of date I thought to myself, thinking about the Bloody Sunday protests of 1916. How much of history is interpreted correctly even if every word in the houses of parliament was documented? There were statues of the eighteenth and nineteenth prime ministers; no female subjects of course, apart from angels on the arms of the saints. The impact of women, apart from the nurses and angels was evident only from the damage a suffragette had done by chaining herself to one of the statue’s swords. But the very fact that I was sitting there, as John Reid, the new Home Secretary was being interviewed – the Health Secretary did not lose her job – gave me confidence. I am a part of history and not insignificant. My ‘leaders’ at work talk about ‘Change Management’. I create change – and in a good way.

"We will fight any compulsory redundancies tooth and nail"

Not the words of Hatton or Tatton, but Catton. Howard Catton, Head of Policy at the Royal College of Nursing yesterday afternoon. I couldn't believe my ears, then three other Nursing big wigs mentioned the word 'solidarity' on the platform. Perhaps my blog should be called 'Attontastic'.

How to become ridiculously peed-off in one evening

I wasn't really peed-off at the weekend, but one thing that was incredibly irritating was that Amazon rejected my brilliant review of 'How to become ridiculously well read in one evening'.

I wrote a limerick which Phil's brother and his mate contributed to (it was a team effort) and then, Amazon won't publish it! I don't know what the world's coming to.

Here it is:

I once read a book by E Parrott
It quaffed well like a good claret
T’was written in the eighties
And was a bit dated
But don’t agree with A Woollard, ‘e says it ain’t shit hot

I would put in the website address but still don't know how to.>IS this it?