I missed the 'elbow bump' memo at a work lunch | Cheryl Gibbs

It probably didn’t help that I went to London this week for a work lunch, which was the first time I had set foot in the Big Smoke since a week before giving birth to our daughter Harley.

However, this week has been challenging.

It was great going to London, dressing up for once and meeting people in the three-dimensional world, but in the attempt to look good I didn’t dress appropriately.

I was so cold that when I got to my meeting and shook the director’s hand, I momentarily forgot about how unsocial the act of touching someone was. I immediately scrubbed my hands to the ‘Happy Birthday song’.

The director, concerned on feeling how freezing my hands were, said to me: ‘Oh my Cheryl, are you okay?’

He proceeded to ask if I’d like a drink, which was lovely of him, but it wasn’t the impression I wanted to give.

We had a wonderful lunch at a posh restaurant in Soho before I made my way back to Waterloo – only to see the dreaded screen of train departures flash to tell me my train had been ‘cancelled’.

The fast train back to Petersfield had been cancelled.

I legged it to platform 14 to jump on the slow train, which, while not ideal, would at least get me home.

Wrong.

We only made it a couple of stops before the announcer told a packed-full train that the relief driver hadn’t turned up and we should wait.

What felt like an eternity later, the announcer said we needed to leg it to another platform to catch the train to Haslemere, where the train would stop. That was a minor problem, my car was in Petersfield.

I had to get a taxi from Haslemere to Petersfield at a cost I’d rather not remember. When I finally got home it was three hours after I had left our lunch. I will not be prioritising face-to-face meetings in the city any time soon.

Sex and the City just isn’t the same now Samantha’s gone

I started watching the new Sex and the City series on Sky this week. I have to say, I wasn’t overly impressed.

It just didn’t feel like Sex and the City series we’re all used to.

Perhaps it was because Samantha, played by actress Kim Cattrall, wasn’t in it and they made a blinding point at the beginning of the episode.

They cited that in the series they had a feud, when in reality it was in real life – allegedly of course.

Perhaps it didn’t feel right because Chris Noth, who plays Mr Big in the show, is under investigation for rape (just an allegation at this point), but it felt a bit awkward and staged.

The new series just didn’t have ‘it’ – ‘it’ being what the original made it a global sensation.

An unexpected location for a lively night out thanks to Elio

I went on a rare night out last Friday with both my sisters and their husbands to Four London Road at Horndean – my favourite place to go. Luckily, it’s just up the road from us.

It was probably 10 years ago that the six of us went out on our own and it was so lovely – not for my poor mum mind you, she had all the young ones overnight.

What I love about Four London Road is the buzz.

Don’t get me wrong, the food is great and the cocktails just as good (especially the trio of Mojitos), but it has such a vibe that is often unexpected of Horndean.

The manager, Elio, has become more of a friend to me now – he’s always happy!

I want whatever he’s doing to have that buzz about me!

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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