Aidan Williams - High Acuity

Here are some phrases I’ve said over the last month that have all worked (note: one or two of the names may be changed to protect the innocent):

A text message sent to my flatmate David at 10am, hungover on a Saturday morning:

“David, be a good lad and rustle me up a full English breakfast with a nice big cup of tea. Thaaanks!”

I called him half an hour later to suggest we go out for our usual Saturday morning coffee and he had walked all the way to the supermarket to buy all the ingredients for a full English breakfast!

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Friday afternoon email to the whole company. (Note: We have ten minute professional massages on Thursdays in my company):

“I didn’t get a massage this Thursday, so could anyone who gives a half decent massage come give me one?

Preferably female and hot.

This includes (in no particular order): [list of all the female staff… and one of the directors]”

I got two great massages from one of the designers and one of the account managers – awesome!

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A request to a friend at work one afternoon, as he’s walking past my desk:

“Sanj, be a good boy and make me a cup of tea…” – I hand him my empty mug – “None of that cheap shit the rest of you guys drink – make sure it’s Earl Grey.”

He looks me in the eyes, p*ssed off, but still does it!!

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Last Friday email to the company receptionist at 5pm:

“Rachel, be a good girl and grab me an ice cold beer from the fridge, please.

Cheers.

Aidan”

She brings it, holding it in the way a game show hostess displays the mystery prize, while I continue working – excellent!

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I’ve probably completely ruined the magic by mentioning all this on my blog, but it’s worth it to document it and remember later.

It should be duly noted that most of these people are close friends and have an almost jesus-like tolerance for my idiotic behavior. I make absolutely no guarantees that trying any of this won’t get you beaten up or maimed. You have to keep a stupid smile on your face and make it absolutely obvious that you’re being a complete wanker, when you make these requests.

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Happy Birthday Chorna!! It was Chorna’s birthday on Friday - we’ll all be going to London Zoo next weekend to celebrate!

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We’ve had two barbecues over the last two weekends – the weather has been incredible – is it summer already!?

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Last Friday we had a going away party for our longest standing Account Manager, who joined roughly six months after I did. We’ve worked together a lot over the past two years and she’s heading over to New York to head up our offices out there, next Wednesday. She’s an absolutely incredible woman and always gets things done. I’m not sure quite how we’ll deal without her, but hopefully she’ll only be a phone call away.

We had a great night at Trailer Happiness - a cocktail bar modelling itself on an upscale trailer park – which strangely enough had some of the most expensive cocktails I’ve seen since I came to London.

Good luck!

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Work has been extremely busy; I’ve been doing the front end development for an international fashion brand and spent Friday doing Flash work for luxury hotel brand.

I had a great, extremely productive and relaxing Easter Break; I got all of the work done that I wanted to, saw family and friends, and spent a lot of time with my girlfriend.

I fell asleep in St James’ Park with my girlfriend on Friday - I love that place. We walked around and ate in a new restaurant we found near Piccadilly called Galileo’s . It has the best Italian food we’ve had in London so far.

Thanks to all those who sent Easter wishes, including those from America – sorry I haven’t spoken to you guys in so long!

On Wednesday night, one of my work colleagues and a close friend, Katie, took me out for a belated birthday meal at an Argentinean steak house; Cavas De Gaucho, near Piccadilly Circus - winner of Time Out’s Best Steak Restaurant award in 2006. It has the most amazing selection of Argentinean beef and a brilliant selection of wines - the menu of which contained full details of each wine including the height of the vineyard above sea level - apparently the higher the vineyard, the better the wine. It’s a relatively expensive restaurant, but well worth the price, provided you can put up with the annoyingly loud lounge-bar style music - not great if you want to chat - although the live jazz band was quite good when they played later in the evening. The décor of the restaurant is quite interesting - a strange eclectic mix of modern design with lots of randomly placed black and white cow hides. I had a great time with Katie, chatting and catching up - we’re so busy at work we rarely get to tactually talk. She’s an incredible, kind woman, and a lot of fun.

I decided to stop doing anything healthy for me, lately - I stopped going to the gym a couple of months ago, ran out of my vitamins (and didn’t buy new ones), ate more fast food when arriving home late, have been drinking a lot more, and have had a few very stressful weeks at work. The result was a pain on the right side of my chest on Friday, which I’ve had three times before (roughly once every 9 months) in the past couple of years. It only ever happens when I’ve stopped exercising, taking vitamins, eating well, and have been very stressed. I went to the doctor about it the first time; she told me I was stressed, exhausted, should join a gym, take vitamins, eat properly and take time to relax. As soon as I did all that, the pain disappeared, each time I’ve had it. I usually treat it as a warning that I’ve been too stressed and need to relax and rest a bit.

I won the Above & Beyond Award at work for the third time on Friday. I’m very grateful to those who voted for me.

My girlfriend and I had lunch with my siblings and their significant others at my sister’s house today. We’re not going to get to spend Easter together, so this was our family Easter gathering. I love my niece so much - she’s grown so much too! She’s six months old now. When I walked in, my sister held her up to me and she grabbed my face and started smiling with her beautiful big wide blue eyes staring at me - I love seeing her smile. We shared some stories and laughs, I danced around with my niece a bit, we ate and then my girlfriend and I headed off for a quiet Sunday in with our friend David.