I’ve had some fun today. We’re preparing for our annual awards bash and this year’s theme is Wild, Wild West.

Last year we got ‘ticked off’ for not going in costume ourselves (well really, the theme was carnival and I wasn’t getting togged up in feathers and a bikini for anyone). So, this year I chose a theme that I knew I could participate fully in….. Today, we went to get our outfits. I am going in my favourite dressing up gear….a buxom bar girl with a red hooped dress, frilly petticoats and lots of cleavage!!! I’m looking forward to it no-end. I’ve always loved dressing up and rarely get a chance these days so I’m going to have a great time.

I get to go on stage and present the awards so it suits my natural predisposition for er, well how can I put it, showing off!!!

After choosing our costumes, I had to take photos to ‘grain up’ for the ‘Wanted Posters’ that will be part of the event’s staging. I took this one of Ewan and Ginny looking a bit like Bonny and Clyde. The version for the poster is slightly less cropped and has grain added but is the same basic shot.

Ginny and Ewan are the heart of my OTC team. They concentrate on medicines that are available to buy rather than needing a prescription for and this team is very special to me because it is the team I founded eleven years ago when I joined the company.

My colleagues are (pretty much) all a fantastic bunch as I’ve remarked before but these two have a special place in my heart because they work on OTCs and because of that, compared to the other teams, I work most closely with them. Ginny is the third member of her family to work for me, her mother worked for me when I joined, her sister worked for me in her holidays when she was a student and when I got Ginny’s CV for a job, I knew if she had half of the spark about her that her mother and sibling had then she’d go far. I put my faith in her and it has been rewarded a hundred-fold. Not just because she’s great at her job but also because she’s been one of my firmest friends since we started to work together. We got divorced at around the same time as one-another and supported each other through the tears and the joy that we both experienced at that time. When one of us was down the other was up and that helped to pull the other one back up again. Without her support I may not have survived the bleak times. I like to think she got as much from me as I got from her.

Ewan? What can I say! He’s gorgeous, funny, nice and highly intelligent as well as being good at his job. He’s a pleasure to work with and a pleasure to be with. I feel honoured and proud to be his colleague and his friend.