Just like that!

My work has very defined cycles. Our unit is responsible for two meetings a year - one in July and the other in December - for which we prepare two very large reports each. Preparation for the December meeting has already started and workload begins to build-up from September onwards. This week has been pretty hectic already but I have to admit I now realize that I really do enjoy the build-up. Assuming all goes to plan (!) I get quite a buzz out of putting it all together in time for the meeting, and that in turn, strangely, gives me more energy at home to get things done. I suppose it really boils down to "if you've got nothing to do, you usually can't be arsed to do it!"

On a slightly different note, ever since my divorce I have been wanting to revert to my maiden name, but was just so put off by the sheer volume of paperwork that that will entail. In the UK you can actually change your name easily by Deed Poll, but of course once that is done everything else has to follow on - new passport, new bank account names, new driving licence etc. It's all the rest that was making me drag my feet to be honest.

Anyway, back to the original subject. I work very closely in the build-up to our meetings with C, and to be honest, we couldn't do it without him. For as messy as his office is, he must have a brain like a computer because somehow or other he just pulls it all together. On Wednesday he and I worked on over 300 excel files in order to have them ready to be sent out for verification. As you can imagine, it was a helluva job, if only because of the wear and tear on our eyes.

Around 19h I said "look I've got to give my eyes a rest - how about we take a 10 minute break". He said "fine, I'll just go off to the loo and see you in 10". So while he was gone I again clicked on the Deed Poll site. It just seemed so easy to go ahead and change my name so I thought "sod it, let's just do it". Within less than five minutes I had filled in the necessary information, put in my credit card number and ordered five original certificates of my changed name. These should arrive within two weeks. It is perfectly legal and as of now my name has legally changed - I just have to do the follow-up!

When C came back after 10 minutes he asked what I had been looking at and I told him that in the time it had taken for him to go the loo I had legally changed my name. He couldn't believe it so I showed him. I told him he'd better not go to the loo again or I might decide to get married!!

It is actually quite scary I suppose because I had every right to change my name to anything I wanted and of course, as I said to my friend, I could have put her name and date of birth in and I would effectively have become her!! I did put under "comments" that I was simply reverting to my maiden name, but in any case the Deed Poll office doesn't question it, as long as the new name is not considered to be outrageously ridiculous!

So in the words of the great Tommy Cooper, I have now changed my name

JUST LIKE THAT!