One Whole Year

Huzzah huzzah! Today officially marks a complete 365 days since I opened my laptop and published this blog post. You don't have to click the link, it basically just says some weird, largely incoherent stuff about how I've forgotten how to be a human being after completing my final year of uni and that I was now, with my new found free-time, super committed to like blogging and stuff. Words. I'm great at them.

Obviously, I ten-thousand percent was all like "yeah, this is going to last for about five minutes and then I'm going to run out of inspiration and give up". But alas, this was not to be a repeat of the Professor Layton Nintendo DS game which I gave up on after I couldn't complete level five, this was to be different. Mucho mucho different.

And lo-and-behold, 113 blog posts later, here we are. Happy unofficial first birthday, Life as Eleanor! What, if the Queen's allowed to do it, why can't I? So, to mark this exciting day, I've complied a list of some of my favourite blog posts from the last year. Some of them even make sense.

1. That time I announced my comeback tour (and 100% did not believe a word I wrote about sticking to it)


2. That time my two best pals and I explored Albufeira, in the sunny sub-continent of Portugal


3. That time I went to Bill's for breakfast and ate pumpkin seeds on eggs benedict 


4. That time I contemplated what I'd learnt in my twenty-one years of life


5. That time I had a birthday


6. That time I had a monstrous afternoon tea and almost passed out


7. That time I got a job and kickstarted my career *dances*


8. That time I admitted I'd become middle-aged


9. That time I graduated while wearing sky high heels 


10. One of those times where I shared a sneak-peak into my daily working life


11. That time Windsor dressed up in its Christmas finery


12. That time I decided to make some resolutions for the new year


13. That time I admitted that I am so totally not a morning person


14. That time I went to the London Coffee Festival


15. That time the Queen of England turned ninety and let everyone know about it


16. That time we all realised I have a thing with Wisteria

Happy birthday, Life as Eleanor. Time to drink champagne and dance on the table!

~ Eleanor xo

Email Jargon Decoded

AKA "what I say versus what I mean"

Account handling is about 95% writing, receiving, categorising, refreshing and reading emails. The other 5% includes stuff like: meetings, serious discussions, phone calls, briefing documents, squealing over engagement announcements and running around and chasing things*. Not literally chasing things, metaphorically chasing things.

*this probably is in no way accurate but you get what I'm saying.

In a world where people would rather cut off their own arm than pick up the phone to discuss things ear to ear, email writing has become an art form. And by 'art form' I mean, where what you type on your keyboard is probably much more diplomatic than what your brain wants you to say. And by 'probably' I mean, almost definitely. And that's where #EmailJargon comes in...

1. "Please let me know if you require anything further on this"
I'm really hoping you won't require anything further on this, and that if you do, next-to-no effort is needed from me.

2. "Thanks for sending this through" / "Thanks for the feedback"
Right so now we've got the British pleasantries out of the way, let me tell you a thing that you probably aint gon like in a follow up three paragraphs.

3. "Hope this all makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions"
There's a high chance I won't know how to answer them, but you're certainly welcome to try.

4. "Thanks for flagging"
I'm glad one of us is awake.

5. "So sorry, this seems to have been trapped in my outbox"
You and I both know that this is a ginormous lie, but we've all been there, so let's do as we do and act like this is totally what happened.

6. "That’s no problem [I'll do this/sort this/whatever else this now]"
It is a problem, but I'll still do this/sort this/whatever else this now.

7. "I look forward to catching up with you then"
Sometimes I mean this, sometimes I don't.

8. "Apologies for any confusion!"
I'm not one-hundred percent sure what I'm apologising for, but at least this way you won't think I'm a ginormous dick.

9. "Hope that’s ok!"
It better bloody be!

10. "Hope this helps"
I know this will help. Please don't act like it won't.

11. "As discussed previously [...]"
We both know that neither you nor I can properly recall the discussion I'm referring to, but I want you to know that I remembered because for some reason that feels important.

12. "I look forward to hearing your thoughts"
Only if they're good thoughts. Please don't let them be bad thoughts. Please also don't let them be bad thoughts that you'd like me to rectify at 5:29pm on Friday.

~ Eleanor xo

Disclaimer: The above is all totally satirical and I in no way mean to offend or make myself look like an ass to work with. I love my job and what I do.

Springtime in Windsor

Other potential titles include: 'Wisteria Tour of Windsor', or the delightfully more fun, 'Windsor Wisteria Hysteria'. Try saying it out loud. Ah, so satisfying.

Ok, so I don't know all that much about cults, but I'm beginning to think that the most notorious cult in Windsor requires its members to pledge their allegiance in the form of wisteria creeping up the front of their house and draping over their doorway. I mean, what other explanation could there be for all the wisteria? Aside from the fact it looks HELLA CUTE AND ADORABLE OMG. Not to mention the scent, am I right?

Also, please appreciate these photos because I think I may've got myself on the Windsor's Most Wanted list for lurking outside all these beautiful properties and taking photos of them. Sometimes I just wanna grab all those passersby and residents by the collar and say "I'm not planning a burglary, I swear, this house is just too pretty not to put all over the internet, do you get what I'm saying??????". But then I realise that doing so would probably make the situation even weirder so I put my head down and hurry off. Looking even more guilty.

~ Eleanor xo