Twickenham here I come!

Today was pretty crap until precisely 17:29.

To give you a gist of my mind numbing Thursday it basically involved me sitting at my desk staring blankly at my computer screen with zero inspiration for the problem I was trying to solve. After several failed attempts (and after slipping into my spurs and Stetson and writing possibly some of the worst programming code of my life) I conducted a swift DIY lobotomy on myself with a sharpened pencil and then hastily cancelled a hotel in Edinburgh and re-booked myself into an apartment in Manchester - which, as you will probably know, isn't exactly handy if you want to spend the weekend tossing cabers and laughing at drunken Scottish tramps.

Anyway, after getting into a right radge and causing my friend Nicola to have a small nervous breakdown (as she is accompanying me on my trip to Edinburgh), I received the best news I've had in a long time.

I was just about to shut down my crappy steam-driven computer and go home and sulk when an email irritatingly pinged into my inbox. I hate it when that happens. Nine times out of ten it turns out to be a pesky client with a super urgent ID.10T issue which I have to stay late and solve. But not tonight. Oh no. Tonight, my 17:29 email from was from a lovely chap called Mike Bidgood at the Leeds Carnegie ticket office, who was writing to kindly inform me that my name had been drawn in the ballot, and I am one of the chosen few who gets the opportunity to buy tickets for....

wait for it...

ENGLAND VS NEW ZEALAND AT TWICKENHAM!!!

Oh, and to make things even better, apparently I can buy tickets for the England vs Australia game too.

:-)

YESSSS!

This is brilliant for two reasons:

1. I have never been to Twickenham to watch an England international game before. I did go in 2005 to watch Leeds lift the Powergen Cup (remember that one Bath fans?) but other than that, securing tickets to watch England at the home of rugby has been about as easy as finding anyone who thinks X-Factor's John and Edward are talented. (Seriously? Who is voting for those high-haired jeb ends?)

2. If you even vaguely know me you will know that I have a massive interest* with New Zealand's fly half, the ever sexy and amazing Dan Carter.

(* I prefer to say interest and not 'obsession' as it stops me from sounding slightly stalky, and plus Dan doesn't have a restraining order out on me - that I know of).

I think this calls for a rather gratuitous pic of Dan Carter playing with a ball:

I am one very happy bunny at the moment, as is my Dad (who is coming with me) and my boyfriend (who isn't and will therefore get a weekend of peace and quiet.)

Oh, and to top it all off, after work I *accidentally* went into town and bought myself a new handbag. Well, there was 10% off so it would have been rude not to!

So there you go: after a totally wank start this was probably one of the better Thursdays I've ever had. Maybe I'll start looking forward to the 17:29 emails a bit more in future....