I've been made redundant - I'm not dying!

Redundancy doesn't mean you're crap at your job.

Honest.

I have been made redundant. I could have looked into redeployment, but I decided to take the money and run with it for three months... hopefully I can get another job at the same company - hope HR don't read this posting!

I wasn't shocked by the redundancies made - all seven of them - because I saw that the mags were not doing well and I expected it.

What I didn't expect was how difficult OTHER PEOPLE in my department would find it to speak to me as normal - or even just ask me if I was ok. One guy was very sweet and sent me an email basically saying that the powers-that-be were insane to even contemplate letting me go (thanks M, cheques on its way to you!).

Freelancers that I have booked over the year went out of their way to ring/email me with their condolances - and I was very touched by that. Hell, they didn't need to do it - no need to suck up to me for shifts when I'm leaving - so I was particularly touched.

But some people I'd had deep and meaningful conversations with in the kitchen, even tentatively arranged to go out for lunch etc can't sink their heads further into the carpet when they see me coming. Either that or their heads are flopping like an ostrich that's been kicked in the neck... that's the bit I don't get.

"I'm still alive," I want to say to them. I almost feel like giving them a hug for feeling so uncomfortable for MY redundancy.

What an experience.

Katie From the Apprentice and Her Showdown on GMTV Because of Her Affair

I can barely sit still while I write this. Never in my life did I imagine that a contestant from BBC show The Apprentice would ever have an impact on me - let alone be the subject of a blog posting.

But I have to say, I don't think there are many people like ruthless Katie, whatever her surname. Ok, I know she's called Katie Hopkins, but my annoyance about her behaviour made me stall.

I watched GMTV on Wednesday morning as Fiona Phillips grilled her about her sacking and, being an avid GMTV viewer, I knew Fiona was going to give her a tongue-lashing about her supposed affair with a married man - she's just moral like that.

It's just as well I'm not a cup-of-tea-in-the-morning kind of girl, or I would have choked when Fiona basically told Katie that her employers hadn't banked one her being caught naked in a field with "someone else's husband".

My sides just about manage to stay intact with the laughter. But I know where Fiona is coming from. I try not to be judgemental in my everyday existence (ok, so I lie a little), but my thing is... if you know the guy is married, and that you are under the media microscope because of your bitchy persona, why the hell would you be in a field naked with a married man? So you might like the whole open spaces thing, but what did you think it would do to your career?

Was her employer right to sack her? I don't know. But I do know that that married guy's wife must sleep an extra hour at night, knowing that the bitch who stole her husband, or at least caused her more embarrassment than anyone deserves in matters of infidelity, has been exposed and shamed.

If I were her, I wouldn't even feel the need to take scissors to my husband's suits or stitch prawns in his lapels. That would be enough for me! Wiping that smug grin off the posh, rhino-faced cow's face. Justice indeed!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/tm_method=full&objectid=19284444&siteid=89520-name_page.html

Don't You Feel Just a Little Bit Sorry for Paris Hilton?

Yes, I hear many of you say "hell know" to a question about feeling sorry for Paris Hilton and her latest jail fiasco.

Like many people I thought she was getting "celebrity treatment" when I read that her 45-day sentence had been cut to half of that for good behaviour - BEFORE she had even set foot in that jail. Hey, maybe it's some psychic power that the judge had, but how did he know she would be good? Had he had any reference form a previous jailer? Hmmm

Yes, I thought it was all a farse when I read that she would be in solitary confinement for 23 hours each day, and that she was being put onto a special wing. In my mind, she may not be eating at top celeb haunts, maybe her butler wouldn't be on hand, but I had images of sitting in her pinked out cell, putting on her make-up, laughing and joking to Lindsay Lohan or someone on her mobile, and basically not living like the rest of the prisoner.

Then I read she'd been released after just three days for some serious illness...
again the whole celebrity treatment thing came to mind, and I shrugged it off. It actually didn't surprise me. I was more surprised that she had actually made it into jail in the first place.

BUT, when I heard Paris had been sent back to jail, wailing "Mom, Mom..." http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/tm_method=full%26objectid=19269214%26siteid=89520-name_page.html and that she was now really going to serve the full 45-day sentence, I was shocked. My heart actually sank, and I did feel really sorry for her!

Poor cow...