Back in London again!

I'm back in London for Kymani and Elias's first birthday, feeling extremely excited about being here and all the people I'll be seeing and the things I'll be doing. I was in a fabulous mood at work yesterday. Quite a few people came into KSAR and my sparkly mood was on full display. I put it all down to excitement of London. On my way to the airport, I thought back to how I'd been feeling when I'd been going to the airport 3 months earlier, on my last trip back. It really is amazing how things can change in the space of a few months.

When I came back in July, my time running up to it in Ibiza had been difficult. I'd been struggling with intense bouts of homesickness, wondering if the move I'd made was worth making if all the people I loved and cared about were somewhere else. You sit there trying to make sense of what you're feeling, how to deal with it, what to do. Nothing concrete had fallen into place with work either which added to the feeling of "is this really what I'm meant to be doing?". I was equally excited then about coming back but it felt different, very different. I was unsure about my future, knowing I had to make a decision about whether to stay in Ibiza or not. I was aching to see my friends, maybe to remind myself that I do have the ability to find the most amazing friendships wherever I may be! Three months ago, my friendship with Ruby and Jenna was still in fledgling stage - three months down the line, my best friends from Ibiza are two of the people I'm most excited about seeing!

Things fell into place with Alberto and work once I returned to the island. It's gone on from there in leaps and bounds, so much so that this trip back includes a couple of work meetings. Now that I know what I'm doing, I can focus my attention on doing that to the best of my ability. Work is proving to be the challenge that I need, that I thrive on and Alberto is an absolute joy to work with. Once again, I know I've lucked out in a major fashion here - after working with Richard Spring at the British Ukrainian Society last year, I didn't think I'd find someone I enjoyed working with so much, so quickly - the stakes had been set quite high. But in Alberto I do find that. Although he's very different to Richard in many ways, there are still similarities that explain why we work well together.

After a couple of decades of working with some truly inspiring, remarkable individuals, I've come to realise that I work best with people who share a similar work ethic to me, display the same drive and determination and an expectation of exceedingly high standards. Our backgrounds may be completely different and we may move in very different social circles, but having the same work ethic means we work fantastically well together. This has been proved to be the case in most of the consulting work I've done. I always seem to find myself working with fully paid-up members of the Conservative party and I can reel off a list of highly inspiring individuals who have placed enormous faith and belief in me - yet our political views are vastly different. It doesn't matter, there's a job to do and we get on and do it as brilliantly as we can. In the world of work, it really is about how the person works, not their political/religious/social preferences (although there are certain qualities that I'd find impossible to work with, even if we shared the same work ethic).

I've also just moved into a large, light-filled 2-bedroom flat above KSAR. I've never lived in a space that feels so big on my own. At present it's a mess as I moved in late on Monday, packed for London on Tuesday night and then flew last night so no time to get things straightened. But at least I'm out of the shoebox and into somewhere that will feel more like a home. It also meanst that friends can come and stay and there's a spare room for them.

Right, I've got to go and call Kymani and Elias to wish them a happy birthday and see if I can go and see them today to give them a birthday kiss and hug. When they were born a year ago, I was in Ibiza on a recce. When the text came through that Claud and Matt had two beautiful little boys (and this is long before I was asked to be one of the godmothers), I was so excited that in my excitement I ended up kissing my phone with the text on it. I'm sure it looked a bizarre sight, girl sat in bar with friends, gets text on phone, jumps around in excitement and starts kissing the phone! At least this year I'll get to cover them in kisses in person!