I live in Southampton in the UK and most days I take a 20 minute walk to the office through three of Southampton's parks and via Starbucks - so I'm quite lucky, I guess.  But this is England and it rains, so it's easy to be lazy and I drive it fairly often.

I've been with Skandia for just over seven years, and I've been in my current job as PR manager for about a year.  I take care of media relations with UK-based and some international media on behalf of Skandia UK, Skandia International and Skandia Investment Group (three of Skandia's five divisions).  The PR team works with these divisions to plan their media communications strategies to build and protect the reputation and brand of our business.

I get into the office around 9am and stay until I've run out of oomph - which is at least 5pm, I should point out!  The nature of PR work means we have to be flexible with our time.  The media work to very tight deadlines, which sometimes means staying at the office until the job is done - irrespective what time it is.  We also often host events with journalists.

At lunch time, I usually pop out and grab a sandwich or salad from somewhere nearby - though we do have a restaurant in the building too.  One of the perks of the job though is taking journalists to nice restaurants in London, but if I have more than two lunches or dinners in a row, I start to feel the need for something lighter and more simple - like a bowl of cereal.  (Weird, I know).

'Typical' working days don't happen very often around here! Working across divisions of Skandia means being in touch with a large number of journalists both here, in the UK, and further afield.  I spend a lot of time in London, an hour and a quarter away from Southampton, where most of the UK media are based.

This variety is exactly what I enjoy most about my job, as well as the relationship building.

Skandia's sailing sponsorship has been a great opportunity to let journalists see a different side of our business and we take advantage of the regattas and yachtsmen and women we sponsor to offer the media some exciting press trips both in the UK and further afield.

Everyone at Skandia in the UK is a member of the Skandia Sailing Club, which organises sail days and longer trips in the summer months.  Being on the coast is really convenient and makes it easy for us to get out on the water so in my free time in summer, I love to go sailing.