Well well well, it's a loooooong time since I wrote a blog, I feel quite out of practice. This isn't going to be a proper blog though because the reason I stopped writing so often still stands, I don't really have anything else to say. I am aware that this has not stopped me in the past... but I figured no-one was really bothered to read about nothing and I couldn't be bothered to write about nothing!
So why am I writing now? Mostly just so the poor old blog page doesn't feel neglected. But also because some new stuff has been going on since... errr.. Christmas:
1. We had a fancy dress party last term and I went as a pirate (of course). It was fun.
2. I have actually begun to vaguely enjoy watching football... the effect of six years with Timothy Marjoribanks and being the good girlfriend and going with him to match after match. Last night I went to see Man-U-Barca and almost got lynched. The barnam spilled my beer all over me too when Barca almost scored. Was funny.
3. I am coming back to England in just over 5 weeks and I am mucho excited.
4. I have no more time to write now because I have to go to a class that I am fairly sure will be unbelievably frustrating as I watch the teacher exercise almost no discipline over the students who will be paying absolutely no attention to her and acting as if she massively inconveniences them every time she interrupts their conversations to ask a question. It's a shame because she's a lovely person.
5. Bye.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas. Duh.
Christmas. Duh.
It's almost the end of Christmas Day. I know everyone will have had such different days. I don't actually want to say anything in my own words. I am going to acknowledgingly steal someone else's words that are beautiful. These are the words of Jamie, from an organisation called To Write Love On Her Arms:
Much of life is a gift: Friendship. Laughter. Community. Conversation. Hope. Love. We hope this Christmas, and in the days that follow, that you get some time to appreciate the greatest gifts, to mourn for things gone missing, to begin to let go where you need to, and to fight for the things you're supposed to.
We're part of a surprising story. Bigger than ourselves and older than time. It is a redemption story.
Merry Christmas. It's all about love. x
It's almost the end of Christmas Day. I know everyone will have had such different days. I don't actually want to say anything in my own words. I am going to acknowledgingly steal someone else's words that are beautiful. These are the words of Jamie, from an organisation called To Write Love On Her Arms:
Much of life is a gift: Friendship. Laughter. Community. Conversation. Hope. Love. We hope this Christmas, and in the days that follow, that you get some time to appreciate the greatest gifts, to mourn for things gone missing, to begin to let go where you need to, and to fight for the things you're supposed to.
We're part of a surprising story. Bigger than ourselves and older than time. It is a redemption story.
Merry Christmas. It's all about love. x
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
What I have discovered.
I didn´t blog last week because I had nothing to say.
This week isn´t much different. I had a great weekend in Santander with Oli and Hannah, but when I thought about writing down what we´d done it didn´t really sound so exciting. So I´m not going to bother.
Instead, I´m going to tell you a few things that I find interesting about life here. You might not find them interesting. Tough, I´m writing them anyway.
1. At the gym, when we have to hold our arms straight out to the sides at shoulder level, they call it "cruz". As in, "put your arms in a cross". Evidence of the deeply ingrained Catholicism.
2. You know that stupid, (but hilarious) program "Takeshi´s Castle"? The one with Chinese people making tits of themselves... well here it´s called "Humor Amarillo" i.e. "Yellow Humour". Not bothered about political correctness then.
3. Skinny jeans here are called "pirate trousers". I found that funny.
Have a nice week. 10 days until I´m home! Woop.
This week isn´t much different. I had a great weekend in Santander with Oli and Hannah, but when I thought about writing down what we´d done it didn´t really sound so exciting. So I´m not going to bother.
Instead, I´m going to tell you a few things that I find interesting about life here. You might not find them interesting. Tough, I´m writing them anyway.
1. At the gym, when we have to hold our arms straight out to the sides at shoulder level, they call it "cruz". As in, "put your arms in a cross". Evidence of the deeply ingrained Catholicism.
2. You know that stupid, (but hilarious) program "Takeshi´s Castle"? The one with Chinese people making tits of themselves... well here it´s called "Humor Amarillo" i.e. "Yellow Humour". Not bothered about political correctness then.
3. Skinny jeans here are called "pirate trousers". I found that funny.
Have a nice week. 10 days until I´m home! Woop.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Peinado. (Hairstyle)
Right. Well, this is going to be short because to be blunt, I haven´t got anything to say! Just two things mainly.
First. Went to get my hair cut yesterday... I´m not sure that the desired outcome of going to the hairdressers is for the client to walk away in hysterics because of the way her hair turned out... but that´s pretty much what happened! I was prepared for it to be an amusing experience... it´s hard enough even in English to explain to a hairdresser how I want my hair, so I didn´t go in with the hightest of expectations.
To begin with I had it washed of course, and when she was combing it out she just caught the back of my conch piercing (that´s the one in the middle of my right ear for those of you who don´t know!) I must have flinched because she asked if she´d hurt me. I said no don´t worry, and then she looked and said "ah, it´s because you´ve got these" and proceeded to POKE my ear really hard! I felt like saying "well NOW you´ve hurt me you stupid woman!!!"
When I was asked how I wanted it cut I just said "a little bit shorter, but not too much, the rest is up to you." I think that´s one of the best side effects from having been completely bald.. I don´t actually care if my hair gets mucked up, it´ll grow out. Oh, and I did remember to tell her about the tattoo before she freaked out and thought I had some kind of strange skin disease.
Anyway, cutting was fine, it looks really nice and I´m really pleased with it. The funny part was when I was given my options for how I wanted it styled. "Straight, or straight with the ends flicked out". Those are my only two choices?! I just told her to do what she thought would look best, I was going to wash it out as soon as I got home anyway.
So out comes the hairdryer and the big scary brush and I´m subject to burning and pulling around until I eventually look like this:
(sorry facebook readers, you won´t see the photo I don´t think. I look stupid!)
I came away killing myself laughing. It´s all gone back to normal this morning when I washed it so it´s fine now!
The second thing I wanted to say was how I realised this morning that the word "temperature" is actually really difficult to say! It is pronounced nothing like it´s written and for the poor Spaniards, the combination of letters is probably the most difficult for them to say! We repeated it about 60 million times this morning!
Anyway. That´s all from me, nothing else is happening at all. It´s sunny today and I´m coming home three weeks on Friday.
Love and bugs.
First. Went to get my hair cut yesterday... I´m not sure that the desired outcome of going to the hairdressers is for the client to walk away in hysterics because of the way her hair turned out... but that´s pretty much what happened! I was prepared for it to be an amusing experience... it´s hard enough even in English to explain to a hairdresser how I want my hair, so I didn´t go in with the hightest of expectations.
To begin with I had it washed of course, and when she was combing it out she just caught the back of my conch piercing (that´s the one in the middle of my right ear for those of you who don´t know!) I must have flinched because she asked if she´d hurt me. I said no don´t worry, and then she looked and said "ah, it´s because you´ve got these" and proceeded to POKE my ear really hard! I felt like saying "well NOW you´ve hurt me you stupid woman!!!"
When I was asked how I wanted it cut I just said "a little bit shorter, but not too much, the rest is up to you." I think that´s one of the best side effects from having been completely bald.. I don´t actually care if my hair gets mucked up, it´ll grow out. Oh, and I did remember to tell her about the tattoo before she freaked out and thought I had some kind of strange skin disease.
Anyway, cutting was fine, it looks really nice and I´m really pleased with it. The funny part was when I was given my options for how I wanted it styled. "Straight, or straight with the ends flicked out". Those are my only two choices?! I just told her to do what she thought would look best, I was going to wash it out as soon as I got home anyway.
So out comes the hairdryer and the big scary brush and I´m subject to burning and pulling around until I eventually look like this:
(sorry facebook readers, you won´t see the photo I don´t think. I look stupid!)
I came away killing myself laughing. It´s all gone back to normal this morning when I washed it so it´s fine now!
The second thing I wanted to say was how I realised this morning that the word "temperature" is actually really difficult to say! It is pronounced nothing like it´s written and for the poor Spaniards, the combination of letters is probably the most difficult for them to say! We repeated it about 60 million times this morning!
Anyway. That´s all from me, nothing else is happening at all. It´s sunny today and I´m coming home three weeks on Friday.
Love and bugs.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Update from the Spanish Front
Well hello.
How is everyone? I am doing just fine, and have infact had quite a fun week so far. Let me fill you in since whatever-it-was day last week that I wrote before.
So. Last Friday. I went to the gym again, not really wanting to because I was tired and aching, but decided that since a)I´d paid and b)it´s good for me, I would go. It turned out to be absolutely hilarious. The teacher made it known to all the others that I´m English and they kept asking me how you say things in English, and they were all really friendly. As for the class itself... it can only be described as "baffling". At one point she told us all to get these long sticks, then said we´d be singing in English, then everyone went to the centre of the room and put the sticks together in a point, then some people starting singing this chanty thing and doing a kind of hopping-type dance, and then they all burst out laughing. I have no idea what that was about.
You know how there´s a kind of stereotype for middle-aged women who go to the gym to escape their annoying children and nagging husbands and to be all young and girly again? Well, it´s not just a stereotype. It´s true. They couldn´t stop laughing at the fact we had to do pelvic thrusts lying on our backs. But then again, neither could I! And as is becoming quite common, at the end of the class the lights were turned off and we all gently stretched to Unbreak My Heart. This included lying upside down in a foetal position. The most surreal experience of my life! And I´m going again tonight!
The weekend was chilled out and lazy. I went out to buy the paper on Saturday morning (the Torygraph I´m afraid, but the only one I can get in English, plus I like the crossword!) I made my first attempt at chocolate brownies... mixing the ingredients in a pan because I don´t have a mixing bowl and guessing what 100g of butter is because I don´t have scales. Needless to say they turned out abit rock hard! But trial and error is the way forward, I am going to try them again this afternoon. I want to give them as a present to the German beggers here. At least I think they are German, they said something that sounded very much like "danke" when I gave them bread last week.
On Sunday I went with a friend of a friend to a new church, which I loved. I have never felt so welcomed among strangers. As soon as I walked in the door I was greeted with a fierce hug by a woman I felt sure I should know, but don´t... I guess this may have freaked some people out, but it only made me feel really wanted and at home. There are quite a few English speakers there which was nice, and I chatted to lots of new people. I´m looking forward to going again next week. It does take me almost 3 hours to get there... but totally worth it.
Monday and Tuesday this week have been quite artistic. We watched Miss Potter at the weekend (in Spanish because we always do, but then I re-watched it in English because I really wanted to hear Ewan McGregor´s real voice!) and I was inspired to paint and draw. Ha ha ha I hear you laugh, yeah I know I´m not the most artistic person in the world, but it´s fun, and no-one has to see what I "create". Using that word in it´s loosest of meanings!
Other than that, my friends, life here is pretty quiet and steady. Nothing majorly exciting to report. I have been buying Christmas presents though which IS very fun. Oh and something which I find really funny about living here... individual houses don´t have their own rubbish bins for collection, what happens here is that you take all your household rubbish and recycling to "communal" bins in the street. You can´t imagine how aweful I feel doing that, it being illegal in England and all. I feel like I should be going with gloves and a balaclava it feels that wrong! But hey ho, when in Rome and all that jazz.
Well, this is too long and probably boring by now. Tootle pip.
Ugh can´t believe I just typed "tootle pip". And look, I just did it again. Loser.
How is everyone? I am doing just fine, and have infact had quite a fun week so far. Let me fill you in since whatever-it-was day last week that I wrote before.
So. Last Friday. I went to the gym again, not really wanting to because I was tired and aching, but decided that since a)I´d paid and b)it´s good for me, I would go. It turned out to be absolutely hilarious. The teacher made it known to all the others that I´m English and they kept asking me how you say things in English, and they were all really friendly. As for the class itself... it can only be described as "baffling". At one point she told us all to get these long sticks, then said we´d be singing in English, then everyone went to the centre of the room and put the sticks together in a point, then some people starting singing this chanty thing and doing a kind of hopping-type dance, and then they all burst out laughing. I have no idea what that was about.
You know how there´s a kind of stereotype for middle-aged women who go to the gym to escape their annoying children and nagging husbands and to be all young and girly again? Well, it´s not just a stereotype. It´s true. They couldn´t stop laughing at the fact we had to do pelvic thrusts lying on our backs. But then again, neither could I! And as is becoming quite common, at the end of the class the lights were turned off and we all gently stretched to Unbreak My Heart. This included lying upside down in a foetal position. The most surreal experience of my life! And I´m going again tonight!
The weekend was chilled out and lazy. I went out to buy the paper on Saturday morning (the Torygraph I´m afraid, but the only one I can get in English, plus I like the crossword!) I made my first attempt at chocolate brownies... mixing the ingredients in a pan because I don´t have a mixing bowl and guessing what 100g of butter is because I don´t have scales. Needless to say they turned out abit rock hard! But trial and error is the way forward, I am going to try them again this afternoon. I want to give them as a present to the German beggers here. At least I think they are German, they said something that sounded very much like "danke" when I gave them bread last week.
On Sunday I went with a friend of a friend to a new church, which I loved. I have never felt so welcomed among strangers. As soon as I walked in the door I was greeted with a fierce hug by a woman I felt sure I should know, but don´t... I guess this may have freaked some people out, but it only made me feel really wanted and at home. There are quite a few English speakers there which was nice, and I chatted to lots of new people. I´m looking forward to going again next week. It does take me almost 3 hours to get there... but totally worth it.
Monday and Tuesday this week have been quite artistic. We watched Miss Potter at the weekend (in Spanish because we always do, but then I re-watched it in English because I really wanted to hear Ewan McGregor´s real voice!) and I was inspired to paint and draw. Ha ha ha I hear you laugh, yeah I know I´m not the most artistic person in the world, but it´s fun, and no-one has to see what I "create". Using that word in it´s loosest of meanings!
Other than that, my friends, life here is pretty quiet and steady. Nothing majorly exciting to report. I have been buying Christmas presents though which IS very fun. Oh and something which I find really funny about living here... individual houses don´t have their own rubbish bins for collection, what happens here is that you take all your household rubbish and recycling to "communal" bins in the street. You can´t imagine how aweful I feel doing that, it being illegal in England and all. I feel like I should be going with gloves and a balaclava it feels that wrong! But hey ho, when in Rome and all that jazz.
Well, this is too long and probably boring by now. Tootle pip.
Ugh can´t believe I just typed "tootle pip". And look, I just did it again. Loser.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Purple Tree Car With Cheese
Helloooooooooooooooo.oooo....ooooooooo....oo...ooo
...ooo
...oooo
.oo
*puff*
That was a man falling off a cliff. And yes, since the last time you heard from me, I have watched Scrubs. Lots and lots of wonderful Scrubs. I went up to Santander Saturday night to see my friend Hannah and me and her flatmate discovered that we can both quote Scrubs word for word. So we watched lots of it and drank beer. It was possibly the most fun I´ve had in a long time!
But wait, there´s more... then we all got into our pyjamas and squished into Hannah´s bed and watched the BBc Pride and Prejudice until 2 in the morning. That also was a little bit too much excitement to cope with! I felt so happy and normal having so much English intake! I love watching films with Mélanie, and I love living in Spanish, but it becomes abit painful in the head every now and then and I think I needed the injection of Englishness!
Then on Sunday Hannah came down to my little mountian town for a visit. It was really fun, I took how around the whole place... in about an hour! Then we spent ages over cooking a lovely big bolognese and drank a bottle of wine, and then went to this pub that I walk past every day but haven´t had a chance to go to yet. It was really friendly and inside there was a big Guinness sign, but I forgot to ask if they actually have it. I had my usual JD and coke... half JD and half coke, I´ve never tasted it so strong! lol.
When Hannah went on Monday, after we´d pigged out on this local thing of sweet fried bread dipped in thick dark hot chocolate sauce- the best thing ever... I did feel abit lonely and low. I don´t know, it just feels like a long way to Christmas at the moment! But it´s ok, today I am going for lunch with one of the teachers which I´m really looking forward to, and then she´s going to take me up into the valley to have a look around, possibly up to the ski station because there isn´t too much snow yet for cars to get up. I´m looking forward to it because without a car it is really difficult to go see my immediate surroundings.
I´ll also be going to the gym again this week, I really enjoyed it last week. Can you believe it, that I: the very same girl who made a great song and dance about not paying her Durham sports fee because there was no way she was going to get any use out of it... have actually voluntarily been to the gym a number of times, and am planning on going much more! But I did really enjoy it, and I also discovered, quite by accident, that it´s really good for lifting your mood. I´m sure every Tom Dick and Harry in the world knows this except me, but I thought that was pretty cool. Last Friday made me laugh because she got us all lying down on the floor and I thought we were going to do those hideous abdominals, when she turned all the lights off and had us all gently stretching to that song "unbreak my heart", can´t remember who it´s by... But it made me giggle! It was also funny because I couldn´t actually see what she was doing, and so had to guess at what she was saying!
This weekend we (as in Mélanie and I) may be going to Bilbao with a teacher I have never met which could be fun! Might be nice to go away at least and I seem to remember from all those years ago that Bilbao is a really nice city.
Ooh, I have put some of my photos up on Facebook and will aim to do so on Myspace soon. I hope everyone is well, can´t really think of anything else to say. It´s very, very, very cold here.
Love and squishy bugs.
x
...ooo
...oooo
.oo
*puff*
That was a man falling off a cliff. And yes, since the last time you heard from me, I have watched Scrubs. Lots and lots of wonderful Scrubs. I went up to Santander Saturday night to see my friend Hannah and me and her flatmate discovered that we can both quote Scrubs word for word. So we watched lots of it and drank beer. It was possibly the most fun I´ve had in a long time!
But wait, there´s more... then we all got into our pyjamas and squished into Hannah´s bed and watched the BBc Pride and Prejudice until 2 in the morning. That also was a little bit too much excitement to cope with! I felt so happy and normal having so much English intake! I love watching films with Mélanie, and I love living in Spanish, but it becomes abit painful in the head every now and then and I think I needed the injection of Englishness!
Then on Sunday Hannah came down to my little mountian town for a visit. It was really fun, I took how around the whole place... in about an hour! Then we spent ages over cooking a lovely big bolognese and drank a bottle of wine, and then went to this pub that I walk past every day but haven´t had a chance to go to yet. It was really friendly and inside there was a big Guinness sign, but I forgot to ask if they actually have it. I had my usual JD and coke... half JD and half coke, I´ve never tasted it so strong! lol.
When Hannah went on Monday, after we´d pigged out on this local thing of sweet fried bread dipped in thick dark hot chocolate sauce- the best thing ever... I did feel abit lonely and low. I don´t know, it just feels like a long way to Christmas at the moment! But it´s ok, today I am going for lunch with one of the teachers which I´m really looking forward to, and then she´s going to take me up into the valley to have a look around, possibly up to the ski station because there isn´t too much snow yet for cars to get up. I´m looking forward to it because without a car it is really difficult to go see my immediate surroundings.
I´ll also be going to the gym again this week, I really enjoyed it last week. Can you believe it, that I: the very same girl who made a great song and dance about not paying her Durham sports fee because there was no way she was going to get any use out of it... have actually voluntarily been to the gym a number of times, and am planning on going much more! But I did really enjoy it, and I also discovered, quite by accident, that it´s really good for lifting your mood. I´m sure every Tom Dick and Harry in the world knows this except me, but I thought that was pretty cool. Last Friday made me laugh because she got us all lying down on the floor and I thought we were going to do those hideous abdominals, when she turned all the lights off and had us all gently stretching to that song "unbreak my heart", can´t remember who it´s by... But it made me giggle! It was also funny because I couldn´t actually see what she was doing, and so had to guess at what she was saying!
This weekend we (as in Mélanie and I) may be going to Bilbao with a teacher I have never met which could be fun! Might be nice to go away at least and I seem to remember from all those years ago that Bilbao is a really nice city.
Ooh, I have put some of my photos up on Facebook and will aim to do so on Myspace soon. I hope everyone is well, can´t really think of anything else to say. It´s very, very, very cold here.
Love and squishy bugs.
x
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Whirlwind
Hola. Hello. Bonjour. Halo. And whatever other language you feel the need to be greated in. How´s it going?
All is well from this end of the world. Isn´t that a stupid thing to say, how can the world possible have ends... it´s round. Maybe the person who thought up that saying is still living before Galileo.
So. I am safe and well back in España after my rapid trip to England. And I really do mean rapid, I feel like I need this week to recover from the craziness. The journey was in a word horrific. Far too long, and I really do not recommend staying overnight in an airport, I´m fairly sure I was beginning to hallucinate by the end of it, I´m sure I didn´t leave Reinosa in a dog sled being pulled by an army of hamsters wearing grass skirts...
For the record, I hate English trains. Both the trains I got over the weekend were screwed up. The first one because vandals had cut the signal lines at Chesterfield meaning I was 2 and a half hours late arriving into Durham, and I had to sit on the floor of the train squished right up against the door, after more than 24 hours of no sleep that just wasn´t cricket and I was in a right state by the time I arrived in Durham. I´ve never taken drugs, but I think I was close to knowing what it would feel like. I was shaking and twitching and completely hyper. Part of it was excitement of course, I´m not sure that devouring a DSU chocolate brownie was the wisest decision either!
Hound was AWESOME. I wore my beautiful shoes and the whole cheese room bowed down to worship them. Ok, so I´m pretty sure no-one noticed them, but I felt great. The music wasn´t the best unfortunately. DJ Robin felt the need to play a number of crap songs twice and completely ignore Summer of 69, Insomnia, I am the one and only and other great classics. Still, it was worth it.
On Saturday I went to Prebends Bridge and you guys in Durham do not realise how lucky you are to be there at the moment. I am not joking I almost cried when i saw the cathedral from the bridge. It´s my favourite view of my favourite building. And the autumn colours this year are incredible. Tim and I watched the football in Walkabout too which was fun, mostly for the food and all the Englishness rather than the football I have to admit! Grey fireworks on Saturday night were fantastic and the wonderful Aileen fed us with popcorn. Yum yum.
And now I´m back in my little tiny town, quite happy as well which is nice. The teachers were really interested in hearing about my weekend, and the classes this week have been really fun. The sun is shining here though the air is very very cold and even though there´s not one sign of Christmas over here, I am beginning to feel quite Christmassy. I have been wearing my poppy proudly all week and explaining that to everyone. Some of the kids were abit unimpressed that we wear paper poppies, I´d never even given that a thought before, but it´s because they´re made by kids isn´t it?
Anyways, I joined the gym and went to a "tonification" class last night, still haven´t figured out what that would be in English... "body toning" maybe. Anyways, it was fun and I was even brave enough to go on my own after the teacher I was going to go with texted me to say she couldn´t. Legs are aching abit today, but hopefully by the time you next see me I´ll be of supermodel proportions. Probably not. Oooh ooh and the most exciting thing ever is that I found Lea and Perrins in the supermarket!!!!! AND, even better, real cheddar cheese... will definitely be getting involved with some serious cheese on toast later this week.
So now I´m going to love you and leave you with two pieces of advice I´ve learnt this week.
1. If you can´t sleep, get a teddy bear. I brought Sweetie back with me and I´ve slept fine so far this week.
2. If you ever want your hair to be magically straightened forever, go talk to Nicola. I swear she has magic in her straightners as I´ve washed my hair 3 times since she straightened it and it still hasn`t gone properly curly! There will not be any photos of me at the moment, it looks horrendous inbetween curly and straight!
Bye x
All is well from this end of the world. Isn´t that a stupid thing to say, how can the world possible have ends... it´s round. Maybe the person who thought up that saying is still living before Galileo.
So. I am safe and well back in España after my rapid trip to England. And I really do mean rapid, I feel like I need this week to recover from the craziness. The journey was in a word horrific. Far too long, and I really do not recommend staying overnight in an airport, I´m fairly sure I was beginning to hallucinate by the end of it, I´m sure I didn´t leave Reinosa in a dog sled being pulled by an army of hamsters wearing grass skirts...
For the record, I hate English trains. Both the trains I got over the weekend were screwed up. The first one because vandals had cut the signal lines at Chesterfield meaning I was 2 and a half hours late arriving into Durham, and I had to sit on the floor of the train squished right up against the door, after more than 24 hours of no sleep that just wasn´t cricket and I was in a right state by the time I arrived in Durham. I´ve never taken drugs, but I think I was close to knowing what it would feel like. I was shaking and twitching and completely hyper. Part of it was excitement of course, I´m not sure that devouring a DSU chocolate brownie was the wisest decision either!
Hound was AWESOME. I wore my beautiful shoes and the whole cheese room bowed down to worship them. Ok, so I´m pretty sure no-one noticed them, but I felt great. The music wasn´t the best unfortunately. DJ Robin felt the need to play a number of crap songs twice and completely ignore Summer of 69, Insomnia, I am the one and only and other great classics. Still, it was worth it.
On Saturday I went to Prebends Bridge and you guys in Durham do not realise how lucky you are to be there at the moment. I am not joking I almost cried when i saw the cathedral from the bridge. It´s my favourite view of my favourite building. And the autumn colours this year are incredible. Tim and I watched the football in Walkabout too which was fun, mostly for the food and all the Englishness rather than the football I have to admit! Grey fireworks on Saturday night were fantastic and the wonderful Aileen fed us with popcorn. Yum yum.
And now I´m back in my little tiny town, quite happy as well which is nice. The teachers were really interested in hearing about my weekend, and the classes this week have been really fun. The sun is shining here though the air is very very cold and even though there´s not one sign of Christmas over here, I am beginning to feel quite Christmassy. I have been wearing my poppy proudly all week and explaining that to everyone. Some of the kids were abit unimpressed that we wear paper poppies, I´d never even given that a thought before, but it´s because they´re made by kids isn´t it?
Anyways, I joined the gym and went to a "tonification" class last night, still haven´t figured out what that would be in English... "body toning" maybe. Anyways, it was fun and I was even brave enough to go on my own after the teacher I was going to go with texted me to say she couldn´t. Legs are aching abit today, but hopefully by the time you next see me I´ll be of supermodel proportions. Probably not. Oooh ooh and the most exciting thing ever is that I found Lea and Perrins in the supermarket!!!!! AND, even better, real cheddar cheese... will definitely be getting involved with some serious cheese on toast later this week.
So now I´m going to love you and leave you with two pieces of advice I´ve learnt this week.
1. If you can´t sleep, get a teddy bear. I brought Sweetie back with me and I´ve slept fine so far this week.
2. If you ever want your hair to be magically straightened forever, go talk to Nicola. I swear she has magic in her straightners as I´ve washed my hair 3 times since she straightened it and it still hasn`t gone properly curly! There will not be any photos of me at the moment, it looks horrendous inbetween curly and straight!
Bye x
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly...
...on me.
No joke. The number of people who wished me luck in ´sunny Spain´before I left was incredible, and it´s just like being in Durham! Rain, cold, rain, wind, rain... did I say rain? It hasn´t stopped raining for ages and what´s worse is that it isn´t proper rain at all, no, it´s "that fine rain that soaks you right through". In the imnortal words of Peter Kay.
But, life goes on. I need to buy me some more rain clothes, but apart from that it´s all fine and dandy. The weekend was my first full weekend in Reinosa which was fun. It´s nice being all lazy in the mornings and just reading and watching kids´TV! Then on Saturday night the library had a kind of open day type event that ran from 5pm on Saturday evening until 5am on Sunday morning. Somehow gaining an hour in the middle as the clocks went back.
I went for most of the middle part where they had a traditional singer who had the most beautifully clear voice, and she sang some really beautiful songs. She played a tamborine/drum thing amazingly, and there was a clarinetist with her (who turned out to be an English teacher and spoke French too!) and some of the songs had guitar accompaniement too. My favourite song was about the miners and a woman singing about watching them every day going down and then up and then down and then up ("bajar y subir. Subir y bajar y bajar y subir") Thought I´d put the Spanish in to make me look good. Then they had some poetry reading which was beautiful. It was a little strange when they had food because Mélanie and I found it really hard to pluck up the courage to speak to anyone. I find it hard enough in England! But then one of the teachers from the school came along and it was easier with her to be introduced to people etc.
This week is all fine so far, we´re watching Harry Potter with the year 9s. I realised it is actually years since I saw the first film and it looks so old now! But it´s funny all the same, and Ron has a very strong London accent which I´m fairly sure he doesn´t in the later films... I´ve been doing lots of reading and studying for next year and I´m feeling quite smug. I´m sure the novelty will wear off sooner or later. And today I finished reading Swallows and Amazons and I really wish I was living on an island in the middle of a lake in the Lake District!
I´m going back to England this Friday (in case anyone hadn´t noticed!) and I´m very much excited, Planet of Sound on Friday and lots of good times I´m sure. I´m going to bring back Marmite for them to eat. Mwah ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa. I bought a can of Baked Beans the other day too, I don´t even like them that much it just felt like I wanted to eat something very English! They were wonderful!
Anyways, as you can probably tell that is about all the news I can think of right now. If you´re in Durham/Harrogate then I can´t wait to see you this weekend, if not then sorry, and I can´t wait to see you whenever I next will! lol.
I hope all is well with everyone else and it´s not raining as much in England as it is here!
Love x
No joke. The number of people who wished me luck in ´sunny Spain´before I left was incredible, and it´s just like being in Durham! Rain, cold, rain, wind, rain... did I say rain? It hasn´t stopped raining for ages and what´s worse is that it isn´t proper rain at all, no, it´s "that fine rain that soaks you right through". In the imnortal words of Peter Kay.
But, life goes on. I need to buy me some more rain clothes, but apart from that it´s all fine and dandy. The weekend was my first full weekend in Reinosa which was fun. It´s nice being all lazy in the mornings and just reading and watching kids´TV! Then on Saturday night the library had a kind of open day type event that ran from 5pm on Saturday evening until 5am on Sunday morning. Somehow gaining an hour in the middle as the clocks went back.
I went for most of the middle part where they had a traditional singer who had the most beautifully clear voice, and she sang some really beautiful songs. She played a tamborine/drum thing amazingly, and there was a clarinetist with her (who turned out to be an English teacher and spoke French too!) and some of the songs had guitar accompaniement too. My favourite song was about the miners and a woman singing about watching them every day going down and then up and then down and then up ("bajar y subir. Subir y bajar y bajar y subir") Thought I´d put the Spanish in to make me look good. Then they had some poetry reading which was beautiful. It was a little strange when they had food because Mélanie and I found it really hard to pluck up the courage to speak to anyone. I find it hard enough in England! But then one of the teachers from the school came along and it was easier with her to be introduced to people etc.
This week is all fine so far, we´re watching Harry Potter with the year 9s. I realised it is actually years since I saw the first film and it looks so old now! But it´s funny all the same, and Ron has a very strong London accent which I´m fairly sure he doesn´t in the later films... I´ve been doing lots of reading and studying for next year and I´m feeling quite smug. I´m sure the novelty will wear off sooner or later. And today I finished reading Swallows and Amazons and I really wish I was living on an island in the middle of a lake in the Lake District!
I´m going back to England this Friday (in case anyone hadn´t noticed!) and I´m very much excited, Planet of Sound on Friday and lots of good times I´m sure. I´m going to bring back Marmite for them to eat. Mwah ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa. I bought a can of Baked Beans the other day too, I don´t even like them that much it just felt like I wanted to eat something very English! They were wonderful!
Anyways, as you can probably tell that is about all the news I can think of right now. If you´re in Durham/Harrogate then I can´t wait to see you this weekend, if not then sorry, and I can´t wait to see you whenever I next will! lol.
I hope all is well with everyone else and it´s not raining as much in England as it is here!
Love x
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
No Imaginative Title
...can´t think of a vaguely interesting title today so you´ve got that one!
All is still going well in now-not-so-sunny-Spain... the past few days have been FREEZING and as we´re still too stingy to pay for heating, but have the keep the windows open abit because of the damp, I feel just like being back in our lovely student house! I´m sleeping with a hoody and thick socks on at the moment, but I think I´m going to talk to Mélanie my flatmate about putting it on in the evenings!
I went shopping in Santander last weekend with my friend Hannah which was fun, I bought a BEAUTIFUL new pair of shoes, I´m not exaggerating, everyone is and will be extremely jealous of me. Then we watched the rugby which was funny. I am fairly sure that there was only one pub in the whole city showing it, so crammed inside was everysinge English speaker in the city! We got there late and so had to watch the first half from outside the window! Then we got inside for the second half and it was good fun, a good atmosphere! Good match, shame we lost though.
This week´s lessons are all going well so far, thery´re having a few exams this week so I get a few hours off! Hee hee. The students are all good fun, I really enjoy being here, sometimes it´s frustrating that I can´t take over and actually be the teacher, sometimes I don´t think they are strict enough! lol, I wonder if I would be one of those really aweful teachers that the kids hate because they are so strict? I don´t think so, I´m too daft. They always laugh at me here because I act things out when they don´t understand. Last week I had to take certain poses so that they had to guess what I was feeling, or what message was being sent. For example I stood rolling my eyes with my arms folded and tapping my foot... they thought it was funny.
There´s not alot else going on here, but I do want to write something about the TV program I saw part of last night. I don´t know what it was called, but it was about the trafficking of girls into the sex trade. Many were being intervied about their horrendous experiences. Mélanie said that they don´t have any information on this in France because it´s too much of a ´tabboo´subject. I´m not going to start slagging off the French, but that, and the program made me feel sick. Once again I feel totally helpless. I was sitting on my bed, in my nice little flat, in this nice little town, I have a nice little job, and a nice little family. The effect of this is two fold on me. I feel overwhelmingly grateful for all the things that I do have. I know I take my life for granted far too often, and last night I was reminded again, forcibly of the things that I do have.
Of course, the flip side to this is a pure disgust and anger at the world that I am a part of. There is nothing I can do right now for those girls though every fibre of my being wants to go and take them all out of the horrific nightmares they are forced to live and give them a new life, and hope, and love. Because I know that there is more, that there is hope. I am angry at the people who have become so monstruous as to buy and sell humanity, I feel compassion for them because they too must be severely damaged to be able to do the things they do. I feel anger. I felt sick watching a young pretty Romanian girl crying as she recounted how she was treated.
Bought.
She was owned by someone else. Nobody should EVER be "owned" by another human being. It´s atrocious. Her life will never be the same again. She has deep, deep wounds and I can´t help but wonder if they will ever be healed.
I prayed last night. I prayed for God to use me to make this right. To bring justice. I know that the pain that I feel is a tiny fraction of the anguish God suffers when he sees all his children being treated so abominably. I know that he needs people to DO something. He needs people to do more than nod and smile sympathetically and say "yes, I know, isn´t it terrible what´s happening in some other part of the world". He needs us to take a good look at ourselves, to stop being so addicted to our own spheres, our own lives and our own selfishness and he needs us to do something.
That something, for me, I don´t know what it is yet. I don´t know what I can do from Spain. I feel trapped here, but I know that I can and will do something. I pray that one day every single human being on this planet will know that they are loved. Will know that they are not alone. Will know that they are valued, and needed and respected. I pray this knowing that there is God who can hear me, and I pray this knowing that I am also guilty of not loving other people, not respecting other people, not treating other people with the dignity they deserve.
As I was falling asleep last night I wrote a poem about a girl who believed she was being taken abroad to a better life, only to find out that she had been sold as a prostitute. I shouldn´t write things in my head as I fall asleep because now I don´t remember it. But I wrote it all the same. Maybe it will come back to me at some point.
I hope that this hasn´t bored you, and if it has then I hope it was because of my bad writing and not the subject. I can´t think of anything that makes me more angry than this and I hope that you can feel that with me, and help me to do something.
Thanks for listening (reading).
Until next time from Spain.
x
All is still going well in now-not-so-sunny-Spain... the past few days have been FREEZING and as we´re still too stingy to pay for heating, but have the keep the windows open abit because of the damp, I feel just like being back in our lovely student house! I´m sleeping with a hoody and thick socks on at the moment, but I think I´m going to talk to Mélanie my flatmate about putting it on in the evenings!
I went shopping in Santander last weekend with my friend Hannah which was fun, I bought a BEAUTIFUL new pair of shoes, I´m not exaggerating, everyone is and will be extremely jealous of me. Then we watched the rugby which was funny. I am fairly sure that there was only one pub in the whole city showing it, so crammed inside was everysinge English speaker in the city! We got there late and so had to watch the first half from outside the window! Then we got inside for the second half and it was good fun, a good atmosphere! Good match, shame we lost though.
This week´s lessons are all going well so far, thery´re having a few exams this week so I get a few hours off! Hee hee. The students are all good fun, I really enjoy being here, sometimes it´s frustrating that I can´t take over and actually be the teacher, sometimes I don´t think they are strict enough! lol, I wonder if I would be one of those really aweful teachers that the kids hate because they are so strict? I don´t think so, I´m too daft. They always laugh at me here because I act things out when they don´t understand. Last week I had to take certain poses so that they had to guess what I was feeling, or what message was being sent. For example I stood rolling my eyes with my arms folded and tapping my foot... they thought it was funny.
There´s not alot else going on here, but I do want to write something about the TV program I saw part of last night. I don´t know what it was called, but it was about the trafficking of girls into the sex trade. Many were being intervied about their horrendous experiences. Mélanie said that they don´t have any information on this in France because it´s too much of a ´tabboo´subject. I´m not going to start slagging off the French, but that, and the program made me feel sick. Once again I feel totally helpless. I was sitting on my bed, in my nice little flat, in this nice little town, I have a nice little job, and a nice little family. The effect of this is two fold on me. I feel overwhelmingly grateful for all the things that I do have. I know I take my life for granted far too often, and last night I was reminded again, forcibly of the things that I do have.
Of course, the flip side to this is a pure disgust and anger at the world that I am a part of. There is nothing I can do right now for those girls though every fibre of my being wants to go and take them all out of the horrific nightmares they are forced to live and give them a new life, and hope, and love. Because I know that there is more, that there is hope. I am angry at the people who have become so monstruous as to buy and sell humanity, I feel compassion for them because they too must be severely damaged to be able to do the things they do. I feel anger. I felt sick watching a young pretty Romanian girl crying as she recounted how she was treated.
Bought.
She was owned by someone else. Nobody should EVER be "owned" by another human being. It´s atrocious. Her life will never be the same again. She has deep, deep wounds and I can´t help but wonder if they will ever be healed.
I prayed last night. I prayed for God to use me to make this right. To bring justice. I know that the pain that I feel is a tiny fraction of the anguish God suffers when he sees all his children being treated so abominably. I know that he needs people to DO something. He needs people to do more than nod and smile sympathetically and say "yes, I know, isn´t it terrible what´s happening in some other part of the world". He needs us to take a good look at ourselves, to stop being so addicted to our own spheres, our own lives and our own selfishness and he needs us to do something.
That something, for me, I don´t know what it is yet. I don´t know what I can do from Spain. I feel trapped here, but I know that I can and will do something. I pray that one day every single human being on this planet will know that they are loved. Will know that they are not alone. Will know that they are valued, and needed and respected. I pray this knowing that there is God who can hear me, and I pray this knowing that I am also guilty of not loving other people, not respecting other people, not treating other people with the dignity they deserve.
As I was falling asleep last night I wrote a poem about a girl who believed she was being taken abroad to a better life, only to find out that she had been sold as a prostitute. I shouldn´t write things in my head as I fall asleep because now I don´t remember it. But I wrote it all the same. Maybe it will come back to me at some point.
I hope that this hasn´t bored you, and if it has then I hope it was because of my bad writing and not the subject. I can´t think of anything that makes me more angry than this and I hope that you can feel that with me, and help me to do something.
Thanks for listening (reading).
Until next time from Spain.
x
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Shape of My Heart
Oli and I decided that Sting´s song would be perfect for the soundtrack to Casino Royale. The words fit really well, go see for yourself. "He deals the cards as a meditation, for those he plays never forget. He doesn´t play for the money he wins, he doesn´t play for respect." Perfect.
Anyways. Another week in sunny Spain. Actually it has been quite nice weather recently, but what am I doing talking about the weather?! I just can´t help being English. I did buy some tea bags yesterday and then promtly drank 3 cups of tea in a row. It was like a little piece of heaven. I have real milk too, none of this UHT crap. But yes, the sun. I was in Madrid for the weekend and it was baking hot. Oli and I spent a good number of hours sleeping in parks in the sun. Saturday afternoon we were by a fountain too which was just hypnotic. Wonderful.
Madrid is great though, it´s really lively and clean and there are so many beautiful buildings. We went into the Cathedral which is ´preciosa´but still not a patch on Durham. And then we stumbled upon another church that took our breath away. I think that the presence of a choir heightened the beauty, especially when they sang Mozart´s Ave Verum, I closed my eyes and felt like I was in Mary´s little chapel again! Oli introduced me to his friends who were all realyl friendly and on Saturday night I was taken on my first real night out in Spain. As I have said, Reinosa is full of bars but it kind of defeats the point if you have no-one to go to a bar with! We didn´t even meet people until gone 10 and then sat outside drinking sangria until around about midnight, it was still really warm. We got to a club at 1.30am I think, it was called the Monna Lisa. Yes, they spelled it with 2 ´n´s. And then didn´t get home until 5am. Excellent fun.
My lessons this week have all gone well so far. Today I had a music lesson where they were learning the English names for different music styles. The students had brought in examples of music that we listened to and they all laughed at my dancing to ´Shakira Shakira´. I got very excited. In one of the English classes for year 8 I am very pleased to know that they are going to read A Little Princess, one of my favourite books ever, I think I´ll just have to buy the DVD so that they can see it too. I´m starting to think that I would really like to be a teacher, they are so much fun. But then I wonder what if I got a really difficult school, I think I would be too scared, I am far too easily intimidated. Even here they scared me until i got to know them!
Well, I think this is probably long enough, besides I really really need a wee. Ooh, I watched Edward Scissorhands last night with Mélanie and it made me cry loads. It always does but I love it. I think tomorrow I may go to the cinema to watch a realy Spanish film, I feel I should make the most of the opportunity to culturise myself. Hey I just made up a new word. Fun times.
Well, I will go now, I hope everyone is well... I officially have my flights booked and I am coming home the first weekend in November. For all those in Durham that means Planet of Sound on Friday and at least 7 smoothies in the DSU! For those not at Durham, I probably won´t see you, but don´t cry too much I´ll be home at Christmas!
Lots of love and besos. x
Anyways. Another week in sunny Spain. Actually it has been quite nice weather recently, but what am I doing talking about the weather?! I just can´t help being English. I did buy some tea bags yesterday and then promtly drank 3 cups of tea in a row. It was like a little piece of heaven. I have real milk too, none of this UHT crap. But yes, the sun. I was in Madrid for the weekend and it was baking hot. Oli and I spent a good number of hours sleeping in parks in the sun. Saturday afternoon we were by a fountain too which was just hypnotic. Wonderful.
Madrid is great though, it´s really lively and clean and there are so many beautiful buildings. We went into the Cathedral which is ´preciosa´but still not a patch on Durham. And then we stumbled upon another church that took our breath away. I think that the presence of a choir heightened the beauty, especially when they sang Mozart´s Ave Verum, I closed my eyes and felt like I was in Mary´s little chapel again! Oli introduced me to his friends who were all realyl friendly and on Saturday night I was taken on my first real night out in Spain. As I have said, Reinosa is full of bars but it kind of defeats the point if you have no-one to go to a bar with! We didn´t even meet people until gone 10 and then sat outside drinking sangria until around about midnight, it was still really warm. We got to a club at 1.30am I think, it was called the Monna Lisa. Yes, they spelled it with 2 ´n´s. And then didn´t get home until 5am. Excellent fun.
My lessons this week have all gone well so far. Today I had a music lesson where they were learning the English names for different music styles. The students had brought in examples of music that we listened to and they all laughed at my dancing to ´Shakira Shakira´. I got very excited. In one of the English classes for year 8 I am very pleased to know that they are going to read A Little Princess, one of my favourite books ever, I think I´ll just have to buy the DVD so that they can see it too. I´m starting to think that I would really like to be a teacher, they are so much fun. But then I wonder what if I got a really difficult school, I think I would be too scared, I am far too easily intimidated. Even here they scared me until i got to know them!
Well, I think this is probably long enough, besides I really really need a wee. Ooh, I watched Edward Scissorhands last night with Mélanie and it made me cry loads. It always does but I love it. I think tomorrow I may go to the cinema to watch a realy Spanish film, I feel I should make the most of the opportunity to culturise myself. Hey I just made up a new word. Fun times.
Well, I will go now, I hope everyone is well... I officially have my flights booked and I am coming home the first weekend in November. For all those in Durham that means Planet of Sound on Friday and at least 7 smoothies in the DSU! For those not at Durham, I probably won´t see you, but don´t cry too much I´ll be home at Christmas!
Lots of love and besos. x
Monday, October 08, 2007
Little Green Aliens
Today I am shattered. My eyes are barely open as I write this and I really really need an early night. But I am so dedicated to the cause of keeping you all informed on the tales and woes of my life that I am still writing this blog for your sakes. Or something to that effect. Who knows what it´s actually going to say!
I spent THREE AND A HALF hours in the foreign office this morning trying to finally get all the paper work and bureaucracy out of the way. Stupid stupid system that they have here. It´s all numbers and tickets and queues and as little contact with real human beings as possible. We were all sitting in this room waiting for our number to pop up on the board so we could go behind the blue screen to the world of freedom beyond. It felt like we were those little green alien toys in Toy Story that long for the claw to come and pick them up and take them to a better place even though they had no idea what lay on the other side. Well, eventually the claw got me and I am now fully registered in the country. Registered as what exactly I do now know. I almost got registered to vote here... I hope I haven´t renounced my British citizenship in the process!
I feel like this week has really just been all about registering. I am registered at the library, this Internet place, the DVD rental place... I have cards and certificates for everything here! But it´s good, it makes me feel like a part of the place.
I spent abit of time last week (in between the office visiting) at the beach in Santander which was lovely. It suddenly turned out to be a really sunny day and it was a really pretty beach. It´s great to have so much time to do with as I please and I know that lots of people think I´m just slacking off this year... you´re probably right. But for me it´s a great opportunity to read books I´ve wanted to for ages, take loads of photos, go for long walks, meet new people, learn new things... I may be teaching two little kids English which could be fun (and for 10 pounds an hour that´s pretty good money!)
Also for me I think this is going to be a good time to leanr something that I have always struggled with. And that´s living in the present. Here in Spain we all know that they live ´mañana´. Nothing is urgent, everything can be done tomorrow. I hate that. The inside me wants to do EVERYTHING. Right now. Sorted. Done. Over with. You simply cannot do that here. You have to live each day as it comes. I once read something that I think is worth sharing.
"God is a big fan of today. That´s why you keep waking up in it. You have made your request known for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that is today. Today is the best place to live."
For years I have lived my life either in the past - full of regret, or in the future - full of longing for something else. A very wise friend of mine once reminded me of this ´Kat, don´t spend your life wishing time away, you´ll wake up one day and find your wish has come true.´
If I can come home from Spain having learnt that and only that, I think that my time here will have been worth it. Easier said than done!
I hope everyone is well, and that you didn´t mind my diversion into philosophical thinking! Please do comment on these blogs if you want to!
I miss everyone lots and lots.
Love x
I spent THREE AND A HALF hours in the foreign office this morning trying to finally get all the paper work and bureaucracy out of the way. Stupid stupid system that they have here. It´s all numbers and tickets and queues and as little contact with real human beings as possible. We were all sitting in this room waiting for our number to pop up on the board so we could go behind the blue screen to the world of freedom beyond. It felt like we were those little green alien toys in Toy Story that long for the claw to come and pick them up and take them to a better place even though they had no idea what lay on the other side. Well, eventually the claw got me and I am now fully registered in the country. Registered as what exactly I do now know. I almost got registered to vote here... I hope I haven´t renounced my British citizenship in the process!
I feel like this week has really just been all about registering. I am registered at the library, this Internet place, the DVD rental place... I have cards and certificates for everything here! But it´s good, it makes me feel like a part of the place.
I spent abit of time last week (in between the office visiting) at the beach in Santander which was lovely. It suddenly turned out to be a really sunny day and it was a really pretty beach. It´s great to have so much time to do with as I please and I know that lots of people think I´m just slacking off this year... you´re probably right. But for me it´s a great opportunity to read books I´ve wanted to for ages, take loads of photos, go for long walks, meet new people, learn new things... I may be teaching two little kids English which could be fun (and for 10 pounds an hour that´s pretty good money!)
Also for me I think this is going to be a good time to leanr something that I have always struggled with. And that´s living in the present. Here in Spain we all know that they live ´mañana´. Nothing is urgent, everything can be done tomorrow. I hate that. The inside me wants to do EVERYTHING. Right now. Sorted. Done. Over with. You simply cannot do that here. You have to live each day as it comes. I once read something that I think is worth sharing.
"God is a big fan of today. That´s why you keep waking up in it. You have made your request known for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that is today. Today is the best place to live."
For years I have lived my life either in the past - full of regret, or in the future - full of longing for something else. A very wise friend of mine once reminded me of this ´Kat, don´t spend your life wishing time away, you´ll wake up one day and find your wish has come true.´
If I can come home from Spain having learnt that and only that, I think that my time here will have been worth it. Easier said than done!
I hope everyone is well, and that you didn´t mind my diversion into philosophical thinking! Please do comment on these blogs if you want to!
I miss everyone lots and lots.
Love x
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Hello World!!!
Well hello there. I am still alive!!! And so far everything is going well here in sunny Spain. I have so much to say and it would actually take far too long to say it, so I´ll just try to keep to the bare minimum. Anything beyond that would probably bore the socks offf you anyways!
So. Here I am. I have an address, a bank account and this week I´m going to make the difficult and dangerour trek to the nearest city to get my official national insurance number so I can be paid. I can´t believe that it´s all unfolding before my eyes. This whole "year abroad" lark has been talked about for literally years and now it´s actually happening. And has actually happened. It´s crazy.
But everything is good. I spent my first day at the school today. The teachers are lovely and friendly and welcoming and they invite me to have coffee with them at break time and one of them offered to take me to the ski slopes sometime (yay!!) I feel almost at home already. The students are great too. I´m helping with years 7,8 and 9 and their level of English is fantastic. I have to say it, but way better than our equivalent in England. Shameful on us, but good for me because it´s more interesting! They were asking me questions today and I got all kinds of random ones. It´s actually quite hard to think on the spot of who I would like to be for a day, or who I think is the most beautiful person in the world, or what I would change about myself if I could change anything... I know, they got quite personl!!!
I´m sharing a flat with the French assistant from the school and she´s really lovely too. Easy going and quite amiable, I think we´ll get on well, I am glad to have company but to also be able to speak Spanish all the time. Our little flat is lovely, it´s all new and pretty and I am loving doing my own shopping and cooking my own food and being all independant!
Reinosa itself is a nice little place. I think that the centre is a little smaller than the centre of Durham but it´s abit more spaced out in terms of the shops etc so it feels smaller. It´s a friendly place though and last weekend they had a big fiesta so we got to see all the traditional costumes, the parade with bulls, donkeys, bagpipes (!) singing, dancing, huge dogs pulling little carts... etc. And on Sunday evening they had a huge stage with an awesome band in the main square. The first piece was a slow jazz thing with an amazing trumpet and trombone duo going on.
I am drinking lots of ´cafe con leche´ as they do here, and it´s only 60p! It´s great, I feel all "continental". I buy bread on the way home from school in the mornings, I drink their amazing hot chocolate - Cola Cao, I eat tea really late, and I´m watching the OC every day at 7pm. I really think that this is going to be a good year. I am so relieved because as most people know I so did not want to come. I hated the training in Madrid, and didn´t want to be here, and was scared about how it would all turn out. I turned up here in Reinosa without even a hotel and here is how everything has worked out. The God I believe in is truely looking after me, I cannot deny that. I would not be this happy and calm otherwise I know that for sure. He is an amazing God and I love him!
I´m going to go now this is too long! Sorry! I will send out my address and mobile number in email form... not a good idea to post it on the internet! lol. I hope everyone is well and it´d be great to hear from you even if I can´t get round to replying personally to everyone. Lots of love and besos.
xxx
So. Here I am. I have an address, a bank account and this week I´m going to make the difficult and dangerour trek to the nearest city to get my official national insurance number so I can be paid. I can´t believe that it´s all unfolding before my eyes. This whole "year abroad" lark has been talked about for literally years and now it´s actually happening. And has actually happened. It´s crazy.
But everything is good. I spent my first day at the school today. The teachers are lovely and friendly and welcoming and they invite me to have coffee with them at break time and one of them offered to take me to the ski slopes sometime (yay!!) I feel almost at home already. The students are great too. I´m helping with years 7,8 and 9 and their level of English is fantastic. I have to say it, but way better than our equivalent in England. Shameful on us, but good for me because it´s more interesting! They were asking me questions today and I got all kinds of random ones. It´s actually quite hard to think on the spot of who I would like to be for a day, or who I think is the most beautiful person in the world, or what I would change about myself if I could change anything... I know, they got quite personl!!!
I´m sharing a flat with the French assistant from the school and she´s really lovely too. Easy going and quite amiable, I think we´ll get on well, I am glad to have company but to also be able to speak Spanish all the time. Our little flat is lovely, it´s all new and pretty and I am loving doing my own shopping and cooking my own food and being all independant!
Reinosa itself is a nice little place. I think that the centre is a little smaller than the centre of Durham but it´s abit more spaced out in terms of the shops etc so it feels smaller. It´s a friendly place though and last weekend they had a big fiesta so we got to see all the traditional costumes, the parade with bulls, donkeys, bagpipes (!) singing, dancing, huge dogs pulling little carts... etc. And on Sunday evening they had a huge stage with an awesome band in the main square. The first piece was a slow jazz thing with an amazing trumpet and trombone duo going on.
I am drinking lots of ´cafe con leche´ as they do here, and it´s only 60p! It´s great, I feel all "continental". I buy bread on the way home from school in the mornings, I drink their amazing hot chocolate - Cola Cao, I eat tea really late, and I´m watching the OC every day at 7pm. I really think that this is going to be a good year. I am so relieved because as most people know I so did not want to come. I hated the training in Madrid, and didn´t want to be here, and was scared about how it would all turn out. I turned up here in Reinosa without even a hotel and here is how everything has worked out. The God I believe in is truely looking after me, I cannot deny that. I would not be this happy and calm otherwise I know that for sure. He is an amazing God and I love him!
I´m going to go now this is too long! Sorry! I will send out my address and mobile number in email form... not a good idea to post it on the internet! lol. I hope everyone is well and it´d be great to hear from you even if I can´t get round to replying personally to everyone. Lots of love and besos.
xxx
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Lost and Found
My brother just bought the Cars soundtrack and naturally I nicked it.
There is a beautiful song by Brad Paisley called Find Yourself. Here are the words to begin with:
When you find yourself
In some far off place,
And it causes you
To rethink some things.
You start to sense
That slowly you're becoming someone else
And then you find yourself.
When you make new friends
In a brand new town,
And you start to think
About settling down,
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell.
And you find yourself
That's when you find yourself.
Well you go through life
So sure of where you're heading,
And you wind up lost
And it's the best thing that could happen.
'Cause sometimes when you lose your way
It's really just as well.
'Cause you find yourself;
That when you find yourself.
When you meet the one
You've been waiting for,
And she's everything
That you want and more,
You look at her
And you finally start
To live for someone else.
And then you find yourself;
That's when you find yourself.
We go though life
So sure of where we're heading,
And then we wind up lost
And it's the best thing that could happen.
Sometimes when you lose your way
It's really just as well.
Because you find yourself;
Yeah that's when you find yourself.
That chorus, the bit in italics, I love that. It IS cheesy I know, but think about it. Sometimes it takes something really scary to shake you up and make you realise what's really going on. I was also thinking about what happens when you do get lost, as is really lost not metaphorically lost.
You basically have three choices:
1. Just sit in one place and either cry and complain that you'r lost or wishfully hope that eventually someone will come find you (unlikely btw)
2. Wander randomly around and wishfully hope that you'll eventually find your way to where you should be (again, unlikely)
3. Make and rational plan, ask othere people and set off determined to actually find your way.
Like I said, cheesy and a simplistic analogy. But one that I can't help giving at least some thought to all the same.
There is a beautiful song by Brad Paisley called Find Yourself. Here are the words to begin with:
When you find yourself
In some far off place,
And it causes you
To rethink some things.
You start to sense
That slowly you're becoming someone else
And then you find yourself.
When you make new friends
In a brand new town,
And you start to think
About settling down,
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell.
And you find yourself
That's when you find yourself.
Well you go through life
So sure of where you're heading,
And you wind up lost
And it's the best thing that could happen.
'Cause sometimes when you lose your way
It's really just as well.
'Cause you find yourself;
That when you find yourself.
When you meet the one
You've been waiting for,
And she's everything
That you want and more,
You look at her
And you finally start
To live for someone else.
And then you find yourself;
That's when you find yourself.
We go though life
So sure of where we're heading,
And then we wind up lost
And it's the best thing that could happen.
Sometimes when you lose your way
It's really just as well.
Because you find yourself;
Yeah that's when you find yourself.
That chorus, the bit in italics, I love that. It IS cheesy I know, but think about it. Sometimes it takes something really scary to shake you up and make you realise what's really going on. I was also thinking about what happens when you do get lost, as is really lost not metaphorically lost.
You basically have three choices:
1. Just sit in one place and either cry and complain that you'r lost or wishfully hope that eventually someone will come find you (unlikely btw)
2. Wander randomly around and wishfully hope that you'll eventually find your way to where you should be (again, unlikely)
3. Make and rational plan, ask othere people and set off determined to actually find your way.
Like I said, cheesy and a simplistic analogy. But one that I can't help giving at least some thought to all the same.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Time for another rant...
Right. Seeing as I've gotten on abit of a roll with the rants, here's another one for you. Everything I say here is coming from my own personal experience and opinion and precisely because I'm about to rant, I may say some things that people disagree with. There's no offense meant and if anything I do say does offend then you have two options. Either a)talk to me about it, I like to discuss things and won't have a problem with people who disagree with me or b)get over the fact that other people having opinions has offended you.
Ok. So, the bottom line is that I hate the NHS. I know alot of people hate the NHS for various reasons that I won't go into. I am extremely grateful that our country provides free healthcare. I think it's appaulling that countries like the USA don't and I have seen first hand what it's like in a country with almost no healthcare available for the really poor. So I am grateful.
What I HATE about the NHS is their beaurocratic bollocks and the fact that 'technology' has advanced so much that people aren't being treated as individuals anymore. My Grandad was saying the other day that when he was little and went to the doctors, they would look at you and ask questions and then personally make up your medicine for you based on how you were feeling/looking. Then came the blood tests. Wonderful things, and I'm not being sarcastic because sometimes illnesses can't be picked up without a blood test. No, the problem I have is when one of the top specialists in the country can look at a woman unable to feed herself and in a wheelchair and cheerily claim "good news, your blood tests are normal you can go home now". Something is very wrong there.
Not everyone knows, but my mum was inexplicably ill for about 4 and a half years and no-one could figure out what was wrong. She was the one who had doctor after doctor after doctor tell her that she must be making it all up because the blood tests were normal. Whatever normal is. Then she finally went to a private specialist who took one look at her and said she had a thyroid deficiency. She'd been tested for that already but he said that the blood tests were unhelpful if your activity dropped within the range. Basically it meant that although her tests were normal, because the range they claim to be 'normal' is so big, her thyroid activity had actually dropped loads. Thus making her extremely ill but still within the 'normal' blood test.
That specialist gave her the treatment she needed and now she's completely well again. That specialist is now in court for malpractice and will be struck off.
That is what I hate the NHS. The General Medical Council claims that it is of no relevance at all that thousands of people have got better under this doctor's treatment, the fact remains that he's treated outside of blood tests and that is malpractice. Mum's been summoned as a witness to testify for him but in reality the GMC have already made their decision. He will be struck off and anyone who would have had a hope of recovery by going to him will now have no hope.
I can't stand it when people aren't listened to like that. It's so unjust. People aren't being treated as individuals because there are a set of restrictions outside of which doctors cannot work. And I just can't get my head around how anyone can possibly think that every human being is exactly the same. It just isn't true. We are all different in everything and so logically that would follow for things like thyroid production just as much as sleep needs, vision, eating habits, allergies, energy levels etc etc etc. It's just that the power- happy money-loving monsters that have no idea about real people have just set blanket rules because it's cheaper and easier for them. With wider ranges for blood tests, less people will show up with illnesses so regardless of whether they can even function properly they can be told that they are well because the infallible blood tests say so.
There's a possibility that in the future the GMC will ban the drug that my mum takes. I dread the day when I'll have to go back to seeing her lie in bed unable to do anything for herself. And she must be one in literally thousands who will be in the same situation.
There we go. That's why I hate the NHS.
Ok. So, the bottom line is that I hate the NHS. I know alot of people hate the NHS for various reasons that I won't go into. I am extremely grateful that our country provides free healthcare. I think it's appaulling that countries like the USA don't and I have seen first hand what it's like in a country with almost no healthcare available for the really poor. So I am grateful.
What I HATE about the NHS is their beaurocratic bollocks and the fact that 'technology' has advanced so much that people aren't being treated as individuals anymore. My Grandad was saying the other day that when he was little and went to the doctors, they would look at you and ask questions and then personally make up your medicine for you based on how you were feeling/looking. Then came the blood tests. Wonderful things, and I'm not being sarcastic because sometimes illnesses can't be picked up without a blood test. No, the problem I have is when one of the top specialists in the country can look at a woman unable to feed herself and in a wheelchair and cheerily claim "good news, your blood tests are normal you can go home now". Something is very wrong there.
Not everyone knows, but my mum was inexplicably ill for about 4 and a half years and no-one could figure out what was wrong. She was the one who had doctor after doctor after doctor tell her that she must be making it all up because the blood tests were normal. Whatever normal is. Then she finally went to a private specialist who took one look at her and said she had a thyroid deficiency. She'd been tested for that already but he said that the blood tests were unhelpful if your activity dropped within the range. Basically it meant that although her tests were normal, because the range they claim to be 'normal' is so big, her thyroid activity had actually dropped loads. Thus making her extremely ill but still within the 'normal' blood test.
That specialist gave her the treatment she needed and now she's completely well again. That specialist is now in court for malpractice and will be struck off.
That is what I hate the NHS. The General Medical Council claims that it is of no relevance at all that thousands of people have got better under this doctor's treatment, the fact remains that he's treated outside of blood tests and that is malpractice. Mum's been summoned as a witness to testify for him but in reality the GMC have already made their decision. He will be struck off and anyone who would have had a hope of recovery by going to him will now have no hope.
I can't stand it when people aren't listened to like that. It's so unjust. People aren't being treated as individuals because there are a set of restrictions outside of which doctors cannot work. And I just can't get my head around how anyone can possibly think that every human being is exactly the same. It just isn't true. We are all different in everything and so logically that would follow for things like thyroid production just as much as sleep needs, vision, eating habits, allergies, energy levels etc etc etc. It's just that the power- happy money-loving monsters that have no idea about real people have just set blanket rules because it's cheaper and easier for them. With wider ranges for blood tests, less people will show up with illnesses so regardless of whether they can even function properly they can be told that they are well because the infallible blood tests say so.
There's a possibility that in the future the GMC will ban the drug that my mum takes. I dread the day when I'll have to go back to seeing her lie in bed unable to do anything for herself. And she must be one in literally thousands who will be in the same situation.
There we go. That's why I hate the NHS.
Monday, September 03, 2007
NPOWER ARE USELESS
This is how much I HATE NPower.
They are useless, pathetic, rubbish, incompetent, unhelpful, rubbish and did I mention useless?! Ugh, I am so so so fed up with them that even three months after we've moved out of the house they were suppling to I'm still not rid of their pestering.
They are like a blood-sucking leach that just won't die.
Here's a brief run-down of my/our dealings with NPower this year. October: we move into the house and set up a gas and electric account with NPower. They supplied the previous tennants so it made sense. The 'nice' man I spoke to seemed incapable of comprehending that I might not be the world's leading expert on gas and electricity and so I came off the phone non the wiser as to how much we were going to pay or when etc.
Then we get to December and although I don't remember the details (I tried to block them from my memory) we realised that no money had been taken from the Direct Debit scheme we'd set up (or thought we had at any rate). So in January I rang again and the 'helpful' lady told me that we hadn't actually set up an electricity account and did I want to there and then? I have no idea where we'd been getting electricity from for three months, and when I asked if she was going to back-charge us from October she seemed to say no because we hadn't set up an account. Whatever.
On to Easter and they send us a letter saying that our power usage doesn't match the meter readings they have for us so they're going to come round and get a meter reading themselves. The idea of different tennants year on year seems to create a 'does not compute' message with them where they just go into overdrive and start to panic. Apparantly we couldn't have a statement of usage until we'd lived there a year... having been told that we wouldn't be there a year because we are students they mumbled something incoherent and probably went to sit in a dark corner to recover from the total stress of being asked a question that didn't have an answer that a trained monkey could have figured out.
So then we leave the house and come to the point where we cancel the gas and electricity accounts with NPower to be shut of them forever. In an ideal world anyway. The first sign I had that things had not gone to plan was when they took the direct debit payment from my account after we'd cancelled our contract with them. Then they sent the bill to the Durham address instead of to Heather. A phone call today confirmed that they have no record of the account being cancelled and seeing as I don't have the meter reading here with me they're going to take an estimate and give me a final statement from that. As if. Come hell or high water I'll get them a meter reading. There is no way I'm letting them guess how much we owe them.
I'm sorry, but fucking useless. Everything they've done so far has been wrong. How is it so difficult to do something so simple?!?!?!?!?! So now I'm going to have to spend the next few days on the phone trying to fix their incompetence. The only good thing I can see is that I'll get over my phobia of phones.
So. That's how much I hate NPower. I think I'll train thousands of hamsters to run in wheels and generate my own energy in the future. Or build solar panels, or live next to a river and set up a hydro-electric system.... any one of those seems more appealling than this mess right now.
I did have a lovely holiday, it's just so depressing to have to come back to something so horrible. It's going to take ages to sort out and it'll stay on my mind until it is well and truely sorted. Wonderful.
They are useless, pathetic, rubbish, incompetent, unhelpful, rubbish and did I mention useless?! Ugh, I am so so so fed up with them that even three months after we've moved out of the house they were suppling to I'm still not rid of their pestering.
They are like a blood-sucking leach that just won't die.
Here's a brief run-down of my/our dealings with NPower this year. October: we move into the house and set up a gas and electric account with NPower. They supplied the previous tennants so it made sense. The 'nice' man I spoke to seemed incapable of comprehending that I might not be the world's leading expert on gas and electricity and so I came off the phone non the wiser as to how much we were going to pay or when etc.
Then we get to December and although I don't remember the details (I tried to block them from my memory) we realised that no money had been taken from the Direct Debit scheme we'd set up (or thought we had at any rate). So in January I rang again and the 'helpful' lady told me that we hadn't actually set up an electricity account and did I want to there and then? I have no idea where we'd been getting electricity from for three months, and when I asked if she was going to back-charge us from October she seemed to say no because we hadn't set up an account. Whatever.
On to Easter and they send us a letter saying that our power usage doesn't match the meter readings they have for us so they're going to come round and get a meter reading themselves. The idea of different tennants year on year seems to create a 'does not compute' message with them where they just go into overdrive and start to panic. Apparantly we couldn't have a statement of usage until we'd lived there a year... having been told that we wouldn't be there a year because we are students they mumbled something incoherent and probably went to sit in a dark corner to recover from the total stress of being asked a question that didn't have an answer that a trained monkey could have figured out.
So then we leave the house and come to the point where we cancel the gas and electricity accounts with NPower to be shut of them forever. In an ideal world anyway. The first sign I had that things had not gone to plan was when they took the direct debit payment from my account after we'd cancelled our contract with them. Then they sent the bill to the Durham address instead of to Heather. A phone call today confirmed that they have no record of the account being cancelled and seeing as I don't have the meter reading here with me they're going to take an estimate and give me a final statement from that. As if. Come hell or high water I'll get them a meter reading. There is no way I'm letting them guess how much we owe them.
I'm sorry, but fucking useless. Everything they've done so far has been wrong. How is it so difficult to do something so simple?!?!?!?!?! So now I'm going to have to spend the next few days on the phone trying to fix their incompetence. The only good thing I can see is that I'll get over my phobia of phones.
So. That's how much I hate NPower. I think I'll train thousands of hamsters to run in wheels and generate my own energy in the future. Or build solar panels, or live next to a river and set up a hydro-electric system.... any one of those seems more appealling than this mess right now.
I did have a lovely holiday, it's just so depressing to have to come back to something so horrible. It's going to take ages to sort out and it'll stay on my mind until it is well and truely sorted. Wonderful.
Monday, August 13, 2007
ZZZzzz
ZZZzzz
Hello hello hello! Long time no blog. I've been a very busy bee for the past few weeks. So much so I really can't be bothered to go back and update since my last blog. And I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be the most exciting thing for you either!
I just got back from 'dahn sahth' this afternoon. The theatre camp went really really well, full of crazy singing, games, fairies, hilarious videos, sore musscles from Go Ape, death metal dancing, sunshine and friends I haven't seen for ages. It's been amazing to get to know old friends more and make new friends and to learn more about God. It sounds silly but I always forget that God is so much bigger than I am. Whatever I think I know about the world, God knows more. That's what makes him God!
Then Tim and I met his family in Kent for his brother's wedding which was beautiful. They got married in a tiny little country church in the middle of nowhere, the scenery was gorgeous. Ellie's dress was really lovely too, she looked so fantastic, even right at the end of the night, she still looked amazing! I'll get some photos up, it was a good opportunity for me to practice my photos too! Then the reception was in a big old house, the food was great, the room was stunning and then we had a barn dance. I LOVE barn dances, Tim and I danced almost all of them. Yeah. Hard core!
Aaaaaand now back to my usual whine about work. I'm doing 8-6 every day this week. Aaarrrggghhh. It's going to destroy me! lol. But I only have this week and next week. And my wages have gone up slightly so I'm making almost minimum wage for a 22 year old. It seems really odd that the min wage of £5.25 doesn't start until 22, but there you go. It's all money either way.
I'll try and get some photos up as soon as possible, thank you to people who've commented, it does mean alot. And I promise I'll try to think of something more interesting to blog about soon. I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive! lol
Love to the masses.
xxx
Hello hello hello! Long time no blog. I've been a very busy bee for the past few weeks. So much so I really can't be bothered to go back and update since my last blog. And I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be the most exciting thing for you either!
I just got back from 'dahn sahth' this afternoon. The theatre camp went really really well, full of crazy singing, games, fairies, hilarious videos, sore musscles from Go Ape, death metal dancing, sunshine and friends I haven't seen for ages. It's been amazing to get to know old friends more and make new friends and to learn more about God. It sounds silly but I always forget that God is so much bigger than I am. Whatever I think I know about the world, God knows more. That's what makes him God!
Then Tim and I met his family in Kent for his brother's wedding which was beautiful. They got married in a tiny little country church in the middle of nowhere, the scenery was gorgeous. Ellie's dress was really lovely too, she looked so fantastic, even right at the end of the night, she still looked amazing! I'll get some photos up, it was a good opportunity for me to practice my photos too! Then the reception was in a big old house, the food was great, the room was stunning and then we had a barn dance. I LOVE barn dances, Tim and I danced almost all of them. Yeah. Hard core!
Aaaaaand now back to my usual whine about work. I'm doing 8-6 every day this week. Aaarrrggghhh. It's going to destroy me! lol. But I only have this week and next week. And my wages have gone up slightly so I'm making almost minimum wage for a 22 year old. It seems really odd that the min wage of £5.25 doesn't start until 22, but there you go. It's all money either way.
I'll try and get some photos up as soon as possible, thank you to people who've commented, it does mean alot. And I promise I'll try to think of something more interesting to blog about soon. I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive! lol
Love to the masses.
xxx
Monday, July 16, 2007
Update
Well, I have eaten a lovely meal with my family; we're all back together today for the first time since mid April, I'm sitting in the living room watching a program about Disney and the Mickey Mouse Show, and I've had a good few glasses of wine. Perfect.
As I said before, alot has happened since I got home. I'll try to go through it logically!
The first thing I remember is the Pirate Day at my mum's school the week after I got home. Admitedly I had to get up at stupid-o-clock in the morning, and I didn't properly wake up until a few coffees later... but I DID get to spend a whole day dressed as a pirate! Out came most of my Jack Sparrow outfit again, the beard got painted back on and I had so much fun. Mum teaches at a special needs school and I love the pupils so much. They are so giving and to spend time with them is so refreshing. In actual fact, going back to work was really hard after that because I found myself comparing my kids to mum's and saying to myself that at least her kids have an obvious reason for being 'troublesome'. But then I realised that 'obvious' is the key word. I know very well that the children at the kids club have many reason's for their behaviour, it's just not as overt and is much easier to condemn.
So, having choked and spluttered my way through a couple of weeks of work... last weekend I went down to Birmingham with Tim's sister and loads of people I don't know for his brother's fiancee's hen-do. Sounds like a random connection but it isn't really and I got to know Ellie pretty well last year when she was in her final year at Durham. It was a wonderful weekend. Her friend and sister went to so much effort. We went to the Taste festival where we got loads of food and wine and champagne... Then we went to see Oliver and we all wore black dresses with a pink ribbon. I had mine around my waist, some had theirs in their hair, around their wrist etc. We looked really classy, not like the stereotypical hen-night thing. The following morning we had a gorgeous champagne breakfast with strawberries, pineapple, salmon on toast, yoghurt, croissants, freshly ground coffee... Yummy.
I went to see Harry Potter yesterday. I'm sure lots of people will have plenty of criticism of it... but I thought it was AMAZING!!! I had forgotten quite alot of the story which was quite good because I was so tense all the way through. At the end I was trembling with adrenaline. There's a scene at the end that I think is so powerful. And yes, I did cry. Twice.
This weekend I've been with my family cos Rich came home today. It's great to see him again, I miss him when we're away from each other. He's just as annoying as always of course. He does this thing where to everything that you say he turns it back and says 'you are...'. For example, earlier I said something like 'no you can't do that because it's broken' and he said 'you're broken'. I said 'don't start that it's annoying' and he said 'you're annoying'. And it goes on like that!
Edd crashed his car on Friday. It was his fault, but an accident as he just didn't stop in time at some lights in the terrible rain. Thankfully the others involved weren't horrible to him and the police could see from the state of him that it wasn't reckless driving or anything like that. And he's totally fine, it's just that the front of his new car is all mashed up. That's the worst part, that he's so upset because it's his new car. And he'd driven mum's for 2 and a half years with not even a scratch. But hey, these things happen.
This week I'm going hat shopping for my friend's wedding on Saturday. I'm so excited about wearing a hat to a wedding. The bride told me that I'll probably be the only one in the whole church, it's quite an informal wedding... but I don't care. I've always wanted to wear a hat to a wedding, and with the distinctive lack of hair, I think that a hat would actually look pretty good.
And of course work. I just can't separate myself from it, I get too involved. Always. Never mind. I hope this wasn't too boring, I've given up trying to write deep and meaningful blogs, I don't do or think anything deep or meaningful anymore anyways.
Hope everyone's well.
xxx
As I said before, alot has happened since I got home. I'll try to go through it logically!
The first thing I remember is the Pirate Day at my mum's school the week after I got home. Admitedly I had to get up at stupid-o-clock in the morning, and I didn't properly wake up until a few coffees later... but I DID get to spend a whole day dressed as a pirate! Out came most of my Jack Sparrow outfit again, the beard got painted back on and I had so much fun. Mum teaches at a special needs school and I love the pupils so much. They are so giving and to spend time with them is so refreshing. In actual fact, going back to work was really hard after that because I found myself comparing my kids to mum's and saying to myself that at least her kids have an obvious reason for being 'troublesome'. But then I realised that 'obvious' is the key word. I know very well that the children at the kids club have many reason's for their behaviour, it's just not as overt and is much easier to condemn.
So, having choked and spluttered my way through a couple of weeks of work... last weekend I went down to Birmingham with Tim's sister and loads of people I don't know for his brother's fiancee's hen-do. Sounds like a random connection but it isn't really and I got to know Ellie pretty well last year when she was in her final year at Durham. It was a wonderful weekend. Her friend and sister went to so much effort. We went to the Taste festival where we got loads of food and wine and champagne... Then we went to see Oliver and we all wore black dresses with a pink ribbon. I had mine around my waist, some had theirs in their hair, around their wrist etc. We looked really classy, not like the stereotypical hen-night thing. The following morning we had a gorgeous champagne breakfast with strawberries, pineapple, salmon on toast, yoghurt, croissants, freshly ground coffee... Yummy.
I went to see Harry Potter yesterday. I'm sure lots of people will have plenty of criticism of it... but I thought it was AMAZING!!! I had forgotten quite alot of the story which was quite good because I was so tense all the way through. At the end I was trembling with adrenaline. There's a scene at the end that I think is so powerful. And yes, I did cry. Twice.
This weekend I've been with my family cos Rich came home today. It's great to see him again, I miss him when we're away from each other. He's just as annoying as always of course. He does this thing where to everything that you say he turns it back and says 'you are...'. For example, earlier I said something like 'no you can't do that because it's broken' and he said 'you're broken'. I said 'don't start that it's annoying' and he said 'you're annoying'. And it goes on like that!
Edd crashed his car on Friday. It was his fault, but an accident as he just didn't stop in time at some lights in the terrible rain. Thankfully the others involved weren't horrible to him and the police could see from the state of him that it wasn't reckless driving or anything like that. And he's totally fine, it's just that the front of his new car is all mashed up. That's the worst part, that he's so upset because it's his new car. And he'd driven mum's for 2 and a half years with not even a scratch. But hey, these things happen.
This week I'm going hat shopping for my friend's wedding on Saturday. I'm so excited about wearing a hat to a wedding. The bride told me that I'll probably be the only one in the whole church, it's quite an informal wedding... but I don't care. I've always wanted to wear a hat to a wedding, and with the distinctive lack of hair, I think that a hat would actually look pretty good.
And of course work. I just can't separate myself from it, I get too involved. Always. Never mind. I hope this wasn't too boring, I've given up trying to write deep and meaningful blogs, I don't do or think anything deep or meaningful anymore anyways.
Hope everyone's well.
xxx
Monday, July 02, 2007
Bleak.
I often title my blogs with one word. That's a really pointless thing to say, but it's something that I just noticed.
Anyway. Today was my first day back at work. 'Work' being an afterschool and holiday kids' club for primary school kids. I had totally forgotten just how horrible some of the children are. And I know I know, you're not really supposed to say that children are horrible. Well, I'm very sorry, but some of these little buggers are just plain horrible. They show off, they are rude, insolent, manipulative, arrogant and devious. I had one delightful little boy look me in the eye today and say quite simply: 'no' when I asked him to go and sit away from the other children because he pulled a chair out from under another boy. Another boy spent a full ten minutes talking about 'poo' and 'bums' and then later on proceeded to ask me if I knew what a 'blow jab' was. No, I haven't typed it wrong, 'blow jab' is what he said. He's 10. He shouldn't know anyway. Two boys insisted on fighting for the whole evening. Most of my complaints so far are about the boys, and it's true, there are more troublesome boys than there are girls. But some of the girls are so bitchy and manipulative. For example there is one girl who will deliberately do something that is only a tiny bit wrong right in front of you so you can't really tell her off because it's not enough wrong. If you see what I mean. They are noisy and badly disciplined and there is nothing I can do about it.
It's going to be a bleak summer.
I just don't know what to do. I wish I could do something for these kids. I said to one of the staff today that kids aren't just horrible without a reason. Sometimes I can see a tiny window into their home lives and it gives me so much insight into why they are the way they are. Some children just aren't wanted. Or not wanted enough at least, and it breaks my heart. And yet I'm fighting for their respect. I keep telling myself that I'm an adult. I am older and cleverer than them. How then can they be getting the better of me?!?! And I'm not the boss, so all the things that I think should be changed have nothing to do with me. I think we should have more of a routine, we should have more planned activities, we should get the kids involved in a project, something that they are genuinely interested in. We should allow them to chose what they want to do, we should have proper games without half the pieces missing, we should let them decorate the room, we should do team games, and drama activities. AND WE SHOULD HAVE A PROPER DISCIPLINE SYSTEM. That bit is in capitals to show my utter frustration. How can we possibly expect them to behave when punishments and deterrents aren't evenly given? When they don't know what exactly they can and can't do and when sometimes the staff tell them different things?!
I got my hours today, and I only have three half days and one day off between now and the last week of August. Like I said, it is a bleak summer. I don't want this to look like I'm complaining at abit of hard work because I'm not. I'll work my ass off this summer, I'm not bothered by hard work. What I am bothered by is not being able to deal with problems that I see, because I'm not the boss, and not being able to deal with the kids the way I want to, because I'm not the boss.
I've only been back one day and already I want to quit. How am I going to last the summer? Having left Durham for the next 18 months suddenly seems very real to me and in all honesty I don't know how I'm going to cope. I miss my friends, I miss my house, I miss Durham, I even miss my bed. Yes I know the springs stuck out and it was tiny, but I slept better on it than I do on this one here.
It's going to be a bleak summer.
Anyway. Today was my first day back at work. 'Work' being an afterschool and holiday kids' club for primary school kids. I had totally forgotten just how horrible some of the children are. And I know I know, you're not really supposed to say that children are horrible. Well, I'm very sorry, but some of these little buggers are just plain horrible. They show off, they are rude, insolent, manipulative, arrogant and devious. I had one delightful little boy look me in the eye today and say quite simply: 'no' when I asked him to go and sit away from the other children because he pulled a chair out from under another boy. Another boy spent a full ten minutes talking about 'poo' and 'bums' and then later on proceeded to ask me if I knew what a 'blow jab' was. No, I haven't typed it wrong, 'blow jab' is what he said. He's 10. He shouldn't know anyway. Two boys insisted on fighting for the whole evening. Most of my complaints so far are about the boys, and it's true, there are more troublesome boys than there are girls. But some of the girls are so bitchy and manipulative. For example there is one girl who will deliberately do something that is only a tiny bit wrong right in front of you so you can't really tell her off because it's not enough wrong. If you see what I mean. They are noisy and badly disciplined and there is nothing I can do about it.
It's going to be a bleak summer.
I just don't know what to do. I wish I could do something for these kids. I said to one of the staff today that kids aren't just horrible without a reason. Sometimes I can see a tiny window into their home lives and it gives me so much insight into why they are the way they are. Some children just aren't wanted. Or not wanted enough at least, and it breaks my heart. And yet I'm fighting for their respect. I keep telling myself that I'm an adult. I am older and cleverer than them. How then can they be getting the better of me?!?! And I'm not the boss, so all the things that I think should be changed have nothing to do with me. I think we should have more of a routine, we should have more planned activities, we should get the kids involved in a project, something that they are genuinely interested in. We should allow them to chose what they want to do, we should have proper games without half the pieces missing, we should let them decorate the room, we should do team games, and drama activities. AND WE SHOULD HAVE A PROPER DISCIPLINE SYSTEM. That bit is in capitals to show my utter frustration. How can we possibly expect them to behave when punishments and deterrents aren't evenly given? When they don't know what exactly they can and can't do and when sometimes the staff tell them different things?!
I got my hours today, and I only have three half days and one day off between now and the last week of August. Like I said, it is a bleak summer. I don't want this to look like I'm complaining at abit of hard work because I'm not. I'll work my ass off this summer, I'm not bothered by hard work. What I am bothered by is not being able to deal with problems that I see, because I'm not the boss, and not being able to deal with the kids the way I want to, because I'm not the boss.
I've only been back one day and already I want to quit. How am I going to last the summer? Having left Durham for the next 18 months suddenly seems very real to me and in all honesty I don't know how I'm going to cope. I miss my friends, I miss my house, I miss Durham, I even miss my bed. Yes I know the springs stuck out and it was tiny, but I slept better on it than I do on this one here.
It's going to be a bleak summer.
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