Eck'in Aye!

1 x Stomach Bug - 5 days
1 x Cold - 4 days
All over Christmas.
Allocation of illness' for the year coming - complete.

BUT NO. Another cold and its only January 26th!

So much for the Echinacea!

Frugal Rocks London stylee

Some people think London is expensive, here's how i make sure its not.

Taste London: Either buy one get one free or 50% off all food with this card. 100's of restaurants. Get half price food at 100's of restaurants in London. Only really valid most places Monday-Thursday if you book:


£12 hair cuts at Vidal Sassoon training academies. All of them take about 3 hours (I take a good book) but if you go for a 'creative one' ie you let them do pretty much what they like, you could get it done by a really good salon owner haircutter- this is my fav as they put hints of colour in, and they cant speak English often so you don't have to do the small talk (which is one of the reasons i don't go to any other hairdresser).

Orange Wednesdays, 2 for the price of 1 film tickets. Everyone knows this. Also works at Pizza Express.

Fire and Stone. Great unusual pizza restaurant in Covent Garden. My favourite is the one with Book online to get two Pizza's for £10.

The Audience Club. Get all tickets for £2 each to loads of theatre productions which are not sold out (£50 for a year membership):

See films first (and for free) in the preview stage. Often only matinees though.

Days out by Train. If you have a valid train ticket (no matter the distance) then you can get half price entrance to loads of London attractions. Its worth buying a train ticket from the nearest station and not using it just to do this.

Free Museums and Gallery's.

Even boys MUST like this.... look at it!

I'm not sure on the rules of getting pictures off the net and posting them on here. I am by no means claiming that i took this picture, but surely whoever took it feels that it is so cute that the world must see it! i want it. If this is your picture let me know, so that i can come and see the chipmunk!

The robust, purple, Monster!

By 1030 this morning i was starving, and since it was obviously not lunch time, i figured a packet of crisps would have to suffice. [Lets not talk about my diet- i only recognise 5 main food groups- chocolate, potato's (i.e. chips, crisps, roast potatoes. chips), salad (for days when you need a break from chocolate and potatoes), Diet Coke and boring foods (usually carbohydrates, main meals, which i try to avoid as I'd prefer to spend my 2,000 calories on more fun stuff). ]

So i tried to buy the crisps from the vending machine in our work 'kitchen' (cupboard with yellow lights, microwave minus the rotating glass plate, and no soap). However unsurprisingly the crisps got stuck on the grand fall down and hung precariously there. After a few solid hits they did not move and i could hit no more due to fear that my colleagues would interpret the violence and noise as either a mental health or anger 'problem'. So i recruited Junior to help. With the use of a twisted paper clip we got the crisps out, and they did taste pretty good.

There is a number for comments on top of the machine so ever the optimist i text in:

'Hi Machine maintainer people. I brought a packet of crisps 2day from the lovely purple machine in [our location], BUT unsurprisingly they did not fall down and I've had 2 spend 20 stressful minutes with a paper clip trying 2 beat the fail proof anti-theft system - i won! But surely this should not be happening. Please can i have a free chocolate bar (i like peanut M&M's best) as compensation? U can leave it in an envelop at reception. Best wishes, LE.'

One of may favourite sayings is, 'You miss 100% of the shots you don't take'. I then lamented to Rowl a minute later that no-one had replied when low and behold:

'Thanks for contacting snack-in-the-box we'll be in touch with you when we next swing by - regards Simon'.

Yippee. 'swing by'? They sound casual, perhaps they can dish out free chocolate!

P.S i don't always complain. In fact this week i wrote to a particularly good foster carer i have been working with and thanked her and also sent a letter to her manager singing her praises. If we are going to be quick to complain we should also be quick to praise.

Fond memories....

I remembered the other day a time at Christmas when Xss and Leo were playing. Leo called Xss 'girl pants!' when they were mock fighting ( think this version was Batman verses The Monster- Xss played the monster role with genuine feeling and integrity (dedicating it 'to monsters everywhere')). Xss, being the bigger man (or Monster), ignored this petulant comment and continued play hitting the child. However, five minutes later Leo had run away and hidden half behind the settee - and Xss in exasperation at the effort now required of him to get up off the floor and clamber over the settee to continue the fight, retorted to Batman's half visable form, 'girl pants'! Which to both of our utter bemusement, caused Leo's whole little face to drop, his broad smile disappear and he burst into spontaneous, heavy rainfall, tears. haha. Oh it was so funny. I did try and explain the 'don't dish up what you cant deal with' rule later to him, but to limited effect.



On a brighter note, i guess Xss and I now both now know what the ultimate insult to a four year old is. Why don't you try it on your own one?

P.S Since i have told this story to Junior he now calls me 'Girl pants' at work when he most wants to insult me! i dont cry (but inside i want to)

We're going to find Duplo....

Xss and i are in the final stages of booking our flights and projects for our trip away. We have finalised it down to 3 projects we would like to do in South East Asia:

Work in a Zoo in Thailand- What better way to be allowed to do a job that you are completely unqualified for and would never be allowed to do in the UK, than to go to a developing country! Yippee. We love the idea of this one as we wont have to learn much local language, and it wont be very emotionally draining (sorry cute cuddly animals, we care about you really). Must remember not to make comments like- i'd like a pet Lorris monkey, to live in a rainforest lounge room i'd create so he can learn cool tricks, and generally be a novelty in my otherwise non-comment worthy existence. I'd call him Duplo. This project is also all really rather ironic as i had a huge rant at Lovely the other day about how it was silly to care about and help animals when there are so many deserving people in the world that also need out help.

Luckily, The other two projects are more meaningful:

Work teaching English in Cambodia- This would be with street children in a day centre and so would be more valuable a thing to do than the above, but only for a few hours a day and then free time to explore.

Work teaching staff at a small local tourist cafe in the middle of somewhere, English (in Cambodia as well).

So we need to decide between the bottom two. I am more keen on the bottom one as we are spending 3 months with street kids in Brazil, and will hopefully have spent so long making meaningful relationships (we are even taking Portuguese classes) and fitting in with the culture so intricately that it might be hard to throw ourselves into this environment again so quickly, especially for a shorter period.

The ones that didn't make the grade: Working in a tiger reserve in India- i am still keen to fit this in! Living on a commune in south India, working with Elephants in Cambodia, washing them feeding them etc, and working in a forest in Cambodia to stop poachers and track use etc.

Am excited to book soon. What an adventure. Why do we never think to so these things when we are working. I could totally have taken a month off work before to go to one of these projects, and most of them only cost local currency when you are there.

So far the country hit list goes as follows:
Brazil
Chile
Peru
USA
Japan
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Laos?
Hong Kong?
India

Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!