Today Xss and I booked our flights. I am sure everyone who knows me must be more than fed up with me talking about going travelling and getting away from my British life. For those that aren't (or even those that are and want to learn when the annoying pain that is LE will bog off and shut up) here are the flights:
Early August (7th!) Fly from London to Rio, Brazil.
Stay in Brazil for 4 months (3 months on the farm)
Late November Fly from Rio to Santiago, Chile
Late November Fly from Santiago to Lima, Peru
Early December Fly from Lima to Cusco, Peru
See Machu Picchu
Mid December Fly from Cusco to Lima, Peru
Find a way to get to Iguitos/the Amazon and see the rainforest
Mid December Fly from Lima to Miami, USA
Late December Fly from Miami to Minnesota
Spend Christmas with my wonderful Russell Family
Late December Fly from Minnesota to LA, USA
Drive to Death Valley and Las Vegas and back
Early January Fly from LA to Tokyo, Japan
Go see Kyoto
Mid January Fly from Tokoyo to Puket, Thailand
Spend one month in Thailand volunteer placement in a Zoo
One month in Cambodian volunteer placement teaching English.
Go overland to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Mid May Fly from Hanoi to Hong Kong
Mid May Fly from Hong Kong to Dehli, India
Overland to Goa
Early June Fly from Goa to LONDON BABY!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tx You Are My Star....
Tx may be in Uganda but i can feel her warmth from here. I miss her everyday, because there's no-one like her, and when we talk its like starting in the middle of a conversation, no preamble, and always knowing exactly whats going whilst replying with the appropriate tone and question line. I just spoke with her now, and even though our lives are so bizarrely different, she is struggling to make her limited budget at work stretch to digging more wells than humanly possible and improving hygiene practices whilst living in a terribly rural environment with few home comforts, she is still happy, yes HAPPY, to hear me moan about my comfy life here.
If you haven't met Tx imagine sesame streets Zoe on speed. She always has a million things on the go at any one moment, to her no doesn't mean 'NO', it means 'find another way to do it'. She's a restless soul who wont stop until world peace is established; her powerful, dynamic and calm persona offsets her overwhelming desire to remain a 3 year old girl who celebrates every new day by pouring her heart unguarded into everything, often resulting in fabulous victories or tears. She'll never sit still long enough to write a book, she dances when she's happy, challenges me to be a better person, and dresses like no one style is good enough for her.
Bert: Impy. Ultimately always on a downer and pessimistic about life and any situation he finds himself in, but has a good heart buried beneath it all and secretly like to try hard.
If you haven't met Tx imagine sesame streets Zoe on speed. She always has a million things on the go at any one moment, to her no doesn't mean 'NO', it means 'find another way to do it'. She's a restless soul who wont stop until world peace is established; her powerful, dynamic and calm persona offsets her overwhelming desire to remain a 3 year old girl who celebrates every new day by pouring her heart unguarded into everything, often resulting in fabulous victories or tears. She'll never sit still long enough to write a book, she dances when she's happy, challenges me to be a better person, and dresses like no one style is good enough for her.Most importantly she cooks me homous, jacket potato and macaroni cheese. When she was in London if Xss couldn't cook for me, then she would.
On a roll, here is another sesame street resident to illustrate my friends:
Elmo: XSS. Genuine, honest, and inquisitive. Asks no end of questions but most importantly, loving.
Ernie: Junior. Even emotioned, really genuine and so kind. Has great perception on situations even if he doesn't let on.
Bert: Impy. Ultimately always on a downer and pessimistic about life and any situation he finds himself in, but has a good heart buried beneath it all and secretly like to try hard.
Super Grover: Rowl.
Throws herself whole heartedly into so many different projects all at the same time and really enjoys it. However occasionally finds herself out of her depth and has to bail. Constantly fighting to be brave and courageous despite accurately describing herself as 'highly anxious'.
Big Bird: True.
Central to every episode of life. Can do everything well, says stuff like, "I guess it's better to be who you are. Turns out people like you best that way, anyway" to me constantly to inspire me to continue striving to be myself
Telly: ME.
Obsessed with TV, worries about everything and is obsessed with random things, and random people constantly jumping from one thing to the next.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
One Ella Of A Day
Believe it or not but i actually recieved a call today, which went a little like this, 'Hi is this LE...? Hi. This is the chocolate machine man'. YIPPEE>
Hello Chocolate Machine Man!! He invited me to join him whilst he stocked the chocolate machine upstairs. We mulled over the problem of the current unsustainable development of Peckham and of my crisps that got stuck in the machine the other day(he is putting in plastic strips which should rectify the problem). Well, perhaps we only covered one of these two topics. And then he asked what bar i was after and i finally got my Peanut M&M's. Thanks Universe.
Yippee. What a good day. Only slightly usurped by yesterday when my niece was finally born, two weeks late and 9 lb heavy! She is very gorgeous and the cutest baby i have ever seen (sorry Leo)! I know births are generally emotional grid references for significant moments in life, but i think my brother had more than he hoped for during the labour day- lots of blood spilt, 2 hours of pushing (& pulling- much to his concern), one baby in special care unit and very little communication from the nurses. Literally sounds like they pulled this baby out of his wife!
Gorgeous Ella 'apres pulling'. She's just pretending to be tired, i saw her napping earlier in the day.
I wouldn't describe my brother as 'the wall upon which i lean', but his heart is ALWAYS in the right place, and if he cares for you, he'll throw his whole heart into being there; body reluctantly following. It was hard to hear him stressed and choked up about this daughter arriving, and the worry about not knowing much about everything going on. He lives too far away for me to run over and give him a hug and cook him dinner as he sat alone in a quiet house after very little sleep, seeing his wife ripped apart and not even getting to hold the baby, Ella. But i wish i could have done.
Sometimes when i was young, i would lay awake in my bed for hours, dreaming of a new life, where i would run away with him, start a new life and try to protect him from the vicious arguments he suffered with our parents. I guess he'll now channel similar emotions into looking after Ella now, and she'll give him the inspiration and joy that i never could. - Is this beginning to sound like some twisted Oedipus complex?
Hello Chocolate Machine Man!! He invited me to join him whilst he stocked the chocolate machine upstairs. We mulled over the problem of the current unsustainable development of Peckham and of my crisps that got stuck in the machine the other day(he is putting in plastic strips which should rectify the problem). Well, perhaps we only covered one of these two topics. And then he asked what bar i was after and i finally got my Peanut M&M's. Thanks Universe.
Yippee. What a good day. Only slightly usurped by yesterday when my niece was finally born, two weeks late and 9 lb heavy! She is very gorgeous and the cutest baby i have ever seen (sorry Leo)! I know births are generally emotional grid references for significant moments in life, but i think my brother had more than he hoped for during the labour day- lots of blood spilt, 2 hours of pushing (& pulling- much to his concern), one baby in special care unit and very little communication from the nurses. Literally sounds like they pulled this baby out of his wife!
Gorgeous Ella 'apres pulling'. She's just pretending to be tired, i saw her napping earlier in the day.I wouldn't describe my brother as 'the wall upon which i lean', but his heart is ALWAYS in the right place, and if he cares for you, he'll throw his whole heart into being there; body reluctantly following. It was hard to hear him stressed and choked up about this daughter arriving, and the worry about not knowing much about everything going on. He lives too far away for me to run over and give him a hug and cook him dinner as he sat alone in a quiet house after very little sleep, seeing his wife ripped apart and not even getting to hold the baby, Ella. But i wish i could have done.
Sometimes when i was young, i would lay awake in my bed for hours, dreaming of a new life, where i would run away with him, start a new life and try to protect him from the vicious arguments he suffered with our parents. I guess he'll now channel similar emotions into looking after Ella now, and she'll give him the inspiration and joy that i never could. - Is this beginning to sound like some twisted Oedipus complex?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Simon, our machine is empty!
Its been a while, and although the chocolate machine has been restocked at work - no 'Simon' and more importantly no free peanut M&M's! Today the machine is near empty (2 Galaxy bars and 7 starbursts only)- and even the top row of Kitkats has gone! (i constantly have to restrain myself from putting notes on the machine stating that the top button is broken). Damn Nestle.
Anyways. I text Simon again, just to make sure he hadn't forgotten, but more importantly because i am a kind soul who felt that for the good of the building he should know the machine is empty.
'Hi Simon, sorry 2 have missed u last time u were hanging in Sumner house. Thought u'd wanna know that our chocolate machine is empty and i'm worried u've forgotten about our previous conversation about peanut M&M's. Thanks LE'.
Lets hope this time i get my free M&M's!
Anyways. I text Simon again, just to make sure he hadn't forgotten, but more importantly because i am a kind soul who felt that for the good of the building he should know the machine is empty.
'Hi Simon, sorry 2 have missed u last time u were hanging in Sumner house. Thought u'd wanna know that our chocolate machine is empty and i'm worried u've forgotten about our previous conversation about peanut M&M's. Thanks LE'.
Lets hope this time i get my free M&M's!
Saturday, February 06, 2010
My Terrible so called work
I'd describe this week as terrible. Which really equates to me getting too wrapped up in work bolloctics and not being able to realise that a tense office environment is not worse than many real life situations people find themselves in.
My manager left on planned leave months ago, so the next manager up then loving receives our team with great joy. However he has done nothing for the last 4 months, limiting the work we can do, eroding the teams’ spirit, and putting us at serious risk by not allocating cases or reading any risk assessments on client files. So this week enough was enough and I called the team together to discuss this. It was a productive session in which we wrote a simple list of all the things we needed doing for us to be able to do our job. It was agreed that as a united front we would present this information to said manager in order to force a change.
However, what I did not calculate for was the impish, leprechaun colleague who had other plans! This man, who is less than straight at the best of times, spent two days running around calling each colleague out of the office one at a time for hushed discussions in private corners in which he managed to convince people that should we raise any complaints each of us useless serfs will be fired in the night, desk cleared and never to return again, with no communication or explanation given! Argh. Moment of wanting to sit crying in the toilets arrived. Dramatic emails to Tx in Uganda, who being the star that she is, called me instantaneously and simply encouraged me to do the right thing. She is amazing, after setting me straight, advising me that truth is all that matters, and if you get shot trying to better something, the world will be grateful even if no-one else is, I re-accepted my quest and a constituency of Rowl and I dejectedly entered the dragons den alone.
It was so liberating though to be straight with the manager and let him know how we felt including pointing out that his numerous broken promises mean that we no longer trust what he says and feel increasingly frustrated with him. He took it well, agreed with the 35 points we raised and agreed that things need to change. He also said he did not have the time to change anything that is not an emergency (staff safety does not qualify then), and weirdly agreed to us escalating this to his manager. Which I did via another well worded email.
I'll find out on Monday what kind of response we'll get, I imagine it won’t be revolutionary, but at least I’ve tried my best.
On a more positive note, Rowl discovered an Urban dictionary which when searching for my name says:
The most amazing person you will ever meet. A bit sarcastic but mostly lovable! If you don't know her too bad! the ppl who have met her are extremely lucky! And you should never push her away. A lil bitchy at times but who's not!Go out and find yourself one!
Now normally I don’t believe in this kind of crap, but I’m willing to make an exception for this. Except of course I’m not bitchy. hahaha.
It also describes blogging as:
Short for weblog. A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as "homework sucks" and "I slept until noon today."
YIPPEE>
My manager left on planned leave months ago, so the next manager up then loving receives our team with great joy. However he has done nothing for the last 4 months, limiting the work we can do, eroding the teams’ spirit, and putting us at serious risk by not allocating cases or reading any risk assessments on client files. So this week enough was enough and I called the team together to discuss this. It was a productive session in which we wrote a simple list of all the things we needed doing for us to be able to do our job. It was agreed that as a united front we would present this information to said manager in order to force a change.
However, what I did not calculate for was the impish, leprechaun colleague who had other plans! This man, who is less than straight at the best of times, spent two days running around calling each colleague out of the office one at a time for hushed discussions in private corners in which he managed to convince people that should we raise any complaints each of us useless serfs will be fired in the night, desk cleared and never to return again, with no communication or explanation given! Argh. Moment of wanting to sit crying in the toilets arrived. Dramatic emails to Tx in Uganda, who being the star that she is, called me instantaneously and simply encouraged me to do the right thing. She is amazing, after setting me straight, advising me that truth is all that matters, and if you get shot trying to better something, the world will be grateful even if no-one else is, I re-accepted my quest and a constituency of Rowl and I dejectedly entered the dragons den alone.
It was so liberating though to be straight with the manager and let him know how we felt including pointing out that his numerous broken promises mean that we no longer trust what he says and feel increasingly frustrated with him. He took it well, agreed with the 35 points we raised and agreed that things need to change. He also said he did not have the time to change anything that is not an emergency (staff safety does not qualify then), and weirdly agreed to us escalating this to his manager. Which I did via another well worded email.
I'll find out on Monday what kind of response we'll get, I imagine it won’t be revolutionary, but at least I’ve tried my best.
On a more positive note, Rowl discovered an Urban dictionary which when searching for my name says:
The most amazing person you will ever meet. A bit sarcastic but mostly lovable! If you don't know her too bad! the ppl who have met her are extremely lucky! And you should never push her away. A lil bitchy at times but who's not!Go out and find yourself one!
Now normally I don’t believe in this kind of crap, but I’m willing to make an exception for this. Except of course I’m not bitchy. hahaha.
It also describes blogging as:
Short for weblog. A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as "homework sucks" and "I slept until noon today."
YIPPEE>
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