One way to the UK?

Well this weekend my mate Rich, who’s from Spain stopped over in London on his way back from Kuwait (working), and on his way to Paris then Valencia – he arriving on Friday and pretty much slept all day, which was fine as I was working from home and arranging my knee appointments, and then Friday night he finally got in contact with his mate Frazer, also from Spain but who now lives in London, so we all met up at Liverpool Street then headed to Brick Lane for some drinks and a curry! Rich realised after an alcohol-free week in Kuwait he’s in withdrawal… too used to the good party life of Madrid! Anyhow we headed to Bar 1001 along Brick Lane for drinks, then to Shampa Indian for some curry – had a gorgeous chicken tikka with peshwari naan – the best ever! Then after lots of drinks there, it was about midnight so we headed to Vibe Bar for some drinks and good music, and then at closing (1am) we headed to Casa Blue.. the blue house in spanish — yet run by indians haha well it is on Brick Lane! Anyhow that place was pretty interesting… nice atmosphere and interesing interior! I had a few issues with stairs down to the bathrooms in places but survived without letting the guys carry me! Following some nice capirihanas (sp?) and mojitos and expensive champagne with strawberries courtesy of Rich’s mate Frazer .. I was ready to head home, about 3 or 4am by now, but no we continued on to the Russian Bar, up near Dalston Hackney… even I was scared going into that part of town!!! haha I think it’s actually a Polish Bar, not Russian Bar, but anyhow it was actually not bad. Would have been better if I could have gotten up to dance etc, but still fun! Finally got a cab home and into bed by about 630am! Definitely felt like it was back in Madrid.. but of course had the bad weather to contend with instead! I’m loving my electric blanket too at home, good investment to get through this winter!

Okay so Friday night (10th October, 4 days before my H&S exam) two girls from work were having their birthday drinks down at Canary Wharf, I’d decided not go go during the day, but then got convinced to go down just for one drink to finish off the week and celebrate… well, let me say that it finished off the week alright. About 1030pm (yes, early I know), I was heading out of the bar to go home, after only having 2 drinks during 5 hours (hence sober!) and a colleage grabbed me on the dance floor for a quick spin, and tried to do a ‘ballroom dancing dip’ (so i was laying over, head near the floor) when my right knee snapped!

I freaked out, thinking I’d broken my leg, but then felt my kneecap was on the side of my leg, so I shot up, straightening leg and it jumped back into place. It was the most immense pain I’ve ever felt (and don’t wanna have kids!) and I couldn’t stop whimpering!!! My body pretty much panicked, and I felt sick and broke out in a sweat; not nice. So, I was helped up the steps at Canary Wharf and got into a cab straight home – which seemed like the longest drive ever. On getting home, the flatmates were still up so helped me get ice onto my knee! They’ve decided the only safe places for me is home or the kickboxing gym as everytime I go out with my colleagues I come home injured in some way!

Saturday morning, after goading my various people, I took myself to The Royal London Hospital, where I beat the A&D morning rush and got seen to fairly quickly… and got stuck with a leg splint to immobilise my knee! Decided against the walking aid, but did get a taxi home instead of the bus! So luckily I had to study all weekend and had Mon/Tues off work for the exam anyway, so I had to be home off my leg regardless of other plans.

Well to cut to the chase… I had a checkup and got kitted with a different splint, one which has dials on both sides of the knee (ie Robocop or Bionic Woman are the nicnames from work… as well as Hoppy!) the ortho doctor in the fracture clinic said still nothing broken, but not sure what is actually wrong inside my knee so I’m currently awaiting my letter with MRI date. Hopefully surgery won’t be required, but it could still be anterior or medial crutiate ligament. According to soo many people’s horror stories, knee injuries can plague you for bloody years; so I need to listed to the doctor’s advice and keep the splint on for the 6 weeks and no kickboxing before it’s all healed AND I’ve done physio/rehab. Couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as I’d been really enjoying new redbelt classes and was looking forward to wearing my new gear and learning touch sparring! :o( 

One very unhappy person! Also the next person who pushes me at the tube stations (London isn’t disabled friendly AT ALL!) is going to get wacked! No one looks down and sees the splint, so they all push me along wondering why I’m walking so slowly cuz I still look and dress like normal! Mara and I went shopping on a weekend to get me a new winter skirt and comfortable flat shoes and new tights, as I think that’s what I’m stuck wearing well into this winter; much to the amusement of my (nearly all) male colleagues!

Well since Spain and then my studying and exams I haven’t had  time for much… and things I have done I’ve forgotten about! haha, however one show I saw which was fantastic was Les Miserables! Andrea Collins (my old teacher and friend of mom’s from St Philip’s) came over to London for her brother’s wedding (my dentist over here) and we caught up for dinner, along with Jordi (also an old teacher of mine, and friend of mom’s who now lives South London) and we had a really nice Chinese dinner in ChinaTown and then Andrea and I rushed across the road to Les Miz.  The show was the first musical I’ve seen since moving here, that was all singing and all dancing! There were no speaking lines, it was all totally sung. And I can see why it’s still running! The show was amazing! Definitely worth seeing if you ever get the chance to. During intermission I spoke to an American lady who has seen it about 9 times in various countries!

Well back in June, I started a British Safety Council Certificate 3 in Health and Safety (one step down from their Diploma as I’m not yet in a H&S role to manage at work) – anyhow I had a contact week in June, then was self studying, including whilst on holidays in Spain (!) up to the second contact week which started the day after my Spain trip ended! The second contact week went well, and Julie Rookley our trainer is really great at getting the key points across and also making sure we don’t go crazy during the 5 days! Might I add the hotel where the training is held, also helps stop us going crazy by providing the most amazing lunches every day! Including a choice of about 10 desserts from pure chocolate tarts, to fruit flans, panna cottas, lemon-merangue pie and fresh fruit; Yum!

So, pretty much since June I’ve been studying my ass off and avoiding any distractions to ensure every topic was studied! Apart from a few nights out, especially for Naomi’s farewell, and my kickboxing (3-4 times a week) the only other thing I did was study! I sat the exam on 14th October… and am now waiting, fingers crossed, for the results in November. So hopefully, once I’ve passed it (either from October… or a resit in Feb) work will allow me to get more involved in the Health & Safety side of things so I can begin building that as a career!

Time to catch up on the diary entries before life gets too far ahead of us too fast!

Valencia — Bunol — Madrid

On Monday, 25 August (a bank holiday in UK), Mara and I set off to Stansted to meet up with Sarah Schmidt (an old NHS HfL colleague of mine) for our 6 nights in Espanol! We arrived late into Valencia, and after stumbling our way though some barely-there-Spanish to a ‘help guy’ on a ‘speakerphone’ thing, we ended up jumping into a taxi to the Purple Nest Hostel located right in the old town. What a lovely hostel! Well, the room colours were all pretty cool, the bathrooms were good and the airconditioning was switched on from 10am through to about 10am to ensure everyone could get some real sleep – bliss! We asked at reception for a good place to eat, and ended up in an Italian Pizza/Pasta place…in Spain… but it was honestly the BEST pizza I’ve ever had! Much better than any even from Italy itself. After dinner we ended up taking a leisurely walk around Valencia’s old town including the amazing cathedral and what seemed like city walls etc before heading back to sleep.

Next morning, our Topdeck Tours package started, so we grabbed our bags and headed off to find out Hotel.. NH Ciudad de Valencia, located on Avenida del Peurto. Just a short walk away right?! Hrmmm! After crossing the large ‘river’ which is actually all grass and football fields, we stopped into a cafe for some brunch… and came across Tony Bird who Mara and I met in Croatia on the sailing boat! He was also in Valencia for La Tomatina festival. Anyhow, after a quick catch-up we proceeded to come across the Hotel in the 31 degree heat, and turned the aircon onto 18 as soon as we got in! Then, we got dressed for ‘ice cream finding’ and also headed down to the beach. Water! Sea Water! and Real Sand! Ahh it was beautiful. Anyway, the walk down to the beach was quite lengthy, especially as the barriers were all still up from the Valencia F1 Grand Prix which finished 2 days prior.  We caught up with Trevor and Holmsey (good Aussie mate Mara and I met in Turkey)  who were on the same Topdeck tour as us and ended up in the same hotel too!

Valencia was beautiful, and nice and warm. Sun sun and more sun. We spent days walking around, even did a town tour, and the rest of the time sampling foodstuffs (prawns fresh at the market) and relaxing at the beach.

On the day of La Tomatina, we had to wake up EARLY… and then everone (2 buses full) had to wait for Trev to wake up and get onto the bus (he’d had a big night out obviously!). Once on the bus and on our way to the little town of Bunol, home of La Tomatina… we realised the airconditioning in the bus was broken. Aarrgghh. Two hours later, we arrived in Bunol and made our way to the town centre… quite a long way actually! There were already soo many people in there, packed into the small cobbled streets! Mara, Sarah and I, and Sarah’s ‘hotel room mate’ Selina tried to get up to the ‘centre’ where the ‘greasy pole with the ham’ is located (once the ham is knocked off the pole by a local male, the tomatoes begin!) however, the crowds just compressed and compressed and we ended up getting separated! Selina and I found what we thought was a safe place (I was trying to protect my shoulder with tendonitis from further damage!) and I ended up running into my mate from Darwin Justin (Birdman) which was just another random event which occurs so often when people are travelling Europe! Anyway to cut to the chase… I’ve never been so squashed, and I now definitely know what a tomato in a canning factory feels like! Out of the about ‘2 hours’ of La Tomatina tomato throwing… 10 minutes were FUN and the rest I was worried for my life! People were panicked and crying, and everyone was clinging onto others as the wave upon wave of crowds ‘pushed’ down the street and tried to take everyone along with them!!!

However, all in all, the day was still fantastic! Especially trying to find a hose (and local) with decent strength to actually wash the tomato out of my hair and off my body!!! I took my top later of shirt off as it was beyond salvage, and everything else was being chucked out anyway, once back at the bus with new clothes, but I still had to get all the way to the bus so found a ‘trough’ thing to rinse off in! Apparently Mara had most her clothes ripped off her and was just in her boardies, shoes and her bra (HAHAHA) damn not being there to see that! Of course I would have given her one of my still in-tact shirts :o) (hehehe)

Read the rest of this entry »

Well the weekend started with a Saturday afternoon edition of Romeo & Juliet thanks to Mara scoring free tickets – so off went Naomi, Mara and I to see that near Embankment Station. The Old Law Courts acted as the theatre and the building interior is amazing. They still get used for something, but I don’t think they still hear cases (of convicts being sent to Australia…) anymore! The play was done by the Globe Theatre group I think, and would usually be performed over at The Globe, however for some reason, a festival of some sort I think, the shows were instead held in the Law Courts. Romeo and Juliet… we’ve all seen it and know the story line right? Well not Naomi (!) however the play was still enjoyable and they had a little twist on it, in that it was all costumed in mostly white and there was singing and over-acting and all sorts of joy! The seats could have been a little more comfortable however as after… 3 hours? my butt was beginning to hurt as was Naomi’s due to a falling-off stage injury some weeks earlier

Following the play the three of us wandered into covent garden and walked around for a while, locating the Aussie (and NZ and Canadian) Shop where Mara and I coudln’t resist buying some goodies from home… I paid the extortionate price of just over 6 Pounds for a pack of venetian biscuits (my faves) and a small bottle of Cottees fruit cup crush cordial!

On the Sunday, 24 August we headed down the The Mall, leading up to Buckingham Palace to join in the festivities for the Visa London 2012 handover party. We waited and waited to get in, with our free tickets (thanks to working for 2012 and Naomi scoring extra ones from people who couldn’t attend) we FINALLY got into ‘the party’ about 45 mins into the closing ceremony at Beijing’s birdnest Stadium…. however as we were there later than others, only the first 20,000 got into the actual party and stage area, and the other 20,000 had to stay just outside the barriers and watch on big screens… … when the bllody screens were working! It was a little bit bad, and Naomi and I are hoping 2012 gets their act into gear before the London Games to make sure mistakes like that don’t happen there!!! The party wasn’t that bad… we got to see El Divo and Scouting for Girls and some others too, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time haha! And we got to wave our little flags and get onto TV which is always a bonus for a free event

Well an interesting start to the week so far. Monday night I went along to my York Hall (normal) gym’s ‘thai kick boxing’ aerobics class – which turned out to be utter crap! The warm up was good, but the actual skills the guy was teaching the attendees were crap. I mean they weren’t even ‘twisting’ with a left hook or thai-elbow but the instructor pretty much said it’s because this is just a gym class, not a boxing gym… hmm anyway I learnt some thai-kb moves such as the elbow, knee and grapple knee… but also left the class with a L) shoulder injury! I’ve had such a good run with my kb and no injuries that it had to happen somwhere… I’m just annoyed I went to that crap class instead of using the treadmill cuz the way Paragon teaches kb is just brilliant.

Um so on Tuesday I had my normal Paragon kb level 3 class – just FIVE weeks to go and I get graded for my red belt — so excited! I’m really looking forward to that. My shoulder was still a little sore, and diffcult to chage out of my clothes!

Wednesday, last night some members of my team and I went out for a work dinner (in spirit of Beijing yah) at the Laureate Chinese restaurant. The restaurant wasn’t that bad, however the actual waiter was so flat! Sheesh! Sunni (said with a smile) was the one who I booked with  and each time he came up to check things were okay was, and is such a lovely man but big shame about his staff! Anyhow, after a really top taste 3-course meal and a few drinks (Tsingtao beer and some wine) most of us (22) headed for a pub… closeby one.. The Walkabout! What a laugh haha. So here is me and my work team, and we’re all in suits, standing in the Aussie Walkabout pub (and I’m the youngest at work by 7 years too if that’s an indication..) Anyhow quite a few people left to get the last tube home, but, for whatever reasons (I always wonder later, after the fact, when it’s too late!) Alex, Barry, James, Stephen, Nick and I headed up towards Oxford Street to go into some pubs… we got dragged into some place as ‘VIP people’… and it was because we were like the only people in there, so we left without even buying a drink (Stuff that!) and then we ended up walking past Moonlighters (Cheapskates) but the line was so long, anyhow, went into an Old English Pub until that closed, so midnight, then went up the road a bit further to a pub/club where we got all of us in for 20 Pounds instead of 5 each, so all good. The drinks weren’t bad and the music was pretty good too which was alright… we even had  bit of a dance at some point! Well, soon after leaving that place the ‘drama’ started… to put it in briefly, I have a black eye and a sore jaw and aren’t allowed to kickbox for an enture week!!! Luckily I’m going to Spain next week, so good timing if ever there is any to be injured, but still. I was the only girl out with my colleagues, and we all somehow got into a fight with some other guys, students I’m presuming, and one of my colleagues was on the ground getting punched, so I jumped in and grabbed a guy (the opposition shall we say) off him, and was shouting it’s not worth it, it’s not worth it just f*** ***, so there is me, the one trained to fight, being passive and not throwing any punches (as there were already 8 people fighting!) so I was trying to calm things down, and so I’ve got 1 hand in front of me pushing back on one guy, and my other hand behind me holding back my colleague, when the opposition’s mate came in over his shoulder (the should of guy I was holding in front) and punched me right in the eye! !!! ARGH! Punctuate the air with swear words here. Anyhow, I punched him back so hopefully my rings damaged him, but then I was slammed to the ground, bruising both knees – and I’d noticed, as I punched that my bracelet was broken (the one from Tys that never comes off!) so I was looking around for that, when all the boys, I think, noticed that my eye was bleeding and yes I’d been punched! So… I think that’s where it ended actually all of a sudden. Dunno if it was because they realised the bas**** had punched a girl who up until then had been restraining herself (3rd person speaking…) or because the Cops were turning up!? ARGH! So I woke up this morning in bed with a bag of frozen peas — thanks mom for that idea last night at 4am when I got home! I don’t recall being concussed, however, this morning was a bit dizzy and face sore to the touch, so I worked from home – gotta love the blackberry and laptop. And was thinking of going to Doctor, then A&E, but instead went to see Eddie the phsio/treatment guy from Paragon kickboxing. AAhh.. they coudln’t believe a guy punched me, in purpose, right in the eye either. And it was funny… whether to say yes good to be passive sometimes, or, in street fighting it’s get the punches in first! Hopefully won’t be a ‘next time’ so won’t have to worry about fighting outside of the ring!

Anyhow, all checked out with Eddie however I’m ‘banned for a few weeks’ to which Rob my trainer was like But she’s getting graded in 5 weeks! So Ed agreed that Spain next week would do me good AS LONG AS I DON’T GET HIT IN THE EYES BY TOMATOES!!! I was thinking of buying ski-goggles or a full-face visor haha. So anyhow had physio on my shoulder and my back, and my neck to ‘straighten out’ everything, as being hit like that is very similar to whiplash… the reason my jaw is saw must have been that when I got hit, my mouth was open (saying the words f*** ***) and so it ‘bounced’ when it flicked back. Aaah, the way you learn to not talk during a fight! I think that’s the last time I underestimate a fight situation, but I guess it’s always about using, hopefully good, judgement.

So yes, all good otherwise. And then when I got home, one of my flat mates Martin bought me some beautiful flowers.. Really I’m good, but I am worried about the colleague that had a cut and got punched a few times in the mouth! Hopefully he’s at work tomorrow too, otherwise we’ll have to take a drive to his house or something. God – luckily no one in central London knew/knows who we work for.

Well last weekend, 16 August, after doing kickboxing as normal on Saturday morning I had a quick shower then jumped on the bus to London Bridge station, where I met up with Sarah and Mara – we were off for a girls weekend with Emma (Sarah and Emma are part of our group that met in NZ 2006) at her house in Maidstone. As we were getting the 1318 train, we first headed over to Borough Markets and grabbed a felafel each for lunch! After a short trip on the National Rail Emma picked us up at Maidstone East, and drive us the 5 ? minutes to her house! It’s walking distance really, but she was feeling very generous! After a good catch up out in the garden (nice weather yes!) we walked in to town to look around the shops and scope out the pubs we would visit later! I had to buy a cheapie shirt from Primark for 1.50 as in my haste I’d forgotten to pack a spare shirt for the Sunday!  After shopping, we returned to Emma’s for a nice BBQ outside on the back patio – still nice weather – and lots of Pimms and also Vodka. The BBQ was really just for smell/effect, as we planned on pre-cooking the meat in the oven, but sorta of got distracted and forgot about it, so it was pretty much done! Luckily in a way too, as we were using charcoal bisquettes and ‘fire starter’ cubes, which had to be lit using a tea-light candle first lit on the gas hob… (no matches or lighter!) but we did actually end up wit a good hot fire in the end which we used to ‘crisp up’ the food to make it seem real! haha

After a lovely dinner and more drinks and loads of talking, oh, and watching my flatmate Russ on a film clip as the tennis coach (hehe) go onto Youtube.com and search for ‘You think I don’t care’ song. About 9pm we started getting ready and hit town just after 10pm (I’d forgotten my ID so we walked 1/2 way then back home and then all the ..way into town) … we started at The Society Rooms (Weatherspoons) with nice cheap drink and upgrades to double shots for an extra single pound, and then headed into Mu Mu which was more of a good club with music – danced for hours! I love how unpretentious the town scenes are in comparrison to London.

Sunday morning we woke up after a good sleep in, and had a fry-up for breakfast and then got in some sun-baking on the patio (once some Olympic Games had been watched). I didn’t want to leave as I was quite happy sunbaking, however we had work/study to do in various forms so headed back to London… where after a wander through Brick Lane markets I got home and it started to rain! Ahh luverly.

So… things seem disjointed in my writing since Turkey and Galippoli but from now I’ll try and keep more up to date and things shall flow (like the rain falling here in summer..) once more.

So, after returning from Turkey, almost exactly a month later Mara and I headed off to Barcelona, Spain for a weekend. Nice city, however, it rained there. Very disappointed with that! The thing I (and Mara) loved most about the place was the relaxed atmosphere and the market! Oh what a glorious and cheap food market. We had fresh fruit of all sorts and also very fresh seafood at such cheap prices! Never gorged on so many prawns for 4 Euros… or 3 Pounds… or 6 dollars anywhere in my life! We had cocktails on the beach one afternoon, followed by Paella for dinner and a jog of Sangria between us, prior to meeting up with Hattie (an expat) and her Dutch friends and we headed to some clubs, and a great place that served absynth the proper way… ahh fantastic, except Mara’s camera was stolen at some point that evening… and then Mara got very sick once we’d gone into a nightclub (we must have walked there…) and then I finally got her outside after she’d made good friends with the porcelain bowl, and stood in the rain trying to get her to sober up before a taxi would take our fare and drop us back at the Hostel! Met some lovely Spanish boys there though whilst waiting in the rain haha. Every cloud has a silver lining I guess.

I think the next trip was the weekend in Wallington for Sarah’s birthday and to attend the Derby Day horse races again – been here over a year so things are starting to reappear on the events calendar! Derby Day was great – not quite as good as last year, because last year we’d just arrived in the UK and still had a tan, and the weather was hot, hot, hot… not cloudy and threatening to rain! But still, a great day and I even backed some winners – very impressed!

I took a trip at some point to Brighton for a girls weekend with some 2012 colleagues (even though I was working at NHS); Naomi, Pam and Gill. The weekend started well with chocolate on the train down Friday after work, and then continued with wine in plastic cups (a trademark provision of Gill!) and crisps and then cheap cocktail jugs in the Hostel and a good night out around the town… Saturday night was great too, Naomi, Gill and I danced our little feet off at the Walkabout (shameful I know, but we couldn’t get in anywhere else cuz Gill, the eldest, doesn’t carry ID anymore and she wasn’t allowed in anywhere except the Walkie!) but it was awesome with cheap drinks and a live band all night anyway so we had fun. Oh and for dinner we had a fantastic Thai dish… would definitely recommend The King & I restaurant by the beach. We went to Brighton Pier and ate donuts and took silly photos and tried to win a soft teddy (Naomi was determined..) but ended up heading back to the hostel empty handed. Sunday we shopped all day in ‘the lanes’ and had a nice lunch, then headed back to London in the afternoon.

I feel like I’m forgetting trips… but I’ll update if I have!

Last weekend I headed up to Edinburgh to try some haggis (really almost same as black pudding so tasted fine to me) and to find the Loch Ness monster. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival also happens to be on in August, so I managed to see a stand-up show on the Friday night (flew up there after work) and also saw street performances a-plenty! The Sunday ‘Haggis Tour’  Loch Ness explorer bus trip was a long day, but definitely worth it. Got to make friends with some nice people, and also to see a lot of the Scottish country side! Went up the Highlands, almost up to Inverness (look at a map.. fair distance between Edinburgh and Inverness). It was raining for parts of the day – to be expected – but wasn’t actually as cold as I thought it would be. Lots of hairy Scottish Highland Cows around the place and breathtaking scenery. Loch Ness itself was awesome too – even without seeing a monster with my own eyes – it is the biggest body of water in all of mainland Europe and is very, very deep! Sorry I didn’t note down the facts we were being told – too busy keeping eyes on the ‘fish finder’ for Lochie haha. The guide (marine biologist) showed Madina and I a photo of ‘a monster’ which really just looked like a dinosaur spine to me *exactly* he responded. He thinks there are a few, possibly up to 18 living in the Loch and I really, honestly wouldn’t be at all surprised if they did actually exist there. The photo definitely looked real, but even without that, the Loch itself is home to canibalistic trout not found anywhere else (they live right near the bottom and eat each other until the school runs low, then they move to warmer surface water and breed, and once the school reaches high numbers again, they dive back to the bottom to eat their own family again… ew). Loch Ness is also home to another special kind of fish, which is usually only found in salt water but for one reason-or-other it survives and thrives in the Loch. So… some other things about Scotland – Loch means Lake… but as our guide Carole (roll your Rs) pointed out, Loch Lochie does not translate to Lake Lakie! Heather is the ‘purple stuff’ growing on Scottish hills and when it decomposes on the ground, and especially in the lakes (making the water black) it is called Pete.. so Heather turns to Pete (perhaps where Pete-moss comes from!?). Anyway, Scotland and Edinburgh was totally gorgeous and I would love to live there… honestly. I checked online to see if Laing O’Rourke my company has an office there, but unfortunately they’re only working on a site in Perth (not the Aussie Perth, the Scottish one) which is somewhere else in the country (I drove past in the bus). Uhh well… next time perhaps.

So, for my first ‘solo trip’ I enjoyed myself and the freedom it gives. You can do what you want, when you want, and it’s easy going on a tour bus on your own as it forces you to be nice and make friends with other people. Would probably be a bit lonely/boring if you didn’t go on a trip (day or o’night) with other people, but otherwise no dramas. On the Saturday I met Medida who was also visiting Edinburgh and so after the tour finished we went out for dinner together and then had a wander around all the street performances along the Royal Mile. Sunday, I pottered around the city and went for a big walk and then grabbed my bags and headed back to the airport and rainy London. Mind you, on the Sunday the weather in Edinburgh was brilliant and I saw a clear sky for the first time in ages!

This weekend, I’m off to Maidstone in south-east UK, I think. Emma lives there, and she’s one of ‘the six’ Mara and I are part of after te six of us met in New Zealand in 2006 and then spent Easter this year all together in Cork, Ireland (at Jen’s house) and then met up with 1/2 of us at Derby Day, so yeah 1/2 of us are meeting up again this weekend for what will no doubt be fun-filled shopping and drinking! I’m going to kickboxing, then meeting Sarah and Mara at London Bridge station, where we’ll catch the train down to Maidstone East – can’t wait!

And then next weekend, is the notting hill festival (will write separately about festivals over past months) and then on Monday 25 August Mara, Sarah (old NHS colleague of mine, and an Aussie from Adelaide) and I fly out to Valencia, Spain! We are going to LA TOMATINA! Yay – get ready to be pelted with tomatoes people! I still need to buy an extra bra or two and a waterproof camera… bras are recommeded in layers as apparently your shirts get ripped off (even though it’s a no-no in the rule book) and waterproof-disposable camera obviously to take photos (of the tomatoes, not naked people!). It should be a great week and fingers, toes and all else crossed that this time the Spanish sun will shine on down – I need a tan and some Vitamin D! After the festival in Bunol, we spend some days in Valencia, then jump on the Eurostar to Madrid for a Friday and maybe also Saturday night party and then head home early Sunday 31 August….. where, once home, I will be studying my ass off as I have a mock exam for OH&S the Monday (next day) morning, followed by full-contact session B of my course…. after which I do more study, study, study and then pass my exam on October 14!

Well – it’s been a while (understatement!) since I’ve updated my journal! Mainly because I’ve not actually had that many interesting-enough things happening to write about… and was quite unsettled for a while! So to put it in a nutshell (help help I’m in a nutshell – Megan and Mimi will understand) over the past few months I have

1) moved to Battersea Park and into a 2 bedroom place with a PSYCHO landlady. People, do not rent from a Mary (Marilenne) something-or-other who lives in Battersea Park and is Portugese with a deprived daughter Alainna

2) began to hate my boss and hence my job at NHS (National Health Service)

2a) signed up for Occy Health and Safety Course to get technical membership of IOSH

3) enlisted with a job agent and also contact my old HR friend at London 2012 (CLM Delivery Partner)… applied for a job back at London 2012 in IT Department… got a phonecall saying my old boss (Dave Peacop) found out I was searching for a job and asked for me back, in my old position but with slightly different and additional duties, and with a 4 grand payrise… and they’d fire the temp that replaced me.

4) definitely took that job offer!

5) gave month’s notice to psycho land-lady and ass of a boss

6) found a brilliant new house-share back in good old East London… located near Liverpool Street, Old Street and Bethnal Green and generally in Shoreditch funky area

7) continuing with kickboxing and loving it…

8 ) sad farewell from NHS as my team was/is lovely and I do miss all the girls

9) started back at London 2012 and feels like never left!!! Absolutely enjoying being back, and scoping out the role of my new job, which includes Facilities (spatial planning), Health and Safety (ties in greatly with my course), formatting, stationary ordering, driving the cars around and other Administrator duties

10) Been out a few times with flatmates and new/old colleagues and generally enjoying the new life better

So I’ve changed house, job, gym, driving licence… what else apart from my name?! haha.

Also been on holidays… separate notes on them to come!