Passed

I passed my uni subject this semester, YAY! It was a big relief yesterday when I checked my email to receive the one from the uni, slowly scrolling down with a big sigh of relief at the bottom. I was pretty confident I had passed, but it was good to have that confirmed. Lets hope the rest of my dgree goes as well.
I would like to pay tribute here to a lady by the name of Bea Te Raki. I worked with Bea the whole time I was with Mission Australia and she was the nicest person I worked with and she was incredible helpful when I needed it. Sadly she passed away a couple of weeks ago and she will be greatly missed by many people.

Carols by Candlelight

Last night we got into the Christmas spirit and went to a carols by candlelight service. It was held in a Catholic church near the university. It was a beautiful old church. It was also a Catholic service. TI was pretty moving, but the Catholics do really put a lot into their services. I wasn't too sure about what they do with the bible. They kneeled before it and held it up for everyone to admire and then waved incense over it before reading from it. I felt some of the servie was a little over the top. At the end of the service they put a spotlight on to the picture of Mary and everyone looked at it for awhile. Andrew wasn't too impressed, but I thought it was a beautiful service and I was very glad I went. It made it definite in my mind that I want to get into teaching and what I am doing now is not something I want to stay doing.
The carols were the traditional ones so I knew them. I thought they might have songs I didn't know. They even had a Bishop presiding over the service so that was pretty cool. I don't think I will be going to another Catholic service anytime soon. I will be going to church on Christmas day but it will be a Methodist service. It will be interesting to contrast the two services.
I miss the big outdoor carols services. Unfortunately it is too cold to have something like that here. It is funny, I didn't think I had any traditions that I upheld, but every year I watch the Carols in the Domain, or I am there and I always watch the Melbourne carols on Christmas Eve. I am hoping they might have something like that here so that I can have something to watch on Christmas Eve. Going to the carols last night has really put me in the mood for Christmas, I just have to get everyone else at work to get in the mood and have carols playing, so far it isn't working.
A couple of nights ago Andrew and I watched Carry on Christmas. For those of you who know about the Carry On series then you can just imagine what this was like. Not exactly hilarious, but a good laugh. They did one in 1969 and one in 1972, we have both,next week we will probably watch the next one, see if it just as good. The one in 1969 was filmed in front of an audience so there was a lot of playing to the audience, but it was not too bad.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

London Calling

The time has come. Andrew and I are thinking about moving to London. Andrew's contract finishes in January and he has started looking at jobs in London. I myself am also looking at teaching jobs. We have seen some flats that are quite nice and with two bedrooms. They are expensive, but the salary's are more than they are here in Manchester.
We are quite excited about the propect of a move and I am keen to move on from Daytona. The managers here know that I am thinking about leaving, but they don't know how soon it could be.
Andrew was in London for a few days last week and he was surprised how easy it was for him to get around especially on the tube and the prices of things weren't a lot more expensive than they are here.
The only thing I am a little nervous about is getting jobs. We won't be doing anything until Andrew has got a job. He will then go down a little earlier than me to get a place and I can get everything sorted out here.
Will keep you all updated!

Borat

We went and saw this over the weekend. What can I say about this movie. I didn't know whether I felt sorrier for the American's or the people of Kazhkstan. Although there were definitely moments of hilarity there were some really cringe worthy stuff. There is a particular scene where Borat and his friend are naked and wrestling, this then continues into a fight that goes all over the hotel, including into a conference that is being held there. It didn't completely live up to all they hype and people telling me I would be in stitches the whole way through, but at the same time I enjoyed it. The scene with Pamela Anderson, well, I will leave it up to you to watch.

Another year older

This is the first time in a few years that I feel older on my birthday. I am not sure why, I didn't have a significant birthday, just 27. Maybe being away from friends and family, or maybe because everyone I work with is younger than me. I had a nice day though.
I walked into work and one of the managers started singing happy birthday. When I opened the laundry door to put my bag away there was a teddy bear, chocolates and a card from everyone at work. Then later in the day the marshals came out to sing me happy birthday. It was really nice.
Andrew came back from London that afternoon after his exam so I got home and he was there with my present. He gave me the board game 'Lost' and an iPod Nano. Very cool. I can get 500 songs onto it. So far I have 147. As soon as we get a new computer I can get lots more.
Thank you to all your well wishes.

Finished

I have finished uni for the year. I am very relieved to be finished, though now I am not really sure what to do with myself. I have bought a couple of teaching books since I have been here so I might read through them over the next couple of months.
The exam wasn't easy, but I finished with enough time to go back over everything I had written and do some editing. It was weird sitting in a small room with just myself and the person observing me. I have to admit though i did like doing the exam that way. It meant that I had no other distractions around me and I seemed to be able to concentrate a lot easier.
For the few days before the exam I went over the past exam questions. I am glad I did because a couple of the questions were similar and thankfully I was able to remember what I had written.
I think I did okay. I passed both my assignments for this subject so as long as I pass the exam I will be okay. Now I just have to wait for the results.
Thank you to all who were sending me positive thoughts, I appreciate it.

Guy Fawkes

We survived our first Guy Fawkes night, actually I should say week.
Since Thursday last week there have been fireworks going off all over the place. The first couple of nights there were just the odd ones going off. It was a bit scary riding home when you have kids all ove rthe place in possession of fireworks. It seems you don't need a licence so it isn't all controlled and in one place like back home. Over the weekend we were sitting in our living room watchign the fireworks going off from about 4 different places. It was actually pretty cool to watch it all from the comfort of our own living room. It did get a bit much after awhile with the same types always going off and well it was a bit tiresome, cool for awhile then we had enough.
What we did miss was actually going to a bonfire. We assumed that it would all happen on the night of November 5th, silly us, it was actually on the Friday night at the park near us. We will have to make sure we don't miss it next year.
It all seems a bit much though to celebrate a terrorist act. But I guess any reason to celebrate is a good one.
Andrew and I are in major study mode now for the next couple of weeks so you probably won't here from me for awhile.

Winter

Winter is fast approaching here and I am not sure how I will cope. The last couple of days have got down to 2 degrees and it is only November. I am absolutely freezing. The boiler at work is also having issues so that means it is often not very warm at work at all.
With winter comes darker days. The sun is setting at 4pm, though it will get early over the next ouple of weeks. I am not sure whether I prefer to be riding to work or from work in the dark. It is so weird to see this happening. It should be lighter, not sure how I will go. I may have to stop riding to work for a couple of months as well. With it being so dark it can get dangerous riding around. So I will have to opt for the bus for awhile.
I just want it to snow, at least then it might actually be worth it.

Children of Men

Last night we went to see Children of Men. I went in to this movie with great expectations. It was an interesting idea with a great cast. There is a lot of people being killed as well. I was incredible moved by most of the movie and the thought that this is entirely possible. I found though that there were so many questions left unanswered. Why is the UK the only country left standing, why are they expelling all immigrants, why has the whole of the UK turned into one big Guantanamo Bay, why exactly has the world become infertile? I was also disappointed as to how this movie ends. I felt a little cheated. This movie was well filmed and the horror of the fighting scenes was done, I guess accurately as it looks like something we see happening in Iraq.
I think judge movies more harshly these days. Maybe I expect more from them than I use to. I like a movie that challenges my thinking. Unfortunately, this one didn't make it. Which is a shame because it was a good movie.

Elizabethtown

The latest movie watched is Elizabethtown. I went into this movie with anticipation. I am a fan of Cameron Crowe and love his attitude towards road trips and the music to go with it, think Almost Famous.
I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the fact that the roadtrip only made up a small part of the movie, but the soundtrack was spot on. All hail Cameron Crowe.
I thought Kirsten Dunst character was a little annoying, but interesting. I am a fan of Kirsten Dunst so am happy to let it slip (hanging out for Marie Antoinette, also another favourite director Sophia Coppola). On the whole I would recommend this movie, though if someone can explain to me what happened with the shoe I would greatly appreciate it. I know something big went wrong, but I am sure that is never explained. The relationship between Eleanor and Orlando Bloom's character was shallow and never fully developed, I guess left to our imagination. A little sad for him.
I did find the end slightly predictable, but at least it didn't fall on its ass like Hitch. I apologise to anyone who liked that movie, but I am sorry, the ending really sucked.

Famous People

This week at Daytona has been a week of famous people. First we had Gilly from Hollyoaks. This is a pretty dodgy daytime soap here in the UK. It is actually filmed in Manchester so it is possible to see the actors around. This is the first time I have actually seen someone famous that I recognised and pointed out to other people, I was pretty excited and felt that I needed to tell everyone. His character in the show is pretty dopey, thankfully in real life, not the case.
The next famous person was incredible exciting, not only is he famous in the UK, he is worlwide famous. His name is Ross Noble. When I heard he was coming, I got very excited, even more so when he actually arrived to race. I could not believe that this massively famous person was standing right in front of me. Thankfully no tonguetying or silly sentences. I made prefect sense. I was way to nervous to ask for a picture or an autograph, so I had to leave to my trustworthy receptionist Hannah, who was also a massive fan and had seen him earlier this week. He is currently in Manchester for comedy week. Now if any of you write to me and ask who is I will be very unimpressed and may disown you. If necessary look him up on the internet.

Amsterdam

We had a fantastic weekend in Amsterdam last week. The flight across was delayed by about half an hour due to fog in Manchester. Andrew wasn't so good with the take off, and thankfully the flight was only 55 minutes long so he managed to get through it okay.
We started off by visitng the Heiniken experience. 10 euros to get in and you get 3 free beers. It is a tour about the start of the company and the brewery. It was pretty good. you also get a free gift at the end as well. It was a bottle opener.
Then we wandered around town and went into a few different pubs and a couple of cafe's. We then headed back to the hotel and got something to eat. Dutch take away, not really that different to anything else. But they do have mayonnaise with their chips, which is my new favourite thing.
On Saturday we headed to the Rijksmuseum, which is the state museum. Very good museum. There was a big deisplay of Rembrandt paintings, including the Night Watch. you could get a sheet that explained the different points of the painting including the girl in the middle, and various people as well as the fact that the painting was cut down when it was moved to the town hall so that it would fit on the wall. Nobody knows where that piece is and people can only speculate as to what is contained in that piece.
We spent the afternoon wandering around again stopping into various places of interest, including the Sex Museum. A friend of mine went there when they visited Amsterdam so we decided to check it out. A very interesting look into the porn industry since the early 1900s.
That night we went out for dinner at an italian restaurant.
On Sunday we went to Anne Frank House. I found this really interesting having read her diary. You can't really imagine how small the area was that they lived in for all that time until you actually see it. The staircases were very steep and not very wide.
For lunch that day we had fish and chips and the biggest pancake I have ever seen, it was bigger than the plate it was brought to us and the plate wasn't exactly small. We then spent the rest of the day walking off lunch.
The whole time we were there everyone spoke English to us which made getting around so easy. All the restaurants as well, except the menus were in Dutch so that was a little difficult. Amsterdam isn't that big and you can walk pretty much the whole way around pretty easilt. We had 3 different maps to help us as well. It was what I expected a European city to look like, with the canals and the old buildings, it was all very romantic. On Friday it seemed very drab and everyone seemed grumpy, so I wasn't overly impressed. On Saturday though it cleared up and everyone seemed to relax and have a laugh. It made the city feel very personable.
We did go to the red light district because we wanted to see just what it was like. I found the girls very depressing and not very attractive. Most of them looked like they didn't want to be there, but all the men walking passed hem seemed to find them a great entertainment. each to their own I guess.
On the whole I can completely recommend Amsterdam for anyone planning a trip to Europe.
One last note a big congratulations to Russell and Junko on their baby girl Emily, i pray they are both getting stronger by the day.

Death of a Presdient

Last night we watched a mocumentary on the assasination of George Bush.
It was 'made' a year after he was killed and what happened in the aftermath. Cheney was named president, and the FBI went into overdrive to catch the killer. A suspect was found and questioned, he was Syrian and had spent time in a camp in Afghanistan. Immediately Cheney wanted the evidence to prove it was him, there were people pushing for the link with other people to commit this act. There was evidence against this guy, but not enough to convict beyond reasonable doubt. It felt very similar to the way that George Bush wanted everything to be about Saddam. I am not sure the people were that made this, but it was done really well. I think if anyone had been flicking channels they no doubt would have thought that he had indeed been killed. The footage that was used had been doctored incredible well to actually make it look like these people, such as Cheney, really were talking about these issues. The determination to have the Syrian man charged blinded everyone to the truth of who really killed George Bush. If it gets shown whereever you are, I certainly recommend it for an interesting look into American Politics of this age.
It also talked of the issues with North Korea and a 'Sea of Japan incident.' This wasn't fully explained but assumed that there was an attack.
I would have liked to have seen more of the aftermath. There was no signs of a country in mourning for Bush's death. He was in Chicago and there were a large number of protestors. When they heard he had been shot they were cheering. There was no pictures of people crying and mourning the loss of their president. It was straight back to work and focus on the investigation. They did show his funeral. Now if I was George Bush I would have been a little unsettled at watching my own funeral.
I wonder if he gave his approval or if it was done completely without his knowledge, either way it is a fascinating watch.

Godfather

Godfather part two was a very good insight into the Coleone Family. It started by helping the community and 'favours' were done. This one was a little slow moving and very long, but there was a lot of information. Michael, once the innocent yougest son, now the head of the family trying to keep control. It reminds me a lot of the royal family and the struggle that different people went through in order ti gain the throne, then keep it.
THe character has been built for you to feel sorry for him, even though he is a murderer and down right bad person. He loses his family one by one, then his wife turns on him. The movie ends with him sitting in a chair outside his big house all alone. Looking like he kows exactly why he is there and maybe was it all worth it. I am hoping the next movie sees a turn around and him turning more into his father. It is really wierd seeing these actors so young, they have changed so much, I did not recognise Diane Keaton in the first one, moreso in the second one.
Tonight we have The Untouchables, we will see how this one turns out.

Movies

Andrew and I are signed up to a internet dvd rental shop. It is fantastic. All we have to do is add the movies we want to watch and we get them in some kind of order, not exactly the order we were expecting, but we get them. The other week we watched Million Dollar Baby. I found it incredible heart renching and not at all what I was expecting. I expected the Hollywood ending and didn't get it, but I was not disappointed. The relationship between the two main characters was very genuine and you could see the anxiety in Clint Eastwoods character as the movie comes to and end, protecting his finghter until the end. Her family was not well done though. You only saw them twice and though it was easy to tell straight away the kind of people they were, I think they were a little two-dimensional for my liking. But none the less, I recommend this movie.
I also finally watched The Village. It was something Andrew wanted to see, so I put it on the list. I went in thinking it was going to be terrible, plus I already knew the plot twist. But even though I knew the twist, I thought it was played very well. It was an interesting story with the parents and how everyone came to be in 'the village.' I don't want to give it away. There decision to stay in the village and bring the children up there though I did not think was a good idea. The idea of the village may have been good to begin with, but I thought the children deserved more, and the parents weren't willing to give it up. Again, I recommend this one.
We have also started out way through the Godfather trilogy. I have never seen ay of these movies before so it is a completely new experience for me. I have not been one for Mafia movies, but this has been done so well. The way Michael's character changes and contorts through the first movie to become who becomes was fascinating, and sad at the same time. I felt that his family drew him in when he wasn't like them. In the end he turns out to be just like them. We are going to watch the second one tonight. I said that we had to cook lots of pasta and drink some good Italian wine while we watched. Everyone in the movie seemed to be so I thought it would help us to understand the movie more. Plus I love pasta, it was a great excuse.
There are a couple of movies out at the cinemas I really want to see. There is An Incovenient Truth, about global warming, and Children of Men that is set a few years in the future. This one looks great. Not only does it have Clive Owen in it, but the storyline is very relevant. Basically people have become infertile and no matter what no one can have children. They find a young pregnant woman and it is about getting her to a safe place and try to discover how to be fertile again. No doubt we won't get a chance to go and see it, but if anyone else gets the chance, please let me know what you think. There is another movie, I think it has already finished at the cinemas. It is called Right at Your Door. There has been a terrorist attack with a dirty bomb and everyone in LA has been infected. The reports tell people to seal themselves in their houses for a number of days until everthing can be declared safe. A man sees his partner off to work, he stays at home, she gets infected. The story is about the fight in his mind of whether to let her in and infect him as well, or let her stay outside. I have no idea what happens, but it looks like it gets pretty intense.
Anyway, they are my reviews, hopefully as time goes on, I shall add more.

Loss of Innocence

Last night our laptop was stolen. Even though someone was home, the lights were on and Andrew was in the next room. I can not believe that people are so brazen as to climb up to a window, lean in and take something off a table. We live on a main road, they would have been in clear sight of the road, yet they still climbed up and took it. I cam home to find the cord lying across the road, thinking it was funny that it looked just like our computer cord. Only to find out it was our cord.
We feel as though we have lost a little innocence we had about living in this area. We called the police as soon as it happened, they got our statement and found some prints on the window. The policeman that came to take the statement was very nice, but said that it was a common thing in this area and they have an operation in progress to try and stop it, so they appreciated us coming forward and reporting it.
I feel violated though. To know that someone could be looking through our pictures. Plus I had all my pictures of my nephew saved on there as well. It has made us more aware and we will definitely be more careful now. It almost makes you feel like a prisoner in your own home, not wanting to open the windows incase they can get in again. Other than that we had no personal files, but there was Andrew's uni work which he will have to re-type.
But what is done is done and we can't change it. At least next week when we go away we can enjoy our time and have fun, relax and hopefully not be too worried.

The Boleyn Inheritance

I discovered today that one of my favourite authors is releasing a new book. Elizabeth introduced me to Philippa Gregory and she is fantastic. So far I have read her novels based on the women surrounding Henry VIII, his first wife Katherine, Mary Boleyn and her sister Anne, his first daughter Mary's reign and the next book about Elizabeth coming to be queen. I never paid much attention in history, but these books got me excited about this time in English history. I even know more then Andrew, which doesn't happen very often. Obviously the books are based on history but fictionalised. The new book is called The Boleyn Inheritance and it looks at a couple of his other wives and another Boleyn girl who served them.
Here is a brief about the book:
Philippa Gregory’s new novel is told in the voices of three women: Jane Boleyn - only survivor of the ambitious Boleyn family, and the two Queens she served and betrayed: Anne of Cleeves and Katherine Howard. Anne comes to England a hopeful candidate for the dangerous position of Queen of England but Henry’s instant revulsion nearly takes her to the scaffold for witchcraft as her lady in waiting, Jane Boleyn, bears false witness against her. Jane’s candidate for the throne is her cousin Katherine Howard, a child of fourteen who captures the King’s love but soon finds it is not enough to save her from his murderous spite. A novel drawn as tight as a lute string about a court ruled by the gallows, this is the full story of Henry’s forgotten Queens.
The website is http://www.philippagregory.com/ check it out.

Work the way out

I have been thinking a lot about my job lately and the more I think about it the more I realise that it isn't what I want. It has been pushing me beyond what I thought I was capable, but it doesn't fit, it doesn't make me happy. I see people in jobs that they aren't interested in and I don't want to be like that. I want a job that doesn't feel like a job. That is what it was like the whole time I was in Japan. Everything seems to be pushing me so hard towards teaching, besides the fact that I am studying to be a teacher. I never really thought about what would happen when I got to the end. I didn't think I would actually get into teaching. But I remember the feeling I used to get when finally one of my little Japanese kids understood me and answer in English. Such a rush, I miss that. All I get from my job now is pressure to make sure that my staff are doing the right thing. I don't understand people sometimes. I have sat down with all my staff, trained them all, made sure they are clear of what they have to do, but when I check up there are some many things and they leave the area a mess. I am finding more and more that I spend all Monday trying to clean up the mess they make over the weekend and it is really starting to grate on me. I don't want to let all this bottle up either, I know it will kill me. Plus it put me in a really bad mood for most of the morning this morning and I hate being like that.
Also customers who don't listen. We have instructions behind the computers where customers register. It is a very simple process and most people can do it. But there are always a few who don't listen, don't bother to read the instructions and then wonder why it doesn't work, then when you go to show them they aren't grateful, just rude. It really does my head in.
Anyway, enough of a whinge about work.
I finished my second uni assignment today and sent it to the university. I am happy to have it done, but nervous as well because this was the sticking point for me last year. I have time to change anything and resubmit on line if I need to, but I just want to stop thinking about it.
In less than 2 weeks we are off to Amsterdam and I am really looking forward to getting away from everything and actually enjoying spending time with Andrew and doing some site seeing. There are a couple of museums I really want to check out like the Van Gogh and Anne Frank. Definitely more details will follow of this trip.
I do have to say a big congratulations to my friends Karen and Andrew on their engagement. It is very exciting and I am sure everyone is looking forward to the nuptials, even if most people weren't very surprised that this happened.
Little Lucas isn't so little any more, he is so big, I have included another very gorgeous picture of the little guy.
Life is always more complicated than we think it is. Sometimes I wish I could go back to being a kid where everything was decided for you and your parents were your whole world. I know 'tell her she's dreaming' but I can't help it.

Way beyond the comfort zone

Now that we have internet at home I am able to get my blog back up and running. I have managed to copy the old blog across. There is a lot that has been missed over the last couple of months but I have sent emails so that will haveto be enough for now. After reading my friends blogs I decided to upgrade mine, and completely delete the old one.
Work has been really overwhelming recently. I am in charge of reception. This means that if there are issues with staff, I have to deal with it. This includes disciplinary meetings and firing staff if necessary. We have one staff member that I have to go down this road with. I feel that I am in way over my head as this is something I have never had to do before. I am getting a lot of help from my managers and the HR manager, but it still very daunting. It has made me think whether I am really up for this. But then I thought, the whole reason I came here was to get new experinces and no doubt this training will help me in the future, especially if I get into teaching.
I have been studying hard recently, though not sure if it is paying off. I received my first assignment back. I passed, but I thought I had written an assignment at least worth a credit. The notes that the marker has made, does make sense and I can see where I went wrong, it was still a disppointment. For my second assignment I have to write a two hour lesson plan. I actually managed to finish it today and am quite proud of it. I can see why I failed last year when I had to construct a lesson. This semester I have been able to focus so much more on what was required which has been fantastic, such a great help. Plus being able to do my uni stuff at work has been a big blessing, especially when it is quiet.
We had a massive charity event on at work on Friday night. It was also Andrew's birthday so I paid for him to attend the event. We had a couple of celebrities, but no one exciting, which was a a shame because I was hoping to tell everyone who I got to meet. But the event went really well. All the racers had a good time and we managed to make a decent amount of money for the Red Cross. It meant that I had a 16 hour shift, but thankfully the day went very quickly.
In regards to my stomach pains, I haven't had any for almost 3 months now. It has been really great. I have had more blood tests (which came back all clear, even my liver test which was a little bad from the first results). I also had an ultra sound down on my gut. I haven't got the results back yet, but when it was done they said I had gallstones in my gall bladder. So I may have to get them removed because if my stomach acid builds up then it will cause the stones to flare (that is my understanding, I could be completely wrong, I have to wait to hear from the doctor).

July 20 2006

It is still incredibly hot here. Yesterday the temperature was up to 36.2 degrees which was the hottest day ever recorded. All you hear about is the weather. The first news story for yesterday was for how hot it was. It feels like a normal summer day for me.
Things are going well here. Work is less busy now that we have a couple of more receptionists. It is great to be able to have a couple of days of a week now. I am making the use of this time. Unfortunately I am not able to spend the time with Andrew as my days off are usually during the week. We are feeling a little strained at the moment, but taking as many opportunities to be together as possible.
I have not been feeling particular homesick since I have been here, though I have been feeling a little down recently. I am trying to pull myself out of this funk. We are trying to get out more which is helping. Next month I am hopefully going to Cardiff for a Frisbee tournament which would be fantastic. Andrew has a busy weekend this one. He is going to York and Birmingham. York is for a run and Birmingham with work. He is looking forward to it and it will be great him to be seeing some new places instead of me going away all the time. I ma working all weekend so we wouldn't really be seeing each other much anyway.
I am starting to get on top of my stomach pains. I went to see the doctor again today and she gave me different tablets to take, which are stronger, and she also ran some blood tests. She thinks that it might be some kind of bug that causes the acid in my stomach. I am hoping it is this bug because it is treatable. Every time I have been to the doctor's since I have been here I haven't had to pay, even for the blood tests and the pap smear. I have had to pay for my prescriptions, but even they aren't too expensive. It has been a big relief that this was the case because I was worried that it would be costing me a fortune. But I am glad that this problem is close to being solved!

July 2 2006

I have been made to think recently about myself and where I am in life. Obviously I am in England, but I mean looking more deeply.
I read a friends blog with the idea of saviour. Do I need a saviour? It really struck me as it is something that recently I have been really thinking about. I have been quite down recently and not sure how to get myself out of this slump. I think we all need to be saved in some way, whether it be spiritually or quite literally.  I am not quite sure which it is for me. It seems I have lost my sesne of direction, which was so clear to me a few months ago, but now the paths are foggy and I am not sure which direction to take. I know that I a missing something, but I am not so sure I know what that something is. Everything I have in my life is good and I love what is in it, but just not sure whether it is what I really want. I am not quite sure whether I am explaining myself very well, but something is definately missing.
I am not sure if this is linked to how I have been feeling, but I have been having some very full on dreams recently. More like nightmares actually, and I have been waking up quite distressed.
Not doubt these feelings will pass, but I know deep down that this is not something easy to deal with and work through.

June 27 2006

Australia has been knocked out of the world cup. Though everyone keeps telling me we were robbed. But unfortunately these things can't be changed. It has been incredibly exciting being here for the world cup. The atmosphere is crazy. Although the English team are winning they are constantly being harrased and the media will only talk about the fact that they are playing so badly. No one seems to grasp the fact that, well, they have made it through. From now on they are going to have to pick up their game if they expect to get any further.
I saw the Da Vinci Code on the weekend. Even though there is so much controversy surrounding the movie, the cinemas are still full of people. We found that it was rather dumbed down from the book. It has been turned into an easy to follow movie. I am not sure as to why people have said that it isn't easy to follow unless you have read the book. I have to admit the ending was done very badly. I won't give away the ending in case people want to see it. There was no build up to discover the truth, no real sort of suspense to it and even though I have read the book it felt obvious as to how it would end. It was very Hollywoodised, which was a shame. The storyline, where the controversy lies, is something that has intrigued me for awhile. Every since I read parts of the dead sea scrolls when they came to Sydney. I know it goes against things that was taught as I was growing up, but I don't understand why it is so hard to believe he was a man. That was the point of him being here, he was just a man, a great man/teacher/prophet that showed us how to live a good life and that God is the true God. The book is just a story, a fiction story, that is obviously written well enough to have the church coming out condemning it. But if it isn't true then why is the church so against it? Why not just let it go and let people figure it out for themselves? Just my thoughts. I hope I haven't offended anyone by what I have said, but I think that there needs to be more debate like this in the world of christianity. I think that a lot of chrisitans think they are the elite and that no one else is good enough to join them. Anyone can believe and be a christian.
I don't want to finish on that note. I am still enjoying my time here and am looking forward to travelling in a couple of months, maybe Portugal.

June 19 2006

Well, by now you all know that I am an aunty ans most likely have seen the photos. Here is a picture. He was 7 pounds (I won the pool for how much the baby would weigh).
Working has been really busy and I have managed to get sick again. Though it is frustrating getting sick, I am really enjoying my job. I have started riding my bike to work. It takes about 40 minutes. There are a few hills which makes for a good workout.

May 29 2006

I am an aunty. Kylee had a little boy yesterday. His name is Lucas Henry Wilton. Not sure of the statistics yet, but will let you know as soon asI know.

May 6 2006

Lots to talk about, so many things happen in a month.I have played in 2 frisbee tournaments now and have felt so sore afterwards. I discovered muscles I never knew existed.The first tournament was in Liverpool. It was a mixed tournament and it went all weekend. We played 7 games over the two days. It was a great workout and it felt good to be back out there playing again. I ended up with quite a few strained muscles after the first game and struggled through the rest of the day. We managed to win 3 of our 4 games that day which was fantastic and it meant that we finished in the top 10. One of the teams was all boys and were not too impressed by being beaten by an all girls team. It felt great. A couple of the teams told us that we have some good strategies and that we ran them around quite a bit. Which was good for us. That night we had a party, with a theme of 'Invaders.' I was completely exhausted and was having trouble walking so sat in the corner a bit. We played a few drinking games and watched people trying to dance. There were some very interesting costumes. I went as a Viking, some people dressed as Trojan's and came in behind a cardboard cutout of a horse. There were soldiers and a group of guys dressed as sperm. We only stayed for a couple of hours and then went back to the place we were staying at to sleep.Woke up the next morning and my body felt very tight and I though I would never be able to move without pain every again. But I pushed through the pain. The second day we treated as fun and played as well as we could but didn't manage to win any of our games that day. Our final game was an absolute laugh, we mucked around quite a bit and had some fun. Luckily the other team wanted to have a muck around as well. One of the defensive moves was called 'hairy nipples,' which involved them lifting up the shirts and aiming their chest at whoever was throwing the disk. Very funny and very off-putting so their tactic worked. Hey beat us but it was a good game.Last week we went to Leeds. It was a mini tournament with only 2 games each. But they were full length games. In Liverpool the games were only 50mins, in Leeds they were 75mins. Plus we only had nine players, which means we only had two subs, whereas the other two teams had almost two entire teams. Very intimidating. We didn't win either of our games, but managed to work on our strategies and pulled a couple off which was great. The funniest thing was that there were 2 Aussies on one of the opposing teams. One was from Canberra, the other was a girl I used to play against when I played back in Sydney. Very small world. It was a good training session and I definately wasn't as sore as I was after Liverpool.Last night was Ladies Night again. I went so well. I managed to bring my lap time down to 26.12, from 28.60. I also made it into the final. I finished 6th overall out of 17. In the final I managed to over take someone and ended up 5th. I had an absolute blinder last night. Even all the marshalls were cheering me. I won my final heat and as I pulled into the pits the marshals gave me thumbs up and said well done. It felt really good. It must have been the red race suit I wore. Hopefully I can do it again next time.I finally have a job. This one is definate and I start on Monday. It is with Daytona who I have been working with as a temp. I will be the head receptionist. Which means I will be in charge of the whole front area. I will coordinate the two other receptionist and create the rota as well as ordering everything. I will also be acting as a kind of PA to the manager and assistant manager. Everyone is really happy that I am going to stay. They have been trying everything they can to keep me including offereing me more money than another receptionist would get which is fantastic. I am really enjoying working there and I am getting right into the karting. I even had the owner of Daytona call me to say that he was very happy I would be joing the team and staying with them. I have met him a couple of times. Dad if you read this, he reminds me of Robert Shannon (for those of you who have no idea who that is, he is the guy who started Shannon's insurance, where dad works). But I am really happy and I can finally stop looking for a job, which is a huge weight off my shoulders.Yesterday at work I met Christiano Ronaldo. He is a Manchester United player, quite well known over here and I got my photo taken with him. He came in a week ago to do some filming for a tv show. He must of enjoyed it as he sent someone in to book a two hour session for him. He didn't manage to race that whole time, but he wants to come back again. Then I got my photo with him. Very cool. It was enough to turn me into a United fan.Andrew is going well. He is still looking around for work that isn't recruiting. He isn't enjoying his job so much any more and wants to try something else. He has some interviews so we will see what comes of them. He hasn't been able to come with me to any our my tournaments which is a shame. He has never watched a frisbee match before. He is still keeping up the running but hasn't entered any more races since the Liverpool half marathon. Some of the runs here require you to raise a certain amount of money before you can enter them. It is an interesting idea, a good way to raise a lot of money for different charities, and there are so many of them, even just in Manchester, then there are ones all over the country. He has decided to enter the London Marathon next year. He has started training already, by running longer distances. We also try and get out every night to throw the frisbee around. The evenings are starting to get longer and it doesn't really start to get dark until about 9pm. So after work we run down to the park and throw around. I am trying to work on a few things outside of my team training, and Andrew is learning to throw a few different passes. It is good exercise for the both of us and a great way to enjoy the evening. The park is usually packed with a lot of people, both old and young. One night we had a young boy ask if he could throw with us. He was pretty good, if he had been older I would have asked him to join one of the Manchester teams.The weather has been really great this last week. Nice spring weather, actually quite warm as well, well warm for England. Everyone has been out in their T-shirts and shorts, and the beer gardens have been packed with people every night. I love spring here. I love the fact that you can really see the seasonal changes. I don't think we appreciate the changes so much. Here the changes aren't small or gradual. They are big and happen within a fairly short period. It's great. We have lots of birds and colourful flowers outside our windows now.

April 8 2006

Things are slowly progressing. I am registered with a few different job agencies now, so hopefully something will come up soon. I am still getting temp work for now which is good. Though a permanent job would be much better. Andrew is looking around for something else. He doesn't think that recuitment is what he wants to do. He is looking at local MPs and some other roles, so we will see what happens there. He is also doing a bit of part time work with a friend of ours who is a building. Andrew has never done anything like this before but he just follows Paul's instructions and it seems to be going okay. It means I get some tiem to myself which is nice.I have joined an ultimate frisbee team. It is an all girl team but we compete in mixed evetns. In a couple of weeks we have an event in Liverpool, so I am looking forward to that. We train every Saturday morning for a couple of hours and for one weekend a month we train all weekend. Should be some good exercise for me. I really want to get a bike, but until I get a job I don't want to buy anything.I went to Ladies night last night. I did okay but I still can't get under the 28 sec lap time which is frustrating. I also had a major accident last night. The person in front of me did a major spin and I couldn't avoid hitting them, and then the person behind me flew straight into me. Didn't look pretty and I feel a bit sore today, but it is all part of motor racing I guess. I need more practice.Andrew and I went to the Walkabout Hotel in Manchester. It was good to have some Australianess. We listened to music by Powderfinger, Living End, ACDC and we drank Australian beer. We asked if they played any NRL matches but they don't which is a bummer, they might be able to get some AFL matches but that would be about it.Andrew and I have both bought England shirts so we have something to where to the pub when we go to watch soem of the soccer matches. We don't have anything Australian to wear for those matches, but we have a feeling they may not show those matches, but we will definately do our best to watch them. At all the places I have worked they have all said that they will have tvs showing the games. So there should be great coverage over here.I have noticed that the Sydney weather is starting to cool off a bit. It is starting to feel quite nice here which is great. There is even a little heat in the sun.

February 14 2006

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.Nothing much has been happening around here to report on. I took a bus into the city last week and went passed the University of Manchester. This uni is massive. It goes for most of the way between where we live into the city. It looks very much like Sydney Uni with the old sandstone buildings and a long tradition. I believe it is the largest university in Europe, though I could be wrong in that. The parts that are nearest to where we live are quite modern and obviously added to over the years as the university expanded. Then the Manchester museum is stuck right in the middle of the uni. As you go down the street you could easily miss it as it housed in the unversity buildings.The main bus route that is a 1 min walk from our place is the busiest bus route in Europe, Wilmslow Rd, if it ever comes up as a trivia question. Which is great if you live on this bus route because it means that there are buses going pretty much everywhere every couple of minutes. If you stand at the bus stop long enough then you will pretty much see all the different places a bus will go to, not that I have ever been that bored, but I was waiting for a bus the other day and noticed that they went all over the place.

February 10 2006

It is another beautiful day today. Though it is a brisk -2 degrees outside with no chance of snow because there isn't a cloud in the sky, finally cold enough and no chance of snow, a shame really.The winter olympics start tonight and all over the news people keep talking about if it is worth the British actually competing and spending money in this field because they aren't a Nordic country. I was very tempted to call up to tell them that Australia only won two gold medals last winter olympics and one of them was only the last man standing so what do they have to complain about. They complain about everything. We usually listen to talk back radio and they complain all day every day baout different things and if they should try to change them. I think I am going to have to start listening to another station. We still don't have a tv, but as soon as Andrew gets paid I am out there to get a tv. They have a deal where you can pay your licence over a few weeks but you get your licence straight away so we are going to do that because we can't afford the licence straight up, it is about ?120 for one year.Went to the pub last night for their quiz night. We thought we had done pretty well but we ended up coming equal last on 30 out of 40. Andrew was pretty disappointed thought I think we had been cheated out of a couple of points on mere technicalities, but it was fun and I actually knew some of the answers. One of the questions was a primitive weapon that has a elbow, a dimple end and, I can't remember the other part. I thought it was a catapult, turns out it was a boomerang. We felt very bad that as Australian's we didn't know the answer to that one. The prize for winning was a galleon of beer, that's right a galleon. It is about 7 pints. Second place won 4 pints. Beer is realitively cheap over here in pubs, so Andrew wants me to get into the beer. it is either larger or bitter in the pubs. Each pub has its chosen supplier and only provides on tap that suppliers larger and bitter. So at the pub we go to hear their supplier is Hydes, so on tap they have Hydes larger and bitter. At the other pub we went to before we moved, their supplier is Jonathon Holt so again they only have those beers on tap. On the outside of the pub it will say which supplier they have. It is quite good, if you know what supplier you like just wander around to find a pub that serves that particular kind, there are enough pubs around and generally they will all have different suppliers you can usually find the one you like.I am off the register at Andrews company today. They deal with legal placements but they also have a commercial area and they are all apparently quite keen to register me as well as meet me. So it should be an interesting evening.

February 9 2006

I have officially started looking for work. I registered with a recruitment agency yesterday and I will register with another one tomorrow. The agency I registered yesterday has put me down for temp work while I am looking for a permanent role, so with any luck I will get some money coming in until I get a job. This is all in PA work but I am happy with that for now. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to get any work in a school so I am inclined to leave that and try and get involved with kids programs at the local church. I have found a methodist church around the corner from our place so I am going to go there on Sunday and see what it is like.Everywhere I seem to go there is a very high police presence. The other day the mounted police rode down our street. I thought it very novel, but everyone else seemed very nonpluss. It makes me feel a lot safer with all the police around, but I guess it could have the opposite thought as well that why do there have to be so many police around. When I tell people where we live now they say it is a really nice area and that we have done well, so that is good enough for me.The thing I find most intriging is all the pubs. Almost every corner has a pub, some even have two. Near us we have the Victoria and the Albert, then the other way is the Drop Inn and the Friendship Inn. All four are slightly different, the Inn's serve food whereas the others only serve drinks. No matter where you go you will always find a pub. The Vicotria is what I always thought an English pub was like. It looks very much like the pubs from the English Detective movies. Very comfortable and warm. All the pubs have a very welcoming atmosphere, which is probably why there are so many. But if someone can give me a good answer as to why there are so many pubs in England that would be great. I went for a walk the other day and walked past a Red Lion and a White Lion pub. I think it has something to do with the allegiance of the pub during the reigns of different kings, but again if someone can explain it all to me I would greatly appreciate it. Then there is the fact that you can buy alcohol in the supermarket, general store and the petrol station even. It is a concept I am still trying to get used to. It seems to be a very alcohol driven country. They are having issues at the moment trying to curb alcohol fuelled violence etc. They also seem to be very relaxed on their drink driving laws, there are no breath tests done so people do drive home. Coming from a country that is very strict about that kind of thing it seems very foreign to me. But I guess that is what you get when you go to another country.It is another beutiful sunny day. I think I am starting to get a handle on the cold because I didn't have to go out in my big coat today I am wearing a much lighter one, it could have something to do with the sun. Something I find amusing is the differences in what people wear. On the same day you will see people with big coats, scarves and hats. Then you will have people in just t-shirts and girls wearing skirts. I find it very bizarre.There are bikes everywhere around as well. A lot of people ride bikes but only a very small handful actually wear helmets. Again it is not something that police look at as important to be firm with. Andrew and I are looking to get some bikes when we have a bit of money so we can go a bit further afield at times.

February 8 2006

Now that I am feeling a lot better I can sit down and do some writing. I have already described in my email how I was feeling so I am not going to go into that again. Instead I will describe where we are now living.It is a first floor apartment. There are only 4 apartments in the house. It has very high ceilings which help to make the place seem so much more spacious than perhaps it is. It is a one bedroom place but we have heaps of room to put all our stuff, admittedly we don't really have that much stuff for now, but enough to make the place feel homey and lived in. In the living room there are two comfy leather chairs, they are kind of like the chairs that are at reception at Mission Australia (for those of you who know what I am talking about). I usually spend most evenings sitting in them reading with a light throw over me. You could most definately be able to sleep in them. Both the bedroom and the living room have large bay windows in them and even though the weather is usually overcast they still let a lot of light in so during the day I don't usually have to turn the lights on. In the living room there is a table and two chairs in the window. So on the weekend we can sit at the table and read the paper. Andrew likes to read the guardian whereas I prefer the independant. The independent usually has free stuff with it. Last weekend they had a free learn to speak Spanish cd and book. So I am doing the course. They reckon it should take 6 weeks. It is called learn spanish rapido. Anyway, back to the house. We have a bath which is great. The shower is over the bath. The pressure from the shower head is pretty dissmal but it gets the job done. There is a little cupboard over the sink. The kitchen is great. It is big enough for 2 people to stand in there and be cooking. We have an oven and stove top as well as a microwave. The only downside is a tiny fridge with hardly any freezer space. We had to transport quite a few bags of frozen vegies into the new place and not all of them fit in the freezer, so for the last few days I have been living on just vegetables, I hear you all say 'how healthy of you' I say that I am so sick of vegetables it isn't funny, the sooner they are gone the better. There is so much storage space as well. There are built in cupboards in the bedroom and we have only taken up about half of the space. They are fantastic. So all in all it is a great place and we both love it. The landlord is really nice as well. We met with him a couple of times and he pretty much said we could take the place straight away. It was so good to move out of the shared house. I think that may have been part of the reason why I got so sick.The weather is beautiful today, nice and sunny with only a few clouds. This place is so nice with the sun out. Every street you walk down is full of trees, it is all very romantic and with the sun out it makes everything shine. I am finding the people really nice and very helpful. The other day I was in the city holding my lonely planet guide looking very much the tourist and a lady stopped to ask me if I was lost and could she help me. She then told me about the free buses that run around the city centre. She was very nice. Down at the pub, andrew seems to know almost everyone, they are really friendly as well. We usually go there once a week to hang out with everyone and have a good time. There is a lot of singing and drinking happening. There is an odd assortment of people with scottish and irish as well. It is funny sometimes because they often all have a go at each other about all kinds of things, mostly sport. England has not let up with the fact that they beat us in the last ashes, and now we find out that the Aussies will get first look at the tickets for the next ashes, every news break all we hear is that Aussies will get a three week head start on the English for tickets. This place is soccer mad and I ma learning a lot more about the sport. You have to have a team to support and then be careful where you are when you tell people who you support. We haven't actually picked ourselves a team yet, but we are kind of leaning towards Manchester City because we are pretty much living in there territory.

January 31 2006

Well I am still feeling absolutely rotten but trying to push through it, I don't think the cold and flu tablets are as strong here as they are at home.I realised I haven't described our place yet. It is a three storey terrace house. I have taken a photos of the outside and I will send it soon. There are 6 bedrooms and three of them are double rooms, there is only one bathroom so you can imagine how much fun that is. At least everyone is good at keeping it clean. Our bedroom is on the second floor next to the bathroom. Our room is tiny. We are always having to step over each other, there is a heap of stuff pushed under the bed. It is tiny even for one person let alone two. I went looking at apartments yesterday and they weren't much better. We also live across the road from a park. It is pretty big and quite nice. On the first Sunday of every month there is a 5km run. I don't think I will be up for it this week, but Andrew probably will be.Yesterday was Andrew and mine 1 year anniversary. Didn't actually celebrate except for watching some tv because I am feeling so rotten, plus we don't really like going out at night. We might do something tonight.On Sunday we went into Chinatown for the Chinese new year celebrations. It looked more like the easter show than Chinese new year except for the number of chinese people and the odd dragon. Of course we had a chinese buffet for dinner. It tasted exactly the same as it would if I had had it back in Australia. It is funny how every western country does it the same except that it isn't the same food you actually get in China.I saw my first classic car yesterday, and it was a Morris Minor. I thought I would see a lot more classic british cars driving around but I haven't. But it was pretty cool to see a morry.

January 27 2006

My second day in Manchester and I have managed to get myself a cold. So I am feeling pretty yuck but not feeling down which is good.I forgot to mention that it was actually sunny yesterday when I arrived. Not all day, but it was nice to see.Today I spent the day in the city wandering around. Found a couple of great shopping centres, one called Arndale and the other I can't remember but it was mostly restaurants and it had the picture theatre. It was also the place of the Hard Rock Cafe.Everything feels so familiar here but I look at all the architecture and it is so different. Even the trees seem different. Oh and the fact that there is a brewery down the road from us, thankfully not too close because it emits the most foul smell. It is enough to turn you off beer, thought it doesn't seem to effect to many peple.Manchester also has a ferris wheel, not as big as the London eye but it claims that it has the best view of Manchester I may have to get Andrew to take me up it one night or day or something.

January 26 2006

I arrived today to freezing cold weather. I will be much more prepared for the weather next time I leave to house.The flight was good though very long. I managed to have three seats to myself on the flight between Singapore and Frankfurt which meant that I could actually get some sleep. It has meant that I don't feel so jetlagged at the moment. I feel like I want to go to bed, but I know I can hold out.It is kind of hard with Andrew gone to work so I probably won't see him until tonight, though I might be asleep by the time he gets home.The room he has is tiny, barely enough room for one person. One of the people in the double room is moving out so we will be able to move in there this weekend if we are lucky. We are also going flat hunting this weekend. So it will be a tiring weekend and then I am hoping to call a couple of agencies next week about getting some work.The area we are in now is actually Moss Side, which I know a few people have already warned me about. So we are going to be looking a little further out from here.Everything is pretty much as I imagined it. All the houses look like they are straight out of the tv shows I grew up watching. The accent I am not finding very hard just yet but I haven't had to listen to intently at the moment.