Hey everybody. There are a lot of you who we're not going to be able to see this Christmas, so we made a little video of what 2008 meant to us. Hope you enjoy it, and hope you have a wonderful holiday.
Mike and Meredith
P.S. The song featured is called "Let's Make Friends" by Hector Fector.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
We're back!!
Hello all. So, we are back in Canada safe and sound. It's been a crazy few days as we've been reacclimatizing (?) to life here and getting things in order. We just put an offer in for a new condo. Very exciting. We're off to the bank on Tuesday to get our money in order, etc.
Lots of things to do, lots of people to see. It's been a bit of a juggling act to get to everyone, what with jet lag, buying a place, and sorting through 13 months of mail. However, we're slowly getting there.
Well, gotta run. As is the case, busy as bees.
Lots of things to do, lots of people to see. It's been a bit of a juggling act to get to everyone, what with jet lag, buying a place, and sorting through 13 months of mail. However, we're slowly getting there.
Well, gotta run. As is the case, busy as bees.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Last Dash to London
Heya,
So, we' made it through 2007 and into 2008 as consistent and regular bloggers, and then what happens...?
Well, we started having wicked fun here and 'cause someone moved in across the hall the internet connection has been total and absolute crap. Hence the neglect of said blog.
However, you will be able to receive updates live and in the flesh as of the 28th at 6:35pm as that's when we land at Edmonton International.
Whee!
Will see y'all soon, and if anyone is interested, Greg Amundson is playing on Friday the 30th at The Velvet Underground and we'll be there. Hopefully some of you guys can make it as well...
When we're in Edmonton we can be reached for a little bit via my mom's phone on 780 298 0024, until we've gotten ourselves established.
Hugs to you all!
So, we' made it through 2007 and into 2008 as consistent and regular bloggers, and then what happens...?
Well, we started having wicked fun here and 'cause someone moved in across the hall the internet connection has been total and absolute crap. Hence the neglect of said blog.
However, you will be able to receive updates live and in the flesh as of the 28th at 6:35pm as that's when we land at Edmonton International.
Whee!
Will see y'all soon, and if anyone is interested, Greg Amundson is playing on Friday the 30th at The Velvet Underground and we'll be there. Hopefully some of you guys can make it as well...
When we're in Edmonton we can be reached for a little bit via my mom's phone on 780 298 0024, until we've gotten ourselves established.
Hugs to you all!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Dad! Here's our schedule
Hi Dad,
You said you were going to be checking our schedule on the blog to see if we can meet, so I hope you're actually doing it:
3rd (today) Bath
4th Dover
5th Calais/Brugge
6th Brugge
7th Brugge--Jennifer stays and continues on
8th Calais/Dover (ferry back to England and stay in Dover overnight)
9th drop off Karen and Kent in London and head back to Hereford
So, we'll be in France when you are then, which is good, so it looks like we might be able to meet in Dieppe after all.
Call me if you can and we'll arrange it.
07864 975 345--dunno about calling codes from Europe.
Sorry for not posting--it's been busy, busy, busy here. And with only 25 days to go before we head back to Edmonton, time is short.
Anyway, let me know. Brugge isn't that far from Dieppe, and I figure if you made it from Canada, we can make it to you...
--M
You said you were going to be checking our schedule on the blog to see if we can meet, so I hope you're actually doing it:
3rd (today) Bath
4th Dover
5th Calais/Brugge
6th Brugge
7th Brugge--Jennifer stays and continues on
8th Calais/Dover (ferry back to England and stay in Dover overnight)
9th drop off Karen and Kent in London and head back to Hereford
So, we'll be in France when you are then, which is good, so it looks like we might be able to meet in Dieppe after all.
Call me if you can and we'll arrange it.
07864 975 345--dunno about calling codes from Europe.
Sorry for not posting--it's been busy, busy, busy here. And with only 25 days to go before we head back to Edmonton, time is short.
Anyway, let me know. Brugge isn't that far from Dieppe, and I figure if you made it from Canada, we can make it to you...
--M
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Stay classy, Madrid...
Hello everyone. As you have seen in the previous post, we had a wonderful time in Spain and Germany. Meredith covered most of the pictures, but I'm gonna show you stuff from Madrid.
We got into Madrid in the early evening, so just grabbed some food at a Donair shop and chilled. The donair was outstanding by the way. The next day we set out to see the sights. Basically we walked from our hostel to a main street which has all the art galleries, government buildings, and other cultural things.
The first thing we saw was this:
It's the main train station, and is one of the older ones in Spain. Very pretty.
Across the street from that was a large art installation strewn about in a courtyard.
Basically, the artist shaped copper to make these huge faces, lips, and a big old butt. haha.
Actually, the one-wing part kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy 7 (yes, I am a total video game geek).
Our main destination was near these works, the
Prado Museum. The Prado houses a lot of Goya paintings, and is almost entirely made up of religious art. I had to laugh because at first these paintings reminded me of the first thing you see when you go into a Jehovah's witness house. They were however quite beautiful. The thing that got me was that while these were painted over 150 years ago, the colours were just so vivid and alive. Meredith and I know virtually nothing about art and in fact laugh at the pretension surrounding it(i.e. 'this one is a representation of the female body in the post-colonial mosaic'...blah blah blah) but I have to say it was very powerful stuff. Naturally, I didn't take any pictures there because I wasn't sure how to turn off my flash (I know, I know) and I didn't want to be that guy who makes security come over. Anyway, here is a link to its website.
http://www.museodelprado.es/index.php?id=50
When looking at the pictures, bear in mind that most of these are MASSIVE.
So, after the Prado we walked up the street because I found a library on the map. Since I had seen a grand total of zero libraries in all our traveling, I thought I should get on that. Unfortunately, this was the National Library. As you can see, it is an absolutely beautiful building but all we were allowed to see was the lobby. It has a closed collection, and you can only go in if you have permission or are doing some kind of research.
After that we basically went back to the area around our hostel and just kicked back. As for that night, Meredith has already told you about that. Madrid was a pretty nice city. I liked it better than Barcelona, but to be honest Spain really didn't do it for me. Personally, nothing beats Berlin. That city has it all; nightlife, cheap food and beer, nice people, history and culture.
So, it looks like we'll be taking one more trip before we go home. At the beginning of May, Kent, Karen, and Jennifer (one of Meredith's extended families) are visiting and we're going to France. Our tentative plan is to go to Le Havre and Dieppe. I'm looking forward to seeing those places, as they are the sites of some major events in Canadian history. Stay tuned.
We got into Madrid in the early evening, so just grabbed some food at a Donair shop and chilled. The donair was outstanding by the way. The next day we set out to see the sights. Basically we walked from our hostel to a main street which has all the art galleries, government buildings, and other cultural things.
The first thing we saw was this:It's the main train station, and is one of the older ones in Spain. Very pretty.
Across the street from that was a large art installation strewn about in a courtyard.
Basically, the artist shaped copper to make these huge faces, lips, and a big old butt. haha.
Actually, the one-wing part kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy 7 (yes, I am a total video game geek).Our main destination was near these works, the
Prado Museum. The Prado houses a lot of Goya paintings, and is almost entirely made up of religious art. I had to laugh because at first these paintings reminded me of the first thing you see when you go into a Jehovah's witness house. They were however quite beautiful. The thing that got me was that while these were painted over 150 years ago, the colours were just so vivid and alive. Meredith and I know virtually nothing about art and in fact laugh at the pretension surrounding it(i.e. 'this one is a representation of the female body in the post-colonial mosaic'...blah blah blah) but I have to say it was very powerful stuff. Naturally, I didn't take any pictures there because I wasn't sure how to turn off my flash (I know, I know) and I didn't want to be that guy who makes security come over. Anyway, here is a link to its website.http://www.museodelprado.es/index.php?id=50
When looking at the pictures, bear in mind that most of these are MASSIVE.
So, after the Prado we walked up the street because I found a library on the map. Since I had seen a grand total of zero libraries in all our traveling, I thought I should get on that. Unfortunately, this was the National Library. As you can see, it is an absolutely beautiful building but all we were allowed to see was the lobby. It has a closed collection, and you can only go in if you have permission or are doing some kind of research.After that we basically went back to the area around our hostel and just kicked back. As for that night, Meredith has already told you about that. Madrid was a pretty nice city. I liked it better than Barcelona, but to be honest Spain really didn't do it for me. Personally, nothing beats Berlin. That city has it all; nightlife, cheap food and beer, nice people, history and culture.
So, it looks like we'll be taking one more trip before we go home. At the beginning of May, Kent, Karen, and Jennifer (one of Meredith's extended families) are visiting and we're going to France. Our tentative plan is to go to Le Havre and Dieppe. I'm looking forward to seeing those places, as they are the sites of some major events in Canadian history. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Too cute for words
If you would like a 39 second laugh, check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNyLkXcN8yU
It's totally worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNyLkXcN8yU
It's totally worth it.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Counting down to May 28th...
Hello all,
Well, the rest of our trip went off without a hitch. While our last night in Madrid was irritating beyond words, the rest of the time was perfect. Mike's the one with all the pictures of Madrid and, really, aside from getting a t-shirt for a 5-er in the men's section of a department store, I found myself underwhelmed by that portion of the trip. The city was cool we saw wicked art and had a great time, but I can give it a miss for the rest of my life. It was busy and loud and frantic, which I liked, but that wasn't what I needed this time around.
Fuerteventura, specifically Corralejo, was an antidote to stress and anxiety. It was like the Vegas or Palm Springs of Europe. Now, of course, that meant that the 20 - 45 demographic was largely missing from the trip, but I was actually set on the idea of not talking to anyone other than myself or Mike for 5 days and it was totally realistic there. The weather was beautiful, there was loads of sun and sand and I read like 9 books in 5 days. Excellent.
We were staying in this big hotel complex with pools and stuff and there were about 10 other people there. Mike will post pics of it as I didn't bother to take any. Actually, I only took cat and coast pictures while we were there. I was sooo not motivated at all. Perfect. Also, Mike made various cat friends. At one point there were 3 on the balcony and others lurking nearby. Cute and a nice animal interlude--as usual we're both really missing the cats.
We then flew from Fuerteventura to Madrid and had to spend 6 indeterminable hours in Madrid airport sleeping on chairs and the floor. We scoped out and scored this spot in the VAT refund booth and it was alright for 2 terribly uncomfortable hours on the hard floor. I think I'm done with that, really. But, it was the only option... We succeeded in looking adequately disheveled for the flight to Berlin as we both managed to score an empty row of seats so we both got to sleep the 2 hours! Well, as much as one is ever able to sleep on a plane.
We arrived in Berlin to a smiling Claire, which was a sight for sore eyes. I totally missed her. Even though I saw her in November, it's been too long, really. We hopped the train back to her place, had breakfast, and when she went to school we had a rest to catch up the 6 hours of sleep we missed out on over the previous 24 hours. That evening, we bought the house some beer and shared it with them--lots of good laughs and talks and arguments and stuff.
The next day Claire was again off to school so Mike and I did 6 hours of touristy stuff. We hit Alexanderplatz where I bought a kickass T-shirt. Then off to Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstadt, Checkpoint Charley and the Jewish Memorial.
That was a very moving exhibit--aboveground is a 'field' of stone slabs and below is a museum dedicated to memorializing all of the Jewish people killed in Europe prior to and during WWII. So, 3 hours later we emerged sufficiently humbled and returned to take Claire out for dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant. She then told us that there has been some controversy about the anti-graffiti paint on the slabs--apparently it was manufactured by Siemens, the same company that manufactured Zyklon-B gas for the concentration camps. (uncomfortable silence...) Like, what do you say to that?!
Anyway, another fab evening of hanging out with Claire and her housemates and we're into Day 3. We didn't even get up until 2pm and then around 4 we headed back to the East Side Gallery and went looking for cool graffiti around town. And, of course, we ate pizza in preparation for the night ahead as we went to Claire's housemate Martin's going-away party as he was leaving the next day for Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Mexico.
Anyway, during the walk past the East Side Gallery and prior to the party, I saw this house that is my new dream residence. Top-right corner of the pic. Right across from Universal Studios Berlin, of course. Sooooooooo coooooooool.
Upon our return to the house we got ready to head out and ended up the the most ABSURD situation. One of the old housemates who has been gone for some time was moving into the place where the party was to be held. So, he decided that a Friday night at 11pm in the pouring rain would be the best possible time for him to move like 200lbs of his crap from Claire's to his new apartment's. Toby (the guy) had mentioned in passing to Mike and I that he would appreciate a hand with 'a couple boxes' when we made our 'short trip' to the party.
Apparently 'a couple boxes' is a euphemism for half a household, and a 'short trip' is a euphemism for a tram, 2 trains and like 2 kilometers of walking in the pouring rain.
Not to mention that upon arrival we're informed the place is on the 5th FREAKIN' FLOOR! Oh, and Berlin doesn't do elevators. The whole thing was totally sneaky and not really a favor so much as a situation this guy Toby engineered so no one felt they could say no.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, it was so deliciously hilarious. We were glad we didn't speak German when people were pointing and laughing at us on the train. Needless to say Toby spent the whole of the party having to make awkward conversations with people who didn't know him 'cause everyone was really pissed off.
Anyway, the party was alright but kind of awkward because people who didn't know each other didn't speak. But, fun times were had. We made our way back to Claire's at like 3:30 in the morning on the train and then hung out for a couple more hours before retiring. Mike crashed a couple hours earlier than I did.
The next day we made breakfast and said our goodbyes and made our way to the airport. Earlier in the week I had heard there was an earthquake in England in our absence, so I was totally expecting the car to be in a sinkhole or with a boulder through the ceiling or something, but it actually turned out OK. No damage, although I resent the odometer before we left the car and it had 86.5 miles on it when we returned....Hmmmm....Anyway, back to Hereford and nothing was wrong with the house either, which was a nice surprise.
And here we are--a week later. This week at work was really brutal--catching up and cleaning up what happened in my absence has been a whole load of not fun. Plus, I had a training day that I did the for Psychologists from the PCT and Authority--6 hours on Asperger Syndrome on Wednesday. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep between when we returned and the training day. But, it went well and I was glad I did it.
We booked our one-way return flight as a salve to our current low and dark moods. Karen, Kent and Jennifer Phillips are coming from the 29th of April to the 12th of May, which is something to be very excited about, but if that wasn't happening and based on my recent week and mood we might have been looking at an earlier return date...But, having them here will be loads of fun. We're going to head to France for a few days with them so we're just working out plans and itineraries now.
Anyway, we'll be back on the 28th of May right around 3pm. We left it too late so we couldn't get first class seats, which means we only get 20kg of luggage each. 20kg. MAAAAACCCCKKK! Our one bag to go on a 11-day trip was 17 freakin' kilos! I'm coping with this information largely by pretending it's not going to happen or something...
Anyway, yeah, that's where we are. Good travel and good times and a definite return date. Whee! I hope everyone is well, and I'm totally psyched to see you all. Love and hugs all around.
Well, the rest of our trip went off without a hitch. While our last night in Madrid was irritating beyond words, the rest of the time was perfect. Mike's the one with all the pictures of Madrid and, really, aside from getting a t-shirt for a 5-er in the men's section of a department store, I found myself underwhelmed by that portion of the trip. The city was cool we saw wicked art and had a great time, but I can give it a miss for the rest of my life. It was busy and loud and frantic, which I liked, but that wasn't what I needed this time around.
Fuerteventura, specifically Corralejo, was an antidote to stress and anxiety. It was like the Vegas or Palm Springs of Europe. Now, of course, that meant that the 20 - 45 demographic was largely missing from the trip, but I was actually set on the idea of not talking to anyone other than myself or Mike for 5 days and it was totally realistic there. The weather was beautiful, there was loads of sun and sand and I read like 9 books in 5 days. Excellent.
We were staying in this big hotel complex with pools and stuff and there were about 10 other people there. Mike will post pics of it as I didn't bother to take any. Actually, I only took cat and coast pictures while we were there. I was sooo not motivated at all. Perfect. Also, Mike made various cat friends. At one point there were 3 on the balcony and others lurking nearby. Cute and a nice animal interlude--as usual we're both really missing the cats.
We then flew from Fuerteventura to Madrid and had to spend 6 indeterminable hours in Madrid airport sleeping on chairs and the floor. We scoped out and scored this spot in the VAT refund booth and it was alright for 2 terribly uncomfortable hours on the hard floor. I think I'm done with that, really. But, it was the only option... We succeeded in looking adequately disheveled for the flight to Berlin as we both managed to score an empty row of seats so we both got to sleep the 2 hours! Well, as much as one is ever able to sleep on a plane.
We arrived in Berlin to a smiling Claire, which was a sight for sore eyes. I totally missed her. Even though I saw her in November, it's been too long, really. We hopped the train back to her place, had breakfast, and when she went to school we had a rest to catch up the 6 hours of sleep we missed out on over the previous 24 hours. That evening, we bought the house some beer and shared it with them--lots of good laughs and talks and arguments and stuff.
The next day Claire was again off to school so Mike and I did 6 hours of touristy stuff. We hit Alexanderplatz where I bought a kickass T-shirt. Then off to Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstadt, Checkpoint Charley and the Jewish Memorial.
That was a very moving exhibit--aboveground is a 'field' of stone slabs and below is a museum dedicated to memorializing all of the Jewish people killed in Europe prior to and during WWII. So, 3 hours later we emerged sufficiently humbled and returned to take Claire out for dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant. She then told us that there has been some controversy about the anti-graffiti paint on the slabs--apparently it was manufactured by Siemens, the same company that manufactured Zyklon-B gas for the concentration camps. (uncomfortable silence...) Like, what do you say to that?!
Anyway, another fab evening of hanging out with Claire and her housemates and we're into Day 3. We didn't even get up until 2pm and then around 4 we headed back to the East Side Gallery and went looking for cool graffiti around town. And, of course, we ate pizza in preparation for the night ahead as we went to Claire's housemate Martin's going-away party as he was leaving the next day for Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Mexico.
Anyway, during the walk past the East Side Gallery and prior to the party, I saw this house that is my new dream residence. Top-right corner of the pic. Right across from Universal Studios Berlin, of course. Sooooooooo coooooooool.
Upon our return to the house we got ready to head out and ended up the the most ABSURD situation. One of the old housemates who has been gone for some time was moving into the place where the party was to be held. So, he decided that a Friday night at 11pm in the pouring rain would be the best possible time for him to move like 200lbs of his crap from Claire's to his new apartment's. Toby (the guy) had mentioned in passing to Mike and I that he would appreciate a hand with 'a couple boxes' when we made our 'short trip' to the party.
Apparently 'a couple boxes' is a euphemism for half a household, and a 'short trip' is a euphemism for a tram, 2 trains and like 2 kilometers of walking in the pouring rain.
Not to mention that upon arrival we're informed the place is on the 5th FREAKIN' FLOOR! Oh, and Berlin doesn't do elevators. The whole thing was totally sneaky and not really a favor so much as a situation this guy Toby engineered so no one felt they could say no.HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, it was so deliciously hilarious. We were glad we didn't speak German when people were pointing and laughing at us on the train. Needless to say Toby spent the whole of the party having to make awkward conversations with people who didn't know him 'cause everyone was really pissed off.
Anyway, the party was alright but kind of awkward because people who didn't know each other didn't speak. But, fun times were had. We made our way back to Claire's at like 3:30 in the morning on the train and then hung out for a couple more hours before retiring. Mike crashed a couple hours earlier than I did.
The next day we made breakfast and said our goodbyes and made our way to the airport. Earlier in the week I had heard there was an earthquake in England in our absence, so I was totally expecting the car to be in a sinkhole or with a boulder through the ceiling or something, but it actually turned out OK. No damage, although I resent the odometer before we left the car and it had 86.5 miles on it when we returned....Hmmmm....Anyway, back to Hereford and nothing was wrong with the house either, which was a nice surprise.And here we are--a week later. This week at work was really brutal--catching up and cleaning up what happened in my absence has been a whole load of not fun. Plus, I had a training day that I did the for Psychologists from the PCT and Authority--6 hours on Asperger Syndrome on Wednesday. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep between when we returned and the training day. But, it went well and I was glad I did it.
We booked our one-way return flight as a salve to our current low and dark moods. Karen, Kent and Jennifer Phillips are coming from the 29th of April to the 12th of May, which is something to be very excited about, but if that wasn't happening and based on my recent week and mood we might have been looking at an earlier return date...But, having them here will be loads of fun. We're going to head to France for a few days with them so we're just working out plans and itineraries now.
Anyway, we'll be back on the 28th of May right around 3pm. We left it too late so we couldn't get first class seats, which means we only get 20kg of luggage each. 20kg. MAAAAACCCCKKK! Our one bag to go on a 11-day trip was 17 freakin' kilos! I'm coping with this information largely by pretending it's not going to happen or something...
Anyway, yeah, that's where we are. Good travel and good times and a definite return date. Whee! I hope everyone is well, and I'm totally psyched to see you all. Love and hugs all around.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Adieu, Hostelworld...
Dear Hostelworld.com,
You have been a kind friend and advisor for some time now. I´ve come to depend on your advice on where to stay and I enjoy knowing you reccommend places where the staff are knowledgeable and will provide direction about things to do. However, I think our time to part ways has come. I´m sorry. I can´t. Don´t hate me.
You see, last night (well, this morning) some very drunk, aggressive and vile 18-year old Australians and a Glaswegian who was old enough to know better came back to their roome (read:shared with us) at 4am and decided they had no need to be quiet or kind. Instead, they decided to talk about their travelling companions sexual proclivities, unpack and repack their bags, swear and throw things around. Now, we tried asking them to keep it down, but things just got ugly--the drunkenness was a significant contributing factor, I´m sure. As was their age and obvious inexperience with the world as a whole. So, they swore and yelled at us and called us C***S and Effing Yanks and spoke disparagingly about the Spanish and basically made me really dislike them. In the middle of the night. Grr.
This morning, interestingly, they weren´t willing to use the same language or epithets to my face. In fact, when invited to use the C-word a much as they wanted, surprisingly they seemed embarassed. Imagine that! They were like little children caught with their hands dirty or mouth full of ill-gotten candy or whatever.
So, hostelworld.com, the time has come where I will no longer require your services. While the chance to meet new people is awesome, that´s just as easy in various other places and situations. However, I´m not required to spend time with assholes outside of the room if I don´t want to. And that´s the difference, really. So, anyway, thanks Hostelworld for the fun times, but I bid you Adieu!
Sincerely,
Meredith Porter
Tired Traveller
Grouchy-from-lack-of-sleep, Madrid.
You have been a kind friend and advisor for some time now. I´ve come to depend on your advice on where to stay and I enjoy knowing you reccommend places where the staff are knowledgeable and will provide direction about things to do. However, I think our time to part ways has come. I´m sorry. I can´t. Don´t hate me.
You see, last night (well, this morning) some very drunk, aggressive and vile 18-year old Australians and a Glaswegian who was old enough to know better came back to their roome (read:shared with us) at 4am and decided they had no need to be quiet or kind. Instead, they decided to talk about their travelling companions sexual proclivities, unpack and repack their bags, swear and throw things around. Now, we tried asking them to keep it down, but things just got ugly--the drunkenness was a significant contributing factor, I´m sure. As was their age and obvious inexperience with the world as a whole. So, they swore and yelled at us and called us C***S and Effing Yanks and spoke disparagingly about the Spanish and basically made me really dislike them. In the middle of the night. Grr.
This morning, interestingly, they weren´t willing to use the same language or epithets to my face. In fact, when invited to use the C-word a much as they wanted, surprisingly they seemed embarassed. Imagine that! They were like little children caught with their hands dirty or mouth full of ill-gotten candy or whatever.
So, hostelworld.com, the time has come where I will no longer require your services. While the chance to meet new people is awesome, that´s just as easy in various other places and situations. However, I´m not required to spend time with assholes outside of the room if I don´t want to. And that´s the difference, really. So, anyway, thanks Hostelworld for the fun times, but I bid you Adieu!
Sincerely,
Meredith Porter
Tired Traveller
Grouchy-from-lack-of-sleep, Madrid.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
2 CDs, breakfast and coffee--a perfect day, really.
Well, hey there--what's been going on, you ask?
Many apologies for delaying this post update. It's been on the weekend 'to do' list for a while now, but the time just seems to fly by these days and I also kind of forgot.
Firstly, Happy 26th Birthday Fraser! And a belated Happy Birthday to Mom and Dorothy as well.
We're well into month 10 of being here with only 16 weeks to go (no, I'm not counting down...LOL) and I've finally found my stride at work, we're regularly going out to have good and fun times with good and fun people, the weather has shifted and I'm starting to feel good. It was like 14 degrees here yesterday! How awesome is that?!
It's always the way, isn't it....? You finally settle down and develop some good relationships just in time to start thinking about leaving...
Mike's job comes to and end next Friday and then we're off on our trip! And what a trip it will be--on the 19th we fly from Bristol to Madrid, where we spend 2 nights. We then fly from Madrid to Fuerteventura, which is the smallest of the Canary Islands, which are just off the coast of the North Africa--sunshine, sand, sunburns and beaches, here I come! After 5 nights in Fuerteventura, we fly back to Madrid at 11pm to crash in the airport for a few hours, in time to catch a flight to Berlin. We're with Clare there for 3 nights, at which point we fly back to Bristol on the 1st of March. Woot! You would think, with reading this, that we've been scrimping and saving for months. In reality, each flight costs 25bgp. That's right, people. It's costing us just under 125gbp each for 5 flights each, including the taxes. God, I sooooo love discount airfare. Also, WestJet is LYING when they say they're a discount airline. There's nothing discount about it costing more to fly from Edmonton to Vancouver than from Spain to the coast of North Africa! Gah! Anyway, I am totally jazzed about getting out of dodge. I need some time where my thoughts don't automatically go to what's to do at work on Monday. By Sunday afternoons I've generally just started to shake off my worry and anxiety about my caseload, just in time to head straight back into it less than 24 hours later.
When we come back Mike's back to the grind of finding another temp job for the few weeks we'll have left. Hopefully it won't be as mind-numbing as what he's been doing thus far... Also, we've given up the second room we were renting. This is for a variety of reasons, some of which are TOTALLY GROSS, so those with weak stomachs will want to skip down a couple paragraphs.
Those of you that know us well know that while tidiness is not necessarily the order of our home, we are generally clean people. Well, we had the most DISGUSTING experiences with our place recently. Firstly, when we rented the second room back in July, there were some pieces of information that were rather deliberately left out, mostly because it make our situation look considerably more pathetic than it already was, and that's really saying something! When Alan ripped the ceiling out of the room to air the beams out, it was discovered there were some mushrooms growing between the floors. Now, to understand why this didn't make me instinctively run screaming from this place, you need to understand what damp is like. It is pervasive and all-encompassing, despite any efforts at cleaning and airing things out. It sometimes takes t-shirts 2 days! to dry on heaters and radiators. 2 days! Well, a couple days after Alan ripped out the ceiling in July, I was having a shower and reveling in hot water. And, because I don't shower with my glasses on, I couldn't quite figure out what was in the corner of the bathroom. Until I got out and put my glasses on and FREAKED OUT 'cause there was a bigass mushroom growing in the corner of the shower stall. That's what prompted the ripping out of the shower that was previously mentioned. So, this disgusting issue was dealt with during the summer. Or so I thought. 'Cause it seems the shower issue has returned, with mushrooms again growing in the bottom room. And so I've had enough of that. No more spare room. And I assume our bathroom will need to be re-destroyed when we go on vacation next week. Whatev.
The second DISGUSTING thing that happened was damp+futon = GROSS! We had to get rid of our futon and buy a new bed. Turns out, with all the rain, cold and lack of light, our futon rotted. EEEEEWWWWW. I COULD NOT figure out where the faint odor of damp was coming from in our place--now, once you've smelled it, you forever know what that is. And Mike and I went as far as wiping down the walls with bleach and vacuuming and everything. What we didn't do was bother to look between the futons, mostly because it just didn't occur to me. And yet, there it was. So, out to the garbage dump (here it's called the Tip) that went. And now we have a new bed with lots of storage underneath it, which actually kind of negates our need for the second room in the first place. And I will NEVER live in a climate like this again. That was so disgusting.
Kent, Karen and Jennifer Phillips are coming on the 29th of April, and now I'm not sure what's going to happen with that, but there was NO WAY they were sleeping in a room with a ripped-out ceiling and mushrooms in it. God. Why does this life have to be such a humiliating joke sometimes...?!
Anyway, onto less gross things:
There are some major changes happening at my work right now too, with a team and case management restructure in the works and various people leaving and some new ones being hired. All good things, I think, but it makes for some serious chaos and leaves the weekends earmarked for essential 'fun time' to get me through the following week. If things has been different, if Mike had been able to find meaningful and gratifying employment and if things were better with family back home, I would totally be looking at wanting to do the final 12 months of my contract. But, that's not the case and I'm looking forward to being back as much as he is, really.
I know y'all have had a rough run of it, so don't swear at me for saying this, but I've totally missed the snow and cold. All we get here are some fake flakes that don't even try that hard and gray sky with nasty rain. Yuck! Also, I miss everyone a lot. Communication is really quite easy from over here, I know, and a phone call isn't as momentous as it used to be for people overseas, but nothing beats a coffee face to face or family meals or a drink with friends. I really wish everyone was here!
Anyway, switching gears to thinking about something that doesn't make me feel morose... I would like to tell you a bit about 2 of my coworkers, Joss and Julie. All of my coworkers and all of the people I've met here have been really, really fabulous but these two women are the ones I've learned the most from on a personal level so far. Both work for the Learning Disability Team as Care Management Support Workers--basically, they do the same job as Social Workers since they were redeployed, but they get paid significantly less and used to be hands-on support workers for the majority of the clients we now provide outsourced services to. They've been working alongside each other and the rest of their team for quite some time--if I had to guess I'd say they've been colleagues for around 12 years. Both have these massive families--Julie has 3 kids and too many siblings, cousins and nieces and nephews to count, and Joss, despite just being 45+, has something like 6 children including step-siblings and about 12 grandkids. Both work part-time as they have (as you can guess) significant family obligations but they're around 3 or 4 days per week.
To give a bit of context, the team I work in is structured into 4 main physical parts in the section of the building we work in. The first part is the wing to the right of the staircase--this is where the Managers (Bev, Geoff and Billy and Billy's PA Denise), psychiatric staff (Dr Pande or Temporary Psychiatrist and Kirsten and Patty, the Medical Administrators) and kitchen are.
Down the corridor is the second section, where the Adult Placement Scheme (Sandra, Chris, Jane Doreen and incoming Manager Catherine) Administration (Steph, Sarah, Rhiannon, Julie, Karen) and the psychologists (Sean, Ruth, Mary and Aubrey), Speech and Language (Ruth), Occupational Therapy (Richard) and Physiotherapists (Elspeth) have their offices.
The third section is Team Room 1, which has 6 desks, 4 computers, 3 laptops, 4 community nurses (Kath, Nicky, Julie and Jayne when she returns from Mat Leave), 2 Social Workers (Carole and Jenny), 1 Care Management Support Worker (Bridget), 1 Administrator (Jane W) and 1 new finance worker (Joanne).
I am in the last room, Team Room 2, which has 6 desks, 5 computers, no laptops! (another story another time) 5 Social Workers (me, Simon, Tony, Suzanna, newly appointed Chris), 1 Care Manager (Colleen), and 5 Care Management Support Workers (Sharon, Julie, Joss, Michelle and Christa when she returns from Mat Leave) and 1 Carers Assessor (Jacquie). As you can imagine, things get INCREDIBLY crowded and chaotic mid-week when most people are in--on Tuesdays and Thursdays we regularly have 8 people in that room, sitting on the sides of desks and standing as there are only actually 6 chairs.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. People who think they have any chance whatsoever of getting rich in public sector Social Work are sooooo mistaken! Really, it's only actually funny if you don't have to work in these conditions...
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that even though they're the lowest on the pay scales and have no real power, the people in Team Room 2 are the ones that make or break a new addition to the team. The Care Management Support Workers have all been working together for years and years and are the only group that really has an significant shared history as the rest of the team has come and go through time. And Joss and Julie are the ones who have been around and together the longest.
These women are amazing--with their hectic lives you would think they have no time to do things with and for others, but they make it. Both of them take time every day to say hello to everyone, they remember birthdays and significant events and they ask you about how something you may have mentioned in passing as difficult or sad is working out and they always make others lives a priority. And they are kind and welcoming without judgment. And to me, that's amazing. With everything they have to do for others in their everyday lives they still take time to check up with others. And they have nothing bad to say about anyone, ever. With the working conditions we have (and don't forget the 19-space car park--we counted 43! cars in it the other day), it would be very easy for tempers to become frayed and for stupid little things to become big arguments. Yet these women don't let it. They talk out problems, lend support, help with whatever is needed at any time, and generally make everyone feel better about themselves in what are certainly demoralizing working conditions. And they do this every single day they're in, without fail.
In the midst of the chaos at work, Julie has a parent who has just been diagnosed with what may be inoperable and aggressive cancer and Joss has recently lost her closest friend to breast cancer. And yet every day they show up with smiles and good things to say to others and they 'get on with it' with others' problems and daily struggles in mind. And they have been so supportive of us, inviting Mike and me out to do things, giving me lovely cards and gifts 'just 'cause', helping me mend my pants (those sewing lessons seem to have been of little use...), giving me guidance about how to do certain things at work, letting me vent and express difficult feelings, really the list goes on.
As I've said before, every person in the team has made an amazing effort to welcome and support us and they've made this trip and experience totally worth it, but Joss and Julie just amaze me. They give to others without thinking and without asking anything in return. If there's one thing I hope to take away from here and to apply to my daily life, it's the ability to learn how to do that like they can.
So, yeah, that's life right now. Sorry there's no pictures and this post is soooo text-dense. But, the computer is being stupid and I'm wanting to spend some time during today doing something other than uploading photos, so I gave up. I hope everyone back home is well. I miss you guys! We'll be pretty incommunicado for the last 2 weeks of this month but I'll be sure to post pics and deets of our trip as soon as we're back. Also, if I decide to send postcards again, they WILL be posted within the same month of writing. Also, I'd like to point out that this is our 1st year anniversary for this blog. Well, it's on the 26th, but whatev. In that time there have been exactly 52 posts, which averages out to 1 per week. We rock!
LOVE YOU! and lots of hugs to y'all.
Many apologies for delaying this post update. It's been on the weekend 'to do' list for a while now, but the time just seems to fly by these days and I also kind of forgot.
Firstly, Happy 26th Birthday Fraser! And a belated Happy Birthday to Mom and Dorothy as well.
We're well into month 10 of being here with only 16 weeks to go (no, I'm not counting down...LOL) and I've finally found my stride at work, we're regularly going out to have good and fun times with good and fun people, the weather has shifted and I'm starting to feel good. It was like 14 degrees here yesterday! How awesome is that?!
It's always the way, isn't it....? You finally settle down and develop some good relationships just in time to start thinking about leaving...
Mike's job comes to and end next Friday and then we're off on our trip! And what a trip it will be--on the 19th we fly from Bristol to Madrid, where we spend 2 nights. We then fly from Madrid to Fuerteventura, which is the smallest of the Canary Islands, which are just off the coast of the North Africa--sunshine, sand, sunburns and beaches, here I come! After 5 nights in Fuerteventura, we fly back to Madrid at 11pm to crash in the airport for a few hours, in time to catch a flight to Berlin. We're with Clare there for 3 nights, at which point we fly back to Bristol on the 1st of March. Woot! You would think, with reading this, that we've been scrimping and saving for months. In reality, each flight costs 25bgp. That's right, people. It's costing us just under 125gbp each for 5 flights each, including the taxes. God, I sooooo love discount airfare. Also, WestJet is LYING when they say they're a discount airline. There's nothing discount about it costing more to fly from Edmonton to Vancouver than from Spain to the coast of North Africa! Gah! Anyway, I am totally jazzed about getting out of dodge. I need some time where my thoughts don't automatically go to what's to do at work on Monday. By Sunday afternoons I've generally just started to shake off my worry and anxiety about my caseload, just in time to head straight back into it less than 24 hours later.
When we come back Mike's back to the grind of finding another temp job for the few weeks we'll have left. Hopefully it won't be as mind-numbing as what he's been doing thus far... Also, we've given up the second room we were renting. This is for a variety of reasons, some of which are TOTALLY GROSS, so those with weak stomachs will want to skip down a couple paragraphs.
Those of you that know us well know that while tidiness is not necessarily the order of our home, we are generally clean people. Well, we had the most DISGUSTING experiences with our place recently. Firstly, when we rented the second room back in July, there were some pieces of information that were rather deliberately left out, mostly because it make our situation look considerably more pathetic than it already was, and that's really saying something! When Alan ripped the ceiling out of the room to air the beams out, it was discovered there were some mushrooms growing between the floors. Now, to understand why this didn't make me instinctively run screaming from this place, you need to understand what damp is like. It is pervasive and all-encompassing, despite any efforts at cleaning and airing things out. It sometimes takes t-shirts 2 days! to dry on heaters and radiators. 2 days! Well, a couple days after Alan ripped out the ceiling in July, I was having a shower and reveling in hot water. And, because I don't shower with my glasses on, I couldn't quite figure out what was in the corner of the bathroom. Until I got out and put my glasses on and FREAKED OUT 'cause there was a bigass mushroom growing in the corner of the shower stall. That's what prompted the ripping out of the shower that was previously mentioned. So, this disgusting issue was dealt with during the summer. Or so I thought. 'Cause it seems the shower issue has returned, with mushrooms again growing in the bottom room. And so I've had enough of that. No more spare room. And I assume our bathroom will need to be re-destroyed when we go on vacation next week. Whatev.
The second DISGUSTING thing that happened was damp+futon = GROSS! We had to get rid of our futon and buy a new bed. Turns out, with all the rain, cold and lack of light, our futon rotted. EEEEEWWWWW. I COULD NOT figure out where the faint odor of damp was coming from in our place--now, once you've smelled it, you forever know what that is. And Mike and I went as far as wiping down the walls with bleach and vacuuming and everything. What we didn't do was bother to look between the futons, mostly because it just didn't occur to me. And yet, there it was. So, out to the garbage dump (here it's called the Tip) that went. And now we have a new bed with lots of storage underneath it, which actually kind of negates our need for the second room in the first place. And I will NEVER live in a climate like this again. That was so disgusting.
Kent, Karen and Jennifer Phillips are coming on the 29th of April, and now I'm not sure what's going to happen with that, but there was NO WAY they were sleeping in a room with a ripped-out ceiling and mushrooms in it. God. Why does this life have to be such a humiliating joke sometimes...?!
Anyway, onto less gross things:
There are some major changes happening at my work right now too, with a team and case management restructure in the works and various people leaving and some new ones being hired. All good things, I think, but it makes for some serious chaos and leaves the weekends earmarked for essential 'fun time' to get me through the following week. If things has been different, if Mike had been able to find meaningful and gratifying employment and if things were better with family back home, I would totally be looking at wanting to do the final 12 months of my contract. But, that's not the case and I'm looking forward to being back as much as he is, really.
I know y'all have had a rough run of it, so don't swear at me for saying this, but I've totally missed the snow and cold. All we get here are some fake flakes that don't even try that hard and gray sky with nasty rain. Yuck! Also, I miss everyone a lot. Communication is really quite easy from over here, I know, and a phone call isn't as momentous as it used to be for people overseas, but nothing beats a coffee face to face or family meals or a drink with friends. I really wish everyone was here!
Anyway, switching gears to thinking about something that doesn't make me feel morose... I would like to tell you a bit about 2 of my coworkers, Joss and Julie. All of my coworkers and all of the people I've met here have been really, really fabulous but these two women are the ones I've learned the most from on a personal level so far. Both work for the Learning Disability Team as Care Management Support Workers--basically, they do the same job as Social Workers since they were redeployed, but they get paid significantly less and used to be hands-on support workers for the majority of the clients we now provide outsourced services to. They've been working alongside each other and the rest of their team for quite some time--if I had to guess I'd say they've been colleagues for around 12 years. Both have these massive families--Julie has 3 kids and too many siblings, cousins and nieces and nephews to count, and Joss, despite just being 45+, has something like 6 children including step-siblings and about 12 grandkids. Both work part-time as they have (as you can guess) significant family obligations but they're around 3 or 4 days per week.
To give a bit of context, the team I work in is structured into 4 main physical parts in the section of the building we work in. The first part is the wing to the right of the staircase--this is where the Managers (Bev, Geoff and Billy and Billy's PA Denise), psychiatric staff (Dr Pande or Temporary Psychiatrist and Kirsten and Patty, the Medical Administrators) and kitchen are.
Down the corridor is the second section, where the Adult Placement Scheme (Sandra, Chris, Jane Doreen and incoming Manager Catherine) Administration (Steph, Sarah, Rhiannon, Julie, Karen) and the psychologists (Sean, Ruth, Mary and Aubrey), Speech and Language (Ruth), Occupational Therapy (Richard) and Physiotherapists (Elspeth) have their offices.
The third section is Team Room 1, which has 6 desks, 4 computers, 3 laptops, 4 community nurses (Kath, Nicky, Julie and Jayne when she returns from Mat Leave), 2 Social Workers (Carole and Jenny), 1 Care Management Support Worker (Bridget), 1 Administrator (Jane W) and 1 new finance worker (Joanne).
I am in the last room, Team Room 2, which has 6 desks, 5 computers, no laptops! (another story another time) 5 Social Workers (me, Simon, Tony, Suzanna, newly appointed Chris), 1 Care Manager (Colleen), and 5 Care Management Support Workers (Sharon, Julie, Joss, Michelle and Christa when she returns from Mat Leave) and 1 Carers Assessor (Jacquie). As you can imagine, things get INCREDIBLY crowded and chaotic mid-week when most people are in--on Tuesdays and Thursdays we regularly have 8 people in that room, sitting on the sides of desks and standing as there are only actually 6 chairs.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. People who think they have any chance whatsoever of getting rich in public sector Social Work are sooooo mistaken! Really, it's only actually funny if you don't have to work in these conditions...
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that even though they're the lowest on the pay scales and have no real power, the people in Team Room 2 are the ones that make or break a new addition to the team. The Care Management Support Workers have all been working together for years and years and are the only group that really has an significant shared history as the rest of the team has come and go through time. And Joss and Julie are the ones who have been around and together the longest.
These women are amazing--with their hectic lives you would think they have no time to do things with and for others, but they make it. Both of them take time every day to say hello to everyone, they remember birthdays and significant events and they ask you about how something you may have mentioned in passing as difficult or sad is working out and they always make others lives a priority. And they are kind and welcoming without judgment. And to me, that's amazing. With everything they have to do for others in their everyday lives they still take time to check up with others. And they have nothing bad to say about anyone, ever. With the working conditions we have (and don't forget the 19-space car park--we counted 43! cars in it the other day), it would be very easy for tempers to become frayed and for stupid little things to become big arguments. Yet these women don't let it. They talk out problems, lend support, help with whatever is needed at any time, and generally make everyone feel better about themselves in what are certainly demoralizing working conditions. And they do this every single day they're in, without fail.
In the midst of the chaos at work, Julie has a parent who has just been diagnosed with what may be inoperable and aggressive cancer and Joss has recently lost her closest friend to breast cancer. And yet every day they show up with smiles and good things to say to others and they 'get on with it' with others' problems and daily struggles in mind. And they have been so supportive of us, inviting Mike and me out to do things, giving me lovely cards and gifts 'just 'cause', helping me mend my pants (those sewing lessons seem to have been of little use...), giving me guidance about how to do certain things at work, letting me vent and express difficult feelings, really the list goes on.
As I've said before, every person in the team has made an amazing effort to welcome and support us and they've made this trip and experience totally worth it, but Joss and Julie just amaze me. They give to others without thinking and without asking anything in return. If there's one thing I hope to take away from here and to apply to my daily life, it's the ability to learn how to do that like they can.
So, yeah, that's life right now. Sorry there's no pictures and this post is soooo text-dense. But, the computer is being stupid and I'm wanting to spend some time during today doing something other than uploading photos, so I gave up. I hope everyone back home is well. I miss you guys! We'll be pretty incommunicado for the last 2 weeks of this month but I'll be sure to post pics and deets of our trip as soon as we're back. Also, if I decide to send postcards again, they WILL be posted within the same month of writing. Also, I'd like to point out that this is our 1st year anniversary for this blog. Well, it's on the 26th, but whatev. In that time there have been exactly 52 posts, which averages out to 1 per week. We rock!
LOVE YOU! and lots of hugs to y'all.
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