Towed Away

I started this journal in 2002! God, I don't know where the years have gone...

Lot's of changes have taken place; I'm engaged and very happy about it indeed! I'm a qualified Rehabilitation Worker and currently working for a charity. I've moved out of Nottingham and away from home and family - we're so spread out around the country now, it's the furthest we've all ever been from each other!

But then that isn't such a bad thing, since we've all grown so much and may one day come back to living close by each other again.

I'm looking ahead to earning a bit more money though, being poor don't suit me I can tell you. ;)

All the best for 2010 - make the best of it!

I got in!!
I start in October at Birmingham.
I was excited until they mentioned the fact that some of the assignments are in presentation form. Dammit.

Hi all,
I know it's been a while, but things are going well at my end so nothing bad to report.

The general gist of life here is that I'm temping whenever possible, I've been on a course at Loughborough college which was very useful in getting my computer skills up to scratch and I'm seeing a bloke that I actually enjoy seeing for once!

I've got an interview coming up for a Diploma course in Rehabilitation Work with the Visually Impaired at the University of Central England which is going to be a day-long affair and therefore tiring and scary. Most of my time is being taken up in preparing for this at the moment, but any spare time goes to travelling the midlands to see various friends and socialise as much as possible.

I hope everyone on my lovely friends list is having a good time, if the sun's shining outside your window, I envy you and I want your weather.

So I've officially withdrawn from the Occupational Therapy course and am no longer a student. In honour of this fabulous occasion, I got to fill in the National Student Survey which turned out to be really quite therapeutic.

I didn't rate the course team as harshly as I would have a few months ago mainly because I've come to accept that most organisations need to be hounded if you want the proper service. But there's no escaping the fact that these tutors barely knew what they were doing - probably because they keep changing the way the course is to be run from month to month.

Anyway, those days feel a long way away and I've been lounging around in the sun today, which has thoroughly wiped out any outrage that might have been dredged up by the survey.

Tomorrow,I'm making chocolate mousse and a cake. (Preferably not suggestively shaped - especially the one that looked like a giant boob - mmmmhmmm :P)

So far so good:

- I've got to run a discussion group on thursday. Luckily this isn't anything serious and is more about reading aloud interesting articles on anything from science to culture. The lot who'll be doing the actual discussing just love a laugh or a rant, so I'm hoping they'll be kind at my first attempt.

- Seems I'll be spending 6 weeks in Loughborough college in May/June time. I'm looking forward to it on the one hand, but on the other, it's taking me out of my comfort zone! o.o

- Last week included my birthday and we've had so much pizza, chocolates, cheesecake and ice cream that I feel more like a 4 year old on too many sweets than my 'real age'!

Also, we were all so busy that the celebratory dinner arrangements got pushed to the last minute. Luckily we got a good table at Iguana's which I was quite impressed by. All the waiting staff had to memorise the orders and always got them right the first time even if we'd changed our minds a few times. Raman and I have decided to apply for a job there just to see if we can do it for even an hour, let alone a whole shift.

Dippy, dizzy and dehydrated.

Aw crap, just when I need to be on top form.

This has been going on since Wednesday and I didn't really pay much attention to it 'til I kept loosing my balance at the dance class and needed to leave early.

Unfortunately, thursday and friday have been busy-ish, today I've got to go pick out new light fittings (I'm so bad at this, oh no!) and tomorrow I've got to get myself to Loughborough for that 3 day assessment which, I’m told, will be hectic and very useful.

Bugger.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ketvdy

I took a walk through Nottingham University's Trent campus and the adjoining Lakeside walk to destress last Saturday. Take a peek.

I can’t believe the news in India today…
The worse thing is that when I spoke to my friends in Mumbai this afternoon, they just sighed, said ‘I know, it shocked me too, but I can’t exactly do anything about it,” and carried on with things.

My mother asked; “How can Hindus kill Hindus? This is worse than terrorism because it’s our own people doing the killing!”

All this has been going on in varying degrees throughout history, so why is it so shocking to me now?

Maybe because I’ve started thinking that I’m immune from all this terror, that stuff like this doesn’t happen in reality.

I can’t believe that once, this kind of thing wouldn’t have shocked me either. And it wouldn’t have mattered that it was done by another Indian person. I think I’m glad I’m not immune to the shock, but I’m uncomfortable about the fact that I passed judgement without trying to understand the nature of my friends’ reactions.

My family and I are so privileged to not have to live in mortal fear anymore, but that doesn’t mean I can forget where I came from – especially when those experiences taught me so much about survival and taking advantage of any opportunities that come up.

Wow, people sure do like to brag about their vices round here.

All I can do is walk out when the drugs come out.

It's a shame since I actually like one or two of the group and would really like to get to know them when they're sober.

Ah well, maybe someday in the future when they've got it out of their system... The alternatives make my stomach turn. That's another reason why I can't stand the Adult Mental Health team anymore - seeing the effects of substance abuse is like witnessing a suicide and I'm not strong enough to face it to help.

Considering that, how long can I last at the Samaritans if I'm likely to react this strongly to such situations? And how can I go back to uni to carry on what I started when I'm actually afraid of that area of practice. I bet you I'll have to face this fear at some point in the near future.

I was selling flowers recently. Yes, that's right. Forget about a career... I'm going to be sweeping leaves and crap off the floor whenever someone goes on leave. *facepalm*

To top it all, random strangers (the rep from my father's job agency) are having a laugh at the expense of my state of unemployment. And I don't count temp work as employment especially when you're referred to as 'blondie' every day.

No thank you very much.