Bank Holiday Monday, sitting in the garden, listening to Radio 1, wearing rose tinted sunglasses (which perhaps explains the outlook on life) and sipping lemonade.
Whats been happening here lately? you may be wondering? (or not? ... im going to continue writing either way though im affraid!) Well That my friend is a good question, what has been happening here lately? Lately i should probably define as the week that i have been in England for, because i think you are probably up to date on what has happened before that, even though my blogging was a little lacking my photography more than made up for it i believe and as a picture is equal to a thousand words (Very much Liams motto in his first dissertation, that went horribly wrong) i feel as though hundreds of thousands of words have been written on the topic of Australia and Singapore and hiking and camping and all that jazz.
England - weather = quite normal, bit of rain, couple of nice-ish days before the kids go back to school tomorrow.
Pretty much i've been job hunting for the past week - not an overly enjoyable task during this dreaded recession, basically there are no good jobs out there and all the ones i would like to apply for you need significantly more experience than i have (due to the dreaded R word i guess). I know a few people who have successfully found jobs woring for big pharmeutical companies (but most of said people worked in the industry during their 3rd year of uni and really wanted a job in the field, im affraid neither is the case for me, i really have no desire to work in a lab for a big faceless corporation .... i guess i would have taken up the opportunity to get my PhD if that was the case). So job hunting is a tad rubbish. However its not all bad news, it seems figuring out what you definately want to run away from doing does propell you slightly more in the direction of the things you actually would like to do. I have applied for the aaccelerated graduate level mental health nursing course, which starts at some point in September. I realise the 1st of September is tomorrow. Maybe i wont get it but sometimes you need to try just so that you're not wondering about what ifs forever. My thinking was this - i know im headed towards the medical field - i cant get into a graduate level medicine degree this year, so i have a year of potentially not doing a whole lot of worth, i cant find a good job so im left getting a rubbishy job and waiting - which seems a tad pointless, nursing is in the right direction and would give me valuable experience if nothing else, and im kinda wondering if this is the type of thing i would be more suited to anyway, im not affraid of hard work, im really not, and ..... the time this was offered to me and the way it fits into things and how it means i wouldnt have to take out anothr student loan or pay more tuition fees (or really have any living expenses) just makes it seem so right .... i mean obviously i havent even got into the course yet so i might be jumping the gun, but it does seem quite like an answer to a much asked question. Well, we'll see anyway, references have been written and referees have said how much they think i would be suited to the profession and my mum badgered me until i told her that i was applying too (i wanted to wait until i knew whether i was actually doing it first but oh well) so, i guess i should know for sure one way or the other soonish!
What else has been happening? The kitchen got refurbished whilst we were away (by Roberts and Co - my uncle and cousin) who did a marvellous job and as my other cousin is going to pick up all th rubbish that is currently in our front garden on tuesday we decided to chuck out a whole lot of rubbish to be taken too, which has meant a WHOLE lot of clearing, a WHOLE lot of pikey action of people taking rubbish off of our hands for us and subsequently a car boot sale carried out by Alice and I on Saturday at Kingsmead school, we sold a decent amount of stuff and it was a beautiful day for it, we took the rest of the stuff to charity shops, Oxfams book bank and the market stall in the town (an exhausting day). The only reason i mention this really was because of a reminder from God whilst i was there, there are a lot of cheap people who go to these types of things because they dont want to spend a lot of money on things (okay fair enough) but there are also a lot of poor people who cant afford to spend money on things for their children or books and such, we saw a lot of these people and Alice and i agreed that selling the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy to a five year old refugee boy whose mother was 10p short of the 50p we were selling it for was a million times more statisfying than making any amount of money from a collector. The lady asked if she could have the toy for 40p as that was all she had and we agreed, the boy walked away playing with it (pretending it was fighting his little sister), which is what it was made for, i actually dont think ive ever seen a child quite so happy with a toy. You could give some children a hundred expensive presents for their birthday and they wouldnt be half as excited at this boy was with a 12 year old, second hand toy with previous combat dents and scuffs. It made me think.
We also had a ton of books for sale, most didnt get sold because the majority of the people didnt speak a whole lot of english and probably read even less. However we did sell two books in particular to a middle aged Hindu man (whose wife had just walked in the other direction - he told us he wouldnt have been able to buy the books if that hadnt have been the case), they were two of a collection of books Amy used to own and rejected once she moved away, books on finding Jesus in the modern world - one was called A purpose driven life, i think and the other was about the meaning of life and faith to Christians, what Jesus is all about. He was searching through the boxes for more. You have to wonder what God is going to do next with that man, perhaps he was curious, perhaps he actually wanted to know more about what he was up against, perhaps God had been speaking to him, either way a door has been opened and the possiblity of marvellous things happening is there, its the biggest cliff hanger ending you could read in any book. Pray for him.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The lowdown
Feeling a little bit better about England than i was last night. Hoorah for that!
Lets do the low down on the trip shall we? The photos are going up onto Facebook as i type (as long as it doesnt fail again like it was doing before *shakes head in woeful manner*)
I forget where i was up to in the story, we went to Singapore, then to Sydney, met all of Ellens family (had many many meals out with them), went to Cairns / Palm cove, to the Great Barrier reef, swam with the sharks, fed a Kangaroo, ate a Kangaroo (not the same one ... would defeat the purpose of feeding it) went back to Sydney, rested a little (not much) went to Uluru (Ayers rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), Simpsons gap, climbed many many mountainous ridges, gorges and canyons, learnt that the Grand Canyon is actually a gorge, climbed across a fallen tree and up through some rocks Indiana Jones style, slept under the stars in the Southern hemisphere, heard dingos calling the next night and decided to sleep in the tent, travelled back to Sydney, went to Bondi beach, decided i preferred Manly beach, made many many many hilarious jokes with Eliot over being in a place called 'Manly' along the lines of 'would you like to take a Manly tour Eliot' 'Why yes i would Soph but no asking for directions, thats not the Manly way!' .... ah Manly. Then we flew back to Singapore (8 hour flight, 2 hour time difference) for the night, landed at 9pm Singapore time, got to the hotel at 11pm Singapore time (1am Sydney time) got up at 5.30am singapore time to get back to the airport, transfer was late so checked in an hour before not the recommended 3 hours BUT luggage was the first off the plane. 13 hour flight to London Heathrow, remembered that i dislike Heathrow airport with a passion, another lane was in our bay (!!) and we had to circle a bit before being allowed to landed, so after landing the plane (i kid you not) circled the block trying to find another parking space, got through to boarder control and as ALWAYS the UK and EU line was SO long that it made me wonder if it would have been quicker to apply for US citizenship, get a greencard and a passport and go through the Non-EU passport line. Im actually not sure how that is possible, ever single boarder control i go through im in the longeest line, Singapore - the Singaporeans were walking straight through and we had to queue for ages, Oz, the Aussies had like one person in front of them, America, HUGE queue for non nationals, 10 people for US passports, i watch them, the system is pretty much "Ah Mr Bush, US citizen i can tell by your Tshirt, Welcome home Sir" Whereas a Brit trying to get back into our country is tested by how long they are prepared to queue for "Miss Pinwill, well you queued successfully for 2 hours without cutting in line and stayed adament that switching queues for be a mistake in the long run, whilst performing the manditory moaning, you are definately British, the tea is to your right"
*sigh*
Have not slept for 2 days am now jet lagged (im awake at 5am)
and i most desperately need a job
Lets do the low down on the trip shall we? The photos are going up onto Facebook as i type (as long as it doesnt fail again like it was doing before *shakes head in woeful manner*)
I forget where i was up to in the story, we went to Singapore, then to Sydney, met all of Ellens family (had many many meals out with them), went to Cairns / Palm cove, to the Great Barrier reef, swam with the sharks, fed a Kangaroo, ate a Kangaroo (not the same one ... would defeat the purpose of feeding it) went back to Sydney, rested a little (not much) went to Uluru (Ayers rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), Simpsons gap, climbed many many mountainous ridges, gorges and canyons, learnt that the Grand Canyon is actually a gorge, climbed across a fallen tree and up through some rocks Indiana Jones style, slept under the stars in the Southern hemisphere, heard dingos calling the next night and decided to sleep in the tent, travelled back to Sydney, went to Bondi beach, decided i preferred Manly beach, made many many many hilarious jokes with Eliot over being in a place called 'Manly' along the lines of 'would you like to take a Manly tour Eliot' 'Why yes i would Soph but no asking for directions, thats not the Manly way!' .... ah Manly. Then we flew back to Singapore (8 hour flight, 2 hour time difference) for the night, landed at 9pm Singapore time, got to the hotel at 11pm Singapore time (1am Sydney time) got up at 5.30am singapore time to get back to the airport, transfer was late so checked in an hour before not the recommended 3 hours BUT luggage was the first off the plane. 13 hour flight to London Heathrow, remembered that i dislike Heathrow airport with a passion, another lane was in our bay (!!) and we had to circle a bit before being allowed to landed, so after landing the plane (i kid you not) circled the block trying to find another parking space, got through to boarder control and as ALWAYS the UK and EU line was SO long that it made me wonder if it would have been quicker to apply for US citizenship, get a greencard and a passport and go through the Non-EU passport line. Im actually not sure how that is possible, ever single boarder control i go through im in the longeest line, Singapore - the Singaporeans were walking straight through and we had to queue for ages, Oz, the Aussies had like one person in front of them, America, HUGE queue for non nationals, 10 people for US passports, i watch them, the system is pretty much "Ah Mr Bush, US citizen i can tell by your Tshirt, Welcome home Sir" Whereas a Brit trying to get back into our country is tested by how long they are prepared to queue for "Miss Pinwill, well you queued successfully for 2 hours without cutting in line and stayed adament that switching queues for be a mistake in the long run, whilst performing the manditory moaning, you are definately British, the tea is to your right"
*sigh*
Have not slept for 2 days am now jet lagged (im awake at 5am)
and i most desperately need a job
Back
Well i'm back in England, and man am i depressed! England well and truly sucks
It may be the jet lag talking, but probably not, lets see how i feel in the morning
It may be the jet lag talking, but probably not, lets see how i feel in the morning
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Singapore and Oz!!
Okay!! i owe everybody a long blog! Actually i doubt anyone is still reading this ... maybe i will have to notify everybody on facebook first .....
ANYWAY! Whats new? well annoyingly i had some wonderful ideas for various blogging subjects whilst i was in various countries and unfortunately didnt have computer/internet access at the time, isnt that always the way??
So this one may be a tad rubbish but hopefully it will be kinda informative (and i plan to put some photos up on facebook as soon as i remember to bring my camera with me when i use the internet! - there are lots that need to go up it seems)
So whats been happening? (I realise i already said that once ...)
Well! We flew to Singapore about ... a week and a half ago, where we stayed for a few days as a stop over - Singapore is AWESOME!! i highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a place to visit, it turns out strangely that i think i like the concept of Singapore more than i like Australia really, the island itself is SO beautiful, and the people really are lovely, really polite and friendly but not in that overly friendly way ... maybe its a commonwealth influence type thing, they were British-ish whilst still being Oriental-ish .... i cant really explain it, you may have to visit yourself, but it was truely wonderful, we toured round the different parts of the main city, Little India, China town, the Government district and the Malay area, i'd learn a lot of info about the country on the plane, social customs, taboos, a little bit of Malay (Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and of course English are their main languages due to the percentages of different nationalities inhabiting the country) we also saw Raffles, the hotel, if you know anything about Singapores history i guess you will understand the significance of visiting here.
Anyway perhaps i am waffling about Singapore now, after all we were only there a couple of days (we will be back there for a day on our way back to England in a months time)
Now we are in Australia (the 8 hour flight wasnt quite as painful as the 11 (?) hour one to Singapore, we got to Sydney at about 6am, having not slept on the horribly uncomfortable plane (Singapore airlines is definately the best airline to fly with though, absolutely wonderful compared to others i have flown with). We finally got to see Grandad!!!! yay!!! Hilarious as always. We were staying at there house for a few days (went to see Sydney - the Opera house, the bridge, all those Sydneyish things) and then also went up to the blue mountains (Awesome, totally mindblowing, the pictures i took really just dont describe it in the slightest), and for the past couple of days we have been in Cairns, we flew up here on Saturday, yesterday (Sunday) we went to the Great Barrier reef (we are staying in Palm Cove and drove up to Port Douglas), we took the boat out to the reef, (yes, i was sea sick .... gross, very gross, almost made it as well, 3 minutes from the platform and bleurgh ... oh well, felt better after that though) we changed into our lycra wetsuits, donned our life jackets, fins, masks and snorkels and were in the water surrounded by fish bigger than my torso (which sneakly kept knocking me over - at first i thought it was Eliot but it turned out it was a double attack by these crafty fish), Alice took some photos underwater which i hope will turn out okay (with a waterproof camera of course) and there are some fantastic ones of us in wetsuits .... Looking at the reef (in very choppy waters by the way) was so so COOL, they are so colourful its crazy, you are mile and miles out in the ocean jumping into the water looking at these amazing reefs with brightly coloured fish swimming around you, possibly the most amazing experience i have even witnessed, totally exhausting (note to self - swimming against the current - impossible!) and i wasnt sick on the hour long (35 knots wind) journey back to shore. Today i am hanging by the beach, searching for crabs in the rocks and avoiding the Crocs (there was a big warning sign - hee hee!) and of course writting this!! (oh Eliot and i ate Kangaroo, Emu, Barramundi and Crocodile steaks for dinner the other day ....)
Well i guess thats a lot of updating there so i might end at this point!
Check out my facebook profile for some pictures at some point!!
ANYWAY! Whats new? well annoyingly i had some wonderful ideas for various blogging subjects whilst i was in various countries and unfortunately didnt have computer/internet access at the time, isnt that always the way??
So this one may be a tad rubbish but hopefully it will be kinda informative (and i plan to put some photos up on facebook as soon as i remember to bring my camera with me when i use the internet! - there are lots that need to go up it seems)
So whats been happening? (I realise i already said that once ...)
Well! We flew to Singapore about ... a week and a half ago, where we stayed for a few days as a stop over - Singapore is AWESOME!! i highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a place to visit, it turns out strangely that i think i like the concept of Singapore more than i like Australia really, the island itself is SO beautiful, and the people really are lovely, really polite and friendly but not in that overly friendly way ... maybe its a commonwealth influence type thing, they were British-ish whilst still being Oriental-ish .... i cant really explain it, you may have to visit yourself, but it was truely wonderful, we toured round the different parts of the main city, Little India, China town, the Government district and the Malay area, i'd learn a lot of info about the country on the plane, social customs, taboos, a little bit of Malay (Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and of course English are their main languages due to the percentages of different nationalities inhabiting the country) we also saw Raffles, the hotel, if you know anything about Singapores history i guess you will understand the significance of visiting here.
Anyway perhaps i am waffling about Singapore now, after all we were only there a couple of days (we will be back there for a day on our way back to England in a months time)
Now we are in Australia (the 8 hour flight wasnt quite as painful as the 11 (?) hour one to Singapore, we got to Sydney at about 6am, having not slept on the horribly uncomfortable plane (Singapore airlines is definately the best airline to fly with though, absolutely wonderful compared to others i have flown with). We finally got to see Grandad!!!! yay!!! Hilarious as always. We were staying at there house for a few days (went to see Sydney - the Opera house, the bridge, all those Sydneyish things) and then also went up to the blue mountains (Awesome, totally mindblowing, the pictures i took really just dont describe it in the slightest), and for the past couple of days we have been in Cairns, we flew up here on Saturday, yesterday (Sunday) we went to the Great Barrier reef (we are staying in Palm Cove and drove up to Port Douglas), we took the boat out to the reef, (yes, i was sea sick .... gross, very gross, almost made it as well, 3 minutes from the platform and bleurgh ... oh well, felt better after that though) we changed into our lycra wetsuits, donned our life jackets, fins, masks and snorkels and were in the water surrounded by fish bigger than my torso (which sneakly kept knocking me over - at first i thought it was Eliot but it turned out it was a double attack by these crafty fish), Alice took some photos underwater which i hope will turn out okay (with a waterproof camera of course) and there are some fantastic ones of us in wetsuits .... Looking at the reef (in very choppy waters by the way) was so so COOL, they are so colourful its crazy, you are mile and miles out in the ocean jumping into the water looking at these amazing reefs with brightly coloured fish swimming around you, possibly the most amazing experience i have even witnessed, totally exhausting (note to self - swimming against the current - impossible!) and i wasnt sick on the hour long (35 knots wind) journey back to shore. Today i am hanging by the beach, searching for crabs in the rocks and avoiding the Crocs (there was a big warning sign - hee hee!) and of course writting this!! (oh Eliot and i ate Kangaroo, Emu, Barramundi and Crocodile steaks for dinner the other day ....)
Well i guess thats a lot of updating there so i might end at this point!
Check out my facebook profile for some pictures at some point!!
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