Security Terror levels

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out.

Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate."

The raised level was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

(LOL. Courtesy of my Aunt Grace)

It's finally here...

LAST DAY, LAST DAY!!

I'm already having fun, though I woke up completely knackered...flatmate Nicole wasn't going to use her bike today, so she offered it to me. What a difference to cycle to work! Less than half the time to walk.

I'm getting tired of bad movie nights

Lord, save me from housemates who belong to DVD by post plans, and insist that we watch cheesy awful teenage flicks, such as tonight's Oscar winner Bring It On: All or Nothing. Yup, I had no idea, but they did indeed make a sequel to the teen cult hit, Bring It On. I may have laughed once, but generally, it was pretty painful. So another public service announcement for y'all, this one goes in the "don't bother" column too.

Read 'em and weep

Oh man, I am way too full...we had our basic grade hour and a half lunch today at a cafe with seriously yummy food. Unfortunately, today is also the birthday of one of the physios that I work with, and I am just about to head out the door for some North African/Lebanese food. Aggh, not sure I'll be able to get anything else down. I'll have to stick with an appetizer for my meal or something. Several OT things to talk about after today, but that'll have to wait for another post.

Nicole just walked in as I was putting on a splash of makeup, and we've decided we're going to start a poker night. Well, cards night in general. The only deck we have right now is my deck of Wizard, so I have some new initiates for one of my favorite card games! And then as soon as we get a regular deck of cards, we'll alternate with poker, and suck more people in as we go. I know how to play Texas Hold 'Em, and Nicole knows how to play some other version, so it should be fun!!

Thoughts of the Day

I haven't been posting as much lately...part of that is due to the fact that it's very hard to get access to the one computer at the day hospital lately. And part of it is also due to me being sick and tired of sitting in front of the computer. I mean, one of my big reasons for hating the corporate world was being plonked in front of the computer for most of the day. Anywho, hope that hasn't made the blog less interesting-- maybe it's even for the better, without so many postings from me per day to wade through.

This week I've been back on the inpatient wards for the afternoons (last week I was stuck at the day hospital, working on my appraisal, which did not by any means take up all my afternoons, leaving me bored as usual). By the way--only 3 DAYS LEFT on this rotation-- and really not even that. Tomorrow is pay day, which means I go out for a nice lunch with the basic grades and we spend all afternoon together for our monthly meeting. And Thursday, Ann and Annette are taking me out for a nice long lunch. So really, only two mornings and Friday are left. But as I was saying, today I was on one of the inpatient wards, speaking to an older woman who seemed like she really couldn't have cared less. She was fully functionally independent, and safe in that regard to return home. The only reason she was somewhat ok with dealing with me was because she'd been told as soon as the OT assessed her, they'd send her home. As it turned out, they then decided that she needs a psych assessment to do with issues of depression, so she did not in fact get to go home this evening. Anyway, throughout my entire session with her, she behaved as if she were totally bored, and just wanted to get it over with...except when I started to thank her for her time and get up and leave to write my report. Then she grabbed my hand, and wanted to know about my accent. I told her I was American, and she didn't believe me, telling me I didn't sound American. But then she decided that since I'm American, I must have men falling all over me. And so, with a twinkle in her eye, she asked me, "You must be courting a lot, eh?" and winked at me. At first I stood there stunned, at the huge switch in her behavior and attitude towards me, and then I started to laugh. In a couple of seconds, my brain processed the word courting which I don't believe I've ever heard anyone use before except for in Jane Austen movies...and thought of its connotations or, if you prefer, its association with long term, as in, end result of life partner. When I'd finished laughing, I answered her in the negative, thanked her again, and began to walk away again when she called out "Don't worry, they will!" And I thought to myself, no, they won't. Because the truth is, I've never been courted. I've been pursued, most definitely, still am, and thus probably I should have told her yes, because she probably meant courting in a more modern sense. But I've never been with anyone who has looked at me with an eye to the long term. In a metaphorical sense, for me the game has always ended once the cat has caught the mouse, because the cat then realizes it doesn't know what to do with the mouse. The chase was the fun part. Theoretically "long term" is a nice, warm, fuzzy idea, and I am over the moon for my friends who have found their life partners. Realistically, it's pretty scary, because it seems near impossible you'd ever find someone to stay with you through thick and thin. I'd rather rely on myself. And maybe, just maybe, that means for once, I'm no longer wearing my heart on my sleeve. I've wished I could be that way for so long, and I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing, but it's a change of pace for awhile.

And no, I'm not disregarding my rule from way back when I started this blog to not discuss my dating life on this semi-public forum. As the above are just my current thoughts and theories (which most of you know are likely to change at any given moment), and nothing to do specifically with any one person I'm dating, I don't think I've really given anything away, have I? As always, specifics are only through personal emails. ;)

Politics

Every time I pick up a paper these days, there's more noise about which politician has done what to get himself noticed as a candidate for the next Prime Minister of Britain...and given the scandal and corruption that has also been all over the news, I was laughing my butt off at the following joke from Mom #2:

Max the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called pullets and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a different tone so Max could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch; a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning Max noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

Max went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

But to Farmer Max's amazement, Butch had his bell in beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

Max was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the county fair and Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges, The result...The judges not only awarded Butch the "No Bell Piece Prize" but they also awarded the "Pulletsurprise" as well.

Clearly Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?

Trouble in Thailand

Most of you have probably heard about the coup in Thailand on the news by now...it's been in conversations I've had over the past week and a half with Tufts Nicole, who has plane tickets to go with her fiance in November, and with Vivien, because the two of us are going in late March/early April of next year. Most reports coming out of Thailand talk about the "bloodless" coup, the Thai King backing the coup, and how democratic elections to replace the ousted prime minister will be taking place as soon as possible. I was rather amused this morning, however, when the radio show I listen to announced that all the photos and publicity coming out of Thailand are of people smiling- even soldiers with tanks in the background in Bangkok- because their country depends on tourism, and they don't want people to stay away because of the coup. And it seems to be working-- the BBC interviewed a Danish couple who talked about how excited they were to be there during the coup.

My other favorite news items today:
Boy, three, buys car on internet

Hamlets

Ok, so I'm finally going to post a couple of pics from last weekend's pub walk...this weekend has also been gorgeous, and I've been out and about, enjoying it, but nothing too major to report.

On our walk last weekend, we went through what was called a "hamlet" in our pubwalk guide, and as we went along, Nicole and I entertained ourselves by trying to come up with a definition. Rob finally interrupted and told us it had to do with what defines a city. Although in modern times, cities are generally defined by population, traditionally (or historically) in England, they've been defined by churches. That's right, churches. A town with a cathedral is a city. So Guildford is a cathedral city. Salisbury, which most likely would not qualify as a city for its population, is a city because of its cathedral. This little place we passed through on our walk had once had a chapel, but never a church, and thus it was a hamlet. Man, I love this kind of stuff! This country is just chock full of things that fascinate me...

Sun-dappled scenery from last weekend's pub walk near Brook.

Countryside walks cut right through farms, with stiles to help you climb over the fences... if the farm animals aren't coming up to you to check you out, then they aren't all that bothered by your presence either, which was the case with Shawn the Sheep here.

A sixteenth century house...the bricks on the lower level of the house go every which way!

Autumnal Equinox

It's the first day of fall, officially!! This has always been my favorite time of year, though I suspect I'll have a much different experience this year, over here in the UK...not least of all for lack of fall foliage.

"Your Bi-Lingual Kitty"

Apparently meow-ing is a second language that cats have developed to communicate with us humans, because we're too inattentive to pick up on their native language...

To Each Their Own

This is the office of two of our consultants...forget the fact that this would stress out just about everyone I know, but they seem to function perfectly happily with it...can we say, so much for patient confidentiality?!

I'm Getting Published!

Well, I might be. I got an email message on my flickr account from Schmap online guides. They've shortlisted two of my photos from Kauai, and asked my permission to consider including them in the second edition of their online guide to Kauai, to be published mid-October. I guess I'll find out in a week or so whether they've made the final editorial cut. One of the pics they chose is from Waimea Canyon, and the other is of a monk seal on the beach. I won't get paid if my photos are used, but they will give me credit, and include a link to the original photos in my flickr account. So I get exposure, baby. How cool is that?!!! If they do get published, I'll let you all know, and give you the link to the guide. Wish me luck...

TBI

Richard Hammond ("The Hampster") is a presenter on a really popular show about cars here in the UK, called Top Gear. Unfortunately, as they're reporting on the news today, he was involved in a bad accident yesterday while taping an episode for the show, and is currently in hospital with serious brain injuries. He was in a jet-powered car somewhere near York, trying to break the British land speed record of 300.3 mph, when the car veered off track, and rolled over several times. While he was wearing a helmet, the car had no roof. And if you think about the fact that you have a small concussion every time you merely head a football (soccer ball)...it makes me shudder thinking about his brain slamming around inside his skull in an accident like this. It's no wonder you see such a wide variety of psychological changes in patients with traumatic brain injury...

Wake me up, when September ends

I had to bring the bag of candy corn into work, or I would have eaten all of it myself. Most people seemed to enjoy it, although one of the nurses thought it was a bit too sweet. And as far as working here at the day hospital goes, I've only got one week left!!! Next Friday is my last day. I can't believe all the things I've done in the past seven months...I've been to Italy, France, Bosnia, Turkey, the US (Vermont and Hawaii), and have been many places in the UK as well, from Durham and York on down to Bournemouth and Poole. It feels like it's been more than 7 months actually, more like a year. And it feels odd to say that because usually it feels like time is flying, so I should be saying something more like the last 7 months have felt like only 3 months, or something.

Anywho, September has been "unseasonably" warm over here, with yesterday's temps being in the low 80's I believe, with bright sunshine. This morning has been a bit rainy and cool, but generally speaking it's been a lovely month. I hope it continues into October, or that we at least have an Indian summer toward the end of October/November. As usual, this time of year has been making me nostalgic for field hockey, not just because of my love of the game, but the excuse to be outside for late fall afternoons.

In which I learn about my next rotation

I had a mini-tour of the stroke unit this afternoon, once I finally found it, that is. There was a mis-communication between myself and the other basic grade OT who is finishing up her rotation there, and she forgot we were meeting this afternoon. And with all the ward closures that have happened at Whipps, due to the dire financial situation they are currently sorting out, I was directed to three different locations before I finally found the rehab stroke team. It was a bit overwhelming, but then any new job is (right up there with moving and death for most stressful life experiences) and I've learned to cope with it pretty well, with all the new OT placements I've done thus far. I would not say it was intimidating because the staff is all really lovely, and I'm familiar with rehab work...I get to do manual transfers again, yay! (Funny, but I really do mean it, I'm not being sarcastic there.) However, I will have a lot of adjusting to do, what with the new procedures and time schedules and assessments I need to start using. Apparently I will have 6 patients pretty much at all times, hallelujah, I'm moving back toward normal caseload numbers.

In other news, I'm rather upset. I used the only yellow cake mix I'd brought back with me in July to make my family's special peanut butter chocolate chip brownies for a lunch we had today for the basic grade who resigned (she's the reason I actually did get the stroke unit, click on the stroke label for previous posts with the whole story). The recipe calls for 350 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven, but our oven only has gas marks, and I obviously got it wrong. I left them in for the normal amount of time, and the top was lovely and golden brown, but the inside was just goo, and there was no way of saving them (I tried putting them back in for a bit). Shame. Only the edges were salvageable. The only consolation last night was that I made such a good panne and tomato pasta sauce from scratch that Leeanne was literally drooling over it. You win some, you lose some.

The appraisal that wasn't

Had my appraisal today, which was really relatively painless. On the upside of things, it forced me to finally collate my Continuing Professional Development Portfolio. There are still a couple of things to tweak, including adding this first UK rotation of mine to my CV, but generally speaking, I now have a portfolio in progress...as long as I keep it updated, it should never be a big project again. The appraisal itself, well it was pretty anti-climatic. In a nutshell, for each category in which I am reviewed, I had to note my evidence, which was a few lines about what I've done, and then a "see portfolio, section___". And my supervisor, while she tried to put a couple of complementary statements in, her comments on my evidence in each category basically amounted to "have seen portfolio, agree with evidence." Bor-ing. Guess I'm going to have to ask her to write a reference letter after all, because a copy of my appraisal isn't going to say much about my skills and professionalism to any future employers.

We do appear to have internet back for the moment...Leeanne has somehow become something of an amateur internet whiz...but she tells me there is still something wrong, which she has reported to BT. So as I hear every morning in the nursing handover meeting, when they don't have all the info on a patient yet, "watch this space!"

Trivia

For all those pub quizzes, and Jeopardy watchers...

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
A snail can sleep for three years.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

It's a dog's world

Oops, totally forgot, I meant to mention yesterday that it was Take Your Dog to Work Day. Fun, huh?! Stress-relieving so they say. I'm sure the cast of Scrubs would agree, since in the bonus material on the DVDs, you find out that they all take their dogs to the set. Though I've never had a dog myself, I've been strangely doggie-obsessed lately. We met two little 20-week old dogs on our hike on Sunday. I don't know the breed, but they were small dogs, and they were so cute!!

Happy Birthday to Vivien! Keep an eye on your mail...

Trick or Treat

It definitely feels like fall now...though it's a bit early as it's still September, when I came home from work yesterday, I found a small package for me from home that the mailman had managed to shove through the post slot in our front door. It contained a package of candy corn (mmm, yum!), and a Halloween card from Gerry (my cat): "Don't even think about dressing me up for Halloween...or I'll leave a little 'something' in your treat sack." Classic! Good one, mom & dad.

There was also a Save the Date card from Nicole and Rob. They had a picture of the two of them made into postcards, on the back of which they printed the date of their wedding, so that people can mark it off in their calendars. Viv is now talking about going to Thailand and Philippines in April instead of March, but I don't think I can whisk home for just the wedding weekend...we'll see.

And then last night, we had a girlie movie night at home, because Nicole just recently bought a bootleg copy of The Breakup. Man, did that movie stress me out!! For probably more than half the movie, they're just having an all-out go at each other. The kind of yelling that makes your friends embarrassed for you, which is what happens in the movie as well-- every time they started up in the movie, their friends found excuses to leave/get away from them. And yet millions of people paid good money to be subjected to it. While I did not actually leave the room, I did stick my head under the pillow a couple of times, and Nicole and Leeanne and I kept up a running commentary, talking to the TV as you do, or just making fun of the movie, to lighten it up a bit. And the ending was a total cop-out. Though I'd heard the ending was just quite simply, no they don't get back together, it's actually open-ended. They run into each other randomly on the street, have a brief conversation about how nice it is to see each other, and they shouldn't let so much time go by before meeting up again, and they both look back at each other as they walk away. So basically the audience can decide for themselves whether they never see each other again, or whether they do and will end up getting back together. I guess I'd probably say, unless this movie is on TV and you can see it for free, don't bother. Actually, even then, don't bother.

Uni vs Tradesman

There has been a lot of media attention lately to kids finishing up their secondary schooling here. Scores for GCSE and A levels were out in August, and most university acceptances are conditional upon these grades. In particular, newspapers, magazines, tv programs, and radio have been going on about how the exams must be getting easier, because more kids are getting the top grades these days than ever before. And I have to say, I'm definitely a supporter of As and A*s especially (the equivalent of an A+) only being doled out to the cream of the crop, the elite, for superior exam work. Considering the number of subjects in which students take these exams, if they're really bright, you might expect to see one or two A*s in their best subjects. But from the stories I hear from co-workers, their kids and their kids' friends are getting 6-7 A*s, plus some As and a couple of Bs. As I understand it, while various government officials and people high up in education may deny it, it's true that exams are easier than they used to be, and there's a reason for it.

In the US, most parents and most secondary schools expect kids these days to go on to college/university. It's very rare to see something else-- there's too much pressure from their peers, their parents, and their teachers to really consider anything else. And then there are all the state schools and community colleges that accept kids with low grades, or those who still need to work on basic skills. This is what they are now trying to accomplish in the UK. They want kids to stay in school, and go on to university. It used to be very common for everyone except the elite to finish their schooling at 16 in this country, and go out to be an apprentice, or to a vocational school for training in some sort of trade. The UK has been known for being a largely blue-collar country (making a generalization here !-I don't mean to the exclusion of everything else). When the universities were first established, it was primarily for the progeny of the extremely wealthy. Then it opened up a bit more to top students. And now they want the majority of kids to stay in school, and at least get a first degree at a university. So the exams that these kids must pass to earn a place at university have become easier to accommodate this trend.

Interesting, huh? It still works the same as in the US, where it's much much harder to get into an Ivy League school than any other university, here it's harder to get into Oxford or Cambridge (Oxbridge, as the Brits love their nicknames) than any of the other schools. So in, I don't know, 15-20 years (totally guessing here), there may very well be the same expectation, that most kids will go on to university.

Figures

Well, I suppose we were due for internet problems at the house. It's been at least 2-3 months since we've had any, after we paid for a guy to come to the house and sort us out- what was it- spring/early summer? For some reason, although our wireless router is working fine, we are unable to access the internet, even by directly connecting to the router with cables. Bear with me over the next couple of days, I will post as I can.

weekend update

Hmm, I've been rather blase about blogging lately, since I've been back from Turkey I guess...although I haven't had patience for much of anything since I got back from Turkey. The last few weeks of this rotation have really been dragging, and I'm just waiting for it to be over!!

Anywho, let's see, what did I do over the weekend? On Friday night, I went out with Nicole, Dave and Leeanne in Wanstead. And I was actually pretty impressed, they have a nice string of bars with DJs along the High St. Dave made a big deal out of the three housemates being out together for the first time, and insisted that we do it at least once a week from now on. By the time we'd been out for two hours or so, and Leeanne was being rude not only to us, but also to complete strangers, I needlessly pointed out to Dave that this is why it so rarely happens (needlessly, because Dave has been out with Leeanne much more often than I, and knows well what happens when she drinks). At the second bar that we went to, it was my turn for a round of drinks, so I leaned over the bar to tell the barmaid I wanted four drinks and proceeded to list them. Unfortunately, she misunderstood me, I guess with the music being so loud, and proceeded to give me four gin and tonics (the first drink I listed, my current drink of choice), plus the other three as well. Doh! I had help with the extra drinks, but had to do my fair share as well. In addition, Nicole and I started chatting to a guy sitting at the bar, who then insisted on buying us shots-- I had to tell him at least four times I wouldn't touch a shot of sambuca before he believed me, and he finally settled on buying us kamikaze shots. This guy told us at least twice after he'd gone off and come back (toilets maybe, who knows) that our friend was out of control, should be cut off and maybe we should go check on her (meaning Leeanne, who was over by the DJ somewhere). Nicole and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and said she's a big girl, she can take care of herself. We'd already defused at least two potential verbal fights, because she curses out anyone she thinks is staring at her, and we got cursed out ourselves for our efforts to keep the peace. The bar was playing some pretty good music, stuff you don't normally hear, such as Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder, and all in all it was a good night. I was pretty hung over on Saturday, and spent some time catching up on sleep.

Yesterday, I finally saw Nicole and Rob for the first time since mid-August, when they returned from their trip to Boston. We went on a pub walk-- a really nice 5 mile walk and it was warm with lots of sunshine. Aside from my first experience with stinging nettles, and the grass and air being filled with daddy long legs (not the spiders, that's what they call these winged things with long legs here), it was a great hike. And we didn't get lost this time, no thanks to the guy who wrote the book, but rather really good sign-posting. I've got a couple of pictures I'll try to get to later on tonight. We had a good pub lunch afterward at a picnic table overlooking the surrounding fields, with the best sticky toffee pudding I've had in a long while.

Oops, gotta go, morning handover meeting now. love, allison

music & theatre

Rats! The Killers will be in the UK for several concert dates in November, and the tickets went on sale this morning at 9am. I was unsuccessful at trying to get tickets online, because they sold out almost immediately, and for whatever reason my request didn't go through for the brief time they were available. Agghh. Just my luck.

So I was at the Shakespeare Globe theatre last night, for a production of Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra. Overall the performance was very well done, and the night was very mild with no rain! We had standing tickets in the yard, which has to be done at least once, as it's definitely an experience. It was very funny, some people tried to squat down at various points to give their backs and/or feet a break, but the ushers were watching out for this and would come round, tapping people's shoulders and asking them to stand up again, please. When they built this new Globe theatre, they obviously tried to recreate both the structure and the atmosphere of the original. The people in the yard, standing, paid only £5 for their tickets, and were mainly tourists...the cheap seats were filled by British secondary school students, and the more expensive seats seemed to be filled by people who'd come from work in smart dress.

I hadn't realized (but may try to take advantage now that I know) that there are a lot of pubs alongside the Thames on the Globe side of the river, with great outdoor seating, and these places are packed with the after work crowd. Though there are obviously a lot of people sitting at the tables, the pubs still manage to have a cozy, comfort sort of vibe, just one of the things I love about England.

"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys 'R Us kid..."

As mentioned previously, I did drink some Turkish coffee whilst on holiday with Maja, and last night, I tried a mochaccino (or however you spell it) which it's probably safe to say I enjoyed for the most part. As a kid, I always associated drinking coffee with grown-ups. Sadly, I may be starting to grow up after all...

The Dalyan Mud Bath

Yay! I can post pics to the blog again!! Hope you enjoy the following abbreviated sequence of my mud bath adventures (the whole series can be reached through the Flickr badge in my sidebar)...Maja refused to do the mud bath thing, so the pics are just of me.

Oh, but first, quick story that I've been laughing about all night. Annette and I did a long home visit today, where we kept insisting that the man always walk with his walker/frame. He had a stroke and his left knee buckles and he really isn't safe to walk on his own or with just the stick/cane. When it came time to leave, he followed us to the door, with his walker like a good little doobie, and as the front door shut and locked behind us, we heard a loud thud. Annette and I just stared at each other for a minute, in stunned silence, and next thing I know, Annette is on her knees, pushing open the mail slot in the door trying to see if he's on the floor, calling "Mr. M, Mr. M are you alright?" If he had actually fallen, it wouldn't be funny...but he didn't, and I've been laughing about Annette on her knees, looking for an elderly man on the floor through the mail slot of his front door.

The mud bath felt almost as hot as a thermal spring, and pretty much smelled like one too, that lovely sulferous odor

The muddy water didn't really stick to you, so you had to grab a handful off the bottom, the good stuff!

Smearing it on...the best slimy mud was right near the steps into the bath

Well, it was meant to be an Ah-nold, muscle man pose, but you could argue for monkey too. Come to think of it, lately, that's the same thing, isn't it...

My version of Aphrodite...or my version of a castmember from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, if you prefer ;)

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Alma mater

Hee hee, Nicole and I just reverted to college days...we walked down to the corner store for ice cream, laughing and gossiping the whole way, dressed in PJs, with shoes and zip-up sweatshirts hastily pulled on. I guess it's a common experience across the US to go to the dining hall in PJs or to the corner store or whatever. Yup, in uni, sloppy is in. Maybe it's that whole freedom thing, where your parents aren't around to tell you what to do, who knows, but it was fun. And it was fun tonight too ;)

Patience

I get a lot of comments about how patient I must be because of my job, or thank yous from patients for being so kind and patient, I've even had co-workers comment on my patience. And it's ironic, at least to me, because I only really have patience at work. Ok, that's not true, let's say I only really have patience for other people. Most other people. Because I certainly don't have patience for myself. I am definitely my own worst critic, and hold myself to high standards I would never subject anyone else to, and put myself down for not meeting those standards. I am also in a phase where I will take a book and skip through, reading bits and pieces from what's ahead, including the ending. I am one of those drivers who has a bit of a lead foot, and a mouthful for bad drivers even though I'm shouting to myself (except in panic moments which I've had ever since a bad accident a little over a year ago, in panic moments I've got nothing to say). I want the things that I want to happen now, and I hate it when I feel like something's missing in my life but I can't figure out what it is. Which I've been feeling lately. And though I've been trying hard to live day by day, it's really hard to break a lifetime habit of always looking forward to something or other. Here I am almost 7 months into being in the UK, and though I've done a lot, I feel there have been a lot of missed opportunities too. (I'm probably feeling that way at the moment since I don't have much planned in the way of traveling for the next couple of months, unlike this summer.) Anyway, I think this always looking forward to something is what makes time go so quickly. I mean, I don't really feel like I've been here 7 months. And where did the summer go? I was just getting warmed up!

Happy Birthday to my cousin Casey, who is 39 today...again. A magician, that one. He will still be 39 when his new baby Connor heads off to college one day, no doubt. I am definitely missing my Casey and Lara fix (Lara is his wife), since we didn't go skiing with them last Christmas, and I missed the family reunion this summer. Lara and I are supposed to be taking mogul lessons next time we meet up for a ski trip, since our "style" is just disgraceful as we follow Case down double black diamonds. And Lara and I both still find Miss Congeniality outrageously funny, no matter how many times we've seen it.

Speaking of family...My parents, who explicitly told me (well, my mom did anyway) that Hawaii was the last trip that they would pay for, are now asking me and Tressa whether we'd like to go skiing, or try to arrange another African safari-like adventure instead (since Tress will be in Rwanda) for Christmas. Which probably has something to do with me telling them I most likely won't be home for Christmas after all unless the airfare goes down drastically in the next month or so, and Tressa saying she doesn't think she gets any time off for the holidays. I mentioned that money would still be a factor for skiing or Africa, and was told, oh we'll work something out. It's all very much up in the air (in large part due to Tressa), and I imagine my mom will be doing some frantic scrambling to try and cobble something together in October or November, but in the end, I may still end up having to stay here for the holidays. Who knows.

"Sunny day, chasing the clouds away"

Today is yet another gorgeous, in the high 80s, bordering on 90 degrees, or so the BBC weather web site tells me. All I know is it's sunny and I'm stuck inside. And of course, later on this week, when I have tickets to go to an evening performance at the Shakespeare Globe theatre (an outdoor theatre) it is supposed to be rainy and gray. Figures.

But I'm out of here in about 15 minutes or so, and I plan to run for a half hour or so in the park next to Whipps, before trying out the pilates class they've just started up here at the hospital. Hopefully it will be good, as it's only £2 per class.

Scarlett

I've been told numerous times that I look like Julia Stiles. I've never really minded as I happen to think she's absolutely beautiful, a gifted actress, and as I've often quipped, "well, I'm not suprised, she's me if my life had gone the way it was supposed to." Although I've also said that of Natalie Portman, though I don't look like her-- that one sprang from her performance in the title role of The Diary of Anne Frank in NYC. A role I also played, but in a mere high school play performance.

Anywho, the Sunday edition of the Daily Mail (you have to be careful what paper you read around here, people often take it as an indication of your political persuasion- the Mail is relatively harmless) had an interview with Scarlett Johansson. In many ways I'm very impressed with her views and opinions, and general take on life, though obviously that's hard to capture within the confines of a two-page spread. She talks about enjoying her status as a sex-symbol, but also how hard she works to make sure her image isn't cheapened, and to make sure that sexy is not the only thing she is known for. With regard to body image, she now falls into my hero category of good role models for young girls, with statements like this: "I don't understand this obsession for being stick-thin. I could never be like that--it's just not my body shape. I would never stress about losing my curves, because curves are what make women look like women. They are what make you sexy." Amen, sister!!!

It made me laugh because it reminded me of a comment Maja made during our day trip to Dalyan, where several members of the tour were from the UK. There were a number of youngish looking couples, and Maja commented on how the men were particularly good-looking, but their partners were not. And I realized that is exactly one of the things I love about the UK- there is less concern with external beauty, and more concern with internal beauty. Or something. (One of the girls on that trip sounded like an unhappy complainer, but maybe she was just tired.) And generally speaking, guys here are very appreciative of curvy women!

How 9/11 changed us

Malfunction-P3 Player

Yes, I know there's a problem with the GreenDay file, I'll fix it as soon as I can. Sorry bout that! Just skip to the next song for now.

Turkiye

Right, well, Blogger is still not cooperating with the photos, but you can see most of them by using the Flickr badge on the sidebar to get to my Flickr account.

I spent a good chunk of today wandering around Camden Lock Market, given that it was such a gorgeous sunny day. Amazingly enough, I did not buy anything, but that may have a lot to do with all the money I just spent in Turkey, plus I'm still hooked on all the Arabian stuff, so a lot of things today just didn't look exotic enough ;) I walked around in flip flops, because who knows for how long I'll be able to keep doing that, but also after a week in sneakers/flats I think my feet have finally begun to forgive me for the high heels and wedges on nights out during the holiday.

A clarification: my mom had some sort of panic attack when she read about my tattoo. Apparently she hasn't looked at the pics yet, because if she had, she would have seen that this one is just henna. However, after 29 years of being vehemently opposed to tattoos, I am suddenly strangely fascinated. Ok, ok, maybe not 29 years, but at least 19. Anywho, oddly enough, I am considering a real tattoo...however, I might have to be seriously drunk to be able to go through with it. And I'm thinking it would be a pretty cool birthday gift to myself, but I will need someone with me to watch over the process if I'm going to self-anaesthetize myself with alcohol. What do you say, Viv, maybe something you can hold my through in Thailand or the Philippines in March? It's not a final decision, people, but I'm thinkin' on it.

I guess I will sum up some of what Maja and I did with our week in paradise, even though I can't punctuate it with pictures as I was hoping. We did a fair amount of shopping, the lion's share of which was probably jewelry. Although Maja spent a long time in a ceramics store, and went home with absolutely gorgeous hand-painted bowls and a vase. We did buy each other anklets on this trip (in the Dominican Republic we bought each other larimar rings). Although neither time have they been matching, we're not that cheesy...sheesh. Other things that we did in Bodrum itself (which was about 8 km from our hotel) were to visit the castle, sit at cafes and drink apple tea (something I introduced Maja to, and thankfully I can get easily at the Turkish Food Centre down the road from me), I tried donor kebab (delicious), and we watched all the kitties hanging out. Two years ago, Kristy and I discovered that Athens is the land of stray dogs, and Bodrum is apparently its counterpart for kitties. They were so cute! but I knew better than to be petting them. Oh yes, and we also discovered that Bodrum is another city that never sleeps. The shops stay open till midnight, and the clubs and bars never close! There was a really cool Catamaran club where you actually dance on a boat that sails out into the harbor, and has a glass floor, with small taxi boats that come every half hour throughout the night for people who want to leave before 6am, a couple of interesting bars on--wait for it--Bar Street, but by far my favorite was Halikarnas, an open air club on the shoreline across from Bodrum Castle. My biggest complaint in general about our nights out was that everything was techno, techno, techno everywhere. However, we did get some relief at Halikarnas where they put some R&B and hip hop stuff into the mix for a grand total of oh, about 30 minutes from midnight to 5am. They had awesome live acts, including three female dancers (I'm sure the highlight for many men there was the act where they wore white bikinis and danced in showers of water on stage), some hip hop male dancers who did some incredible moves that involved standing on each other in Matrix-esque poses, a Jamaican female singer with an awesome voice who sang live on top of whatever the DJ was playing, and lots more that I'm not remembering at the moment. Except for the foam, which they turned on around 3:30am. Not my favorite part. But overall, second only to Life in NYC, they did such a great job with the live show, and better than Life because it was open air and in paradise. And then there was the fact that I saw a shooting star that night, er, morning, as we finally got back to the hotel just before dawn- you'd have thought I'd won the lottery I was so excited, but it was just the perfect ending to a fantastic night. Oh, and those dolmuses I mentioned earlier (the cheap taxi buses)- they run all night long, so no horrendous highway robbery taxi fares!

Maja and I went on two day trips while we were there. One was to Dalyan, where we got on a boat, and first visited the mud baths. This is something that apparently Bosnians don't do, and I got very frustrated with Maja, but she wouldn't budge. So she took my camera and documented my fun with the bath, picking the mud up off the bottom to smear all over myself, and hamming it up with different poses once I'd been standing in the sun for awhile. It was funny, I did look a little like those street performers who paint themselves like statues, once the mud had dried. And yes, my skin did feel great once I'd rinsed off. We also visited these amazingly intricate cliffside tombs, built around 400 BC by the Lycians (though in the Greek style). And we spent some time after lunch on the famous Iztuzu Beack, better known as Caretta Caretta beach, caretta being the world for turtle. Loggerhead Sea Turtles have been nesting there for eons. Although we weren't there during the season, so there were no restrictions on where we could go. We were able to swim in the Mediterranean, (our hotel beach was on the Aegean), which was as warm as bath water, and had waves. Maja told me she didn't do waves, but I did get her to go in, and I had a ball doing hand stands, floating on my back, doing flips and dives over the waves. Oh, and I got a great picture of this lone Muslim woman covered from head to ankle, cooling off in the surf, amongst all the tourists. And they sucker-punched us on the way back that night, stopping at a jewelry factory, as they are apparently wont to do with these tours. I walked away with a silver belly chain, couldn't resist, but once the length was fixed by a silversmith back in Sarajevo, I must say I'm very happy with it!

Generally speaking, it was pretty hot, in the mid to high 90s all week (30-34 degrees Celsius), and all the restaurants in Bodrum were spraying mist from their roofs for the tourists to walk through. But of course, on the day of our party boat trip around Bodrum peninsula, it was very windy. So much so that there were waves and whitecaps at the hotel. But it turned out to be a good call to be on the boat. Once you laid down on the sunbeds on the top level, the wind was almost completely cut down. Plus the boat anchored in all the sheltered coves, so we were able to frolic and play in crystal clear, warm, calm bluey-greeny waters. Maja and I got some good color on that trip, met some fun Israeli guys we went out to a club with one night, said no to a camel ride on Camel Beach (the poor things were muzzled and tied down on their knees in between riders), and took some great pics.

Our hotel was absolutely great, once we got past the no-smoking room issue on the first day. We walked into our room and immediately started coughing the smoke smell was so bad. But the woman who answered our call at the front desk didn't want to give us a new room, and after offering that someone come down with a no smoking spray for the room, basically wiped her hands of us, and said we couldn't speak to a manager until the next morning. We were actually up at the front desk a short while later, and she pretended complete ignorance of the entire situation. But as it turned out, a different woman the next day (I don't know if she was a supervisor or not), did have some concept of customer service, and gave us a new room. It wasn't a no-smoking room, since out of 260-odd rooms they only have 8 that are non-smoking, but at least it didn't smell too badly of smoke. Other than that, our hotel was great. There was a beautiful pool, a private beach (pebbles, but small pebbles, I was ok with it) with calm turquoise waters, lots of waterfront activities, fitness rooms, massages available, 5 or 6 different bars, and an amazing smorgasbord of food for every meal. The beach, where we spent a great deal of time, also had straw umbrellas, padded sun loungers, and great big pillows you could lie on alone or use on top of your lounger. The beach was very European, in the sense that none of the guests except for me and Maja were speaking English, and in the sense that about half of the women were topless at any given time. We were rather put off by the girl who plonked down her chair in the surf just in front of us, and sat there topless with her legs spread wide, plucking the stray hairs off her bikini line with a pair of tweezers. It was right up there with the screaming, laughing Russian girls who came in at the end of our foam massage in the hamam, running around splashing each other with water, getting it all over us, and diving onto our massage mats the minute we vacated them, screaming, screaming all the while. Overall, our resort experience was fabulous, but there were these few episodes of eurotrashiness. The hotel put on a big Turkish night on 30 August, because it was their Victory Day, since apparently they've only had their independence as the Republic of Turkiye since 1922. They had belly dancers, fireworks, traditional dancers, and a traditional Turkish band, among other things, and there were Turkish flags everywhere in the resort and all over Bodrum. Not a trip I'm likely to forget any time soon :)

Hmph. Still Nothing.

Argghh. I've made several attempts to post pictures tonight, and Blogger is not cooperating. I'm too frustrated at this point, but I'll try again tomorrow.

Can I just say, I have really really been enjoying the sunny warm weather, but very cool nights we've had these past two days. I love having the windows open in my room right now!

Guinness Book of World Records

My dad sent me an email after having had a look at my blog two nights ago, and said "You are having way too much fun!"

I don't see any reason to stop though...the latest thing today is that I've just signed up to be a part of the World Record Pub Crawl in London on 14 October. Well, it's a world record attempt, at any rate, with official approval from the Guinness Book of World Records team for the attempt. 1,500 people, split into groups of 100 (friends will be kept together), will start drinking at 11:00 am in 15 different pubs around London. Every 45 minutes we'll rotate to the next pub until, after 8 hours, we've done 10 pubs-we are supposed to drink at least a half pint at each pub, and the pub manager is supposed to accurately log everything that's been drunk (anyone else a bit leery that accurate records will be kept?). Apparently, this satisfies the requirements of the Guinness Book of World Records. Click here to see the web site.

A bunch of us have signed up to go, and we'll all get t-shirts, a souvenir card to be stamped at each pub, and maybe some free drinks (the guy organizing this whole thing is working on securing sponsorship from 2 major alcohol distributors). Let the fun continue!!!

The Sebilj Fountain in old town...

Sarajevo was under Ottoman rule, once upon a time. The Beg, a title for one of the Sultan's right-hand men, was ordered to build a mosque in honor of the Sultan in Sarajevo. Word apparently reached the Sultan that the Beg was in fact building two mosques, the second one in honor of himself, and it was bigger and grander. So the Sultan ordered the Beg to switch mosques with him. But it turned out that the rumor was false, so the Sultan ended up with the smaller, more humble mosque. Or so the legend goes. This is the smaller one, I don't have a good picture of the big one.

Pitta!! The Bosnian version of fast food. The most delicious ones are meat-filled as pictured here, but they can also be filled with potato, squash, cheese, or spinach and cheese. Totally addictive.

Maja was waiting for me at Sarajevo airport two weeks ago with Sponge Bob in hand. Here he is floating in the living room area of her apartment.

Bosnia, Bosnians, Sarajevo...ah hell, it's pretty much a stream of consciousness post

As some of you may have already discovered, quite a number of my pictures have now been added to Flickr, which you can access from the sidebar. I haven't finished adding the captions, though.

I'll start with Sarajevo and Bosnians, since that is how my trip began and ended. I arrived in Sarajevo on the tail end of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which meant big names like Bono and Nick Nolte were in town, according to Maja. Their national theatre was all decked out, complete with red carpet. I've already posted an entry shortly after arriving in Sarajevo, and I don't mean to repeat myself, so here's a picture from a restaurant high up on a hillside, overlooking Sarajevo at night.


Besides the nightlife, and shopping in old town, we also did the salon thing...Maja got a pedicure and had her hair done, I got a bikini wax for the equivalent of less than 2 pounds. When we arrived at the airport on Sunday for our flight to Bodrum, I had my first experience with Bosnians en masse. They are loud, rude, and have no concept of lines, or queueing, whatsoever. Someone stepped up to the podium to announce that our flight was now boarding, and schwump! there was a big knot of disorderly Bosnians swarming around the podium, pushing and angling to get onto the jetway. On our very first day in Turkiye, we were offered a free "walking" tour of Bodrum by the agency Maja had booked our package through, which was more like a bus tour with one stop on a hill with old windmills above the harbor overlooking the castle, another stop at King Myndos' Gate (which the guide incorrectly identified as one of the seven wonders of the world- there was one of the seven in bodrum, which used to be called Halicarnassus, but it was the Mausoleum of Maussollos), and then stops at a gold factory, candy factory, and then leather factory. We were finished with all of this around 8pm, and while it would have appeared the best plan to drop off all the other Bosnians first since we were near their hotels, we actually went out to the hotel Maja and I were staying at first (about 8 km outside Bodrum) because that was what made the most sense for the bus driver as he ended his night. The Bosnians, once they realized this, began to yell, and quite quickly to curse out the tour guide, which even though I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying, the tone made me very uncomfortable. Maja was embarrassed for them, and said it was because they were "hicks."
This photo is of the old windmills, which were used in the not too distant paste to grind grain for bread. And the picture just below is me standing on the hillside that overlooked Bodrum's harbor, with the castle being on the right side of the picture in the distance. I knew the style of it looked familiar, and wasn't surprised to find out when we explored the castle on our last day that it was built by the Knights of St. John, who also fortified the Greek island of Rhodes (which I visited in 2004 with Kristy).




Maja developed the habit- er, not developed, more like continued, but I hadn't seen her in over a year, and had forgotten this tendency of hers- to use her nickname for me without any explanation. With the Bosnians, that name- Cosa- is very similar to a word they have for hair. So when she'd be talking to them about something Cosa had done, or said, or where I was from, there was quite a bit of confusion and/or laughter. And this was the case throughout the trip with people who spoke English- the Israeli guys we met, the Turkish guys we met, other people staying at our resort (though there were no other tourists from the UK there, some Germans, Dutch, Iranians, Serbians, French, etc). If I got to introduce myself first, I'd always say, "Hi, I'm Allison" and as we'd get into conversation, Maja would just start referring to me as Cosa. I have to give the Israeli guys the most credit for waiting the longest length of time before finally giving in to curiousity and asking what the deal was. And in case some of you haven't heard this story, I don't remember exactly why it began, but it was a collaborative effort between Maja and our other roommate Becky, Cosa meaning "thing" in Spanish...kind of like an "alright YOU (smartass)". Maja was constantly commenting this trip on what probably gave birth to the nickname in the first place, with my jokes and one-liners and sarcasm and witticisms that apparently seem to come out of left field for a lot of people, given that everyone seems to see me as a sweetheart or someone who is always nice, caring, whatever. Why IS that, by the way, since I have the same faults as most people? I really don't seem to see myself the way that other people see me, a reflection which once I voiced aloud one night, Maja rather bluntly said, well I think most of your self-perceptions are wrong. I do believe I kept Maja highly entertained this trip. But anywho, what Cosa came to represent is "Miss Thang" because all three of us decided it suited, and there was too much room for not understanding the meaning if you just left it at "Thing". Or sometimes Cosita if Maja or Becky were trying to be cute, or trying to get my goat, or felt I was being particularly soft or thoughtful or whatever. I'm not sure Maja has called me Allison ever since the morning I was woken up by her moaning from her bed "Coooossssaaaaaa" because she couldn't get up due to a horribly painful muscle spasm in her neck. I hadn't heard her calling out my real name, it was the nickname that worked, and that's all she's called me ever since.

Waaaay off track here, I was talking about Bosnians wasn't I. The other thing I remember is how upset they got standing on the hill overlooking Bodrum harbor while the guide talked about how there wasn't much to see in the area immediately surrounding Bodrum, just poor people and cows. As voices started to raise, Maja translated for me that a lot of them were villagers or "hicks" themselves, and wanted to know what was wrong with cows?! I guess our tour guide had never heard of village tourism. Anyway, we didn't see too much of the Bosnians after that first day-- quite a few were on the all day boat trip we did, but after we made friends with the Israeli guys, we didn't really interact with the Bosnians at all on that trip.

When we returned to Sarajevo, I got to spend a little more time with Maja's mother and her stepdad, who thought Maja looked like a gypsy, and made fun of me...where had I gone for the week, since I obviously hadn't been in the sun?! For me, I am actually pretty golden, and could show people my tan lines as proof if I had the inclination, but I have long since accepted the fact that I always look white because I pretty much always am white in comparison to everyone else...even when I'm tan, because they are tanner. Meanwhile, Maja got me to drink Turkish coffee with her, from a pitcher that is some of the most gorgeous metal-working I have ever seen. I toured around that shop in the old town, and bought something I cannot picture here, since it's a gift. However, I also got the silver belly chain I'd bought in Dalyan shortened and have a cool picture of the silversmith working on it. He did the work for free (bonus), which may have had something to do with my tattoo peeking out when I bent over, or just generally that Bosnian men try to get every pretty girl they meet into bed, according to Maja.
This theme continued through our last day in Sarajevo, where I got a lot of attention for my tattoo any time I bent over to get something from my backpack. Maja made it her mission this entire trip to tell me when I was being given the up-down, which on the boat trip and any time we were in Bodrum generally went something like "Girl, you are getting checked out left and right!" And generally speaking she was right. It is definitely true that European men are more forward and forthright than most American men...something Maja thinks is annoying (the American men), and I must say Europeans are refreshing in a certain sense. I was beyond the instantaneous blushing and wanting to cover myself up reactions by the time we got back to Bosnia, and I wandered around old town with my belly chain and tattoo peeking out without being totally self-conscious. It's more fun to check them out right back. And it's probably why I wasn't all that worried about being surrounded by the Bosnian youth football squad who were on my flight to Prague, and wanted to practice their broken English on me. Very handome lads I must say! I have a couple more pictures from Sarajevo that I'll post separately, and I'll move on to Turkey probably tomorrow night.

Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon

Continuing on the karma band wagon, I have also secured a place on the 6-day (spread out in 3 two-day chunks over several months) Bobath course...in essence we will learn about "normal movement" and using the specific Bobath physical rehabilitation techniques/method of normalizing movement with patients who are hemiplegic. So this training is pretty much specific to working with stroke patients. I have to contribute to the cost of the course, given the current state of things in the NHS (at a meeting yesterday we were told that on top of the current £33 million the Trust is currently trying to cut, they have determined they need to come up with an additional £11 million!!), but I don't mind, they are still paying the bulk of the cost for me. I do mind that the first day of the course falls on Thanksgiving, but not so much that the second day falls on Black Friday, since I won't be in the US for it anyway.

While I'm on the topic of the current state of things in the NHS: I get Therapy Weekly magazine, and noticed that in the latest issue, where when I first started there used to be 6-8 pages of adverts at the back for OT posts, this time there was one page with a grand total of 2 adverts on it.

Personality test?

Nah, just draw a pig!

"ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo, baby please don't go!"

elijah wood, robin williams, nicole kidman, hugh jackman...and i think i'm missing one or two other big names.

i will never think of the way penguins move as waddling ever again! i swear this movie was made for me. the trailers are absolutely hysterical, and for once i'm not worried that the trailers have given away all the best bits of the movie, even though there are four trailers. my favorite far and away is the one where there's an a cappella quartet of penguins who break into a popular song from the eighties. which i constantly sang to maja on our trip, in part because it made me so happy to sing it, and in part to get back at her for constantly "singing" the mission impossible theme song. i know, i know, i need to stop talking about this movie, i'm surely boring you all to death, but if you haven't checked out the link yet, click on the happy feet is coming in november bit, underneath the penguin...go on, you know you want to!

Safe and sound

Sorry, sorry, forgot to say, we were fortunately not anywhere near the bombings that occurred in Marmaris, Antalya, and Istanbul on any of our day trips. We took the dolmus (very cheap taxi buses) many times into Bodrum at all hours (they run 24/7), and Maja was being very strange about it at first, wanting to take a taxi instead, which was the difference between paying 2 euros for the dolmus and 13 euros for the taxi. So I insisted on the dolmus, and after we were signaled to the side of the road and boarded by police, she finally admitted she'd had a text from her mother, asking if we were alright, there had been a bombing on a dolmus in Marmaris. Maja was afraid I'd "flip out" (don't ask me why) if I knew, so she'd been trying to get me to take a taxi without telling me why. But it was fine. We were pulled over all week, every time we were in a dolmus, and on a day trip to Dalyan, we were actually pulled over three times. Though I'm not sure why they continued to pull buses over, since all the holidayers had no idea they should be carrying ID around, and thus didn't have any to show the police. We didn't know about the other bombings until after our return to Sarajevo...responsibility has been claimed by the Kurds, and evidently Turkey has been trying to cover up this type of activity for several years now. It's really putting a dent in their tourism economy, with people choosing Greece instead.

I'm safely back

Man, fall out of internet contact for a week and a half, and major things happen in the lives of the people you love!!! Let's see...Amanda Aveyard-Elo and her husband Darin have a new baby boy, Cooper, in their family. Jean and Bob Aveyard (Amanda's parents) are my set of Mom and Dad #3. And yes, it does stop there, I only have 3 sets of parents, lol. Jennifer Flory, sweetest girl in the world, someone I have known for 13 years, and someone I am happy to count among my closest friends, is finally engaged to her Chris! Apparently it happened in Philly, on the steps of the Museum of Art ("Rocky", anyone?). She waited and waited for me to show up on msn or skype and finally sent an email, to which she received my krappy automated response that I was on holiday. I am SOOO sorry hun, and I am absolutely overjoyed for you both! I am overcome with the news, and I thank my lucky stars for you that you've found the right person-- he knows I'd kick his ass if it ever came to that, but I know I'll never have to, because I have had the privilege to see in person what is between the two of you. It's a rare thing you share, I know you know that, and I feel blessed that thus far family and friends have all had the wisdom to hold out for what is right. All of that being said, please, please pick a date after April of next year. I've also come back to find out that Rob and Nicole will be tying the knot on 31 March next year, right smack in the middle of my Thailand/Phillipines jaunt. :(

Let's see what else, what else...the brother of one of my closest childhood friends (thought not someone I'm really in touch with anymore unfortunately) has gotten married also. Tressa, who has now been in Rwanda for almost a week, forwarded some pics. This is a boy I have adored for most of my life. However, not someone I would have imagined getting married this young. Funny how almost everything is opposite of what I thought would happen, in terms of people who are already married or will be getting married, and those who are single. I wonder if those who get out all their wildchild stuff in early adolescence and college are therefore those who recognize what a gift it truly is when they find something special. Meanwhile the rest of us are still just struggling to find ourselves.

Speaking of adolescence and by implication, high school, I also got a message from my friend Wes, with whom I have kept sporadically in touch since graduating from high school. He has been in and out of London for work, and wrote last week to see if I'd be around for dinner and drinks. Doh! But he's in Oxford this week, so I've written to see if he'll be around for the weekend as well, because it's been a good long while this time since we've caught up.

And last, but most definitely NOT least-- I have been assigned to the stroke unit for my next rotation, by some complete and utter mystifying twist of fate. WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!! There is some serious karma working in my favor, or something!

I am too tired to begin on the trip, too much to say and I couldn't begin to do anything justice, but I'll be back tomorrow night with the first of my stories, and maybe some photos too. My love to all, and my heartfelt congratulations to all of you with new beginnings of one sort or another.