Soho bar

A group of us out for Jo's (not pictured) birthday two weekends ago. The other two girls in the picture are my other two housemates, Sheena and Nicole. Nicole is next to her now fiance Dave, and the other guy is Matt.

Sunday on the Common

OK, so I have lots to catch up on...probably too much, I'm not sure I remember everything from the past two weeks or so since I last posted. And that's part of the problem, I've been so busy I haven't been posting! Anyway, I'm starting with a few photos from the Ben and Jerry's Sunday on the Common festival, where there was plenty of sunshine, all the free ice cream you could eat, great music, and stuff like Toe Wrestling and Air Guitar Heroes! I'll try to update Flickr soon as well, I guess I've been posting photos mainly on Facebook and neglecting Flickr.

A great band called the Holloways

The 10,000 strong mass of humanity

Jo and James taking the festival totem pole stance

Jo, in front of the Sunday on the Common stage

Me and Tracey relaxing in the sun

Paper folding

Not much to report on tonight-- today was the first day of a 3-day course for Practice Educators. It's a pre-requisite to being a supervisor, and since I'm scheduled to have a student for September and October, it's a good thing I got a place on the course. However, today I was very much wishing I was at work instead. It was pretty much worthless, and they basically just touched on stuff that I already did at Tufts, when I was learning about this situation from the other side: being the student on placement. The highlight was the practical small group session where we were supposed to teach each other a skill, and figure out how the person teaching was imparting their knowledge (i.e. giving verbal directions, demonstrating, using visual aids, getting their group members to learn by doing, etc). In our small group, someone taught paper airplanes, someone else taught fortune tellers (remember those?! you wrote numbers and colors and stuff on the outside), and then we moved on to tackle an origami bird. Yup, that was the best part. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Quick update

Sorry, I lost the plot there for a little while as far as Blogger goes! And it won't be a very comprehensive entry tonight either, I'm pretty tired. I've been on a high all day energy-wise, I think because a friend and I did our first pool workout this morning before work. We swam laps steadily for half an hour, and although I was cursing myself out at 6:30am when the alarm went off, I was feeling really good about it by the time I got to the pool. We've agreed to swim together for two mornings a week, plus we've both now signed up for kickboxing classes after work on Tuesday evenings. Between that, yoga, and the gym, I think I've got the weekly workouts covered and am keeping it interesting with the mix of activities ;)

This past weekend we had some sunshine on Sunday, praise the Lord, and luckily enough it happened to be the day I was at the Lovebox music festival. We saw some fantastic sets from Hot Chip, The Rapture, B-52s, and Groove Armada...it was the first time I'd seen Groove Armada live, and I do love the group, but seeing them live just blew me away!! And I had no idea Andy Cato plays trombone, very cool! (I know, oblivious, but I guess I'd never paid too much attention before, I just knew I loved their music.) So on Monday, I went about my workday with "I See You Baby(Shakin'That Ass)" in my head all day long.

For the rest of the week, I'm on a course learning how to be a good supervisor (wheee), and will have my first student in the beginning of September. I'm actually wishing I didn't have to do the course though, because I've heard it's not very good, but unfortunately it's a requirement before I can be a supervisor.

Then this weekend there's a birthday night out for my friend Jo on Saturday, and a Ben and Jerry's festival on Sunday (will get to see The Proclaimers among other bands, and you get free ice cream all day with the price of admission, 12 pounds- bargain!- and it is appropriately called the Sundae in the Park festival)...I'm meeting up with my friend Tracey and my other friend Jo for that festival! It will be the first time seeing Jo and James actually, since we were together in Vermont a few weeks ago. Can't wait!

Double-Skiiers (bit bumpy at the end, sorry!)

Good times, good times

I am back in the UK, yes, and have put off blogging the past few days due to some major jet-lag. OK, ok, probably more in the minor-ish category, given I have yet to deal with coming back from someplace half way around the world. Still, it knocked me for a loop, and for my half day at work on Monday and yesterday, I was pretty much a zombie. Today I was half human and actually got some real work done ;)

Some of my favourite things from last week at Wissahickon...driving the new boat, woohoo! Sam took a skeptical look at my VT boat license, but made a leap of faith and let me take over the wheel, even encouraging me to open it up to high speeds (which I happily complied with)...and I have now been designated as the old fogey driver, and can claim 4 skiers and 2 tubers to my driving record. And you can plug your Ipod into the boat stereo, as well as bring on your drinks (there are a ton of cupholders plus intergrated cooler). Other boat related things-- I tried and successfully pulled off a dock start when waterskiing behind the new powerful boat, video to follow, and double-skiied with Chris, another first for Wissahickon. We talked about double slalom-skiing, but I still need to work on my slalom take-off before we try that one. We went to the 4th of July parade in Poultney, which I had not seen before, and the rodeo in Castleton, which we hadn't been to in years, all the kids went tubing with various adults, including Owen who is not yet 4 for his first tube ride ever with his mom, and we introduced ice cream cake to Jo and James for Jo's birthday. Oh yes, and the water balloon launcher made a re-appearance, and who was able to hit the neighbour who was taunting us on his jetski? Me, that's who!!

Anyway, here are some pics...I was given strict instructions to only choose flattering ones.

Flattering pic of Emma...

6 months old, awwww.

"Take me home country roads..."

WISSAHICKON

Jo's first ice cream cake

Happy Birthday!!

"Double your pleasure, double your fun!"

Me and Chris behind the boat, with Don H as driver and Dale as rope tender :)

James and the Giant Fish

Me, Jo and the Burk kids...

Owen (3.5), Sammy (6), and Lexi (8). We were at the Poultney 4th of July parade.

James and the Water-Balloon Launcher

With the right angle and tension, you can really make those babies fly long distances!

Headlines over here

You've probably seen it on the news in the US, it's been so bad....we've had horrific flooding in the Midlands and North of England. People have had to be evacuated (and at least 3 tragic deaths for people who couldn't escape the sudden rising water), schools closed, houses destroyed, etc. Although it is in the 90s and 100s elsewhere in Europe, and very warm in the US as well or so I hear, in England it has been cold, gray and gloomy, and RAINY for all of June. They are saying that floods like this only happen in England once every 150 years, but worse may be to come as the rain is not expected to stop any time soon.

And yes, like it or not, the Spice Girls have reunited officially. I suppose they saw how well Take That has done, and wanted to cash in on the nostalgia fever themselves.

I am only three and a half days away from Vermont, hooray! And tomorrow I head for Somerset for another Yoga Trails weekend, although we may not get that much hiking in if the weather stays this miserable. The good news is our accommodation has a heated pool, hot tub and sauna...

Hyde Park Calling

Singin' in the Rain

So, I feel like I've been indoctrinated to the English festival thing, even if I haven't (yet) done a full camping weekend at the likes of Glastonbury or Isle of Wight or T in the Park. I haven't given up completely on Reading, but the people I was supposed to be going with have pretty much backed out, claiming money issues.

Anywho, we arrived at Hyde Park in a little patch of sun, and spent 20 minutes or so in Speakers' Corner, listening to various people try to shout over the top of each other, as they each held forth on whatever was near and dear to their heart, on a typical Speaker's Corner type Sunday. As we then headed for the entrance to the festival area of Hyde Park, we commented on how we might just be getting lucky as far as the weather. We should have known better!! It rained for most of the time we were there, and was really chucking it down at various points in time. But my lovely American flagish type knock-off stetson kept my head pretty dry, and I had luckily worn my gore-tex boots and raincoat. So my jeans were about the only things to get wet and muddy.

My favourite acts of the evening were Jet, Chris Cornell and Aerosmith. I snaked my way through the crowd to get close to the stage for Jet, and ended up behind a group of guys with Jo next to me. One of the guys kept turning his head, to the point where I figured out something was up. He then got out a camera and starting trying to take self-portrait pictures with his buddy by holding his own camera at arm's length, but the angle was a bit odd. I kept hiding behind his tall mate to keep out of the picture, so he finally just dropped all pretense, turned around and started taking pictures of me. Long story short, we made some new friends, two guys from England and their mate from New Zealand.

Aerosmith played an awesome set, although it was toooo short. They started late, and were not allowed to carry on past official festival ending time, around 10:30pm. Steven Tyler apologised to the crowd, and said the police were throwing everybody out. But their encore number was "Walk This Way" with a special appearance by Run DMC. I don't think they've performed the song live with Run DMC since the Grammys performance awhile back, so the crowd just went wild! Rain notwithstanding, it was a great night!!!

Hyde Park Calling/Aerosmith, baby!!

Yes, I stood out like a sore thumb, but given that my heart and head are already in Vermont for the Fourth, it had to be done...and even though Dave and Jo disowned me for buying and wearing it (they're both English), much to my surprise I got a lot of positive attention as a result ;)

Updates

Last week was the most stressful one I've ever had since starting at Whipps. Whether that was worth getting an excellent end-of-rotation review, and being told by my supervisor I gave her the best handover of a patient caseload she's ever had, I'm not sure. I was exhausted all week because not only was my ward crazy busy, but I was doing work on the audit after work and getting up early in the mornings to work on it too. I'm just glad that week is over. I still have work to do for that rotation even though as of Monday, I start my new one. Oh well.

So, what else has been happening?

I got the car keys!! A week from tomorrow I land in Newark, meet up with Jo and James, and hop into the Jetta which my parents will have kindly left there for me on their way up to VT. Woohoo, I'm only a week away from summer! (You can hardly call what we've been having here summer thus far).

I got my new mobile...although it's a very cool new toy and I'm having fun playing with it, I do miss my old one, because I knew how everything worked! This new one has a 3.2 megapixel camera, and can also function as an Ipod although that seems to run the battery down really quickly. My current favorite feature though has to be that the wallpaper is Parliament/Big Ben, and it reflects time of day-- as in Parliament and Big Ben light up and the sky goes dark on my little mobile screen when it's actually nighttime. And fireworks go off in the sky when I get a text message.

Went out on Friday night with Angelica and a friend of hers called Dai who I've now met a couple of times. We started out just the three of us, but met some of Dai's friends later on out in Brick Lane, who kept buying us Stella Artois. Now, I'm not going to turn down free beer, but come on, and I blame my persistent low-grade headache yesterday morning squarely on the Stella. Yesterday we spent a good 9-10 hours at our friends' house for a BBQ. We managed to make it work, in between the spurts of thunder and rain-- with somehow perfect timing we spent a couple of hours outside grilling and eating in sunshine, and moved indoors when it was raining to play a cool card game called "Grass," which I will be bringing to VT with me. Very exciting, it will be the first time I introduce a new game to the Heilalas instead of vice versa!

And today in an hour or so, we take off for Hyde Park Calling! The weather is more than a little iffy, but nothing to be done about that. Besides it almost doesn't qualify as an English music festival unless it's raining and muddy. It'll be a blast regardless, and I can't wait to see Jet and Aerosmith!!

Proscratination (substituted into the song for the game Operation)

I am supposed to be attempting to finish off the write-up for an audit I foolishly agreed to do during this very short rotation, so that my supervisor can look it over tomorrow and make suggestions for revision before Friday, which is my last day on this rotation, officially at any rate. As of Monday I'm on the acute stroke unit. Small yay!

Supposedly I will also be receiving my new mobile tomorrow- bigger yay! My mom needed to speak to me today about a matter of some urgency, but wasn't sure how to reach me knowing my mobile was out of commission (and it is officially dead now...it took until today to dry it out, it came to life--sort of-- for about 5 seconds when I powered it up, flickered a bit, then gave up the ghost). So she called the landline at home, and fortunately for her, my housemate Sheena was home having taken a half day to do some continuing education stuff. Sheena gave her the 411 on how to reach me at the hospital. I happened to be the one to pick up the phone in the office, and although my brain registered it was my mom's voice saying "Allison? Is that you?" it took me a while to register it was her, because I was at work, and I knew she didn't have that contact info. So I think I said something stupid like "Mom??!?! How did you find me here?" And then I became even more confused because she said a girl answered the phone at home and gave her the hospital number. And I said," But I saw Sheena here at work this morning, and I'm sure Nicole went into work as well!" My mom, rightfully thinking this was irrevelant and trying to move on to the purpose of her call, got a bit annoyed because I kept after it. All I could keep thinking was, who the heck is in our house??! So I kept questioning her, and she said the person had a British accent, so I eventually let it drop, thinking maybe it was Sheena after all...but I couldn't really let it rest until I had hung up with my mom, called home, and confirmed it was really had been Sheena.

Anywho, here are some wise words from Mom #3 that I thought I'd share with all of you...okay, so they're not hers exactly, but she shared them with me via a forwarded email ;)

TEQUILA AND SALT

This should probably be taped to your bathroom mirror where one could read it everyday. You may not realize it, but it's 100% true.

1. There are at least two people in this world that you would di e for.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. You are special and unique.
8. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.
9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
10. When you think the world has turned its back on you tak e another look.
11. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

And always remember...when life hands you Lemons, ask for tequila and salt, and call me over!
Good friends are like stars........You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

I did it!

So I survived the London to Brighton bike ride...and it actually wasn't too bad. There was a massive queue at one point trying to get out of London because there were some 60,000 cyclists on the road. That was frustrating because it took an hour to clear that small section of the route. But otherwise, it was a great ride through beautiful countryside, with some smallish hills, and one massively big hill at the very end, just before arriving in Brighton. We did it in about 6 hours, which would have been maybe four and half or five hours but for that big queue I've just described. I got separated from the rest of the group once, and stopped at pub where the owner took pity on me and let me use her phone to ring Nicole's boyfriend Dave and find out where they were so we could meet up again. And the only real casualty was Nicole, falling off her bike before we'd even started. She bumped into the curb and fell over just as we were about to join the race, and did a fair amount of damage to one of her shins...but she was a trooper and carried on with just a couple of band-aids I had on me, and then we stopped at a first aid tent so it could be properly tended. I have small scrapes and cuts all over both legs myself because when you're on the road with that many cyclists, things just happen-- people stop suddenly, etc.

Anyway, I'm barely functioning here at work today (absolutely knackered!), but I am here. So I suppose I'd better go back up the ward.

Hope everyone is well. Love, Allison

There are no words

In a stunning display of stupidity, I have managed to wash my mobile phone along with my duvet cover, sheets and pillow cases this morning. I'll most likely be sending out an email within the next few days, trying to rebuild my list of contact numbers. And it's particularly terrible timing, because I am supposed to coordinate meeting up with Dave and Nicole in Croydon early tomorrow morning for the London to Brighton bike ride...they'll already be out there at Dave's house, and I'm supposed to ring when I get to the station!!! Excuse me while I go beat myself up....

Winner of the Ladies' Race at the Cheese Roll

Video of the Cheese Roll--sorry it's sideways ;P

The Millenium Dome

As seen from the Greenwich Royal Observatory

Prime Meridian at the Greenwich Royal Observatory

Well, a projection of where it would fall anyway...

The Race-for-Lifers at Hampstead Heath

Greenwich

Just back from a power walk, from Canary Wharf to Greenwich and back. I saw what is left of the Cutty Sark, the world's only surviving extreme clipper (a fast commercial sailing ship)...unfortunately in May this year it was set on fire by arsonists. It was already closed at the time for renovations which were due to take until 2009 to complete. I'm not sure what's happening now, but I assume they will attempt to restore it. I also went up to the Royal Observatory to see the home of the Prime Meridian of the world. A little history for you:

Greenwich Observatory was set up by King Charles II in 1675 to study means of fixing longitude, and became the acknowledged world authority on the subject. An International Meridian Conference was convened at Washington in 1884 and the delegates recommended to their respective governments that Greenwich should be adopted as the prime meridian. The decision was by no means unanimous. A Canadian delegate, Sanford Fleming, produced figures showing that 72% of the world's shipping used Greenwich as prime meridian, with the remaining 28% divided among ten different meridians. The French, for political reasons, said that they would only accept Greenwich as the prime meridian if Great Britain adopted the metric system. Over the following years the various governments adopted Greenwich officially as prime meridian, with only France going its own way. A bill was passed eventually in 1911 but stayed on the statute books until 1978 when France adopted Universal Time.

Catching up

I have a fussy internet connection tonight, so I'll just hit the highlights...

After almost a year and a half of living in the UK, plus 5 applications, I finally have a NINO!! (That's "National Insurance Number"). The equivalent of a Social Security number. I believe I'll probably get a refund because I've been paying too much into the system without a NINO, but we'll see.

Went to see Little Shop of Horrors on Friday night in the West End. As it happened, Alistair McGowan played the part of the dentist-- well known comedic talent here in the UK. I think you'd have to have someone like that to follow up Steve Martin's interpretation in the movie! It was very funny, and very well done. I was initially disappointed in the ending, which is very different from the movie, except that then I came home and looked it up on the internet, and it turns out that in the "original" movie ending, everyone died and the plants took over the world. So I guess the stage production got it right after all...it was a stage production to begin with anyway, so I suppose it was the movie that changed things around a bit, for a happier "awww" ending. Jo was here visiting, so after the show, I took her to my favorite Thai restaurant in Soho, a place called Busaba Eathai, where you always have to wait in a queue, end up sharing big group tables with strangers, but the food is so good you don't care!

And this morning, I went to Hampstead Heath with Angelica and some of the other physios to take part in "Race for Life". It was a beautiful day, and the views from Hampstead Heath are just breathtaking (it's a massive park)-- I was able to pick out St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye, among other things. We had an amazing pub lunch afterward, including Sticky Toffee pudding (very hard to find in London itself, normally only at pubs in the country)...and I found myself thinking I really need to book my weekend with Rob's parents in the Cotswolds, because summer is going to have gone by before I know it.

What else...on 1st July, London goes smoke-free. About time! Two weeks until I rotate onto the acute stroke unit, and best of all, only three weeks until I'm up at Wissahickon!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!! Hope you have a showriffic weekend ;)

From Mom #3, this is great

This is a strictly mathematical viewpoint...it goes like this:What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K> 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%*

and K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E> 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But ,*A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E> 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And, B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T> 2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G> 1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While *Hard work* and * Knowledge will get you close, and** Attitude** will get you there, it's the **Bullshit* and* ** Ass kissing* that will put you over the top.

Some pics from last weekend at the lake, from Mom#2

The new boat, in the water!

View from the side of Wissahickon

The new outdoor shower

apparently it even has hot water!

Tressa's latest update

Hi all,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I spent my birthday with three priests in the middle of literally nowhere, waiting for a flight that came 8 days late...

I've been in the DRC for about 6 weeks now and it's been pretty much as expected- frustrating, exhausting, complicated, exciting, and strange. I spent the first month 'settling-in' to a barely established office with no phones and no clear operating procedures- we're just struggling to stay on top of our programs. I've been to a ridiculous number of UN meetings where lots of decisions with no practical application are made and written a large number of reports which I doubt are read by anyone, including my boss. There's a new emergency/disaster every day; the military commandeered one of our trains with assistance for 2500 families a few weeks ago, and we have no idea when they will feel like returning it. One of the more positive aspects- there does appear to be quite a bit of NGO (non-governmental organization- usually a humanitarian organization) cooperation here, and less of the competition that I've seen in some countries.

But that's the more penible part of the project; I finally got to spend a couple weeks in the field with the evaluation team. We flew out to the middle of the province-about two hours- and rented motorcycles to visit about 15 villages. They gave me the best driver with really long legs, which helped in the sand up to our knees- 'la route du diable' according to my driver. I was only thrown a few times, while most people could barely stay on the motos. Josephine was thrown off at one point and had her pants ripped right off her body. We crossed several rivers during the trip, either loading the motos onto little wood pirogues, or rolling them across log bridges- we only lost one moto on a rather slippery log (unfortunately mine, containing all my clothes and the $1000 satellite phone; that was a long, cold night).

We visited a village, evaluated, and then moved on, covering up to 100km in a day, and sleeping in whatever village we found ourselves in at 6pm. We mostly ate once a day, fufu and dried fish; sometimes we were able to buy oranges or bananas or peanuts or yams at midi. We had to take bottles of water, as there is no potable water anywhere (even in town), which of course ran out about half way through. The team is pretty funny, they treat each other like family and they spend more time together than apart- they only get one week of rest between each mission. Typically Congolese, they have screaming fights each night about every subject under the sun, and then 5 minutes later they're rolling on the ground laughing together. When I had to start fighting for meat, I knew they had accepted me as part of the team…They discovered watermelon on this trip, which grew everywhere, but apparently this is the only region. They were so excited; Our food security guy collected about 300 seeds so we might soon have it in Lubumbashi.

The team evaluates basic needs in shelter/non food items, education, health, water and sanitation, food security, livelihoods, and nutrition. They have a whole raft of silly questionnaires designed by someone at UNICEF who has clearly never been to the field. But they do manage to give you a basic idea of how extreme the situation is and what sectors are most critical. Everywhere we went it was clear that as bad as the Bantu population was doing, the pygmies are always worse off. These are all families that have recently returned (usually less than 3 months), mostly to find their houses burned down and some/most of their stuff stolen. It's incredible how people survive out here on literally nothing, and by nothing I mean zero.

We will eventually share this info with all NGOs in Lubumbashi and hope that they then decide to act upon it. We only distribute non food items and education kits. So families that originally had no cooking pots will get two, etc. We also choose a few schools to rehabilitate. Ironically, UNICEF has forbidden us to choose those most in need- bc it costs too much money, they're inaccessible by vehicle, and it would take too long.

The first photo is a typical river crossing. The second is some of the most precarious conditions we saw. That group of pygmies had been back about a month and had not yet build any standing structures…they're standing in what passes for this woman's little place on our earth.

I hope everyone is enjoying springtime. It's 'winter' here, which means it gets down to 50 at night!!

It should be a new Olympic Sport...

So we went to Gloucester in the Cotswolds on Monday as planned to watch the traditional Cheese Roll, despite the weather. It's more of a cliffside than a hill really, and it's in the middle of nowhere on someone's farm, so you have to hike 20-30 minutes up to the grassy area they've cleared. They had a couple of ambulances parked next to the "hill" and loads of emergency staff, and far too little room for the 1000s of spectators who showed up. Let me tell you, people are mad!! Not only was the "hill" ridiculously steep (not one person stayed on their feet), but it was slick with mud, and more than half the competitors ended up in some sort of mid-air type acrobatics, whether that involved full somersaults or just being launched into the air for a spectacular face plant a few metres further down. There were only 5 races, and they only took the first 20 people for each official race. But after the official ones were completed, they started running free-for-all heats, for all the people who didn't get to compete. So even without the enticement of taking home the cheese you'd been chasing after, or 20 quid for second place, or 10 quid for third place-- even without prizes, people still threw themselves down the mountain. Mad, I tell you! I will put up pictures soon, but I've been very busy today, and am too tired to do it now.

I had a bit of madness myself today...I apparently felt very left out for not having competed in the Cheese Roll, and therefore launched myself into a graceless tumble down, oh about 12 steps, from my room to the ground floor this morning. Granted, I was wearing socks because it had been a cold night, and I was half asleep, so I think that's why I slipped, but still. It's bloody embarrassing because I'm an OT, and I advise people on how to AVOID falling down the stairs. I've actually only done this twice in my life, the other time being in high heels on polished wood (as my parents can attest to), my thing is usually falling UPstairs. But there I was, in a heap, at the bottom of the stairs this morning, laughing like a crazy person, in between saying "ow, ow, ow." According to housemate Nicole, who I woke up with all this kerfuffle, it sounded like elephants were in the house. And I had to admit to it at work as well, because by midday I had taken on a bit of a limp...I came down mostly on my left side, and now the tendinitis in my left hip seems to be flaring up. Which brought up a whole other discussion with Richard, a rehab assistant who is studying to be an osteopath, who says he's never heard of tendinitis in the hips, and I should get another opinion (which would be about my fifth opinion, but the first one in this country), but that's a story for another day. I did not go to Kickboxing, I'm now taking anti-inflammatories, and hopefully tomorrow will be less painful than today ;) It certainly was a very busy busy day on the ward, with almost more work than I could handle. Almost ;)

Helloooo the lake!

Hi to all my favorite people, currently busy opening up the lakehouse for the summer season!!! I'll indulge in a brief moment of self pity for missing out on the virgin voyage of the new boat, meeting Emma the pug, the dock boys, the new frozen drink maker with spigot, Wizard, tuna cheesies, and peanut butter chocolate chip brownies. It just doesn't seem like the start of summer without spending Memorial Day Weekend at the lake! Hope y'all are having fun, I miss everyone.

We have been having cold, rainy and gloomy weather for the holiday weekend here. So we went to the new Pirates movie (better than the second one, worth seeing on the big screen), checked out a popular pub in Wanstead, and tomorrow, we go to Gloucester for the annual Cheese-Rolling competition. Yes, you read that right, cheese-rolling. They roll a big wheel of cheese down a very steep hill, and people chase after it for the glory of winning...wait for it...a wheel of cheese. Apparently it's virtually impossible to stay on your feet whilst chasing, the hill is so steep, and injuries are common. I will have pics and possibly video posted next week.

My big news-- I found out on Friday that I have indeed been assigned the acute stroke unit for my next rotation, which begins on June 25th. I am looking forward to working with this population of patients again, and working closely with my old teammates on the rehab stroke unit, or at least have more of an excuse to spend time with them. Although I'm not as excited about this rotation as I was about the rehab one, I still think there is the potential to learn a lot, and at times, when there are no rehab beds available, we get to do a bit of rehab whilst our patients wait. Plus I do believe two of my favorite physios will be joining me about halfway through the rotation when their rotations change.

Anywho, have a pina colada for me, pump the Jimmy Buffett, beat Don at Wizard, and I hope y'all have a fabulous sunny rest of Memorial Day Weekend! Oh, and Don, bring on the Boggle for 4th of July!!!

Self Defense

So, last night my friend Sarah (physio I met working on the stroke unit) and I tried out the Kickboxing class at the hospital. When we got there, we discovered this is not your Billy Blanks Tae Bo, this is wear hand grips and gloves and punching pads kickboxing. As Sarah and I are both reasonably fit, athletic types, we had no problem picking up right where the rest of the class was, much to the surprise of some who'd been doing the class for awhile. And I have to say, it was tiring, but it was pretty awesome to actually punch pads as I worked on hooks, upper cuts, jabs, cross punches, and some sort of centripetal force, whirl-around punch-- now that was power! My arms have been feeling it today, but I think it was well worth it. The instructor is a proper martial arts teacher, so I'll think the two of us will continue to take the class. Now we just have to each get our own hand wraps and gloves...

Sam's new boat

Jinny was kind enough to forward me photos of all the things I missed in what was an action-packed weekend in PA...including pics of this boat I've been hearing so much about! Looks fast...

Emma, the pug

This is the Burk's new dog, and no, I was mistaken, she's not a puggle, she's pure pug. If you look closely this little pup is apparently "Outward Hound." I'll be meeting her in approximately 5 weeks' time, up at the lake!

This falls under the "Sad But True" category

THREE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. COWS
2. THE CONSTITUTION
3. TEN COMMANDMENTS

COWS

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give them all a cow.

THE CONSTITUTION

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years and we're not using it anymore.

TEN COMMANDMENTS

The real reason we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse... You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal, "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shalt Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians - it creates a hostile work environment.


**This food for thought courtesy of Mom #2

Happy Birthday Tress, whatever small Congan village you may be in today! Congo-an? Well, whichever, lots of love, hope you get to take it a little bit easy for your day :) Check your email for some bday wishes.

It's the end of an era...

I am extremely excited about the new boat, Sam's boat, which has a 190 horsepower engine and should be strong enough to completely avoid me being dragged behind the boat, choking on lake water and with goggles on to protect my contacts, as I try to slalom! It is also apparently a great cruising boat, with canopy and comfy seating for 10, and a built-in cooler for beer!! However, as many of you know, I have a hard time with letting things go at times...like the old green shag carpet that was in my bedroom for umpteen years, the tradition of having a live tree for planting at Christmas, the fact that I have been campaigning against my parents ever selling our house, and now the "old" boat in Vermont which I am told will be sold. But as they say, the only things for certain in this life are that things change and taxes.

If only it was "just another Manic Monday"

Unfortunately, I spent most of today trying to find ways to entertain myself (and not being all that successful since you can't look like you're having too much fun when you're supposed to be working). Why, you ask? Because I have to keep my assistant busy, so the few bits of work that needed to be done were handed over to her. Leaving me with almost nothing to do. And horrible flashbacks of working at CDH, my first rotation. I spent as long as I dared hanging out with the stroke unit crew, lengthening my half hour lunch into an hour. I made all my follow-up phone calls, finished off the few discharge summaries I had waiting, and would have spent an hour or two doing CPD stuff on the computer, except it was broken, naturally. Last week I found a great source of entertainment in a physio and physio assistant, Surinder and Kalu, who kept me in stitches in the afternoons on the ward, but no such luck this week because they only cover when the regular physio is not on the ward for some reason.

I did have my meeting with the Head OT about next rotation, and we find out the results by Friday. She said it looks pretty good for me to get the acute stroke unit, although of course she cannot yet guarantee anything. The next rotation will start on June 25, just in time for me to be on a course for three days, and then off to Vermont for a week of annual leave.

I was invited to Thailand for September or October, I can't remember which, to coincide with the infamous beach moon party. I know we talked about Thailand and Philippines for next year, Viv, but what do you think? Got any time/money left for another big trip this year? And I was also invited for a cycling tour along the romantic road in Germany, the only problem being the dates conflict with the August bank holiday, which is when we wanted to go to the Reading festival (we're stalking tickets on ebay). Well, that and the fact that I don't have enough annual leave for all of this plus a few other things I absolutely cannot miss, like Jenn's wedding. Five weeks of vacation plus bank holidays just aren't enough!! I know, I know, those of you in the States are thinking "Cry me a river, Allison" but you do get higher salaries as compensation...

Happy 40th Anniversary to my wonderful parents!!

The Occupational Therapy Song...too funny!

Happy Birthday Mom#2! Wish I could be there to help you celebrate, I hear it will be quite the weekend in PA, but you are definitely in my thoughts!

What on earth are they teaching these doctors?!

Had a bit of a shock today, regarding differences in medical care. I don't get these shocks all the time anymore, because of what I've learned about the NHS, and the way that medical professionals are trained (or not). We were discussing Mr. R today, and I was saying that from a therapy point of view, he will be ready for discharge on Monday. And the nurse made some comment about the medical team not being on the ball, or something like that, and all of sudden she was in the middle of a verbal spat with the SHO from that medical team who overhead the comment. Among all of his reasons for why the medical team is not happy for him to go, he threw in the comment that they are querying DVT (deep vein thrombosis, basically a blood clot). At which point, I had to interrupt the argument, and said, "Ummm, excuse me, we've been mobilising this patient. We did not realise he may possibly have a DVT, and there is no notation about this in his medical records." And the SHO said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, it's fine, keep mobilising him, he's comfortable mobilising, it's fine." I'm not sure I could have been more surprised if this SHO started belting out show tunes in the middle of the ward. I'm sorry, but I am not mobilising a patient who may have a DVT, until it is determined whether he does, and if he does, he is getting treatment for it!!

Consider yourselves bonked...

How a job can save your life

Interesting stuff, courtesy of Tufts Nicole

the new job thing

The Senior II, er, Band 6 (as I am supposed to call it) adventure continues... I have been asked by the Basic Grade, er Band 5, OT on Orthopaedics if I would let her shadow me one morning soon, so that she can see how someone with a little more experience organises and prioritises. I was a little taken aback initially, probably because it's only been two weeks since both of us were Band 5's. She claims that she's a bit "scatty" and therefore sometimes feels like she's doing more work than she would be doing if she were better organised. I mentioned this to my parents last night on the phone, and my Dad's response was something along the lines of, "She wants to learn about organisation from YOU??" In my defense (or his defense, take your pick), he's really only familiar with what a mess I am at home, and he'd probably momentarily forgotten all my stories from Roosevelt Care Center in NJ about balancing a daily caseload of 15-16 rehab patients. In one of the ironic juxtapositions of life, I'm generally pretty messy at home, but very organised and efficient at work. Which, if you have to pick one or the other, I suppose is the way I'd want it.

Also, I have signed up for a 3-day Educators' Course at the end of June, right before I take off for my annual Wissahickon holiday in Vermont, because I am expected to take on students very soon. I am supposed to have a student for at least 12 weeks per year as a matter of fact. And I've been asked to give a talk on the difference that is being an OT in the US. There's actually quite a bit to mention. Finally, Friday morning, we all have meetings with the Head OT, and in stark contrast to being a Basic Grade where you don't find out for a whole month, we should know within a week what our next rotations will be.

In a complete change of subject, I've just mentioned Vermont and the lakehouse...there are rumblings of big changes coming this year. Watch this space for news about motorboats and puggles!

Happy Mother's Day!!! (US, of course)

A few pics from the wedding this past weekend, from Cecilia's camera...

Me and Cecilia

Cecilia was my supervisor and is the rehab stroke unit's Team Leader. We've become good friends, and she's part of what I call my happy little family over here. She's from South Africa and has this gorgeous accent where she rolls all of her r's. She's also the most laid back person I have ever known.

The Whipps Cross Group

Physios and OTs who made the trip to Leamington Spa near Warwick to celebrate Laura's wedding day.

Angelica, Laura, and Leilah

I have some good pictures of bride and groom together, but they're currently trapped on my camera.

Floriditas

Last night I went out to a Cuban club in the heart of London. While I don't go out very often on a "work night," a good friend was having a bad day and I agreed to meet her there, along with her cousins who are visiting from the Dominican Republic. They had a live band who were absolutely fantastic and made some pretty decent mojitos too. Floriditas I mean, not the band itself! My feet are aching this morning because I danced the merengue all night-- did you know the merengue originated in the Dominican Republic? I didn't. I'm told I'm pretty good at it ;) And my new third housemate, who didn't realise I would be out so late (then again, neither did I, I was having too much fun to catch the last tube, and stayed until 2am) called to make sure I was okay. How sweet is that?!!

Angelica's cousins are named, get this, Julio Cesar, Julio Alfredo, and...actually I can't remember the third one, he's not here visiting, but it's Julio something. The first brother's name literally translates as Julius Caesar in English. Talk about having to live up to a name!

Oh, and apparently, I look like Drew Barrymore. I have to say, I've never had that one before ;)

It's official...

The staff change form went in this morning, so this was my very first day as a Senior II. It didn't feel any different ;) It turns out my work permit was fine, which means my entry clearance visa is also fine, so I don't have to do another CRB, hooray! I won't get paid as a Senior II this month because it's too late for the cutoff, so at the end of June apparently I will get a bunch of back pay.

I have photos from the wedding this weekend, but the battery on my camera has died and I have apparently left the charger in the US. So I'm afraid I can't post them for a little while. But it was a fantastic time, and felt like it lasted a really long time...I guess it did, if you take into account the whole thing, from the church at 1:30pm to the mimosas prior to the sit-down meal which was at 5pm, and then coffee and tea after that until the reception started around 7:30pm. And it went on until after 1am! I was too busy dancing and talking all night to drink very much, so no hangover the next morning either. The bride and groom had a gorgeous day, and I must say the scenery behind the church was just stunning for the photos. It was just perfect all around, and I must say I feel very settled in the UK now-- I guess it just hit home surrounded by friends at a good friend's wedding :)

And of course, yesterday was a Bank Holiday here in the UK, so I caught up on all the sleep I missed out on at the wedding. Can't wait for the next Bank Holiday at the end of this month (same as Memorial Day weekend in the States for a lot of you), I'll be going to the Lake District!

News

I am almost fully settled into my new room now- had to buy some organisational shelving and filing boxes this evening since the desk in this room has no drawers. It was strange at first, having someone else in the room I was in for a little over a year, and I do miss the spaciousness of that room, but I must say I'm quite happy with being away from the traffic noises, and the windows in this room are great! I think it's the only bedroom that gets a cross breeze, which will be more than welcome if this summer is anything like the last one! It's funny, the weather we are getting right now used to be what you'd expect for June and July here. But now we're having it in April/May and it'll be hot and steamy for June, July and August.

Some yummy events coming up-- drinks and dinner al fresco tomorrow night in Canary Wharf, which has an outstanding Thursday night social scene. There's just nothing like having a drink outside next to the water, used to love that in Boston :) Saturday it's Laura's wedding, and a few of us have booked a hotel room to take full advantage of the party and open bar! And we have just now decided to have a little house party on 12th May...both because we want to hang out in the garden and to welcome our new housemate (and good riddance to the old!). Should be a really good time!

A very dramatic pose from David Spade

Nice picture, Viv!

The Start

Crossing over the bridge from the initial checkpoint, where they looked at our passports and trail permits, to the beginning of the trail.

In which I meet a friend, shortly after beginning the Inca Trail

"Good day, everybody. If it is a good day...Which I doubt." This fellow seemed a bit brighter than his cousin Eeyore, and was very curious about me.

Group shot

Okay, one more because Blogger is posting pictures so quickly for me tonight, for a change! Here's our merry little group, including the three lovely Irish girls we trekked with for four days.

Peru

I just got the first batch of Viv's photos and they are great! But as it's my bedtime here (got up early to continue organising myself into my new room), I'm going to just post two of her pics for the moment. Enjoy!

Just couldn't get enough of David Spade, the cheeky little devil! (reference to the Emperor's New Groove, in case you didn't get that one;)

Chillin' out in a stone tunnel in the cloud forest, somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd mountain passes.

Moving Day

I got the job!! Yup, yesterday was a great day. It was Friday first of all, Leeanne left for her flight home, and I got the job! Today I'm moving my stuff into my "new" room, which is fun, except for the disgusting mess. For someone who flipped out so often about our cleaning schedule, she could have devoted more time to her room. She always kept it neat and tidy, but it desperately needs a vacuum, especially along the sideboards, I'm having to dust out every single drawer and every single surface, and there are wrappers everywhere from her cigarette-rolling supplies, although she was not supposed to be smoking in the house!! Tomorrow our new housemate moves into my old room, a Basic Grade OT. She's mad, but absolutely lovely. We're all going to get along just fine, which I am so looking forward to! The only thing that's messing up a gorgeous Saturday is that I'm missing Jo and James' housewarming party :(

No time for blogging tonight, my Senior II interview is tomorrow!

Jungle mishaps

Looking over my photos as I put together my Snapfish album yesterday, I was reminded of two big things I left out of my earlier post about everything that went wrong with my holiday. While we were in Peru, we spent the second part of our trip in the Amazon basin. To get to our lodge in the heart of the Tambopata River Reserve, we had to take a boat trip for four hours upriver. Our flight into Puerto Maldonado landed around 1 pm, so between collecting suitcases, getting over to the river, and loading everything onto the boat, I think we started our journey somewhere around 2:30pm. By around 5pm, it was starting to get dark, and I have nice pictures of sunset on the river. Once the sun had gone over the rim, we started to lose light pretty quickly. I watched our guide go to the front of the boat, pull out a battery and a big headlamp and start to connect the lamp to the battery. It was connected by way of red and black cables with clamps at the ends, and looked like the cables you use to jump start a car. Except that only the black cable had a clamp at the end. The guide stared at it for a while, looked back at the boat driver, stared at the cables again, looked at the boat driver etc. I should say here that the boat driver was about 30 feet back with the motor, as it was a pretty long boat. The assistant manager who was riding with us finally told the guide in Spanish to strip the protective covering from the cable without the clamp, and connect it that way to the battery. He proceeded to strip the plastic covering of the cable with a machete, of all things. At this point Vivien starting nudging me, saying "This is scary!" Meaning the darkness and no lamp. And me, well, I guess Tressa has rubbed off too much on me at this point, I was loving it, I thought it was a grand adventure. All I could think of in my head was her story about patching up a bus engine with duct tape in Africa, and the fact that now I finally had an answering story. I could say, "Oh yeah? Well, one time I was on a boat motoring up a river in the Amazon basin in the dark because our lamp was broken and we had no spare!" And the lamp did not get fixed, so our guide tried to use his personal flashlight, which was about as effective as a firefly. Luckily our boat driver was very familiar with the river, and did a good job getting us to the lodge.

Early the next morning, we got up at 4:30am for an early breakfast, and enough time to get an hour upriver to the macaw clay lick, before the birds arrived. Which they never did actually, we had to go track them down in other parts of the jungle. But we got back into our trusty boat, pushed away from the dock, motored maybe 10 minutes, and the engine died. We went through an hour of the driver starting it up, getting a few revs and coughs and some forward motion, then the engine dying and quickly drifting downriver with the current. We eventually ended up downriver of the lodge, at which point the guide got out a paddle, but with several stops and starts the boat driver eventually got us back to the dock. Once we were tied up it took him about 20 minutes to fix the problem, which was something to do with an obstruction to the gas line I think. Meanwhile, I was all upset, thinking we had missed the macaws. We got to the clay lick two hours late, and ran into another small group from our lodge who said we hadn't missed anything. And as you'll see from my pics, we had great views of the macaws once we found them elsewhere, with the help of our guide's trusty machete.

And finally, we went on several long sweaty hikes with our guide, the first one being a night hike right after our arrival, where we saw a lot of big spiders, including tarantulas. But we took another hike the following afternoon, after our morning macaw adventure. We had walked for it must have been an hour, tracking signs of wild pigs that we never found, when our guide decided to turn back, via a different path. We walked for awhile, then came out onto a wide path that was apparently newly blazed, since our guide stared at it in shock and then said, "This wasn't here before." We turned down the new path, but then soon off onto another one, but hadn't gone too far before he stopped, stared ahead, and then turned around and said, "Go back. The way is closed." It sounded like something out of the Indiana Jones Crusade movie or something. We went back out to the new path, and he left us standing there while he tried out two other paths, each time coming back and announcing that it was closed. Viv and I started to joke about being lost, and I think both of us were half-thinking it might be true. Eventually, the guide just decided to follow the new path out of the jungle, and we came out into the grounds of our lodge, a site where they were building two new cabins. He then told us we were never lost, and drew a little sketch on the ground to show us why he'd had trouble-- essentially, his excuse being that unless the narrow little paths are kept clear, they grow over with new vegetation quickly, hence the "ways that were closed." A reasonable enough explanation ;)

Snapfish

I now have some 200 photos labelled on Snapfish, so let me know if you don't get the email link from me!

Pictures

As you'll probably notice, my Peru pictures are now showing up on my Flickr filmstrip in the side bar. Unfortunately, the order got all screwed up in the process of uploading them somehow, and Flickr, for some unfathomable reason, does not seem to want to allow me to rearrange them. So, although a few of them have captions, I gave up when I found out I couldn't reorder them. I've put them on Snapfish, which took more than 4 hours to upload them, and they're now in the right order, just waiting for me to add captions. I will send out a link to those as soon as I've finished. Feel free to check out my Flickr site, but the Snapfish album will be better if you're willing to wait. I hope to have that finished later on tonight. And if somehow I miss you out on my mass emailing, as I always invariably seem to leave out someone, or have my email bounced back with a failed delivery message for one reason or another, just drop me a line to let me know, and I'll get the link to you. I'm also waiting for Viv's set of pictures, because there are quite a number of them that are only on her camera, so I'll add those to my album as soon as I get them.

My short work week was okay-- orthopaedics is slow at the moment, which is not the norm, so I'm trying to enjoy it for now. My interview for Senior II is on Wednesday, and to be honest, I've already stopped thinking of myself as a Basic Grade. Even so, on Friday I was honored to be asked for advice by the other Basic Grade on the unit. It's good to be reminded that although I am still a relatively new therapist, coming up on two years in practice, I also do know quite a bit, and have a good head for clinical reasoning. Hopefully, I'll change over to the Senior II paystub for next month's payday ;)

I've now been invited to the full day for Laura's upcoming wedding. Initially, I was invited for the reception only, but she told me I've become a really good friend, and wants me there for all of it. It was really nice to hear from her and Angelica upon my return that they had missed me. It's heartwarming to know that the people you care about feel the same about you. Action is most important, but every once in awhile, the words are nice too. I had them at home from Jenn and from my parents as well. I feel torn between the two worlds, but this seems to be the right place for me right now. Thursday night, I went out with Laura and Angelica and two others for some impromptu drinks after work. It was beautiful, sunny and warm, and we wanted to be out in the garden of a pub. Drinks turned into dinner, and before we knew it, it was after 10pm. As they say, time flies...

Still down for the count

Not much to update on, since my bad luck seems to have followed me home. I did go into work yesterday morning, and about an hour later, basically got sick in front of my new supervisor. So I was sent home, again. It was truly embarrassing, and I just hope I'm not replaying that moment in my head when I interview next week, since this new supervisor is on the interviewing panel. I was told this morning I couldn't come in today either, since I have to be "clear" for a full 24 hours before returning. Hopefully tomorrow. At least she knows firsthand I wasn't trying to extend my holiday with faked sick days.

I have not been up to getting my pictures online as I've been battling a pounding headache, so I will try to get to that by this weekend at the latest.

Most of you probably already know from emails that have been bouncing around, but Tressa took on her first "real" job as of Monday I believe. They gave her an assignment in the DRC as she calls it, which is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I asked her when I could come to see the gorillas, and she told me I can't because there are currently two kinds and they're both in the mountains (gorillas and guerillas). Figures.

summer, summer, summertime

Well, I'm back. And it felt like I stepped off the plane into summer. It must have been like 20 degrees Celsius here today! And apparently it's been like this since Easter. A far cry from the snowstorms and Nor'easters I was experiencing in the US! I did make it to work before noon, but they basically sent me home, so I've been forced to use another annual leave day. Oh well, I'll take unpaid leave if I need to at some point. I had a nice long nap, and then have been trying various tricks to stay awake, but I think it's time to go back to bed at this point. I have uploaded my pics to my computer, but have yet to organise and everything-- will let you all know when they're ready. Sweet dreams all.

Entertaining myself at JFK

Well, here I am sitting at JFK, in the middle of afore-mentioned Nor'Easter, with high winds and driving rain. And I know that firsthand, because the stupid AirTrain does not connect the terminal where I landed (4) with the terminal where I needed to be for my UK flight (3). It runs direct from terminal 4 to terminal 2. So I had to walk a half mile in the driving rain and high winds, which had me at a dead stop, and actually pushed me backwards twice with a heavy suitcase in tow. However, I made it, waited two hours to check in (I couldn't use the e-check-in kiosk because of all the trouble in London at the start of this trip when my original reservation was cancelled), am now warm and dry, and have had some lunch. And perhaps most amazingly of all, at the moment, they say that my flight is still scheduled to go on time. The stewardess on my last flight explained to me, after we had landed and the nausea had passed enough for both of us to speak again (rough turbulence during the descent and landing process), that it is easier for flights to take off than to land in this awful weather, and in particular because mine is an international flight, it's less likely to be cancelled. Hope I didn't just jinx it.

Anyway, I think I only gave half the story yesterday. It makes my heart ache, the physical difficulties that my grandfather is experiencing. However, he is 93, and he proudly told me he is currently the oldest one at his assisted living facility. Though it took him 10 minutes to get from the door of Applebees to our table 75 feet away with his chariot as he calls it (a rolling walker with seat built in), he takes it all in stride, with dignity and without complaint. He also has hearing and vision problems. However, he still has a mind like a steel trap. We got to see my Uncle Dutch and Aunt Becky last night only for dinner, and he told them all about how I'd been to "Mitchu Pitchu, Machu Patchu, Moochu Poochu....and I hope they have someone to clean it up!"

7Wonders

Vote for the new Seven Wonders...of course, I'm biased, and I think y'all should choose Machu Picchu as one of your choices, but hey, it's up to you. Just not the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty please, I mean, come on!

Hola from Lima, Peru!

Yes, I am still here and it is a very long story. This trip has been operating through a bad luck fog from the very beginning...I will write more when I am home tomorrow (finalmente!), but here´s the summary of the stuff that has gone wrong. I missed my initial flight from London to New York, due to a public transportation nightmare in London. So I had to go back home, and get up at 4am the next morning to go back out to Gatwick. When I arrived at Gatwick the next morning, they said even though I had spoken with one of their colleagues the night before and received a standby ticket for that morning, because I had missed my original flight, my whole reservation had been cancelled, so I no longer had a return flight. !!!! We got that sorted out though, and I did get to New York in time to join my parents for the Broadway show my mum had booked weeks earlier. When we got home after the show I´d essentially been awake for 36 hours, but only had 6 hours to sleep before I got up to get ready for my drive to Boston. Nicole and Rob had a beautiful wedding, great weather, and I had a blast at the reception. Plus, I got an invitation back out to the Cotswolds to Rob´s parents´beautiful home ;) After partying till the wee hours, I had two hours of sleep, got up, grabbed a Red Bull, and started the drive to Vivien´s house, as we were going to the airport together. I was within 10 minutes of her house when I got a flat tire. Because it was April 1, she thought I was playing an April Fools´Joke on her, and as I burned through 15 pounds of UK credit on my UK mobile in three minutes, I had to yell at her a bit to get her to take me seriously and come pick me up. Luckily, a cop was passing, told me I could leave the car there until my parents could pick it up, and Viv and I made it to the airport on time for our flight. I called my parents laughing hysterically, this being typical of traveling with Vivien, and arranged for them to retrieve the car once they returned from the Poconos with the Heilalas. We made it to Peru without incident, although sleeping overnight in the Lima airport was an experience...I´ll save that for another blog. We arrived at the hotel in Cusco where they asked me for my passport and immigration document, which I realised I had lost (the immigration document, not the passport). Apparently that is going to cost me some money later on tonight when we finally get on our flight back to Newark. The following morning, we got up at 5am to catch our ride out to the trailhead for the Caminos Inka (Inca Trail), and we had a small rest stop at a little town where I tried to put in my contacts. The left one was ripped almost completely in half, and I had no spares...the spares were in the backpack I decided to leave behind after I missed my initial flight in London! So I hiked the Inka Trail in my glasses,grrr. I also burned the hell out of the tops of both hands on the third day-- the rest of my body was covered up, and I forgot about my hands. They turned a deep red purple and became puffy. It's pretty terrifying to make a mistake like that with my family's medical history, but it's not like I can roll back time and remember the sun block. To skip ahead to the end of our trip, we spent the last three days of our holiday in the Amazon basin, about 4 hours upriver on the Tambopata from Puerto Maldonado. We had a flight from PM to Lima, via Cusco. Our flight was delayed, but we eventually got to Cusco. They had us wait on the plane for 45 minutes, then told us that due to mechanical problems, the flight was now cancelled. We got off the plane, and after much negotiating on Viv´s part, they rebooked us for the following day through Miami to land in Newark at about 11pm tonight. They gave us a very nice hotel and food and transport and telephone cards. This morning, we were booked on an 8am flight to Lima. We got to the airport, and they gave us boarding passes for the 7:40am flight. Long story short, that flight was delayed due to "adverse weather conditions" though the sky looked fine to me, until 10:40 am which was when the flight to Miami was scheduled to leave. Had we been given boarding passes for the 8am flight which we should have had, we would have made the flight, as that flight did take off at 9:15am. So we got to Lima eventually, went to the LAN desk, where they tried to tell us they were going to send us overnight to Miami, and Miami to Newark. I said no way, you're going to rebook us on the same direct flight from Lima to Newark that we were supposed to be on last night. They tried to tell me it wasn't showing up on their screen and there was no such flight, but I knew they were trying to pull a fast one because they aren't partners with Continental and didn't want to pay to rebook us. I told him he had better look up the flight, and sure enough, it was there. They then sent us to the Sheraton where we had a room for the day, gave us taxis, and really sumptuous lunch and dinner buffets, and here I am on the computer, checking email for the first time in two weeks.
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Ok, I was kicked off the computer at that point on April 10, as my "free" internet time was apparently done. It's now April 14 and I'm in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan at the Hampton Inn, which I must admit I'm pretty impressed with...however, on the way here, we had a connecting flight through Detroit, where-- you can probaby guess-- our flight up north here was cancelled. Yup. We went to a hotel overnight, and got on a flight at 6am the following morning. It's been good to see the new assisted living facility where my grandfather is now living, and he is taking us all out to Applebee's tonight (the fancy place for dinner in town, lol) because they have "everything you could possibly want, you can have whatever you want." I showed him my pictures from Peru, and gave him a hat made of alpaca wool, and he continues to tell people that his granddaughter went to Machu Poochu. We've played hearts and reminisced, and Grandpa has given me my grandmother's wedding and engagement rings, which I now wear around my neck. He says that has always been the tradition in this family.

Tomorrow I catch flights from here to Detroit, Detroit to JFK, and JFK to the UK. That's assuming the Nor'easter bearing down on the East Coast doesn't throw a kink into those plans. Considering how my holiday has gone thus far, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up at home on Sunday night, and taking off Monday instead. Not exactly the good impression I want to make on my boss, considering I have an interview for Senior II coming up on April 25. Sigh. Oh well, what will be, will be.