Promises, promises

I know, I know, I've said I was going to do better with the blogging and I think I've actually done worse! But a lot has been happening. I've been having health issues, I have an OT student with me at work for 7 weeks which means I'm constantly on the go, whether it's my own work or supervising her or bringing extra work home at night, and I was able to make it to Michigan this past weekend for my grandfather's memorial service. Although we all knew my grandfather was a great and special man, he was never one to toot his own horn, and we didn't realize just how great and special he truly was until we started to hear all the stories from people in Sault Ste Marie over the weekend. He was larger than life, and made a difference in who knows how many hundreds of lives over the years. I only hope I can make an ounce of the difference that he made, and try to live with "service above self" as he did. I think my cousin Casey put it best when he said that "If actions speak louder than words, then Grandpa was screaming good deeds..."

Back at the beginning of September I was in the Peak District for a beautiful, action-packed weekend. I have lots of photos and I will post some I promise. Those of you on Facebook have probably seen them already. However, I'm off for a whirlwind weekend in Amsterdam tomorrow, so I won't be doing a proper update here until next week, and will hopefully have Amsterdam pictures to add also. Love to all, Allison :)

"Hello, my friend, hello"

I called the lakehouse last night, because I knew my family (including my sister, home from Africa for a bit) would be there with the Heilalas, helping to close Wissahickon for the season. I was mildly chastised for not keeping up with the blogging.

A lot has been happening around here. This past weekend there was a leaving do for a physio on Friday at Floriditas, my favourite Cuban club in Soho. Both times I've been there, I've had a fantastic time. Last night we had a get-together at a lovely pub in the next town over, to celebrate Dave and Nicole's engagement. Nicole's ring had been at the jeweler for the past two weeks, being re-sized, so Dave picked it up Saturday morning, and showed up at our house with a single red rose and re-proposed to Nicole. Fittingly, the initial proposal was in a park across the road from the pub where the engagement party was held.

This coming weekend, my housemates and a bunch of other people (Dave's friends and family) will be in the Peaks District. We rented a big cottage, and several of us have signed up to go caving. Or spelunking as it's more commonly called in the US. We'll also do a fair bit of hiking and check out the country pubs. Several people are planning to go to Alton Towers on Monday (it's a big theme/adventure park), but I'm thinking I may have to be back at work for Monday. I have a student starting with me tomorrow (my first one!) and she'll be with me for seven weeks. So I probably shouldn't take the day off for a week from tomorrow. Other trips include one already booked for Amsterdam at the end of this month and one in the planning stages for Barcelona in October.

I'm also thinking I'd like to fit Prague and Iceland in there somewhere, and my family is apparently thinking of Italy for Christmas....if only!!! Stop thinking people, and book it!

Hysterical!

Okay, you need to watch the two YouTube thingies below in order, because the second one is a response to the first. East Coast vs West Coast...

Tea Partay

Green Tea Partay

Culture

Yesterday I went to the Gormley exhibition at SouthBank Art Centre. The artist is a London-born sculptor, who has specialised in self-portrait through sculpture, as well as the exploration of the human condition in general. The two best parts of the exhibit were the "Light Box" and I can't remember the official name of the other part, but it was a series of probably 20-some cast iron replicas of the artist on top of lots of different buildings in the SouthBank area, on both sides of the river. All the statues sort of looked down and toward the gallery, and it was an eerie sort of feeling of being watched...sort of Matrix-esque. Or even better, City of Angels, where you saw all the angels watching everyone from rooftops. We wondered whether the Metropolitan police got a number of phone calls about jumpers the first couple of days that the statues went up...

The Light Box was a glass enclosure filled with vapor and bright light...sort of like a steam room without the heat. You could only see about a foot in front of your face once you stepped inside, so it was very disorienting. You took sort of small, halting steps to avoid crashing into someone else or the glass walls. We did actually see a lady's head bounce off of one of the glass walls from the outside-- ouch! It was interesting from that perspective as well, to see people materialize out of nowhere, right next to the glass. It made me think about patients I've had who are registered blind and can only see light and dark.

Me and Jules...

and Charlie! Jules is a good friend whom I met on the yoga/hiking trip in February in Wales. Very soon I'll have more pics to put up of me and Jules from last night (we went to Carwash! a 60s/70s themed club).

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.