Tim and I have been busy getting through season 6 of Law and Order SVU and a friend introduced us to True Blood with her three seasons on DVD. I must say it has a lot of common factors with Twilight, but apparently it was written first. I will say that through better actors and script the story is told much better with less teen angst. I've seen that that's a controversial statement to make though, as True Blood fans don't like being compared to Twilight. It also reminds me of X-Men. In True Blood vampires have come out of hiding and want to be treated as regular citizens now that they can survive on fake blood even though some vampires are obviously still malicious and sadistic. It certainly makes for an interesting story.
I'm very excited that my SJA application has finally gone through successfully, and I should be able to get my ID card this week! (Thanks again for your help, Bob!) That means I can go back out on duty and get experience to build up my skills and confidence again. Skill fade is depressingly real. I plan on doing my old regular duty first: the Bop. It's the party every Friday on Roehampton campus. A friend said Tim and I can crash at her place after 'cause getting back across London at 3 am would probably take 3 hours by night buses alone. Another good thing about getting my ID card is that I can now take more advanced training courses. I'm trying to get onto an AED course the weekend of Feb 4th. My AED qualification is long expired from Six Flags.
Tim got his ID card too and he's already on a new course this weekend. It's an upskills course that everyone will have to take this year if they want to continue with SJA. They're always changing the first aid regulations, and they want to make sure everyone is aware so they don't make a mistake on duty. I'll need to do it too when they put a course up for my level.
We started ordering milk from our local milkman. It's pretty cool. It comes in the glass bottles and everything! Then you put the bottle out the night before a delivery day and it's recycled! I don't know why it's so exciting, but it just seems fun to do something so traditionally British. I know they did it in the US too, but I don't think they do anymore. Anyway, it works out a little cheaper per pint than store-bought milk.
I babysat the little boys last night and brought them chocolate to melt along with fruit to dip. I was worried at first 'cause they've both said they don't like bananas, but they liked everything with chocolate! Jack even managed to get it in his hair at the very top of his head. I have never seen a kid do that before. It seemed like quite a feat. I brought over Muppet Treasure Island and it was a hit. Poor kids hadn't ever seen the muppets before. They only recognized Gonzo because he sings with the chickens in Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody that I showed them on youtube.
It's been crazy cold here. It's right at freezing when I go to work in the mornings. And that's terrible when you're cycling downhill with that wind on your face. It only rises to about 34-36 by the time I have to walk the boys to school. Of course it's 10 times worse when it's raining (about 50% of the mornings). I come home after and change right back into my sweatpants so my jeans can dry on the radiator. It's a pain.
We're having friends come over tonight for food and a movie. It's our attempt at keeping in contact with uni friends. It's always cheap and cheerful. Of course Yasmin loves them too 'cause odds are she'll get someone who wants to pet her all night.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Friday, 20 January 2012
New year, new job, new flat, new opportunities
I had a blog that I updated about once a week or every other week when I was in uni for 3 years for anyone, but mostly so family could know what I was up to in general. Then everyone including my grandparents got on facebook and I moved back to Texas, so I let that blog die. I'm attempting it again since not everything is said on facebook and I won't pretend that many of my facebook friends are even interested in updates on my life. But my new blog is here just in case anyone is. : )
Since the new year Tim and I have celebrated our 1st anniversary by going to the theater to see Wicked. It was so awesome. We spent New Year's Eve at the highest flat around (12th floor) of some softball friends with an amazing view of all the fireworks around London from Canary Wharf (East London). I started my new job nannying for two little boys aged 5 and 7. Jack is 7 and Jude 5. I try not to laugh when one of his little school friends calls out to him, "Hey, Jude!"
The boys are really fun. They are pretty well behaved, polite, and are eager to learn, be silly, and play new games. It's just the schedule I had to get used to. I work 6-9 am, take the boys to school, then again from 3:30 to 6ish when a parent arrives home. It's weird having a huge gap in the middle of my day, but I can nap, be productive, pretty much do whatever I want until I need to go pick up the boys again. Luckily I live on top of a hill so getting to their house or school takes me 1-2 minutes by cycle.
Tim had a job interview a couple days ago. He said so many people applied that they might call for 2nd interviews before they pick someone. Our fingers are crossed for that. It's good pay and is related to coordinating/teaching first aid... pretty much what he has already done for free the last few years.
Tim and I are planning on going to Camden Town tomorrow. It's a huge market on the canal in North London. It has some really unique stores as well as the regular retro or handmade stuff on sale. I'm looking for something for the naked hooks on our flat wall. It's kind of similar to Portobello Rd. if anyone has seen "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," but much bigger and more elaborate.
I'm planning on nannying and volunteering for St John Ambulance for the next 2 years until I can apply to Greenwich University for my paramedic science foundation degree. It's a 3 year degree, but you spend half of year 2 and 3 being paid for actually working in the field to get experience. It's a rigorous schedule, but afterward I can be eligible to work for the NHS (National Health Service) as a paramedic. I'm hoping my volunteering with SJA will help me get in and get a job. I have to wait 2 years, though, because that's how long I have to live here before I am not counted as an "international student" having to pay over twice as much money as national students in student fees. I plan on calling the university just to ask and make sure probably next week.
So that's us. Oh, and Yasmin is just fine. We go on normal dog walks when I take her with me to meet or pick up someone at our local train station, she still loves her Christmas present even though he is now missing an eye. We call him Rudolph Cyclops now. She loves going to Roehampton for our Thursday LINKS meetings 'cause it means she will get tons of extra attention and tummy rubs. (She's allowed out of harness once she gets there)
Since the new year Tim and I have celebrated our 1st anniversary by going to the theater to see Wicked. It was so awesome. We spent New Year's Eve at the highest flat around (12th floor) of some softball friends with an amazing view of all the fireworks around London from Canary Wharf (East London). I started my new job nannying for two little boys aged 5 and 7. Jack is 7 and Jude 5. I try not to laugh when one of his little school friends calls out to him, "Hey, Jude!"
The boys are really fun. They are pretty well behaved, polite, and are eager to learn, be silly, and play new games. It's just the schedule I had to get used to. I work 6-9 am, take the boys to school, then again from 3:30 to 6ish when a parent arrives home. It's weird having a huge gap in the middle of my day, but I can nap, be productive, pretty much do whatever I want until I need to go pick up the boys again. Luckily I live on top of a hill so getting to their house or school takes me 1-2 minutes by cycle.
Tim had a job interview a couple days ago. He said so many people applied that they might call for 2nd interviews before they pick someone. Our fingers are crossed for that. It's good pay and is related to coordinating/teaching first aid... pretty much what he has already done for free the last few years.
Tim and I are planning on going to Camden Town tomorrow. It's a huge market on the canal in North London. It has some really unique stores as well as the regular retro or handmade stuff on sale. I'm looking for something for the naked hooks on our flat wall. It's kind of similar to Portobello Rd. if anyone has seen "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," but much bigger and more elaborate.
I'm planning on nannying and volunteering for St John Ambulance for the next 2 years until I can apply to Greenwich University for my paramedic science foundation degree. It's a 3 year degree, but you spend half of year 2 and 3 being paid for actually working in the field to get experience. It's a rigorous schedule, but afterward I can be eligible to work for the NHS (National Health Service) as a paramedic. I'm hoping my volunteering with SJA will help me get in and get a job. I have to wait 2 years, though, because that's how long I have to live here before I am not counted as an "international student" having to pay over twice as much money as national students in student fees. I plan on calling the university just to ask and make sure probably next week.
So that's us. Oh, and Yasmin is just fine. We go on normal dog walks when I take her with me to meet or pick up someone at our local train station, she still loves her Christmas present even though he is now missing an eye. We call him Rudolph Cyclops now. She loves going to Roehampton for our Thursday LINKS meetings 'cause it means she will get tons of extra attention and tummy rubs. (She's allowed out of harness once she gets there)
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