My Coldest June Yet

It's almost the end of June and the weather still bugs me.  It just doesn't feel like summer.  Yesterday I was playing softball for part of the day in shorts and a T-shirt, and the rest of the day in pants and a hoodie with the hood up!  And cold rain is the worst!  June is the time for warm rain if any.  The highs have been mostly 50-60.  Once in a while we'll get a nice day that's about 70-75 for a few hours before the clouds cover the sun.  The worst is when it rains cold rain at 6am when I'm biking to work and the seat of my pants are all wet when I arrive.  So I'm just cold and miserable for an hour or so at an ungodly hour while I dry off and warm up.

Tim has been teaching first aid courses unrelated to St John lately.  A friend recommends Tim for the jobs.  His friend said that the company is short on first aiders and will probably need to use Tim more often.  He's currently preparing for a course that runs this Monday-Wednesday.

I had a softball tournament yesterday all day.  Between 9am - 6pm we played 7 games.  Yasmin came along because Tim was planning on spending the day preparing for his course.  She had a great time meeting new friends and getting loads of affection from my team and the opposing teams.  She loves the softball people 'cause they give her tons of attention.  I think most muscles in my body are sore now.  Even some in my back because I got knocked hard by a guy running to 2nd twice (the same guy both times)!  I mostly played 2nd base, but a couple games on 1st, and half a game as catcher.  We were short on girls so there were no breaks for us.  The first 5 games we played back-to-back, and with no break I was starving and exhausted by the time we finally finished the 5th game around 2 pm.  My team came in 3rd overall.  I have no idea how many teams were there.  We only played one team twice.

I gave my month's notice to the parents I work for last week.  They keep forgetting to tell the boys.  I sure don't want to tell them, and I don't look forward to all the questions they'll ask once they know.  Here's a pic I took last week when they asked to play on my scooter.  They both jumped when Jack pushed the horn.  It it kind of loud for such a small vehicle.  Jack's in front and Jude in back.  They switched off being in front and back.

I signed the contract with my new employer.  I'm working there for a few hours on July 7th for the first time.  I'm supposed to read up on The Baby Whisperer and Noel Janis-Norton beforehand 'cause it's the philosophy they want to use in raising their kids.  I've never had to read up on child rearing for work before, but it's a full-time job so I shouldn't mind a little bit of homework.  I do think the Baby Whisperer might have come up with a more original title, though.

Since I don't have much longer of having extra time in the middle of the day once I start my new job I'm trying to do driving lessons and brush up on the theory section of the British driving test.  I have my next lesson Monday.  After my lesson last week Tim and I rented a zipcar to practice with on Friday so I could practice without the instructor in the car.  Zipcar is a company that has regular looking cars parked all over London and the UK.  I think the company is in other countries also.  You pay a membership fee yearly, then you can book a car close to you for a few hours, or as long as you want.  It's very useful.  We used it when moving and rented a van.

Something I pass everyday on the way to Jack and Jude's house.  I think it's supposed to be the prime meridian.  We do live 6 miles South of Greenwich after all.

New job...again, and lots of St John

I realize it's been a while since I last posted.  I was waiting until I might have some news about a new job.  I think I finally do.  I have pretty much landed a full-time nanny job that starts in July.  It's 50 hours a week looking after two little boys aged 3 months and 2 years.  I'm very excited because I'm hoping with this job Tim and I can move into a bigger place, bring Guinness over, and visit the US for Christmas.  I'll still have weekends off so that's fine by me.  Now we are going through the process of agreeing on hours, holiday time, showing her all my official documents, etc.

I'm getting better with my scooter.  I can now always get home without the use of a map now.  I still need to tape the directions to my dash (just hiding the clock) to get anywhere new.  Medical tape is awesome for that!

Laura is visiting London for about a week and a half.  We went to Oxford yesterday and I invited friends over for a movie night tonight.  We're planning on barbecuing.  I'm trying to take lots of pics for facebook so more updates will be on there.

Tim and I have been going to a lot of duties lately.  I went to a parade in Chelsea a few weeks ago that was of great interest to the boys I look after.  They're huge football (soccer) fans.  Chelsea won some cup over lots of teams in Europe and there was a huge parade in Chelsea.  It reminded me of the Spurs parade I went to on the Riverwalk in 2007, except there were far more drunk people here.  Thankfully they were all friendly since they all were there to support Chelsea.  You just had to dodge the flying celery.  Chelsea has some song that is slightly crude involving shoving celery into the orifices of their opponents.  I was slightly surprised to see children throwing celery into the crowds also.  They were all waiting for the team to drive by on a double decker bus.  Anyway, I showed the pics to the boys and they told me the names of all the players on top of the bus.

The team on top of the bus with the cup

See that balloon the baby is holding in the shape of the cup? They were selling those balloons for 7 pounds!

Tim and I also went to a Coldplay concert last weekend.  It was my first rock concert ever! I was so cool.  It was even better because we went for free with St John Ambulance.  People were so considerate too! They only got ill before or after the concert.  I don't think I would have paid for it, though.  I liked going with St John so I could go into the treatment center if I got tired of standing in the cold.  I could warm up with a quiet cup of coffee and go back out.  Especially since I don't really like crowds.  But I really want to sign up for more concert duties this summer.  It was fun.  There's the O2 Wireless concert in July with different bands playing, Wimbledon tennis, and of course, the Olympics!  I'm sure I'm missing something, but those are the main duties coming up that I want to go on.

Just a Few Pics

Here are some pics of the boys I look after. This was taken around 6:30 am.  I have a "not-before-7" rule where they can do what they like, but I don't play games before 7 am.  Why they wake up before they need to is beyond me.  They don't need to be up before 7:30.  I couldn't help but snap a pic of them entertaining themselves.  Jack (older one) is filming Jude.  Jude is the sillier one who does all sorts of funny faces and voice impersonations.

The boys' birthdays are just one day apart so they share a birthday party.  This is the birthday invitation their dad made on the computer with the numbers on their jerseys showing how old they're turning.

And they brought me a T-shirt, pencil, and bookmark back from Malaysia.  I didn't realize that the building from the movie Entrapment was in Malaysia, but I recognized it right off from the movie.

Shortened Break Almost Over

Gosh, my 3 weeks off paid vacation turned into 2 weeks when I realized I had gotten the uni Easter Break mixed up with the kids' school break.  I'm not quite sure what I did with my time off, either.  I know I slept a lot at first, then had trouble sleeping the rest of the time.  We had a pizza and movie night on Easter Sunday with friends over, but we got to talking so much that we didn't get around to watching a movie even though lots of intriguing ones were brought.  Once we realized that we didn't really have time for a movie we played Apples to Apples.  It was still fun.  Adrian won and stayed the night.  The next day we watched the 11th season of Mash that Adrian brought over.  I hate that I only have the first 5 seasons over here.  I love that show.

I've been to a few softball practices which are over now.  Now it's just games and tournaments.  I have one game a week from the first week of May, but they're all on weeknights.  It's nice that we'll still have the weekends open for St John or camping etc.

Our friend, Micaela, Tim, and I went to the Roald Dahl museum in Great Missendon on the 12th.  It was small, but cute and worth the trip.  We went to a Chinese Restaurant afterward before heading back on the train, and Tim left his bag with ipad in the restaurant!  We didn't realize until we got off the train in London.  Since we had to go back the next day for the ipad we decided to make a camping trip of it and break in our new tent.  Other than being too cold at night we had an awesome time.  The only campsite around the station (2.3 mile walk away) was a farm with a small field where caravan vehicles could hook up.  We had the only tent there.  The farmers were very friendly and didn't mind us touring the farm looking at the animals.  The pigs seemed very interested in us and the geese were a little too interested in Yasmin.

Tim and I are working at the London Marathon next Sunday.  It's one of the biggest duties of the year.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I just hope the weather warms up.  It's been annoying lately.  The sun shines for about 5-20 min, then it clouds up, gets cold, maybe rains for 30 min, then cycles through again. I really hope the crazy weather fixes itself before Yasmin's bday because we're planning to spend all afternoon in an open field.

Expectant Moped and Easter Break

Well I didn't get the nannying job.  I wasn't really happy with the circumstances.  The interview was last minute and the lady at the agency didn't ask me about my schedule before booking an interview for me, so I had to go in between two St John duties that I had already committed to.  I had the Bop Friday night until 3 am, the interview Saturday morning at 10 am, then the Crystal Palace football duty 1:30-5:30.  I was kind of sleep deprived and just wasn't thinking on my feet.  Of course I thought of loads of good answers to the questions after the interview.  I'm going to keep looking for full-time jobs, though.  I wasn't actually looking before.

Tim just found out today that he didn't get his job either.  It really sucks because it was pretty much everything he had already done voluntarily.

I went ahead and ordered my moped last week, though.  It's supposed to arrive in the end of April, so I have until then to do the one-day course, find a helmet and lock, secure insurance, and anything else I might need to do for it.  The moped will help me cut down a lot on travel time and costs.

This is the start of my 3 week holiday from work.  The family is in Malaysia (the mom is from there) so I get to sleep in for 3 weeks, which is awesome!  We got Yasmin's birthday presents this week.  A bacon-flavored nylabone and a huge compressed rawhide bone that should take her a while.  We got some doggy chocolate for Easter while we were at it.  I thought it'd be fun to do something like an Easter egg hunt for her with the chocolate.  We're having a movie night on Easter and Rachel Bales is coming over to meet some Brits. : )

Tim and I are going with a friend from LINKS to the Roald Dahl museum on the 12th.  It'll be a day trip.  I think it's mostly a kids' museum, but I bet it'll be fun anyway.  I also found out that I will be able to be assessed at the new standards for first aid before the London Marathon.

Our friend, Ashley, is coming down in the end of the month on Yazzi's birthday for the weekend!  I'm hoping to see how he takes to softball at the Sunday practice.  On the Saturday he's going to a medical type conference so we were thinking about checking out the St John museum with some people from LINKS.

It looks like we have lots to look forward to in summer too.  Ashley invited us to Cornwall where he lives to go sailing, the olympics are bound to be eventful, Coldplay is coming to a stadium in London and I plan on signing up for the St John duty to go for free, and then Laura, Cassidy, and my parents are planning to visit.  In between Tim and I plan on finding some decent camp sites to try out our new tent.  Exciting stuff!!

Yasmin is doing well.  A cop came 'round yesterday to get an "impact statement" from Tim and me about the impact made on Tim and Yasmin short-term and long-term regarding the assault on the train.  They caught the guy and he has yet to plead guilty or not.  It sounds like he may plead not guilty based on the fact that he was drunk, but I don't see that going well for him.  Until this is over though, he's not allowed to go on the same route on the train that he did when he met Tim.  Yaz has gotten to go to the park plenty with the sun we've had lately.  We found a rubber stick in a shop today and got it for her.  It's even shaped like a stick with random knobs and the minute texture.  She loved it in the park.  Our park is too well-groomed.  It's hard for us to find decent sticks bigger than twigs for Yaz to fetch and chew on.

Job Interviews and Warm Weather

I had the flu last weekend and was feeling pretty rotten at work the week before.  My fever wouldn't go away completely for about 4 days.  It was sooo annoying that I had to miss the last day and the assessment of my first aid course from the week before.  Now I have to find someone to assess me on my own.  That's somehow worse than being assessed at the same time as the group I trained with.  I also had to miss softball on Sunday for the third weekend in a row.  I blame LINKS for making me sick.  I lost sleep at CTW and then the first aid course the weekend after I think it knocked my immune system out of whack.  Thankfully the boys were pretty understanding when I told them they couldn't go to the park because the cold air killed my throat.  I'll take them today.

The weather's been beautiful lately... once the sun's up anyway.  It's still in the 40s when I wake up at stupid o'clock am.  After I get off work (at 9 am) Tim and I have been making coffee and drinking it just outside on the sunny mornings while Yasmin chews her stick.  She loves sunbathing... we must be related.  Yesterday the dad I work for stayed home with a headache, so he took the boys after I brought them home from school and I got an unexpected afternoon off which was pretty nice.  We decided to take Yaz to the park to find some friends to play with.  She's such a social creature.

I have an interview tomorrow evening for a position within the LINKS HQ volunteering sector.  It's called ASO (Assistant Staff Officer) Finance Assistant.  The current ASO finance is looking for an assistant, and I figure it wouldn't hurt to have some experience and training dealing with large budgets for a large organization.  It could come in handy at some point in my life.  It's a 2 year position.

Tim has an interview for a paid job with SJA on Friday.  It's a job he interviewed for before called Pathway Coordinator.  The person they hired didn't last two weeks.  I'm not sure what happened, but that's good for Tim.

I saw a new job advertized through my nanny agency for a new job that pays over twice what I make now.  Full-time looking after a baby girl for an American mom and British dad.  I'm trying to see if I can at least get an interview because that would be awesome!  Then I could fly Guinness over sooner, not worry about budgeting between getting the moped and my British license, and even fly to Texas for Christmas for sure!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Tim and me to get the jobs.  Heck, if we both got the jobs, or even one of us we could get a bigger flat with a garden for Guinness.

I would make sure my current family found someone new before leaving, though.  I would definitely miss the boys, but I'd be silly not to look into a job that pays twice as much when I have to worry about budgeting.

Yasmin's birthday is coming up next month.  It's April 27th.  It lands on a Friday.  We thought it'd be fun to plan a "Birthday Picnic" for her inviting whoever wants to join us for the afternoon in Richmond Park near Roehampton University.  A good few people have already confirmed.  It's just a good excuse to get outside in the beautiful weather, and most people in LINKS would love to get out since lectures will be over and exams coming up.  So that's something else to look forward to.

On the 22nd of April I'm going to the London marathon for a duty.  It's one of the most exciting duties of the year.  You're pretty much guaranteed to treat about 20 people in one day.  The costumes some people wear to run 26.2 miles for charity is just ridiculous!  You see some running in things like big chicken suits and then wondering why they collapse from heat exhaustion and dehydration.  Anyway, exciting stuff!

CTW and getting published

2 weeks ago I was re-elected as the Vice-chair of Roehampton LINKS.  I decided to be a good sport and join the rest of my new committee (a few others were from last year's committee also) to CTW (Committee Training Weekend).  It's a weekend away and paid for by St John Ambulance where you go to multiple sessions to learn how to do your job, how to best function as a unit within your committee, leadership and management skills, and the best part is you meet the committees of other units around London.  It can get pretty boring if you've been on a CTW before, but it's a good introduction for people new to the organization.  There are 10 universities that have LINKS units within London.  What we've done in the past is form alliances with one or the other and help each other out with training or duties.  My group got put in the "noisy" lodge so none of us got much sleep whether we were downstairs partying til all hours or upstairs trying to sleep despite the vibrating floor from the music below.  I look forward to catching up on my sleep.

In other news I'm looking at getting a moped to get around London faster and cheaper.  The one I want comes out in the end of March.  I found a site where you can buy new straight from the manufacturer and it's way cheaper than a dealership.  And the best part is it's burnt orange and black.  : )  I can wear my batting gloves with it to match.  I'll post a pic when that happens.

I'm bummed I had to miss the first softball practice of the season yesterday because I was at CTW.  Next week I'll miss also because I have a 3-day first aid course.  I'll definitely make the next few, though.  I miss softball.

The family I work for goes on vacation the 28th of March for 3 weeks of Easter Break.  So I get 3 weeks to sleep in (thank goodness!!) and still get paid of course.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm thinking of taking the driving lessons during that time.

I'm looking into trying to get my guide dog story published here.  I sent off to Bloomsbury as well as being in contact with RNIB and Guide Dogs themselves to see if they can help.  RNIB thought it was a good idea, but they don't have the budget at the moment.  I'm getting a poem published in Voices de la Luna also!  It's called "Thames."  About the Thames River that runs through London at different points.  A friend who works for the magazine, Carol Reposa, helped me edit it.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I've never considered publishing a poem since it's not what I usually write.  I think I can count the poems I've written voluntarily on one hand.

While I was on the Bloomsbury website I saw they had a job opening.  I applied.  It'd be a pretty cool place to work.  I would think I'd be able to get a lot of good tips through it.  They published Harry Potter in the UK by the way.

The kids are good fun.  They like to play rough, but don't know how to take it rough.  We played cricket and soccer in the backyard last week and had 3 injuries bad enough to make one boy or the other cry.  I kept trying to say, "Let's stay inside for the rest of today and take a break," but as soon as the tears stopped they wanted to go back out.

I went to the library to borrow the Roald Dahl book that Jack was reading because he kept waking up when I read his school's copy.  I finished it over the weekend (while karaoke was going on downstairs).  It was "The Witches."  The ending seemed sweet in a very morbid kind of way.  Usually his endings are happy.  I won't say what the ending was, though, because I hate spoiling books even if they are kids' books.

Tim took Yasmin to the park while I was gone, but she only met little bitty dogs.  She doesn't seem to acknowledge them as actual dogs because they're too little to play with.  But the weather's getting warmer and nicer so I'm sure we can go out more and find her some decent sized dogs to play with.