Much ado about one thing

That one thing being packing up my life and moving to NZ. Such a simple thing as I write it in a sentence. Not such a simple thing in real life.

A quick update:

• two more days of work
  
• then one week of packing
• then moving in for a yet unspecified number of days with the parents. Still flying 7th
• party this Saturday evening in local pub...photos will certainly be shared
• no idea about what work I will do 'out there'
• still having to sit on hands to stop myself battering people about the head who suggest I am going to meet, marry, and sprog up with a sheep farmer within 2 mins of arriving. Give me at least 5! (wah HA).
• no idea where I am going to live after initial week of being hosted by kind family friends
• yes, I am excited
• no I haven't got anyone for the flat yet...yes I am confident I will have
• yes, I vaguely know one or two people 'out there'
• I have reserved space in a storage facility about 10 mins drive from here for my stuff (thanks Karen!)

Having people round to see your flat with a view to renting it is quite a pain as I have to be ultra tidy all the time, especially at that inconvenient time of just before leaving for work. Whilst this is doable for me, it is not enjoyable. But never mind, I should get used to living in a bit of a mess.

I can't quite get on with the good stuff of actually getting all my clothes out and planning what to take, as this is something that needs to be done prior to then packing it all in loads of boxes and storing it.

I am very much looking forward to my party on Saturday as there should be quite a few people and a totally strange mix of al my friends, many of whom don't know each other. What did Bridget Jones teach me? Oh yes, 'Ieaun, meet Hannah. Hannah is into amateur dramatics and was last seen on stage sporting a ridiculous wig and bright pink period dress. Ieaun is Welsh and I used to beat him at spinning tops'. Should be a good night :)

'Would you like some ID?'

...I enquired upon approching the bouncers outside a pub in Brighton centre last night, and seeing they were already checking someone else's ID. One of them looked at me and said 'nah, that's fine'.

Ha ha haa! Since he could barely see my face, I can only imagine that he wisely thought that even on a very wet evening only someone past the age of caring about fashion (and therefore clearly legal) would encase themselves in a big white waterproof coat and pull the hood drawstrings so tightly around my face that I looked like the Ghost of Christmas Future. Probably a wise assumption.

Kinda sad

The trial was today of a boy from my District, who stabbed and killed one of his friends after a party in the summer. It's truly a horrible story and I'm not going into it, but his sentence was 12 years before it can be reviewed. Obviously everything about this is extremely sad, but what most shocked me were the comments on the online version of the local paper. I can't say more than that I was shocked, and whilst I understand the depth of emotion...well, anything I write doesn't explain what I want to say about such a complex situation. If you believe that prayer works, or even believe it might work, please pray for the family, friends and everyone involved with Michael (the boy who died), and Kieran (the boy who killed him). He showed 'no emotion' in court, and has never said what his motive was to kill one of his friends.

Cricketing and Thanksgiving

You know, I have had another weird day. Not unusually for me I suppose. Will blog more later or at the weekend when I've got everything done, but today I was at a conference at the Oval cricket ground near Vauxhall station in London. Interesting day and made me think about how much is achievable if I could just cut through a lot of the (necessary and probably rightly so) faff that goes along with my work. Quite inspiring in other words. Also used those voting pads like they have on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? That was fun. More in another blog. Then want to my second Thanksgiving held by Joel and Adriel. Amazing. 32 people and great food. Photos up later. Great to have a laugh, eat, and catch up with friends; and above all to be thankful for our lucky lucky selves.

77 days!

That's it.

Marketing overkill/cleverness

Today I attended a rather grandly titled 'roadshow' about a thing called Local Area Agreements. It was in a Holiday Inn in London. I had rather a range of emotions when I noticed that the drinks available were from Starbucks! Big dispensers with 'brewed by Starbucks' written on, and cookies and stuff, a la a mini-coffee station. Some thoughts I went through in my mind: 'ooo, coffee', 'oh my goodness I can't believe Starbucks have an arrangement to provide coffee to Holiday Inns', 'biscuits!', 'I really shouldn't have such a big cup', 'ooo real mugs', 'we look like a big coffee advert'.


As well as lots of information, one of the speakers did suggest repeatedly that the way to develop partnership plans is to take everyone to a tapas restaurant and get them to choose dishes together, as a rather yummy extended metaphor.



Word Watch: there was a good smattering of 'drilling down' and a guy trying to create the word 'innovational', which surely is 'innovative'?

I alos have a huge new bruise on my leg from falling off a chair. Not at the roadshow. Don't ask. Can't feel any bone sticking out...but it's going a very dodgy purpley colour...

Tips on annoying Ruth

I will not be held responsible for my reaction if one more person says to me 'New Zealand? Ooo perhaps you'll meet a man out there!'. Because clearly I have no other option than to move continents as I have dried up the spring of potential in the whole of Europe? How rude. And because clearly the only thing on my mind must be husband-hunting? Living in another country. and more specifically NZ since I went there and found how great it was, has been planned in my head generally for about 10 years and more clearly for about 4. I have bigger plans for my life and I am certainly not waiting for it start. Thank you.

And one more thing, yes I am planning on coming back. I have 12 months off work and a moral duty to go back as Natalie has been extremely good about me taking the time off when some significant stuff needs to be done. However, if Gill (who is already in my team and hopefully
taking over) proves to be good at it and enjoys it, that certainly gives me more leeway. But HELL I DON"T KNOW!! It's freaking months away. Please let me get there before I think about coming back again.

Rant over. 115 days.