So we are still in the UK & will be here for at least a year. Bodra has a permanent job working for Symantec who create all sorts of computer things. It is pretty awesome for him- should he choose to stay in the IT field, he will probably be able to be relocated all over the world with Symantec. He was telling me last night that he might be going to Dublin soon for one week of training. Hopefully I’ll be able to tag along!
Bodra started work on Monday. Pretty funny, he went to work with a nice shirt, pants & a tie. Apparently he was overdressed! So Tuesday & Wednesday he went minus the tie, then Thursday, jeans & a shirt & finally today, jeans & a teeshirt.
We’re living in the little city of Reading now- we just moved on Saturday. Amazingly all our gear & ourselves fitted into Tony’s car who brought us over. A long-ish drive on the motorway (m4? m15?) & then the battle of one way streets to get to our apartment. It is so much easier on foot! We shared a lovely lunch at ‘The Bel & the Dragon’ a little pub/restaurant a few hundred metres away from home beside the river. Definitely going to return there once there is a little more cash flow.
We have a pretty nice tiny little apartment which faces the river & lots of trees. I wake up to the sound of swans honking, which is great because it’s such a funny sound, like waking up to laughter. In August I’ll begin a one day a week job working as a receptionist for a clinic called Ayurvedic Retreat. www.ayurveda-retreat.co.uk/ I guess I’ll do some teaching as well, but hopefully I will get more work with them- there is opportunity to learn about business & ayurnedic therapies which I’m really interested in.
Ayurveda is ‘the science of life’ & is a 3000 year old Indian therapy combining diet & herbal medicines to achieve well-being. Basically, they look at your constitution & see where you are imbalanced & then correct this. So if you go to a clinic with dermatitus, they’ll say that you don’t have enough moisture in your body so you must eat foods like soups & casseroles that have lots of sauce & liquid in them. They also give you herbal pills which look like rabbit poo. So I reckon it is a pretty valid way of helping people to achieve health. Better than just giving you a hydrocortisone cream that just heals your dermatitus but then weakens the skin so that it grows back thinner & deteriorates with exposure.
Bodra doesn’t mind me doing one day a week, but I feel pretty stink so hopefully once school starts up again (their summer holidays are now) I will have the courage to face a class & reel in a little more income. I’m not too fussed on the European travel yet. Just want to have time to do the right thing. I really want to make a home here & meet people that can be a part of my global family. I really feel like being a part of the community somehow but I’m not sure. Volunteer work is one path which I’ve looked into. I can take elderly peoples dogs’ for walks which would be great as I’m fully missing Azaeus. We can’t get a pet as the apartment doesn’t allow it and it would be cruel anyway. So I will stop looking at all those dog & cat rescue websites I have bookmarked!
This week has been good, settling in. Even though the whole day I’m on my own, it’s nice I guess. I’m doing either yoga or pilates in the morning. Keeping the little place nice. I have even made dinner every night this week, Bodra’s only helped a little bit. Heh, both of us have been burnt & cut.
We might be going to this Nylon Soundz concert tonight- it’s in a place called Bracknell which may be a bit too far for us. It is difficult now that we’re away from the reliable tubes. Trying to get anywhere is a lot trickier as it is all buses & walking. Anyway, Nylon Soundz is a concert with Asian artists so it has tabla beats, percussion & electronics combined with Indian classical music. Either that or we will go to Henley-on-Thames to see this puppet show on a barge. They are doing a version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream called ‘Bottom’s Dream’. www.puppetbarge.com That would definitely be something different!
Bodra has found a forest we can go wandering through called Swinley Forest, so maybe next time we post it’ll be about that adventure!
& speaking of wandering- we saw Fat Freddy’s Drop play in a real cool as venue in London- Sommerset House. Chantal & Dave went with us & it was like being back home because it was mostly NZ’ers in the crowd. They played all their groovy as songs & some new ones. When they played ‘Wandering Eye’ it was very well received.
Paul & Rachael will be here September 4th which will sneak up on us in a flash. They’re busy contemplating their Kiwi tattoos. Ez & Kim are doing really well, Kim is super busy with FairyLove & has been to heaps of festies & met lots of beautiful people. She has even been for a swim & she said the water was warm! Another surprise for me!
Hope everyone is happy & healthy & having something to beam about. We love you all!
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