Howdy!

I've been gone a while, but thankfully chucked in a hellish job and now have no employment to get in the way of my yapping.

Over the last few weeks, and after lots of chopping and changing and courses being rescheduled, I think I've finally sorted out a plan for the coming year or so. So hopefully I'm off to Boston soon to get my first Pilates qualification, and following that up in Spring with Pilates 2 in either NY or Boston again! I may even do a quick course here just to allow me to join the Register of Exercise Professionals, which is useful for insurance, etc. Unfortunately it means spending another year here before I can get away properly for my Central American trip! I may as well avoid the hurricanes etc and leave October 07. But I'll try and get away somewhere else in between now and then to stay sane. I've decided it's 'proper job' time now, because I can't be temping for another 13 months! Cross your fingers.

So anyway it seems I've used my total photo quoto! So I'll just bung 'em on Flickr. News-wise, Mum came back home last weekend, and I jump started my mini from her car in order to pick her up from Cardiff bus station in the middle of the night. Stupid car. And then we didn't leave for another hour while we tried to find help for a distressed lady my mum found there. She'd only just become homeless and could barely speak English and was shivering from fear. The police were so unhelpful and rude. Hopefully she at least got some shelter from them that night and was helped the next day.

Then we sat up all night at home drinking probably about eight cups of tea, while Mum blabbered on about her trip and showed me all her crazy African artefacts. This place is littered with big and little trinkets from all over the globe, it's turning into quite an eccentric house of knickknacks, with the addition now of all my porcelain chicken buses, volcanic rocks, worry dolls, giant toucans...

She loved my surprise: A brand newly restored Victorian hallway floor! She wasn't expecting it at all actually, which is nice, and I'm glad it all worked out in time, cuz it ended up so pretty. I gradually ripped up all the vinyl floor tiles, glued down with the most stubborn ick ever created, and cleaned up the crud bit by bit. It took me about an hour every four tiles, and eventually destroyed one iron (apparently she wanted a new one anyway!). Those things wouldn't come up unless I practically burned through the tile and melted the ick enough to lose it's stick. I've got arms like Mr T now, honest! Then I went through just over 3 bottles of meths to remove the ick. I also acted all clueless down at my building site, and they donated me a load of grey grout and gripfill, and I relaid some tiles that had popped out. One patch was missing a whole lots, and I managed to find them just slipping down a hole going underfloor, inside the electricity box along the wall! So I worked out how to make them fit and plopped them all back in and regrouted the whole floor. That was fun! Then I totally scrubbed the meths residue away, left for three days and used a special polish the night my Mum was due home and got the whole thing gleaming. We finally left the dining room and went off to bed at 4.20am, and she noticed! Hee hee! So I need another project now. That'll be the loft - making a bit of a cute room up there for myself for the next year, and clearing some stuff out for a car boot sale!

My auntie Anna and Els and Lyd came back down for about a week too, just before Mum came back. It was great! We had another band practice - we're getting much better and far more tuneful! We walked down to the beach and had ice cream, navigated the swans, smashed rocks on the cliffs, looking for fossils, watched the skaters injure themselves at the ramp park and got blown about and sleepy in time to go home and nap. Seriously! Also spent some time down at Cosmeston Park where all the prettiest dogs get walked. Had more ice cream - or a blue squishee in Els' case..!

So now all the excitement is over it's time to apply for some proper meaningful employment! I'll let you know how I get on. The last job I had is honestly the first one I've ever had to quit - I've put up with lots of jobs where people have walked out after one day, and I've stuck it out til the end. I thought I was made of steel. But this one broke me totally. I've broken my run of stubbornness that I was so proud of. I seriously couldn't take another day. No talking, no breathing, no eating with cutlery, no looking away from the screen, no toilet break (without suspicion), no drinking from bottles, no minesweeper or Internet, no singing, no sighing. I'm serious! I was really only joking about the breathing.

Adios for now. Lossa love!
Vix x x