First Day Of Work

First day working at Projo (project x) in Buxton....waitressing.....was really good, hard work, but the people are really nice and theres a good mix of people who work there. I worked 11-6pm, didnt sit down once in that time, and having been a lazy bugger for the last 4 months, im not used to hard graft! Should get into the swing of things soon though, and it seems easy enough to pick up....
All for a good cause though-Indonesia Wooo!
Will write more on the subject when i have enough energy to move my fingers!
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P.s- Sold 3 canvases for £200 yesterday! Woohoo!

An aimless hunt for some Money!!!!!

Its been a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the job hunting, over the past couple of weeks. For the first time ever, ive started to claim JobSeekers Allowance (£40 a week), which is weird....not too keen on being on the dole! It made me realise though, what taxes are for, and how insainly looked after we are, in our little 'nanny state'. I think i can be less grudge-ful at pating with my earnings for taxes, now that ive been on the other side of it all. I can see why people can get stuck on the dole though......
But things are looking brighter, im waiting on a job offer from The Beltane, as Assistant Chef (£7.10 an hour!), after a couple of trial shifts i did....not the perfect job but bloody good pay (seriouslt taxed at that rate though-back to last paragraph!).......and ive been offered a full time job at Project X from next monday, £5.20 an hour, but the managers are LOVELY and its really nice young staff, just have to make sure i stick away from the desserts or i might not be able to find a wetsuit to fit me next march!!
So jobs wise ive got some options, which is always good!
Other news, mums still got 'milky-moo-moo' in tum, her bumps looking huger then ever
.......everyones in good spirits but rather impatient to see him/her. Names are slow to come, but if its a boy they're thinking of Jonas........better then Freya's idea of 'Bottom'!!! 3 year old humour, got to love it!!!

Monday night :)

Had a really fab night out on Monday night, with Jen. It was our first night out in Sheffield since Indonesia and we were in need of a good old Boogie! After mega hassle with joyous-ly horrible bus drivers, we amazingly managed to get ourselves to Sheff. We went to a few bars, found a really nice one next to the Forum, where they could see we were poor and gave us half price shots (HORRAH!). Then we met Maxine Lategan at Corperation, and consequently drank copious amounts and danced through the night til we calapsed in a cab and persuaded the lovely taxidriver to get us to Eyam on £20! Not bad not bad, as it would have cost about £30.........
So a lovely night out with Jenjen, reminising on our travels and organised the next batch. Its good to finally have a plan of what were doing. Jobs are in the pipe line, didi a couple of trial shifts as Assistant Chef at the Beltane in Buxton, which is good (as far as jobs go!). The Head chef's the same age as me, and my wage would be £7.10 and hour plus tips.....should find out if ive got the job by sunday.
The next batch of travelling, by the looks of things should be around the end of Feb/beginning of July, for about 4 or 5 months between New zealand/Australia and Indonesia. Dive Masters and Dive Instructor courses are also in the works!
Im applying for Unis for Sept 2008, unless anything more interesting turns up that is!!?
So serious amounts of dosh must be earned, to pay back what i owe already and make dosh for the next bash of travelling and diving! HORRAH.......

Its been a gap of about 1 1/2 months since last blogging, and life has got thoroughly normal-ified in that time! Jen and I have been home for about 3 weeks now, and only in about the last week have we been 'functioning' human beings- quivering wrecks for the first 2 weeks!
Being back is shit in someways and okay in others.....its nice to be home, with my sisters and see the peeps again. As all my belongings are down south still im still living on a bags-worth of clothes and borrowing my mums boots, so no change there!
Jen and i are seeing a lot more of each other then before travelling, which keeps us both sane/insane (AS IT SHOULD BE!), we havnt really gone more then 3 days without seeing each other!
I went boldering/climbing, another new activity(!), at the edge in sheffield, which was a great laugh.....there were some amazing climbers there-possibly more egotistical then divers (she says in awe).....i could see myself getting addicted to it. My hands are skinned, and my arms feel about 2 feet two long for my body after it all though!
Had the first of two trial shifts as assistant chef at the Beltane in buxton today (9-4). Went well , i think, and the managers and staff are really lovely. The head chef, jess, is my age and went to Lady Manners so we have some mutual friends......hopefully will work out well, as the pay is £7.10 an hour+tips! Cant scoff at that dosh......even if you do leave smelling of other people's food, thankfully its not all fried! Ive got another shift tomorrow (10-5) and then i should find out if ive got the job-fingers crossed cos i SERIOUSLY need the dosh!
Jen and i are already planning to head off again, to indonesia and maybe australia, around march time for about 5 months....Im going to do my Rescue Diver training and then were both going to do Dive Master and hopefully Instructor, maybe a job in it! Were thinking that we may get a Holiday Working Visa for Australia so that we can 'self sustain' for 2 months and then we should have enough dosh saved up for the diving courses and travelling in Indonesia.....in THEORY anyway! All debts have to be paid off first, but hopefully thats all possible on £7.10 an hour?!
Ive got to sign of and finish making a fab mermaid costume for Lani for her 7th birthday tomorrow....(7!!!)....she loved the ones jen and i made in Gili Trawangan, but hers is WAY better!
Til next time......

slap punch first day of the month!

Joy, technology!!!we have had no internet for about 10days.....guess where i am?: gili gili gili!!!!!!!!
We missioned it to kuala lumpur to sort out our visa(which was an adventure as we didnt have a guide book and didnt even know the currency:ringgit!), just about managed to get ourselves a room for 2nights while we waited for tickets-cost 3times indonesian prices and was the most minging/unsafe hostel ive been in so far!! so malaysia was an experience, we stayed in china town, but were glad to get back into indonesia where we know how things work and can understand a bit of the language. So we got a flight from KL to Medan in Sumatra, which has little going for it other then a mediocre airport and buses out to the national parks. We hopped on a Bemo (people carrier bus thing with 8 seats but can fit-and counting-13 adults 2 kids, 4babies and a cockeral) to Buckit Lewang which is right in the centre of govcontrolled rainforest. The town was devestated in 2003 by a MASSIVE flood that killed 340 locals and around 60 tourists, so it was really interesting hearing peoples stories....the problem was that everyone had lost business/tourism was low so we werent left alone for a minute- in the end we booked a 2day jungle trek with one of the guides that had followed us ALL the way from medan. I was petrified about the night over in the jungle and the white water rafting back to base but all in the name of adventure! The trek was fantastic, it was mega hard and at points we were clambering down slopes launching ourselves from vines to trees to stay upright....but we went at a reasonably slow pace so it was doable! We hiked for 10hours on day 1 and reached 'camp' at 5pm.'Camp' was right on the edge of the jungle next to the river bank. We had really good indonesian food and did card tricks....THEN they put the tent up-eg 4sticks with a ground sheet and a tarpoline over the back....AGH! Basically the night was bivvybagging BUT without the bivvy bag! Jen and i were for obvious reasons (crazy crazy insects, massive spiders, and ants the size of a 2p!) pretty freaked....so managed to 'sleep' by safetypinning a sarong around my feet and legs. tucking my junper into my trousers and using my Lowe Alpine rucksack raincover to go over my head....nearlly suffocated but had to be done!!! The next morning we found out the4 indonesian idea of a 'raft' consisted of the lorry inner-tire blown up to fit 2 of us. The guys roped them all together then i very nervously jumped in and we spead off- thought of you mum!!! It was hell for the first 3 mins then the adrenaline kicked in and the next 40 mins were spent screaming my lungs out and trying to hold on for dear life. 'HATTE HATTE' ('carefulcareful' in indonesian) was screamed at the top of our lungs!
SO all well and good, got back to our hotel room and decided 20mins before the bus left that we in fact wanted to spend our last 2weeks in the beautiful gili islands, so over the past day and a half weve taken 2 flights, slept 4hrs on our bags outside jakarta airport at midnight(!), done a 5hr crossing on a wooden boat in waves SO big they were making the boat completely rok onto its side(!), and were here!
horrah!
so jens in lombok with a friend for the day and im hanging out in Gili T for the day soaking up the rays and swimming in turquoise sea! all good.
home soon. 20th sept is creeping up scareily quickly. Looking forward to being with my peeps but i know its going to be a wrench to leave indonesia!xxxxxxxxxxxx

SHARKS SHARKS SHARKS!

Had a fantastic dive today-saw my first shark-a white tip reef shark-about 1.5metres long.....scary as it was my deepest dive by far (30m) and we had done a desent into complete blue...couldnt see the bottom!
Fears being bashed on the head and im loving it! As you may have guessed cos ive finished my open water diver course now and am still diving....talked to pops and hes given me a longterm loan of 120quid so im doing my advance course now. ITS IMMENSELY COOL! So first dive of the course was today and it was just me, my instructor bobby whos a sheffield lad (and rather handsome!), and then 2 guys also from england (total coincidence). So i can now do all my own equipment, dont think twice about the backward roll entrance into the water, and did our desent to 30mtres , at Shark Point. We desended through schools of fish, 3 big turtles, and then after 10mins saw the sharky, who was on the bottom and had its tail to me-i consiquently naturally went very still (mad though cos, with the help of nitrogen narcosis((feels like your slightly tipsy underwater)), i really wanted to get closer as it looked so smooth and soft!). was a fantastic experience though and now i see what the other divers mean that sharks get a bad press! The ones around here especially are very chilled and theres so many fish that there are NO accoutns of any people ever being attacked by them-surfers swimmers or divers. Then i spotted a blue spotted sting-ray which was stunning....and a cuttlefish, really big schools are massive fish of all shapes and sizes, more nemos, pigmie seahorses the size of my babyfingernail.............................tons tons tons.
one of the guys from england was using up his air too quickly and panicked so we had to do some rescue-style stuff and he changed to his buddies air supply-which was interesting (scary!) but reasuring that things can be sorted when they go wrong!
Other news.....met some really nice peeps here, settling in well...its a beautiful island and very easy to get stuck on! weve been here for nearlly 2 weeks now and it looks like it may continue, jen started here rescue course yesterday, so that and one more level and she can become an instructor!!!!. kanapa tidak:>) (why not!)

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Weve moored up at Gili Trawangan just off the mainland-lombok.....stunning robinson cruiso style island but with more bamboo bars then he enjoyed!

The people are wonderful and chilled........our favourite indonesian phrase has turned from 'dimana kemar kecil' ('where is the toilet?') for bali and java, to the much used/loved phrase 'kanapa tidak' ('why not.why not')......

We had our first taste of Asias famed Full-Moon partys last night, so joyous but slightly ragged around the edges-crawled in at 5am then out again fior diving at 9am.....all good fun- as my diving instructor says (imagine in a gorg scottish accent) 'Nothing that a bit of 100% oxygen cant cure!'

Sooooooooooo.....skin is getting browner, smile is getting perminently fixed on my face, and just wish i could bring you all out here to see hoe BLOODY STUNNING it is round here.....diving is my new obsession, which is mental as jen and i worked out it connected 9 major fears ive had since a kid. well well well.

So off to collect jen from her dive theory lesson, bought her some cadburys choc to make her smile, then off for some lovely nosh! Fresh tuna in garlic sauce-NEARLLY beats mums lasagne........'nearlly'.

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