Well, yes, it was rather amusing to find that Tic Tac had put on Facebook that she had a “Lame” tango partner… she did stipulate that this was a physical thing, rather than a comment on my psychological state of being… heh. Me. Lame.

So, I got paid, and it was just enough to get some food and pay my rent paid. With Housing Benefits people saying I have no claim, due to taking so long to get my infirm landlady to send me a signred copy of my frigging rental agreement… hey ho.

It will all work out in the end.

Eventually.

Meanwhile, I got some more work from another school affiliated to the first one, and that has prooved encouraging.

Especially as I spent a morning with a reception class… I was not trained for four year olds- it’s a COMPLETELY different ball game to Year one (five year olds), and I only agreed because I was assured support from people who know what they were doing!

Apparently, I have a lovely attitude and way with the little ones (it helped to not show any fear, be as patient as a Saint, and drop all ideas of how I have taught before, because that wasn’t going to help this situation…).

I just tried to understand them and was honest about my hands… which again, soon became the talk of the playground.

It was fun showing a little Ballet to them, as a way of introduction. I must say I was impressed by their knowledge that I was actually doing Ballet… but I soon squished a boy’s idea:

Boy: Boys don’t do Ballet.
Me: I do do ballet, I’m a boy.
Boy: No you’re not- you’re a man.
Me: I can assure you I started out as a boy.

I then spent the next few seconds, avoiding the adult’s eyes, as the obvious joke was not to be communicated… I didn’t want a child going home explaining that Mr Magee told them all about transexualism…

The Year one class in the afternoon was more frantic, strangely. The Numeracy lesson about time was a carousal of activities that I felt JUST about in control of… at least this was more of my comfort zone- and by the literacy class, I had them eating out of my hand… AND WORKING REALLY HARD! Just in time to impress the teacher, who had come down to have a look-see.

Yup, I have been lucky with my school experiences so far. I’d appreciate it if my life would synchronise itself more efficiently… like most people would like, no doubt.

Working is fabulous, but waiting a month to get paid is a serious downer on things… especially as I am dancing with the Dole office, and bigger fool me, I am being honest… hence, no doubt, why my Housing Benefit fell through.

Meanwhile I breathe in some more, and breathe out, gathering my “Zen” and try to be patient. I am playing for the long game, and there are other issues that I am simutaneously “working on”… like making pancakes.

so, I managed to conquer technology a bit, by simply becoming more techically minded. I sorted out my Sat Nav to have some locations programmed into it, I rearranged my email account so it made better sense, and also my hard-drive… I also managed to deal with some government agancies… mainly the Dole office and the Housing benefit people, over the phone- normally I prefer to go face to face… but with my foot still bad, it made sense to use technology to my advantage…

So I managed to sort out things computer based, and also sorted my stuff in my room. Still a fair way tog go, but it’s amazing how quickly the head feels after such sortings out.

Without the Sky Captain’s offer (I had more than one offer, but he lives closest) of putting my kitchen stuff in his attic, I would have had some major problems, but for now, things are finding a more permanent place to stay… which is helping my general morale, if at times I had been emotionally hijacked by a memory I wasn’t expecting…

Heh.

Well, I am still in search of technological sortings, and so employed the skills of my younger brother. Now My brother’s flat has an interesting quality to it… I find myself staying over the night, as often as not… and the computer was being a pain… we were up until 5:30 am trying to sort things out… I will have to pull out the great guns and ask my Exeter top expert, La Confiture, who is molto busy, but then… so am I… :-S

Whilst at my brother’s, we watched silly TV, and generally chilled out. One thing I should mention about my brother’s flat is he has a lot of models of aircraft, tanks and also sci fi memorabilia. His toilet, for example, has a “V for Vendetta” mask on a wall, with a T-shirt with the first stage of the “Alien” coming out of the chest from the film named… “Alien”…

He also has some Star wars keyring fluffy toys of Darth Vader and Yoda, that speak when you press their stomachs.

I don’t know about you, but there are some amusing instances when visiting a toilet for Darth vader to say “The force is strong int this one”… less flattering is when Yoda says “Size is not everything… MMM?”…

But for me, the Stormtrooper figurine is the best, with comments like “You can go about your business”, “OPEN THE BLAST DOORS!” and “CLOSE THE BLAST DOORS”!, that all have ideal comic timing…

In the same time period staying at my brother’s, he had some other guests… namely, Sam and Biscuit. A young couple, about 23 years old. Biscuit and I started talking about a mutual appreciation for Buffy the Vampire Slayer… although it became apparent that her impressionable age may have affected her differently… I admit that there was a time when I had to miss the very beginning of my Tai Chi classes, just so i could catch the end of the Buffy episode…

I did not imagine I was buffy, and set up a Buffy training area… or do gymnastics or charge around at night with ideas of staking a vampire… I certainly undersood Biscuit’s imagination being caught though.. as was mine.

I don’t know exactly how the conversation turned to Biscuit asking me if I’d be her watcher (all in jest, of course), but my brother was quick to compare me to Giles… He wanted to get me patches for my courdroy jacket… And I love books, am Pagan, and am interested in things of an occult nature, prefer REAL books over the internet, can sing… and when asked, I admitted that I probably WOULD wear tweed… and my first car was an absolute banger.

The enjoyment of these items of comparison was definately in the seemingly random questions three people were asking me, as the shape of their enquiry suddenly took shape… for the record, I don’t think I am Watcher material- I’m not anywhere near as pretty as Mr Anthony Stewart-Head, or as cool as Giles.

Moving swiftly on, a bizzare moment in Tango needs mentioning: I may have mentioned that Tic Tac and I are slightly younger than others present, but that really isn’t an issue. What is, is a woman who is most definately in her pension years, and most definately very confident with her Tango. There is something of the “Cougar” about her, only she’s perhaps a generation older than what most people think of for a cougar…

I heard a comment that she made to her 40-something dance partner that almost stopped me deads whilst dancing with Tic Tac: “Your dancing has no sensuality to it”.

This is a shocking thing to say, dripping with all sorts of possible meanings, accusations…DEMANDS… not the least, as a bit of a blunt comment to say.

I shall be avoiding Cougar +1…

Yeah, due to an unfortunate ilness of my favouritest person at the moment, I got some more few days work. I love this school… the atmosphere and general working environment…. The children and staff… such a lucky start…

Si, when on the Monday, a child comes in and says that their cat ate my homework, I took it in my stride… and it didn’t stop this boy doing it, but it was a mashed up… a post it note was placed, presumably by his mother, confirming that indeed, the cat DID eat his homework… Hilarious. So the TA stuck a huge printout of a cat paw in the homework book… tee hee.

The days I had to cover were all part of Book week.. which was poetry all week… a complete Godsend. I love poems, and even did a voluntary module as part of my PGCE course.. so I had specific experience with working with poets, and spending most of a week getting the children to create, perform and read poems.
driving is getting more normal… including filling up the car with petrol.

I was in my element, let’s put it like that.

So, the driving is getting easier, and starting to be more “normal”, but still a little hazy with parking and such… the usual new driver syndrome I suppose.

And the last two Tango lessons with Tic Tac… brilliant. We are starting to connect all these moves, and quite frankly, for a mrere 7 weeks of lessons with these two teachers, we have come on leaps and bounds. Not really a great surprise for anyone really, but it’s great for a new skill to come so quickly… something to do with transposing OLD skills so effectively, no doubt, as this is as close to “sticky hands”, a TC exercise as I can get at the moment… micro movements of mine being picked up by Tic Tac, or me picking up her micro movements, so we can negotiate the dancefloor, each other, and discover new stuff… as you may expect, I tend to experiment and try stuff out, with NO WARNING to my partner, the teachers, or to myself, usually…

Things are therefore going well, although it would be nice if some money rolled in… :S

Well, indeed.

I was the birthday surprise- I managed to get myself up to Brum a couple of days early, in secret, so that I could attend the Tai Chi class… which happened to be my Master’s birthday… I got the perfect reaction: a double take, as it is perfectly natural to see Alex at class, and then a split second later, the realisation that I had travelled up from Exeter… I was a living birthday card… it was a great class, and I went back to her’s with some people in the class, and had tea and cake and laughter.

Needless to say, it was great fun, but next time, I’ll be able to warn my Master in advance, so we can plot a kung fu lesson or something…

I was staying a “Longtall Sally’s” place, with her almost 5 year old daughter- and she actually took part in the TC lesson… it was very cool. “Longtall sally” is an elegant single mum in her 30′s, whose talent in TC has been noted… it was good staying at hers and having to take part of a different pace of life… I apologised to Longtall Sally for answering her daughter’s questions… although I was chuffed with explaining what “Cancer” was, as children have a habit of listening in on adult conversations… explaining it, without the fear, dread and worry was not easy… and kept explaining until she was bored… so yes, unfortunately, I know someone who is going through an extremely hard time… and so is his dad.

My thoughts are with them both, I wish I could offer more.

Anyways… My move went very well, including the discovery of a box of Whisky bottles and a bottle of Champagne! A serious plus to the situation, as I had hoiked boxes considerably… I had my friend “Boodbath” (Roleplaying character he had once… NOT a description of his demeanour or attitude in life…) drive the van, as he so very experienced at it, and has taken part of nearly every single move I have had in Birmingham… We had fun, managed to keep to our deadlines, and Now I have a room full of boxes… stuff I have not seen in 3 years, which, invariably, will bring up baggage, when I open up them up…meh. It has to be done, it’s past time, and besides…. I HAVE MY BOOKS BACK!!! HUZZAH!!!

Later on the same day as my final move to Exeter, I had a Murder mystery dinner party to attend, so I decided to just have a bath and iron my clothes, rather than sort anything out in my room… The bottle of champagne was taken to the party, as I felt like celebrating my move down… La confiture did a nice little speech I wasn’t expecting… and by the time we got round to the champagne, we were already late into the night… so I was touched and surprised.

“Dance partner number one” has to be renamed “Tic Tac”, as she cannot be boxed into one activity… and Tic Tac and I had to take on two roles in the murder mystery, as two of the guests were ill. Luckily, I had a pen and a pad for the Reporter character I knew I would be playing… so I could write down all the particulars… I tried an English accent for the reporter, and an outrageous French accent for the Card player… It was very confusing at points, when Tic Tac and I would hold conversations with ourselves, as we had these character’s lines to read out, or questions or ask ourselves…

So. I have officially moved back to my hometown. It feels weird, and of course, I miss my friends in Brum… But you can’t have things ALL your own way.. that would be selfish…

Just a little update about movement in general…

I am enjoying the Tango class with “dance partner number one”, who is a dear friend of over a decade, and hopefully soon, we can cajol her husband to join in too… I’m not a jealous dance partner… as my allocation of the sydonym for my dance partner suggests, I am currently keeping an opening for another dance partner anyways…

She also happens to be a friend, who I don’t know as well, but who has a dancing calibre that is unquestionable. And no chance of any funny business there either, before you ask. It makes the dancing so much clearer, and to be honest, more fun, when that stuff is clearly not on the cards.

I’ll worry about my Romantic life after I have settled down financially a bit more.

Aikido is still hilarious, especially when the slip ups are not coming from me… “Bob”, and impressively sized builder type, with a lovely, gentle quality to his Aikido slipped up marvelously:

The top student of the class, we shall call him “La Confiture”, was taking the class, as my brother was not in attendence. La Confiture called bob over, to prepare the next part of the class. the slip up was this: “Bob”… Bob’s instant reply was “yes love” … I was the only other person who heard. it took a lot of Zen to not crumple on the floor there and then…. SUCH a contrast to the general seriousness of a Japanese art… when we discussed this after class, we all laughed harder at the likelihood of Bob’s survival had he said that to his Sensei…

Finally, it looks like I’ll be moving my stuff from Brum to Exeter- the people involved are in place, the van has been hired, and the train ticket bought…

I will feel a great deal better when I have a pile of my stuff in the middle of my room- all together, and then, I will have “emmigrated”… I’ll worry about the cost later- this was always going to be a tough period financially… once my CRB clears, I will be in a significantly better position… especially if my reputation carries on as it has so far…

here’s hoping.

As I mentioned, my first car was supplied through hippy friends, who as I write this, are in California… probably in a field somewhere, enjoying nature at ir’s finest.

The car however, got a definate “no”. it would apparently cost £500… and most likely another £500 next year. So, as I was recommended by three seperate parties, I trusted the mechanics assessment… and his assertion that he could get me a second hand car before Monday… it all went on the credit card, and an agreed loan from my dad, just to keep afloat this month… :S

to cut the story short, I get my second car after only owning my first car for about two weeks… the new car is blue, a Vauxhall Astra, with a high biting point that is beastly! wheel spin city. learning about this in rush hour, on hills as my first drive home from the gararge was not fun. But I had a choice… sit in my new car and panic… or man up, take control and sort it out.

I’m glad to say that I went for the second option… and five stalls later, I get home and park my new car near my new home. It all comes down to my left foot… and like the film, I felt a little physically incapable of controlling the wheel spin when in first gear…

as I said, it’s a bit of an enthusiastic beast that wants to really shift forwards in first gear… I just need to get used to it, that’s all. I have even been able to pay back some car karma, in the form of giving people lifts to various places… This has improved my general confidence, although it still takes a lot of energy out of me if I drive for very long.

Meanwhile, more days of work at the same village school has been successful with my favourite person giving me some serious help with some resources for supply teachers… it is a lovely school, with a great atmosphere… I see that my luck has “kicked in”, especially as the head teacher asked me “what the plan was”… and I said I wanted to do supply for a while, to get a taste of devon schools, beofre settling on a permenant post just yet… and she said that she will plug me to other schools… Result! Especially as the school has pushed my CRB through… and didn’t ask me for any money… it’s only £30 (or thereabouts), but still.

I won’t get paid until the CRB clears, and then, not until the payday… which is the end of the month… so November then… OUCH!

With other financial pressures, and some family stuff that is going on- nothing I would put here, but I worry, or I Fume, depending on who I am thinking about…

Anyway… it’s an encouraging start, but still there are hurdles ahead… nothing is simple in the World of the Playful Monkey, and when it’s IS simple, it’s rarely easy…

Just like everyone else’s life…

Oh, Hedgehogs… A curious fact about hedgehogs I discovered from my mum…

Hedgehogs like the taste of Busy Lizzy’s (Impatiens, to the green fingered amoung you), and treat them like a salad bar- they simply love the taste of them, leaving other flowers well alone… it’s not like catnip for cats, they just like the tast of these particular flowers… so, if you put down some bizzy lizzy’s in your garden, and they are chewed down to the stalkes the next day, you will know that there are hedgehogs about…

So, I see I am already being hassled by my less than adoring public… mainly because they know I can make better tea than them…

Here’s a brief update anyway:

I have decided to use codenames for people in this blog… just a security issue really… if I mention people specifically I realsied that I haven’t asked their permission to talk about them on a public Forum.

My emmense apologies, to those who I have mentioned, who would rather not be.

:-S

Therefore I will use code names… which will not only amuse, but those who know who I am talking about, will easily see through the thiny veiled (i.e. unimaginative) connection between code name and real name.

If you don’t know who these wonderful people are, then you still have access to my peculiar world and MY perspective of it, with the inter-relationships and goings-on, without having to know the particulars of who they may be…

…

It’s a plan anyway…

So, anyway, yes, My first day as a Supply teacher…

I got up at Monstrous O’ clock, got in the car… drove in the dark for first time in 10 years… (eeps!) and with the help of the practice run on the Friday before, and the Sat Nav, I reached my destination half an hour early…

I was breifed on who to watch out for, in terms of behaviour (who was most likely to take the micky…), who was dyslexic, you know, the sorts of things teachers need to know, so you can make informed decisions about any disciplinary or educational actions…

The Teacher, who will be known in this post as “My bestest friend ever, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou for getting me some work”, didn’t give me any problematical lessons to teach (It’s easy to worry about one’s inadequacies about Maths, for example)- they day was almost clear in my head when the children started to come in for the day.

My bestest friend ever, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou for getting me some work stayed in whilst I did the register, and left me with her TA (teaching Assistant) and I just got on with it. It being a village school, it is small, and classes are mixed year groups… which is mildly confusing, but actually, makes some aspects of differerentiation (sorting out top, middle and lower ability group work) easier… Not that that was my problem, as I just had to present the lesson plans provided.

My bestest friend ever, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou for getting me some work provided me with very clear and usable lesson plans for Numeracy and Literacy (Prime Numbers- finding them on a number grid and using dictionaries and finding pre-fixes, and exploring how a pre-fix can change a word’s meaning… Automatic… Autograph…)…

And an afternoon involving PE (Gymnastics) and finishing off an Art project… it was weird not having to mark anything… I felt like I was cheating!

It was also weird not having breathing down my neck judging everything I do in a negative light…

Teachers did come into the classroom, hunting for resources, and the Head teacher came in to return some stuff from the assembly that she borrowed, but even this obvious, but unintrusive checking-up-on-the-new-guy didn’t have the air of judgementalism that I had unfortunately suffered from my last placement of my PGCE (It MUST be stated that the Teacher and TA of my lst placement were terribly supportive and were absolute “Diamonds”, in helping me survive my placement!)

Yes, there were some moments where some children tested the boundaries…I prefer to be clear and subtle- sometimes the children don’t pick up on the subtle, so I have to be even clearer… unsubtle… but hey, the TA, who obviously knows the children better than I do gave me a quiet “well done” with the way I dealt with little Jane’s whispering…

Let’s just say I made her back down without having to raise my voice… and we could all move on, so she didn’t feel victimised…

PE was hilarious. children, as always, jumping dangerously and pushing each other on and off the equipment. Me, armed with a radio (as the hall is across the road from the main school), and my somewhat loud voice that can cut through all but the most frenzied Children’s screams…

So yes, lots of accident prevention going on there. with only one minor, minor incident where one boy barraged a girl with a bench… I used this as ammunition for any future time we may work together that the children REALLY should listen to what I say, when I say it, as some accidents are avoidable.

Anyway, children who are 10-12 should know better…

My first day was therefore a success, with one of the teachers commenting on how calm the classroom was… (A Tai Chi teacher having a calm classroom… go figure… ) and the Head telling me that they had recommended me to another village school… I said thank you.

I drove home, and celebrated my day by going to a Pub quiz, famed for it’s constant dance-off’s that usually determine the winners… I actually got 2 questions that no-one else on the team knew… this is a rare event for me… I usually just confirm what they already know… or convince them unwittingly to put the wrong answer down… but, the Sky captain, The Bassist and Muso and I joined forces with two second year students… one was of greek descent, and was VERY pretty… I blame the bassist… incorigable… They both massively showed their age by failing to answer the general knowledge questions (which to be fair was more aimed at my generation, so I’m not saying they were stupid)… but were able to help by knowing the names of the bands/ songs of that them there new music, we don’t listen to…

And we actually won! we had free beer and Pizza… the two young women, being starving students had the pizza, and we had the beers… the pizza that wasn’t eaten (by me) I passed over to the winners of the dance off- the most entertaining dance-off I have ever had the pleasure of seeing… the mandate was to “dance sexy” which these two young men failed to do in such an incredible “no-holds-barred” parody that literally left me with a stitch. the otehr two couples dancing were actually technically rather good… but the mob follows the least threatening and most entertaining…

…

My next half day was with a different class, and by now Mr Magee’s fingers have been a major talking point in the school playground… so the younger children had been warned not to be rude about my fingers, but perhaps, ask politely… some did, at the very end of the day. Anyways, this class had it’s own little nuances, which I mainly handled ok, with a slight hiccup at the start, but that was resolved fairly quickly.

And I discovered a useful trick… get the noisy kid to practice “Meditation” on the floor. and then others can join when they have finished their work… They don’t stay quiet or still completely, but it’s better than them raising the noise level in the room, when they have finished their work, while others haven’t…

And as for dredging up my life…

Basically, a teaching agency, which I need to apply to to get some supply work, have asked me for a complete employment history since I was 18. at 38, this is a little bit of a tall order, and makes you wonder how people with ANY sort of life experience are made to feel welcome to the profession… not to say that teachers in their early twenties are not fully capable and dedicated teachers, but it does make it eaiser for those who have done practically nothing other than get themselves educated and train to be a teacher…

I know this is grossly unfair, and onhelluva gross generalisation, but I hope you appreciate the frustration I am momentarily suffering… My life has been such an artsy fartsy journey with more of an UNemployment history… the kind of life that has built up a certain amount of life experience that is highly desirable, NOW that I have the teacher training… *Sighs* I just feel that I can look terrible on paper… anyways, who cares? my reputation as got off to a respectable start, so, let’s press on!

EEP! MOT tomorrow!

yes, i have decided to go “public” with this blog miliarky again.

For those who don’t know, I have moved back to Exeter and miss my Brum crew massively… but it’s a new era, and the pull home to certain friends and obviously, family has won. But the pull of the wonderful people in Brum has been felt most keenly. You know who you are, and I will only mention the Tai Chi bunch, particularly Peta, my teacher, big sister, confidant, friend and “Master”… But as she so eloquently put in the goodbye card, I’m “off to make my own furrow”…

It’s taken me a month and nearly all my bank account to get a room in a shared house, and only now, can I sign up for Agencies for work, get a CRB (criminal Record Background check- or something like that) and therefor afford the room I am living in.

I have aquired a 13 year old car for free, because I live in a world where Hippies are nice to me and me to them… and after a bizzare few days where I was “mildly stranded” in Birmingham for week, sorting out Car tax (a story in itself, not for blogging)… I safely transported myself back to Exeter with a car load of my stuff.

So, the month of August was settling in a bit, September was basically about sorting out the car, driving around on little adventures to get used to the car and hassling the Estate agents about sorting out the accomdation… and now it’s about getting myself teaching supply work.

I will state now that I won’t mention TC stuff in this blogg- NOT because I am not doing it, but because I only rarely think it is relevant to mention in this forum… talking about dance classes, Aikido (because I’m a tourist, and it’s funny wearing a black skirt whilst twirling around and suddenly putting on a potentially brutal lock of some sort…) and various silly instances in my life…

needless to say, any schools or children’s names mentions in this blog are FALSE. This stops me losing a job, breaking confidence with a school or with staff or children.

So… there you go, let’s start in the middle:

Yes, strange. I move into my new place, a room in a shared house. It’s the biggest room in the house, which I’ll need when I get the stuff out of a friend’s attic in Birmingham- stuff I haven’t seen in three years, so I suspect I’ll be throwing a lot of it out… except my books, my precious books!

But it’s good for the headspace- sorting out things physically and otherwise- part of the settling in of Exeter City. What I wasn’t expecting was the Virgin box attached to the TV to work… it only had the 5 channels, but before connecting it up again, me and my housemate wanted to know if the otehr two housemates wanted Virgin or sky or whatever… anyways, all of a sudden, BBC 1 disappears from the selection choices… it is as if Virgin have kidnapped BBC 1 until we get their package!

it’s a good job for Virgin that I got to see the climatic episode marking the end of the present series of Doctor Who before this digital kidnapping had taken place…

Attack of the clones… yes, I was on my way home at night when I was gently accosted by a woman on a bike… she came up very close and said “hello”… as we know, I am terrible with names, but rarely forget a face… I didn’t recognise hers. And as soon as she finished her salutation, she realised that she didn’t recognise mine… She started to apologise immediately, and explained that I was almost identical to a Lawyer in Exeter she knew… no hair, short, wears a hat like mine… it seems that James and I are starting to take over the world… if only we knew about each other, we could start a cult…

And as for stage fright, well, that’s just new job jitters. I do not have a primary school position yet, and I thought it would be prudent to get used to the Devon area anyway, before I make any rash job decisions… and on Monday, I have my first day… all thanks to a marvellous aquaintance i met in August… prooving once again that WHO you know is just as important as WHAT you know… and it is always nice for a little karma of the nice sort to come your way after a… difficult period…

So, things are looking up, and I am starting to settle, I suppose..

oh, and hello by the way

No, I am not in gainful employment, as yet.

It’s just time to end this blog. It has been a year in the life of Alex, the Playful Monkey and it’s becoming a chore writing this up. At first, this blog was a way of people in the UK keeping tabs on me whilst I was away in HK. Then it became my connection to THEM as I got homesick. Then it became a way for me to amuse myself and then a way to amuse others.

And I was encouraged by a few who either were living vicariously, or wanted to know what was going on with me. Fair do’s. But Tan is now in the East, in his element, and

To be honest, if you want to know what’s going on with me, just pick up the phone. Send me an email. Face-ache me. Text me. Write me a god-damned letter. Is it THAT so hard?

The pattern of entertaining my friends or associates has expanded into the cyber waves, and I say it’s time to stop this. I am not the entertainment.

There is so much going on, it’s hard to keep it all up to date. Such as: me being Wolfie’s tea-bitch when I roleplay every Monday; Les lending me a semi-functional phone so I can listen to the radio on my journeys to and from classes; A mildly private and girly moment with Phoenix; Our resident Hungarian sleeping on the mats before TC class regularly scaring unaware people as he emerges sleepily, but unexpectedly; The Time Peta, Ron and I did the closedown exercise with “Bony Tony”… a 3 foot tall plastic anatomical skeleton; The dinosaur jokes with Ron; Chris B Buying me “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, just cos; The fact that people are Ninja-Hugging me back via text ; money being so tight, my food budget reminds me of my last month in HK; Peta and my dad helping me out so that I don’t starve, getting a purple birthday balloon from the Capoeira guys, the regular joke texts from my sister Liz, Grum’s weekend text hugs, Fluffy’s conversations, … the list goes on.

SO MUCH is going on, it seems, that if I spend my time recording it here, I won’t be able to have time to get that job and sort my life out. I will probably add some more HK photos, and check the site occasionally, but that’s about it: it’s a historical document now.

I do however, miss the folks home… The one’s in Exeter. But the stuff that’s going on there for some, I can’t help with, and I should stick my nose out and let them get on with it. Funnily enough, I text, in the hopes that they know I care and that I think about them. And I keep in contact with family as best I can…

I miss the Welsh contingent, cos they are Fabulous and know how to have fun and can have wild flights of fancy beyond my own capabilities.

I miss the Hong Kong Peoples because they also know how to have fun, in a completely different way… eating and singing and playing Mah Jhongg… it’s lovely to part that.

Before this becomes a list of people I miss, which could take a while, my point is, that I have always been proactive in keeping in contact with people, and perhaps been a bit of a busy-body. People need space.   I NEED SPACE. I have spread myself so thin, that my tendency to run around like a headless chicken, while once endearing to some, perhaps, is simply an inefficient use of my time.

If I’m THAT worried to lose friends, that I feel I need to entertain them, I should take a long hard look at the quality of friends that I have and give myself a good telling off.

I may not be as cool as Chris C, intelligent as Greg, Talented as Faye, Committed as Peta, pretty as… jeeze Louise! I know many pretty people, but let’s say as good-looking as Chris B (cos he’d be happy with the accolade)… Loyal as Phil, entertaining as Ronnie, Wise as Lucie, Witty as Wolfie, eesh! The list goes on… but why did some part of my psyche think I had to be? The 6 year old, the 14 year old, the 18 year old…

*rolls eyes*

Anyways, a little growing up has gone a long way. I may well be the most ENTHUSIASTIC person you are likely to meet, but it’s time for me to let that quiet side that I protest is present, to do the talking.

Everyone is so busy that we tend to only deal with what is right in front of our face… and what is on front of mine is:

September cometh. Time to apply via UCAS to get on a PGCE course. I am USELESS, if I don’t become a teacher.

September cometh. Master He Jinghan is coming to Birmingham. Peta is hosting him, and I am rather excited about the course. It’s going to be inspiring, and give us all new ideas and perspectives about Tai Chi… *claps hands*

Get a job. If only because I need new clothes- my weight seems to have stabilised- happily everything is too big… even my belts need new holes in them.

Let Shamanic practice enter into my life, to act as the “glue” of all the seemingly disparate parts of my life/being. (This has helped my personal TC practise no end already)

So there you go.

Rant over.

An eventful year. Life goes on, and what an interesting life we have, neh? Truly, I am BORED with talking about mine, and I would seriously appreciate learning about yours. YOU may think yours is boring, but it’s not.

Not to me.

My life, no doubt will continue to have it’s… complications and general randomness… like Choreographing a hair show etc, and I invite you to allow said randomness to enter your life. it keeps things interesting, and really IS very easy: Just break you patterns in little ways, and keep your sense of humour.

One last thing: I noticed a lovely piece of chalk graffiti in Moseley last week, and it’s practically a direct quote from Noggin (international Musician extraordinaire and fellow Shaman – (deceased)) :

“What have you done today that has made the world better?”

Gotta love Moseley.

anyways…  keep dancing, I know I will…

Laters,

x