We finally exchanged contracts on Friday afternoon, it was a bit of a battle near the end but it’s done! Must find the time to sit and tell you more.

First week of the notice period is over, it went quick enough as there is always something going on. I’m focussing on getting the students through the exams I can before I leave. I haven’t got too bad a bunch at the moment – though you should bear in mind that this is compared to some of the people I’ve had in! The morning lot are especially okay; not too many problems – they aren’t aggressive, drunk and they do wash. Still, I’ll be glad when it’s behind me – then I will really have the chance to figure out the lessons I’ve learned from my work there.

I went to see Ghost Town in the cinema yesterday. I went alone and as it was the opening week I caught the first showing. I enjoyed it a lot though I shed a few tears near the end – Desmond is never far from my thoughts and it did remind me of all the unsaid things and how it would be lovely to get the chance to chat one last time with him.

I didn’t feel like going straight home after the film so I decided to walk into the city centre and I popped into an ‘esoteric’ shop to buy some sage for smudging the house then headed further into the city centre.

I decided as I walked in that I wanted to visit a few places that mean something to me and that I may not see again or for a very long time. The first place was the Hall Of Memory to see the poppy wreaths that start to appear at this time of year. It’s a beautiful and elegant building and so moving to see the tributes that others have left. There are a series of books with the names of the dead from the wars and a page is turned each day. I spent a while reading all the names and couldn’t help thinking of the young men who died and the people they left behind. I think having read the books by Simon Garfeild over the last few years have really given me an insight into those times – you should try and get round to reading them!

 Birmingham Hall of Memory

Following my look around there I went on to Birmingham Central Library, one of the largest and most important public libraries in Europe it would seem. I have always loved the library, it has always been contraversial due to the Brutalist-Modernist design (watered down sadly in the Eighties by the addition of glass walls at the base and the introduction of shops and cafes) but for me it was a refuge! I was very badly bullied in the first ‘Secondary’ school I went to and just stopped going in, the library was a safe place to hang out in as people generally left you to your own devices and though I had school uniform on no one bothered to question me. I had a good walk around each floor, remembering many misspent days.

 Birmingham Central Library

From there I went over the square to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - another place I whiled away many hours when I should have been at school! Apart from having a look around there was an exhibition of thepainting of Ford Maddox Brown – the one who painted Last Of England (especially apt!). They have an excellent permanent exhibition of Pre-Raphelite art and I can’t go in there without going to view The Death of Chatterton which, like many famous pictures we see as posters, is tiny! Again there were so many memories flooding back and as I walked down the marble stairs to leave I glanced back at the Round Room and said a silent goodbye.

 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

I also went to see a friend who works at The Body Shop – I blogged about her some time ago as she was the one who suggested I get out of retail and, like her, try to get into university… a conversation which changed my life.

All in all it was a lovely day though tears were not far away. I will miss this city in some ways but am also gagging to get to Belfast and get started with the next ‘new life’.

Oh happy day – I handed my notice in today!!

There have been great moments in that job when I really could see the good work I was doing but on the whole I was hampered (yet again) by the management of the training company. No training for myself, employment of unqualified staff alongside me (often earning more than I did), an inept manager, no resources, wholly unsuitable candidates for the courses I taught… and the list really does go on and on. I was leaving anyway but I finally had enough late last week when I discovered that despite working there for ten months they weren’t paying me for ANY of the time I was off sick with that chest infection. I was entitled to pay as I had been there for more than six months BUT… my dumb boss hadn’t signed my six month review so I was officially still on probation! I lost over £1,000.00 and got only £100.00 government sickness benefit instead. So, that’s me off! I’m planning to work a months notice but if the house sale finalises before that and I get this months paycheck then I’m off. I don’t rate them enough to feel proud of any reference that they might supply.

It will be good to be away from that company but the best of all is not having to go near West Bromwich again. West Bromwich is possibly the most depressing place I have ever been. It is a town that has nothing going for it and I have seen things going on in the street in broad daylight that leave me depressed.

Example 1: Two teenage mums at the bus stop ignoring their screaming filthy one years olds in prams, allowing the smoke from their cigarettes to drift over their grubby faces. Eventually one gets sick of the crying, gets a kingsize Mars bar from her bag and shoves it into the face of one of them… A KINGSIZED MARS BAR!!!!?????

Example 2: Two men, dressed in unwashed clothes, in their early twenties leaving a pawn shop with three equally grubby children – one says to the other, “well that was a waste of time” and shoves a bag of something or another into his coat then draws out a large bottle of white ‘cider’ (really just flavoured pure spirit), swigs from it, passes it to his friend then says to the children, “have any of you got any watches or rings?”. They responded that they hadn’t and he says to his mate, “we’ll have to make this last then”.

Example 3: There is a pub which advertises the cheapest pint of beer in England – 35p

SO glad to be going!!!

I had a very interesting second session of the training course today and came back thoroughly exhausted. I learnt the rest of the routine and just need to commit to the practice now. It is such a relaxing therapy and ties in very neatly with all the energy work I have done in the last year or so. I find that Reiki switches on without my bidding it to when I am treating people and also when I get the treatment, this can take quite a bit out of me but it’s so deliciously worth it when I head home and I find that I just float down the road to the bus!

I typed up an overview of the history of Indian Head Massage as part of the homework for the last session and will paste it here if you want to know some more:

 Indian Head Massage (Champissage) – an overview

Ayurvedic texts dating back to almost 4,000 years suggest that massage used in conjunction with herbs, spices and oils has always been a central part of Indian family life. The treatment known as Indian Head Massage has sprung from this long tradition.

Indian Head Massage was originally used by women who believed that by regularly massaging their heads with seasonal vegetation and essential oils they would keep their long hair strong and healthy. It seems that they were right to do this as Indian Head Massage stimulates the blood flow to the hair follicles thus supplying the nutrients and oxygen to improve hair growth.

This original form of the therapy was restricted to the head and hair, but it was not exclusively for women as barbers in India practised similar skills. Head massage was considered to be a vital part of the routine of cutting the hair. Indian Head Massage as it existed then was given by barbers to their male clients primarily to refresh and energize the individual rather than to provide care for the hair. The traditions of Indian Head Massage have been handed down from one generation to the next and have evolved in the latter part of the twentieth century as they were introduced to the West.

Narendra Mehta introduced Indian Head Massage to this country in the early 1980’s; the story goes that he was surprised and disappointed to discover that barbers in this country did not give ‘champi’ following the cutting of his hair – he returned to India to research champissage and brought it to us as a therapeutic practice.

He has since developed it to include massage of the back, shoulders, face and ears, as well as the head and neck. In accordance with Ayurvedic tradition Indian Head Massage combines a physical massage with a more subtle form of massage, which affects a person’s energy centres – perhaps the most important and certainly the ‘higher’ chakras are situated in the parts of the body stimulated by Indian Head Massage.

Fewer of us in the West these days are doing jobs which involve heavy lifting and carrying but we still build up and carry the weight of stress and anxiety in our bodies – typically in the upper back, shoulders, neck and head and this burden of stress and anxiety appears as many of the illnesses that plague our modern society. Research is being carried out into the effects of Indian Head Massage on problems such as drug addiction, depression, insomnia, headaches and migraines, and other stress related disorders.

… that’s a bit of the history anyway.

I love the extent of the energy/chakra work with this therapy, reflexology will always be my main therapy I think but IHM is special for sure.

I’ve been on Xanga since early in 2001 and I’ve loved reading everyone’s blogs and of course having my own place to say what I like. I finally decided to commit to Xanga and bought myself an early Xmas present of lifetime membership – $100 seems a good price, especially with the exchange rate as it is. The annoying thing is that the adverts have gone and that knocked my header picture out of whack and I have had to take it down. I have been trying for three days now to change the look of my page but the themes page thing seems to have taken against me. It says it is loading but nothing happens and any changes I have made or stuff I have moved about never sticks. I wonder if perhaps I kept the brave new world of Premium Xanga waiting too long!

I’m looking forward to Sunday night TV – Peter Kay (a comedian from the North of England – Bolton to be precise) is doing a new show called (wait for it…) ‘Britain’s Got The Pop Factor and possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice’ They have been showing trailers for the last week or so and you can tell the kind of shows it is going to be a parody of. I couldn’t find the trailer online but this is a taster of what he is like – hopefully you can understand the accent; he’s talking about ‘pop’ aka soft drinks (like coke etc).

Sadly I’m not in Belfast this weekend but I do have day two of my Indian Head Massage diploma course on Saturday. Patrick is at Belfast’s gay choir ‘quire’ bootcamp this weekend… I expect their will be more drinking of vodka than actual singing going on! I’m looking forward to the class though I am worried as I haven’t actually practised the moves. I have done all the written homework though so hopefully that will placate my tutor.

I had a great time in belfast as usual, we went to see a brilliant play that Patrick did some work for; it gave me plenty to think about. We went to the new house again and it still feels like the right place to be next.

Back to work with a bump today. The same battles and frustrations and some new ones – I’ve got two new people in the classes I teach one in particular is barely one step up from a derelict. He smelled really bad, was clearly still under the influence of alcohol (at least) and couldn’t seem to follow even the most basic instructions. One consolation was that he wasn’t aggressive. *sigh*

I keep telling myself that it won’t be for much longer… hopefully anyway!

I’m off to Belfast tomorrow for the weekend, Friday evening can’t come soon enough. I hope you have a nice weekend.

The first Indian Head Massage class was brilliant. I had a great time and it is so nice to be back in that environment again. I learnt a lot on Saturday and can’t wait till the next session.

Hopefully we are in the final stages now of the house sale, I have a few papers to send and maybe some last minute adjustment on the price to take into account a tiny bit of damp they found in the kitchen wall. Patrick and I are now talking removal vans and who will be looking after Fintan for Christmas when we leave Belfast for 17 days of winter sun. I’m still trying not to assume too much though as it could all still go belly up.

Still… hopefully not long now.

I just have much nothing to say at the moment. The house sale continues to rumble on at the moment. The buyer wants more surveys done on the house which is annoying me a little as I just want t get on with the purchase but in this market the buyer calls the shots.

Work isn’t any better – they put an alcoholic who can’t read, write and has zero maths in my higher level class today. That’s like putting a four year old into a university class and expecting (a) the poor student, (b) the already stressed out teacher (c) the other students to ‘make allowances’. It’s all about money ultimately, they get money for accepting him and even more if I can manage to squeeze some exam results from him near the end of the twelve weeks he is with me. Meanwhile my brighter students are left sitting waiting for me to get round to see how they are doing. It’s common practice in private training companies to do this but just because it is common practice doesn’t mean it is okay - it stinks, it really does.

Having said all of that though I am doing my best to rise above it. I’m getting as much done as I can and helping all the students as much as I can – these places only survive because of the good intentions of the teacher/trainers like me.

Hmm… something brighter to finish on…

I’m doing the first class of the Indian Head Massage course on Saturday. I am really looking forward to that. It will be an intensive course but it will be so good to be a student again and especially great to be back at Athena and surrounded by healers.

While looking for some information on Indian Head Massage I came across this website – do you think that someone has put a foreign language through an online translation mincer???

I feel much much better now – my ear unblocked itself on Friday morning and by Monday I was feeling fine. Going back to work was weird and it by Tuesday evening all the stress symptoms I had before I was sick were back. I am SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to leaving now!

I’m hoping I will not have to go back to this kind of teaching in particular when I finally get to Belfast, it is just drains my spirit so much and I am one of those people who cannot leave my work behind me at the end of the day. I decided that rather than just complaining about work was not actually going to achieve much so I have enrolled on another therapy course. I’m starting an Indian Head Massage course on the 27th that will run into November and will mean I have another therapy to offer people. On top of that I’m planning to do Hopi ear candles and some crystal healing courses too.

I love a good moan but I also love doing things to improve my lot and change my life.