Another wonderful night watching the UK’s entry into the Eurovision song contest getting almost no points at all while listening to the presenter becoming steadily more and more xenophobic as the night went on. I’m pleased that we are hearing more and more of the music from Central and Eastern Europe in the competition AND in their own languages. The video above is of the entry for Bosnia&Herzegovina which Patrick and I thought was the best and should have won. Sure, the video is insane but the actual music is full of such joy and general silliness that it captured for me the simple pleasure people get from producing music and performing it for others. I also loved the French entry and the very strange Spanish one too – if you didn’t catch them have a look on Youtube for them.

Back home to England, work and potential house sale tomorrow morning.

Still waiting for that elusive buyer to get through the door and make me an offer I can’t refuse!

It’s been a busy week and I have had a lot on my plate at work. I still enjoy some aspects of the job but I am SO ready to move on. Teaching the kind of people I am working with at the moment is exhausting. These people are often alcoholics or drug addicts – or are in recovery from this, they often have problems looking after themselves and so issues of hygiene, low self esteem, self harm are often evident and I often feel I am walking on broken glass trying to make sure that I don’t upset them whilst making sure that they operate between the guidelines and rules we have to set for them. Recently there have been several flashpoints with some of the students and I’ve been put into situations when I have feared (though only momentarily) for my own safety. I don’t feel that I am getting enough support and I am very conscious that some of the people I work with in my classroom are likely to be carrying weapons or have easy access to them.

I’ve spent most of this week just praying that the house will sell so that I can hand my notice in and get moved to Belfast and start my new life with Patrick.

To be fair though, it isn’t always as bad as I am painting it here. I am achieving some amazing results with some of the people in my class and it has been rewarding seeing some of the changes I have effected in some of the clients. Still… I have done my best work and it is time to move on.

So, I have two viewings lined up over the next few days and one of them at least seems promising. I am also getting an auction valuation done on Friday as that may be a way to go. Talking of way to go, it is a bank holiday weekend ahead and so I am off to Belfast on Saturday morning – hopefully the agent will call me while I am there to tell me I have a good offer and I can just stay!  

I said I would put some pictures up of mine and Patrick’s trip to Krakow, sorry it’s taken a while! I’m still buzzing from the excitement of delivering that suprise trip and the joy of seeing first shock then disbelief then happiness appear on Patrick’s face as the realisation that I wasn’t kidding dawned on him.

There was a beautiful old church across the road from the hotel and this lovely tree too.

Behind this beautiful/disturbing piece of art is the Cloth Hall which sits in the centre of the main square in Krakow.

This is the best shot I could get of the interior of the Cloth Hall – we spent rather a lot of time in here trying to decide what presents to buy. The Cloth Hall is seriously old – Middle Ages I think and has always been some kind of market place.

Gratuitous boyfriend shot (also the main square at night)

Well she didn’t choose my house. I was a bit sad but I was happy at least that I knew the state of play before the weekend rolled in. The agent said that it was nothing negative about my house – it was just that the other house was slightly nearer to the university than mine.

I’m forgetting it for now. Patrick is flying over first thing in the morning and then we are getting a train into mid-Wales to spend the weekend with my parents. I’m more nervous than he is! I am looking forward to seeing their new flat, it is across the road from the beach and if we get some decent weather then it will be perfect.

Hope you all have a good weekend.  

The person who came to see the house on Saturday asked to view the place again on Tuesday which created a flurry of excitement – well I was excited anyway. They wanted to see my house and one other which is a bit cheaper and has a larger garden but is not as well appointed within. The agent told me to keep my mobile switched on all day and with me wherever I went as she’d be back with a decision. I was insanely busy at work  as usual which was good as it meant I didn’t have to spend the whole day shouting, “ring damn you, ring!” at my mobile. By four o’clock there was no call so I phoned the agent up – no news sadly. The person who came to view the house has yet to make up their mind.

The waiting continues…

I did almost nothing yesterday but doze and it was lovely! No guilt just some walks with Fintan and a bit of cleaning before a viewer came to see the house and then sofa time in the evening – divine!

Finally we are getting weather that suggests that summer may not be so far away after all. It’s a lovely day here today – just been out with Fintan and we walked for over an hour along the Woodgate Valley walk taking in the birdsong, the spring flowers (even the naughty Spanish bluebells!) and the gentle sussuration (always wanted to use that word!) between the trees and the river.

I took some pictures on my camera phone as I don’t imagine that I am going to see another spring in this valley again and I’d like to keep some images of it. I have been walking this area for at least the last five years or so and I know it well but it is still nice to have something to look at to remind me. I think it is a part of getting older that you start to notice the simple beauty in a green space, birdsong, blossom on a tree etc. I know that when I lived in London for all those years in my twenties I never really noticed nor cared about such things beyond the standard, “this is nice” when walking in the park. Living on the edge of the city you get a greater feeling of the connection with nature and an awareness of the passing of the seasons, such as they are in these days of global warming. I certainly look forward to seeing the first buds on the trees in the late winter / early spring and then the blossoming of the blackberries and apples as autumn approaches. Sometimes I think I’d like to be an oak tree in the valley and live longer than the life span we humans are allotted though I fear it might be a lonely life.

As much as I want to leave and start a new life somewhere else I have to acknowledge that I live in a beautiful part of a fairly ugly city! Patrick knows that I am committed to moving to Belfast and starting up over there so I feel I can get away with waxing lyrical about the life I am set to leave behind without him worrying that I might be having second thoughts.

Can’t wait to see Duke Special at the beginning of June at the Glee Club, Bimingham!!!!

Today was the day I have been looking forward to and yet dreading. It was my exam day for my reflexology course. I had to do a practical, present my case studies (forty treatments in all) followed by a written reflexology exam and then a written business standards paper. I know it went okay despite my nerves as we were all told that we had passed the practical before we left so I just need to wait and see how the written papers go.

I was told by my tutor that the examiner said  my performance was “superb” and that I am in the top two. All that could change of course if I trip up on the other papers.

I’ve had a very tiring week all in all – the last two weekends I have been in Belfast with Patrick and then it was back to the scary world of trying to educate the long term unemployed! I have someone coming to see the house Saturday early afternoon but after that I am putting my feet up for the rest of the weekend.

So, this weekend I came over to visit P in Belfast. I’d asked him to keep the weekend free as I wanted us to have a weekend together without him having to work at all (he works freelance in the arts, so sometimes has to disappear off for a few hours for workshops, etc). I’d hinted at a surprise, but I had also been telling him how I was worried he might have built up high expectations. I think by the end he was expecting just a trip to the countryside or maybe dinner in a fancy restaurant.

Anyway, my delayed flight finally arrived at Belfast International Airport (miles from anywhere) after 11pm on Thursday night. Thankfully, P’s lovely friend John had kindly offered to collect me. On the way back into Belfast, we arranged to meet for breakfast the next morning.

So the three of us had a nice breakfast in a Belfast cafe on Saturday morning. Afterwards, I asked John if he fancied a bit of a drive around town. I think P twigged something was up, but again he just thought we might be going for a nice drive to an event in the Ulster countryside. P and I went back to his house to get our coats while John brought the car around. As P and I reached his bedroom I said, “Do you want to know what your surprise is?”

“Well I don’t want to spoil it,” he said. “I don’t want to know what it is until it’s time for it to happen.”

“Well here it is,” I said. “You’ve got 5 minutes to grab your passport and pack some things in a bag. John’s waiting round the corner to drive us to the airport – we’re going away for the weekend.”

At first he didn’t believe me, but once I convinced him it wasn’t a wind-up he flapped about, got a bag together and we headed to the airport. I told him I didn’t want him to know where he was going to the last possibe moment – I even got the kind people at the easyjet desk to check his passport without giving the game away.

In the end we got right up until the flight was about to board, when an announcer on the tannoy revealed we were going to… KRAKOW! P was really excited – he had always wanted to go, and I had been years ago so I knew it was a beautiful city.

Anyway we had a lovely time together on our exotic weekend date! The weather was lovely and warm, the hotel was excellent and very central and we saw lots of wonderful sights. I think we will be going back for a longer holiday soon – this was very much a “taster trip”. I’ll post more soon and get a few pictures on here too, but at time of writing we have only just arrived back in Belfast and I’m knackered! So, zzzzzzzzzz……

I finally got some people in to see the house! On Saturday while I was away in Belfast some people came around and last night another person came to take a look. I’m hoping that there will be an offer sooner rather later though of course this is possibly the worst time to try and sell in over ten years!

I haven’t spoken much about it since I started but work is proving to be another spur to move on. I have had some amazing results in the three months plus since  I started and I have certainly won the respect of my peers but it is becoming increasingly depressing working with this group and I want to move on and do something else now.

I think I’m ready anyway. I keep trying to visualise not living here anymore and I think it will be okay. It’s tricky though isn’t it – I’ve had a connection with this house since I was fifteen years old and when it does eventually sell that tie is cut. I won’t know how that will be till I do it but I have taken many risks in my life and none of them have killed me yet!

I’ve had a crappy week at work so far and I find that the only thing that is getting me through is the knowledge that I am back over the water to Belfast on Thursday night. We are doing some nice things over the bank holiday weekend (some of which I still can’t say!!).

Nothing much else to say – tired out to be honest. Night all!