A Christmas Tale...

Hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year people!

So, I've just got back from a sales shopping spree in Tunbridge Wells. My good friend Mr Mastercard was nice and bought me some stuff there! However, there is the small matter that what should have taken us 45 mins door-to-door, took us 2 hours. We got stuck in a major traffic jam on the outskirts of the town, that was the queue to get in to Royal Victoria Place. One hour and 15 later we got to the shops!!!

It was a very good spree overall, apart from the fact that the Disney Store has closed down since the last time I was there. Major :-(

So I worked pretty much all the time in the run-up to Christmas, including Christmas Eve and then Boxing Day, Bank Holiday Monday and I'm back in New Year's Eve and on my birthday too! Hoooray. Then I'll be 22... Hmmmm.

Sooo, Christmas....

Weeel, we did our big food shop on the 23rd - having pre-ordered the turkey! Then the parents did quite a lot of the cooking on Christmas Eve when I was at work dealing with all of the genuinely miserable last-minute shoppers. When I got home I wrapped my presents and then we were all ready for the big day! It panned out like this...

9am I'm roused from my slumber by Tom texting me, so I suppose there was little else for it - time to get up.

By 10am I was all ready and downstairs. On go the Christmas lights. The first argument of the day broke out over how many parawns we need. Food prep begins - the dogs look on in anticipation of what is to come - out comes the sprout tree, swede and carrot, roaties, prawns and parsnips.

Come 11am kitchen activity is going on in earnest. Out comes the custard, cranberry sauce, seafood sauce, caramellised onion etc. Veg makes its was in to saucepans and on to baking trays. Plates are laid out for the first course, the prawn cocktail.

Half an hour later sees me grappling with the sprout tree. Mum rejoices that the annual hunt for the cake forks ahs been rendered uneccessary - she found then in October and had left them out specially!

12 midday Rejoicing cut short as an argument erupts over the location of the corkscrew. Swearing joins cacaphony of arguing as Mum trips over the dog. Dad opens the wine with a multi-tool, when he turns to get a glass, the dogs lick the bottle top. The wine is tipped away as its off and we open Cava (disgusting) and a Rosé Lambrusco to have with dinner.
It is also suspected that the seafood sauce is off, but we add it liberally to the prawns anyway.

By 12.30pm Mum is ready to dish up the dinner and also does the dogs version at the same time. We open a third bottle of wine - all without a corkscrew. Heated debate arises over which way to point a cork when pulling out of a bottle.

1pm We have an argument over who should clean up the swede/carrot mash Mum has just dropped on the floor. The dog eats it off the floor, so all is well.

The dogs dinner is put down and we sit down to our Prawn Cocktail at 1.30pm and, finally, at 1.45pm we eat dinner. We're done by 2.30pm and agree to postpone dessert until later. The dogs gleefully finish off the leftovers. Present opening begins, only pausing for the Queen's Speech.

5pm We all agree on the fact that Christmas TV is shockingly bad and put on a DVD - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

On the present front, I got my lovely red DS and four games for it, which has kept me unequivocally occupied ever since. That was my main present and then I got some face cream, fluffy socks, a book about Christmas and money from parential friends.

So under the tree now are my birthday presents - I know what they are, but I'm not gonna say, because that would spoil all the suprise!! Let's just say that its all looking very pink!

So I had today off and I 'm off tomorrow, before a couple more days of work. Then the great occasion on the horizon is my birthday trip to London with my dear friends Sarah and Tom, for the weekend. More when I have birthday-age to report.

**HAPPY 2010**

2009 in the blink of an eye

Well, faithful blogites, it is almost 2010 - a new year and a new decade! But what has 2009 done to earn its place in the forefront of my memory? Let's take a little look...

0 I turned 21! That is a definate milestone and the last real age-related one until I turn 30, which is not in 8 years time!

0 I interviewed for Disney for a second time and got WaitListed for a second time. A lot of very quality people who I've met flew out to Florida to work. I have lived a Disney dream through them.

0 I went to Paris. I spent a lovely weekend there with my coursemates in the beautiful March weather. I had a great time and I learnt some great things about myself such as I can manage alone in France, speaking French and navigating. I love Paris as a city - it has so much to offer and I never grow tired of seeing it.

0 I wrote my dissertation. 10,000 words of academia that I just fell in love with as I wrote it. I fell in love with it again when it was printed out - the photos all glossy. I fell in love 100 times over when it was bound. Gosh it was a marvel!

0 I finished 3 years of university, some of the best years of my life, and graduated. Graduation was almost enough to make me want to do postgrad study - but not quite!!

0 Did kids work at Keswick, really got in to invigilation and helping at Cantell and in one marathon session, managed a GSMA session (totally illegally) with just one other person and a bunch of older kids I don't usually work with!

0 Sarah came out of hospital in July. It's really good that she's out and full of joie de vivre as well as plans for the future. She deserves every success.

0 I've been working at Argos a lot, I also claimed Job Seekers allowance a lot (not at the same time though, as that would be illegal). They were both good experiences for me and broadened my horizons.

0 I decided in good time, what I wanted to do for my 22nd birthday, and organised it. See my previous entry for full details. I'm also getting really cool pressies - a red DS for Christmas and (I hope!!) and iPod for my birthday. When you get to my (grand old) age, you don't really want much else.

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So 2009 has been a very nice year to be a part of, with great experiences and great people to share it with. I'm full of a curious sense of expectation for this new year, new decade that is approaching and feel it could be an important one.

So Happy New Year everybody, have a good one! Merry Christmas too, just remember the true meaning of the celebration. Yes, Christmas is a time to do good deeds, to be with family, to celebrate, give, recieve and the like. But its only cos of what God did over 2000 years ago that we have life, and life to the full anyway. Jesus is the reason for the season, let's not forget that very first Christmas day!

Birthday Plans

Well I'm very excited about this and so it warrants a special blog entry for the occasion!

I thought quite a bit about what I wanted to do and finally landed on the idea of a weekend in London as a treat to myself.

So... the plan is to take the train to London on Friday and do a little bit of shopping. Oxford Street, Friday afternoon, shopping. It beats Saturday or Sunday on Oxford or Regents Street in the midst of *the sales*!

Saturday is active day! I'm assuming at this point that Tom and Sarah will be joining me and we'll do some touristy things: museums or attractions etc. Shakeaway will have to be visited if I have anything to do with it! Harrods... Hamleys... etc.
But the piece de resistance will come with the evening's entertainment! Dinner out and then front row seats, in the circle, at We Will Rock You! Which has to be my favourite musical of all time.
Sunday, being the day of rest that it is, will be the day I travel home. Before that though, I'd like to church it up if I can. I'll have to take the day off of work of course, but since I'm working on my actual birthday day, it kind of evens out I guess.

Weekend in Windsor (and New Malden!)

18/11/09
I will return with full tales of our escapades - unlike Tom who just says 'I did this, see Vicki's blog for details'.

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And here I am!! All of the thinking about my next trip (B'day - London - watch this space!) has got me to blogging about the last one. So heeeeere we gooooooo.

I missed the train :-/ by 3 minutes :-( ooops. Luckily I got the next one, changed at Waterloo, hopped on the train to Windsor & Eton Riverside, met Tom on the train (as well as a load of England Rugby fans!), we met Sarah at the station and headed of to the castle.

Needless to say, the Castle is at the top of a hill. That day I'd say it was blowing at least a gale force wind. Bracing indeed. Reminded me of home, except there was no saltiness to the air. It also rained. Good old England!

Thanks to Tom, we had free tickets and so didn't have to queue etc with everyone else and all the foreign tourists. We went through the security checkpoints and headed to get some audio guides!! We also had Tom to add extra facts on as we went around!!

Here are the photos!



Obviously because of the lovely weather, we kept the admiration of the outside and outer parts of the castle to a minimum, but those are the photos from both before and after we went inside. As you can see, the Queen was in residence!

We ducked in to each of the gift shops in turn, to see what they had for sale and if there was anything we wanted to buy. Twas also nice and warm and dry in there. Tom gets quite a nice discount, so that was helpful when Sarah wanted to get a pressie for her Mum.

We took some other photos, including the obligatory group one, after we'd toured the State Appartments, trusty audio guides in hand and Tom introducing us to all of his colleagues as we went around. More photos tell our story very well indeed!
This is Tom with a child's busbee on in the gift shop!

The beautiful Christmas tree decorated with Crowns - I was really tempted to buy one!

Bracing the weather conditions!! I think we held up very well...unless you think that Sarah is holding on to Tom lest she blow away!

I shall call this, simply, the 3 muskateers!

Our last port of call before leaving the Castle was St George's Chapel. I am always pretty impressed with old churches and the like (which is a good thing as Mum frequently drags me around rural Wiltshire to see them!) so this was cool to see. I loved the little niches and getting to see the graves/memorials (not quite sure) to lots of old kings as well as Princess Margaret and the Queen Mum.

By the time we'd left the Castle, it was nearly 4pm and hunger was striking! First stop: Pasty shop! Second stop: Shakeaway! Lovely way to end the day. We took the train back to New Malden after that, sharing the platform with about 500 rugby fans!!

Back at Sarah's, it was board games followed by Strictly Come Dancing and other TV before bed. Tom also stayed over so we were able to head straight off the next morning (after I'd rescued my underwear from Archie!!) to the aquatic shop that Sarah gets her fish from, to suss out some new additions to her tank!!

The fish shop was a bizarre labyrinth of tanks and fish, so was quite impressive and we spent a long time in deliberation. Quite a lot of the fish we wanted weren't suitable for Sarah's tank, so there was rethinking a bit, but after that, she got 5 new fish (including a pregnant one!) and we whisked them away to their new home!

After a pretty amazing Sunday lunch chez Osborn we headed off to see Alpha, Sarah's rather large bunny, who lives with a family a few roads awy from her. Tom and I were shocked to see how she had gotten darker of fur, but it was good to see her and meet her family who seem to be taking excellent care of her.

And, well, sadly, I didn't have much more time than that before I had to think about trains and then take my leave of my dear friends for the trek home to Hastings!

Naturally, it was a lovely weekend and we were just happy to be in each others company and together, having fun again. Long may it continue and we look forward to the next time, which I believe will be my b'day weekend in January!

Until next time, Keeeeeep Dancing! Oooh and keep planning, keep striving, no good ever came of standing still.

Poppy Update

HOORAY!
The figures are in!

I, personally, raised £757.35!

HOORAY!

Oh and I didn't win a prize in the raffle :-(

Poppies, poppies everywhere!!

My life recently has been very full of this certain red flower!

I been selling poppies in Sainsbury's foyer ever since the 31st - its switched between being very cold and wet in there to being tolerably warm when they finally put the heating on. We were selling 'ordinary' pin on poppies, stick on poppies, pin badge poppies, car stickers, rememberance crosses, car poppies, silk poppies and programmes for last night's Festival of Remeberance and Rededication at the White Rock Theatre.

So I took my MP3, my phone, food & drink and sweets and got to get lots of money in my collecting tins. My record was 1 £20, 3 £10s and 5 £5s and the tin only had half an inch left at the top. Another key occurance was the man who gave me an entire plastic bag of coppers!! That was very exciting indeedy.

The week before Mum and I delivered boxes of poppies with collecting tins to roughly fifty local businesses and today began the process of getting them all back again! When they're all in we'll need to return them to the Poppy Appeal Shop based in the town centre, to be counted.

A few days after that saw Mum and I manouvering through the town centre with two large hampers full of food. They are to be the grand prizes in the Poppy Appeal raffle (we don't take the cost of running the shop out of the donations, so the raffle covers the rent). We'd spent most of the previous day trying to artistically organise them - one Christmas and one less festive - and in the end added hay (donated free by a very supportive lady!)! If I do say so myself, they looked rather good!!
So yesterday was Rememberance Sunday.
In the morning my Mum and I were at Alexandra Park for the Rememberance service at the War Memorial. Mum marched with the veterans procession and I was in the crowd watching. It was a bit of a rainy and cold morning, but there was a good turn out and the Pipes and Drums were very impressive.
The parade was massive: the parade of Standard Bearers was lead by the Queen's Colour, followed by a parade of veterans -young and old, after them came the serving personnel from 47Regt Royal Artilery and the Princess of Wales' Royal Regt, all the different types of cadets, youth organisations etc. We also had representatives from Hastings' twin towns especially Oudenaarde in Belgium, whose representatives were all wearing garishly striped clothing and tricorned hats!!! :-)
The funny thing was that the heavy rain the night before had causd the lakes in the park to burst their banks and the paths the parade had to march down were 3ft at widest!!!!
There was hymn singing, prayers, wreath laying, an update on the renovation of the War Memorial and - of course - the Two Minutes Silence at 11am marked by cannon fire!


In the evening was the Festival of Rememberance and Rededication. We arrived just before 6pm to sell programmes (which you need to get in) and I was selling them right up until 7.15pm. I missed the first part - where each organisation goes up on stage whilst their particular song is played. They are preceeded by their Standard Bearer and they all then remain on stage for the rest of the evening. That part was followed by the entertainment!!
We had a performance by the Pipes and Drums *oh I do love pipe and drum music* and then the Singalong!!We sang Jerusalem, Run Rabbit Run, Sussex by the Sea and Land of Hope and Glory. Less frivolous singing was the National Anthem, Oh God our help in ages past, The Royal British Legion Hymn, I vow to thee my country and Abide with me.

So that's all that's happened and is yet to happen with regards to the Poppy Appeal save for Wednesday which those of you with a keen and penetrating mind will realise is actually the 11th November - Rememberance Day. We'll be having another service at the War Memorial with Two Minutes Silence and then head straight to the Poppy Appeal Shop for the drawing of the raffle - I am ever hopeful that I might win a nice prize!!

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That's all for now - as you can tell I'm rather frazzled by it all and so this may not make much sense, I don't know!! But that's what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks and will be until the end of this week!

I have landed in the desert

Intrigued? Well, unfortunately ythis is not an update from my travels around the world - in fact, what travels? - but an analogy that occured to me as I sit here on Saturday afternoon pondering my future.

So, the desert. What is it and why am I here? Well...

The desert is a barren place. Somewhere where, if you'd just been dropped by a plane there, you'd look around and see endless, endless sand. You'd just see the same things whichever way you looked and it would depress you because you wouldn't know what to do. You wouldn't know how to escape.

You might look straight ahead - sand. Behind you - sand. To the left - sand. Right - sand. No change. You would think that even if you chose a direction, trudged off that way for a few hours/days/weeks that when you stopped the landscape would still be the same and your journey would have been in vain. You would be no closer to finding out which way to go, how to escape, where food or shelter were etc.

That's how I feel.

School, in hindsight, was a high. College was an even bigger high. University was an amazing high. The problem with reaching the heights though, is that you have that much further to fall - flat on your bum, I might add - when you return to the real world. The disorienting, hopeless, stressful, pressured, constricting world of the graduate.

Let's look at each of those in turn and I'll explain why being a graduate is both all of those things and none of them - all at once.

Disorienting or not
You are bombarded by so many options, so much choice, so much of life, all of the pressures of debt and family and expectations, that you don't know which way to turn. You've lost the fellowship you had, the independance, the regular payments from the SLC, the structure to the week. You've gained mental anarchy.
Then again; its abundantly clear what your situation is an how to proceed: you can't live out of your overdraft forever, for the sake of your soul you can't live with your parents forever either. You must become financially independant with a job and a natty little flat.

Hopeless or not
You graduate with debt - a large and increasing debt - to the SLC, you have personal debt too, you have parents you really can't support you - all in a recession. There is no money for work based training and the JobCentre don't offer the free courses that you want to do. Most jobs require experience and relevant qualifications. You begin to feel that your degree really wasn't worth the effort.
Then again; you are in your early twenties, full of life, fresh-faced, eager, desperate to create your own life and you are highly qualified - your degree comes from a Russel Group Uni - you're not unemployable. You have ambition, life excites you, you want to live in a city, you don't mind the rat-race that the older generation despises.

Stressful or not
You are under pressure from the moment you start Uni if we're honest, to be career-focused, to look towards that graduate job - to make yourself employable. You're under pressure the moment you graduate to make that a reality. All this = strrrress! You stress yourself out too: "how am I going to afford bread/that dvd/that really nice coat/a college course/to pay off my overdraft/to move out of my parents house/to be independant?"! Your parents add stress by asking you the same questions "because they care"! A vicious circle emerges and consumes you - the end.
Or is it? On the other hand, there is no pressure... other than that you place on yourself! So what if you haven't walked in to a job that pays at least £30,000 a year and have started to pay in to a private pension fund by the age of 23! You will never have your twenties again. They're to be enjoyed, relished, cherished, because you were young and carefree, not because you aged yourself by 7 minutes every hour thinking about jobs/finances/next weeks shopping bill/how the Christmas lights will effect your electricity bill this quarter etc

Pressured or not
There are pressures in everyones life - from everywhere. Consumerism takes some of the blame. Our own identity takes it too though: take basic facts about me; female, 21, single. That tells me I can't sit on my laurels, or let myself get obese and ugly, because to look like a young woman nad not a navie, I need to look after myself. If I'm to have a husband and kids, the same applies with more besides - I need to get out - I won't meet him on my sofa or at work. That's without TV adverts, billboards, seeing other people etc. That is all before you consider the expectations placed upon you by yourself, your mates, your family, their friends, those you have taught you throughout your life the moment you become a graduate. Expectations are very hard to escape.
Or are they? What is to say that you can't break free of the constraints of society, hmmm? I am a natural cynic and so traditional graduate jobs - management etc - have never, ever appealed to me and I could think of little worse. What's to say I can't be very poor and very happy? Just look at Uni! What's to say I can't earn £20,000 and still be ok? Or £10,000 - ok maybe not £10,000, but you get the picture! All the world's a stage, waiting for my entrance!

Constricting or not
"When I left school there were 3 options for young women. Get married and have a family, work at Carston shirt factory or go to secretarial college. You have so much more going for you, don't let it go to waste!" The Maternal Figure, frequently. Of course I don't want to dissapoint the women who want to live through me and my generation, or to devalue all that women have struggled to achieve against - and in spite of - the glass ceiling. However, to quote Shakespeare again "this above all: to thine OWN self be true" and I must, or I'll never be happy. Is happiness overated? I think not. I've had to choose between what seemed the best option and what seemed the one that would make me happy before - I went for the happy factor and have never regretted it. So why does the world insist on everyone fitting in to a singular mould?
Then again, where else but in the 21stC has diversity been more richly celebrated? When else has the work place been more flexible? Will I ever be in a better place than I am now, with the future laid out before me? Am I in the desert or do I need to look closer, stride out further in each direction and, most of all, keep faith in who I am and what I want to achieve?

So there we have it. My mediations on the desert. I'll tell you one thing you learn from the desert: there is no getting back in to the plane. In life there is no going back to your Uni days - those are gone, as are the people you shared them with. You could never return to your college, your school. You aren't a child anymore, you have to move on. You have to remember that if life before your sudden arrival in the desert was ok, then the desert is not all there is to life and there can be life - and life to the full - after the desert.

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So everyone, that is my latest blog post. Isn't the human mind a wonderful thing? I feel like quite the literary master! Well, you know what they say: 'write what you know'. I have quite the priviledge in life to be able to look at my own situation, add some drama, irony and quirky little truths and make simple blogging into a cathartic purging of the soul.
I also love to be able to look back over my blogs and remind myself that life is a journey, during which you will always encounter the desert - maybe even spend long periods aimlessly wandering it - but you will always have an onward ticket, even if you don't know it.