The Rosebush

The prospect of living with Rach again has really cheered me up I wonder if it could actually happen!!!  Better apply for some more London jobs then

I had sworn I wouldn’t share again but if there is one person who I would make an exception for (and be delighted about it!) it’s her.

WEEEE!

That’s it really. I’m blogging for the sake of blogging.

More often than not I blog to whinge about my stupid body, but I’m resisting the urge - trying to do that less as I’m sure it must get pretty boring for other people.

So found out that the appraisal I spent hours working on on Sunday won’t actually be read by anybody, it’s just part of the admin process at work when you leave the job.  GAHHH! Could have fit in another 4 hours of Wii Okami!!

Still not sure which date I’m coming home, and I won’t find out for definite until mid July. Does make it tricky to book a flight!

I’m job hunting, but there’s not much happening on that front… At the moment I’m putting the majority of my effort into a cover letter for Innocent, who I would love to work for but who don’t actually have any job vacancies.  Hoping they’ll create one just for me ;)  Hehehe.

Right. Have to work.  Again. Sometimes I feel like I might as well just sleep at the office….

I know it’s a good thing to have the opportunity to write your own appraisal, so why am I not jumping for joy at the prospect of spending my Sunday writing mine?

3 weeks of term left to go…..

This is so odd… I can’t *wait* to come back to England… I had a taste of ‘normality’, shopping for Xmas trees at B&Q, watching telly on a Saturday night with wine and nibbles cos there’s nothing else to do, sleeping with the window open to let COOL air in…  Knowing my family are close by… God, I miss it so much….

But I am going to miss Burma so badly that just writing this post is making me think about the reasons I’m leaving…. What a fantastic 2 years it’ll have been.  I finally discovered what ‘love’ actually means to me, I also lost it.  I have learned patience and I have finally discovered the amazing energy, creativity and limitlessness of children.

Should you visit Burma? Possibly…  Otherwise, all you’ll ever know is opinion rather than experience. And experience will lead to awareness, and that can’t be bad.

I am the same person I was 2.5 years ago, but parts of me have changed forever.

 I think part of me is surrendering to its eternal grasp on my heart and my conscience. Why am I struggling to decide if I want to stay or if I want to go?  Because I know that no other place can ever live up to the surprises, the endless hope, the endurance, the resilience, the fluffy, pink, smiley-faced, kitten-loving, pyjama-wearing happiness of Burma.

Back in Yangon.

It’s getting back to normal, we’re back at work and teaching again which feels a bit strange, but it’s probably best for the kids to have a bit of normality. 

Not sure we’ve really had a chance to process everything that’s happened. It feels like this big thing that we’ve all experienced and which has killed thousands of people, but I feel a bit removed from it. Maybe that’s how people deal with scary things.  Maybe that’s how *I* deal with scary things!

A few other things going on in my mind too…. on the quiet, I’m trying to get back to England a bit early.  I’m still in quite a lot of pain with my miscellaneous back problem which nobody seems to be able to solve (possibly because the doctors in Thailand who I’ve seen are incompetent) and I really want an English osteopath to give it a go.  I think it’s getting worse, and I need to get it sorted out. Just hoping my boss is sympathetic and will display some flexibility.  It could work in her favour to send me home early too… But I very much doubt it will happen :(  3 months seems like a long time… I love Burma and I’ve had such a fantastic time here, but now that I know I’m going home, I kind of just want to go and get my back sorted out asap.

Thats it from me for now.

Pics are now available HERE of Cyclone Nargis.  Please don’t use them, especially if you are a journalist! Just ask me nicely

By the way, my photo gallery is now relocated at smugmug.  Thanks Mark!

I am now in Bangkok for a week or two with nothing to do except eat greasy food (yum!!) and lounge around by the pool.

I am textable on the usual number!

I’m being evacuated (!) to Bangkok on Friday and will be textable from then, and will have better net access too.

THANK YOU to all the people who called my parents to ask about me :) 

xx

But I am safe and well.  I’m still in Yangon, which is a total diaster area, but I’m okay (and grateful for all the worried messages!).

Waiting to see what will happen next…

Yangon is not a fun place to be, and I think it’s going to get a lot worse over the next few days.  People are queueing up for HOURS on end (like 8 hours at a time) to try to get fuel, and are then limited to just a few gallons at a time.  Supermarkets are running out of food and drinking water, and it could start to get ugly in terms of civil unrest as people start to panic. 

Fortunately for me, i’m a foreigner and will (I hope!) be taken care of by my employer and my embassy, but it is a tragedy that the vast majority of Burmese people can’t say the same thing.  I’m definitely one of the lucky ones.

Anyway, once I can update again and maybe even get some pictures up, I’ll do so.

Ciao for now and thank you again for caring xxx

…but apparently I am green anyway!

Went back to taekwondo today after a month off for holiday and medical treatment (for my stupid back) and my teacher told me that he’s ready to give me my green belt! He said I don’t need to have an exam, that he’s been assessing me every lesson and that I’m already past green belt standard :)  Might even get my blue belt in the next couple of months too!  Who knows?!?!

Happy today