Catch Up

Right, here is the rundown.

I receive a phone call from the travel agent that my ticket is ready. Surprise! I already have my ticket. I did not argue. After work I collected my ticket. Lovely lady by the counter explained that there is a change of time: instead of 10.00 am my outbound flight is now 10.05 am.

I started my packing last night. I gave up. I am just bad. I cannot travel light. So how many pairs of flip flops and jeans do I need. How many tshirts do I need? Dennis said have I heard about 'washing?'. He has a point.

Decision is reached about Malaria tablets. I am not taking it.

Decision is not yet reached what to wear in the flight. Warm and comfy but not stuffy when I reach Manila.

At work new boss is in place; new line manager is in place; new temp is probably confuse with my procedure manual but hey...;-)

At home Dennis knows where things are now. I have a feeling that the oven and cooker will be redundant for three weeks but he did promise that he will have his "5 a day".

Staying in/out

Right while I can still remember I need to gather thoughts so I will not forget that it is the weekend and that I am going out tonight to celebrate K’s leaving – what a contradiction of terms. We do not celebrate that K is leaving the department – we are going to drown our sorrow with plenty of food (and drinks for the others) that she is leaving the department.

I would like to believe that I need to organise my household because I am going out tonight. I seldom go out and household population to organise is two so what is all the fuss.

But the thing is the window cleaner will be knocking on the door to collect his money.

The recycling bag had to be taken in.

The wheelie bin had to be moved.

I have to organise lifts home. The Bana will pick me up but colleagues who live nearby requests lifts. A print out of where they live will be useful.

Menus for tonight were distributed and it is suggested that we decide what to get for efficiency.

On the plus side I have already prepared tea for the Bana and I have decided what to wear (clothes!). This is another sad thing because I seldom go out my outfits consist of work and lounging around the house type.

Honestly do you think I should just stay in with a nice light supper and a get my fill of Waking the Dead repeats?

Whew

Yes I am going to take things easy. Yes I need to be in control.

There is restructuring in the office and yes (again) it is happening a month before my three week holiday. Therefore there is additional work to do. My procedure manual has to be updated. I have this Monday as deadline. Putting your day to day routine into words is difficult – I am running out of verbs – there are several adjectives – though not appropriate to be shared.

But I am easily distracted. I thought I will do a bit of packing. I started with my tote bags (the type where you place all your toiletries and sundries when you travel). I discovered I have three and each one has so much rubbish in them. In one tote I found samplers of make up and other cosmetics which I collected from magazines. I thought sachets are good alternatives (apart from they are free) – they are lightweight and easy to pack.

I enjoyed that distraction.

I went back to my mission.

I received an email from friend. How about meeting for a late lunch? Why not? I emailed back. Off to town and had a leisurely lunch with R. We looked around shops and tried on several outfits. Nothing fits – hmm, the light salad did not work.

Then I invited her over for tea so T her husband can collect her from the house. And then after more food and more cups of green tea and Dark Knight DVD I called it a day.

Yes I was taking things easy and yes I will soon be in control.

Count down

In a months time I will be flying to the Philippines for a three week visit. When I booked this holiday last year it seemed that 2009 is long time in the future. When i receive my E ticket (an A4 paper with details - I want the old way where I will be carrying a cheque book like information!!) the countdown has started. And there are things to do both at home and at work before 8^th Feb.

Being me (which is really scary!) I have started with my to do list. Today at ten past nine I went to see the nurse in my surgery so I could have the necessary vaccines needed to visit an Asian country.

The Philippines is apparently a hotspot for Malaria (I know that) – because the nurse’s online map of the Philippines shows the whole island in red and pink. I will get the Malaria tablets from the chemist and take the tablets a month before departure, during my stay and a month after arrival. I had taken these tablets before and honestly they gave me nasty side effects.

I am okay with tetanus and Hepatitis A but I need the typhoid injection. My nurse is lovely but her loveliness did not cover the pain when she administered the injection – it hurts!! Do I really need all these? I was born in the Philippines for *** sake.

Then I just crossed the road to see my dentist. He he he not that I will be joining a smiling competition back home it is just I am due for my routine check. I might as well go.

So all those ‘important’ stuff out of the way the packing comes next. Oh there will be another set of list of what to pack. I will worry about that next week.

Beauty is indeed skin deep

After 10 winters my skin (the exposed one i.e. face) had suddenly realised that it has an allergic reaction to winter pollen – if there is such a case.

Help – I am peeling off and it is itchy!!

The current three step moisturising regiment is not helping so I resorted to Vaseline – it made the dried peeled skin looked shiny!! I tried Tea Tree – it made my face burned. I took some anti allergy tablets which stopped the itch but made me really sleepy and unproductive but did not stop the skin peeling off.

I rummaged in my little cupboard of creams and ointments and found Eucerin pH5 Crema ( Activa las defensas naturales de la piel 24 Horas de hidratacion) – it is in Spanish because I bought this last February in Tenerife. After two days the peeling had improved (ha ha ha can peeling really improved?) but the sense of dryness and heaviness stays.

Arghh!!

This is probably caused by too much heating in the house so the other day I put on my thickest fleece and opened all windows.

This is probably caused by bad diet? Does that mean I stop eating? I like my pasta, my bread and my rice. I like my eggs and chicken and pork (enumerating farm animals).

I do not know.

Roll on spring.

Frosty Welcome

My feet felt like lead weights when I was getting ready for work. The 2 week holiday over Christmas and New Year was restful too restful infact that going to work today was a bit of a struggle.

Although my mother in law was philosophical about the whole thing and said over lunch yesterday that I should be thankful that I have a job to go back to in the New Year. She has a point and hmm, it is not all the time that I admit that she has a point ;-)

Anyway, back to the routine of alarm switch off, open curtains – surprise there is a sprinkling of snow, turn up heating, jump in the shower and then breakfast while watching news and then off to work.

I entered the building and thought it was exceptionally cold. I opened our office door and I was greeted by colleagues in winter gear: hats, gloves, scarves and coats. What’s wrong? Our building’s heating system is not working and email was sent around saying that temperatures are currently well below the acceptable minimum determined by the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and staff are not legally obliged to remain in the building under these conditions and support staff have been advised that they can go home.

But Estate and Buildings are working on it and everything might be okay by mid morning.

I tried to be conscientious and powered on my computer so I could check emails. It is quite impossible to type with gloves on. I took off my gloves – after 5 minutes I cannot feel my fingers!! I was tempted to sit on my computer’s CPU.

I cannot be bothered to put the kettle on so I went to town and have some coffee and toast. A colleague sat in her car and listened to Duffy. Three went shopping.

We came back to the office around 12.00 noon and there was another email saying that radiators are heating up and hopefully temperatures will bring itself back up to something resembling comfortable conditions by mid-afternoon. I was monitoring temperature in my desk and at 12.30 it was still 10 degrees C.

I decided to go home. I loaded up USB stick with stuff and dropped emails in my Inbox hoping to work from home ;-).

Tomorrow I think I will be wearing my vests and shorts – the heating will be running in full steam and I will be hot and bothered.

Drving me mad

After 14 months and 60 lessons I am still a Learner Driver.

With the credit crunch literally crunching my bank account I need to find that courage to practice more and to harness from somewhere that fearless drive (no pun intended) to go out in the road.

No use reading about driving:

But I confess I enjoy 'playing' about driving.

Thank You

Dennis and I have made a decision from this year not to send out Christmas cards for the festive season. Instead we are going to supplement the money we normally send to our Charity which is the “St Joseph’s Orphanage” in my home town of Ozamiz in the Philippines. The additional funds will help the Orphanage not only to provide a Christmas Dinner for the children but will also contribute to some small gifts for them.

But I would like to thank friends and family who sent us Christmas cards this year.