Another year draws near to the end, for me It's been a rollercoaster year, but I have new challenges to look forward to 2008, you never know it might be my best year yet!!!!.
To all fellow JLanders all the best in the comming year, for you and your loved ones. I'll be raising a glass to those who are sadly no longer with us.
Good luck and best wishes to all and see you next year!
Love
Yasmin
xxxx
Hope you all has a lovely Christmas! wish I could say the same, those of you who read my journal knowthat I had planned to go to France for the festive holidays.
Firstly lets start on Saturday when i wnet o the travel office to book my ticket for the coach trip to Stanstead Airport, I was told that I could only buy tickets on the bus no problem£16, i also enquired about the bus times and was told normal service on Monday, I double checked this at the actual bus stop and again online later 8.35am it's just over and hour so would give me plenty of time to check in..hmmmm.
Monday morning bright and early walking towards the bus station with fifteen minutes to spare before my journey the bus passes me at 8.20am with only one person on board, hot footing it to the station i find that they are operating on Saturday hours and the bus times are fifteen minutes earlier, next bus at 9.20am, again i made enquires and was told that this is correct although there were no notices informing customers of time changes, the next stop was to far away for me to catch up, so all I could do was wait......, i did ask at a couple of the local cab firms but as it was Christmas Eve they were charging double so would have been £80 ($160).
Finally the bus leaves at 9.26 we get to the next stop and the driver has a malfunction we are delayed by some 30 minutes, eventuall we get underway make all the other 5 stops and arrive at the airport at 10.45, i race to the check in desk they are still there when I hand over my papers they say I'm too late i quickly explain and they still wouldn't check me in, I didn't even have bags what i had with me i could have taken on the plane. i have to say the rudest staff I've come across in a long time.
I wait 15 minutes in the customer service line finally get nto explain again what has happenend and was treated to a tirade I had missed my flight and there was nothing they could do, when i questioned the "girl" she was incredibly rude and unhelpful throwing my papers across the counter at me and said she didn't have to help me and it wasnt her fault, when her supervisor intervened on my behalf she explained the only other flight they have going to France was to Marseille at 4pm on stand by for and additional £50, ok that would have been ok but once I got to Marseille it was a 3 hour train journey if Icould get a train ticket to Carcasonne, managing to get hold of my friend at the other end thankfully having worked for the airline he was able to double check for me, and we find that they closed the check in gate 10 minutes early also the plane was delayed at the airport by 40 minutes.
I will be able to re-claim my money back from the coach company as it was their fault that I was delayed so not out of pocket however i didn't go to France so therefore spent Christmas at home by myself..
I have written a letter to Ryanair about the staff etc but Christmas has been ruined this year, I really needed to have this break it's been an up and down year.
Just on catching up on my alerts today i was sad to hear about Kim and Lahoma's battles with cancer have been lost, which has put things back into perspective with me, although I was not a reader of either journals on a regular basis my prayers are with their families. I up loaded this from You tube in theirs and all the others that jland has lost this past year.
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Yasmin
xx
I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish all fellow Jlanders a Merry Christmas, and that you have a special day with your loved ones, and of course raise a glass to those no longer with us.
Lets101 Quizzes - Fun Quiz
It's my Birthday today, so another year bites the dust..lol, I've had a quiet day usually I end up working but as I'm no longer running a pub It's a luxury to have the day off.
Did'nt really do much went out for an early lunch with a couple of girfriends to a local pub, and had a walk around the shops, we came back here and had a bottle of wine and chatted for a while, very low key thats the thing with December Birthdays, everybody is busy planning for Christmas, got some nice cards and e-mails so all in all I'm a happy bunny. One of the things I always miss on my day is Mums Birthday cake I had one every year 37 in all, lol.
Also another nice surprise one of my old school friends got in touch today we haven't seen each other for over twenty years, and we have made plans to meet up in the New Year,i'm quite excited about it and it will be fun to catch up.
Still studying hard, and almost finshed the first part of my course, it's been tough and sometimes I'm still not so sure about such a big career change, gets a bit harder as you get older but hey I'm having a go and I'm sure it will all work out...lol.
Anyway thats all for today
Take care
I just love this song for me it describes all that is good about Christmas, It was also my mothers favourite song, she particularly liked because my brother and myself are December babies.
The Christmas Tree was first brought into England by Prince Albert husband of Queen Victoria, in 1841, for his wife and family this was decorated with candles and fruit, this soon became a popular addition to households across England.
First footing another tradition, which means that the first person to enters your house lets Christmas in, there are variations of this tradition based mainly on New Year.
Although Christmas pudding had been around for quite some time well from the 14th Century, it was a porridge type concoction made with boiled beef and mutton with raisons prunes and wine added for flavour these were usually made weeks in advance, each member of the household had to come and stir the pudding and make a wish, it was during the 1600's the the recipe changed adding eggs and breadcrumbs, a silver coin was added along with a ring button and thimble, the finders of these items, hopefully with teeth intact would have great wealth(coin) marry within the year(ring) or end up old maids or batchelors (thimble and button). When I was a kid there was always a sixpence added.
As well as studying when I take breaks I watch movies, but only the classics from the Golden Era Of Hollywood. This week I've watched:
"Hello I'm Mrs Norman Maine. Great Stuff, I also have the Janet Gaynor and the Barbra Striesand versions.
Yasmin
The news this week has been interesting to say the least.
Last Saturday Jon Darwin walked into a London police station, claiming that he was a missing person! everybody including his two sons and 91 year old father were greatly surprised as they thought he had drowned some five years previously.
It appears that John had gone out in his canoe, and never returned, although the canoe was was found some months later.
For some reason his wife was issued with a death certificate a year after his disappearance, although no body was recovered an unusal fact since it takes seven years for someone to be declared dead.
His wife duly claimed on his life insurance, and I suppose she grieved with her sons.
His wife six weeks ago sold their seven bedroomed house and left for Panama with no forwarding addresss. When contacted she seemed surprised that her husband had turned up dead, although there is an extradition treaty with Panama there were no plans to bring her back immediatley.
It now transpires that there was a photo taken of the two of them in Panama last year, also the police seemed to be on to them as they were investigating claims of financial dealings of the couple.
Also where his wife worked a colleague overheard her talking to her husband on the phone this added to the susupicions that all was not ok.
It now appears that Mrs Darwin was aware that her husband was /is alive, she is comming back from Panama, her main concern that her "boys" would never forgive her, they feel that they are victims of their parents scam. John Darwin has been arrested and is currently being questioned. My own view is how dispicable these people are to allow their own children to think that one of them was dead anyone who has lost a loved one understands the grief and pain that is suffered I hope they throw the book at them.
A couple of ther examples of faked deaths:
John Stonehouse MP faked his own death in 1974 leaving his clothes on a Miami Beach, he was dscovered a month later in Austrailia with his mistress and ex-secetary shelia Buckley, he did this to escape buisness and finacial difficulties he served seven years, upon realease he did charity work and died of a heart attack in 1988.
Lord Lucan(Lucky)
After an attack on his wife and murder of the family nanny Sandra Rivett he disappeared, he has been declared dead but no death certificate issued his son is still unable to inherit the title and land. It has been long suspected that he was helped to leave the country by friends who believed him innocent, he was in fact held responsible for Sandras Rivettes death. although there have been hundreds of sightings of Lord Lucan no one has ever got to the bottom of this mystery.
Yasmin
xx
Also I've managed to book my Christmas flights to Limoux in the South of France for 4 days I'll be spending the time with one of my oldest friends who moved there 3 years ago(I'm still jealous) managed also not to spend a fortune on the flights £120 rtn compared to last week it was almost £300rtn, I fly out from Stanstead to Carcasonne the whole journey from home to there takes about three hours in total which is not bad and at least i don'y have to cook!! bonus, my going for xmas gets my friend out of a family xmas with his partner, last year they went to his partners brothers home with all the family and the lady of the house charged them 50 euros per head for their dinner!!!! after she served it of course, had it been me i would have charged her the same for the pleasure of my company for the day..lol. so it will just be the two of us loads of food and the fantastic local wines.
Last week I had a nice surprise, i've been a member of www.Friendsreunited.com since 2000 and have rekindled a few friendships from my schooldays, well last week i was contacted by two more which was great and we have made plans to meet up in the new year one girl in particular i've known since I was six and the other we met at Secondary school so a couple of boozy nights planned, it's amazing how you revert back to sixteen again when you had everything ahead of you, we still have but with a bit of experience now, but i have to admit you could'nt pay me to be sixteen again life seems so difficult for teenagers now...lol.
Still studying hard I think my brain is now soaking up the necessary information, some of the modules are very hard but I'm persevering and enjoying it immensley and now completed 20 of the 30 modules.
It's been lovely meeting other journalers in chat I now have about 30 on alerts it takes over an hour to go through them everyday, but hey it's good fun.
Thats about it for now oh and please sign my guest book thanks
Hi all
Just another observation on the new Journal Chat, on Friday there was a youngster in the chatroom, who was only ten I did report it at the time, as I felt the chatroom is not suitable for the under eighteens.
Last this child appeared again and was quite rude, when asked where her parents were the reply was in the garden, she then cmae on again under another Identity and we had more of the same, she even asked me if i was a "Kiddie Hater" then revealed her age etc. she is 10..!!
I have reported this so did Guido from Northern Trip.
While this is a great new addition and has prooved to be great fun for all who wish to use this facility, we obviously have to be careful about children having access to their parents journal. This particular childs mother came on and asked "who was threatening to report her child" unfortunately my pc crashed at that time so I don't know how it was resolved.
These are a few things I have learned:
1. Never give out your address or phone number
2. Always report abuse of any kind, you can also copy and paste the chat if you need further evidence.
3. Where minors are concerned report immediatley
4. There is a block facility, which means you block them from seeing your chat and you don't see theirs either
5. Above respect others and their opinions even if they differ from yours.
I know the above seems obvious, however chatrooms are new to some and we don't want anyone put off from using it.
As this is a new feature I think the guys from Magic Smoke would be happy to hear our observations, and helps us keep this safe and enjoyable.
Take Care
Yasmin
Hi all
Your probabaly going to see a lot of comments the next few days about the new Journal Chat.
I did look in late last night but not much happening, so I tried again this afternoon, and met quite a few people who were in and out during the course of the day also I found jeanette in there who only came in fot a few minutes and spent most of the day in and out LOL, Guido was also a visitor.
There were a few problems with the audio and viewing but thankfully it was sorted, there are quite a few of the admin team in there and are very helpful.
It would now seem that we are now contactable 24/7..lol however I enjoyed meeting new people and some not so new, if like me you enjoy having a natter this is the place to go, but beware I belong to a couple of chatrooms and they can become addictive as was said by a few people if we spend our time chatting on there, there will be no time to work on our journals ..LOL. All in all i thinks it's a great new feature but as long as you give yourself a set amount of time.
Today I was supposed to be studying as i've started the first part of my Teaching course which i'm doing online, it's amazing what i've forgotten in the 30 years since i left school , however not finding it too daunting, si I'll be hitting the books with a vengence tommorrow...LOL
I might just have another peek in the chatroom before bed.
Have a good weekend one and all.
Love
Yasmin
On hearing the news about the government wanting to change the drinkung hours again, i think "If only they had listened" in the first place.
In 1988 when I first came into the licsensed trade, the November of that year brought in the all day opening, initially there was the novelty factor of being able to purchase a drink after 3pm, people drank for longer over the lunch time period but generally most would be gone by 3.30pm and you were always left with a few stragglers the 3-5pm is still the graveyard shift, however as time went on not only would you have your few regulars, you had those that worked shifts and would be finished at that time of day it was'nt so bad when they went home when your evening trade started but then stayed on so you had a situation whereby you had some who had been drinking since opening those who drank for a couple of hours in the afternoon then you afterwork crowd, the breweries at that time were rubbing their hands with glee more money in the tills.
The trouble was it brought different sets of problems.
1 one group who had been drinking all day
2 those who are just having a drink after work
we began to have trouble with the first groups, obviously as they began drinking several hours earlier so it was clear to us All Day Opening was not neccesarily a good thing.
Next you had the advent of the Lager Louts who were mainly young office wokers and those from the building trade who were earning huge salaries at that time and had money to spend, and spend it they did and I watched the drinking culture go from getting tiddly/drunk on a Friday or Saturday night to all day every day, seriously we had customers that used to open with us and close with us, the next days conversation was always about "how drunk they were last night" and this theme has really continued till this day, we have always had the power to stop serving when someone is too drunk but often this was met with violence and you were spoiling there "fun".
One pub ran for 3 very long years in Middlesex, was a family pub we had a huge garden childrens area etc, however I had to learn to deal with a different set of problems, we had a childrens licsense till 9pm whih really meant that adults could bring their children and have a meal, this was not the case it was a constant battle to get them to leave a t 9pm because by this time they wanted to continue drinking they would often make the kids go into the garden as the license did'nt apply there and they would continue drinking until closing time then drive home quite often, we got the police involved but there was little they could do about it as the outside was'nt licsensed, on the weekends the parents would be there all day long drinking the kids running wild, and people wonder where youngsters develop this behaviour.
This was also the summer of 1999 year of the "alco pop" I remember not being able to order Bacardi Breezers because the suppliers has sold out due to the successful advertising campagain on TV on a weekend we could sell up to 20 cases(24 to a case).
Drinking around the clock has become the norm, and when in 2005 the laws changed again for a more continental style to my mind it became worse very few got all night licenses but most of us had to do extra hours.
The law consists of a Premises license which the council allow permitted hours in the City we were allowed an extra 30 mins so 11.30pm the same for the West end if you wanted to open additional hours you had to apply to the council, but thse were really for Parties Music event/etc.
Most responsible companies sell very few alco pops we had'nt for nearly 5 years now nor did we do 2fo1 simply as drunkeness is a problem.
Health risks are the biggest issues I mean a 25 yr old alcoholic is not a pretty sight read NorthernTrip he sets out the dangers more graphically
Drinking does bring other issues not only drunk and disoderly violence however sexual assaults have been on the increase.
An example 2 years agao a group came in we refused to serve one lady as she was out of it but allowed the others one drink, they left and we were then left with a very drunk young woman so drunk in fact she could'nt even tell me her name, in this situation if we can get the information we just put them in a taxi and send them on their way, not the case with lady in the end we had to call the police and they took her to the cells for the night, she came in on the Monday and thanked us, my point being had we left her outside what would have happened??
The onus is now on managers and barstaff to control Binge Drinking inccuring on the spot fines of £80 a bit unfair as the laws were not created by the many people who work in the service industry, these problems were predicted many years ago by experienced licensees, and really my own veiw is stop putting profits before people, and enforce the laws that already are in place, the police and local councils can and should shut down establishments that continue to flout the laws. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the problem has been ongoing for i would say 15 years probably more.
Another thought there are 16 bars in the Houses of Parliament and when I worked at the Red Lion (previous entry) we threw out more than our fair share of MPs even quite a few famouse ones!!!!! plus their drinks are subdised, so they never pay the full cost.
Yasmin
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I keep seeing this on various blod so i thought I'd have a go
FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD
Clerical assistant when I left school during the summer before colledge
Chef
Care Assistant for adult with learning difficulties
Pub Manager
FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED
Colchester
London
I will only put two beacause during my time as a Pub Manager i moved around a lot
FOUR PLACE I HAVE BEEN ON HOLIDAY
Austrailia for the 2000 olyimpics also stopovers in Dubai and Singapore
America both times to New York
Spain Various locations
France Various locations
FOUR FAVOURITE FOODS
Roast Lamb
Curry-Chicken
Pasta
Chinese
FOUR PLACES I'D RATHER BE
On a sunny beach anywhere
Walking the Great Wall of China
Health Farm/Spa
Cinema.watching old movies
Have a good Saturday.
Love Yasmin
My mother died suddenly in October 2006 i still find it hard to reconcile that she is no longer here.
Mum was born in Jamacia in 1945, she grew up in a farming community but the main produce was sugar cane, both her parents (my grandmother still living) worked in this field my grandmother had her own buisness as a cook for the men who worked the fields any my grandfather when not working in the fields made and sold ice-cream unfortunately never passed on the recipes however the whole family has a love of ice-cream..LOL.
Growing up during the late forties and fifties was quite austre but our family was better off than most, also in those times the church was the focal point of the community (there was a cousin who was a lay preacher and used to travel around the island giving inpromtu sermons)..but life was much simpler they ate what they grew, foods that were hard to find when they came to England, each of the siblings had a pear tree named after them (Avacado) . Mum and her siblings went away to school and were only home during the holidays, which meant they had to help out on the land. The tales my mum told me especially about the chickens which they had to catch for Sunday dinner, which reminds me when we were little the neighbours kept chickens mum said i used to stand there fascinated by them and could never quite understand that what i saw and what was dished up was one and the same thing.LOL even at that age i was a confirmed city girl.
On November 5 1961aged 16 mum had finally arrived in London by plane which was quite exciting as all of other relatives had made the long journey by boat it had taken my grandmother who came here in 1956 five years to save the fare.
Mum found London exciting and different after all it was the swinging sixties, and found it quite hard to adapt to the new way of life, for instance in Jamacia they lived in a large house with land so it was quite a shock to her to find that she now only lived in two rooms with my gran and her younger sister, she had been well educated and was looking forward to a nursing career and found that in 1960's London this was not possible the only work available was factory work or menial jobs, she got a job at Ponds Cold Cream Factory at £2.00 per week quite a lot of money i'm told, when she hd saved enough she was able to rent her own room in the house that was shared by 3 families. She was always amazed at the lack of space and the brisk pace of life there never seemed time to gather your thoughts everything just kept moving and you right along with it.
I was born in December 1964 the first generation of our family to be born in this country it was a double celebration as mum's younger brother had also arrived from Jamacia aged 16, she would never allow him to take me out as she caught him doing wheeelies with me in the pram.LOL three years and one week later my brither arrived and our family complete. Unfortunately my parents seperated when my brother was still a baby so it was we three against the world.
Times were hard for us during those early years mum got a job as a kichen assistant at our school because it fit in so she was able to take and collect us without having to use child minders and night she went to night school to learn typing and shorthand with a better future in mind for us.
We lived on a council estate at this time a newly built one not like they are now and mum had finally got her office job for a publishing company still close to home and near our schools. Those were difficult days for her working and bringing up two children alone, she always wanted more for herself and for us and money was always tight, mum taught herself to sew as it was cheaper than having to constantly buy clothes for rapidly growing kids, omg that blue gingham dress she made me with the upside down collar but she was so proud that she'd done it this turned into a small buisness for her and soon she was making clothes for neighbours and the younger office girls, this is what kept our heads above water.
That was the thing about mum forever striving upwards, during this time she did a youth training course and wokerd as a youth worker having always been interested in welfare she could never understand a lot of single mothers who it seemed just took benefits a bit unfair however her point was yes life is hard but it's what you make it her motto with us was sink or swim she chose to swim, but i do remember the nights i used to hear her cry when we'd gone to bed.
Also during this time she had joined Gingerbread an association for one parent families and became chairwoman of our local chapter, it was great fun because there were loads of weekly activities and it meant that mum could go out once in a while but the main thing was that children were always welcome a major bone of contention with single parent families.
Finally mum managed to get a job with Brent Council in the housing department dealing with various housing needs she specialised in this moving to work for Hackney Council as Housing manager in charge of some 15.000 properties including sheltered housing units she found the working exhausting and exilerating at the same time and managed to make some real in roads into local housing policy.
Her final post was an housing association in Wandsworth, she put her heart and soul into this and won many awards for the estate and under her leadership and with the residents it became a really nice and safe place to live. Whilst here she was the driving force in creating a community center and spent 2 years raising funds and getting local residents buisnesses to invest in the project, not onlt was it to provide a creche a cafe computer training catering sport facilities for the local teams. Six weeks before the official opening she died suddenly, although she had seen the finshed result and presented the first computing certificates she missed the big day.
The trust kindly named the center after her "The Yvonne Carr Community Center" as she was not there my brother and myself represented her she would have been so proud of us Gordon Brown opened the center and was very complimentry in his speech about mum and her efforts my brother and i had our photos taken with him it was a fabulous day and she would have enjoyed it immensley, she was also awarded a "Civic Award" by the local council, the saddest part that her greatest success to date and she missed it she would have been so cross as she like to finish what she started.
I was so proud of my mum she had achieved so much in her life, her spirit is so strong and she had travelled such a long road and for life to be snatched away like that saddens me as she had so much more to give, and of course i miss her, sometimes i catch little glimpses of her or hear her loud laugh and feel her touch when i need comfort, thats where i draw my strength from.
Since I have been off work I've turned into such a night owl, don't know if thats a good thing.LOL.
Did'nt get up to much over the weekend, reading and eating and of course on my trusty laptop, watched some tv now that the X-Factor is is back i'm hooked, although not as good this year, did anyone see the drama on Sunday night Half Broken Things with Penolope Wilton great stuff, but very sad makes you think about the lonely people in the world and what makes them tick.
I've also been reading a lot of journals that is apart from my usual favourites, I have'nt decided yet which ones I want to continue reading there is so much out there covering such a wide range of subjects, blogging has become addictive, does anyone else think that? and the Trick orTreat through J-Land is going strong.
Although been a member for over a year I've began watching all manner of stuff on You Tube now I'm hooked i have so many of my favourite film clips and music also interviews, and spend many happy evenings watching these.
It's turned cold here and miserable here winters setting in not that we had much of a summer this year LOL even had the heating on the last few nights just to take the chill off.
I've also been doing some additional studying for my teaching course just to get my self in the right frame of mind, i'd forgotten how much I like to learn, mind you it's been a few years since I did English, ut finding it relatively easy once I get into it.
Health wise I have my good and bad days my back plays up still but is improoving all the time, also i forgot to mention before I had terrible eye strain but a trip to the optiton soon sorted that out, got quite a good deal at Spec Savers two pairs for the price of one,£85.00 not bad eh, very trendy they are too and onlt have to wear them for reading and watching tv, you don't realise how much you need them till you put them on..LOL.
Well i'm going to read for a bit then off to bed
love Yasmin
xx
To continue:...LOL
Four weeks my laptop went on the blink, first i just kept loosing the connection just minor problems..or so i thought!!!!!
25th September i log on as usual, but noticed on my sign on screen the although my screen name was there the password box was'nt, so did the usual logged off restarted same problem..heres where the fun starts i call AOL on a 0870 premium number get through to a very nice man explaint the problem so we check:
Is this your PC
Is it connected properly
Are your settings correct
They check the system all is ok should all be working properly please turn of and restart again i do this same problem..remember i'm paying £.60p per min...I get passed on to another technition (i just love that term don't you) I continiue to be passed back and forth and still no internet access i even uninstall and reinstall AOL..by 3pm still not online eventually the 6th person i talk to that days says it could be and operational problem..call the manufacturer.
Next day i call HP after several attempts and another premium number i get through after several attempts to explain the issue and the giving out of many details Laptop name make model serial number i speak to anther technition person.
we go through the rigmarole detailed with AOL we spend an hour going through the basic operational procedures, logging off..restarting etc etc
basically i talk to 8 ppl throught the day going into areas of of my laptop getting increasingly irate and almost tearful, no solutions found by 5pm i started at 11am eventually they said i needed to do a system recovery and do i have the discs..no i reply then theres nothing we can do until you get the discs..i get passed on to another department 3 attempts to give my name and address and to get there details eventually the discs are oredered and will be recieved in 6-10 days as the discs come from the Netherlands and there is nowhere other than the manufactures that you can get these discs.
The upshot of this was with the premium rate phone calls this cost £104 in phones calls plus £25.90 for the discs.
I have written a letter of complaint and glad to say they have compensated me £75 not too bad but it is really an appalling service.
I took me a whole day to re-load everything because also i had to take copies of all my files pictures work stuff it's just such a pain....LOL
Apart from that i've had a quiet weekend just chilling and catching up with my reading although it has turned abit cold of late. I must say i'm enjoying being a lady of leisure although not getting as much done as i should but hey.
And still not smoking 10 months ..yay
Thats it for now
Yasmin
xxxx
ps thanks for all the lovely comments on my return to blogging
xx
It has been such a long time (4months) I hardly know where to start,.
ok, here goes the last i had written was in May when I was looking forward to my trip to New York.which by the way was fantastic,.however as you know i had given up smoking earlier in ther year which resulted in some health problems ie my blood pressure shot through the roof which at the time i had not realised, also a recurring back problem had started to act up again, so though i enjoyed my trip palpitations and not being able to walk long distances left me somewhat limited.
Upon my return i went back to work as usual and was hardly able to stand and work for the required 12hrs plus so after barely a week back i signed off with back pain, anyone who has back problems knows what i'm talking about.
After 2 weeks still no better returned to my GP i was then sent for an X-ray and discovered a trapped nerve, in the lower part of my back. not a lot can be done just gentle exercise and pain killers.at the same time i discovered i had high blood pressure brought on by giving up smoking it seems that smoking masks a lot of ailments but at least i knew what was wrong so again began the diet to get rid of excess weight etc.
In the meantime i was unable to work or at least cope with the physical pressures that are required,.sitting on the train alone left me in agony so after unsuccessful atrempts i was signed off sick again. This dragged on through June and July without much improvement having seriously never had time off sick before this was unfamilier territory to me.as the summer was a wash out there was very little to lift my spirits.
During August attempts were made again to return to work on light duties which was okay for 3/4 days per week but ulimatley still not good, also around this time the Company i worked for sold the pub, and it looked like i would have to relocate again, but there was nothing in the London area that was really acceptable so was offered redunancy instead.which i'm glad to say i took as much as i enjoyed the pub trade after 20 yrs was growing tired of it plus the commute into London everyday, also health wise i'm still not up to par. So having now decided to take some time out and think about what to do next at 43 how many options do i have to re-start another career.
I have always been interested in training/teaching at have been looking at what i need to do to gain those qaulifications,.and happendon a TEFL course(teaching english as a foreign language) so this seems to be the one for me.
This organisation helps you to gain an internationally recognised teaching qaulification to teach adult and children basic english, they are situated world wide and upon completion of the course they help you find employment be it at home or to say Spain Japan Mexico i think on minimum contracts or long term,. you can do the course online over so may hours or do the residential i'm opting for the latter, and hopefully will be accepted to do the residential course in the states (my treat to myself) either to leave at the end of this month or go in January for 4 weeks.
I'm going to have to do this catch up over a couple of days as there is more to tell, hopefully i will continue with my blog as i enjoy it immensley and i still keep up and comment on my regular bloggers.
thats it for now
Yasmin
xxxx
Hello all I though I'd add just a little more on Colchesters History, the subject being Boudica, who looms large in the towns history.
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Boudica |
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Firstly I ave to mention the fantastic weather we've been having, it really puts a spring in your step.
I've been quite busy a work I ave just recruited a new team (again, never ending in my job) we have quite an international team English Italian Brazillian, French Nigerian, and three of the new staff have birthdays close together 16/21/22/ May two of them excactly one year and a day apart!! is that Karma?
Tommorrow we start our new summer drinks and food menu so we had a staff meeting yesterday to sample all the new food and drink we got some of the customers involved too, again everyting is geared to July 1st when the No -Smoking ban comes into place, as all reports have suggested that food will be really huge as people who previously did not visit pubs/bars will now incrase due to being non-smoking, so therfore we have increased our range of soft drinks wines (Rose) mainly and ciders, as usual we'll have Pimms which is big favourite.
The quiz nite went well as always and even better I don't have to be quiz master as one of my customers has taken ovrer that job, ther same goes for the pool competitions, the only thing left for me to organise is our Latin American Night, hence why we are taking Salsa classes but I need a catchier name than above it seems in London everyones Salsa mad that event will be on 2nd June.
I'm going into my 14th week of no smoking however this week it's £910 saved\o/ also the new diet seems to be kicking in I have'nt weighed myself but definately losing.
Ihad a night mare journey on the train on Thursday night got to Liverpoolstreet stn and both the last trains were cancelled, due to overhead power cables being down, so we had to get a train to Shenfield and the the bus all stasions to Colchester I got home at 2.45pm as you can imagine I was not a happy bunny, also had to get up early on Friday as was stil subject to more delays got on the train at 7am and arrived at work 9.50am again not a happy bunny espeacially as I've caught a cold hand have been a bit poor;y the last few days.
I have put a guest book on my side bar please sign (only if you want to lol) I'm now going into pub quiz to try my luck.
Take care all
Love Yasmin
