CHRISTMAS STUFF

Welcome to the 2007 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Please Cut and Paste. Don't be a Scrooge!!!


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?  Snow Ball 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?   I wrap 3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?   White 4. Do you hang mistletoe?  No 5. When do you put up your decorations?  A couple of days before 6. What is your favorite holiday dish?  Love roast Potates and stuffing best 7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:  When I got a Tiny Tears Doll /never had a white Christmas     8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?  Caught Mum wrapping the presents   9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Never 10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? With ornaments that we have had for years 11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Dread the Snow it just turns to mush in the UK 12. Can you ice skate?   No I have made attempts though
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? When I was younger my TV and Stereo when older my foot spa   14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with family and friends 15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?  I'm partial to christmas pudding/Plum pudding 16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?   All eating at the table together 17. What tops your tree?   A Fairy 18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?   Giving
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?  The 12  days of Christmas 20. Candy Canes?  ? 21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? Or Is it still magical for you? Far too comercialised and not as magical as it once was.

BITS AND BOBS

Not much been happening this week, although today I was up silly'o' clock to go to London, for my six weekly visit to my hairdresser and no the above photo is not the new hairdo..lol, Ive been going to D for almost eighteen years now I still make the trek all the way to Wembley near where I grew up and as usual I fell asleep under the dryer..lol.

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

 

Tags: DebsDabs

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John Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot-Light Effects

I've never done one os these assignments before, but inspired by Guido's picture from NorthernTrip I thought I would have a go.

Taken from my trip in  May it was an very hot day the second one is a view over Central Park and the first is just to left showing the Hudson River, which had this lovely haze over it, both taken on the same day.

 

Yasmin

 

 

Tags: Pictures from the Top Of The Rockefeller Center New York City

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UPDATE

 

This is just an update, I'm getting so many questions about the course I'm doing.

upon deciding on a Career change I quite liked the idea of teaching although I have no formal qaulifications in this area, but have always been interested in training etc, in my previous career I was used to training staff in all areas of the job including various legislation which we all had to adhere to, and in recent years most of our staff were from oversees especially Eastern Europe, so most of your staff had little or no English, so we were always having to find ways to communicate.

 

Browsing through the internet I happend upon TEFL (Teaching English as a Foriegn Language), www.CactusTEFL.com . I liked this immediatley as the courses are short and available to everyone wether you have previous teaching experience or not, your basic qaulification is that you speak English.

 

The course is mainly used for those who wish to work whilst they travel, or like me are looking for a change of career, and provides you with the necessary tools to teach.

 

With some trepidation I decided to apply but on reading the application form which is also a test I realised that i needed some practise before I put myself through the rigours of the fulltime course, so firstly I'm doing an ELA(English Language Awareness) online course which takes you through thirty modules, on Nouns Verbs,Grammer Vocabulary

and how to apply them in language ie. past present future, word order how to construct sentences. You do this in your own time, it's hard but quite rewarding and there is online help, and you are grade at the end of every module, at the completion of the course you recieve a certificate, but more importantly it's a great boost to your chances on being accepted to the fulltime course.

 

The course that I'm aiming for is CELTA(Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) this is the best one as it the internationally recognised and the only one the British Council will accept in in accredited Language schools, also the certificate is awarded by Trinit Colledge in London.

 

However with this organisation you can study online , weekend courses or residential, they help you with your CV and also find jobs, so I can work at home,abroad or privately, rates of pay differ depending on the country you work in.

 

So despite the amount of time I spend in our new journal chat i'm hard at it, mind you

I've picked up six or seven new journals to read now means I spend an hour or more every morning to read and comment on,but hey that comes of being nosey and not wanting to miss anything...lol.

 

Have a good weekend everyone

 

Love

Yasmin

xx

Tags: picture of me

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CHATROOMS#2

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

 

CHATROOMS

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

BINGE.DRINKING

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

REMEBERANCE SUNDAY

Red Lion Often cited as the most popular pub name in the UK, the most famous Red Lion of them all is probably this one in Westminster. This isn't for its attractive turn-of-the-century features, etched glass or surfeit of mahogany, but because its the nearest pub to Downing Street. So often is it frequented by MPs and various politicos that its televisions show the BBC Parliament channel, instead of the usual sport. Apparently, it even rings a division bell to alert the more right honourable customers of an upcoming vote. In usual media attention-grabbing style, it was also the place where Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell happily announced an end to UK's antiquated licensing laws (even if ironically the Red Lion was refused a late licence itself). The pub's small size and quantity of besuited regulars means its often very busy, even if a cellar bar and upstairs dining room help alleviate the pressure. Still, its worth a look out of peak times and you never know when some tidbit of political gossip might be overheard. clientele: Civil servants, politicos, a few tourists, the odd MP or two (no pun intended)  I don't have the same memeroies as others to about this speacial day. However I did work at the above for five years and the Red Lion is a stones throw away from the Cenotaph. The preparations were made well in advance all the staff had to be security checked and we were issied the with photo name tags, we also had to be back in the pub by midnight as Parliament Street was closed of for the night and the live out staff had to be in by 9am because the crowds would be huge even at that hour. On the actual day early in the morning 6.30 we would have the sniffer dogs in to check the building then policemen would be assigned to each to each door until after the Veterans Parade. We always watched the Parade from the Restaurant window and we had a perfect view and of course obseved the 2 minute silence. We had regular bookings every year for different units who came together for this as one of their reunions, what a great bunch they were, they would have lunch and reminise about their times during WW2 and those who could'nt make it son grandchildren would come in their place even one or two of the wives. In our Cellar bar we had the "PARAS" oh what a boistrous bunch they were young and old, you had to watch the "old boys" as they would always try and sneak a kiss or pinch you on the bum..LOL but all done in good fun, there was a lady who every year would wear her Nylons and flash her "French Knickers" we'd also have the music on to match there era so much fum and reve;ry but they always remembered Friends Family Commrades who did'nt come home. In our main bar it was just a free for all so many faces we recognised from previous years, all the men so smart wearing their medals with such pride telling their different stories and again remembering those lost. What great Sundays those were, and the brave men and women who came every and also year to remember and also to celebrate those who came home.

FOUR THINGS ABOUT ME........

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

Tags: Characature of me!!!!!

IN MEMORY-YVONNE CARR...MY MUM 1945-2003

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.