4, 3, 2, 1 - Kate Moss
on Blog From Beyond (Rwanda), 18/Jan/2010 16:12, 34 days ago
Had a great weekend. I picked Cathryn up from the station after work and we headed over to Gloucester to see Dad& Marilyn. We went to ourfavourite Indian, washed down at home with plenty of whisky. Was a lovely night full of giggles.Then on Saturday (after an unbelievable breakfast of croissants and fruit salad) we headed down to Graeme's in Bath. There was aWassailat a local orchard, involving a lot of pots and toast. After making toast on the fire, you smear earth on your face and go hang it on the apple trees. Then you walk down the rows banging your pots as hard as you can, partly to ward off mischief and partly to wake the trees up. It guarantees a good harvest in the year to come. You start this as dusk falls and all the kids are running around with candle lanterns.You sing the Wassail song:Wassail wassail all over this townOur toast it is white and our ale it is brownOur bowl it is made of the white maple treeWith a wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee.So here my old fellow I drink to theeAnd to the health of each other treeSo well may ye blow and well may ye bearBlossom and fruit both apple and pear.We hope that your apple trees prosper and bearSo we may have cider when we call next yearWhere you have one barrel, we hope you'll have tenSo we can have cider when we call again.The girt dog of Walcot he burnt his long tailAnd this is the night we go singing wassailWe've sung to the trees and all gathered hereWell wish you adieu until the next year.(Verse 1: Gloucester wassail (also called Somerset wassail); Verse 2: carnworth Devon 1805; Verse 3: jolly wassail 1833; Verse 4: the Somerset wassail (changed a little, the girt dog was from Langport))It was nice to see so many kids actually. Keep the traditions alive.There was also a large supply of mulled cider which Cathryn and Graeme got stuck into - but I caught them up after driving back when we started on the wine. That was after a quick pit-stop at the local pub to discuss the Rat of Wisdom (best not to ask).It was really great seeing two of my best friends in the same place at the same time. I've know Graeme since uni and Cathryn all through Rwanda - was cool to introduce them.Drove back on the Sunday and dropped Cathryn off at the station then home for anotherbubble bath:op Out ofMa Bar, but mum had some Peony& White Lily Bath Elixir which did the trick fair enough.Talking of bathroomly goodness, I'm a bit of a dental hygiene fanatic - I tend to floss, brush and swill with mouth wash. Now I've added another item to my arsenal against decay: theorabrush. I saw it on a Facebook advert of all things, but I'm well impressed. Makes a real difference to your tongue and if you use something likeDentyl(I love the clove one) you can see it working. Although the 'scraper' is a little full-on. I was worried I might decapitate my taste buds, so go gently.Well, got my leaving date for the job. Will be finishing on 7th February with much sadness. I've absolutely loved working forDeafconnectbut they've secured a great replacement so they'll be in fine hands. I won't be far away for now anyway - just in Corby doing theCommunication Support Work.Apparently someone complimented my signing to my boss after the public consultation the other week. They said I'm nice to watch *blush* I've been getting a lot of compliments lately and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't nice. It's certainly a confidence boost. So much so that part of me is thinking how much I could make if I went self-employed as a Language Facilitator. It probably wouldn't be bad at all.However, that depends on a lot of things right now.Tomorrow will be an intense day. First off I've got a Skype interview for a job in Cairo. It's a rather grand working title (Executive Assistant) but not a lot of money. More than being a VSO though, and I've heard Egypt isn't too expensive so I'd probably scrape by. It would get me out of the country at least. Only I applied for this post a few months back and didn't get an interview, so one of my main questions is why they're re-advertising it again so soon.Then, after that, I've got a discussion with VSO to see where they might be able to find a use for me. Just covering all of my bases.The longer I'm here the harder it gets. There's so many things to weigh up. If I found a job in the UK I'd be earning really well, even if I played it careful as a freelance CSW. If I go away again I'm likely to earn a lot less - and there's no guarantee either way that I'd be happy. You fall prey to the comfort of familiarity here. Life is certainly very easy. But it will always be here. So I might as well not be for a while.Can't really procrastinate too much, it all depends on the offers (or lack of) that I get.Meanwhile, today I started a4,3,2,1 detox. Lies did it beforeher weddingand lost loads of weight but then tried it again and didn't get anything from it. It's got mixed reviews, some say it's brilliant whilst others say it did nothing. So, I started that today and in ten days I'm looking forward to being Kate Moss. I'm definitely quite excited about that. I'm also eating properly, not smoking, not drinking and working out on the cross-trainer a little. At least until the ten days are up ;) Seriously, I've put on about a stone-and-a-half at least since being back, it's horrid.Ordered a Tesco's delivery today for the first time since I lived in Cardiff. Decided to do some cooking. Haven't done that in a long time. Starting out with vegy tacos, peanut curry and pancakes stuffed with honey and sesame noodles and quorn chunks (works just as well with chicken). Lots of salad with sun-dried tomatoes and olives too.Fairly healthy stuff, and easy.I'd like to say a quick 'thank you' to the 7th person who has decided (for some inexplicable reason) to follow my blog. I was lead by friends to believe that my choice in music would be enough to put anybody off *shrug*In final news, ex-Rwanda VSOs are contemplating setting up a tourist agency in Kigali after breaking news (thanks Bruce):This weekend's "Guardian" has a 2-page spread in its travel section about holidays in Rwanda. (Kigali, gorillas, Gisenyi, Akagera). Cost quoted is around£2985 for 11 days. I make that nearly 16 months' allowance as a VSO. How the hell can anyone spend that much in 11 days in Rwanda?Answers on the back of a post-card to....