Memory Lane
on Blog From Beyond (Rwanda), 06/Apr/2010 09:43, 34 days ago
Did you know that there actually is aMemory Lane in Leicester? As you walk down Belgrave Road to town, by the church. So if you ever want to take a trip, that's where to go.As horoscopes may put it 'this is a time of transition...'And also a month of visiting lots of people!I went to London on 27th-28th spending Saturday night with my friends Cassie, Sean and their bouncy baby Ryan in Lewisham. Cassie and I went to Uni together yonks back and it was great to catch-up. Ryan is now walking and talking, quite a development fromlast time I saw him. I've never had a maternal bone in my body, but if I was to have, it would be after playing with Mr. Ryanman.After he crashed out, we ordered take-out pizza and slobbed in front ofSlitherwhich is supposed to be a "comedy take" on horrors, but actually left me slightly traumatised :oOThe next day I hopped over to Camberwell to seeJo& Pierre from Rwanda. We had a great catch-up in a very cool and theatrical pub calledThe Cambriawhich has extremely cool deco and flowers.Jo is a Business Consultant but work ran out in February so she's also looking at setting up on her own. Lots of strategy talk. She also cooked a delicious Sunday roast - I felt extremely spoiled.I finished my crummy job with the college last Thursday. My client didn't bother turning up on the Wednesday or Friday so I pretty much waited around then went home again. Still, never have to do it again. I fear for anybody taking a job there, the atmosphere was appalling. The people I was working with were lovely and really welcoming, but the overall state of staff relations within the college is dire - cold as ice between staff and management. Low morale. Redundancies looming. Not the time to sign-up.Anyway, not my problem no more. And what a sense of relief I have. An exhilarating rush of freedom. And, on the other side, gut knotting panic at whether this will work or not ;)On Friday I headed down to Bath to see my friend Graeme (also from uni) who was turning 31 and having a big night out at a Thai Restaurant thenBack to Mineclub. I made it to about midnight before turning into a punpkin - the drive had slightly knackered me through peeing rain the whole way.Thankfully another friend from uni, Vikki, and her lovely husband Dai were there and I took a train back to Bristol with them and crashed on their sofa. Their house is a huge work of art. Vikki's extremely talented at crafts and there's something interesting to look at everywhere. It was the first time I'd seen their new home and t'was really lovely.I slowly meandered back to Bath the next morning, getting a lift to the station in Vikki's classic mini - cool :opSaid goodbye to Graeme and the rest of the gang who crashed his sofa, then drove back via Yea Oldy Tea Shop café place for lunch with dad and Marilyn who were braving the wet weather in their camper van nearby.It was really lovely to see them and we exchanged Easter eggs and ate mounds of chocolate brownie and carrot cake :opSo that was another nice trip.But whereas I thought I'd finish at the college and stick my nose into self-employment, there doesn't seem to be much of a chance of that in April. On 10th I head to Edinburgh to see Martine who is now back and moving into a place of her own post-husband. After a few days up there it's down to London to see Giudi who's flying in for a friend's wedding, will stay with Cathryn. And on the 27th I'm off for a week in Alacante with Dad& Marilyn for my Aunty Jean's birthday!So that's April gone, along with a chunk of my finances. The collegefinallypaid me, then the same day some t*sser defrauds my account of£280 using PayPal.Very strange occurrence indeed and I still don't fully understand what happened. Basically:29th March: Paypal requests the money as a transfer from my bank. I know nothing about this - no notification e-mail.30th March: Money is refunded to my PayPal account - got notification but didn't notice it at the time.1st April: Money leaves mybankaccount!I saw the money had gone out of my account and knew I hadn't authorised it. So I searched Gmail (I love Gmail's search function - it's saved me so many times...) and found the refund notification, logged into PayPal and saw the above history.The refund e-mail had someone's e-mail address on it - the person on my bank statement credited as receiving my money. So I e-mailed him, not expecting an answer.Instead I got a very helpful answer explaining:I received it as payment for an ebay item. I cancelled the transaction because I have doubts. It was bought by someone from Vietnam and I received it from supposedly YOU which is in U.K.. I cant continue with it so I offered a refund.I contacted PayPal before getting his reply and the b*st*rds were complete condescending g!ts and told me that my account had been credited because Imusthave made a personal transfer to this person. Despite me clearly saying I hadn't. They also told me that it was definitely a personal transfer and not for a purchase.The above e-mail rather blows that theory out the water - it was for an e-bay purchase. Twonks.Anyway, they're being predictably unhelpful and haven't replied to my follow-up e-mail but thankfully my bank believe me and they've got my back, though they say it may take up to two weeks to even begin the process of reclaiming the money.Aaaanyway.So, here I am, trying to set-up on my own.I've re-vampedthe websiteagain, adding some colour. Or rather, Andy, myweb dude, did it :)Got a phone call the Sunday at Jo& Pierre's. A guy from Sweden looking for information about one of my ex-clients. Thought that was a promising sign - somebody had found me! :) I think I acquitted myself with honours so who knows, perhaps some day they'll remember me when thinking of project consultants.In the few days I have had free I've been working my butt off, tying up all the stuff forTabara(which is going very well), my old employer - who I'm delivering a strategic planning workshop for tomorrow as a favour. Also started the process of identifying potential clients and making approaches. Fingers crossed.But it's finding that balance between working and not-working. Whenever I have free time I can usually find something work-related to fill it with. I feel a bit adrift all of a sudden, being the master and manager of my own time... it feels great, but I just need to relax a little :)So, one thing I've started is a trip down memory lane. When I was about 17, a friend of the family made me a 'memory chest'. It's a giant pine chest to put all my memories in. Over the years it's sort of become more of a dumping ground for scraps of 'stuff', odds and sods.So, I've started sifting through it. Bought some scrap books and pritstick, and away I go. Every scrap is going in a book, every photo in an album and 'miscellaneous' will be neatly categorised and piled.It's totally mental going through all this stuff. It spans pretty much my entire lifetime. Things to make you laugh, blush and wonder.I've only just begun but I found these from my first year at uni:Me, aged 18/19?Did I ever have a waist-line like that!!?Friends at uni: Top - Alice, Rin& Me. Bottom: Graeme!, Me& Sam in the Union Bar.After uni I moved to Colchester with my friend Tom (Below: Linz, Sam& Tom) for three months before moving back to Reading to live with my, then, boyfriend.Going through old pictures is just totally mental. Here's a couple a friend put on FaceBook, also from our uni years (about 10 years ago):All of our course standing on the stage of theGlobe Theatrein London. I'm standing, 3rd from left, next to Graeme. Tom's far right - can't see Vikki though.Fancy-dress night out at CataCue on-campus bar. I'm the mad hatter in the centre, Tom in shades to the left, then Graeme. Vikki far right as a priest.Hah, I don't know what's more embarrassing - that these photos exist or that I feel the need to share them with the world ;)Heady days.I also found my Brownies certificate, an extremely naughty card from some fella, a wealth of old letters to an old flame, my 21st 'Key to the Kingdom' from Marj, who has since passed away, and trinkets from nana and granddad who have also passed on. It's a big chest, there's a whole world of forgotten memories in there - I'm fascinated.