'09
so its 2009 - i am excited about this year to come i do feel as though it is full of promise and optimism and new hope for what is ahead, be that centred around fairly personal affairs i think that is allowed
christmas - always understated chez platings. Year on year the struggle to turn a normal day into a mementous event. once the pressure was off we were all able to enjoy ourselves. RAAAAAA
if days were people? I would feel sorry for Christmas day - always under delivering, they would have a real inadequacy complex. Like it hasn't delivered snow in forever! New Year - at least everyone seems to have given up on it and the weight of hope has been lifted. New year is rubbish, everyone knows it and so no one is dissappointed any more. Being pleasantly surprised is an option.
ambitions - learning to drive still unacheivable
crime and punishment.
work and reward - an option?
Its been a while
So hey its been two years, but I was recently on google chat with a friend who reminded me of the beauty of blogging. I had a pretty tough time there signing in, worked it out in the end though - just as well I've had the same password for everything in my life for the past 5 years.
So I'm listening to counting crows, its actually a mix CD that the friend who encouraged me to blog again made for my 23rd birthday - wow, 3 years later still my top choice of CD.
I was at a conference the other day. A developmental psychology conference. I feel adequately developed for the money. It was great in many ways. I learned a few top tips for how to find out what people care about most within about two minutes. It is quite contrived, not like I've become telepathic, which would be cooler, but really interesting all the same. Disturbing also to find out what I care about most. Even more disturbing is how obviously it is probably written all over me. I'll not divulge, honestly that is h/ow exposing this excercise is. Its embarrasing! But you can probably take a good guess.
So yeah - a few years of marriage under my belt, a few jobs in events, a few too many - my CV is a mess. A sort of semi-owned, not really, flat, and a lot of online tesco orders later. A great church, and house group going on, and thats pretty much it.
No car and still no license - probably should be a goal for 2009.
The best thing about life right now? Hard to say - probably church and house group actually - they have the really ALIVE moments that are so exciting. Church this week was particularly exciting... I got to speak a tiny bit (2 minutes) about this book my Dad told me about - The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. And then got to help out in prayer ministry time too. Very very very exciting and incredible to be part of - actually really surprising and a real privelidge WOW.
What I would currently like new things of:
dining table - ours is rickety and embarrasing when we have people for dinner
windows - ours are rotten
newly sanded floors - ours are quite a mix of colours and textures
and LOTS more. There is a long list that circles in my mind for a few days, I get worked up about then forget about again. Its a cycle that has been going on for 18 months at least.
Still I am very grateful for the lovely little flat we have. It is really nice, especially when I think of all the other flats we looked at when we were trying to find somewhere to live.
Having some realisations about FRIENDSHIP and where I have been influenced in my life in a way that is really not helpful. Very interesting... Am excited about near future developments.
SUFJAN stevens. Am loving but definitely don't fancy him at all.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 am also loving - what a feat of production. Simply amazing. Am not totally innocent on the fancing Troy Bolton (character in the film - can only say I fancy film character as I haven't got to know the real actor) front. But am getting over it as quickly as I can.
I tried sketching yesterday - it was the first time in ages. I am looking forward to practising that more and getting back to half decent at drawing again.
Since last time I wrote my life has taken a few turns. So I am now Lucia Hull, Lucia Platings no longer exists, that is because Conor and I got married which is ace. I really highly recommend marriage. It is so fun.
Conor and I have been living in a little village called Upper Largo in beautiful Fife since our wedding in June. Fife in summer is rolling hills leading down to sandy beaches, clear blue skies and long sunny days. It was a great summer... but now its time to move on. It feels as if I'm just on the edge of real life, we're moving to Edinburgh in two weeks time which is slightly daunting. No jobs as yet but hopefully that will be sorted out soon enough.
I have been working in a deli all summer which was brill, but now I am back in Northern Ireland doing exactly the same as I was doing last time I blogged which is kind of weird. A bit unnerving actually and definitely less than fun.
Hmm so if you have any really fun job ideas then let me know, I would LOVE to hear them, I am finding it so hard to think of something fun that I could do that I am also qualified to do.
I think degrees might be a waste of time, they qualify you for nothing!!!!!!
Still in the office
Today is a beautiful spring day in Northern Ireland, the temperature is at about 22 degrees celcius and I can hear the birds chirping in the trees. It is all good. I have just decided that Spring is my favourite season. With all the promise of summer ahead. I am looking forward to the summer. I think it is going to be a good one. Especially because Conor and I are getting married. Yeah!
I'm in my office, which I have all to myself. Its a little room off a long corridor in porta cabins, next to the chief's office who I am secretary for. I have not really got much to do. Infact today I was given some typing to do, and that was the most I have worked in the 5 days I have been here. It was just a three paragraph long letter. After I had finished a few other people came in and gave me things to do and I got a bit flustered because when I have more than one thing at a time I get really paranoid that I am going to forget something like informing some people that they have been offered a grant for £500,000 or something. Imagine that! A grant is being offered to you but you don't know about it because of some bad secretary somewhere who doesn't care.
My new favourite hobbie is:
singing karaoke in a room with friends. Except I prefer it when they don't grade you on your singing, because then I get comptitive and then I get a bit sad because the machine tells me very bluntly that I am a not a good singer. For some reason I am in delusion a lot of the time and like to think that I have this great voice and I am an undiscovered superstar singer waiting to break out. For real, I am not that.
ho hum
today i am at work again
i have answered the phone twice and opened the mail, there is nothing else for me to do but i am getting paid £6 an hour to sit here.
i heard once that when you type and don't use capital letters it is a sign of a lack of confidence. i must have lost my confidence somewhere along the line.
do you know of someone who has a holiday cottage somewhere in the uk/ireland?? if you do you can email me and it would make me very happy. i will not tell you why i would like to know but you can perhaps work it out depending on how much you know about my life.
i think there is another botfly growing inside me. i need to make a doctors appointment so that they can look at the new red patch growing just an inch away from where the other botfly came out. i feel a bit sick thinking about it. then the doctor can tell me it is an abcess and prescribe me more drugs. then weeks later i will meet someone and they will squeeze away and then another bug will come out of my left bum cheek.
oh gosh.
my gosh.
i will ring the doctor soon. i won't ring now because this is the first day in this office and i don't know if i am allowed to make personal phone calls. i will wait til I have a confident and carefree moment. probably after i have eaten and I feel rejuvenated and alive again.
6 hours later
I'm still at my desk with absolutely nothing to do
I have decided my career path though, it will be a teenage counsellor. possibly moving into family counselling. how interesting would that be!
Back
So I'm back in the UKUKUKUKUK.
It is colder than a lot of places, but not colder than China. That was the coldest I have ever been in my life. I couldn't walk outside. I tried and then had to run into a shop as soon as one came into sight. It was unbearable.
This weather is bearable. Also I'm living at Conor's house and their central heating system is very good and the house is always warm. You never have to be cold for long.
The temping job I have at the moment is ace. I am getting paid as I write this. I am a personal secretary to this seemingly important guy who everyone wants to talk to. But today he isn't here, so I have nothing to do! Maybe bat off a few phone calls every now and again, and then play on the internet all day long.
This other temp who works here just came in, three hours late. The great thing about this office is that people just find it funny that she didn't come in on time. Being a secretary is stress free. You are held responsible for nothing. I even made this major mistake yesterday with some super important document but these dudes didn't get annoyed at me at all. Maybe inside their heads they are screaming at me. But from their exterior it didn't seem like it at all.
Anyway, its ok being back, but I wouldn't mind going around the world a couple more times.
Middle Earth
That is what the Chinese world for China translates to in English.
Yeah we went there, I was there for two weeks. We stayed in a happy hostel with lots of happy backpackers. Backpackers are nice and freindly and have the same amount of direction in life as me, and I like that.
We were in Beijing the whole time, a big smoggy city, full of high rise buildings, shopping malls, crazy drivers and cyclists, and amazing restaurants. Chinese food is probably my favourite, although when we had a leg of lamb the night I got home that was pretty awesome. Also it didn't make my mouth feel like it was about to fall out which was kind of relaxing.
I have never been so cold, not even skiing, as we were one day in Beijing, we couldn't be outside at all the wind was so vicious. Thermal underwear everyday, everyday, everyday.
Most days we met up with our friend who Conor met one day on the subway while I was still in Australia. He might have been an angel. One of the advantages of being in China was that living is SO CHEAP there. And as you may know Conor and I are getting married in June, and we still have quite a lot of preparations to make. While we were in China our friend took us to all the best spots for shopping, determined that we would find the things we needed. Rings, suits, shoes, fabric for The Dress, etc. He helped us buy everything, and at a good price. In China its wierd, things have price tags, but only an idiot would pay the marked price. Ususally you should pay about a third. Also if you have a Chinese friend, you are a lot less likely to get ripped off. The shop keeper that sold us Conor's ring even said to us that we wouldn't have got it for half as cheap if our friend hadn't been with us.
I think there is something different about China, there is an openness that means that it really doesn't take long to be close to people, or maybe it was just this guy. Anyway he is a really really good friend and when we left it was really, really sad. We will go back there soon.
He organised a leaving party for us the night before we flew home, at his friends' restaurant. We ate for 3 and a half hours, they just kept bringing more and more food. Us three, a French guy who has been in China for three years and is fluent in Mandarin, a Swiss guy who is similar, a Chinese guy who also spoke French, a Chinese guy who only spoke Chinese, and Auntie, the lady who owned the restaurant who only spoke Chinese but smiled a lot and talked to me, only I never had any idea what she was saying. Its not like Spanish which you can kind of work out. No it is just wierd talk, I think it sounds really really nice to listen to. Yeah and in the restaurant, if you need to go to the bathroom, you have to go to the hotel up the road. Also there is no heating in the restaurant, just lots of people smoking.
While we were in China we went to an International Church, they were advertising an Alpha course starting the second week I was there. So we took our friend along. Most people in China don't know anything about God. It is so different. Its not like they have been to carol services and easter services at church every year for the past 24 years and have heard it all before. It is completely new to them, and so exciting. Its is so crazy that they can run Alpha in that place because prosletism is illegal. Nice work Alpha.
In conclusion China IS where its at. I had my suspicions before I went, going there has confirmed them.
I think I'm over it
Just for the sake of continuity, an update on the botfly situation. My cheek is healing nicely. The extraction process doesn't plague my thoughts day and night anymore, or the fact that it so nearly wasn't extracted. In fact I don't think I think about it at all most days. Just when I think about my blog. Maybe I should erase my last entry. And the other day I typed 'botfly' into google, if you do that you will find more stories, some sounding worse than mine, of botfly experiences. There are pictures too.
