Weeks 10 - 12, School visits, Running Man & Wedding Preparation!

Hello Everybody,

I can`t quite believe that I am 4 days from my wedding, and that wedding will be in Bogota, Colombia. That`s quite a way from home town of Salford (Manchester) in the UK. I can`t quite believe my `current home` of 3 years has been in New Zealand, or that I`ve been blessed with life experiences across the globe, especially those in Romania and Vietnam that shaped me as much as any other. Generally speaking I`m sitting in the office of my brother-in-law to be, 3 hours from the arrival of my family to Colombia, and feeling pretty content with life.

That`s a lot of twists and turns in my life, some expected, some definitely unexpected and some were just downright bizarre! As I think back through the major events in my life I can see that many of the events and paths I have walked have been far more important in shaping my life than I ever realized at the time. Working in hospitals with seriously ill people, working at the Palace & Opera House Theatres, studying Occupational Therapy at Salford University, going to volunteer in Romania & Vietnam, past relationships - especially those big ones, the crazy random nights out with great mates or total strangers when traveling: are all experiences that have moved me.

One thing that has been constant in my life have been my great friends, both at home and across the globe - (you know who you are), and the support of my family to go and explore the world and the people in it. I talk about events and places shaping me, but that`s not a fair description of my world view. It has always been about the people, the good, the bad, and the sometimes the ugly`. (Its a quote so I`m not being mean when I write that). 

Therefore as I write this short post I just want to take a moment to recognize the role that everyone who I`ve ever spent some time with, for helping me get to this point... a big thank you!

In real life (currently living in the sweat box of Cerrejon), I have continued my running and swimming routines, much to the amazement of myself, and am enjoying the benefits of daily exercise and a good diet. Though running so much here comes at a cost.... I will add a picture below soon....

Even changing my running routine to the evening, I still can be covered in sweat after a run, even a slow and little run. Still, I am looking forward to running around the beautiful bays of Wellington again later in the year, instead of the dusty ground and dry land of this desert land.

I have enjoyed a return to the school on three occasions in the past 2-3 weeks, where by I was able to `help out` in two English classes, (one being about the school system in England). The visit was a presentation to a great class of kids who had previously questioned me about the weather in different parts of the world. I was able to entertain them for most of the hour with funny pictures of different weather and the primary topic of natural resources around the world. 

So as I am about to step into the latest, (and possibly biggest) adventure of my life, I am left hoping for as much fun, laughter and stimulation that my previous 35 years have included. More importantly I am hoping it will be filled with just as many amazing and interesting people that guide the next 35 years... 

Regards from Colombia...

Weeks 8/9 - In Serach of adventure, the big day pproaches, & giving speeches in Spanish!

Hi Everybody...

Well I'm hoping that this won't be a long blog today, and well to be honest, my daily life hasn't changed one bit in weeks, so it's not like I have a long list of adventure to share. I do however have some fab wildlife animal shots and some reflections of a different kind of adventure: my upcoming wedding and a continuation of life in a remote tiny mining compound. 

Having felt a bit claustrophobic and noticing that I was going a little bit stir-crazy whilst spending most of my days at home alone, cooking and doing house stuff, we took a little walk out of the compound for to do 'something different' and throughout the 'lush' desert known as 'The Cactus Track'....

As you can see from the photo - it was actually called the Cactus Track and not surprisingly there were a few Cacti along the walk. I was rather surprised at just how high they grew though. I guess I haven't really lived anywhere (before here) where there many cacti around to compare to! As you can see the land is pretty dry and lacking any real green colour. That's not surprising either as in the 6 weeks I have lived here so far, it hasn't rained properly once!

 I'm always on the lookout for different wildlife and through the trees (with my camera's zoom) I was able to pick out this little birdie, who looked like it had just flew through a rainbow - making it a little more easy to spot.

The next part of the walk is what I really wanted to share as I was told I had to be careful because there were ALLIGATORS around. Now being someone who grew up in a big UK city, seeing an Alligator is not an everyday experience, so I was getting quite excited about this. I did not imagine I'd get to see 5 Alligators of varying sizes just lounging about on the bank of a little man-made pond. The first one was quite a big one and I could see that it was a little photo shy - he was definitely keeping an eye on me though.....

 I love my camera (thanks mum & dad) and the zoom lets me get some great shots, but this is perhaps one of my favourite photos below - as this alligator was very aware of my presence by this point and keeping an eye on me!

 The next alligator was a far more willing model, and as you can see was posing nicely for a full-body shot!

 Another reasonably big one was also keeping a close eye on us as we tried to get a decent shot.

 This final alligator even took some direction (below) as I was instructing it  to ''show me some teeth'' and he was quick to oblige on the second shot!

After the excitement of alligator spotting we returned to the compound where I turned my attention to some of the less dangerous wildlife - the local cat population. You still need patience with this lot as they are quick to run anytime you get close.

PRE-WEDDING PARTY:

I don't want to use the blog to go on too much about weddings etc, but with my own being just 3 weeks away, it's an event that's having quite a big impact on my life at the moment as you can imagine! The highlights of last weekend was a wonderful fiesta (party) thrown by some of Vibi's friends and colleagues. I had been told it was a dinner at one of the 2 places to eat. I can honestly say I was pretty surprised to find a whole room of people, fancy dress, a poem/reading, gift, dancing and a quiz. Oh and a very nice meal too of course! 

What I really loved was the wedding 'photo-frame' and the "I Do" sign on the wall (see below)

 The photo frame was well used, for lots of photos, but for the sake of the blog it's easier to just show a couple of photos including the group one below. Probably my personal highlight was a crossword challenge made by one friend that had clues including the name of family members, the site of the proposal and place where we first met. -This was a lovely touch. A poem reading - in both Spanish and English was really touching too.

I was beginning to realize that I was going to need to give a speech of some description during the night, and this prospect was not one I was looking forward to. Whilst I have improved my Spanish speaking ability a little, trying to speak to a group of Vibi's close friends (many of whom not only speak good English but also are teachers) was making me feel pretty nervous. I was desperately trying to think of any jokes I could make out of my simple vocabulary - and prayed it would not be lost in translation and lead me to inadvertently offending anybody! 

Fortunately, people laughed in the right places and seemed to understand my sentiment, so I must have done a reasonable job. With the speech over I was happy to enjoy the remainder of the evening until the moment that I dread here most of all - dancing salsa in front of Colombians. This is a country where people are born dancing, knowing about 10 different styles of Latin music (of which I can only recognize three varieties). I like dancing, and luckily I like salsa (plus I can dance a little salsa too), but still dancing in front of a small group of Colombian's with everyone else watching is a nightmare I've had on a few occasions. (It'd be different in a club where people aren't all staring).
I've seen the video - which to my horror someone posted on fb - but I look much better than I thought I would, and my confidence shot up after being complimented on my salsa moves by said Colombians.

We were given a beautiful book of comments and quotes, plus this beautiful wine bottle/glass holder - in the style of Colombian artists. 

Wedding gift from Vibi's colleagues.

Regards from Colombia,

Dan

Weeks 6/7 - A Return to Bogota, shaky alarm clocks, Mother's Day & an interview about the weather...

Hello Everybody, 

Needless to say that it's still ridiculously hot here which keeps me house bound most of the day. Therefore you can imagine my happiness at having to leave this desert and return to Bogota for a week. Ok, the main reason was to make more wedding arrangements, but it also included catching up with my long time friend Mary - who is living in Bogota, and spending more time with the family in-law. 

Here in Cerrejón, I was invited to make an appearance at the local school yesterday, where a series of 8-9 year old Colombian kids had prepared questions about the weather in the different countries that I have lived & visited... it was pretty funny, and more of that later....

A RETURN TO BOGOTA:

Last week I had the pleasure of returning to Bogota, which meant that I had an opportunity to fly on the company plane, which goes from the airport just 30 minutes down the road (instead of 2 hours in a hot taxi through the wilderness). The plane was a little on the small side with just 52 seats, but comfortable enough for the one hour flight to Bogota. The 'airport' was a little small to say the least, but hey, if you're not paying for it, you really can't complain right!?  

THE COMPANY PLANE...

CERREJÓN AIRPORT

It was great to be back in the comparatively cool evening air of Bogota. As I said our main purpose for coming to Bogota was to get the 'final' but not quite last permission to for the marriage from the Catholic Church, get the wedding dress / clothes, visit the chapel we are having the ceremony in, and oh guess what.. get the 'final' permission from the local priest of the area where we wanted to get married. We managed to fit a few other things like too including a hair cut for me... always a scary prospect getting your hair cut in a country where there is room for misunderstanding - especially so close to the wedding. Fortunately I avoided any hair disasters as you can see from some of the photos below! 

Having met our favourite priest (Father Juan Carlos) to obtain the main 'final' permission to marry, we each had to sit with him individually and go through a list of questions. I wondered if it would be like that game show (who's name escapes me at this moment) where you both get the asked the same questions and then have to give matching answers.... fortunately the questions asked were nothing like that and Father Carlos gave us his blessing. However we were again disappointed to learn that Father Carlos' plans had not changed since our last meeting, and that he would not be free to be the priest for the wedding day. The search continued.... and we had to go back to Sopo, to get the final - final permission to marry.

VISITING SOPO & 'LA VIOLETA' CHAPEL

The next day we returned to the little township of Sopo with Vibi's parents, and headed to the previously unvisited town square... (see below)...

Enrique & Emma (Vibi's parents) @ Sopo

It was a beautiful little place, and looking at the Church in the photo, I was almost disappointed that we weren't having the wedding there. First stop was the local priest's office, which was small but had a steady flow of people passing through. It seemed this priest obviously held some power in this little place. I have to say that I found this priest a little less friendly and caring than the previous 3 priests I had met. Fortunately all we had to do was hand in the documents as they had informed us over the phone, but wait.... the Secretary who was the same person that had given instructions about what documents to bring, decided that we needed to go and photocopy more documents, but in a slightly different way! Having finally handed in all the documents in the way the secretary had requested, we then received instructions about the 10-stage process for registering the wedding after the event! I was not impressed by this point as I'd begrudingly handed over money at every step of the process, even for a stamp!

Still, we could finally go and visit the Chapel in the knowledge that everything was in place from a legal / church point of view. Having found the little Chapel entrance all locked up, we were told to wait for someone to come and let us in... and this is what happened 10 minutes later....

 As if a man arriving on horse back wasn't enough of a nice surprise, the driveway to the Chapel had us all left pretty speechless....

Driveway to Chapel

Then despite having seen a picture of the place before visiting, I was still pretty amazed at the Wedding Chapel, which had been lent to us by a friend of Vibi....

La Violeta Chapel

I remained pretty much speechless as I did a 360 degree rotation of the grounds to see Alpacas and horses right next to the church, including this nosey fellow! (Below)

BACK IN THE CITY...

It was now time to shop, and I have to say that Bogota hosts some decent shopping, if you can get to the places in question at least! I was also enjoying eating out, not a luxury we can afford often right now, and certainly not in the desert! So whilst making my way to the toilet at one shopping centre I started to get a little panicked when I could not find any toilet paper anywhere, just a condom machine on the wall. I have been to a few shopping centres here to find no toilet paper next to the toilet, because there is usually a roll of paper somewhere near the sinks/basins. I had not seen any paper here either and so after going in and out of all the cubicles, (probably looking quite suspicious to the other men in the toilet) I went to find Vibi. I'd also been told, that like in Greece, it's not a good idea to flush paper down the toilets here as the system doesn't cope well...

....I found Vibi who explained my problem to me. The condom machine as I had thought, was of course not a condom machine at all (shows what environmental conditioning can do), it was a toilet paper dispensary.... (Now prepare for a poor language joke) ... Much to my relief, (lol) Vibi had some toilet paper, and a nice meal followed my toilet panic at 'Crepes & Waffles' - I said Crepes!

Toilet Paper issues

The highlight of the week (apart from the wedding chapel of course - oops, nearly got myself in trouble there!) was meeting Mary, a good friend of mine who I first met on my first day in College (aged 16). I think Mary was in my biology and Psychology classes, and now she was living in Bogota, which was brilliant. We met at a pretty nice shopping centre (with free toilet paper), and had a fun catch up over tea and then lunch. The obvious comparisons about life here and all the funny little differences that you experience day to day, helped me to put some of my own thoughts into perspective. We both strongly agreed that as nice as rice is, having it with every meal, seems a little excessive, that family relationships offer very different challenges (as they do in all cultures and between different generations), and that generally Bogota is an interesting place to live - minus the transport issues!  

Me & Mary

FAMILY TIME:

Sunday was Mother's Day here in Colombia, and as we were due to leave Bogota on Friday morning, we wanted to at least have a little celebration with Vibi's mum, (Emma). We found a nice little cake and some flowers, (whilst buying a vegetable peeler and new knife - which I was quite excited about - shows how my life has changed so dramatically in the past 7 weeks). It was nice have a little celebration with Vibi's parents before saying our farewells for a few weeks.

BACK IN CERREJÓN

Once finally back at home in the heat of the desert we were feeling pretty pleased with our efforts in Bogota. It seems a little strange and exciting that the next time I will be there will be to meet my family and get married.

Back at home...

The weekend started with a shake, quite literally as a small earthquake shook the house for just a 2-3 second, enough to wake people up. It certainly reminded me of my time in New Zealand and the shakes I have experienced there. Obviously it was a reminder of the terrible circumstances in Nepal too.

Weekends have their own routine, and my Saturday Morning routine is to now wake up and tune in to Tameside radio - music and sports afternoon program, where my sister has landed a role... it's weird to hear my sister on the radio, but I'm really proud of her!

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:

I have to admit that this week I have noticed a little change in my mood at times. I think it's because I can easily spend 8 hours a day, alone at home, and whilst I do have some stuff to do: it's not anything that lets me spend time with people. The climate doesn't really help as it's too hot to go anywhere anyway! Also some days I don't see anybody other than Vibi & Santiago. When I compare this to my life of the last 2-3 years in NZ, where I had at least 3-4 different sports / social activities per week, and not including weekends, often with 3-4 different groups of people... you can see how drastically my world has shrunk. However, this week I was asked if it was ok to be interviewed by a group of 8-9 year olds, about the weather in different countries I have lived in or visited. The students were adorable, asked questions including the coldest place I'd been (Winnipeg -40, Canada), the different foods I had eaten (pigs brain, Vietnam),  the different kind of clothes needed (New Zealand - wind / waterproof), and focused on Germany, Poland, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England and Vietnam. I was amazed how much they knew about my previous travels! The kids didn't stop asking questions even after the bell signaled the end of the class. Having signed several autographs, one girl smiled sweetly and asked if she could take a photo with her tablet... I agreed, and a few seconds later she was giggling away. The reason she was laughing at the photo, was because she had an 'ap' on her tablet that showed what the person would look like in 2048 - and she was proud to show me what I have to look forward to! What a cheeky little bugger!

Anyway, I have quite a few jobs to do today, and not all are domestic, so I better get on with it, plus my health kick continues, so hopefully my UK and NZ friends will be pleasantly surprised when they see me in Sept! 

Have a great week!

Regards from Colombia

Weeks 5/6 - Feeling HOT HOT HOT............The Ultimate Occupation, & homework wars! (plus a bit more besides).

Hello Everybody, I was going to talk about so much when I set out writing this post last week! However as the temperature has risen as high as my score on Wi-Fit 'hula hooping' (269 rotations if anyone is wondering), I am left so exhausted that it's a week later and I'm still lacking motivation....

Yesterday hit 49 degrees... YES I SAID 49oC!!!! Someone told me it had been 50 the day before. So I am in effect housebound between the hours of 10am-4pm, as it's too hot to be doing anything physical, or just standing outside really! Interestingly enough I had managed to achieve my highest non-stop run of 6.6k that very morning, though I had wondered why my t-shirt has changed colour from a light green to a dark green!? and this was all before 9:30am. This morning I had to stop swimming at 09:00 as it I felt my skin getting hot (even with total sun block). So not surprisingly I have turned to Wi-Fit to continue with my get fit 'aka' try and look good for the wedding photos. I totally have the Hula hoop exercise nailed, let me tell you! 

New Training Coach

As my running schedule has had to switch to mainly the evenings, 'Dave' the vulture (read last week's post) has handed over the coaching role to Iggy-Pop the Iguana (Thanks for the name Bez). Iggy watches me swim most morning now, and gives me a little wink for encouragement. He's not a great motivational speaker but he watches me closely, I know. I just passed the 1.5k today (swimming) which has me feeling very pleased with myself!
Iggy almost feel out the tree in celebration!

Iggy Pop the Iguana - my swimming coach

Whilst Bob & Sandra (The other vultures) swoop overhead in the distance most mornings looking for food, (clearly they no longer consider as potential brunch material), I have enjoyed spotting other birds (no pun intended), and on a walk home from the supermarket the other day we were happy to snap this fella just banging away!  

Woody Wood Pecker!

There has been a little more socializing in the past couple of weekends, including a birthday party whereby the ladies (mainly teachers from the school) dressed up in the traditional dresses from this area and enjoyed a dance.... oh, and a very sweet Margareta drink or two... (see picture below)

It was a fun party and all the people were very nice, but it did make me realize how much I struggle with conversations in a group context (in Spanish of course) as it's so hard to understand the words without knowing the context. As a result, I have not only started the BBC's online Spanish course 'My Crazy life' - where you go on a little holiday adventure around Madrid, but I have stared Spanish lessons with a teacher from the school. So far, so good as someone can finally now teach me some verbs, and the rules of spelling. 

Pre-Wedding Course:

I have to say that I was not looking forward to this event for a number of reasons:

1) I had to get up early:

2) It was long taxi drive on a hot day,

3) It was going to be in Spanish only,

4) I was worried that the priest was going to start condemning me to eternal damnation.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself in a beautiful little church yard (see picture below), with a priest who looked like a younger (and black hared version) of the 'man from Del Monte' due to his all white linen outfit. (This is a reference to a very old advertisement on British television for orange juice - "he say yes" to good tasting fruit..). I struggled to get this image out of my head for the morning we were together, though despite this humorous distraction, I found him very easy to listen to, and more importantly, easy to understand. So after learning about the importance of the cornerstones for marriage, (I won't go into them here...) we were asked to read a passage/story from the bible (David Vs Goliath) and discuss what relevance we thought this story had to the concept of marriage.... hmm yes I know, a tricky one! I can tell you with some certainty that the CORRECT ANSWER IS NOT - carry a sling shot around to make sure you get your own way!

Pre-wedding Course....

Pottery in the church garden!

Still, after clearing up that little misunderstanding and getting the 'approval from the delightful priest' we headed to the beach for a little time by the sea, before meeting Vibi's friend who also had some words of wisdom to impart... "Happy wife = happy life" - Still thinking that one over!

Finally by the sea....

I was desperate to strip off and get some breeze between my legs as the intense heat has been causing me all sorts of discomforts, which only vasts amounts of talcum powder and showering in ice has been able to soothe! Unfortunately we didn't have time for such things, so the closest I got was this... see picture below.....

Ohh nice breeze!

In fact drastic times call for drastic measures right! So despite any fleeting worries my wife to be might have about my next story were put aside, as I surprised her one lunch time, as she arrived home to find me sweating over lunch, whilst sweeping the floors in my sarong! Yes I said a Sarong... a sarong I might add that I bought in 2002 and could never quite bring myself to throw away! Well, it's been a revelation.... I'm under strict instructions that I am NEVER to leave the house like this. I did try and point out that David Beckham was famously pictured in a sarong many years ago (pre - Posh Spices' knickers). However it appears that until Colombia's favourite football son 'Radamel Falcao' is seen in such clothing, that I will be wearing mine in secret!

When needs must!

Interestingly enough, Falcao (the football player) is so loved her, not only is he advertising almost every product you can imagine, but if you ask most Colombian football fans who they dislike the most in world football, the answer is (Louis van Gaal) the Manchester United Manager - who seems to think Falcao is better at warming the seats on the bench than playing football! (To be honest, and to risk becoming the most disliked guy in Colombia - I'd agree with Louis Van Gaal this year at least!)

There have been many other things happening that I was going to talk about but I think that's enough for now, oh wait actually one more thing.... an no it's not the 'homework wars' with a teenager, it's reflecting further on last week's post about how buys a person can be trying to keep on top of activities in the home. Going one step further I have to say that 'suddenly becoming a parent' has really challenged me and my perspective on what's important. The parent thing is THE ULTIMATE OCCUPATION - a never ending, never dull, with constantly changing rules & dynamics, requiring the need for constant reflection, all whilst trying to optimize multiple people's happiness. And there's is never a break - I'm lucky, I'm inheriting a amazing kid, who is becoming a young man, and despite pushing a few boundaries (not to be unexpected at a time of great change for him), he's pretty easy going, but wow, it's a tiring occupation - I think parents should get paid more! Maybe take 10% of their kids salary for the first 5-10 years as a reward???  Thoughts?

A final note goes out to the people of Nepal & my current neighbours (neighbouring country) in Venezuela. Watching the devastating pictures and stories unfold from Nepal has been horrific. There seems to be little mention of it here beyond a few headlines, but seeing the people who survived, now fight for food and water is heart braking. 

Closer to home in Venezuela I heard today that the Government announced the working day was to be reduced to just 5 hours from 8/9 hours, citing the need to ration (save) electricity, as there had been an increasing and overwhelming demand on the public electricity grid. The reason - extremely hot weather! Check out the article below if you'd like....

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32506572 

Ok, enough from me, it's 9pm, and finally cool enough for a walk! 

Regards from Colombia!

Dan  

Weeks 3-4 Two states of being: a snow white transformation & 'hidden occupations'

Street View of Sunset....

Hola Todos:

My new life/reality in a small (no, tiny, think honey I shrunk the kids small....) little mining community in Cerrejón, Albania, northern Colombia has hit me hard this week! It's been like being run over by a big red double-decker bus in the middle of the desert - unexpected! Whatever ideas I thought I had about enjoying 'free' days and exploring native lands have been replaced by two never-ending states of being... SWEATING & SLEEPING... and often simultaneously... I swear today I was sweating whilst swimming too. That's definitely what the Iguana who watched me swim from his tree to perch was thinking anyway! I could see the Iguana just looking at me and thinking, what an earth is this snow-white guy doing here in the middle of the Colombian wilderness in 35-36 degree heat!? I wondered the same point myself! 

The 'compound'

The park....

The Compound....

1) Two states of being: Ok, lets try and put some order to this blog otherwise I will just randomly blurt out everything that's been in my head for the past 1-2 weeks. The 'COMPOUND' as I like to refer to this place as, takes me about 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other. I can run around most of the streets and twice around the football field and just about break 5 kilometers. This may sound easy, and for someone who ran a half marathon last year you'd think a few 5k runs would be easy right?... well oh no! My first attempt at at a 5k run was at 09:30 in the morning - 'too late in the morning' some people suggested - well those people were right. After 2/3k, I had to stop as it felt like any remaining water left in my body was at boiling point. After finding a single tree branch for shade I managed to use gravity to stumble to the nearby football field, right next to the swimming pool. The pool felt like a mirage in the desert as I did not have my swimming stuff with me and so couldn't dive in the water. Somewhat more alarming were 2 big black birds I noticed circling the field overhead. A further bird shape sat on the field flood lights, watching me with interest. As I got closer, I realised these weren't birds, they were vultures ('buitres' in Spanish) - the big birds that wait for things to die in hot places and then eat the remains of the animal! BLOODY VULTURES! -  like in the cartoons and in the Lion King! They were obviously smelling death and waiting for me to pass out. "I'll show you" I shouted to the vulture on the flood lights! My attempt at sprinting certainly did show the vulture something - mainly that he wouldn't have to wait very long to wait for lunch - or brunch in my case! I took the warning and toddled home... where I preceded to sweat prefusely for an hour AFTER exercising, even after a shower! A very cold shower! This sweating after exercise has not changed! 

The 'Olympic' ports Ground

I've managed 3 runs and 4 swimming sessions in a week, so I'm feeling good, but somewhat concerning is the fact that the Vultures are now always there, every time I run, on the same flood light, watching me run, and waiting! Vibi thinks I'm going mad, but I'm telling you they are always there. I've decided to give them names, and treat them like my running coaches... 'Dave' is the head coach, always sitting watching me run around the field, telling me to just run one more lap (whilst licking his lips - well, I mean his beak)... whilst 'Bob' and 'Sandra' just swoop around.... I have to say naming the vultures has definitely helped me deal with their unnerving presence! The Iguana only appeared today so any suggestions for names are welcome!

 2) Snow-White transformations: Now talking to the animals may sound a little strange, but I'm telling you, it definitely helps, and as I'm spending pretty much most of the day time on my own, I need the company! I totally understand how Snow White felt living with the dwarfs, and being home all day whilst they went to work. Vibi & Santi (who are smaller than me yes, but definitely are not dwarfs) go off to work and school (far too early for my liking) each day. Until they come home for lunch I'm ether running / swimming (if it's before 10:30 or after 3pm), or in between 11:00-3:30 washing up, cleaning the house, preparing lunch  or at least part of it and doing the washing! (Yes I watch the odd game of football - especially this week's Champion's League matches - but so would Snow White if she'd had cable TV!) 

So making friends with the birds and other animals helps make the daily chores more fun. So next time you watch Snow-White, replace the forest the the Colombian desert, replace the bunny rabbit and the robin with a vulture and an Iguana, and think of me 'whistling while I work' in the sweat factory of my kitchen washing clothes and pots with equal gusto!

Our Home....

Different housing on the compound

Nice houses on the compound....

3) Hidden Occupations: (& new found respect for home makers everywhere!) On a more domesticated note I except that I have never really had any desire to spend time cooking. Having mainly just cooked for one person, and had several other things that I'd rather spend my time doing, It's just not something that I have ever prioritised. Life has now changed, so dramatically in fact that I have been 'thrown in at the deep end' (a phrase used by my mum today during a Skype session - and particularly appropriate with swimming now featuring in my daily life!)..

So I find myself offering to cook lunches (for 3 people), make salads, shop for ingredients I have never herd of, let alone never used. The sweeping, washing clothes folding clothes, washing up pots and pans, making the bed, shopping and hanging up teenager's towels left on the floor - (now I know why my mum used to get so mad with my sister - who still needs prompting at 35+) - all this stuff takes us soooooooo much time it's unbelievable. How parents (mother in my case) did all this stuff, day in day out, and worked / studied whilst making time to drive kids to places and have a life - is quite amazing! Thanks so much mum!

What's in fashion this season?

The one & only supermarket

This led me to think about a really interesting key-note speech I attended in 2012 at the NZ OT Conference, by Lena-Karin Erlandsson. 

Lena is a Swedish OT who on this particular day talked about the importance of 'hidden occupations' - all the little things we do in a day that take conscious physical and cognitive energy, that we often don't count as an actual occupation. Well Lena, I was listening that day and now I'm living it! The day can be taken up with so many of these tasks, that I'm struggling to imagine how I will find time to do other things, and things that are / were more in line with my personal values and dreams. Perhaps the way to view this situation is to consider if despite such dramatic changes to my activities and routines, has there been any changes to my underlying values? I value having a family and creating a life with the people that I am with, so perhaps the change to my activities and routine, whilst temporary, is the only real change. 

More reflection is required on this, and I really should go as my animal friends will be waiting for me in the morning... 

Regards From Colombia...