Good bye Newcastle, it's over!!!

It's here. The day I longed for a few months. As I'm writing this I'm sitting on a train between York and Birmingham. It's a beautiful sunny morning. The North East is trying to make me guilty for leaving. No chance!!! I mean, I had some good times there but I'm looking forward to the new adventure too much.

What a week this has been!!! Suddenly everybody decided they wanted to see me before I leave. And I wanted to see them and say goodbye. But in some cases something (or somebody??) more powerful was against us. On Monday I was at home, waiting for the boxes being collected for shipping. The van arrived after 3pm and uploaded all 4 boxes. Two of them were at my parents' place three days later. The two boxes going to Canada went to the storage and will be shipped once I arrive there in January. On Tuesday I had a lunch with my friend J, our farewell to Nando's. In the evening my friend E drove all the way from Durham and picked me up from my place and we drove to Scalini's. As we parked there she had a phone call from her mum, saying that E's little boy had an accident and burnt his hand on the steamer and she wanted to take him to A&E to check it. So E decided she needed to go back and take him to the hospital. She dropped me off home and off she went. On Wednesday night I went out with some of the people from the tennis club. I really enjoyed it, thank you guys for coming!! On Thursday night I was supposed to go out for a meal with my friend C but she texted me at lunchtime that she had to take her sister to the hospital as her baby might be on its way. I haven't heard from her since. I just hope that everything is fine with them. So suddenly I had spare time which I thought I'd use to pack all my stuff. Well, that was before I started chatting to a friend on Facebook. Three hours later I decided to give it a miss and do it all on Friday instead and get some sleep.:-) Friday was hectic from the morning but I somehow wasn't stressed. I managed to pack most of my stuff, unfortunately found out that I had more bags than I thought and wanted. Never mind, I'll sort it out before flying home. Maybe a bigger suitcase could be a solution.:-) Anyway, a friend picked me up at noon and we dropped off my junk in a charity shop and then went for a coffee. After that I met another friend for a coffee and a sandwich. Then I went back home and finalised the packing and got rid of all the rubbish. It's incredible how much junk and rubbish I accumulated in the last five years, or even the last two years I lived in this place!!! It's official, I'm a hoarder. But my excuse is growing up with not much so you used everything what you could or until it fell apart. So, as usual, I blame the parents!!;-) Later in the afternoon my friend E drove all the way from Durham with her two kids just to give me a card and say goodbye. How nice??? Thanks Emz. (P.S.: Will send you a postcard from everywhere I'll go, ok??:-)) The last event of the day and the week was a meal out with the tennis ladies, the 1st team I played for this season. We had a good night in Scalini's and I got home just after 11pm. I managed to get some sleep on my last night in Newcastle, even though I had a really strange dream. I've been having strange dreams for some time now, sometimes I wonder what's going on in my head when I sleep!! I hope that now I'll be able to switch off and just relax.
The last week at work was a completely different matter. I was there only two and a half days but it couldn't go any slower, I think. It felt like it will never end. Being it a half term week I had both kids at home. That's usually a nightmare anyway but this time they were sick, the boy on Tuesday and the girl on Wednesday and Thursday. Having to be stuck indoors with them (mainly him) was driving me crazy. We managed to get out on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and met with my friend C and her two charges. Highlight of the working week, it's always nice to go out with other people. When the end of my last day came I got a card from the family and £50 cash. The boy wanted to write his name in the card and draw a picture. The girl wanted to do it as well. So I waited till they finished. At that moment I was getting late as I had other thousands things to do, good job C couldn't make it for our planned meal out. The boy was so excited that I was leaving but I don't know if he just didn't understand what was going on and that I was never coming back or he was just very happy that I was leaving. You never know what's going on in his head. The girl was crying when they told her I was going but she doesn't fully understand that I'm not coming back. She gave me a hug and a kiss and then was standing in the front door when I was walking home. I could hear her half way down the street shouting "me go, me go". When they asked her if she would go with me she said yes. I don't quite understand how can the parents make their little child so upset when she was losing someone she obviously loved and spent lots of time since she was 6 months old. Was that an attempt to make me feel guilty for leaving and make me cry??? Well, it didn't succeed. I don't feel guilty for leaving and I didn't cry.
To finish this post off I would like to thank all the friends I made and the people I met in the last 5 years in the North East. You were a part of my life and influenced me in some ways, some of you more than others. Thank you for being there for me when I needed it, thank you for the listening ear to my complains and moans, putting up with my moods and frustration on the tennis court, thank you for teaching me about life and that my glass COULD be half full!! :-) Wow, this is getting rather deep and I'm not sure how many will read it anyway. I just want to say that each of you played a part in making me the person I am today, even though you maybe didn't know it or didn't want it. But I thank you anyway!!! I'll miss you!!! Well, some of you. :-p

Counting days...

I'm very excited today. Every time I'm sorting out something for my big move, I get excited. Every time I get to see all those websites of outdoor activities and natural beauty around my next "place of stay" (can't really call it a home yet as I've never been there), I get excited. Then I start planning imaginary trips and visualize what it would be like. I've been driving this high wave for a few weeks now. I've only got 11 days left at work and 18 days in total before I leave this place. Then I'll take a train to Coventry and stay there for a week to see some of my friends. The next stop is London and a couple of days with "my" twins there. It will be hard to say goodbye to them, I might never see them again. Normally, with this thought, I'd start panicking and crying but this time it's different. I'm sad but the excitement took over my emotions almost completely. From London I'm flying back to my parents and stay until the end of the year. I have already a few trips planned from there and a few meetings with friends arranged. Some days I get stressed about the packing. I hate packing, big time. But then I think about the reason why I'm packing and get excited. It's not that bad living in a dream world. :-) Everything is organised and the collection day for the boxes is booked. So now I have a deadline to work to. When I sit on the train to Coventry I'll finally be able to relax, I hope. :-)

I'm back!!!

It's been a while since I last wrote something here. Lots have happened so I should fill you in on the latest news. I will try and keep blogging from now on as I'm getting ready for a new adventure.

June 2009 - London
I was spending a week with "my" twins in their home in London. It was nice to see them again. They are so big and so clever now. They talk all the time. I miss them when I can't see them so I'm really grateful that their parents let me visit them regularly. We played together, read books, went to the parks and fed the ducks, had a picnic and visited a secret garden. When the girls were in the nursery I went to the Camden locks and Primrose Hill. One of the days I went to Wimbledon.

Wimbledon here I come again !!!
As every year I was looking forward to my favourite tennis tournament. This year I decided that one day with a Ground pass would be enough. I picked the first Tuesday as the day. The weather was beautiful and the queue for the tickets quite long. But I got in just before 12 o'clock, just in time for the matches to start on the outside courts. I had the order of play so I picked the matches I wanted to see. The first one was Sam Stosur playing Bethanie Mattek-Sands on court no.12. The stands seemed to be full already. I managed to squeeze closer to the entrance and was lucky enough that there was one empty seat in the first raw. Perfect! I sat down and the guy sitting next to me said: "you were lucky". And I replied: "yeah, it must be my lucky day today". And, as I found out later in the day, I was right. The match went into three sets and I saw some good tennis. After the match I spent a couple of hours by the practise courts. Novak Djokovic was just finishing his practice but otherwise I didn't see any huge stars there, at least the ones I knew, but there were a few other players practising but I didn't recognise most of them. And I wasn't alone. One guy asked me who the girl was and I said that I didn't have an idea and that they all look the same to me. He said that he thought the same. It was probably one of the 50 or something Russians/Eastern Europeans in the draw with long blond hair, hitting the ball like crazy. I just relaxed on a bench there. Then it was time to get to court no.3 (formally no.2). On this court two "old" guys were playing some excellent tennis, using more of their head than the power. It was Fabrice Santoro and Nicolas Kiefer. Santoro won this match but it was worth watching, no matter who won. The next match on this court was the one I really wanted to see. Amelie Mauresmo played Melinda Czink and I was hoping to see the good old Amelie playing her beautiful tennis and winning easily. Well, she won in three sets but it was rather frustrating to watch. The first set was perfect and then suddenly she fell asleep or something. She couldn't hit anything right. Luckily she managed to dig deep and win the third set. The match finished quite late but I still managed to get to the Wimbledon shop and buy the towel there. Then it was time to go home. I had a great day...

Summer holidays - July/August 2009
I couldn't wait for my holiday to start, as usual. I was only going home, which means back to my parents', but I was hoping to snap one of those last minute cheap trips there and go somewhere nice and warm and just veg out for a week. People who know me are probably now saying that I couldn't do that but I thought I could. I felt like that was what I needed to relax and recharge my batteries. But, as usual with me, somebody else had a different idea about my holiday. The night before I was leaving I received an e-mail with a letter I'd been waiting for for some time. That meant that I had to sort this thing out, that was the priority of my holiday. The first week of my three weeks holidays I was running around and getting all the paperwork ready. I also managed to visit some of my friends and relatives. By Friday I felt rather exhausted and decided to have a day when I don't do anything and don't go anywhere. At the weekend I joined my brother-in-law and my two nephews and we went to Brno (second biggest city in the Czech Republic) to watch World Championships in Superbikes. I've never been to an event like

that so I thought it could be interesting. Well, it was interesting but not something I'd have to do again.

On Monday early morning me and my older nephew (who is 13) got on a train to Vienna. I had to go there to apply for my Canadian visa and work permit so we made 3-day trip out of it. We stayed in a nice hotel and did some sightseeing as well as a few rides in the Prater (amusement park). The rest of my holiday I spent the usual way - visiting friends and relatives. It never feels like a holiday when I go back home but at least the weather was beautiful there...

Post-holiday blues

It has been a few weeks since I got back from my amazing holiday. But it was only today I managed to get back here and upload the rest of the photos. It took me longer than I expected, mainly because I couldn't even look at the photos without being sad that it was over. I really struggled to get back to the mindset of being back at work. It hasn't been the same ever since I got back. But that's another story.

After I got back to London, I stayed in a youth hostel over night and then went to see "my" twins. They were just adorable. I miss them so much. We went to the park and played in the sandpit and at the playground. After lunch we played in the house. Then it was time for me to leave. They told me they loved me and gave me hugs and kisses. I managed not to cry. Just.

My next stop was Coventry, where I stayed with my "adoptive" family. I was just relaxing there, we were chatting and went to the shops. On Friday night we went for a curry and on the way home we stopped at grandma's, who came home from hospital that afternoon. It was nice to see that she was ok. On Saturday I met a friend and her 4 years old daughter for lunch and they dropped me off at the train station. I was on my way back to Newcastle. When I was sitting on the train from Birmingham, it finally hit me. My holiday is over. Now it's back to reality. I wasn't happy about that...

Day 19 - Back to the real world

Today was the day I was leaving Iceland. I was quite sad because there was so much more I wanted to see in this unusually beautiful country. And I didn't know when I would see E and her family again. And it also meant that my holiday was almost over and I would have to go back to work.

I got up early-ish (8:30am) because I had to pack my stuff. My flight was at 11:20am. The advantage of living a stone throw from the airport is that you don't have to spend a half a day getting there and waiting when the plane is late. And it's even better when your fiance works at the airport. He called us to be at the airport at 11am but then the plane was late due to the bad weather in Reykjavík so we got regular updates on the situation and waited in the comfort of E's living room. Finally the plane was on the way to Ísafjörður and I was on the way to the airport, which was about a size of a smaller bus station. In this part of the world people seem to use the planes like we use buses. The plane from Reykjavík landed at 1:10pm, the fuel hose was connected, luggage unloaded and loaded and we were boarding the plane at 1:18pm!!! All that with two members of staff!!! I was impressed.

Here is me just before getting on the plane.

The flight was a little bumpy when going through the clouds but not too bad. It took only 40 minutes and we were landing in snowy Reykjavík. From there I took a taxi to the bus station to catch my bus to Keflavík airport. As we were getting closer to the airport, the sun made its appearance. We could also see the steam from the Blue Lagoon. After arriving to the Keflavík airport I checked my bag in, went through the security and then just wasted my time walking through various duty free shops. The atmosphere was rather calm and relaxed compare to any UK airports. The actual flight to London Heathrow was quite pleasant. As we were leaving at 5pm, I knew there is no chance to see the northern lights this time so I decided to watch a movie. But when we got above the clouds I had this fantastic view from my window. The sun was setting and the moon and a first star were out already. All the colours were beautiful together.

Day 18 - The sun and the northern lights finally appeared

This morning we could see some blue sky for the first time of my stay here.

We decided to go back to Bolungarvík, the town where I was almost blown away a few days ago. This time it was much more pleasant.

Even the sun came out at some point.
On the way there we stopped at Ósvör open air museum. It's a reconstructed fishing station with a fisherman's hut, a salting house, a hut to dry the fish and a couple of other buildings. It is open only during the summer season so there was nobody there the fish was hanging there to dry. There was no gate or a fence so I walked around it, it was on a pretty small area. After we came back we picked E's little girl from the nursery and drove partly through the same tunnel as yesterday but we took the turning for Suðureyri about half way through the tunnel. Suðureyri is a small fishing village where visitors can get involved in the regular village life, they can go out on working fishing boats and visit the fish factory. That's obviously during the summer season. At this time of the year it seemed like a sleepy little village by a beautiful fjord.
When we got back to Ísafjörður E suggested that I should climb another mountain. This time it wasn't for the view over the town. She wanted me to experience the feeling of being close to a plane, which turns around those mountains before landing at the local airport. I climbed about half way up and waited for the plane to arrive. Unfortunately the wind changed and the plane was landing another direction so it didn't come anywhere close to the mountain I was standing on. Well, it was a good workout and I got a nice view of the town from a different angle. For dinner we had roasted lobster tails with garlic for starter, an Icelandic fish dish for the main course and pancakes with cream for dessert. It was a very nice "going away" dinner.
Later in the evening E's fiance thought that this could be the night when we could see the northern lights. I've always wanted to see them but the weather was against me. It's been always cloudy and relatively warm and they can be seen only when the sky is clear and it's freezing. So we took the chance and drove out of the town lights. The sky was mostly clear with thousands of stars but there were also few clouds around. After a short time something started to appear. Not very strong at first but then they got stronger. They looked more like long thin clouds than the stripes of colour as you see it on pictures or tv. They moved very slowly and then they faded and new ones appeared. It was a surreal experience. I kept taking pictures of them. The strange thing was that when I watched them they were milky colour but they are green on the photos!! After about an hour of standing in the freezing cold, dark night and watching the lights dancing we went back home. It was my last night here and the last chance to see them. When I flew from London to Reykjavik a week ago, about an hour before we landed the cabin lights were switched off even though they are normally on during the flight. I looked out of the window and saw a light strip of something like a long thin cloud and then another one above it. It moved very slowly and gradually faded away. There was no way there were clouds out there at 36,000 feet at 11pm. The northern lights were saying "hello" to me but I wasn't sure it was them because they were not coloured. And now they were saying "good bye" to me.

And here is a proof that I was there... :-)

Day 17 - More beautiful scenery... and a seal

Today seemed the brightest day so far, we could even see the mountains on the other side of the town, which I didn't know were there. Also the roads were clean and mostly dry so we decided to go to Þingeyri. That's the village where the funeral took place on Friday and the family members couldn't get through the mountains unless they followed the plough. Well, we didn't have that problem. But before we headed off to Þingeyri, E mentioned that sometimes seals make appearance in town. I thought she was joking. She drove around a little lagoon just off the fjord and there it was. I couldn't believe it. Just about 30 metres from the road there was a seal lying on the ice. We got out of the car and started taking pictures. I walked riht to the edge of the water and put the tripod up. The seal didn't move. Maybe it was used to attention. Every time a car went by, the seal just watched it.When I took enough pictures we finally went to explore the other side of the mountains, where we got by driving through a 5km long tunnel. As we got out of the tunnel, the view which openned in front of us was spectacular. We drove to one of the fjords and stopped to take more photos.

Then we continued on our way to Þingeyri with a stop by the church in Mýrar where E wants to get married. It was closed so we couldn't get in but the view from there was fantastic. Then we finally got to Þingeyri, a small village nesting at the bottom of a mountain range. There really wasn't that much to see, maybe in summer it would be more lively. The surroundings were beautiful though.When we got back to Ísafjörður we got changed and went to climb a mountain. Well, not to the top of one of the mountains surrounding the town but only the "lady troll's seat" in it. It was still pretty high and rather steep. There was no path and as we were getting closer to the top, it was more rocky and the snow was deeper in places. E gave up about half way up but I was determined to reach the top. After about 40 minutes of hard work I got there. And it was worth it. The view was amazing.