Cairo Day 1.5

Mom brought me home the day before yesterday around 1am. It was fun she has a cab driver she has made friends with called Crazy Magdi. He drove us to Mom's new apartment, all of her roomates are under 30, in fact they are all younger than me. Really nice people, and I met a whole bunch of the because she had a massive X-mas dinner with all of her friends from school planned for yesterday evening, it was a bit overwhelming because of my jetlag but it was also nice. I have access to the internet every day here at Mom's apartment so I will be able to upload pictures of my travels. We leave tonight for our cruise from Luxor to Aswan at 4am our time. This morning I was up around 3am wandering around, my inner clock has not adjusted it'self yet to Egyptian time. I had some nice quiet time with Mom this morning. I have been offered a job at the school which would start in January, they need someone to put together a production for the end of year. I am thinking about it, there are al kinds of reasons to say no, but I'm giving it due consideration, I don't want to dismiss the oppurtunity out of hand. I haven't discussed this with Allan yet. The position would last until the summer, and `i would earn $75 American a day and `I wouldn't have to pay for rent or food.

Jet lag

So it has been an interesting few days. We woke up at 3am and drove over the malahat amid snow flurries, at which point one of our wipers stopped working. We made it to the airport with little time to spare. Had a 6 hour stop over in Toronto, bored stupid. Had a horrible seat mate on the flight to London he stole my pillow! Time is going surrprisingly fast at heathrow, there are SO many people here! Am doing a lot of people watching. Lots of flouro orange suitcases this year must be a trend. I am so exhausted I have been making all kinds of silly mistakes. Also I stink, forgot to put deodorant in my onboad baggage.

Vomit II

So I don't post here that often anymore, and I am going to make a concentrated effort to do more posts, especially while I am in Egypt.

Anyway I have an exam in an hour and quite honestly that has turned my tummy into queezy land. This happens to me every term!! Yesterday before my exam I was retching in the toilet at the library,
"Yeah tah for the books, oh scuse me RRRRRRRAAAAAALLLLLLPPPHHH!!"
Thats how you make friends Naomi style.
Seriously there was this stuning girl in the loo, wearing all kinds of expensive clothes, with her hair and make-up all perfect looking all concerned (but not wrinkeling her brow) asking me if I was ok. LOL I was standing over a toilet in my grubby snow boots, in old jeans, my hair in a messy bun with a $6 t-shirt on thinking fuck-off lady.
"Yup, thanks I'm fine."
She was so nice, and I just wanted her to piss-off.
Honestly vomiting is really just a one person activity. It isn't a spectator sport. I am not bulemic or anorexic and I have sort of grown accustomed to puking on exam days, but thats a little hard to explain to the complete stranger who thinks you are crazy. Argh I just want the evil tummy butterflies to go away, Valerie advised me to sit near the garbage pail just in case. Thanks Mom!

I don't know that everyone would agree with this

Finding a balance

Finding it hard to manage my time between work, school, and leisure. I am working all day every day until my exams when I come home I am totally beat, and being sick all the time sure isn't helping. Allan is being very Allanesque-which is causing problems.

Sigh

It has been a shitty month, in face it has been a very shitty four months. I am trying to get excited about going to Egypt, but the truth is I couldn't care less. I know it will just mean more frustrating arguments with Valerie and I just hate that it takes so much out of me. I am so tired, and so sick all of the time. I need to get out of this house but I can't afford to go anywhere. This is definitely a new low point for me.

Get Crazy with the Cheese Whiz

I'm moving to Vancouver in late August or early September. Crazy man! I have so much stuff I have got to sort out. I need to pack everything a lot of stuff needs to go into storage and I have to decide what stays with Allan.

I don't know what to do about the koi, I'm not sure if Allan is going to take care of them. Argh!

I'm trying to get the house clean for Valerie's visit but that is an uphill climb.
busy,busy.busy!

Sigh

Sucks when you do a lot of stuff and don't get thanked for it. Sucks even more when it goes completely unacknowledged.

Zimmers - My generation

I wish I knew how to post this on facebook

Crazy

This makes my brain bleed. It is not that I don't think that there is a place for a creation based museum, it is more or less the way he is going about it. A lot of his exhibits are very questionable.

Resentment

There are a group of people I have worked with a time or two and everytime I try and do something nice for them it comes back to bite me in the ass. Its as if someone doing something nice for them is just expected, there is never a thank-you or even an indication that they realize someone went out of their way to do something for them. Fuck that.

Vegas?

Susan and I are dorks, which is why I think we would have so much fun here. We could stay at this hotel for Amber's entertainment. Why Amber? check this out. Of course I am not trying to imply Amber is a horn dog or anything...

Vomit

I don't know about anyone else, but I find that I always feel like I am going to vomit when I have my last exam. When I was at UBC I went so far as to sit next to a garbage can. I hate this feeling, I wish it would pass.

Gizo

I found this link, which has the best coverage so far.

Garage Sale

I think I am going to try and arrange a massive garage sale in order to raise money for the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. Please let me know if you are intersted in helping or have any suggestions for locations

Gizo

By now most of you have probably heard about the earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands. It happened near Gizo, a town that I spent 3 years living in. I don't know what to say...

The people I know...
Their families...
The places that are destroyed...


I just feel so frustratingly impotent.

Art n' stuff

After seeing this on the hour, I wanted to know more about the artist known as Banksy. So I found his website, check it out.

My Daze

Yesterday I arrived at UVIC campus at approx 7:15 am, I left at approx 9:35 pm. This morning I awoke at approx 5:25 am to get ready for Vanpool. At that point in time I was ready to shove my whole university/academic career down the toilet for another hours precious sleep. Thank god this term is nearly done.

Stardust

For those of you who don't know, I am a Neil Gaiman fan. And when I discovered that a movie was being made of stardust I went a little bit crazy happy.

Not sure about some of the casting, but willing to give benefit of the doubt.

Windswept and Interesting

My Mother, the great explorer, looking all fabulous and exotic, with bamboo stuff in background. This past week she climbed mount Sinai.

Quote of the Day

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful

-Mae West

Questions, Queries, etc.

I will do my toefl probably through U Vic on a bunch of weekends in July...maybe. I would have to figure out transportation. Anyone interested in taking that class with me, we could car pool? Only $954.00.

Right now the scenario that I am leaning towards is moving to Cairo for a year before going back to UBC. I think I'd like to spend a year or two abroad, maybe a year in Cairo, and a year in Korea. If anyone wants to come with I am open to destination changes, I just want to not be in Canada for sometime.

Once I finish the degree at UBC, I don't know what I will do, maybe some more time overseas, or maybe I will transfer to another university to study education.

I would really love to spend some more time in France. Maybe I will see about doing my education degree in Europe, or even more exciting...Halifax!

I think I had an epiphany the other day and it was a very simple one: I have to do what will make me happy, not what will please other people, or what society seems to dictate as appropriate. I won't ever be wealthy, I know that, but I want to be happy, and I think that is far more important. I can't worry about money, if I focused only on that I would never go anywhere or do anything.

Good Lord, I am turning into my Mother.

Quote of The Day

If you always do what you want to do at least one person is pleased.


-Katherine Hepburn

Possibilities

I have been spending a great deal of time thinking about what to do when I am done at
U VIC. Here are some of my choices:

1) Do my toefl certificate
2) Go to Korea teach English there
3) Go to Cairo live with Valerie and teach English there
4) Go to Vancouver finish my theatre degree
5) Apply for the journalism program*
6) Apply for the librarian studies program*
7) Apply for the education program at any one of a number of universities*


*The last three are pretty much contingent on finishing my UBC degree.

Quote of the Day

"Try everything once except incest and folk dancing."

- Thomas Beecham

Yar!

For all of you pirate fans out there.

Quotes of the Day

So a few quotes here for you from the one and only Douglas Adams.

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands."

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

"My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

"You live and learn. At any rate, you live."

Rollercoaster

I have a very good friend who is suffering. Not physically but I am sure the emotional tole is probably beginning to wear on him. I am talking about depression, and that horrible feeling of despair. The existential crisis that many 20 somethings seem to crash into. I have had my fair share of this, and sometimes I still find myself mired in that horrible sticky feeling. It is like emotional molasses, you feel trapped and don't want to move or go out or do anything.

At my worst I found myself seriously pondering a medicinal milkshake in order to end my pain. What prevented me from hurting myself was the thought of what it would do to the people I loved. For a time, they are what kept me going. About a year after that incident, my cousin was killed crossing the road on his way home from a bookstore, this threw me right back into depression land. I thought that being with my Family would help, but it was so draining trying to be strong, and trying to be there for all of them that I found myself tried in knots. There is only so much I could deal with, and because I had merely repressed my other issues, it all bubbled over until I was a complete wreck.

Pulling myself out of that pit was and is the hardest thing I have ever done. My psychiatrist worked with me on techniques for dealing, going for walks, avoiding escapism, writing a daily diary, practicing breathing techniques, and finding new ways of expressing myself. I forget who said it but there is a great quote "remember we are all in this together, alone." The only one who can solve my problems is me. I'm not saying that people can't help, I'm just saying that the essential choice to go on had to be mine. There is a great book by Anne Cameron called Tales of the Copper Woman, in which she has several short stories. One of the stories that had an impact on me was about this group of wise women. The women would listen to any problem brought before them, and then offer suggestions. They would do this twice, and then if the person with the problem returned and had not acted on the problem, they would turn their backs. I find thinking about that story helps me to avoid wallowing in whatever is getting me down. Happiness is something I have to work to achieve, and if I don't deal with my issues they will bite me in my ass. Also it isn't fair of me too continually lean on my friends for support, initially yes, but not indefinitely. As the cliche goes friendship is a two way street.


It is not easy to share these experiences, but I have posted this because I think that depression has some ugly stigmas attached and people still have a great deal of difficult discussing it. I don't want my friend to think that he is alone, and I hope he finds something that will make his struggle easier.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It has been a bit since my last post. Lots of stuff going on. Been to the doctor, have to go two more times...stupid sickness. They don't know what is wrong with me yet. Can't sleep, can't breathe, bit of a bother. School is almost done. Trip planning is in full swing. Turns out Valerie is coming home this summer, sometime in July I believe. She is still in Egypt, and I don't know if she likes it but she does enjoy the warmth. Anyway this is beginning to shape up like one of those horrid insincere Christmas letters, so thats enough of that.

Quote of the Day

The real fountain of youth is to have a dirty mind.

-Jerry Hall

Small Rant

Shut the fuck up!
Seriously!
This morning in my class there were these two girls who would not stop talking. I could barely hear the Proff over their insipid banter. Honestly who cares about your Cancun vacations. twats! I don't spend $485 a class to listen to that kind of crap.

Then I went to the computer lab to do some work on my essay. Same thing happened! I can understand if you are in the computer lab working together with someone else on a project, that is fine. But if you are in the lab gabbing away about some girl who supposedly hates you, and has a perfect life, fully expect someone (me) to be tempted to throw a computer at you.

While I am pretty sure I have some unresolved anger issues, I was not the only one vexed.

Quote of the day

I know he is a jerk and everything but that Prince Charming makes me hotter than July.
-Ugly Step-Sister
Shrek the Third

Genetic Experiments Have to Stop

Imagine if you will Sheep Gone Bad.

Anime

Check out this Paprika

Quote of the Day

People say to me, "You're not very feminine." Well they can suck my dick.

-Roseanne

Pussy for Peace!

These are awesome, had I more money I'd get a pair for all my girlfriends! We'd be just like our Greek homegirls in Lysistrata.

4 Little Girls

4 Little Girls
See this documentary. Spike Lee directed it, it is not a happy story but one that I think is important. There are some graphic images of corpses so be prepared for that. Also if keep your eyes open, you might get to see someone with my last name spewing out racist crap. That was something of a shocker, a possible distant (very distant) relative of mine taking a stand against civil rights. A proud, proud, proud moment for my family.

And my Mother wonders why I have always wanted to change my last name.

So long ago...

This picture was taken ten years ago on my last night in the Solomon Islands. It hasn't weathered very well and I lost the negative, but it is one of my favorite photographs. I only wish Princess (the fellow who took the picture) was also in it. I can't believe ten years have already passed. I had thought I would be back there by now teaching at King George VI, my old Alma matter. I've always intended to go even if just for a little while.

Quote of the Day

America I've given you all and now I'm nothing...
I can't stand my own mind
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.

-Allen Ginsberg
America

Sigh

Bill and I went to a meeting today to try and determine if it is worth our while to sell our goodies at the local craft market. We walked away not much wiser. I don't know if I am going to give it a shot or not. I wasn't really impressed with the organizers, and I am not sure that what I have to sell would go over very well in such a rural market. I think I will make a bunch of stuff with the materials I already have and try it for a day. If it works out cool, if not I will have birthday gifts galore for the next little while.

Quote of the Day

My Father was a proctologist, mother an abstract artist. That's how I see the world.

-Sandra Bernhard

Impending pain

Ever since I posted that image of Lindsie, I have had this sensation of an anvil above my head. I feel as though she is waiting for the right moment to let the sucker drop, exactly when I least expect it. Which has me feeling slightly jumpy.

Quote of the Day

The art of being a woman can never consist of being a bad imitation of a man.

-Olga Knopf

Geez

Oh dear. Last night a good chum of mine was held up at needle point for $40. She had a syringe of her own blood. Can you imagine being so out of it or desperate for something that you would go to that extreme? Not only that but she had previously come into the place where he was working and offered him a blow job. This happened in Duncan, on my street to someone I know, right across the road from an elementary school. Fuck.

Quote of the Day

When my mother found my diaphragm, I told her it was a bathing cap for my cat.

Liz Winston

Jane Austen is hot!

Quote of the Day

I felt about as welcome as a fart in a space suit.

-Billy Connolly

Quote of the Day

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.

-Jane Austen

(Who suspiciously sounds like Two Shot)

Kate the Great

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

-Katherine Hepburn

Ever have one of those days when you just feel like a blockhead?

I took this picture in Nice with Mark's camera, the camera I now own because I smacked it into a pyramid. Woooops.

Whoa

Alright so no doubt by now you have all heard about the astronaut Captain Lisa Nowak and her aborted kidnapping attempt. For my part I thought booooring more inane American bullshit, that was until I heard about the diaper. Part of her cunning plan involved a long drive, so she decided to bring a diaper so she would not have to pull over. I have to admit there is a certain crazy-lazy part of me that thought that is fucking brilliant. No wonder she made it through Nasa, that is the kind of practicality I want to see more of in this world. No, no when we have places to go, let not mere urine stand in our way!


I felt about as comfortable as a fart in a spacesuit.

-Billy Connolly

Quote of the Day

I was going to commit suicide by sticking my head in the oven, but there was cake in it.


-Leslie Boone

Mummy Dearest, or the Man Magnet.

I don't know who the man in the blue and white shirt is, but next to him is my 63 year old Mother. Next to her in the blue turban is Andre, a civil engineer from South Africa, he travels the world building wells. The fellow behind Andre is another international man of mystery, I have no idea who he is. Finally the young man in the red shirt is the one who tried to use me to marry his way out of Egypt, oh but I was tempted. I think the deal breaker was when he started telling me how I should be more obediant. His Mother died a year or two ago and Mom felt sorry for him and started feeding him. You know some older women collect cats, my Mom is just more ambitous.

Everywhere my Mother travels she seems to draw young men to her. She aquired 8 foster sons when she lived in the Solomons.

My Bitches

How can I start my new blog without posting an image from the first play I directed? Yes, there were problems, yes there were days when I wanted to rip my hair out and run around like a screaming loon, but to my credit, I did not. Well there were minor wobblies but we all made it through intact. It was a learning experience and for that I will always treasure the production. Aw, look at my boys they were all so pretty!

Dingbat 1, Snow 0!

Dingo's first time in the white stuff and it was love at first sight. He would dive head first into any available bank of snow, try to eat/breath it in all at the same time. Then he tried to hump the snow. Remember that time he tried to eat a light bulb? I think his sheer enthusiasm for everything more than makes up for his lack of intelligence. He lives his life as though every millisecond counts, everything he encounters he tries eating, screwing or jumping on. Nothing goes un-tested.

Come to think of it he reminds me of several men I know.

On the Road Again, eventually.

I am going to Newfoundland YAY!!!!
A long term dream of mine is coming true I am going to the oldest city in North America!!!
Fucken rights!

We will be staying here, I know it looks swish but its the third cheapest hotel we could find. Why did we settle on the third cheapest?
Well since you asked, the cheapest would have meant Haggis, myself and Wee Mia sharing a bed. Last time I did that Wee Mia booted me in the head. So in order to prevent me walloping her back, Haggis has decided we will not all be sharing a bed.
Why not the second cheapest?
Because the second cheapest is way hell and gone, and the Battery Hotel is within walking distance to the happy couples home.


Disclaimer: Gnome does not beat small children.