Bits and bobs

Here's my pal that I was telling you about, chilling on my balcony with his broken leg, easy as anything.  He's stopped flying off whenever he hears the sound of my camera.  I'm half-tempted to start throwing breadcrusts at him and recreate a bird version of Free Willy where he eventually leaps gracefully over my outstretched fist.

My good friend (and faithful reader!) Kim and I decided to meet for coffee on the weekend.  I wanted to thank her for being such a good friend to me over the nasty break up period and bought her a small perfume from Victoria's Secret.  To my surprise and delight, she'd had the same idea and bought me a gift as well - this beautiful Murakami book with a lovely inscription. 

Thank you so much Kim (because I know you'll probably be reading this), I savour a few pages before bed every night!  It's just the right mix of strange, whimsical and slightly eerie.

My Paul McCartney dog tag from his US tour in 2005 against a new mesh sweater of sorts from New Look.  When I bought this at the concert all those years ago for $15, my friends laughed at me and said that I'd been ripped off - it was JUST a dog tag.  I thought that concert jewellery was unusual and special and wore it with pride anyway.  Well, it's held up really well over seven years where a $35 shirt would have been faded to pieces in the wash! 

And I'm enjoying burning my Yankee Candles in the dark - this one smells of tea and spices - and watching the dancing glow of my yellow ceramic lid and coaster.

Work has also been fulfilling - we're teaching students about American politics for a special event in January and while I'm the last person in the world to be talking about politics, catching up has been a great education for me.

To be honest, I can be a little apathetic in this domain.  When we introduced ourselves as trainers, we were supposed to say why we had been chosen to teach for the event.  I faltered, then, pointed at my colleague and, "Because Ms. S made me!" 

Today, I listened to my colleagues teach about theories of government and about all kinds of political positions in the US and I realised just how much I had missed out on in school when I was wide-eyed, dreamed of storybooks and had very little time for the plod through History and Economics.

I wish now that I'd paid more attention, or cared enough to try.

But hey, sometimes you get a second chance, and I'm glad that rather than being stuck behind a desk, I work in a place that allows me to continue to learn and feel wonder at all the things that the world was, is and can be. 

Well, it's Day 12 of Nanowrimo, and the faster I start, the earlier I'll end!