Glastonbury

Oh my God! I'm gonna swear in the way that Americans swear now. I went to Glastonbury! I loved it! I want to go again!

My day started at 7:15 when I went to work to get the residents ready to go and get them into the van and go off. There were 3 residents and 3 carers, including me. Getting to the parking area in Glasto wasn't the easiest one, but after about an hour of struggling, we were in the disabled camp and had processed our tickets into wristbands. Then we loaded people off and started heading towards the main stage- Pyramid. It was a bit muddy and I had to push the only manual chair. Luckily there were two really nice lads who helped me to the disabled ramp near the stage. Aww, bless them. Then I waited for the two other residents to come to the ramp, because it took a bit more time for them to come as they didn't have the lads and they also thought I got lost. But we sorted it all out.
So.... The sun was shining, it was a lovely day. We had the meals and sorted everything out and then just enjoyed the music. I listened to Fisherman's Friends, The Low Anthem, Don McLean. When Don McLean got on the stage, I walked down to the stage and took a closer picture oh him. He played "American Pie" and I recorded it. Lovely! Absolutely lovely!
Then after the American Pie I was given some time to wander around so I decided to go the the stage named John Peel and see OK Go. Before they got on the stage I saw a little bit of the Joy Formidable, who were really powerful and loud.
Then. About OK Go! They are so cool!!! Although they didn't dance on the stage, their performance was magnificient. The sound was good, and they communicated with the audience a lot. They sang songs with us and asked us to sing along. The singer asked during the song "Here it goes again" if someone played guitar and then invited one guy on the stage, handed him his guitar and showed which chords to play and then the guy played with the band and the singer sang! It was so coool! And then after some more songs, the singer asked us to sing along to one of their songs and then got off the stage and stood on the barrier right in front of me and sang there and then he went swimming into the audience. I touched him- he was right above me. The swim didn't last long because there wasn't very many people so he got back to the stage quite soon. But it was just brilliant! I love Ok Go. And I got to see all their most famous songs! Ahhhh! I loved them!

After Ok Go finished, I went back to our place, although it took time, because it was mud everywhere. But it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I saw Paul Simon and Plan B then after them, I saw Pendulum! Damn, they were good! I really liked them! I danced along to them.

And then in the evening I also saw Beyonce. I was stunned that I knew so many of her songs! But the show was great, she went and shook the hands of the people in the first row. And it was huge! 175 ooo people just watching her. It's almost 1/10 of Estonian population! And you could see it in front of you. Amazing.

I just got home about 2 hrs ago and now am staying up because I don't find much point in going to bed that late any more. I'm still going to Estonia in 4 hrs time! Ahhhh!
Brilliant!

I am so happy right now!
Glastonbury was just so cool, massive, muddy and a proper festival! Ahhhh! So so so unbelievable and cool. I've got loads of videos and nice pictures. My camera's battery died right before Beyonce came on the stage, but I don't mind. I will get the pictures from the internet.

Glastonbury is just amazing! I love it!

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The past and the present and the future

I had a nostalgic moment today when I looked at the old photos taken a little time before I came to UK.
It made me realise that I might have missed so many so great things. But life's like "Mr. Nobody" movie. You just choose one path. You can never know what could have happened.
Still, it's nice to have the past that I have. Although it would be sometimes nice to know where I'd be now if I hadn't come to UK.
I guess I might figure some things out when I go home.
Remembering the past is always important.
It just sometimes makes me sad that certain things have passed and will never come back. That some things will never be the same.

But well.
I hope I've made the right decisions in my life so far and that I will continue making them.

I can't wait to go home. To see my friends and family.
2 more days to go.

This week has been crazy busy- work, POVA training, guitar singalong, leisure centre, moving. I'll go to Bristol tomorrow, Glastonbury on Sunday.

Still, sometimes I try to imagine my life in Estonia. I look through the window that my friends sent me in post and try to be back. But sometimes I feel like I've forgotten things. The way things smell, look like.

Life in Estonia seems like some surreal, distant thing.
I guess when I'll be in Estonia, then life in here seems to be some dream that I've had for a long time.

I hope I haven't changed too much in those past 4 months.

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My new home

I've not completely settled myself in, in my new apartement. It's lovely. I don't feel like living in a guesthouse anymore. It's not a perfect 5-star hotel-style place and I love it. The floor has got some candle wax dripped on it, the walls aren't the cleanest, there are spiderwebs all over the place (or were, now I got rid of them- revenge from to spiders?). The toaster doesn't work perfectly- it burns the toast from one side. I can't have a shower, only bath, because from the shower there comes only cold water. It's not all renovated. And it's a bit messy, just like a home should be. I don't have to worry about people coming to my room, I don't hear people being hoisted at 8am on Saturday. I have wifi in here.
And still, the best of all- I have a kitchen! And I've tried it out. I made pasta with spinach and cheese on Sunday. Absolutely brilliant. And I have two apartement-mates who are talkative.

I can say that I'm a lot happier now that I've moved away from the St. Michael's home. The gatehouse lodge is cosy. All the tiny not-properly-working things that I have here, make the place home.

Home is a place that's not perfect. It has it's own faulties and mistakes. But that's what makes a home a home. It's not supposed to be for showing, it's supposed to be for living.

And I can burn candles here!

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Format C:

Yeah, exactly.

I have no idea what happened but I tried to get some guitar chords yesterday from the internet and then all of a sudden my computer told me that it can't get any information from my hard drive. What's more beautiful- my hard drive failed. Hmmm. Lovely.
So I had no other option than to just do format C: and load everything on again. The problem is- I don't have a good internet at the moment. So... I can't download all the programs I had. I'm hoping to do it tomorrow evening, but who knows.
It's quite a perfect time for my computer to fail like this- I just had to do some guitar stuff in here and now I can't do it. But the good side of it is that my in the bigger plan my computer will be working well again and I am just going home from where I can bring all the CD's with the programs I left home. So that's good.

But it's still annoying.

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I'm a visitor in my own home.

I had a dream last night. I didn't want to wake up.
I had just arrived home but somehow it was also the village and my sis had just told me hello, and then all the volunteers in the village came into my room to say hi to me. I hugged everybody and then told I had just had amazing time with my friends and that I was so glad to see all of them. And then we went to the river to have a swim. Naked swim. All in the moonlight. It was so beautiful and lovely.

I can't wait to visit home. 8 days left.

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Royal Ascot

On Wednesday I went to Royal Ascot which is a horseracing event and it's a very posh one. All the ladies have to wear dresses and ridiculous hats. I didn't wear a hat- I had only some shiny flower-jewellery in my hair. It's the event where the queen goes and people will have the possibility to see her driving past them in the carriage in the beginning of the day.

When we arrived there, we were a bit late and until we got through the ticket barriers the queen had already started to drive with the carriage. So I basically ran uphill while pushing the wheelchair and managed to get through the crowd and saw a her. Waving at us. I also saw other Royalties but can't recognize them.

The race was great. We had fun betting on the horses. Everybody won around 14 pounds, except me. Hmmm. Why am I not suprised? I never win. How come am I not lucky with love then?? Isn't it supposed to be that when you're not lucky in gambling, you're lucky in love....

Anyway. It was showering once in a while and it was pretty chilly day. But we all enjoyed it- had some fish and chips. It was a nice day out.

I also saw some funny hats and some really nice ones. And the dresses. In some cases British women have a very good taste in dressing up, but in loads of cases it's just disgusting. Big ladies wearing very tight dresses, no tights. You can see everything. And the dresses are short..... It's just ugly. But well- what can I say- welcome to UK- a country of mind freedom!

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Loads of changes

I've got no EVS co-volunteer anymore. Since today.

I was at the Royal Ascot yesterday and then one of my co-workers asked if I knew about Gaye leaving. I didn't have a clue.
I asked in the evening from Gaye if she was planning to move the houses (LCD houses) and she told it was so quick and that she wants to change and will find out about it today.

Then today in the daytime my manager came to me and told that Gaye is packing and will go away today because of what she had said about the house and the management and the staff and that she could no longer work here.

It was quite a shock to me. I mean- being lonely up in our apartement-area again? I'd die of loneliness there.
So I told it to my manager and she organized me to go to live 100m away from the house in the gatehouse lodge, where lives one Hungarian girl Timea who's working in Physio over there.
So probably on Sunday I will move to this house. I think it will be a good change for me- I mean, there's a kitchen, it's more private, I don'd feel like I'm at work constantly. And also- my housemate is extroverted and I think that from now on things will get better for me. And I will be happier here. Although I was quite satisfied with my project already, I wasn't happy enough and was cradelling for friends to go out with. So I hope I will have one now. And I will be able to cook!
The management also told me that they will pay my leisure centre monthly fee from now on because I do quite many extra hours. Well, that sounds good. I don't mind doing extra hours anyway but well, if I don't have to pay for my leisure centre, I will be able to do more things in here, which is only good.

But about Gaye- I'm really shocked they kicked her out so quickly. She might be going home tomorrow already. It's crazy. I feel now a bit that if I do anything wrong, I might go as well.
I just have to be very very careful in here.

But yeah, at the moment I'm in shock and can't understand completely what's going on and it's all too new and fresh, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Gaye will just go to another home and won't have to go home and that my life in here will be better from now on.


And besides all that...
I will go to Bristol on Saturday, beer festival tomorrow evening, will have POVA training next Thursday, will play guitar next Friday, Glastonbury fest on Sunday and then..... HOME!!!
I can't wait to be back in Estonia. It's already almost there. Estonia! Home! Sauna! Kohuke! Swimming in a lake/pond/river! Barbecues! Friends! Work! Family! Estonia! Aaaahhhhh! If time only went faster!

I really need that visit home. I truly need. Especially after what has happened during the last week.

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Ireland

I'm starting this post at the moment in Galway, where I'm doing CS right now. It's rainy and we couldn't go to see the town, but we had a nice time yesterday.
So. To start from the very beginning.

Planning my trip was so damn complicated this time. I am travelling with a companion, which means that I had to take his wishes into account during my trip. When we were planning our accommodation, we couldn't find a place to stay until 2 days before taking off. I was already ready to sleep in the coach station and my companion wasn't exactly happy about it. So we had a big fight two days before our trip even started. But... We managed to find a place and everything went well..

So. On Thursday morning I packed my stuff so that I could drive with my bicycle to Winscombe straight after work. I got there in time and left my bike to Pam's place (a friend of mine). Then I headed to the airport by bus and went through all the gates and went on the plane to Dublin. The flight was quick and landing was rough. Nothing too bad, but just a bit bumpy.
I met my travelling companion in Dublin airport because he came with a different flight. We took a coach to city central. Over there I wanted to have the first pint of Guinness so we went to one pub which had lovely local music and stayed there for a little while. After the Guinness we decided to go to our hosts' place. My companion (lets name him A) had an app downloaded into his iPhone which was supposed to be GPS. But it didn't work very well so we ended up in the wrong places and got to our CS place pretty late. We stayed at one couple's place and they thought we were also a couple so we had to sleep in the same bed quite tight next to each other. Well.... We managed to do it and then the following day after a little chat with our host, we took off to see the city. We went to some park which had nice war memorials and statues. I really loved the park. It was green and a bit wild and the statues were also green because of the acid rains. After the park we went to National History museum and Natural History Museums and then had a brief look into Trinity College. It was very big and I quite liked it. While walking around on the grounds of the college you could feel the power of education. After the Trinity College we had a look into local tourism information centre to find out our the bus stop from where we were supposed to go to Galway the following day. We also walked past the Dublin Castle and then went into a mexican food restaurant where we had some burritos and then had a look into the Dublin Castle. Unfortunately to get into it, we would have had to pay the admission fee, so we didn't go inside. But.... After the Dublin Castle we went to a shopping centre and bought stuff for the cooking in the evening. I found Estonian Kiss Cider from one shops! Although it was pear cider, I bought it, because Estonian cider is a lot nicer than the local one. After we got all the stuff for the supper, we went back to our host's place where A had a little bit of sleep, because he was shattered and I just chatted to our host. It was a nice talk, mostly about traditional food, because she was from Spain and her mate was from Poland. So we talked a lot about our cuisines. Then A got up and started making Indian food which was really delicious. Ah, yeah, from that day I could tell that never trust GPS- the usual map on the paper is a lot better. I was the map reader on that day and we didn't get lost on that day. So yeah.... Paper maps rule! In the evening we went to sleep a bit earlier than the previous day because we had to take off early in the morning.

Now I'm back at home and will continue this post.

So... On Saturday we had an early morning because our coach to Galway took off from the central of Dublin at 7am. The bus journey was approximately 2,5hrs long and I tried to sleep during it. A slept during most of the trip. When we got to Galway we had a small guided tour in the city. From the very first moment I got to Galway, I fell in love with the place. It's so beautiful over there. I definetely want to live there for couple of months. In Galway we saw the local market, St. Nicholas' Church, Jane Eyre Square and the local mall. In the church we discovered that there is a memorial on the wall for Jane Eyre and Richard. Those names were also the same in the book, although the book was about different things, supposedly. Well, you can never know if it is a damn lovely coincidence or the names in the book are based on those people. Galway is a little city, with the population of about 80 000. It is an university city, so there are loads of students. I also found out that they have a small Estonian community over there- about 200 Estonians. Didn't spot any of them during my stay in there, though... In Galway there is also a shopping mall which has the ancient city wall inside it. The people who wanted to build the mall, wanted to take the wall down but the locals didn't allow this to happen, so the shopping centre was built around it. Fascinating. I loved it anyway.... After a little tour in Galway we got on the bus and started our tour to Burren and The Cliffs of Moher. Well, what can I say? The pictures I took won't describe the place even the tiniest bit. It was unbelievable! So beautiful! Rocks everywhere and big hills covered in rocks. Sea (or actually ocean), seaweed, stones, tiny old churches, limestone fences. And the Cliffs of Moher... Well, they were just too beautiful to be true. They were huge, 200 m high and 8km long altogether. We also saw some tombs and a leprechaun head coming out from a stone wall. I absolutely enjoyed our tour around in the area. I was just looking out of the bus window when we were driving, all the time with my mouth wide open. And the weather was on our side- it was sunny and warm, not too hot, not too windy. Absolutely brilliant! I definetely want to live in the place. In the evening when we got back to Galway we met our host and discovered he's hosting 8 other CS. We had a quick meal in the city and then walked to his place which wasn't too far away from the central. And then we talked there and some of our host's friends came over. We drank a bit wine and waited for the other CS to get back to the host's place. There were 3 french-canadian guys, 4 american girls and 1 british guy. We talked, listened to music and drank some wine and beer and then me, A and our host and his friends went to a local pub. By the evening of my second day with A, I was completely irritated by him and just wanted to escape from him. He was such a lady, complaining and being very sensitive over everything I did and tried to pick a fight with me all the time. He insulted me all the time and was so egoistic and never listened to anyone. Worst character ever I have met. Seriously. He was such a bitch that I had to be a bitch also and it made me feel so bad because I had to behave the way I usually don't do. Anyway, in the evening he tried to meet different ladies and one started to get glued to him so he wanted me and our host to get rid of her. Obviously we didn't deal with his mess and instead of helping him, we left the pub and went back to host's home. When we told A that we're not gonna help him, he was just trying to create mess with me, trying to glue someone to me, but it didn't work out. He also told me that I am his friend and supposed to help him when he's in trouble. In my opinion he wasn't in trouble and I was in no way going to clear up his mess. Especially after the attitude he had developed towards me.

On Sunday morning we slept quite late and had a very lazy day. We cooked hummus and onion-leek soup and bread and just ate, talked, relaxed, listened to some music. And most of the CS's had a nap during the day. I didn't and talked to the people who stayed up and just spent a little bit of time in the internet. The british guy was studying in Germany with the American girls and he sang in a choir and studied archaeolody and history. We had a nice time chatting over choir music. In the evening we went for a walk with some of the people when they got up and went to the bay to see the ocean. As the day was quite rainy, we didn't see very far and got a bit wet, but I didn't mind. It was a nice walk out. We stayed out for about 2hrs. Then we got back to the house and went away again to go to petrol station with the purpose of getting something to drink. But it was closed... And besides that... You can't get any alcohol from Irish shops after 10 in the evening. I had already forgotten we had the same rule in Estonia. Anyway... We went back to the house where the american girls were dancing like crazy and later that night we played some Mafia card game that A lead and I was once the murderer in the game and won the game. It was quite hard to maintain my secrecy about being a murderer, but I managed to do it. The game required a lot of attention and thinking and my brain was on fire for some hours. I really loved it. And besides, I got to use my psychology skills which seemed to work our well, because all my assumptions turned out to be right in most cases. After playing the game for a while we went to sleep because everybody were tired, despite the fact that we had had a lazy day.

On Monday morning we didn't get up as early as we planned to. Me and A were thinking about going to the Guinness factory in Dublin on that day but as we were too tired, we slept couple of more hours and explored a bit more of Galway. We had some arguments during those couple of hours we had a look around in the city and finally decided to go to Dublin with different buses. So we both headed our own way. I explored a bit more of Galway and decided I will go and live there in the future.
I went to Dublin with local coach and almost felt like a local person. I love the fact that when I travel around my way, I don't feel like a tourist very much. It's nice to see the places from the point of view of a local person. Anyway, my coach to Dublin went straight to the airport and over there it took a while to get through the security and then I had a little bit of time to wander around. I got myself an Irish whistle and made a promise to go back to Galway in the future. And then I took off from Dublin. I slept during most of the flight and when I got off the plane in Bristol it was so fast that 5mins later I was on the bus towards Winscombe where my bicycle was waiting for me. I got home tired and knackered and had a big argument with A in the internet. I have really never met a person more rude and with such complicated and egoistic personality as was his. He was also completely narrow-minded and seemed to find some satisfaction in trying to piss me off. Because he started all the time all over again about the fact that I was ready to sacrifice my comfort to drinking and having fun- if we hadn't found a couch to stay in Galway I would have just gone to a local pub and then to bus station to sleep there for couple of hours. Nothing dangerous about it, but the guy though I'm crazy and went on and on about this. I mean- I was on a budget and wanted to enjoy my trip as much as possible. And staying in the coach station wouldn't have been that bad.
But well, he was a lady-like man who wanted to spend money on expensive hostels. And he didn't understand I was on a budget. That much....

But. Besides my crap travelling companion I had an amazing time in Ireland, fell in love with the country and met loads of amazing and interesting people.
I will definetely live there for a little while. Or travel around there for at least a month. It's a promise.
Fingers crossed.

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The drama with the birds

Yesterday evening when I came back from leisure centre, I heard a creeping voice from the wall of my room. I thought that there might be a mouse stuck somewhere. Then I forgot about it.
But I was forced to remember it again today morning at 5am when the creature inside my wall started making noise and moving around. No sleep any more. Then I finally managed to fall asleep again and when I woke up I thought I had dreamed everything. But no. I heard the voice again.

So I let the management know about the problem and they called a man who had a look into the chimney and told me it must be a bird. And that they have to take the wall down.
They didn't take it down today, but will do it on Monday. Which means that I will have a great lack of sleep this weekend (not that I'm not going to have it anyway) and will hear a bird dying in the wall of my room.
At the moment my bed is moved away from this wall so my room has been kind of refurnished and looks weird. There is no point in vacuuming it because on Monday it will look awful. Some people are going to break into the chimney from my room and clean it (because apparently there is a big bird nest on top of the chimney and some pieces of it have fallen down, including the bird). So it will all be dusty and I guess starting from Monday, I will have a big whole in my room.
And I'm gonna have to clean my room very much on Monday evening.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

But something sweet now- one of the residents who I assist a lot during meals misunderstood something and thought for 15mins that I was going home on Monday. Going for eternity. So he asked me with a very sad look and when I told that I'm not going anywhere before the next February, he looked a lot happier. I also told him that he can't get rid of me that easily and fast. He looked relieved.

Awwwwww.

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