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  • Rugby teams and a trip to Bruges

    Hi home!

    Hope this finds you all well. Just been out on a big night and still buzzing so thought I’d hop on the net–why not?! I was on a boat cruise tonight with Carl Cox, Kid Kenobe and Krafty Kuts! It was such a cold night but I think the temp inside the boat rocketed to about 30 degrees. The humidity of everyone’s sweat caused the roof to look like it was leaking! Droplets of water (really sweat I think) were falling down and everyone looked like drowned rats, but at least we were having fun 🙂

    Have started doing physio for a rugby team and they’re great! Not good at football, to clarify, but nice lads. Most of them are Irish and the rest English (who ordinarily shy away from conversation with a stranger but because there’s cause to talk, are friendly)! I took over from a friend who joined another team and she told me “no worries Nat–they’re not very good so you don’t get many injuries unlike in Australia”… First day I had to relocate two dislocated shoulders, assess a guy for a potential neck fracture and deal with a bad concussion that wanted to sleep standing up! (it’s bad to let someone sleep after a bad knock as they may comatose)… Aussie luck would you call it? I think I earned my �25 an hour!! Especially seeing it’s officially spring here and it was so cold today doing the rugby that my fingers wouldn’t work to peel the tape. Oh, and it was snowing. I was thoroughly bemused until I saw their “tracksuit” they wear over their rugby jerseys–it’s most analogous to a 1980s tiny tots all-in-one-zip-up-at-the-front-ski-outfit!! hilarious 🙂

    I’m still working at what I refer to (eloquently and with due respect) as the “arsehole end of the world”–aka Croydon. My boss day one tried to explain to me what a “Croydonite” was. She was trying to be diplomatic but I got her drift after seeing two patients. They nod to everything you say and answer yes to every question e.g. “Where does it hurt?” (Answer: “Yes”) and you think they have taken in all your education and advice, when they return the next session to show you their exercises they’ve been practicing and you wonder if they were on drugs when they were listening the previous session cos there was not even a remote resemblance to the exercises I’d had in mind! And they’d clearly be branded in Australia a “Motor Moron” (a term denoting people who have much difficulty in skill acquisition and coined by my old lecturer, Ms. Cupit). I don’t think their internal feedback mechanisms function like they should… My train rides are even more telling–all the school kids sound like they’re from The Catherine Tate show–if you’ve seen it you’d know what I’m talking about. They sound worse than East Enders and I once wondered what language this 15 year old hot shot was speaking in until I reaslied it was English!!

    Got offered a job this week in a top private practice just out of London in Chelmsford. It’s exciting cos the physio is the best I’ve EVER seen–although not sure if that says much… Anyway, it’s really hard to get a private practice job here cos you have to be 5 years graduated and I’m only 3 but he was willing to take me for a locum position for a month over April. Very excited as that should get me a foot in the door. He said he’d consider me for a part-time position after that which might work in cos Virgin gyms offered me a self-employed part-time job for then too. (They’re gyms would make a gym junkie itch with excitement. You havent seen a gym til you’ve seen these–typical of Richard Branson…)

    Not as many trips lately which the pocket liked–one to note and great to see if you’re over this side of the world–spent a weekend in Bruges–the beer and chocolate capital of the world, in Belgium. (Nat’s Heaven.) The beer would turn a beer hater into a beer appreciater. It is amazing and Leffe is so strong–11% that they serve it only in wine glasses. I dragged Richy, Jane and Amy into the chocolate factory (OK–I only dragged Richy, the girls walked in quite willingly). We conveniently bypassed the entry fee and I had my photo taken next a 2 tonne chocolate easter egg–real, kid you not–I know cos I had to taste it–there’s a tiny nibble mark out the back–hope they didn’t have cameras cos I’d feel a darn right FOOL if I was caught for that! We met this random guy–Frederick–on the train on the way up to Bruges from Brussels and he met us out and brought his friends. We thought he liked Jane (Jane and Richy were pretending to be engaged) but it turned out he liked Richy instead!! Richy was mucking around with the boys looking quite chuffed at the attention until one tried to grab his butt and you should have seen the look of horror on his face! He kept saying “Frederick did a Hopoate on me” I think he was seeking attention personally but maybe that really was Freddy’s cup of tea 🙂

    Missing the sunshine (still) and all of you lovlies that come with it. Hope everyone is good. Have a few trips planned for the summer over here for those planning on coming for a trip so keep us updated.

    Say hi to Brissie 🙂

    Love Nat xxx

  • Australia Day, Ireland and Germany

    Hi Folks,

    Well firstly Happy Aussie Day for last Thursday. I have experienced many an overseas Australia day and its always involved something physical (in Aspen, it was boarding down Highlands Mountain in bikinis and the Aussie flag, lead by leopard-skin-G-banga-attired-Chris-Day… to Whistler, it was playing kick the footy and catch the snow ball and pretending it is warm weather and hence wearing thongs in the snow (not the Chris day type, the flip flop variety as they are ONLY known in the UK/USA)… to Irleland, it was more shanangans outdoors with a cricket bat (a fence paling) and an attempt at wickets (3 huge empty magnums of champas)… all of which was spiced up by a little alcohol consumption and some sort of Aussie tucker.)

    Not in England.

    There was nothing about being outdoors except for those poor working people who had to painfully line up at 5 o’clock to get into any venue. It was all about being warm inside a very British pub called the “Slug and Lettuce” but which claimed being Australian and sadly, got it all very wrong. They had Aussie specials for the day–you could get �2 snakebites (yes peoples, thats a traditional Austraylian drink made from 1/3 fosters, 1/3 strongbow and 1/3 grenadine/red cordial, in a pint glass, in case you were unsure), 2-4-1 cocksucking cowboys (cos they are from outback Austray-ya), an Aussie menu which consisted of fries, wedges and curryworst hotdogs (they naievly forgot the meat pie)… They played very Austray-yan songs from our local bands like U2, Violent Femmes, Coldplay, James Blunt and Madonna… So all in all it lacked the basic fundamentals of what we would call Australia Day except the end result was still a drunken smile, a cheers and a bit of a boogie!

    To fill in time between the excitement of house hunting and job hunting, I have taken a few little vacations. Two weeks ago I joined 5 others on a trip to Belfast then Dublin. That’s the 3rd time I’ve been to Dublin and for those of you who have been there too, would know that it really only takes one full day to see the sights and then it’s over to the nightlife (which becomes a day event anyway). I’m sure thats what the Dubliners would want you to experience anyway–so I just saw more pubs than I had previously. Unique to this trip however, was an unexepected invite from Superman to ride in his cart while he ran infront in his outfit yelling at people on the streets of temple bar to “get out of the way cos Superman’s on a mission”! I swear I nearly fell out: (a) from laughing so hard and (b) cos bloody cobblestones aren’t easy to cart along on when you’ve been drinking!

    Belfast was great–definitely worth 12 hours of your time (no more though). We obviously had a Protestant bus/tour driver cos he told us his side of the ongoing “civil” war that still tangibly exists in Northern Ireland. The most confusing tour, because he was simultaneously showing us: the peace wall (it stands at 5m tall and topped with barbed wire to separate the Catholics and Protestant schools and neighbourhoods), the Catholic real estate, the Protestant real estate, the orange schools, the green schools, the war memorials dedicated to the Catholics and those dedicated to the Anglicans/Presys whilst telling us that Belfast is a united city, peaceful and egalitarian!! He said there’s no more fighting, animosity, that they all live in unity there!!!! During our tour and checking out the mural walls the Catholics painted, a Catholic ran up to us and asked us if he could tell us the story of Northern Ireland from his point of view!! When he finished (35mins later) we asked him if there was somewhere we could go to get the History of Belfast and he summed up all our previous questions with one reply “there are no museums that will tell you about our history cos it’s not history, its still going”… Okey dokey… so we hopped on a train and went to dublin 🙂

    Went to Berlin last weekend with 5 girls. Got VIP tickets to James Blunt which was a great concert but he was a bit or an arse himself (typical English!). Fobbed us off at the after party and wouldn’t even get his photo taken (his guard said it was a “tall order girls”). Sure. I insisted we do this 5 hour walking tour through Berlin that everyone I know who went to Berlin has raved about. I stupidly did not put two and two together to realise that these friends did this tour in summer and being winter and close to Russia, the temp that day never rose above -17 degrees C. The coldest was -23deg C. I cannot tell you (prob much to your relief cos this e-mail is now a melodramatic saga) what was said on that tour after WWI cos I was so zoned in on my pain and numbness! Not a smart idea unless you have a thing for extreme weather.

    Anyway, so I start my new job on Wednesday in a back stability clinic in London. Sounds like it should be alright. Good experience anyway. I get every second Friday off too, also appealing. I am currently “room-hunting”–very unfun and some dodgy characters out there in London Town but I will be sure to find something sane and fun soon… Keep in touch and let me know all your plans!!!

    Speak soon Love Nat x

  • Brisbane, Noosa, back to England

    Dear All,

    Well, I’m about to leave Brissie again, but just heading off to Noosa now for some real Aussie treatment. I lay in the sun for not even two hours Monday with three applications of 30+ sunscreen and I got burned like a lobster and Zara’s five year old niece had one application and she was in the sun the same length of time and she got a tan! So that’s what the English (lack of) sun does to you!

    It was wonderful catching up with everyone who I got to see while I was here. Love Christmas time–everyone had big merry smiles on their faces, I guess they also had drinks in their hand at the same time but it was fun to come back during the Silly Season. The Brits are too serious to get too silly!

    If anyone’s up the Sunny Coast, love to see you. If not, take care, good luck with all your endeavours in the New Year and let me know if you’re heading UK-way next year. Oh and I’m working on my spiel to Qantas about why I should get upgraded to business class on my long flight back… It worked from London to Japan! Gotta love being female!

    Lots of love,

    Nat x