The past 7 weeks have been pretty good though. Moved back home from Uni for a little while (more about that later) and have had some adventures. In this time I have done a couple of battles, one of which was rather wet and one was very sunny (makes a bloody change!). I have been to visit my placement, yes I actually have one (again, more about that later) and been on the Olympics hype.
Placement is finally sorted! It took a while but I am off to work for The Kench Hill Charity in Kent! It's rather a long way from home but I am major excited and feel it's going to be a rather good adventure. I will have a house on site, which will be occupied by other volunteers should there be any, supposedly there is going to be one other guy there for a shorter time than me, but starting a couple of weeks after I do so I will have a friend! The house is gorgeous and has a proper wood burning stove and everything. It also has the BIGGEST kitchen I think I've ever seen in a house, which would make Yorkshire Friend very happy indeed.
The job is working partly as an Education Assistant, which is what I was going for, and also partly in their Kitchen Garden, which is a very exciting role as I am keen to learn how to grow various fruits and veg for when I have a garden of my own, and this gives me a perfect opportunity to learn about that.
The lady that is going to be my boss is very lovely and made me feel so welcome when I went to visit for the day. The centre is small, which is what I prefer and is the ideal age range to work with in my opinion, which is the Upper Junior ages (most of the time) which is around the ages of 9 to 11. The majority of children come from the London borough of Hackney, as they are linked with the Local Education Authority and the children have generally not been to the countryside before so are taken to a whole different environment during their stay. This has led me to think about using the opportunity of working with children from an Inner City area for my Dissertation, as the contrast between Urban and Countryside life and the perception of the countryside that children from the different areas have is something I am very interested in.
I move to Kent on Saturday and am keen to start my adventure. Supposedly I have a few tasks to do in my first week, but not many as most of the staff are away, so my boss has said to use this time to explore the area etc, which I am very keen to do. Also, in another good turn of events, she knows someone that lives close to the centre who is looking for someone to ride their horse, so hopefully I will have something to ride whilst I am down there, which I am also very excited about.
Talking of horses, I have totally been on the Olympics hype. After missing the torch at both of my houses (Uni due to an exam and Home due to working a temporary shift at Loughborough Uni's Graduation Ball) I managed to get over to Loughborough with The Boyf so that we could see the torch. It was an exciting and rather atmospheric morning with lots of music and entertainment from local schools and bands etc. Sport is one of the big things in Loughborough, mainly due to the facilities at the Uni, so they made a rather big deal of the torch coming.
As well as seeing the torch, I have been madly watching the TV coverage, especially of the Eventing, this is because I was actually lucky enough to have tickets for the Show Jumping phase of the eventing, which meant that I was there seeing Team GB win their Silver Medal yesterday!
All 10 members of Team GB with their medals
They were my 19th birthday present from the Elder Basons and Mummy Bason and I had a fab time, even with the 2am start! It was an absolutely amazing day and a wonderful experience. The competition was very close all the way through and having one refusal or fence was make or break all competition. The atmosphere was electric every time a British rider came into the arena and when they finished their round the noise was deafening and the stamping of feet made me feel like the stands might collapse. We enjoyed seeing a few of the Cross Country jumps that were still up around the arena during the lunch break and came back with T-Shirts and Caps and big grins. The only bad bit about the day was our rather hectic journey back across London to the coach station due to 'Points Failures' near London Bridge Station.
One of the best things that happened was actually not to do with horses, but showed the truly global connections that the Olympics brings. We had been sitting right behind an American Couple, which by the number of Olympic badges on the lady's hat, had been to their fair share of Olympic Games, and we got chatting to them. They were really lovely and after I'd made sure the man's poncho didn't get trodden on, on the walkway of our row, and Mum held the lady's seat cushion steady for us, she decided to give us a present, which at first seemed odd.
It turned out she wanted to give us two bracelets, that were made by her cousin. She told us it was a hobby of his, and he likes to get them in other places in the world so sent 2 for her to take to London when she went to the Olympics to give to someone she meets and she chose Mummy Bason and I! It was such a delight and really made the Olympics even more special for us.
Our Bracelets
She had a tag on them with the name of her cousin and where he currently lives, and told us to find him on Facebook. We have done so this evening and have now been talking to him. In the past few weeks The Boyf has announced that he's taking me on holiday to Morocco next year as my combined 21st Birthday and Christmas present, so I told the man who makes the bracelets that I would take mine with me, and get a photo of it in yet another continent and country. After this he decided that as long as he can sort out the postage, due to his health not allowing him outside the house to the post office, he is actually going to try and send me some bracelets to take to Morocco, so that he can add the country and continent to his list permanently. Currently the bracelets are in 3 continents, 6 countries and 13 different US states. He makes no money out of this and just does it for the pleasure of seeing his creations in different locations. It was truly inspiring and the fact that the bracelets are red and white and blue and white means that they fit right in with our Team GB supporting to make the Olympics truly unique for us.
I have so much to look forward to in the next few weeks and months and cannot wait to get started now, just a shame that I haven't really done any packing yet, or even unpacking from Uni for that matter.
More blogging will happen quicker than it has currently, to tell all about said adventures!
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