I see Shrunken Heads

This past weekend we missioned off to Oxford to see Mr&Mrs Intellectual in thier new home/town. It has taken some time to get up there but we finally did and had quite a chill time. My highlight was the real shrunken heads at the museum where Mrs I works. It was a fasinating collection of stuff that was pretty much just collected by some guy and then a museum was made for the collection (The Pitt Rivers). There we also tons of pottery from all overs and some 5000 year old pots from Egypt (her speciality as it is pre dynastic - i.e. Pre writing and pharohs!)

I'm still loving that I've now seen the shrunken heads though. Basically the dead enemy is taken and head chopped off, the skull removed and then replaced with hot sand and boiled. So below are more pictures I took if your keen to have a gander. I was fasinated that only the skin shrinks and other things like all the hairs dont so they have really long hair, dense eyelashes and are a little furry from the remaining facial hair. There were also a few monkey heads that they had done the same thing with. If it creeps you out then maybe dont read further....

*excuse the bad lighting in the photos, the place is kept in very low light conditions to preserve the collection....

Oh yes and here is an actual Egyptian mummy with the sarcohgus (sp?) lid off!

 

Disconected

So am feeling pretty disconnected with things at the moment. Am definitely feeling very disconnected to my blog at the moment, it feels to overwhelming to try and put alot of the things into words sometimes. I suppose I would always only write once things had really built up and just need to come out.

Work is being a bit shit at the moment and well I just feel even more disconnected from actually wanting to do anything with my role there. Mostly because it has become a bit stagnant and that is out of my control. The one fairly good thing is that I have designed our intranet setup and it has been signed off and should be launched soon - well that is if i get time in my work day to actually perfect it. Not that I'm getting any time for it. But they are apparently kicking a little extra in my paycheck for it. But now they want me to design their full global corporate site and well that scares the shit out of me but could be a good opportunity to advance my skills and broaden myself. But i'm already burning out somewhat.

I've really been trying to turn around the things in my life i'm not happy about and I found a course that was specifically about self management of life with regards alot to living with long term conditions. It has been really hard to keep myself from getting too down about the pain I'm in and how weak I feel at the moment. I had a realization that I really DO NOT like to be perceived. It is very important to make sure that we do not concentrate our energy on how we think other people perceive and start to believe it. Also we must make sure that we control our own perception of ourselves.

Strangely enough the people in the course that i'm taking see me as a very together person that has amazing knowledge and things sorted. Well I must say that yes alot of the stuff on the course I've already looked at and researched etc but obviously I dont have it ALL together if I signed up and took this course. I have realised that I am alot better off then many people and I just amazingly lucky to have such a supportive partner, I know I didnt have one before and so hope that I can keep showing my appreciation for all the little things that mean the world to me. I hope to be much stronger in the future and to always provide just as much support the other way. Of course we dont have everything sorted but it is so good to have a great base and good communication to start with. So compared with the others my home is my sanctury and my protection. I do not have to rage battles (other then in my own head) inside the quiet that is home. This I'm so thankfully for.

But am still feeling disconnected. I feel disconnected with my body because of the pain and the medication that i'm putting into it. Thankfully I've stopped taking the one medication that was seriously disconnecting me from everything. I think this may all still be from that and it will get better the longer I'm off it. BUT am still settling into the other medication so am more sore at the moment. I think the lack of good sleep due to pain isnt helping either.

Am also disconnected from friends that are going through tough times at the moment. I've tried to be a bit influence in a situation/intervention with a friend that has worked thanks to the time and energy and emotion that my mom has put into it and plugging into some of the strong emotions i've been dealing with in regard to it all. She is finally for the first time in 11 years dealing with all the damage that has happened to her and that she has done to herself. It is amazing to hear the battle that she is going through and doing so well. I'm SO proud of her!!! But I still feel like a failure as a best friend for being so far away and so disconnected and so afraid of confrontation.

I'm also so unable to be there for another close friend who has just had to go through the death of her father which is just so scarily close to home and all that. I hope that she is surviving and that it gets easier for her. I wish sometimes that I wasnt so far away from my closest friends.

So other then all that I still have my wonderfully stable and understanding C ...who is my rock and I really dont know what I would do without. and so like my fellow blogger Benny I'm going to keep trying to focus on the positives....

My wonderful bf
Our random trip to another city just for the night to see a band (its a surprise ...so more laters)
Going back to Cape town for a holiday in like 3 and a bit weeks!!
Going to Namibia to best guy mates wedding on the beach !! WHOO HOO
Hanging out with the friends in Namibia and some climbing in Namibia
THE HEAT!! So hopefully not as painful joints!!
Bonus coming in next pay check
Didnt have to go grocery shopping this week because we just had our weekly shop delivered to our door tonight. yay! less hassle for me.
And it is nearly friday and then therefore nearly the weekend!! Double yay.

And that is it for now... going to try keep the happy positive thoughts going. 

Monopoly Pub Crawl

SO this past weekend I did THE london monopoly pub crawl! I really didnt think that I would be doing it ever and if attempting it I didnt think that I would make it to the end drinking alcohol at every pub... BUT I didnt factor in my competitive and deterimed streak...

WE did it...

And it may have something to do with the possesion of my body by the evil task mistress. See C's graph below for his analysis. I am hoping to do a more comprehensive post...but that will have to wait until I have some time to deal with the photos and putting together all 26 pubs of the day!!