LittleFlower

Yesterday was a good day….

Good morning work out, quiet enough day at work, stuck to my eating plan 100% with NO slip ups (have to make up for the weekend of badness I had!). My boyfriend’s sick though. Cant tell whether it’s his heart or stress or that he’s just generally run down. He said he was all dizzy yesterday and not himself…. which is definately not like him. He takes such good care of himself, I’ve never known him to be sick! But it’s coming close to exam time, and his 2 exam classes were brats this year…. so he’s under a bit of pressure to make sure he holds up his end of the teaching bargin…. the kids are screwed (for the most part) in their exams… but it’s their own fault.

I’m not exagerating when I say the school he teaches in is hell on earth. Students have attacked teachers, thrown chairs at them, let off tear gas in classrooms….. it’s one place where a bit of good old fashioned, controlled, corporal punishment wouldnt go astray. Students cant be expelled anymore…. how daft is that?! They can be strongly urged to consider education in another estabishment…. but they cant be officially expelled.. well… they can….. but it takes over a year to do this! Crazy………. I wouldnt be a teacher if you paid me a fortune to do so…. well, not in Dublin anyway.

So my poor boyfriend phoned last night and he sounded awful. He couldnt even really speak. I wanted to go over and pamper him a bit, but he said to stay put…. he was in bad form. Fair enough…. when I get like that, the last thing I want is people around me. I wont see him now until Friday (going to see Bruce Springsteen!)…. hope today goes a bit better for him.

Mom phoned last night. For those of you who read my earlier blogs on my other account, you will know that I have a very strained relationship with my Mom… and you’ll know why. She only ever phones when she wants something, or if there’s something she’s done and she wants to tell me about it.

Last night it was about her Belarussian crusade. Ok - background story - about 17years ago we started taking in kids from Chernobyl for a summer holiday. It was organised by a group in Tralee (that’s in Co. Kerry, where I’m from). And to be honest, those 3 weeks every summer were the highlight of the summer holidays when we were growing up. Mom was always on her best behaviour, I had girls I could hang around with and it was such fun! Well, Mom got really into this, and in a year or two she was elected PRO for the groupin Tralee. She spent all her spare time campaigning for the group, trying to raise as much money as possible in order tog et as many children over here as possible for a holiday every summer.

In the beginning, it was fantastic. She did an amazing job. The group would never have gotten as much publicity if it weren’t for her. But then… things changed a bit. Mom started making independant trips over to Chernobyl, which the group were 100% against. She wasnt acomplishing any more going over there, than if she continued to campaign at home. More funds were going towards her trips, and she was also fundraising herself locally…. which meant when the group tried to fund raise for the kids coming up to the summer, people were slower to put their hands in their pockets again.

The group turned against Mom. She became bitter about all that happened, and left the group. She still goes over to Chernobyl once a year by herself. This year she took one of my sisters with her. When they came back Mom was all talk about how rough things are still over there etc etc…. when I asked my sister about it, she said things weren’t half as bad as Mom made it out to be. Most people had indoor toilets, schools had computers. She said it was like what Ireland was like back in the 70’s or so. Granted the kids are still sick and dieing…. cancer is rampent…. but people are happy. I’m convinced that Mom likes going over there becasue it makes her feel important. There is no other purpose to her trips.

Well, anyway….. last night she phoned, and from the tone of her voice (it goes all soft and feble-like when she starts talking on this subject) I knew she wanted to talk about Belarus. I was right. Turns out one of the women over there had written to her, and asked Mom if she would pay air fare for herself and her partner to come to Ireland for a week or 2 in August…. and put them up for the time. Mom was phoneing to make sure I wasnt coming home in August so they could have my room.

Enough said……….. I dont know whether or not the Belarussian lady was being cheeky asking out like that. I know their wages are terrible over there (any professional makes about $25 - $40 a month!) but still and all….. to outright ask for Mom to pay for their flights? I asked Mom if they would get permission to leave the country, if they had their visas organised, if they even had passports…. and Mom said she didnt know, but that they must have if they asked her to let them stay. Now, the thing is, getting things like permission to leave the country, visas and passports can take several months to organise over there because of the state the countrys in.

You know what…. I’m rambling. I was just a bit….. I dont know…. perplexed maybe by that conversation. I didnt know whether Mom wanted me to congratualte her on her humanitarian conquest that she was going to undertake this summer with these two…. or to remind her that she has a daughter in college and the €4,000-€5,000 she was going to spend on these people, would go very far next year (considering only Dad is working full time).

I dont know….. wow……. I have indeed rambled!

Really dont feel like working today…. but possible should, considering it’s what I’m here to do!