Europe

This is going to be a travel log of sorts of my trips to Europe. Starting with my first trip and my first city, London England.

July 2003.

Landed in Heath row airport and we get out luggage, quite a bit for two people, but some of it it’s used yet, we have extra bags to bring back gifts and clothes in. Since we will be here for three weeks I had to pack all kinds of extra items, like pain killers and such. We will also be attending a convention in Geneva later, so we had more dressy items that we had to pack.

We make our way to the subway and find one that will take us to the center of town; from there we will change trains and get another that will take us to the Kennsington station. We are staying in that area. We are quite tired and dragging all these bags doesn’t help. I know we look like tourists, but soon we can check in throw our bags in the room and lighten our load. It is rush hour and everyone is commuting to work.

On the way in we can see the small houses and other stations on the outskirts of town. There is graffiti on some of the buildings and retaining walls. Since I have been to New York City and seen really hard core graffiti this looks lame and doesn’t have the curves of either the New York kind or the LA kind. There is none of that hip-hop feel to it. It’s too straight up and down and stiff looking, not funky.

We change trains and get confused as to which platform we need to get to. My man walks over the a hard core punk rocker who looks like he could kill with his bare hands and says, “ Excuse me sir, could you tell me where we need to be to get the train that takes us to Kennsington Station?” He gives him a bewildered look for a second then tells us nicely where we should get the train. He is thanked and he nods and turns back towards his train.

We make it to the Hotel just fine and check into the smallest room I have even seen. Good thing we had watched American movies that showed this, I was prepared.

We didn’t know where to go eat, but we found Safeway and got some wine, pepperoni and French bread. We found that after wondering around the area by the hotel, there was a nice park we went into and then we looked for food. We took that back to the room had a snack and went to sleep. The whole time we were in London we kept missing dinner because we would take naps and wake up too late. The next day we planned to go sightseeing. Sure it was touristy, but you have to see it once, right?

Helping

If we see our friends in need, how can we not lend a helping hand? Sure we might not have much but we can always give what we can. Of course we can’t help everyone, but if we don’t help our friend’s what good are we?

The thing about that is, if you are comfortable helping others, how will you react when you are the one that needs help? For myself I find it very difficult to be on the receiving end of all the help. When I have had the opportunity to help others I feel good about myself, when I need help, I don’t know what to do. Sure I say thank you, I just never expect any help from anyone. A lot of that has to do with my family.

My older sister never stood up for me. If anything she would join in when other children were picking on me. She never defended me or gave me support. Once when I was really ill and needed her help and she drew a bath for me. I thanked her and was really surprised at her kindness. As I was thanking her, she burst into laughter and made fun of me for being weak and needing help in the first place. I never told her I loved her again. I have hugged her, but never said those words to her. Why should I, when my heartfelt expression of gratitude was met with mocking laughter?

It’s not that I feel everyone will react that way. It’s more that I have been hurt and have not received that much appreciation for all I do. With the knowledge of what it really means to be undervalued I endeavor never to do that to others. I strive to be generous when I can and to give without thought of receiving anything in return but a thank you. I am proud of the achievements of my friends and brag about them when I can. I am happy to have artists, writers, engineers, bankers and dancers as my friends. Each of which brings something interesting to the table. What I can’t stand people that are unproductive or uninteresting.


I guess I’m surprised when people remember me and help me out. That too must be from my family. They seemed to have amnesia when it came to all the things I did for them. I would have to remind them. My mother, she acted like I never helped. She did that as a way to never have to pay back a kindness and to permanently be the victim. If no one ever helped her, she could continue her “Woe is me,” conversations.

To all my friends that have shown support to me, in my writing and dancing endeavors… Thank You! For the unexpected help, Thank you so very much! If I have helped you in any way… You are very welcome!!! :-)

False Alarm

With my dogs I kept thinking that Middy was expecting. It turned out to be a false alarm. I am so glad. While puppies are great and I would have found good homes for them, really didn’t want her to have puppies.

Now that I don’t have to worry about that I can get back to other things in my life. My belly dancing is taking a turn. There was a performance last Sunday in Long Beach and there will be another in March at the same place.

The first dance didn’t go so well. This time my beaded belt didn’t want to stay on. My teacher was at the performance and helped pin me back into my outfit and I was able to finish my dance. The second dance went much more smoothly and the outfit cooperated and I was able to concentrate on my dancing. The song was long and by the end I was getting tired, I was so glad when it ended. The next time I will do a dance with my teacher, which will be a lot, less pressure than everyone looking at just myself.

It was great to see my friends show their support by coming to my performance. I was all at once happy and scared. I was happy they were there, so I wasn’t some friend-less dork. At the same time, if I really messed up, they would be there to see that. I wanted to do more things, tricks if you will. The belt misshape threw me and I forgot what I had planned to do. During the second dance I was just trying to keep up and forget that everyone was watching and dance as if I was alone in the living room. It seemed to work.
I had more turns planned but the rug under my feet kept grabbing on to my ballet shoes and it made turning almost impossible.

If my dog had puppies they would have only been three weeks old on the night I went to dance and I wouldn’t want to leave them alone all evening. I wouldn’t have had the freedom to use up the living room to practice as well. Since it turned out that she didn’t I have the freedom to do other things that just baby sit puppies and worry about them and change towels. I love my dogs and have a great time with them, but there are other things I want to do with my time. Now I am able to, since it was only a false alarm.