Tragedy in London

On Friday it came to light that the previous week a young man had been shot and killed by police in London. the original story stated that he had fired a gun at police, and they shot back.

The family were not provided with any further details, evidence or proof. They staged a peaceful (if loud and understandably angry) protest outside the police station in their local borough.

They were continually given misinformation by police, although to be fair the front line "minion officers" seemed to be being given misinformation themselves. The family were told that the chief commisioner was on his way to give more information....and he never turned up.

The protest turned into a riot; anger at the lack of information given by police.

The family still dont have answers and apparently this mans children dont even know that their father is gone yet because they have no reason why to tell them.

It is now appearing that the bullett that was "shot at police" (and lodged in a radio - harming noone) and the bullett that killed this young man are the same.

This is tragedy enough. A severe case of failure on the part of the people that are meant to keep London safe.

But an even greater tragedy is the sick, twisted behavior by far too many "anarchists". These anarchists are not airing their views against enforced authority. They are thoughtless, petty, opportunistic criminals. Cowards hiding under their hoodies looking for any excuse to cause mayhem, havoc and a quick quid by looting shops. (and of all shops to be looted one of them was a pound shop for crying out loud!)

This building had 26 homes. Homes now lost and 26 families made homeless, losing all of their possessions and just barely escaping with their lives. 

Tonight there are families who have lost their homes. Families with innocent children. And this wasnt caused by a grieving relative, but by some cowardly "yoofs" proving how "hard" they are by throwing an explosive at a building and running for the hills.

Yeah - made of really tough stuff there arnt you?

It makes me sick. Sick to be a londoner, sick to be a young person, almost sick to be a human being when you see this appaling behaviour.

But dispite all the tradgedy, violence, pain and fear in London tonight we MUST try to remember:

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Mahatma Gandhi

Although this seems to be a pretty big oil slick in the ocean of humanity right now. 

BBC London are generally the most reliable sources for whats happening right now. 

But for now I leave you with two songs that are all two appropriate right now. 

Life update - a lots been happening!

So as always - bad blogger, not blogged for months. Slap on wrist - yadda yadda yadda.

To be fair though this time I have an excuse because there has been a LOT going on! So here is a general rambling about my life at present.

New Job
Its full time, its a great salary, its a great cause. (Yup still in the charity fundraising sector of course) My manager is an absolute sweetie, and the role can become whatever I make of it really with her help and support. Rest of the organisation is a little...frustrating to say the least due to some old fashioned views and ways of working but I think it can be worked on/around. Luckily as I said the manager is awesome so at least I know I always have her support if I end up with a fight on my hands about anything.

And the new job led to...

New home!
I dont need to tell you that I've been needing my own space for QUITE a while now. I love my family, I truly do, I just always knew that I would love them more and have a much better relationship with them when we wernt in each others hair and under each others feet every second of every day!

So I found somewhere that is walking distance to work and absolutely GORGEOUS! Its a tad expensive, especially when paying for a wedding too but I think I will just about manage if I'm frugal with it.

Its SO worth the price though. Its a very roomy, open and airy two bedroom place and the best bit about it is - it has a massive walk in wardrobe! And actually now I've got all the furniture in it seems EVEN bigger!

I cant wait for Codaniel and Jasper to be here with me though. Its very weird to go from a crazy, always busy house to your own secluded space. Especially as the area is so quiet too. Dont get me wrong I'm not complaining - I love the quiet and the fact that its now MY space but its very weird.

Definitely need my other half and obnoxious little kitten to make it truly feel like home.

I'll take some pictures when there are less boxes everywhere and post them soon.

Wedding planning

Its all coming along nicely. I'm always surprised by how much has actually been done really early on, but also by how much there is left to do! Eek!

Not really been focussing on it too much at the moment with the move and job and stuff so I'll get to it.

I think I "may" have found the dress. I'm being conservative in case I find something better but there is one that I absolutely adore and think I will like again even more when I go back and try it on again! Ssh! Its top secret for the moment though - and of course will continue to be for all but a select few until the wedding day in case Codaniel accidently see.

Travel Plans
I'm heading to the States in 10 days! Only for a week sadly :( but we're going to really try and make the most of it. We have some wedding planning stuff booked in and then the rest of it will be just us relaxing. Including for my babys birthday where we have a very relaxing couple of days planned.

Then I'll be back again for 3 weeks in October/November where we will also be jetting off to McMegs Wedding! VERY excited about that!

Soooo yeahh. Thats about everything thats been going on in my life lately. Not that I've been overly busy or anything! :D

Memories

Lifes a funny old thing. When your there in the moment, living it; it feels like it's gonna last forever.

The friends, relationships, job, nights out, nights in, laughs, giggles. It feels great and amazing,

And then life changes. As it must. For us to learn and grow and often go on to bigger and better things.

But sometimes when life gets tough we find ourselves thinking back, looking at old photos and saying "life was better and easier back then".

But when your looking at photos, reminiscing about what once was you forget that your only seeing the highlights, the best bits. We very rarely take photos in the moments of sorrow. It's hard to get a good group shot when. half the group is fighting about something and you don't want to take photos of the nights in watching the telly.

But just because they're not evidenced doesn't mean they didn't happen. And that's what we need to remember when we say "things were better then" because they wernt, they were just different, And they wernt necessarily the best days of our lives. There was still pain and unhappiness and loneliness. The photos are just the happy moments of days gone by.

So if you find yourself stuck in that place, wishing you were back were you were take a moment to reflect on where you are now,

The new friends you've made, new loves you've found, new job, new house, new kids, new car. Newness! Brand spanking sparkly new things to make memories about. A new stage in your life with lessons to learn and people to meet.

AND if your really lucky, the truly important people from your past are still there too. And if they're not, they are where they were always meant to end up; As happy memories.

Everything happens for a reason...it does!

As previously blogged, the main essence of my belief system in the world and universe is that everything DOES happen for a reason.

Not necessarily that there is a grand plan/path layed out for us and we have no choice, more that even if you cant see it right now things will work out, and bring you to greater things. You just have to trust it. Especially if your path doesnt go the way you expect it to, and then seemingly random opportunities come up.

For instance;

There is a job in Scotland that I REALLY want, I worked bloody hard on the application and am now waiting with breath that is baited for the short listing next week to find out if I even get an interview.

I then started looking at other job advertisments because I also do not believe in putting all your eggs in one basket. I found one that caused me to call an agency that I completly forgot I  had been in contact with a few weeks ago when I got back from the States. I'd completly forgotten that they'd put my CV forward for a role, and as it turned out...I'd been shortlisted and now have an interview!

Its so strange how I feel I did no work but got an interview....strange. And its not in Scotland, but its also not in London either (its just outside of London, so close enough to be "close" but not so far that we'd be in the middle of no where)

So I guess whatever will be will be with that.

In other news I'm going to be taking up driving lessons again. And this time its with the intention to pass ASAP. Life is just so much easier when your driving and have a car! So with that in mind I'm going to learn in an automatic. In the UK if you pass you test in the UK you are then only licensed to drive an automatic, which is why most people will learn in a manual (stick shift for my USA readers) but for me a manual car just seemed like far too much effort. Yeah I may be lazy but I see driving as a means to an end, overal I  would like it to be as relaxing an experience as possible without then stressing about biting points and changing gears every 3 seconds! hehe.

So please do wish me positive thoughts and luck with both the driving and finding the right job. Both are integral parts of Codaniel and I's future lives together and if I get my butt into shape with both of these I'll really begin to feel like we're getting somewhere!