Business Parties, Gym Buddies and Car Camping

Muah-ha-ha. March you did not escape me. I bet you thought you could get away un-blogged. No such luck.

I'm aiming to be better at this. However, I know that my lack of camera is directly tied to my lack of blog posts. As a creative I'm led by thought provoking ideas and usually that come to me by way of photography. Anyway, no more excuses or I'll have to answer to Bunmi (I'll explain who that is soon, patience my dears).

I've started my AMAZING job at Asda. It has been a whirl-wind. I'm not sure that my feet have totally landed but it's been going really well and for the first time in my career I am 100% happy with my role and responsibilities. I love it. I'm not sure I've really truly felt that about a job before. I've loved my colleagues and what I was doing but not like this. No offense to other jobs I've had. If you worked at Asda you'd get it. The culture is like no other.

For example: we had a Marketing day. Well more or less an afternoon and a night. The agenda went a little like this: First we had a Coaching Contract and a Academy Presentation in the afternoon and then we moved on to an all-over-Leeds team-building scavenger hunt. The hunt included team shots of 1) How many people fit in a phone booth (we fit 8) 2) How many can you get in a conga line (15 or so for Asda Brand Team) 3)A group photo with only 5 team members touching the ground (we had none touching the ground) 4) Team Busking (one girl did the splits) 5) A shop window with team members in it (Jim got in with the Diesel "sexy" display). And there were more.

After the scavenger hunt--that we did not win even though we were really successful--we had a evening awards ceremony and dinner sponsored by the top man in charge. I won't name names but it was a great night. We ate (Simon A. had two cheesecakes) we danced (Becky got all groovy to 70s music) and we stayed the night in Leeds.

(quick cell phone pic of Leeds on my way home from work)

It was a fabulous time. Thank you big boss for being so generous.

And on a personal note I think I've made my first friend at work!!! Well I'll wait until she reads this and then she can decide if she wants to keep hanging out with me. I met Bunmi at the Best Welcome. Best Welcome is the induction where you learn all about the business. Anyway B and I were in the same group that went in-store and I really liked her from the moment I met her and we got to talking. She's the kind of woman to speak her mind openly and honestly. I like that. And I totally get all of the online marketing stuff that she deals with. So anyway I thought... this chick is cool.

After that, I kept seeing her around the office and we'd say hi but in a rush. One day she stopped me and said something like "okay we need to get tea or lunch and catch up." And we did. Woot!

THEN One morning I was half-awake dodging speeding cars and nyc-style jaywalking to the gym when I heard someone call my name. No kidding, B had joined the same gym and I and we were both making our way there at 6am or something ridiculous like that.

So we are gym buddies and work buddies. And although we mostly email saying "sorry I have to move our afternoon 15 min tea party, a meeting just appeared out of nowhere," I dig B and can't wait to have a girl's night in Leeds with her and her flat-mate.

You'd think with all that going on I'd have no time for Eric.... well you'd be wrong. I do still have weekends to catch up with Eric and our friends. E and I have been on a few different adventures in the past month and had a great DIY experiment last weekend.

Three weekends ago we went to York on Saturday. It was raining and thought a day of museums would be a good way to spend our day. After waiting in line for the Jorvik Viking Centre, we were prompted by an impending crowd of school children to shift our plans over to the York Abby for the afternoon. Great decision.

We stumbled into a tour led by an elderly man with a wealth of history. I think our tour lasted a couple of hours, but we were in no hurry and I really enjoy hearing the stories from an elderly man. They are something you cannot get from the internet, tv or even books. there is something special about hearing it with their own spin on it. When the tour was over we finished off that afternoon by sticking around for evening song. Eric spotted some benches atop radiators at the back of the nave and we sat in York Abby listening to the solemn sound of the human voice in religious chant.


I forgot to preface this weekend with: Eric sent me a text on Friday afternoon saying that we should do 3 peaks on Saturday. Three peaks is a marathon of hiking. Literally 26 miles of rocky uphill, through muddy sheep pasture, over rock wall, up crag and waterfall climbing/hiking. I said okay but knew that we'd be lucky to get 1 peak in.

So you already know we didn't so 3 peaks Saturday but we did do 1 peak Sunday. it was the most wonderful sunny day and we drove out to the Yorkshire Dales to hike Ingleborough. No big deal.
And although we had already hiked up to 15 feet from Ingleborough in December it was unbeknown to us and so we were excited to see the top.

(Someone told me to do it)

I whined a little bit (which Eric doesn't like) but it was mostly because a rushed big lunch hadn't sat well in my nether regions. But when we got to the top I sort of forgot all of that and was very happy to have finally (for the second time*) climbed one of the three peaks.

Two weekends ago we had a car camping trip with some friends of ours. Eric has been very excited about turning his car into a RWOOV (pronounced R woo V). He has a Dawoo Lanos and with a little bit of cardboard, some black thrift store curtains, and a sun shade, he's turned it into an E certified home for sleeping in.

(car camping in style)

To anyone who's curious I explain my okay-ness with car camping as so:
When I was little my dad wasn't sure that he would have a son... and I was the third daughter. So, I got to go hunting, fishing, trapping and riding around in the army green Jeep. And I loved it.

So when it comes to roughing it, I'm cool. I don't mind peeing into a milk jug off the side of a boat or brushing my teeth in the middle of the forest. In fact, I may actually like it. So car camping isn't a big deal but many people think I'm nuts. Anyway that's what we did two weekends ago. We drove out to the lake district, car camped, then hiked around the lake in Glennridding all day. It was Fantastic! Towards the end of the hike I think getting off the beaten path was a challenge to everyone and we were a bit worried. But it was a good adventure and we all felt that we had achieved something by the end of the day.

(the gang that car camped and rambled down Eric trail)

(From Left: Franklin, Me, Sarah K. enjoying the lake view)

Sunday we did nothing. Car camping will take it out of you.

(Benefit of car camping=you are already there when you wake up)

------------------------------------------------------------

*Right before Christmas We tried the Gaping Gill/Ingleborough hike from a different direction. It was a rough day and my hiking boots were new therefore 3 miles and 2 giant blisters into it we gave up 15 feet from seeing the top. That day it was foggy and we thought that over the next hill was another... but we were wrong.