Another exciting blog post awaits you! I decided to be particularly enthusiastic about my blog today, how am I doing? Anyway moving on to the rest of my news. After this post I shall be up to date with my news!
I arrived back at the hotel on Friday the 2nd of September. I also forgot to mention on the 1st of September one of my best friends got engaged. In fact engagements seem to be happening a lot lately. I remember thinking in high school that one day we're all going to be grown up and married and now a lot of people around my age are getting engaged and married. How time flies. I will be next. Don't be surprised if my relationship status suddenly changes. Actually not next anytime soon, maybe in a few years or more or even more than that. I am in no hurry, when it happens it happens.
I slept straight until 10am on Saturday the 3rd - yes that is particularly exciting news for me because I have not slept in properly in months. I'm a bit of an insomniac. I always wake up early no matter what time I go to bed and if I'm still tired when I wake up and not working I go back to sleep but it's interrupted sleep and doesn't leave me feeling refreshed so on Saturday I had such a good nights sleep. I must have been tired after my travels and holiday.
Once I woke up I got ready to go caving with a friend of mine who was leaving the next day back to Poland. I took the bus to Exmouth and from there my friend and I went with our instructor and his friend to the caves. You see the caves in England are just known as "the caves". Ok honestly they obviously do have a name but I can't remember what caves we went to were called, just that they were on the way to Plymouth. Once we arrived there our instructor gave us gear, I had to wear a helmet with a battery around my waist for the helmet light and overalls. Yes I do have pictures of me in my attractive cave outfit.
Here is one before we headed underground, that's me in the middle because you might not recognise me in my new uniform.
We got instructions on how to turn on our lights and what to do so we don't get lost or hurt ourselves in the caves. It was in a very beautiful area with big hills and lovely and green everywhere. Before we walked up we had to stand on the bridge in our gear and wave at the passing traffic below and after 3 cars waved back we could head up and the 1st 3 cars waved so we were on our way. We passed apple trees which we were told are used for making cider. We were also given a lot of mints which I assume was to prevent bad breath as we would all be in close proximity inside the caves so it should be kept a pleasant atmosphere.
Once we had climbed the hill, gone through the apple tree garden and up a slight slope in some woods we stood at the base of a cliff where there was a hole and that was the hole we would enter in to the caves. I looked at the little hole thinking it's going to get off to an interesting start already and one by one we all rolled sideways in to the caves.
The first tast was climbing a small slope in the caves. Already you could feel how much cooler it was inside. Our only lights were our helmet lights but they were enough. Inside the caves it was a lot of climbing and sliding and rolling. There were narrow pathways and there were lots of puddles and mud. It also looked quite pretty inside, well parts of it looked really nice. We stopped a few times and got told about the caves and the fact that we were metres underground and to think about all that rock above us. It was quite fun on some parts where you had to climb up by hooking your foot in between the rocks and other parts were we had to slide down a bit and hook our foot on a rock to stop us sliding all the way. I quite enjoying climbing and sliding along, it was great adventure.
Here are some pictures of us inside the caves:
Near the end we stopped and our instuctor had us all turn off our lights. Then he told us to close our eyes and open them. And it was not different - it was pitch black. As we sat in the dark he told us this part was the part people enjoyed the most about caving. Sitting in dark in complete silence and peace. It was so relaxing, I really enjoying just sitting there in the dark in absolute peace. Before going in the caves we were told to listen to the outside noises and in the caves it would be silent and it was. Except for when we heard another group talking and wondering through the caves. We listened to them for a while and later on we bumped in to them (not literally) as we were heading out. I was the first one out because my intructor let me go on ahead, I was so eager and excited to try anything with caving. Oh yes and in the cave I had painted myself and some people had painted my face in mud and I'd also stepping in a few puddles so as I was heading out the cave I am sure I must have slightly resembled the swamp monster who was covered in mud (my godfather used to tell us about the swamp monster in his stories).
Once I climbed out if felt quite bright and I waited for the other 3 to come out. It had been a great experience, I was glad I'd done it. As we walked back we were told that it would feel very hot outside as we had just spent an hour in a cave. And it did feeling much warmer on the surface. We walked throught he apple garden and my friend Anna and I were given different cider apples to taste. There were 3 different kinds I think, bitter apples, sweet apples, and sharp apples which were kind of a mixture. The first one I tasted was bitter and some of the bitter ones were very bitter but I made myself swallow to say I'd tried it. The sharp apples were very nice. Each different type of apple was used to make different types of cider. It was awesome tasting all the different apples. Not only did I have a caving lesson but a cider lesson too.
We walked back to the car and before we went to the river to wash the mud off we posed for the after caving picture.
We washed ourself off in the river and I took my overall off there too (don't worry I had clothes underneath) and I washed those too. It had been an awesome day. When we got back to Exmouth I said goodbye to my friend and took the bus back to Sidmouth. As soon as I got back I hopped in the shower to properly wash all the mud off me. I also had a relatively early night because I felt quite tired after everything and I was started work again the next morning.
On Sunday the 4th of September my alarm went off and I was up and getting ready for my 1st day of work after my holiday. It was funny I was starting work again on the 4th of September because it was on the 4th of September 2010 that I had started at the hotel so it was my 1 year anniversary here. And I was doing waitressing (I am usually a housekeeper) and when I started here I had started off as a waitress too. The morning breakfast went well, it wasn't as busy as I remember it and after the breakfast I had a 2 hour shift cleaning our cafe because the hotel owns a cafe too on the side of the hotel. In the evening it was back to my normal waitressing in the dining room. I felt really happy to be back at work and see everyone.
The next few days consisted of breakfast in the morning then a 2 hour housekeeping shift where I was helping the girls upstairs with departures day and then the dining room in the evening, and the next morning was breakfast then a 2 hour kitchen shift preparing bacon, potatoes and onions for the evening and my usual dining room. I enjoyed some of the guests this week who joked in dining room and one evening asked for extravagent desserts that weren't even on the menu, they made me laugh quite a few times. And then they said that something wasn't on the menu and I told I was sure it was but when they showed me the menu they deliberately put their finger over it haha.
Yesterday, Wednesday, wow I made it to Wednesday. It was my half day so I only worked the breakfast in the morning and I was off. I spent the rest of the morning sorting out and doing my washing. In the afternoon I created my own website which I will be sharing later or can go to http://nicolathewriter.weebly.com./ - I'm still working on it but it will have my new writing blog on there soon. In the evening my friend and I had a Japanese movie night in the staff room. We watched a Japanese movie - I'm not sure what it was called, they all have subtitles because I don't speak Japanese by the way. It was really good, there was great humour, it was thrilling, there was a great twist, all in all it was the making of an awesome movie! I certainly will be watching more Japanese movies! They're brilliant!
This morning I just worked the breakfast shift until 10:30am and now I'm off again until tomorrow. I am a waitress for a couple weeks or so and then I go back to housekeeping. However tomorrow I am doing housekeeping for departure day which is the busiest day for housekeepers so I will be a very busy bee tomorrow. I spent some of today visiting a friend, watching tv, and now writing this enormous blog post to get all my news up to date.
It's really good to be back at the hotel and seeing the staff. I like my on the go life between work and a social life. Today though is my relaxation day where I will be relaxing most of the afternoon, maybe watch a dvd or something or work on my new website a bit.
And to finish off yesterday I found this really awesome song that was used in a tv show I watch. It's such a nice love song. Funny I found a love song yesterday when they were having an evening at my church last night talking about dating.
And a sign I saw in the hotel made me smile:
To end properly now with a quote from the tv series Smallville that I really liked,
"We are all confronted with trials son, but the true measure of a man is how he chooses to react in the face of those trials." ~Jonathan Kent, Smallville
There you have it, my news, boom! If you want to know what I am getting up to in the Uk you can go through my blog posts. It's my way of keeping in touch with most people with my news as I've said my life is very on the go and I don't always have time to type emails and things so I keep a blog to show you I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth and because I love to write and I love sharing my life with people.
I am excited about my new blog which will be on my website, I haven't started it yet but I will. If you also have tumblr or twitter the links to mine are on the right hand side at the top of this blog. I also have a youtube channel. I think if you ask me what I don't have online that will be a shorter list haha.
Until next time,
I shall love and leave you,
Love always,
Nicola (aka the Caver and Waitress lol)
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