Holiday: Cyprus 2014

Oh how much I needed this 2 week holiday! I really needed to step away from work for a bit and just enjoy some days off where I didn’t have to worry about meetings, labs and preparing experiments. And I was missing my family and wanted to be with them for a bit during the summer.

If you’re planning a holiday in Cyprus, best time of the year to go is between June and July. The months of August and September are a bit too hot and humid for some people to bear.

So yes 🙂 had a lot of fun with my parents and our adopted dog Nana. We even had a bit of an adventure…

One night, about 4-5 days before I was to fly back to the UK, my mom and I were ambushed with cuteness by a tiny black dog who scampered up to us, tail waging so hard the momentum taking her little butt along with it.

So immediately we start looking around to see if her human family are close by. She didn’t have a collar on but we still checked and asked some of the people sitting outside a cafe and restaurant if they’d seen her before or heard if anyone was looking for a missing dog. No luck there. I sat on the curb of the road with her, making sure she didn’t run into traffic and get hurt.

We both knew we already have Nana and that it would be impossible to keep this little one with us as well…Nana is more than enough :P. But we couldn’t leave her alone roaming so close to a main and busy road.

We took turns carrying her the 3km back home. She was obviously scared and didn’t know where we were taking her. As soon as we got inside the flat we made a B line for the bathroom. We gave her a good wash twice, dried her off and put her on the floor in the bathroom to relax and take in her surroundings. She was very quiet and even after about 2-3 hours looked scared of everything around her. We decided to keep her in the bathroom for the night so that she wouldn’t be overwhelmed with Nana’s excited behaviour. We tried to introduce Nana to the little dog but first impressions weren’t good – the little dog didn’t seem to like Nana and would bare her teeth and growl at her. So we thought that was enough excitement for one night, left the little one in the bathroom to rest once we provided some bedding, food and water, and decided that was enough excitement for one day.

Next day we spent the whole morning trying to get two completely different dogs to, if not like, at least tolerate each other. After we passed the awkward stages of growls and teeth baring, it looked like both dogs would get along alright.

Look they didn’t kill each other! *phew* 🙂

 

And after a couple more hours, they started looking more comfortable being in each other’s presence.

 

 

 

 

After some time, we decided to give this little one a name as we couldn’t carry on calling her “dog” – which reminded me of Dog Meat from Fallout 3. Everyone: meet Zoey!

 

 

 

 

 

Zoey still needs a home though. We have advertised her on Facebook on a page called Rescue A Dog From Cyprus and PAWS (Protecting Animals Without Shelter). We cannot afford to have two dogs in our small two bedroom apartment in Cyprus. So I’m asking for your help to spread the word! 🙂

Cyprus

I’m back home in Cyprus visiting parents for the summer :-). Doing a PhD leaves little time for relaxation, so any time off is awesome and must be used to the max.

The last time I was back home was Christmas 2013. Also the last time I saw Nana (our adopted pup)  she was tiny, you could pick her up easily… But now…

 

 

 

She’s as big as a pony! And such ladylike manners…

 

Interesting new addition on planes, think these might replace screens on the back of plane seats?

I built my own desktop PC

For the the last 6-7 years I have not owned a desktop PC. My very first laptop was a HP Pavilion DV6000 series and it kind of continued with HP until almost 2 years ago when I got my very first Alienware.

With Nicholas’s help, we built an awesome gaming desktop PC 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I loved having my Alienware, it’s an awesome gaming laptop. But having a desktop is just more practical at home. Since I’m working at University (and I already have a computer there) I don’t really need a laptop to lug around with me everywhere I go. The Alienware was great while I was a student, as every year meant I had to pack up my things and move to a different place – laptops are great for that!

Oh, I almost forgot – I am selling my Alienware laptop if anyone is interested (still has 2 months guarantee/warranty on it)  🙂 it’s an M17x R3 model with awesome specs and I’ll put the link to the ebay site here

 

 

First ever professional massage

Last night I got back from a full body massage at Jacqui’s Beauty here in Loughborough. It may be a bit awkward for people to find them, as they are right inside the LA Fitness gym. This is my very first experience getting a massage from a professional…and it has left me feeling incredibly relaxed and at ease.

I know many people like to go from time to time to a spa and get massages, but for me it was almost a necessity. Since I came back to work from Christmas holidays I’ve been under a significant amount of stress and pressure to get back into my PhD and start churning results out. It has lead me to develop excruciating back pains in the middle of the night. I recognised immediately that the root of these pains was coming from the stress I was experiencing because I remember I used to get the same back pains when I was doing my International Baccalaureate exams when the future of my university education was at stake. Short of two 500mg paracetamol tablets, there was no way I could go back to sleep – or do anything else without being in agony – when that pain set in.

Needless to say that, I slept like a rock last night! No tossing or turning, no aches or pains, just blissful sleep (finally!). This has reminded me how awful stress is to our bodies. Everyone has a different reaction with stress, and many of us just deal with it, but what happens when your body says “NO”? Have any of you experienced any adverse effects from too much stress?

Maybe it’s time I took up meditation again…

Veganism – what is it all about?

I’ve been mulling over the idea about adding a post about veganism over the past couple of days. My only concern was that, because I’m not a confrontational person, some people (not all!) might get the wrong idea about my message. And to be honest, my experience with others when it comes to finding out that I’m a vegan are the following three reactions:

1. What’s a vegan?
2. So you think you’re better than us?/veganism is extreme, you can’t be healthy without some animal protein
3. Cool, I admire vegans but I only eat free range and organic meat, and I only eat very little of it.

You can see why I was (and still am) a bit dubious…

Okay, not everyone is like that, but the majority of people I have spoken with fall in those three categories. Granted my other half has followed me in my path to a more cruelty free way of life, and I am so lucky to have an understanding and kind fiancé who gets me and wants to do something to help others just as much as I do. But only a heartless individual would not want to change after they have seen and read about all the things we have. And now that I think about it: if my other half didn’t/refused to understand the reasons why I became a vegan, carried on eating meat without consideration of how I feel about it, or/and in worst case scenario ridiculed me for it, then I would seriously doubt that our relationship would have continued. If you’re wondering what would be my breaking point, it would be something along these lines:

For those who fall under the first category and are actually curious about veganism and want to learn more – GO FOR IT :D! If you are truly curious and want to think for yourself you will go the extra mile and do your research. I was curious and decided one day that I wanted to know more; although in my three categories I fell under number 2 at the time. Which only goes to show that even stubborn people can change :-).

So I guess some of you might be thinking what made me shun dairy and eggs for good, or for that reason why ANYONE would ever want to give up “delicious” cheeeeeeese and protein filled eggs. So…why choose to be vegan?

Every vegan out there has their reasons, but mine involved the stark realization that almost a third of the spent dairy cows that were sent to slaughter were still pregnant! Yes, I didn’t believe it either! Not like the fact that the animal is pregnant should make one any more or less uncomfortable or angry that she was slaughtered, but it did knock me out of my “la-la land” where cows were happy to give humans their breast milk. There’s a lot of information you can get a hold of with regards to this, mostly from animal rights webpages. There are a lot of YouTube videos as well, although they are very graphic as they show the process of slaughtering a cow. If you are really curious, or have serious doubts about what I’ve written here, just type in “pregnant cow slaughter” in the YouTube search bar. These videos have come straight from slaughterhouses and I will warn you right now – it is VERY graphic! Though if you do happen to find this information gruesome, then you need to really re-consider your diet. Because if it’s not good enough for you to hear about it or see it, then why is it good enough for your stomach?

A lot of people have been lead to believe that a diet free from any animal products is bad for you; I was one of them!

Well folks, we were brainwashed! It turns out that a vegan diet would help the human civilization a lot! It would help improve our overall health, the number of people suffering from heart diseases and cancers would plummet, and our waistlines would get better :-). It would also be extremely beneficial for the environment, and The Guardian has even done a piece on this and provided some good sources.

I would greatly recommend watching a documentary called Vegucated – to which I have provided the YouTube link. It’s a little over an hour long, so this would be good to watch when you have a bit of extra time. It’s quite entertaining as you get to follow a couple of “normal” people who are set in their meat eating ways and watch how their perceptions about who they are eating change. The copy isn’t great, but it’s definitely watchable.

Another YouTube video I would HIGHLY recommend is Gary Yourofsky’s speech on Why Vegan.

And for those of you who feel that eating meat is manly, well I only have one response for you :-):

Worst Friday

I’m not sure that today was a Friday, I’m really not…

Usually my Fridays are awesome! Because I know the weekend is just around the corner, I’m always very productive. This should say a lot about one’s productivity in the workplace – the happier you are, the harder you’ll work, and the more praise you’ll receive.

Well, in terms of the happiness level, today’s Friday has been changed to Monday.  I’m sure other people are experiencing crummy Fridays as well, and to them I say this: join me in moping about how sucky our day was!

Granted, even though today wasn’t great, and I didn’t really get any encouraging news about my work progress, there’s always the weekend and the chance to bounce back next week! That being said, even though we all know that “tomorrow is a new day”, we all would feel a lot better having a whose-day-was-worse contest and patting each other on the back convincing ourselves that we were right and did a good job and that the ones in charge are wrong and…well you get the picture.

Overall…I would have to say that I haven’t felt happy in my workplace for a few months now, and that is affecting my productivity. I keep getting caught up in minuscule tasks and getting myself wound up in them instead of focusing on the big picture. I feel restricted; the tie is turning into a noose and it’s getting too tight. The more I struggle to take it off the stronger it gets.

The only thing I can do is dig deep, work harder, and the damage will be minimized. “Never give up! Never surrender!” – Galaxy Quest 🙂

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend. – Bruce Lee

The loss of a loved one

I’ve been going through some documents I’ve kind of put aside and temporarily forgotten about. I really enjoy going through old things, there’s so many memories in each written word and the sensations just come right back to me. Sometimes the memory is so vivid that I can even remember my surroundings and what I was feeling at the time of the piece of work I created.

I came across quite a sad piece I’ve written not long ago and it brought me back to tears :(.

Truth be told, I’ve had this feeling heavy on my shoulders for a long time now. I can even remember the exact date when it started: 24th of September 2013. That was the day my dog and best friend passed away.

The impact his passing has had on me emotionally and psychologically has been devastating; I am still grieving for him. Even as I’m writing this blog I can’t stop the flood of memories and tears.

I think that deep down I still haven’t accepted the fact that he’s gone. Every day feels a bit like the 24th of September, and it goes something like this:

“My beloved Argos,

I miss you so much. It has only been a few days since you passed away my little brother. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I couldn’t be there with you in your final moments. I’m sorry for not being there to tell you how much I love you, to scratch your head and tell you it’s going to be OK and to not be afraid, to hug you close to me and howl with you in your final burst of life before death took you away from us. I feel like I have betrayed you, like I’ve abandoned you. This is the only way I can bear myself to the way I feel, as speaking the words will not convey what I want to say to you. I know you’re gone now and there’s nothing I can do to bring you back. I’m sorry that you had to suffer; I feel that you were trying to stay with us as long as possible because you may have held hope that I might make it to see you before you go. I may be wrong, but it’s a feeling I can’t shake and it’s tearing my heart apart. I’m sorry for all the wrongs, for all the loud or unkind words I may have spoken to you at times, I did not mean them, and for all the times I’ve said “go to your bed” when I should have just picked you up and cuddled you on my lap showering you with kisses. It’s only when we’ve lost someone that we realize how much they’ve meant to us. I knew this day would one day come, but I could never fathom losing you.

Argos – you are my everything. Losing you is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to endure, and missing you even more so. A part of me has gone with you when you died. I wasn’t ready to lose you, I’m still not. I’m all alone now, I have no one to share my secrets with like I did with you. If you’re up there, please know that I love you with every cell, every atom in my body and all my soul, and I won’t be fully happy until I get to see and hold you again on the other side. I hope you can forgive me for my misgivings, you were such a wonderful best friend and brother to me and loved us so unconditionally that I feel no matter what I did or do I would never be able to re-pay you for all the love, happiness and laughter you’ve given us in our lives. You have changed us forever! Our lives will never be the same without you.

I can’t wait to wake up and see you standing next to me, ears pricked and wagging your tail happily, sniffing and licking my face to welcome me back. I can’t wait to see you as when you were young and healthy, full of life and joy. Going for walkies among the clouds and playing among the stars, holding you close and being able to talk to each other once again. Until then all I will have are the wonderful memories you’ve given me to keep me going.

When the time comes for me to draw my last breath, I won’t be afraid; because I’ll know that you’ll be there waiting for me.

Goodbye Argos, love you eternally!

Forever your loving sister”

Holiday booked to Tenerife! Super excited!!

I am not really a holiday go-er. It’s not because I don’t want to, I just find an excuse not to go most of the time. There’s always an unexpected expense or bill that comes along, and there’s the fact that I already live in a country that’s a very popular holiday destination and the hub for sunburnt, white nosed, khaki shorts and Hawaiian style floral pattern shirt clad tourists. I’m a frequent traveller yes, but I think this will be the very first holiday trip I take that’s to a different country (or in this case island) that I’ve never been to.

Recently I’ve been going through some pictures of 30 of the world’s coolest beaches and we came across Tenerife. And what do you know: the next day my fiancé and I are planning a trip there! Kind of took us both by surprise by how spontaneous (and grown up!) we were.

Hopefully this trip will yield many pretty pictures and new experiences; it’s already given us an adventure to look forward to. Our moral has taken a beating by this incessant rain and a depressingly ominous grey sky, so a bit of sunbathing and swimming in clear sea water will get our spirits back up :).

But until then….gotta hit the gym to work on getting rid of my love handles 😛