| 100 in 1000 |
- Spend a week up a mountain learning to ski
- Visit Karoline's place in Moravia
Hold a conversation in Czech (only)- Drink 500ml of each of the following beers:
PilsnerStaroprammen- Budvar
- Velke Popovice
- U Fleku
GambrinusKrusovice
Respond to at least one GOARN request (WHO and MSF are
also acceptable)Travel across the AtlanticReturn to South America- Read a book to, or with, an impressionably aged child
- Participate in one NanoWriMo Challenge and come within at least 10,000 words of the goal length
Have my nose pierced- Have my next tattoo drawn
Purchase the perfect jeans (x 2 pairs)- Attend a spin class 3 times a week for 8 consecutive weeks
- Bake Viv's cheesecake
Make David's casserole Make David's Chicken Cashew-nut StirfryInvite 4 people who don't know one another too well to dinner- Ride from Vienna to Venice on a motorbike (pillion acceptable, those less desirable)
- Attend a book group for at least two books
- Go on a choir weekend (learn and perform difficult piece in two/three days)
- Visit Madame Tussaud's (in London)
- Take an architecture appreciation course
Join an all-girl group and sing a soloPublish in a scientific journal (top two authors)Cook a duck or other 'waterfowl'. Locate the Al-Timimi's from Doha Veterinary PractiseHave a pedicureMaintain a Brazilian (ouch) for three months.Find a trustworthy Czech hairdresser- Treat my inner-6-year-old twice a week (at least)
- Do the liver-cleansing diet properly (12 weeks)
- Don't eat out for one month
Find a flat and flatmate- Purchase one Joseph sweater
- Purchase one of the following pairs of
designer shoes (they MUST also be COMFORTABLE, and be able to be worn with 4
different outfits and 2 types of occasion): Jimmy Choos, Manolo Blahniks,
Christian Louboutin (Ebay or 2nd hand are acceptable)
- Send 5 books to the booksphere and track them.
- Go hanggliding
- Read 10 'classic' books (from 1001 Books to Read before you Die)
Moll FlandersEverything is illuminatedMadam BovaryZen & the Art of Motorcycle MaintainanceCatch-22OdysseusOn the Road
- Run (non-stop!) for 5kms outside (preferably in a street race thingy)
- Send Christmas Cards on time
Make a collage/mural out of street lights on my wallBuy a bed, build it, and sleep soundly in itGo to AfricaHost an 'event' (classified as and when)Organise a 30th Birthday PartyWear a costume- Sing on stage
- Buy a painting that evokes memories of Prague (cannot involve queues!)
Learn a god-damned card game that stays in my memory (other than fish/snap)See sunrise. Be sober. Have woken for it. Excludes months Nov-Mar- Take a walk and flip coins at each intersection
Win something- Draft a will
- Take a roadtrip
Go to Italy already- Sea Kayak around Abel Tasman Park (NZ)
Get plantsTake a train to another Eastern European Destination (accession countries are acceptable) alone preferably.- Get UK to give me a provisional motorcyclists license and simultaneously get a 'card' license.
- Go SCUBA diving again - at least two dives lasting 30mins each.
Go to a dentist. *sigh*- Do a Czech Wine Trail. And live to tell the tale
- Make an 'outbreak emergency kit'.
- Go to bed prior to 11pm every night (inc weekends) for four consecutive weeks.
- Marvel over lack of tiredness
- Dine at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant (or Nobu)- preferably for free.
Bet on the nags- Do something for charity (applying and getting a 'red card' will count)
- Walk along the Champs Elysee
- Do 100 sit ups in a row
- Do 50 pressups (arms in tight)
- Make branston pickle (or nearest substitute)
- Cook something 'new' and 'adventurous' at least once a month
Find a mentorBe a mentorLearn what mentoring is all aboutMeet an online person in real lifeResist the flirt. Once. Just one night. It's okay if people don't immediately succumb to my natural charm. Really it is.Spend time at a spa (spa towns in the CR don't count)- Send a care package to someone
Get a Tata Bojs CD- Take a French/German/Dutch course and SPEAK THE DAMNED LANGUAGE WHEN I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES ME SOUND
LIKE AN IDIOT!
- Order new contact lenses.
Make a list of things I take with me when I pack for different occasions- Eat lobster. Prepared by someone else.
Back up the blogPut everything onto an external hard drive- Find a DDR mat and console and 'dance, I say dance!'�
- Go to the beach and lie on the warm sand. For an hour. (with sunscreen on, natch)
- Take and complete a course in either: Tango, Salsa or Flamenco
- Join the Municipal Library of Prague
- Move to another country
Go to a live concert of a band I actually like- Pay off debts (student loan excl.)
Send thank you cards for every gift I receive (other than the gift of happiness, blah blah blah).- Get an agent (literary or theatre)
- Go to a sports bar without cringing, by personal choice
- Ride a rollercoaster
- Hold a snake
Spend a day wandering around a museum (not art gallery!) |
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| Day 0 - the beginning |
| Monday, 30 January 2006 |
Day 0 – the beginning
Today we assembled to meet the team at the WHO offices in Copenhagen. This is, apparently, very unusual. Mostly, teams agree to meet in the hotel lobby of their destination, there isn’t usually such a briefing.
And what a briefing it was too. It started at 1000, and went through till 1800. A lot of ground was covered, from where the countries were, and what they looked like, to the social situation on the ground, the conflicts (A vs. A: G friends with both) and the economic situation. That was enough of a challenge for me to pay attention through…it’s not really stuff that ‘sits’ in my head. Then we covered the situation as we knew it (or rather, as the WHO knew it via various sources of information) and the situation in Turkey.
Lunch was divine (must remember this for future employment possibilities!), several salads (ie. more than 5) on offer, beef, fish, even a glass of wine: all for 40DKK. I have no idea what that translates to in either € or $, so you’ll have to look it up yourself! Then off to be ‘kitted up’. I have two boxes of tamiflu that I can choose to take prophylactically (after high risk exposure – ie. chicken farm visit), or can take to ‘cure’. And there’s boots, overalls, gloves, masks, goggles etc…and a medical kit (syringes – not sure what for, gloves, condoms, tampons, paracetamol, gauze etc…). Unfortunately both of these have to be handed in at the end of the mission.
Then we discussed the safety gear and it’s use in different situations. Sadly, most people are coming at this from a very human health angle – so in their mind, they’re examining a patient with the virus, and the patient sneezes on them. I, personally, am more worried about the dust cloud that’s produced by a chicken. Transfer from faecal material (dust) to the eyes is one of the easy route into the human body: so I’m interested in a totally different angle to the rest of my team.
More discussion about our actual mission (to identify the current situation, look at what needs to be done and possibly locate personnel who can do that in-country), and then the meeting closed. Is that it? That’s all?
Oh no. Then there’s the documents that we were given: about a ream of papers’ worth (not including all the stuff that we’d each personally downloaded or gained access to). Half of the documents are ‘living’ and ‘not for public consumption’ as they’re very basic and ‘truthful’ (ie. ‘these people’ got the job done, ‘these’ obfuscated).
A dinner of sushi, bed (divine bed in Copenhagen…I want that bed back home) and then travel in the am. FINALLY started to get VERY excited about halfway through the briefing. Until that moment, I’d been very ho-hum about it all. But now, the excitement builds, and I don’t need food to feel full, those butterflies seem nutritional enough. |
posted by Nomes @ Monday, January 30, 2006   |
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