For as long as I can remember, I've hated needles. Perhaps hate isn't even the right word, more like petrified. I cry, I shake, I squirm, and at one point in my life it took 4 nurses to hold me down so that they could take blood from my arm. I hate blood and I can hardly even straighten out my arms because I hate seeing all the veins there. Ugh, the whole thing just grosses me out. I remember one time when I was really young, my baby sister was jumping from couch to couch and fell, landing on an iced mug that my mother used to keep in the freezer so that her Pepsi was always nice and cold. Blood started gushing from her eye (it wasn't exactly her eye, but right beside it, thankfully. But what did I know? I was only about 6 at the time) and I screamed bloody murder. It's likely that I scared her more than the fall and cut itself. And away she went, to the hospital, as I sobbed until her return. So the whole thought of blood freaks me out, even when it isn't mine, and it certainly wasn't the first, or last, time that I cried over someone else's wounds.
Anyway, there is a point to this. I promise.
I had to get not one, not two, but FIVE needles yesterday! Some were just regular vaccines that were out of date while others were for certain countries that we plan to visit while living in the Middle-East. I would have bet a million dollars that there would be tears, hand holding and a whole lot of freaking out. But for some strange reason, I took it like a champ! And it's a good thing too that no bets were made, because I would be in a whole lot of debt if that were the case. Perhaps it's just that I'm growing up or that I knew that the needles were for a good cause. Whatever the case may be, I'm glad that my 25 year old self didn't make a huge scene in the nurses office, causing an embarrassment.
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Sunday, 25 March 2012
The Beginning
The one reason for creating this blog was to chronicle our adventures in the event that we were to be posted elsewhere, either somewhere outside of Canada, or just to a different province even. Just so I had a way of keeping touch with my family and they could follow our adventures. For those who don't know, my boyfriend is a military police officer in the Canadian Forces. After doing a 3 month tour in Afghanistan last year, he applied to be stationed at an embassy and finally, several months later, he got the call. Generally speaking, they only give embassy jobs to those who have been overseas on a tour, something like a prerequisite.
It was Tuesday, March 20, as we sat in the McDonald's parking lot, just having a bite to eat after leaving the dentists office. I had two wisdom teeth that needed to be removed, but that wouldn't be happening until the following afternoon. So as we sat in the car, enjoying the beautiful weather we'd been having, which was quite uncommon for Ottawa, Canada, he received the phone call that would alter the rest of our lives.
"Two years in Pakistan, accompanied, are you interested?" said the man on the phone. "Yes, take it," I whispered, although I wanted to scream and jump for joy! It wasn't a surprise, he'd been asked about it a couple of weeks earlier so we had already discussed it. Turns out that the guy who was meant to be going, turned it down, and so Roderick was next in line.
While I had always wanted to get a posting to an embassy in a different country, I certainly never expected it to be Pakistan. I had high hopes for some place in Europe like France or Germany, or even the Netherlands, where I lived from September 2008 to January 2010. But, beggers can't be choosers and this will certainly be quite the experience.
Everything is still a bit up in the air and I don't really have too many details on the matter, I just know we're leaving at the end of July and we've got a couple of appointments in two days time to go and speak with a social worker (to make sure that I won't go crazy in Pakistan or something to that nature) and get some vaccinations. I hate needles so this is sure to be one unpleasant experience.
And since we aren't leaving for several more months, I may not have much to report in between now and then. But I will be posting whenever something relevant to this comes up, so stay tuned. ;)
It was Tuesday, March 20, as we sat in the McDonald's parking lot, just having a bite to eat after leaving the dentists office. I had two wisdom teeth that needed to be removed, but that wouldn't be happening until the following afternoon. So as we sat in the car, enjoying the beautiful weather we'd been having, which was quite uncommon for Ottawa, Canada, he received the phone call that would alter the rest of our lives.
"Two years in Pakistan, accompanied, are you interested?" said the man on the phone. "Yes, take it," I whispered, although I wanted to scream and jump for joy! It wasn't a surprise, he'd been asked about it a couple of weeks earlier so we had already discussed it. Turns out that the guy who was meant to be going, turned it down, and so Roderick was next in line.
While I had always wanted to get a posting to an embassy in a different country, I certainly never expected it to be Pakistan. I had high hopes for some place in Europe like France or Germany, or even the Netherlands, where I lived from September 2008 to January 2010. But, beggers can't be choosers and this will certainly be quite the experience.
Everything is still a bit up in the air and I don't really have too many details on the matter, I just know we're leaving at the end of July and we've got a couple of appointments in two days time to go and speak with a social worker (to make sure that I won't go crazy in Pakistan or something to that nature) and get some vaccinations. I hate needles so this is sure to be one unpleasant experience.
And since we aren't leaving for several more months, I may not have much to report in between now and then. But I will be posting whenever something relevant to this comes up, so stay tuned. ;)
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