About me

Well as you may have probably guessed my name is Amanda. I've just recently moved back to mainland UK from Belfast. I have lived in Belfast for just over a year but it’s been an interesting year. Having not lived in Ireland for over twenty years and it came as quite a shock to the system to live there again. The wonderfully laid back attitude and the cracking sense of humour is not to be found anywhere else. But there also came the downside with the sectarian issues. Nowhere near as bad as they once were and possibly the area I am staying in as it is quite close to the Ardoyne, which has historically always had its fair share of problems, is not a great reflection of the rest of the city. These issues were certainly highlighted during the marching season but luckily for me I was only there at weekends, as up until recently I traveled to work in Scotland from Monday to Friday, so was spared the displays of anger and hatred from those who had traveled into the area to stir up trouble.

But that’s enough about that, onto more important things… Motorbikes! I have been riding motorbikes on and off for the last seventeen years and up until last year my partner and I had two beautiful BMW GS bikes. Ray had an 800 and I had the 650 which had been factory lowered to compensate for my rather short stature. Although Ray has been riding just over three years he is an exceptionally talented and confident biker. When he gets to corners he throws it into them like he was on a sports bike. He rides like he has no fear yet very safe. He is the only biker that I will pillion. When people see us out on our bikes they assume that he the more experienced biker - a consequence of two accidents I’ve had on the bikes in the last few years has meant that I am now quite a nervous biker and it is taking me some time to conquer my fears.

My second obsession is reading. I bought myself a Kindle last year and although I have had to exchange it twice due to technical faults I absolutely love it. If I could I would never have it out of my hands. I have over two hundred books on it at the moment and although I do read books quite quickly I have realised that I should stop buying and just focus on reading. But darn it Amazon is so damned good at it's marketing and I am such a push over when it comes to buying books. One of the best books I've ever read is The Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. This quote I lifted from it is truly inspiring and thought provoking:

"To rescue mankind from that domination by the irrational which leads to war could surely be a more exultant fight than war itself, a fight capable of enlarging the souls of men and women with the same heightened conciousness of living, and uniting them in one dedicated community whose common purpose trancends the individual. Only the purpose itself would be different, for its achievement would mean, not death, but life."

My next interest is technology. Within the last few years we have completely migrated over to Apple technologies. First came the iPhones, then the Macbooks, the iPod shuffles and the time capsule. Embarrassingly we had the stereo and printer networked up to the airport express. Embarrassing because to other people we might appear like such geeks with no life. As my mum would say; different folks different strokes.

Since Ray started working as a contractor he had many fantastic opportunities where his contracts took to him to places such as Spain, France, Denmark, Romania and Switzerland. Luckily for me I got to go out to most of these countries too. I spent some time in Basel during one of his projects and loved every minute. Fantastic city with lovely welcoming people. I would love to be able to work all over Europe. The travelling and the experiences are incredible. I have had the best of times in some wonderful parts of the world.

Recently I went on another trip with Oasis Overland to Africa. A truly incredible experience which I will never forget. I have been trying to get as many of my pictures up but it’s rather a lengthy process. I believe I may have taken over 800 photos and to be fair not all of them are interesting to anyone who wasn’t there at the time. But some of them are good. :) The trip was twenty five days in total and took me from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe through Botswana and Namibia to finish in Cape Town. During this time we camped pretty much most of the time until we arrived in Swakopmund in Namibia and then soon after that we left the truck at the South African border and had to stay in hostels for the rest of the trip through to Cape Town. I definitely preferred camping, especially during nights where it was so hot we left the rain cover off the tents and slept under the mosquito nets. The sky at night was truly awesome. I have never before seen the sky so unpolluted with lights from surrounding areas and to see the milky way in its glory left me speechless. The countries and the people we visited were beautiful and at times I felt such a pity for them such as the people of Zimbabwe. They have had to battle with so much and yet they have retained such a friendliness and warmth. I know many of the local farmers would disagree with me but those that I spoke with in Victoria Falls were lovely hard working people who were so very welcoming.

Whilst travelling I had the chance to do a few activities which I would never have the chance whilst at home: parachute jumping, quad biking and shark cage dive. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the last two but was lucky that one of my friends was not jumping at the same time as me so took some photos of me doing my jump. To say I was scared was an understatement. I screamed and swore pretty much the entire jump. The poor guy who was tandemming me, I did feel sorry for him. :)

So since moving back to the UK, I have been living with Ray and we have been staying with his parents. They are really lovely people and they own two dogs. Both are rescue dogs, well one is and the other was adopted quite quickly as the chap who had previously owned her was giving her up (sad story that I won't go into). They are both beautiful girls, one greyhound and the other an German shepherd. I love them both so much. Such good natured loving animals that never fail to cheer me up.

 

This is a picture of the lovely JoJo in her favourite position - the sleeping position. She's so adorable.