(Part Two) The Holiday

Our much anticipated holiday went surprisingly well, considering how much pressure was riding on the first few hours after introductions were made.

Travelling was the first hurdle.  Though A and I have always been close and communicate easily, traveling together seems to bring out the worst in us for some reason and long-haul flights with transfers wasn't something we were looking forward to.  We managed to get a day to ourselves before traveling which gave us plenty of time to reconnect after a week of clashing schedules and to put into place our contingency plans for dealing with the inevitable tensions that would come up during the long journey ahead.  Thankfully, we made it to Peru without incident: our flights were on time, our baggage was easy to re-check and we were able to locate our way around the large international airports with little difficulty.

As we entered arrivals, A's father came up to meet us and, I admit, I actually felt pretty nervous at that moment.  Based on what I had been told about A's father, a conservative, traditional man, I had pictured...well, I'm not sure what I had pictured but it came as a pleasant surprise when he came right up to me and embraced me with a hearty sincerity. And so I came to know Peru. A slightly conservative country still, with a big heart. Everybody I was introduced to that day had a warm hug and kiss for me.
After breakfast, we started in on unpacking the suitcases in the room that was to be ours for the month.  A explained that she used to share it with her younger sister and regaled me with stories from their mischievous teen years as we worked.  It was a pleasant morning and after a while, some of the family came to keep us company.  Her younger brother, who I had already met back when he was living in Spain, came in to tell us that he was getting married the following Saturday afternoon.

So the first week we were there was a flurry of organising for the wedding and A and I did very little exploring.  There wasn't much need to stray far in the first few days anyway, with the market just around the corner and fresh cooked food available on almost every street corner.  The food in Peru is a rich and satisfying cuisine with native dishes originating from the Incas as well as others influenced by Spain, Italy, China and Africa. A's mother is a great cook and continued to amaze us with traditional Peruvian dishes.  She made papa a la huancaina several times during our visit, once she knew it was a particular favourite of mine.  The day after we arrived, A's father went to visit his mother in the sierra for a week and on his return, proudly presented us with two fresh cuy (guinea pigs) which A's mother cooked and served to much fanfare (suffice it to say, it does not taste like chicken)  There were some short excursions that week.  We took in a couple of harbour boat tours and saw lima by night with a local tour bus company.

The wedding ceremony and reception were held in the restaurant next door to A's parents' house (which is space A's parents are renting out to the business) and lasted till after sunrise.  A few days after the wedding, the new couple announced they were expecting. I got my period that evening, We had a low period at this point and this was probably a large influence on what happened next.

Whilst we were there, we had been looking at different areas of Lima with regards to moving to Peru in the future.  Its a vibrant city and we found lots of positive points for each of the areas we considered; Miraflores, for example, has a large ex-pat population and would be a great place to set up a little English style cafe (quite easy to do with how informal things are there) although it´s also the ´tourist´ area of the city and so the most expensive. Barranco is probably our favourite area; the architecture and parks are beautiful. Not to mention that it´s a stone´s throw from the beach.  A few days after the wedding, just before Christmas, A's father took us to view the land he's building a house on.  It's right by the sea with beautiful views of the surrounding hills and an expressway just a few streets away. A and I enquired how much it was for a plot on the other side of the industrial park and well...we bought a plot.

Because everything is so informal there, we had to pay cash for the land, notary, etc and A's parents helped us with a cash loan.  The plot we chose is in the middle of a street and almost the highest row on the side of a tall hill.  We are in love with the location.  Behind us, there's a road, a row more of houses and then it gives way to trees and the higher slopes. We can't wait to start building. The area is more advanced than where her father's plot is located - water is already available and we hope to have access to electricity within the first year - and the best part is we are also lucky enough to have A's father around to help, both with labour and contacts, as he is a builder by trade.

So this year, we'll be saving hard to pay A's parents back and to start building work when we move.  To this end, A and I have been taking a serious look at our finances.  We've both applied for jobs where we stand to increase our income and I'm investigating piece work in the area.  It's all go this year and the effort will be worth it; not only does it give us something else to focus on but it also gives me a way out from the job that seems to generate it's own stress and back luck on a daily basis, which can't be good for TTC.  This is part one of our Resolutions for 2014.  

Part two is diet.  Whilst ours aren't especially bad, there is still room for improvement.  A and I have made separate specific resolutions in this area.  Mine are to give up chocolate and reduce the number of times a week I skip meals.  Both are fertility necessities that I've struggled to keep to before.  I brushed up on Low Gi foods after the PCO diagnosis and stopped keeping guilty treats in my locker at work but due to the demands of shift work, I have found it difficult to stop and eat a regular meal whilst I am at work.  The treats have started sneaking back into my diet.  A normal evening shift for me usually involves biscuits snatched from a pack I keep on the desk as I fly past, in lieu of breaks. The salt intake alone is wreaking havoc on my attempts to maintain a decent weight.  In the last couple of weeks though, I've implemented a do-not-disturb policy on my break times, managing to get in a good twenty minutes to eat before something pressing comes up. And whilst I haven't had a chocolate free week yet, due to the products already in our cupboards when we got home, the intake has been reduced to bare minimum and once it's finished (which will be soon) I will be going without *sigh*

And there it is. The Grand Venture 2014

(Part 1) Pre Holiday

And after the short intermission, we're back! These last couple of months have been pretty eventful so I'm going to have to do this in a two part post, with the second half posted tomorrow. This first half is basically just a long tale of me getting injured and finally slaying a dragon.

So what's new with us? As you've likely guessed, the pre-Christmas cycle didn't take. Counting our rainbows: we flew to Peru without having to deal with anything beyond meeting-the-parents nerves and I got to let my hair down for the duration of the holiday and try anything I wanted without questioning how it was cooked or if it contained any ingredients I should be avoiding.

Pre-holiday, I finally dealt with an issue that's been causing a lot of stress at work; namely the team manager. Don't get me wrong, when he wants to work, he can - on his terms. Most of the time, Dh (the name I'm using for him here) spends sitting in the office, reading, eating...you know the type.  Two weeks before we were due to leave for Peru, Dh was working night shifts to cover for a staff shortage. One evening, I ended up leaving the store in a very dark mood because of some things he had said, questioning my leadership role and how I motivated my team. He, the man who is well known for spending his shifts in the office, said this to me in front of members of my team and I was furious with him, not just for what he was saying about me in front of other staff but for how he was daring to imply my team was lazy, when three of those with me that night were indisputably the hardest workers in the store.

At that time of night, it gets very calm on the roads, easy for someone holding on to a lot of tension to turn their minds to other things and give them time to vent.  As I cycled home that night, I imagined various scenarios of how that conversation should have gone; what I should have said to him, what I so wanted to say to him. So intent was I on saying my piece that I forgot to pay attention to the road.  I felt the bike start to give under me as I moved over the curved surface at the edge of the road designed to control runoff.  I put out my foot, trying to catch the curb before I fell and missed it.  The road I was on was a large one, the outside lane I was using leading towards the nearby motorway.  As I fell, I felt a blind panic, my mind registering only two things: a white hot pain in my ankle and images of the usual traffic on that road: car, van, doubledecker megabus...Needless to say, I was very lucky things didn't end a lot worse that night - take this as a lesson, kiddies: Always give the road your full attention!

Despite my protesting ankle, I picked myself up and, after a few minutes of limping, cycled back home to where a warm bed eased most of my pains and stresses.  The next morning, I woke to an ballooning ankle and a relentless ache setting in to the wrist I had landed on.  Getting out of the bunk bed was especially difficult that morning and I cursed Dh with every step (even though I know it was my own fault for not paying attention to the road. I think I was still more shaken by what had happened than I cared to admit)
The doctor confirmed that neither were serious injuries. I'd aggravated an old injury - a jarred wrist that had not been given a chance to heal properly - and caused a slight sprain on my ankle (She assures me it would have been much worse had I been cycling the heavier electric bike that night.)  Being me, I was back at work before a week had passed and nothing more was said - I bit my tongue around Dh when I couldn't avoid him but inwardly, I was still seething. Red is not a pretty colour on me.

It came to a head on the first Tuesday morning back at work. I had locked up the store the previous night, as  there had been no delivery and I had sent the night crew home to be utilised when it came in in the morning.  There's a fair amount of work goes into a lock down so we try our best to avoid last minute ones - especially when you're starting the procedure an hour late and short staffed - but we managed it; and whilst I knew it wasn't perfect, I left knowing that it was in a reasonable condition.  I signed on and started a store walk with Dh to assess where we stood.  Once we were away from the general manager in the office, Dh turned to me on the stairs and said "First of all, I don't know what you were doing last night but when I walked in this morning, the store was a state.  Delivery didn't come in so you didn't have much to do and you had plenty of staff so there was no reason for me to find the store looking like this."  His first clue should have been the crack of my jaw as I clenched it.  As we started along the first aisle, he started in with picking fault "Right, this aisle was only given a cursory face-up, which is not good for a lockdown night. I know you're not as fast on your feet at the moment but there was plenty of staff here to help you.  And there's a lot of gaps here that you could have picked from the warehouse and had someone fill [...]"  As he carried on, I kept myself to single syllable answers in the same flat tone - he failed to notice the warning signs until half-way down the aisle, I finally had had enough.

"May I say something to defend myself now?" My tone brought his head up sharply and he nodded, folding his arms and drawing himself up to his full 6 feet.  Refusing to be intimidated, I let him have it.
"The team worked damn hard last night to get the store to this state.  Two of us working eight hour shifts without so much as a tea break.  And you know that despite this, had I had someone else to stay with me, I would have stayed till midnight facing up the store after hours in my own time.  If you care to look at my task list on the desk, you know that despite my sore ankle, I was running around this store last night catching up on not only my shift work but half of the previous shifts' tasks - yours!  Take a look at how much we made last night and look again at how many staff I had and then tell me we aren't pulling our weight. And while I've got you here, let's talk about where my motivation's supposed to come from.  How often do I start a shift in the middle of a busy lunch hour with no staff and the whole store needs facing up? How often do I start a shift and the waste needs scanning out? How often do I start a shift and the reductions haven't been touched and all chilled back ups need working before delivery arrives? How often do I start a shift and, despite all of this, you're sitting in the office playing a one-man game of thumb-wars?"
The answer to all of this is - three times a week!
All of this I said to him, right there on the shop floor, and more.  I let him know how I had injured myself because I had been so mad at him for what he had said the other night - and let him have it for that too.  After I'd run out of steam, he couldn't look at me. He shuffled his feet and said maybe we should cut the store walk there and he'd carry on with working the delivery.

I gained two extra staff at my next shift.

- Coming up : The Holiday!