Two weeks to go before we head towards Dhaka. My final day at work was on Friday the 11th. Leaving work was hard as I have loved working at Marrickville Council, but I held it together and I had a lovely farewell. I have made so many friends here, it seems so much easier than in NZ. On Saturday I had to fill in a form at the Osteo (headaches from the stress as it was quite a stressful couple of weeks leading up to leaving work and getting ready to go) and it was really odd because I didn't have a phone number anymore and I had to write ''unemployed' in the occupation bit - will need to find some other smart response to that one!
We are going to take ten days rest in Malaysia on our way to Dhaka. When we get to Bangladesh we will be picked up at the airport and taken to our two bedroom furnished flat, somewhere in Gulshan in Dhaka. We have the next day off and the following day Brian goes to school and I go with him for an induction day. There is a very comprehensive induction planned for him and I am included in quite a bit of it. Will keep you posted on that.
I have been both excited and nervous about going to Bangladesh and have made a big personal decision to get my first real tattoo yesterday at the ripe old age of 55! Gave it a lot of thought and found a Maori tattooist in Bondi Beach. Whenever I needed extra strength at work for something big like doing a presentation in front of a lot of dignitaries, I would envisage a cloak floating down and draping over my shoulders as a protective mantel (one of my artist father's legacies - John Bevan Ford). So I gave the artist three of dad's cloak drawings to work from and he designed a tattoo to pick up some of the elements in the drawings. He loved doing this work for me as it gave him the rare chance to be creative and to use his Maori art skills - I now have a beautiful, colourful cloak on my left shoulder. Rather painful two hours, but when you have birthed two children....... It is nothing. May post a photo once it is healed.
Well, I am feeling excited and also have some trepidation about what our lives will be like. At least we have the internet now to gain some superficial understanding about what this adventure might be like, unlike my ancestors who ventured across the world into the absolute unknown.
