Parallel Universes

It is so interesting for me to hear old friends, colleagues and acquaintances on the radio or to see them on TV. It always makes me feel like I’ve landed in some kind of bizarre Parallel Universe. Because one thing I have learned over the years is that there are many worlds within this world. What I mean is that the reality that you are currently in seems to be all there is at times. You almost start to feel like the whole world must live the way you do.

For instance, when I was hanging out in the Amsterdam club scene as a teenager I felt like the whole world existed of “the three P’s”, Pushers, Pimp and Prostitutes (even though I obviously wasn’t one of them myself ; )

When I was working for MTV and hanging out with pop stars (a world only slightly less seedy than the Amsterdam club scene), it felt like everyone was constantly flying from Hong Kong to LA to London and went from photo shoot to photo shoot, performing at festivals, getting trashed in VIP rooms and got freaky fan mail.

To see and hear people that I once shared “that world” with & knowing that they are still in that place just seems so unreal to me now. It almost feels to me like it should have stopped when I stepped out of it, but seeing and hearing my old acquaintances in the media reminds me that that Universe never imploded after all and is actually still very much alive.

These days, I listen and watch them with mixed emotions. On the one hand I feel a bit jealous and on the other hand I am so glad that I moved on. For instance, I totally admire people like Moby, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and others who are still making great dance music. But I could not deal with that lifestyle anymore. Late nights, smoky night clubs (if they are anywhere but in the United States), kids on drugs, VIP rooms, tour buses, hotel rooms, waiting back stage until it is time to work, fake friends, fake handshakes, dealing with “the guys in suits” (record labels, lawyers, TV executives, accountants, sponsors, etc.) and all the other crap that you have to put up with to be successful in that world.

I actually once had a nightmare when I was still working as an MTV Veejay. It was based on the movie “Whatever happened to Baby Jane” (did you ever see that?) Anyway, I dreamed that I was in the dressing room getting ready to do a show and looked like “Baby Jane”, an old woman with doll-like make-up and pigtails. In the dream I was surrounded by lots of young people. I, on the other hand, was an old woman but was still presenting on MTV. I woke up that morning and knew that it was time for me to leave MTV (I had already been there for almost 8 years at that point).

So, here I am now. I am 33 years old. I do not look like Baby Jane and am pretty sure that I never will. I’m living in the jungle, I try and raise my little boy as well as I can, together with Andy I have started an extremely successful jungle resort and adventure travel business, I have an expanding belly with baby-boy number two in there & I wonder what it all means.

If my past is anything to go by, I expect my life to drastically change again some time in the future. And this “jungle world” that I live in now will seem like a distant dream once again. But from all the Parallel Universes out there which one will I chose to spend time in next? That’s the only question I can’t answer yet.

A picture of the last photo shoot I did just before moving to the Belizean jungle.

First day of school

Our little man has gone of to pre-school. He has been excited about it for months, but this morning he seemed to get a bit nervous about the whole thing. It was only after I told him that they have swings and lots of toys there that he was up for going again. Andy took him in and just phoned me to say that Lucas was grinning from ear to ear when he left him. I'm happy to know that, I would have hated it if Andy had left him there in tears.

All "our boys" seem to be moving on now. John moved out yesterday night (thanks for not saying goodbye John!!!!! I was brushing my teeth & when I came out you were gone!) Anyway, John will be living in San Ignacio from now on. There is much more to do there for a young bachelor than there is in the jungle, so I think he's doing the right thing. I am still expecting him here a few times a week anyway as he will be coming over to play football.

Now.....I said that I would write some more about our Rochester trip too, so here are some of the things that happened whilst we were there:

• Andy and I picked out our wedding rings. They are making them to size right now and will be brought down to Belize in October by Tom & Marge (And no, we are not having a wedding. We both can't be bothered to organize that & it's too hard to get all our family and friends together in one place anyway as they are spread out all over the world)
• My mum and sister Miriam came to Rochester for a few days. It was so great to see them & Lucas absolutely adores them. As usual, it was hard to say goodbye & I couldn't help but cry when we dropped them off at the airport. Lucas looked at my tears and asked "Mummy are you okay? What's wrong with your eyes?" (Andy told him "That's what women do Lucas, they leak")
• We were looked after amazingly well by all the staff at Rochester hospital. I want to say a special "Thank you!" to Cindy Gordon and her husband Roy, to Dr. Ralph Penino, Dr. Mike De Vilareal (hope I spelled that right) & of course to man who did Lucas' eye operation, Dr. Rosenberg.

"Don't take my picture mum" Lucas did not want us to make a big deal of his first day of school.

It's a boy!!!!!!

Today has turned out to be rather eventful. I went to see my gynecologist and discovered that we're having another boy! I really did not expect that. I was convinced that this baby would be a girl. Mainly because this whole pregnancy is so different from when I was carrying Lucas. Still, my mum did tell me that she made that same mistake when she was pregnant with me. She thought that I would be a boy, because my pregnancy was so different from my sister's. So there you go. My mum was right yet again (she often is)

Also, over the last last week or so I have had a bit of a strange feeling....like the baby is pressing down or something. And now it turns out that that is exactly what has been happening. The baby's head is pushing down onto my cervix. Apparently, it is not at the dangerous stage (yet), but I do have to take it very easy for about a week. We wouldn't want this little fellow to show up yet, I'm only in my 20th week (according to today's ultra-sound I'm slightly futher along than we initially though)

So anyway, I'll be spending most of this coming week sitting or lying down. Which is a shame, as I just got back into working out again. I went to the gym a few times in Rochester and had brought back a pregnancy exercise DVD to do at home. Maybe I'm really not meant to exercise during this pregnancy. A month or or two ago I exercised and got strange shooting pains in my lower abdomens and now this again......all a bit worrying really.

On the up-side, I'll have lots of time to blog now. So expect lots of new postings in the coming days.

Adios my dears!

Home sweet home

Wow, it feels nice to be back at the Jungle Dome. We finally made it home yesterday, after the whole "Rita" issue. Lucas especially was delighted to get back. He kept yelling "That's my home! That's my home" as we drove up the dirt track to the house. When he met his best friend Emelda (the 3-year-old from next door), he gave her a big bear-hug and kisses. After having played with her for a while, he looked at her and said very seriously "Emelda....I am so happy to see you!"

There is still so much to write about with regards to our Rochester visit and Lucas' operation....I'll sit down a little later today and get into it all. For now, we're home and we're happy.

Lucas on Roy & Cindy's boat at the Finger Lakes

Very rare indeed....a picture of Andy & me without Lucas (we don't have many of them)

It was great to see my mum & my sister again. Here we are at Niagara falls.

This is one of my favorite pictures of our Rochester trip. My lovely boys at Tom & Marge's ranch.

Hurricane Rita

We should have been flying home to Belize today, but we're kinda stuck. Basically, we were meant to fly through Houston but hurricane Rita is heading that way so all the flights have been canceled. The weird thing is that our flight has now been re-scheduled for saturday and sunday (fly to Cleveland on saturday and then on to Houston & Belize on sunday). It looks to me like that is going to be a problem too. I was looking at the BBC News website & it looks like sunday may still be a bit of a mess down there. Obviously, no one knows for sure where it will hit or how severe it will be,although it looks like it's going to be another bad one. So God knows if and when we can actually make it home.

I feel really bad for Karen. That poor girl has been holding the ford at the Belize Jungle Dome for nearly three weeks. She must be going a bit crazy by now, being in that big old place by herself (well.....John is there in the evenings.....but still....)

So I hope we can make it back asap.

On our trip to Aruba recently we were narrowly missed by hurricanes three times in a row in the space of 2 weeks (Dennis sweeped past Miami, Emily just missed Aruba and then came close to Belize). So everywhere we went we were on storm watch.

It's really gotten out of control with all these hurricanes. Especially for the United States. I'm just hoping that Rita will not be another Katrina.

Check out Andy's new blog!

In case you've wondered why I haven't blogged for a few days.....Andy is on the computer all the time. We only brought his laptop on our travels to the States and he's blogging on it every spare moment we have. So if anyone wants to know what we've been up to just read his blog: http://escribbler.blogspot.com/

Seeing as Andy is the nerd of the household, I expect his blog to soon be the most prolific of all the Jungle Dome blogs. So make sure you check it often.

Technorati

Now, I don't know how it happend, but this website called Technorati has made my blog their number one featured blog for today. Incredible when you consider that they track 17 million blogs! Technorati is the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs. So I feel pretty honoured.

Gracias Technorati!

We are still very much enjoying our time in the States. I especially love going to the supermarkets here. My God, these stores are big. The biggest supermarket in Belize would not even cover one isle in these monsters. My head spins when I look at the amount of choices there are for everything. Isn't weird though how you always end up leaving the store with things you never even knew you wanted? Today I only planned to buy some "Thank you" cards, but I came out with mascara, eye shadows, "Dora the Explorer" merchandise, smoothies, humous, flowers, a 2006 wall calendar, etc.

Anyway, we're having a blast! And Lucas is doing great!

Arriving at Rochester airport where we were greeted by our friends Cindy Gordon & Marge Gallagher. From the moment we arrived in Rochester we were being looked after so well. We're just so blessed.

Lucas an Cooper. Best buddies! Cooper is Cindy and Roy Gordon's dog & is an absolute sweetheart. I wish my dogs were as nice to Lucas as this dog is.

A minute before surgery. Lucas had received some kind of pre-medication and was having a pretty good time. Throwing his head back and cracking up laughing.

Lucas recovering from the annestetic. He went from being sleepy to trashing around violently, to being all sleepy and then trashing around violently again. It was quite a weird experience. Thank god that's all behind us now.

Lucas is fine

Today was the big day when Lucas had his operation. He is recovering really well. We won't know if the eyelid has been pulled up enough (or too little or too much) until the swelling goes down, which will be in a few days. But it looks pretty good.

You know, there is so much t write about today....but I am exhausted. I'll try and write more tomorrow. Right now, I'm gonna veg out in front of the telly for a bit & then have an early night.

Anyway, just wanted everyone to know that Lucas is fine.
Thanks for all good wishes!

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Five Sisters Falls

Andy and the kids climbing the Five Sisters Falls

William & Jimmy came with us for the day. In hindsight, not such a great idea. Because they are so much older than Lucas they can climb much better too. But Lucas wanted to do everything that they did, it was heart-stopping to watch him climb to the top of waterfall (Andy could barely hold on to him)

When the swimming and climbing was over it was time for chips & ketchup (never forget the ketchup!)

This is where Lucas decided to fall asleep after our adventures at the waterfalls

Expanding our options

In the last few days we've been visiting some of the other resorts in our district. Basically, we are looking for a nice place to send our guests to whenever we get fully booked. We are already a third full for December and are getting tons of inquiries every day. We should be booked up pretty soon. Not surprising when you consider that we only have 3 rental units at the Belize Jungle Dome and our website gets about 1000 hits a day (webmaster Andy has worked his magic there)

We found a lovely place to work with in the Mountain Pine Ridge, called Five Sisters Lodge. It's a place we've often visited on daytrips (they have the most beautiful waterfalls there), but I had never looked at the rooms before. Anyway, the rooms are great and reasonably priced. So many lodges in Belize are totally overpriced, it's ridiculous. Oh, and another nice thing is that this resort is one of the only Belizean owned resorts on the mainland.

So anyway, whenever we are full we can still offer the inland part our all-inclusive packages (we already have 3 resorts on San Pedro that we work with for the island extension). All we have to do is make sure that people would be happy to stay at Five Sisters instead of the Jungle Dome.

Now, let's hope that this resort is good to work with as far as bookings are concerned. It's amazing to see how many resorts don't answer emails or give you confirmation when you try and book a room. I often wonder how some of them survive when they are being so unprofessional.

Well, enough about all that. I'm slowly gonna start packing for our Rochester trip. We're off on Monday & I already have this nagging feeling that I've forgotten something. I'm quite sure that's only going to increase the closer we get to Monday. So I better get organized. That may help a little. Having this foggy "pregnancy brain" doesn't help, that's for sure.

Adios amigos!