Wet n' Wild at Work

It's been a busy and somewhat flat-feeling month or two for Andy and me, but I figured it was time for an update! Some things that have been going on:
- my button tree is still alive (!)
- Andy's latest clients at his arena decided to do a New York-themed event, complete with taxi cabs and massive backdrop of the skyline. We both miss New York, a LOT.
- My placement for my Social Work Masters is going great - I feel really engaged with the clients and the team, and it's really challenging my ideas about care/control of mental health...how society decides to label and respond to things. Hmm. I'm learning a lot.
- We went to see the Miserable Rich the other night at a great little venue called The Deaf Institute. They're really great. Check them out.
- My part time work at The Mustard Tree is going really well - our programme (The Freedom Project - cheesy I know, I didn't name it) helps those with significant barriers to employment (ex-offenders, homeless, long term unemployed, mentally ill) gain work practice, life sills training and mentoring to help them make steps back to work. Its a really steep learning curve for me and for Jez (who really runs it now that I'm down to one day a week!), but we're excited about what's been happening in the lives of our participants.
Part of what we like to do once a month is do team-building days where we give the guys on the project experiences that will be new and fun and help improve confidence and team-building. Today, we took them for a day out in the hills for hiking and abseiling (see pics above) Everyone had such a blast - one guy who was with us came to the UK as a refugee over 5 years ago and today was his FIRST time EVER in the countryside. He was grinning all day long an took pics with his camera phone of everything; it was so much fun to watch him love nature!