Brighton Reiki - Rifa Bhunnoo

Twice this month, I got ignored in restaurants and my order was completely forgotten. Rather than hang around for another 45mins I decided to leave both times, much to the angst of my dining companion. I would rather go somewhere else and get served quicker then pay for crap service. I wouldn’t mind so much if the two places I went to actually bothered to bring the drinks whilst I had to wait over an hour for food or if the restaurant was full of people, but they didn’t and it wasn’t. One was a veggie cafe which used to be consistently good but is now run by snotty staff and overrun by kids, and the other is a new ‘modern’ Indian. Am I taking it personally? yes probably I am. We used to write food reviews for the Source - a good review goes a long way in a city full of restaurants and cafes struggling to survive so I think they should try a bit harder to do the simple thing of taking an order and giving it to the kitchen.

In LA those diner waitresses were amazing, taking complicated orders and serving 6 tables at once and never spilling a drop or ‘forgetting an order’. Maybe there was a reason we were forced to go to our regular places, as food holds energy. If the waiting staff are miserable, chances are the chef is too. I don’t want to taste the kitchen staff’s hangovers or apathy. I’ll stick to my favourite places, where the food is made with love (Pause, Food for Friends, Ideya and Terre a terre).

In a management versus technical meeting on Thursday, someone said “I’ll just put my Web Hat on”, and from then on I amused myself by imagining what the Web Hat would look like - settling on a version of one of those big velour jesters hats with bells (and whistles) and a side pocket for widgets. It would be kept in a glass cabinet and when things got hairy they would cry “Bring out the Web Hat!”, and with much ceremony and reverence the Hat would be brought out, and we’d all bow down to the Web Hat Wearer.

This week’s other memorable meeting moments have included a inane discussion about the use of the word “coloured”.

There are 3 young girls waiting for my husband outside the front door. It’s like Bros-mania round here.

I don’t, according to this quiz, have Aspergers. My score was 9/50 so very low. I can empathise and read body language, which is handy when you are a reiki master-teacher.

Most people I know are clever programmer and/or musician types who see patterns in numbers and chords, so they probably score quite high on the Aspergers scale. Once you know that people who have a high score are not being rude, but just they can’t ‘read’ emotions or tend to rant about a topic for ages or get fixated about something trivial, it’s easier to deal with. They just need an outlet to express themselves in a different way and learning an instrument or how to code can do this pretty well. It’s when you try to control their habits or get people to conform in social settings, that the trouble starts.

try the quiz yourself here.

After saying in an earlier post that I rarely read the papers, I got the Independent on Sunday this week . I can’t describe my sadness and anxiety I feel when I read these accounts. You can read the full article here. All I can do is send healing to all mentioned.

8 May 2003

Kareem Ali, 16, drowned after allegedly being forced to swim the Shatt al-Arab canal in Basra by British soldiers. Four troops were cleared of manslaughter.

11 May 2003

Nadhem Abdullah, 18, died after allegedly being assaulted by British soldiers in southern Iraq. Charges against seven soldiers were dismissed by a court martial in Essex.

15 May 2003

Photographs of abuse of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers were taken at Camp Breadbasket, a food distribution camp. They were released to the media two years later, leading to the conviction of four soldiers.

24 May 2003

Sa’eed Shabram drowned after also allegedly being forced to swim the Shatt al-Arab canal. No charges were brought.

15 september 2003

Baha Mousa, 26, was beaten to death and eight other Iraqi civilians were tortured by British soldiers. Only one soldier was convicted and jailed for a year. Defence Secretary Des Browne last week agreed to pay compensation, which could reach £1m.

April 2004

British soldiers were filmed beating youths during a riot at Al-Amarah. No action was taken.

May 2004

British troops allegedly executed 20 Iraqis and mutilated their corpses in the army base at Abu Naji. The MoD denies the allegations; legal action continues.

April 2007

A Shia tribal leader is beaten, hooded and deprived of sleep after being dragged off, along with two sons and three male house guests, he alleges, in a legal claim under preparation.

I had my check-up, I have exceptional hearing - it’s official. But I also have a slight heart mumour, due to stress. Oh, that’s great publicity for a reiki master.

Things were getting to me and I’ve been forgetting to give myself reiki, do yoga and meditate. So I’ve sorted myself out a bit and already feel a lot calmer and stronger. I don’t comply with any of the disagreeable comments at work, I am just not wasting any more energy on it. the person I was moaning about will still try to wind me up but what can I do when they express their negative thoughts about everyone from Northerners, the Irish, to vegetarians to ‘cafe culture’? I try to keep calm and positive and I challenge but I will not let this suck my energy any more.

“The world is changing at such a rapid rate, that waiting to implement changes will leave you two steps behind. DO IT NOW!”