I set this up so that everyone can keep track of me on my travels. Hope you enjoy reading.

Friday, September 29, 2006

And the winner is.....DEBITS! YAAAAAY!

Ok, those of you who know me reasonably well know i am not good when it comes to budgetting! But I usually manage to have savings occuring, and the money coming in was usually more than the money going out. At the moment this is not happening! Everything costs a bazillion pounds, and I have not worked a solid 5 day week yet, and I'm getting paid a week out, and I'm buying tickets for trips which are cheap, but when the money comes out immediately, fo an adventure I am going on in a months time it hurts. I can still afford to pay rent on sunday tho, so thats good.
I have been working ALMOST every day this week. I did a half day today, and now i'm home thisafternoon, but it's been a busy week. Today I worked with yr 1, Mon, Wed and Thurs was with the same school I was in last Monday, and I taught yr 3, yr 5, yr 4, yr 6 and yr 3, replacing people for PPA (planning time). Tuesday I got a call at nearly 8am asking me to work over near Swindon, 40 miles away! Apparently I will get petrol money for this. I managed to make it there by 9.05, which was pretty good, considering it took me almost 25 mins to get onto the motorway, and past the 1st junction, where all the traffic coming into Bristol was going. Was a nice school. I had year 4.
What else? oh... I booked another trip! In mid term break (23rd-27th Oct) I am going to Amsterdam! I managed to get cheap flights, cos its winter and i could get weekday flights, so a return flight, with taxes, plus 4 nights in a backpackers is costing me about 100 pound, which is pretty good, cos if i flew weekend it would have cost me at least 250 for flights alone. So October is a bust month, with Italy, France and Netherlands now all in 3 weeks pretty much!
I have no fotos for u, cos i haven't been anywhere. I have no funny stories for u. Oh... I went to a pub quiz on Sunday night with the housemates, my first outting in Bristol with other ppl! We came 4th. Thats all for now.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

I fought the law and the law won!

I got my very first speeding notice, ever, 14 days into being into a new country! I have had to send off my details and they will decide whether to fine me or summons me to court. I was going a WHOPPING 37mph in a 30 zone. I saw the flash, so I have just been waiting for it to arrive. It just missed me changing my registration to my current place, so it went to my aunt and uncle's in devon, and luckily they were able to get it before they went on a long cruise, and redirect it. Otherwise I would have missed the 28 day reply period and would be a criminal!
I have decided to drop one agency, because it is just too much effort juggling both, and one gave me much more work than the other, so I have gone with them. Apparently I have had good feedback given about me, so the one I am going with offered me a guarantee (which they offered me at the beginning, but I didn't take because I wasn't sure how much work was out there), whereby if they can't find me work i still get half a days pay. They said originally when I rejected the offer that I would be able to consider it again next term (January) but I must be doing a good job, cos they offered it to me 3 weeks into term!
I got paid! YAY! its not a lot, but its the first DEPOSIT into my bank account that hasn't come from my own money in savings! And it is kind of enough to keep me going. I will try again to put the fotos from wales up now.

This is Tintern Abbey... well, whats left of it

And this is a rather windswept (and pixelated) me outside Chepstow Castle.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Baaaaaaaaaa

Today I didn't get work, boohoo, for the first time since I started getting work, I had nothing to do today, so I drove over the bridge to Wales and went to Cardiff Bay, where I found an information place, that inspired me to go to Tintern Abbey and Chepstow Castle. Both were very nice!
I did get into the band, apparently I was very impressive, and tonight I have my first rehearsal as an actual member! How Excitement! I even bought a music stand, as its a BYO type band.
Hmmm, what else? I have been working 2 days this week, Monday I was in a JNR school, (yrs 3-6) and I was replacing teachers who were having appraisals, so I taught 1 hour blocks in a number of classes. I did 2 yr 5 classes, then a yr 3, then a yr 4 and then a yr 6. As I was all over the place I did PE 3 times in one day (yes, me teaching PE, the irony of that is not lost on me, I promise!) and then I had to brush up on my french as the yr 3 class were doing maths (again, irony, but even I can do number lines!) and there was a new kid who ONLY spoke french, so i used my numbers in french and then petite and grande, turned out that was the right way to explain it and the kid was a maths genius, so I was saved from struggling thru any more BAD french.
Tina: there are no stories about my housemates, they are all very nice, and I don't spend that musch time with them, so they havent had a chance to drive me nuts yet, sorry! I just hope whoever replaces the girl who is never here is either a not overly girly girl, or another guy, cos i am enjoying the bathroom sharing status atm, and i really dont want it to change.
Ok, here are some fotos from Wales, and then I'm off to band. Ok, Phoo uploader is being a bitch, so no photos for now. and there was one of me in there! Oh Well, maybe next time!

Friday, September 15, 2006

i'm a working girl!

Well, I have worked! I had a day on Tuesday in a nursery (not where plants come from, its what they call a long day care over here) as an assistant, and there were like 6 staff and 30 kids, so I didn't get any cleaning duties or anything, I just supervised the kids, and I had no teaching responsibilities either. It was boring, I can do that sort of thing with my eyes closed! Then the next day I got a call to work in a primary school in St Paul for the afternoon, which turned into all day thurs and fri too. (if u were doing an english exam it would go something like "St Paul:Bristol as Redfern:?" and the answer would be Sydney). All of the kids were "multicultural" and almost all were I think Ugandan refugees. It was challenging, to say the least. Thank god I had a student teacher in there all the time who knew their names, cos I still couldn't pronounce 4 kids names thisafternoon when I left, and others I kept getting corrected on. This was a yr 3 class, well, all of yr 3. There were 21 kids in yr 3. There are about 130-150 kids in the whole school. 1 class per grade, with around 20-30 per class. Apparently some years they hafta combine yrs 4 and 5 for example cos theres not enough, as families come and go a lot, being refugees.
Anyways, I had yr 3, and i hadta use a lot of my preschool teaching skills with them cos they were worse behaved in terms of "behaviour management" than 3 yr olds. tantrums every 5 seconds, play fighting with each other, arguing with the teachers, crying, storming off, and the attitudes on these kids, was like 15 yr olds crossed with terrible twos. Apparently they are so mean to teachers on day 1 that most refuse to go back, but I didn't take any of their crap! I made one girl so furious that she wouldn't come back in after I told her to (I sent her out for being disrespectful) and when she did come back in she refused to go anywhere near me and would only talk to the student teacher, and then like 10 minutes later she was begging me to let her be my helper. See, noone can resist my charms! Tough love baby!
I saw some glimmers of hope and I think if this was my class I would have them all under control in about 3 weeks, cos they learnt pretty quickly that I was serious, and actions did have consequences. But its not up to me, and as is the case a lot of times, if you are there all the time, u dont wanna hafta argue all day every day, so u just give in and let them get away with a lot more, cos otherwise u wouldnt wanna keep going back to work. I'd much raher fix it early and make the rest of the year enjoyable for all *cracks whip*!
Anyways, so I have worked 3.5 days this week, and I am working Tuesday morning next week in the nursery again (with the babies, awwwww), but the other agency rang today and said that work was picking up there too, so I might get work with them too. Who knows?
So I haven't had any adventures this week, I can't even think what I did Monday...must have been exciting. I didn't write anything in my diary either. So no photos. I have booked myself a holiday to Pisa (Italy) in the first weekend in October, and the next weekend I am going to Calais (France) so that should be exciting! Other countries to explore!
Tomorrow I am going up to Milton Keynes again for my cousin's 30th b'day celebration, but first thing I have my audition for the band, at 10am. Turns out I have to perform one piece, sight read something, and then perform a basic skills test. The basic skills test scares me cos I am rubbish at scales and I have a feeling it might be that *panic*... so wish me luck!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

WOOKEY!

I know i just posted yesterday but i've been very busy! Today I went to Cheddar, home of cheddar cheese, and also home to some pretty cool caves and a massive gorge. And to get the best views of the gorge one must climb 274 very steep stairs, whilst attempting to will the legs to keep going and urging the respitory system not to malfunction in the form of asthma, or simply quiting altogether! (yes, i know i'm not the fittest person in the world, but i don't do stairs at the best of times, and these were buggers of stairs!) then right up the top was even more stairs in a little tower u climbed to see the views, and I must admit it was worth it, especially considering the sky stayed blue ALL day today! Whats with that??? :P

These are the bastard steps. They actually get steeper past the bit u cant see, but there were too many people on that bit to take a foto.

This is the view of the Gorge from the top of the tower.

Then I went for a walk around Cheddar, and came across a Fish and chip shop with this sign out the front...

I spose the fact u get plural is value for money! AND with mushy peas, gravy, bread and butter! Kinky! After all that u'd need a strong coffee! (I'm assuming its a type of fish?)

Then from here I went to Wookey Hole partly cos it is called that, and partly cos it is close by, and partly cos it is more caves! These caves were pretty and had a stream/river/lake type thing running thru them which was crystal clear. It was for these reasons that a paper mill was built there cos it needs hundreds of gallons of pure water (see, I have been learning stuff too!).

Oh, and I went to a rehearsal of the band I contacted about joining and caused a stir, cos noone knew I was coming and the chick in charge of the clarinets had a meltdown when I showed up. Apparently the conductor thought I was coming NEXT year. Anyways, its the same standard as my last band, same sort of music, so thats a relief, but they have just implemented a new sysem of auditioning, so i hafta borrow a piece of music of one of the other people and arrange a time to go over to the conductor's house and play it for him to audition for their only spot, 3rd clarinet. considering its the same level of music as i'm used to, and I have played 1st on this stuff, should be ok. The 2 other 3rd clarinetist starting learning as adults and I explained a few things to them last night, so I should be fine. I'm one of the first to go thru the audition process tho, so who knows!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

Ok, so here's the update...
I have thus far received no work. I am not overly fussed by this, as I was warned by both agencies that it would be slow from the beginning, but would then pick up. So in the meantime my life exists of getting up at 6.45, showering, waiting to see if i am working today, then finding sumthing to do with my day, that doesn not involve a massive outlay of funds.
I spent Monday sorting thru all the fotos i have taken thus far on my travels on my laptop, and naming them, filing them etc. Tuesday (yesterday) I went to Stonehenge, and there signed up for a national trust 12 month membership, which gives me free entry into their sites, of which Stonehenge is one. It was grey and miserable there. This photo doesnt really show this, but the really gloomy ones didn't show the rocks enough, so i compromised.

Next I went to Old Sarum, which was in the book of National Trust places, and only about 30 mins away. It is an ancient castle fortress with a moat. It was destroyed when the ppl abandoned it tho, so its truly ruins. (note the clouds are a lighter grey here)From here I drove thru Salisbury and went to Salisbury cathedral. It has the magna carta in it, but you can't take any fotos in the room where it is, incase the flash going off affects the room or some rubbish. Its not like the old ones where the smoke comes out, i don't think a foto will cause structural damage! (noe the sunlight through the clouds)

And finally I went to Old Wardour Castle. I fell in love with this place. It is gorgeous. There's so many litle stairways and hidden areas and it's so out of the way that unless you knew it was there, you wouldn't stumble across it. I took WAY too many fotos here, but it was beautiful, so you can't blame me! One side of the castle it ruins from a civil war attack, and the other side is still relatively untouched. (note the sky colour- about 27 degrees here)So that was my adventures yesterday. I have finally met all the housemates. They are never all here at the same time, but I have met them all. The only other girl is rarely here, as she is moving into her boyfriend's place, so she will be gone completely at the end of the month. Then there's another guy who is going to be leaving mid October when his house is built. Then theres a french student who is doing 6 months over here, so who knows when his 6 months ends. He is nice, but his english is poor, and my french is worse, and its a matter of how much patience u have to explain everything 20 times. Then theres the guy who lives downstairs who is nice, laid back, chatty. And finally the oldest guy here who is only here mon-thurs and goes sumwhere else on weekends. They are all nice tho, and yeah, thats that.

Anyways, it is 8.24am here, and it doesn't look like I am going to get a fone call to work today, so I might see where I can go to today. Might go to Wales for a bit of an explore.

Friday, September 01, 2006

my new box

ok, it has only taken me 5 hours, including a trip to ikea, and tescos, and i still need to get more storage, BUT i am moved in to the new place. turns out the only other girl here is leaving at the end of this month, and hopefully they will get another girl, otherwise it'll me and 5 guys. anyways.... here is a picture of my new room...

The brown bit in the left corner ^ is a wardrobe, its about 1 mtr wide, if that, and the thing my laptop is on is a bedside table. that is the whole room. HUGE isnt it? there's a free cupboard in the kitchen, and apparently if such a thing happens i should grab it, so i'm gonna go shopping tomorrow to get sumthings to put in it! :P