Raych's ramblings

Wedding pics

2007-11-19T18:58:00.000Z

G'day

2007-08-03T20:34:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I am back in Australia. The flight back was horrendous for the usual reasons- lack of leg room, completely full flight, almost no sleep (4 very disturbed hours in about 50hrs by the time i got to sleep on wed night), screaming children, inconsiderate people knocking me every time they walked past. But yes, I am back. And I thought I did quite well on the jet lag front. Held off until 6pm wed night, then crashed for 11 hours. Have been good the last 2 days, but it is now 5.30am and I have been up for 2 hours, after only 4 hours sleep, so maybe not!

It feels sort of surreal being back. In some ways, like I never left, but at the same time, like I am just on another trip. The emotional rollercoaster of the last year has sort of caught up with me and everything is making me either stupidly happy, or pathetically sooky. I think cos I couldn't do it and think about it too much at the same time, now I am home it has all caught up with me. Plus I am trying to work out the daunting prospect of what to do with my life now! Because there are so many options. So I am thinking I will take an easy option while I re-assess where I am, and what I really wanna do and those important things.

Ernie remembered me. He went absolutely mental when I got in to see him, clawing at me and licking me, and took about 30mins to settle down a bit. I am going to slowly integrate him into moving over here, so everyone involved copes better.

Ok, so, now for the list of facts and figures I have collected over the last year...

Schools taught in- 50 (+1 as helper)

Number of children taught- 2000ish

Number of countries visited- 12 (13 if you include the Vatican City as one)

Number of cities visited- 40ish

Number of miles driven- 14,900 (so close to 15,000! That's nearly 24,000km)

Number of miles flown- 42,000ish (if u exclude the syd/london flights, I drove almost the same as I flew!)

Number of housemates in Bristol- 9(across the 10months I was there)

Number of beds slept in- 22

Fave city- Prague

Least fave city- Calais!

Fave accommodation- The hotel in Neuschwanstein in Germany, between the 2 castles.

Least fave accommodation- such a hard choice! So many to chose from! Bunks suck! Umm.. the hotel in Paris where I got ravaged my bedbugs!

I have had the most amazing year, and still not all of it has sunk in, and I'm sure I will be looking back on it for a very long time remembering things that happened. Not all of it was great, but all of it created the experience, so I wouldn't change any of it (except the bedbugs). I met some great people. It was really good to get to know family better, and be included in their traditions and things that I normally miss out on. I am still processing a lot of it, and I'm sure I will do that even more when i sort through ALL the stuff I brought back, clothes, souveneirs, thousands of leaflets/business cards/postcards/wrappers etc for scrapbooking the whole trip. So yeah, I am very glad I bit the bullet and did it, but I also realised a couple of things about me. The main one being I am definitely a plan/structure/organised/continuity type person and although it was all great, I can't live like that very long. Not knowing what I am doing the next day, ALL the time. Whether it was work, or travelling, or with the rellies, or whatever, my whole year was decided pretty much on a day-to-day basis, and ANYONE who knows me, knows that is very stressful for me! So now I need to try and rebuild structure into my life. I know I want to travel more, and there was the plan to do what I just did around oz, but I think I might have a complete emotional breakdown, so I will see how things pan out, but I might just do little trips here and there and get a proper job. We'll see what happens!

Well, that ends the year that has been my foray into the deep unknown that is the Northern Hemisphere! And thus ends the need for this blog! I will leave you now, and say thankyou to everyone who kept in contact with me while I was away, and for making me feel included still, from the other side of the world. BYEEE!

I SAW NESSIE!!!

2007-07-24T08:31:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I went to Scotland, and had a fluke with getting good weather, while England got flooded! So I timed that right! Here's my adventures...
17/7- I got the train to Birmingham airport and (eventually, after about an hour's delay, with us sitting on the plane waiting for cleaning crew) flew to Edinburgh. It was rather cloudy and threatening rain when I got in at 4pmish. I walked to my hostel I stayed in the first night, which was right behind Edinburgh Castle, in a converted old apartment building, with amazing murals on walls and stuff. (thats the sign for my hostel)

Then I checked in, dumped my stuff and went out to get on the open top bus, in the few hours of daylight I had in Edinburgh. Just as my loop was coming to a close it started to lightly rain. It was a rather small city, and I'm glad I did the loop, cos most of it was interesting to see, but I wasn't compelled to get off and go into anywhere, so I didn't feel I was missing anything. By this time it was 7ish so I headed back to the hostel and got myself sorted for the next night. It was a 16 bed room! With most of the people in there living there as a base while they did temp work. So everyone knew each other and we're coming and going all night for one of their birthdays.
18/7- I got up and headed to the office of my Haggis tour for 8.30am departure. Our tour guide was Russell, who was slightly mental. He was also the driver, which made it an interesting 3 days. The bus was a little yellow bus, and my knees were well and truly wedged into the seat in front for the first day, so much so that I my left knee is still bruised and tender. The first place we stopped off at was the William Wallace monument (which involved a rushed walk up a steep hill). There we got the story from Russell about the battle that Braveheart kind of is based on, except he told us that there was a bridge there, so without the bridge, they would never have won, yet the bridge wasn't mentioned in the movie.
Then from there we went to see Hamish, the Highland Coo. He is quite famous and people stop and feed him apples and carrots.
From here we drove to a place called "The Green Welly" which is a services with a cafe and stuff. Russell introduced the Scottish game, whereby we could earn points for doing certain things. The first available points were for having Cullen Skink which was a fishy soup that they had in the Cafe, and to have Irn-Bru to drink. So I earned my first 40,000 points, on the way to the million points he set the target at. The soup was ICKY but the Irn-Bru tasted like creaming soda a bit.
From here we heard all about Rob Roy McGregor as we travelled along to Glencoe, which translated to Valley of the Tears, as when it rains all the water runs down off the hills and it looks like tears. This was the spot of another battle, with the Cambells, so we heard all about that from Russell. Next we drove up to Fort Augustus where we were staying the night. On the way we were lucky enough to see the peak of Ben Nevis, which is apparently only visible 40 days a year, as usually it is cloudy or misty. So we were starting to get good weather.
Then when we arrived in Fort Augustus, which is on the banks of Loch Ness, and once checked in we went to the Clansman Centre where we got a show about the old way of life in the Scottish Highlands and how to put on a traditional kilt. Then we went back to the Hostel, and had dinner, where I tried haggis, as it was one of the toppings for the baked potatoes, and then we went on a cruise on Loch Ness with a guy who is employed by MIT to monitor the Loch and track the "monsters". He has thousands of pounds worth of sonar equipment etc on the boat. I kind of believe there is SOMETHING there, but not that it is a monster! He said they believe there are 18 of them, and they are left over dinosaurs. We got to see an image of the sonar equipment picking up a large object only 1 week earlier. Then we went over the road to the pub where we listened to a local musician and chatted, then I went to bed when some more lightweights gave up at 10.30pm. 19/7- I managed to get a front seat so no more leg pain! YAY ME! And the weather was amazing, the grey skies had gone and it was actually sunny! In Scotland! We drove up past several Lochs on our adventure to the Isle of Skye. We stopped off to take a photo of one, called Loch Garry which is nicknamed Scotland's Loch as it looks a bit like a map of Scotland. Next stop was Eilean Donan which is the castle that is used on all adverts and postcards for Scotland. It was picturesque, but not the best castle I have ever seen, as Russell promised us! Then we went over a bridge to the Isle of Skye and drove a little bit around there. Stopping off first of all at a river called Sligachan, which is part of a story as it it meant to make you beautiful. The story is that a beautiful girl was on her way to her wedding and her donkey she was riding got spooked and threw her, so she hit her face and broke her eye socket and her jaw, so when she got to the wedding, to save her clan, she was hideous. Her groom to be pulled up the veil to see what he was going to be marrying, and saw her, and thought her father (who didn't want her to marry this guy) did it to her so he wouldn't marry a pretty girl. So he started attacking everything in sight. She fled, and on the way back a faerie told her to dunk her face in the river for 7 seconds and she would be beautiful again. So she did, and was restored to her beauty. So we all had to dunk our faces in for 7 seconds. I had to do it twice as the girl taking my photo for me missed it! But unfortunately I think the 2nd time undid all the beauty the first dunk gave me! (apologies for my bum) Then we went to Portree for lunch, and then off to Faerie Falls, where we stopped and walked up to the top to fill out drink bottles and drink waterfall! The peat in the ground filters the water. It tasted ok. From there we went to cliffs called Kilt Rock which links to a story of the Giant's Causeway from Ireland. It is called that as the cliff looks pleated, like a kilt. (the one right at the end) Then on the way back we stopped off and went to look at Lealt falls, which was quite pretty, running down to the sea. When we got back to the hostel (same one) we had dinner and then sat around in the hostel bar playing games and singing along to the jukebox. When the karaoke came out, I bailed out, cos I wasn't drunk enough for that! Unlike everyone else who had been doing drinking games for 4 hours. Turns out I missed skinny dipping in Loch Ness and other shenanigans!
20/7- We packed up all our stuff, loaded it onto the bus, and headed off back to Edinburgh. On the way we stopped off at a little "Love Shack" built by a river. Then we stopped to get pictures of Urquhart Castle, which is in ruins, but alongside Loch Ness. Then we drove past the most AMAZING road sign ever in Drumnadrochit.
Next we stopped off at the Culloden battle field and heart all about the terrible battle that took place there. After this we went to the Clava Cairns which are ancient burial chambers, and the best examples of these, that are still fairly well preserved.
We stopped off at Kinguissie for lunch, at a pub called the Tipsy Laird. And then the final stop for the trip was Dunkeld cathedral, where we got a group photo. After this is was back to Edinburgh. I was luck enough that my hostel for the night was literally 10mtrs from where we got dropped off, so I went in, dumped my stuff, and went to get some dinner.
21/7- I got up at 5.45am. Got the bus to the airport at 6.20am. The caught the plane to Birmingham at 8.55am. While I was at the airport I saw news reports about flooding and massive queues on the motorways for 40 miles. So everyone was a bit confused about how to deal with this when we got back. I got there, went to get the train back and no trains were running from Birmingham. So I had to catch a bus to Coventry. Then a bus to Rugby. Then a bus to Northampton. So I finally got back at about 3pm! JOY!
22/7- Happy Birthday to me! It was my b'day. I had most of my rellies on mum's side come over for a BBQ which was nice. It is now my last week in England. And I still have so much stuff to do! I have sold my car. I have got my boxes shipped back. But tomorrow I am off to London to get my ticket sorted to go home. Then Saturday I am in London again to see Sound of Music with my aunt. And now I have to get ready as I am going to spend this afternoon with my cousin.

Woops, been a while!

2007-07-13T18:43:00.000+01:00

Oppsies, didn't realise I hadn't blogged for so long! So, from when I last wrote an entry, I have changed address, now living up in Kettering with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin. It is kind of hectic trying to slow into other people's lives and routines, but they are helping me out a lot by letting me stay here. In return I am playing Cinderella and cooking meals for them and doing little odd jobs to help out.

What else? The first week up here was spent sorting ALL my possessions into piles for taking back, shipping back, giving away, donating to charity, binning. I managed to condense 4 shipping boxes, 2 black bags, 2 suitcases, 1 backpacking pack, 1 carry on case, 3 plastic storage containers and 1 backpack worth of stuff into 3 boxes shipping back, 1 carry on case, 1 suitcase and 1 pack, that I might be able to put inside the suitcase on the big day, as there's not much in it. So I think I did quite well! A lot of the stuff was begged/borrowed when I first moved over here, so that's going back, like quilts and pillows and stuff.

Then on Friday night I went out to the pub with some of my cousin Louise's friends, who are lovely people, even if they did nerd it up a bit and I didn't understand half of the conversations!

Saturday I went to a place called Slimbridge which is a wetland bird sanctuary, with my Aunt and Uncle. There were loads of little baby birds, and the biggest range of ducks I have ever seen! I wasn't sure how interesting it would be, knowing English birds tend to be black or brown or grey, compared to the colourful Aussie birds, but I was quite impressed by it. We had the binoculars and were able to see the kingfisher, which is apparently a rarity. I took some different photos of some of the birds...

This last week I was volunteered to visit and help out at the local village school, so I could see a "nice" school before I went back, with only impressions of inner city Bristol schools. So I went there on Tuesday, and helped out, and ended up doing Wed and Thurs too. The kids were lovely, and the worst child they had there would have been on a par with the best kids in some of the schools I have been too! Yesterday, Thursday, I presented 2 small discussion sessions with the infants and primary sections of the schools, on Australia. Really just a Q&A session. They all had some really good questions, which was better than most of the schools I have been too! The best/most random question was from a kid who was in year 2, who heard me talking about all the desert in the middle of Australia. He put his hand up and said "are there mummies?". Priceless. Then in the primary assembly a boy brought in his didgeridoo and played that, properly, with circular breathing and everything. VERY impressive. I gave the teacher of the class I spent most of the time in my email address so they can email me if they want.

Today I went to the gym with my cousin, on a guest pass, and got out some stress on the treadmill. I am sure I will hurt tomorrow as I haven't gymed in over a year! But I managed to jog, so that was good. Tomorrow is my cousin and her hubby-to-be's housewarming party which I am going to, so that should be good, with her friends I have got to know quite well.

Then next week I am off to my last country before I head home... I'm flying up to Scotland, and have booked into a tour like the one I did in Ireland, on a bus of backpackers going to Ben Nevis and Loch Ness and a couple of other out of the way places, but starting and ending in Edinburgh. So I am looking forward to that.

It's 17 days to go until I get on the plane. I have officially had confirmed by 3 different people that I an definitely going to be leaving on the 30th July, but I have to go into London and have them print out a new ticket for me, and pay a little extra cos tax has gone up and long story, but yeah. I can fax my ticket to them and they will get the new one ready to pick up 4 hours before the flight leaves, and I pay the extra then, but knowing my luck, and the saga that has been me trying to get to go home, it wont be there and they wont let me fly, so I would rather go all the way into London and get it in person! So yeah, looks like I will be doing that in the week after Scotland too. So my 17 days is being filled up rather nicely!

When I get back I think the first thing I do is go to a dentist, cos my wisdom tooth is causing havoc in my mouth, with pressure on other teeth, and I think it is moving a tooth now, cos that tooth, about 3 in from the end has gone red in the gum and sore. I just hope I can last the next 17 days, well 19 by the time I land in oz, without the excruciating pain people talk about, because I don't have the time/money/pain threshold to deal with getting whatever needs to be done done in the next 2.5 weeks. I just can't handle it. So I am trying to ignore it an hope it goes away, which is easier at times, and harder at moment like right now where it is just pushing and I can just feel pressure in my jaw. Not really pain, just pressure. *ignores it*

Ok, well, that's it for now, and I will write more in a week and a bit, when I get back from Scotland. (I am more nervous about going there and not understanding the language, cos at least in Germany, I don't speak German. But Scottish is just such a THICK accent I can't even understand my native language!)

pats self on back

2007-06-29T19:00:00.000+01:00

Well, I have finished teaching in Bristol. I move tomorrow. I only did an afternoon today, in a horrible school, with 1 child I had to get the head to deal with. But it was another new school, so that makes it my 50th school/nursery I have taught in during the last 10 months of being in Bristol. I tried to do some basic calculations, and I figure if I take average class size, and the fact some of those schools I have taught in 5 or 6 different classes, it is probably more than 1500 children I have taught over this time! That's a LOT of children!
I left a book behind at one of the schools, and Select rang me and said could I come in and get it this afternoon. I didn't feel the finality of it, because I wasn't in the same schools with friends and connections for the whole time, so no sense of missing them. However when I got to Select Iain (my go to guy) presented me with a bottle of wine (I know, but it was a nice thought) and a card signed by everyone. He then went on to say he appreciated everything I had done for them this year, and I would be missed (at which point one of the girls who worked there chimed in "Very much so") and he went on to say that several of the schools are already complaining that I am not going to be around anymore. He also said that if I wanted to come back again later to get in touch with them and he could organise sponsorship (which I don't need as I'm British passport-wise) and he said he could get me a job in a school in a heartbeat, and a couple of the schools have already asked for me full-time. So that was nice to hear. And the school I was at on wed/thurs I was talking to the school secretary who said she was going to meet Iain finally as he was coming out that way, she also went on to say when she didn't recognise my name, he sang my praises to her. So that's very nice to here. That's my pat on the back.
I am all packed, pretty much, I am getting my bond back (assuming the room doesn't self-destruct over night) at midday tomorrow, then its bye bye Bristol and Hello Kettering. It still hasn't really hit me how fast things are coming to a close. I have been kind of numb, I think because if I absorb it all I might just become a gibbering mess. I need to go away again. I haven't gone to another country for a month, and I feel bored! Sure I have been to the Lake District for a weekend, and on a Cotswold's tour, but its not the same. I'm still hoping to get to Scotland. Might try and do North Wales too. Man I have the travel bug! My newest crazy hair brain scheme is to get a motor home and me and Ernie travel around Australia teaching in off the beaten track towns through the agency!
Ok, well, I should finish off my last bit of packing and sorting, so I'm ready to load the car tomorrow and flee Bristol.
Oh... and for those who questioned a bunny roundabout.... I managed to get a foto of it... its not great, cos it's hard to take a foto and drive. I tried getting out and walking back to it, but its a big 2 lane roundabout and I couldn't get close enough to it. Its not VERY obvious cos I didn't want to scare them off, so there are red circles around the 4 bunnies....

ITS TOO EARLY!!!!!

2007-06-24T20:18:00.000+01:00

I had a horribly disturbing event occur today... I was brushing my hair in front of the mirror today, when I saw it, sitting there, mocking me, a short, but obviously grey hair. So i pulled it out, and had a bit of a hunt, and in the bit i could see, found 5 more! That's SIX grey hairs! I'm not even 27 yet (July 22nd, will accept both Australian and English money! JUST KIDDING) and I have at least 6 grey hairs! I am going to sue the Bristol education system for doing this to me! All the feral children have made me go grey! *sob*
Anyways, moving along, I went up to my Aunt's this weekend for dropping off some of my many many things to take back. I ended up going out Saturday night with my cousins to one of their friend's places where they were having a bit of a BBQ gathering. It was a good night, in a proper English farm house on a working farm, with tennis courts and stuff! Lah DI dah! God home around midnight. Then today bludged around a bit and then we (Aunt, Uncle, Cousin and I) went out to the pub for a good old Sunday roast. Mmmm. Can't beat a good roast with a Yorkshire pud!
Then I drove home in the on again off again rain we have been having for the last 3 or 4 days and I just put a load of washing on. Its all go go go with me! heheh. I am embarking on my last week in Bristol tomorrow. That means this week will have a lot of LASTS in it for me...
#1- Last band rehearsal
#2- Last time in my shoebox bedroom in my house of men
#3- Last contact with Select and the lovely people at the office there
#4- Last days teaching the little grey hair causing ferals
#5- Last time going round the bunny roundabout
#6- Last time shopping at the local Tesco that has fed me for the last 10 months
#7- Last time having to fight my way across the middle of Bristol to get to work in the morning
#8- Last time making the drive up to my aunt's place from here
#9- Last time listening to the good old Bristol accent
#10- Last time I will see my housemates

Next time I make a post I will be up at my new temporary home for the last month of my stay here... So farewell from Bristol.

emotional overload!

2007-06-21T17:32:00.000+01:00

I have had a rubbish week. I had 2 days at work on Monday and Tuesday at a school in Swindon, which was a lively year 6 class. I went Monday and had to say if I would go back on Tuesday. I told them this, and they all said "why would u come back? no one ever does cos we are horrible!" to which I responded "no, compared to what I'm used to, you are a great class!". Then Wednesday I had HORRIBLE.....HORRIBLE class in St Paul which was year 6 again. They were awful, and the support teacher who is great with them was away, so it was just me, and they were so loud that twice I had teachers from nearby classes come in and pull children out cos they could hear the chaos. They were better in the afternoon, cos they got a lecture from their normal teacher, who was there but doing other stuff, and then we played some games and they had PE. Its amazing, a class that was so horrible inside the classroom and all fought constantly went to play football and were so supportive and such a great team atmosphere. Why can't they do that inside the class?
Then on the way back in there was a full scale riot and I just lost all control of them and their teacher came from the other side of the school, where she could hear them, to deal with them. ARGH! And it was such a bad reflection on the last 2 hours. I left there fighting the urge to cry. It wasn't just the school, it was also the fact that I have so much other stuff going on through my head.
I am glad that my time is coming to a close, because I have had such a chaotic year, and for someone who is such a planner, to the point I booked my ticket to come over 8months before I left, the last minute-ness of this last year work and travel wise has been chaos. I am also going to miss it, because I have had such an amazing year. I am looking forward to going home because I have missed family/friends/dog but I am going to miss the family from over here I have gotten to know better. I am also nervous about going back and starting afresh because I don't want to rush into a job, and the options are endless, so yeah. Its all getting a bit much for my brain to handle, as I am drawn with excitement and sadness, and I have to work with feral children who push me over the edge!
And the worst thing is... I have to go back to the HORRIBLE school again tomorrow. My school today was a good one, for me. They were a bit loud, and I had one argument about seat swapping and one or two whinges, but they did some great work. It was just for this afternoon, and was a fair way out, but I was told they asked me because they had just signed this school and wanted to make a good impression so they wanted to send a good teacher. That was nice to hear, that they considered me a good teacher.
I haven't been anywhere, and am off to my Aunt's this weekend to drop off some more of my stuff, because I have realised that I can't fit it in my car all in one go. So that's the highlight of my week. Not a lot else to bang on about now, so I will find something else to do now. Ciao.

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail

2007-06-17T00:50:00.000+01:00

Well, I finally have time to write about last weekend's adventures in the lake district.

8/6- I drove up on friday after 1/2 a day working at my favourite school in the morning. The drive took me from 1pm to 6.30pm and was a crawl from Bristol to Blackpool, with an average speed of about 20mph, when the limit is 70. Many times we actually ground to a halt! So, when I finally got to my B&B I was staying in in Keswick I checked in then I got shown a route to the nearest lake, which I walked down to and sat there for a while watching the sun glinting on the water. (Side note: luckily someone else said the name of the town first, as I would have embarrassed myself calling it kes-wick when it is pronounced kessick). It was so unspoilt and picturesque. I noticed that about the whole of the area, there was almost no trash just left anywhere, it was looked after, cared for, despite the number of tourists going through.

Then I went back to my room and fell fast asleep.

9/6- The next morning I went down for my brekky, met Merlin, the resident dog, and got shown a walk of the easiest Fell. This is what they call the many mountains they have up there... fells. The local one, and a reasonable small one was Latrigg. The guide said it was walking 6 miles up 1000ft and should take 3 hours. So I set off. It was a warm day and I had to buy a rather unstylish hat from the market in the town square so I didn't get burnt, and some sunscreen.

The first part almost killed me. Once I got to the fell the first part is very steep and I had to stop and get out my inhaler as the incline and the humidity was just messing with my breathing. So I had that, then I sat down for a little bit to try and stop my heart beating so fast and so strong it had flooded my head too. Then I set off again and finally you get to a section where you can keep going up the 5th highest fell in the lake district, or you can turn off for Latrigg. I turned off. You then zig zag up a much more do-able slope until you reach the top where there are some amazing views. You actually walk through sheep fields and have to walk through lots of gates etc. On the way down from there it got to a part that was gravel and downhill. Knowing my knees I slowly and carefully went down the path, ensuring each foot was secure before I placed all my weight on it to take a step. I had been going down this path for a couple of minutes, steadily and carefully and had about 3 more steps before I came to the fence that marked the end of the field with the path, and an actual road. There was a stile going over the fence which the couple in front had climbed over, and they were stopped waiting for me. When I was 3 more steps to go, she said "we can open the gate from this side, would you like me to open the gate?" so I didn't have to climb over. So I looked at her and said yes, and in doing so stopped concentrating on my steps and went BANG down onto my right hip/thigh. Thanks to the stones, I didn't get one flat bruise, I got about 4 large welts that came up immediately as I landed on 4 stones. So... I fell on a fell. *sigh*

Then from there it went on a bit of a marathon path through the woods, which I started to regret as it was narrow paths with loose stones and dirt and sheer drops down the side of the fell if u slipped. But some of the up was so steep I couldn't bear turning around and going back down them! It was so deep in the woods that I went to walk over a little bridge and a red squirrel came to cross the path, saw me and ran up a tree. The red squirrels are very rare as the grey squirrel has almost wiped them out, and greys are pests.

So I plodded on and got down the bottom to where there was a river, so I sat there for a while and cooled down, then headed off again. I finally got back to town about 3.25 hours after i set off,and I had about 25 minutes of breaks along the way, so that means I did it in just under 3 hours. So yay me! On the way down the path 2 ladies in little lycra numbers RAN past me. Freaks! Then when I got back I grabbed a bread roll and went to sit down by the lake again, getting my normal colour back in my cheeks. It must have been about 25'C which I have acclimatised myself to finding hot now.

10/6- This was my Beatrix Potter day. I checked out of the B&B and put my stuff in the car, then was picked up by Colin for a personal guided tour. I was the only person on the tour. Colin and I got along very well which was good. Chatted all the way. He runs the company with his wife, although she does more of the office stuff as they have a new baby. Anyways, yes, so we went off to see a couple of the sites from different stories. I must admit I am not a huge Beatrix Potter fan and haven't read most of the stories in such a long time I forget what they are about, but it was more just nice areas of the Lake District. I went on a boat down the lake to see it from the water, then met back up with Colin who took me to a place called the Drunken Duck Inn for lunch. Then we went to Beatrix Potter's house, which was quite small and had a gorgeous English country garden. Then from there we went to see her studio which was very creaky and old and I thought I was going to fall through the floor to downstairs! Then on the way back we had time to swing by Castlerigg stone circle, which I had mentioned I hadn't seen but wanted to, which is a massive stone circle, and it heaps older than Stonehenge and no one knows what it was used for, or why. It is an amazing place because you can see all around as it is on top of a fell.

Then we went back to the B&B where I got back in my car and drove to my aunt's place where I stayed the night. I was so sore and stiff from my walk the day before and sitting around all that day, and in the car, that I couldn't bear getting up at 4.45am Monday to go to work, so I rang in and told them I wasn't available. Ummah, I know, but i was exhausted. So then I drove down the rest on Monday, having done a grand total of 655miles in the weekend... or 1054km.

I had a lovely class on Tues/Wed/Thurs. They were lively, but proper lively, not "lively" like the others they send me too. I really enjoyed it. Still teachers who are used to proper sit down do your work schools would have struggled with this class, but I found it a relief from the usual dramas! Then yesterday I had a reception class at a bad school. One of the boys drove me mental which his constant whinging about everything. "They are all being selfish to me!" So I told him to not use words he didn't know what they meant. And his breath stank cos instead of teeth he had little rotting black sticks in his mouth probably rarely brushed and fed very poor diet. *shudder*.

Tonight I had a band gig at a village in the middle of no where's wine and cheese quiz night. Apparently they go every year. It was fun, we play, then we go and have wine and cheese and do the quizzes too, then we play again, bu which time people are better lubricated, so they sing along. And we played Tequila and the audience all get percussion bits and pieces to play too during the piece. And it just goes downhill from there. It was a good night, but a tiring night as it started at 8 and didn't finish til 11.30 and by the time I got home etc. It is now 1.35am and I just have to finish this then I am going to bed. *YAWN*

Competition results

2007-06-14T20:06:00.000+01:00

I will be doing a proper blog on the weekend of my trip to the Lake District however I remembered I didn't post the answers to my last quiz. Well.... there were 2 winners.... each with a dismal 2 answers right, however one of them was my mum, and she is already getting goodies when i get back, so I went with the other winner, Vegie!

So... heres the full pictures the little bits were from, or in 1 case, the zoom in of one of them.

Cotton Bales- Ivory Coast

White Corn stock- Kenya

Rugs stall- Marrakech

Flamingos on Lake Nakuru- Kenya

Tea Harvesting - Kenya

Appologies for the reflections but they were all behind perspex. If u look at the rug one, underneath the lap reflection is a little white thing... it is a person walking across the rugs, for some perspective. There are more obvious people in all the others, except the flamingo one.

Cotswoldians

2007-06-05T19:11:00.000+01:00

Ok. First of all let me say that 2 people have 2 right with the quiz. I am leaving it running for another few days in the hopes I get some more answers that I can hopefully get someone gets 3 so I don't have to worry about a 2nd prize!

BIG news... I will be leaving on the 30th July. Its official. I have a return date! Woot! Finally! Its a bit of a saga of how/why but I am definitely coming home on the 30th July. Yay! i feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted off my shoulders, cos not having a confirmed return date affected so much, and was causing more stress than the last 10 months combined! so now its is only 54 days to go!

Ok, so, I went to the Costwolds on Sunday. I woke up to find the sun trying desperately to wriggle its way through the clouds. It did manage to do this, and we had a reasonably pleasant day, until the return journey back to Bath when the sun lost it's battle and was overcome by the clouds and then as a victory sign, the clouds released rain. But I had seen the Costwolds and was heading back, so I didn't care!

Cotswolds are meant to be one of the most beautiful places in England. Famous people have weekend houses there, famous actors etc holiday there, Prince Charles has his house there, when he isn't in London. The term Cotswolds comes from the break down of Wolds... meaning undulating hills. And Cots being a farmer who one lived on the region. Many many years ago.

Well the first place we got to was Castle Combe. Combe means narrow valley. And it was winding down a little narrow road to get there. It was odd because there was a gorgeous wood alongside the road, but growing in the woods was wild garlic, so the whole village smelt of garlic. I suppose that would take some getting used to. Castle is because there used to be a Castle, but it fell down and went to ruin, and a Manor house was built instead, which has since been turned into a hotel, as many of them have. Michelle Pfieffer has stayed there.

There was a market cross, because it used to be a market town, and there is a nice little church.

From there we went to Badminton. The Manor house in Badminton is still a functioning manor house, and Lord Beauford who lives in the manor owns about 98% of the houses in the village and leases them out. As such he gets to pick the colour of the guttering etc, as their landlord, so they all have hideous goldy/yellow/caramel coloured drainpipes!! (photo from inside coach so has UV greening)Apparently he is one of the few lords of the manor who don't have to open their homes to the public to help subsidise the upkeep, because he is loaded. A fine art dealer apparently, who is friends with many celebrities.

Random fact #1: Badminton is called such because it was invented in the manor house, back in the day when guests would amuse themselves on rainy days with indoor tennis in the hall. The owner was fed up with the damage to his paintings that he invented the shuttlecock. And all badminton courts are now the exact size of the manor house's main hall, and the nets are the height of the mantles inside.

From here it was on to Bibury which is a trout farming town. We stopped for a drink, then went for a short walk on the Rake Isle which is between the river and the mill stream, and (random fact #2) it called Rake Isle because it is where the sheep fleeces were hung to dry, on Rakes, and they were hung up using tenter hooks. We walked past Arlington Row which is said to be the most photographed row of houses in Britain... so I had to take a photo!

We then walked back around up past the river where there a couple of wild trout swimming, eating the bread the ducks don't get. Further up the river, just across the next road was the Trout farm where you could go an catch your own trout to take home. Apparently people buy trout to stock their local rivers from there as it is that large and successful! And further up by the bridge back onto the Isle was a mummy and daddy swan and some baby cygnets. As per usual, the mum was looking after the kids while the dad was getting hand fed bread! From here we went to Stow-on-the-Wold where we stopped for lunch. It isn't anything special because it is a more developed town, with a YHA and banks and mini supermarket and stuff. Stow means Sacred Place apparently.

Then we went to the Slaughters. As graphic as it sounds, slaughter means muddy place. We drove through lower slaughter, to Upper Slaughter. Then we got out, walks a little loop of the village which had some absolutely gorgeous sights in it.

Then the coach driver/guide sent us off on a walk through fields and stuff to get to Lower Slaughter where he met us. Then we had the opportunity to have an icecream if we wanted, which I didn't bring my money for... shame... cos they had very random flavours!!! There was also a little antique shop that had a row of ornamental staddles. Random Fact #3: these were used to store grain barrels on so that they were above ground and not getting wet. 4 of them were placed on the ground, and a wooden board was put down and the barrels placed on top. They are shaped as they are because it was impossible for mice to climb them. They are now sought after garden ornaments and some houses have the originals, while others buy new ones which as you can see, are made for any size garden. But the original ones were only the giant size. That was the last stop, then we got back on the coach and drove back into bath, past the outside gate to Prince Charles' house, which you wouldn't know was there if it wasn't pointed out as it is completely hidden away and not marked at all. It was a good day, very informative, and now I can say I have done the Cotswolds. Even if that was only a beginners guide to them. I got a sense of them.

It has been glorious weather the last 2 days. Today was about 22/23'C weather wise, but in the sun was up to about 30'C. I was working just the afternoon in a nursery that has very poor ventilation so I was rather warm! Hopefully it stays like this for the weekend when I am off to the Lake District for 2 days/3 nights. *fingers crossed* I am still getting used to the sunshine, and the daylight hours! It is currently 8pm. This what it looks like out my window...

Hello/Hallo/Bonjour

2007-06-01T17:35:00.000+01:00

Ok, so, I am back from my ... eventful... 6 days going to London then on to Brussels, where 3/4 speak French and 1/4 speak Flemmish (Dutch) hence my multi-lingual title for this post! So... here goes:

26/5- I got up at 6am, showered and dressed and went downstairs to meet to taxi I had booked for 6.30. The taxi driver was a nice enough man, and he drove me into the city, where not long after my Megabus arrived. There were lots of football fans around, as I soon found out the Bristol Rovers were playing in some league final at the new Wembley stadium and if they won they went up a division. As i was standing there in the queue I looked at my reservation print out and noticed it said Monday 28th May. Which was of course in 2 days time. So I calmly showed it to the man hoping he would let me on and not notice. He did notice, and said they already had 2 coaches instead of one and had 117 people booked on for the trip cos of the football. He suggested I ring the office and try and get on the next one. So, tired, I welled up and struggled to hold it all together cos it was ok, I would just ring and the people in the office would help me get to London in time for my show. So I went to get my mobile out... but it wasn't there. It was sitting on my bed where I had last had it. At this point I had a good old cry, cos I was stranded in the middle of Bristol. The information place didn't open til 8.30am. The offices for Megabus didn't open til 8am. I finally rang the megabus on a payphone and the only bus was midday, which was too late. So I waited for the info place to open, and when I told her she said she wasn't even going to look cos there would be no other coaches going out of Bristol to London. I said what about trains, and she said I could try but wasn't too sure how I would get on. So I walked to the station and they were selling tickets outside it was so busy inside, and they had even put on extra trains. I managed to get one. £48 versus the £4 I have paid for the bus. But I was on my way, on a crowded train full of singing football supporters who were already drinking at 9am. When I got to Piccadilly station I then had to get on the underground to Victoria, walk to my hostel, dump my bag, get back on the underground and head to the stop near the Aldwych Theatre. The weather was slowly but surely getting greyer and greyer and threatening to rain. I queued for my side entrance door to open and climbed the stairs to the nose bleed section of the theatre, designed for bums from the 1920's, so it was a tight squeeze for everyone. But Dirty Dancing was AMAZING!! Very true to the film, great singing, great dancing, and the guy who played Johnny.... *drool*! There were several hens do's out watching it and they all cheered when he came on, and screamed when he took his shirt off, and several were fanning themselves with their programmes whenever he was on the stage. Anyways, when I came out it was starting to sprinkle with rain, so I went back to the underground, back to the hostel, up the 91 stairs to my room, and bunked down there for the night. On the top bunk. Joy. The most random thing in the hostel... There was a shower in the room... with just a glass door with a bit of frosted glass in the middle. Interesting. I didn't use it... I showered in the share with everyone in the building showers down the hall.

27/5- I got up to find it was... raining!!! Yay! For my London Eye experience. And as I got closer and closer the rain got heavier and heavier and the visibility got worse and worse. GRRR! It was a good experience, I can tick it off the list, but the rain was pouring down the glass so you couldn't see much, and then the rain made it hard to see far anyways. So I ended up with lots of tragic photos.

After I went on the ferry ride which was good, informative, you got to find out about the different bridges and some of the other sights along the river and the history of the Thames areas.

Then I had lunch at a Chinese buffet called Chopstix and caught the tube to Hamleys. the toy store with 7 floors. I had never heard of this before (of if I had it was blocked from memory) which is sad, because I was a bit too old for it this time! People were going crazy buying everything, like they don't sell toys in their home countries! I bought myself a Hamley's bear. I have named him... wait for it... Hamlet. Cos he's little and from Hamleys! HAHA. I know, I'm hilarious! From there I went back on the tube and across to Kightbridge station where one can find the illustrious Harrods, which only opened at 12 on Sundays, and it was only 1pm, so it was a scooch crowded, especially because of the slightly less rainy but still misty weather. I walked around a little bit, went into the souvenirs and cos I was too poor this time decided I would go back next time I am in London, however I did go into the food hall and bought myself a slice of £1 banana cake so I could get a bag. I queued for 25 minutes for it! But it was probably the cheapest thing you could get in order to get a bag!

I had a whim to take myself to go and see Wimbledon. Just to say I had. So I caught the tube to Wimbledon station. There were no signs to the tennis centre, only the lawn tennis museum, so I went back on and got off at the next station, Wimbledon Park. There was a sign that said to get to Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Centre to follow the signs for the Gold Ring or something like that Walk. So I followed and followed and go myself nowhere, other than tired, exhausted and with the feeling of being crushed into the ground by my backpack. Which was only my day pack! So i stopped under a tree, where it wasn't too misty and had my banana cake, to lighten the load, and then drank my drinks to lighten the road some more. At this point I decided Wimbledon Arena was a national secret and they didn't want you to find it so I went back to the station and caught the next train to head back, after over and hour of walking pointlessly. Then as we approach the next station, Southfields, it says on the announcements "alight here for Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Centre" which I did, and it was about a 25 minute walk but I eventually found it. Shut of course, but I made it! So I took a photo and went back. Guess what, if I had gone the other way following the ring signs at Wimbledon Park I would have found it and guess what it was right next to? The lawn Tennis Museum!!! ARGH!!! Walking back to the station I found a phone on the floor. It was broken. I picked it up, put it back together and went through the contacts to find "Dad" who I rang. Turns out "dad" was in South Africa but it was his daughters phone and he tried to help me get it back to her, but in calling him i used up her left over credit, and i didn't have my phone. So I walked along with it, and eventually one of her friends rang it, and turns out the owner was in London for the weekend. So I arranged to meet her at the underground station near my hostel, and she travelled 45 mins to come get her phone. So that was my good deed for the day. Then I went back and went to sleep.

28/5- I got up, packed, checked out, got on the underground, went out on the new Jubilee line to the stop next to the Millennium Dome, took a photo, and got back into the train and went to Heathrow Airport. I was there too early, but didn't have anything else I wanted to do in the rain and cold... highs of 10'C!! Bring on Summer! I was going to go to Malaysian Airlines to work out my return ticket but I didn't realise it was a public holiday, so they would have been shut. It dawned on me that if I could reclaim my time spent sitting in airports during the last 12 months I could get like another 15 hours at least! Finally I checked in, and the plane... oh wow... I should fly from Heathrow on proper international flights more often! It had room. Leg room. Bum room. It was great!! So I flew into Brussels, caught a train to the North Station and walked in the gloom to my hostel, where I decided I would just stay for the rest of the day as it was already like 6pm. There were bastard children (10 yr old boys) running around the place, as it was one of those big family/school group friendly hostels, not just a backpackers. I had to yell at them at one point cos they were rolling a ball down the hall to bounce off their door, which was right next to my door, and it was SO annoying! So then they went inside and bounced it against the adjoining wall instead. MUCH better! I was assigned the top bunk, even tho no one else was in there, but there was more light up there and head room, so I sacrificed my knees again and made the climb up and down. I went to bed alone, and woke up alone, however there was evidence that 2 other people had used the room during the night.

29/5- I got showered and dressed and went off to catch the open top bus tour. It was still looking like it could rain at any minute so I went for waterproof instead of warmth, and that was a bad choice as it was freezing! I got off to see the Opera, which is modelled off the Opera House in Paris. I went from there around the corner to the Mannequin Pis. I learnt that he has over 100 different outfits made for him for special occasions! Then I got back on the bus and went to the Courts of Justice which are massive, but covered in scaffolding during renovations (like most important buildings I have seen). There is a good view of the city as that is the highest point. You can even see the Atomium, which I got off and took a photo of, while on the bus tour. It was built for the world trade fair, and it supposed to symbolise an atom, made up of 9 nuclei which represent the then 9 regions of Belgium. It is massive! Apparently you can climb it and there is a restaurant up one of the balls. I walked back down the street to a very pretty cathedral, however inside about 70% is boarded up for renovation. Then down from there is the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) which is in an old art deco style building that used to be a hotel. I paid €5 for my tour where you get headphones and when you stand in front of a display of instruments you hear some piece that focuses on that instrument either as a solo or an ensemble of brass etc. There were some very nice pieces, and some interesting ones, like an ocarina and drum concerto. Some were oriental instruments. There was no clarinet music, just old clarinets showing their development. I had to run by the bagpipes display because the music was awful! it hurt my ears! From there I walked down the hill and through a park, where there are very nice views from the top. The blue sky was trying very hard to come out at this stage. Then I walked down in the general direction of the Hostel, and stumbled on the Grande Place which was an amazing square of old buildings.

My random thing that made me smile was that most of the little streets are cobbled, and where the zebra crossings are, instead of painting them on, like every other city has done, they have cobbled them in too using white marble stones! It was just a nice touch.

30/5- I woke up at 8.45am after spending another nights on my own, to discover glorious sunshine outside. I showered, packed, checked out, walked to the new hotel, cos the hostel was booked for the 3rd night, and dumped my bag then set off. I walked through the Grand Place again, where I bought myself a Belgian Waffle for breakfast. While I ate that I looked at the map to see what I was near and what I could do for free, as I was on a rather tight budget and had done the things I could afford to do the day before. I walked up the hill through where the amazing view was, past the MIM and up to the Place Royale which is guarded by a giant horse statue. It is where the King resides when he is in town, and the flag was flying, which meant he was home! Opposite his palace is the Parc de Bruxelles which had a really nice photo expo running up and down each side of one of the perimeter fences. Through the park is a fountain and opposite was the Palais de la Nation. I walked up and around the block and discovered the Palais des Academies which houses 5 of Belgium's 7 academies (e.g. medicine/ fine arts/ military etc). I then walked down the Boulevard de Waterloo, which is a massive street designed to reflect the boulevards of Paris. I then got some lunch and walked to the Petit S'Ablon park which has 48 statues of tradesmen on pillars around the outside, representing the 48 trades that were acknowledged in the guild. I then ended up outside the Museum of Fine Arts which is near the big horse statue, completing my big loop. I worked out a loop past a church and to the botanical gardens before heading back to the hotel. I was amazed to discover I timed something right, walking into the Cathedral just as the 2pm bells were chiming, and being handed a flyer because there was a free concert starting at 2pm from a group called the Oakville Singers where were touring, from Worcestershire! So I sat and listened to them sing for 90 minutes, then walked nearby to the Place de Congress where there is an obelisk guarded by 2 large lion statues who protect it and an eternal flame. From there I headed up to the botanical gardens, which are pretty, but not very serene, as they are RIGHT next to 2 of the biggest roads surrounding Brussels. It was then cloudy and starting to rain so I headed back to the hotel, checked in and headed to my room. The room was ok. It was a first for me... it had a mirrored ceiling! Random!

31/5- It was sunny first thing but quickly started to turn cloudy again. I had my complimentary bread roll and danish, then headed on foot to the Station. There I got hit on by some creepy man who wanted money for a ticket, then when I said I didn't have any he started to rub my back and tell me I was beautiful. So I politely told him to leave me alone and made big gestures so the rail guard came over and the guy left. Then caught the train to the Airport. Then the Plane to Heathrow. Then the underground to Victoria. Then the megabus coach to Bristol. Then a taxi to home. What a lot of different types of transport!

So overall views...

London: I remember being crowded, big, unfriendly and rude. This time it was still crowded, with so many tourists just stopping to see something despite the fact there are like 300 people walking on the same footpath. It is still big. I did see some acts of kindness and niceness though, so I think I am not so sure on the rudeness. I know I definitely couldn't live there though. I'm glad I didn't do the usual tourist things, cos I think I have done them to death, and I was doing some off the beaten track stuff, which when I see on TV now I can say "I've been there".

Brussels: I'm glad i didn't have longer than my 2 full days there. It is a nice little city, but it is VERY little. You can walk everywhere, and it doesn't have a great deal of history/heritage so there is only so much you can see/do that is Brussels-specific without going into museums etc which I am so bored with. And as for the Chocolate. They charge a fortune for stuff you can buy in Coles. Guillyan, Cote D'Or etc. I bought one bar I hadn't heard of before, and it wasn't anything special. Oh... and they sure do like their statues!

My quiz for this post is a bit different. I took some photos of the photos in the expo and you need to guess what they are pictures of. They are either sections of, or the whole, whichever makes it harder to guess. Good luck!

1...............2....................3....................4....................5

Appologies for the picture quality, but when I stitched them together I couldn't be botheredgoing back and playing with the size. Makes it more of a challenge! It was a world/culture/environement expo if that helps!

Answers

2007-05-19T12:03:00.000+01:00

the answers to my super hard quiz are...
Q1: In Nuremburg Hitler planned to build a second, larger rally ground before his plans were halted due to the war. Work had already begun and the commenced site has been turned into...?C) a lake
Q2: King Ludwig II didn't like flags so when he was in residence at Linderhof Castle he had his staff put 2 life size brass and enamel WHAT out the front of the doorway instead...?
A) Peacocks
Q3: In Rothenburg in the 13th century the citizens of each house were legally required to store enough what to last their household an entire year...?
D) Grains
Q4: In the early days of santa claus he used to have a companion travel with him who was...?
B) his opposite (there was an evil santa who ate the bad kids!)
Q5: In Frankfurt there is an area of town called Museumsufer and the city has 34 museums. Which of the following is NOT a museum found in Frankfurt...?
B) Ballet Museum
Q6: In Cologne there is a railway bridge that goes over the river and into the hauptbahnof (main station) and from (u can see it in foto below). How many trains go over this bridge each day?
B) 14,000
Q7: Cologne Cathedral is the 2nd largest in Europe. Its relics bring people from all over the world to visit it. How many people visit the cathedral every day?
A) 15,000
Q8: In the Hannover town hall you travel in a lift to the 3rd floor, then get in another lift which takes you to the top of the tower. This lift shares something with only one other lift in the world, the lift in the eiffel tower. What is it?
C) travels on an angle
Q9: Liverpool is famous for being the biggest trader in Europ of what in the 1740's?
D) Slaves
Q10: Between 1896 and 1956 Liverpool had WHAT that was the first of it's kind in the world when it was built?
A) Elevated railway
And the winner is.... *drumroll* Alan with 5/10.
I have had a rather stressed out week. Horrible kids, one of whom I am concerned about and have to speak to someone when i get back next week. But other than that I am still plodding on. Got my band concert tonight, in a church, which should be interesting, cos the rehearsal as there on wednesday and it sounds not quite good. I have to make a chart today for the kids i have all next week to try and encourage good behaviour. So thats my weekend plan. Make a chart, band concert, clean the bathroom. If its sunny tomorrow i might go on the bristol open top bus. Get some info on the local area!
I'm just living for next weekend at the moment, when its mid-term holidays, and I get a week off. London, dirty dancing, the london eye, off to belgium, come back, visit from my aunt and uncle, tour to the cotswolds. Its gonna be my last week of madness (that i have booked in at least).
Oh, and on Tuesday I drove all the way up to northampton after work for my cousin's 21st dinner, then slept there and drove back from 5am to be at work at 8.30am. Dinner was at a japanese restaurant, and we had the whole cooked in front of us and thrown at us and stuff.

I have proof

2007-05-14T17:25:00.000+01:00

I have been saying, jokingly, the whole time I have been teaching that they must have my file highlighted for bad schools or something. I know I must have earnt a reputation as being able to survive in these sorts of schools, but I was just joking when I said I was targetted for them. Today I got proof.
I have been working in a school with the worse class in the school (nothing compared to innercity Bristol, but still "lively" as the person I deal with at Select calls them). And I was there Thurs and Fri last week, when they booked me for thisafternoon, and Thurs and Fri this week.
When I left today I got a message saying to ring about work. And he said he has gota different school I havent been to before but the same class for me Tues and Wed this week and all next well. He then went on to explain they mentioned it was a "lively" class, and he said I wasn't available thurs and fri, and they were happy to work around that. That means he must say I am the best person for a lively class, cos they have LOADS of teachers on their books just sitting around waiting for calls, I am already booked, but he reccommends me. Finally, proof that I am their "lively class" go to person!
I am kind of proud of this fact, however I am also a bit confused. Up until September last year the most amount of time I had ever spent teaching in a school was 3 weeks on my 3rd year prac. I am only qualified to teach up to 8 yr olds. I didn't even pass my interview with the Dept of Education when I was in my final year of uni because they said I wasn't what they were looking for. Yet here I am being hand picked to work in the toughest schools with the toughest classes because I don't go home crying at the end of the day, and I don'twalk out at recess because I can't take it.
The confusing bit is, they have people on their books who are semi-retired so doing supply because it doesn't have the stress, who have been teaching locally for 30+ years and some have even been head teachers, yet I am the one they ask. The 26 yr old Aussie girl with no local knowledge and no prior school experience. The only thing I can think of that puts me in this position is that I have 4 years of essentially behaviour guidance learnings from uni, and 4 years experience implementing this, so these "lively" classes are essentially really large 3 yr olds, who talk back and swear!
So yeah, I just wanted to put that in writing, because I think it is quite amazing that little (not that little) old me is their go-to person. I also found out a while back, through talking to other supply people, not everyone is on the guaranteed work scheme, like I am, and they keep offering me. So they obviously want me. Just thought I'd toot my own horn a bit, and share this with whoever reads this, because it has made me feel quite proud of myself. so... TOOT TOOT!

Germany Quiz

2007-05-10T19:49:00.000+01:00

The following is my quiz for the germany/liverpool post, which u can find below this post. As per usual, first correct, or most correct entry wins a prize. And it is fairly good odds considering i usually get about 4 entries!

Q1: In Nuremburg Hitler planned to build a second, larger rally ground before his plans were halted due to the war. Work had already begun and the commenced site has been turned into...?
A) a war memorial B) a museum C) a lake D) office buildings

Q2: King Ludwig II didn't like flags so when he was in residence at Linderhof Castle he had his staff put 2 life size brass and enamel WHAT out the front of the doorway instead...?
A) Peacocks B) Lions C) Eagles D) Dogs

Q3: In Rothenburg in the 13th century the citizens of each house were legally required to store enough what to last their household an entire year...?
A) Potato B) Fresh Water C) Salted meat D) Grains

Q4: In the early days of santa claus he used to have a companion travel with him who was...?
A) his helper B) his opposite C) his wife D) his reindeer

Q5: In Frankfurt there is an area of town called Museumsufer and the city has 34 museums. Which of the following is NOT a museum found in Frankfurt...?
A) Ancient sculpture museum B) Ballet Museum C) Museum of German advertising D) Charlie Chaplin Museum

Q6: In Cologne there is a railway bridge that goes over the river and into the hauptbahnof (main station) and from (u can see it in foto below). How many trains go over this bridge each day?
A) 800 B) 14,000 C) 500 D) 2,000

Q7: Cologne Cathedral is the 2nd largest in Europe. Its relics bring people from all over the world to visit it. How many people visit the cathedral every day?
A) 15,000 B) 5,000 C) 7,500 D) 12,000

Q8: In the Hannover town hall you travel in a lift to the 3rd floor, then get in another lift which takes you to the top of the tower. This lift shares something with only one other lift in the world, the lift in the eiffel tower. What is it?
A) built by the same man B) engineered by the same man C) travels on an angle D) was built as a temporary measure but is still used today

Q9: Liverpool is famous for being the biggest trader in Europ of what in the 1740's?
A) Rice B) Salt C) Cotton D) Slaves

Q10: Between 1896 and 1956 Liverpool had WHAT that was the first of it's kind in the world when it was built?
A) Elevated railway B) Wet dock C) Clock tower D) Library

As usual, email me your guesses and I will let you know the winner. You have until NEXT friday, the 18th. Good Luck!!!

Guten Tag

2007-05-07T20:01:00.000+01:00

Hello! I am back from my adventures in Germany, long and somewhat tiring yet completely amazing as they were. It is gonna be a LONG blog, so I'll jump straight into it...

26/4- I arrive at the Airport in Manchester about 4 hours early, as I was going to have a look at Manchester, but it was too hard to find a park, and I didn't want to get lost, so I gave up. I flew into Hannover, arriving at 10.30ish, getting my pack and catching the train to the main station, or Hauptbahnhof as they call them there, arriving at 11.05pm, when my train came at 11.55pm. This is what I saw of Hannover.

Then I got on my night train, which was an experience. It was ALL boys, sleeping and smelling up the carriage, and snoring. I was worried about falling asleep and missing my stop at Frankfurt and ending up in Zurich, which is where the train was going. That turned out to not be such a problem as I got about 35 mins of sleep in total. When it got to Frankfurt it stopped short, and gave no warning, so I had to shove past all the sleeping bodies, to get to the exit, and when I get there, I literally have to climb down the stairs and jump down the last bit to the ground as the platform was about 5mtrs away, and I was exiting onto the ground. All the time getting yelled at in German by the train guard cos they almost left and I would have still been on the train! Then I got my train to somewhere else... umm... Aschaffnburg and then from there I caught the intercity express to Nuremberg.

27/4- So technically a new day, although I had not had more than 45 mins sleep in the last 25 hours. I arrived at 8am in the brilliant sunshine and went to the hostel where they let me leave my pack, and pay, but obviously the room wasn't able to be checked into yet. Then I headed back into the Hauptbahnhof and found the info place, and got myself on a 2.5 hour coach tour of Nuremberg, seeing where the rallies were held, and the windows of the room where the trials were held, and then we went into the Castle and walked our way down through and to the main square, where we were dumped and left to find our own way back. I was BOILING and my feet really hurt from all the pack carrying, so I found an Australian Gelato place and had one (not really any different to any other Gelato). I went back to the hostel, checked into the room, put on some shorts and a new top (as I had been in the same clothes for 27 hours) and left again to go on the U-bahn (metro) out the a park we saw on the bus tour, with a lake, and I sat out there for a while and went for a walk around the lake. There were signs everywhere with poison skull and cross bones and no swimming pictures, yet there were all these old people in speedos and bikinis *shudder* swimming in the lake!! Then I headed back, got showered and packed my stuff ready for my early start the next day and went to bed at 6pm, after my 35 hour long day!

28/4- I got up at 5 something to head for the station to catch my train to Munich. I slept pretty much straight through the night for 11hrs and didn't notice any of my 5 or 6 roommates come in, let alone the fact when I woke up there was a person above me, so they not only had to get up there, but also make the bed, and I felt nothing!! I arrived at Munich at 7.45 and had to meet my tour opposite the Hauptbahnhof at 8.30am. It was another glorious day and I was even wearing 3/4 length trousers and a singlet! I discovered my 3 day tour wasn't a 3 day tour, it was 3 days of tours/journeys combined randomly. Day 1 was a castles tour out from Munich. We went to Linderhof castle first. It wasn't as much a castle as a large house, that was owned by King Ludwig II.

He was a bit crazy. Like he didn't like to see other people, so he had a winch put in and the floor under his dining table could be wound down, so the servants in the kitchen downstairs could set the table and wind it back upstairs again for each course. Then from there we went to Oberamagau which was the token buying stuff stop,where the tour company gets a cut of the takings. Then we went to a little place in Bavaria that has another King Ludwig II castle and a King Ludwig I castle, a few hotels, a couple of souveneir shops and that's about it. When we got there they said the tour could go and have lunch at this restaurant in a hotel, and they would go check me in. I was staying in the gorgeous place flanked by 2 amazing castles. I could see the pretty castle we did a tour of out my window!!! It said in the room that it was €120 a night! I usually pay €15-€20 a night!! Then once checked in I caught the bus up to the castle Neuschwanstein. It never got finished but the few rooms that did get finished are on show, and they are all based around Wagner's operas, as a whole stage set. Odd. After I had a meal up on top of the hill and then I walked back down and went around the the lake, which was beautiful, so clear and peaceful, and just sat and chilled out in the beautiful sunshine, with the Alps all around. The only downside was the large amount of bugs, that grew as the sun started to disappear closer to 7pm. If it wasn't for that, I could have sat there all evening until the sun set. If I was rich I would like to retire to somewhere like there. Except the tourists all come through and ruin it all. But when they go away, like all their coaches left at about 6pm, it was SOOO peaceful and beautiful. 29/4- I woke up, had my continental breakfast, then was to meet someone from the hotel who would take me to the bus stop where I would catch the bus up the romantic road. This bus actually goes every day either up or down the romantic road, so they cross at some point, then they go the other way the next day. We did make a couple of short stops to get off an use the bathroom etc. It was me and a Japanese couple for almost all of the trip. The first place we stopped at was not far away, called Wieskirche where there is a pretty church. However it was Sunday, so there was mass. Then we went to a couple more places, Nordlingen, then Dinkelsbuhl, eventually ending up at Rothenburg ob der Tauber where I was met by a taxi and taken to my hotel/guesthouse. I dumped my stuff and went out to explore, grabbing a small dinner. They have these things in Rothenburg called Schneeballen which seem to be native only to there. They are like biscuit scraps that are then put in a special mould and cooked to make them go into a ball. Eating them is like eating a 3D puzzle, as you need to work out where to take the next bit. It wasn't very nice though. Then I went on a Nightwatchman tour that I got a free ticket to as part of my "3 day tour".

It was good as he gave some of the historical stuff, and most of it was stories rather than facts and figures. He was funny too. Then I went back to the hotel, at 9.25, and it was all locked up so I had to use my key to let myself in the back door and then up to my room!

30/4- I got up the next morning, got dressed, had my free breakfast and went exploring. The guide of Rothenburg has a suggested walking tour you can do. Number one on the tour is the town hall, which has a tower you can climb to get amazing views of the city.

Climbing the stairs was a world of fun, as they got narrower and more rickety the higher you went, starting as marble spiral and ending up almost a ladder they were that far apart and that much of an angle. The last little bit to get up the top I had to leave my backpack with the guy you pay, cos I would never have gotten up there with it on! The views were good though. Another perfect day.

Then from here I went to the Christmas store, which is the amazing, maze of a building that has everything Xmas, including loads of wooden ornaments made from Black Forest wood. They had giant displays of things too which were impressive. And then upstairs was a Christmas museum where you could see how the use of trees and ornaments started in Germany. I then went to the church, St Jacobs, which had an amazing carved wooden high altar. And from here I walked down to the first point you can climb the wall that surrounds the town. I walked as far as you can around the wall, which is a fairly long way, before you have to get down, and join it again a little way on. The wall got bombed in the war, so they pleaded for help worldwide to rebuild the wall, so the damaged section has plaques all along with people's names and where they come from, as they donated to "buy" however many mtrs of the wall. It is cool up there because everything inside the city wall still looks like it would have done hundreds of years ago. All the buildings are all built in medieval style, so it looks like you could still be in those times, apart from the odd street light. However outside the wall are modern buildings, schools, coach parking etc. It's like 2 different worlds.

I went into the torture museum, which ironically is in what used to the the nunnery of the church it connects to. I then had a bit more of a wonder and went back to the hotel for my transfer to the bus to continue to Frankfurt. I arrived at about 9.30, checked into my hostel and went to bed.

01/05- (my legs were so sore this day from the steps the day before, and all the pack lugging around (12kg) and the sitting on trains and walking. It actually hurt to sit/stand/walk/go downstairs) May the 1st. I went to the info place which was supposed to open at 8am, but opened at 9am. That was my first warning sign. Then I asked if they had any bus tours or anything as I was only there for that day, and she said there was nothing because of the bike race. That was my second warning sign. Then I went for a walk around and the main square in the old part of town is all set up for something, with a stage and sound checks happening. That was my third warning sign. The whole town shut down because not only was there this bike race around the streets in a 4.5km circuit 2-3 times

There was also May Day protest march, through the streets and into the old square. So I finally found a spot on the Main that had boat cruises up and down, with info, so I booked myself onto one of them, and spent 2 hours cruising up and down the river. You got a really good view of the skyline and could see what it gets called Mainhatten. (Its officially Frankfurt am Main as there is another Frankfurt somewhere in Germany) I was on top of the boat, and it was another really sunny day, and I actually got sunburnt on my arms. When I got back from the cruise I walked over the bridge to the other side and had lunch on a floating restaurant, which impacted the sunburn. Then I went for a stroll through Museum central, where all the museums are in a row. Then I walked back to the old town, sat and had a gelato watching the people pack up from the last of the protest rally, and then went back to the hostel. Even though there wasn't much available to me for tourism-ing, I got to see a relaxed, laid back side to Frankfurt many people probably wouldn't,because everything was shut people were just sitting on the riverbank with impromptu picnics and having lunch in cafes and going for a family stroll.

2/05- I started my day getting hit on by a guy as I waited for the train at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. He asked me if I wanted to go to coffee, and my train was just pulling in, so I said I had to get on that train. Awwww. Oh well. Anyways... I travelled the nearly 3hrs to Cologne... or Koln as it is in German. When I got out the station I was amazed to see this huge cathedral towering over the whole of the city. Usually stuff is miles away from the main station, but this was RIGHT next door. It was literally breathtaking.

I dumped my bag in a luggage locker at the station and headed to information, where they gave me some tips on a bus tour and some other options. I went for a stroll to find a chemist as the sun was making my sunburnt arms from the day before excruciatingly burning and I needed some aftersun and some sunblock. Once I had applied both of these I felt better. Then I headed back for a bus tour of the city, where we got to go over the other side of the river and get off the bus to take photos looking backwards towards the city, and see the skyline.

Then when we got back I went on a guided tour of the cathedral... aka the Koln Dom. It has a pretty amazing history, such as it was stopped building for hundreds of years and for the whole time a wooden crane sat on top of what it now a spire, and the crane attracted crowds to the cathedral as it was a landmark in itself! And all the mosaic tiles on the floor of the cathedral are by a local firm called Villeroy and Boch.

After that tour I went back to get my pack, and book a seat for my train trip the next day, and then caught the U-Bahn to the sticks where my hostel was. I was SO annoyed because it took me an hour to find the hostel once I left the station, walking around in the heat with 12kg+ strapped to my back. I even had to ask for help in an office block and the guy had to find someone who spoke English to translate his directions! I'm glad I didn't waste time in the morning when I got there trying to find it. When I finally got there I checked in, went up to my room, had a shower, and couldn't be bothered going anywhere else.

3/05- I got up, had breakfast with my 2 nice roommates, then caught the U-bahn back to the Hauptbahnhof to catch my train to Hannover. Another almost 3 hr trip. Another glorious day, although there was a bit of cloud cover. When I got to Hannover I put my back in a locker again, then went to info and asked about a tour, as I only had 2hrs before I had to head to the airport. There was a coach tour that was 2.5hrs. GRRR. Or there was a walking tour where you follow the red line on a map. They even dumbed it down and you literally followed a red line.

I went to the town hall and climbed the steps to the top of the tower, but most of this one is done by lifts, so that was good!! Great views, once again. Then I followed the red line all the way around some more churches and stuff, and came back to the Hauptbahnhof just in time for my train to the airport, where I flew out from.

Upon arriving in Manchester I picked up my bag, then drove from the carpark to the other end of that street where my guesthouse was, and watched some TV before going to bed.

4/05- I got up, had breakfast, then loaded the car again, and drive to Liverpool. Once there I parked up and got on the open top bus tour, doing one full loop first, then getting off at the Beatles Story, which was a pretty cool tour of their history. Then I went to the new "ultramodern" Catholic Church.

And then I walked down the road to the Anglican Church which is very big and has a cool little garden where there obviously was once a cemetery, so they have used the tombstones as retaining for the embankment.

Then I went back to my car and drove down to Marion's place where I did some washing, watched a DVD and went to bed.

5/05- We got up fairly early and drove to Salcey forest where there is a wooden walkway called the treetops walk. It was quite cool to be up that high, but unlike the ones in Australia where you would see parrots and possums, snakes and koalas, we saw a robin, a squirrel and some tadpoles!

Then we went to a place called Orley, where we had a mooch, then we went back and I baked 72 cupcakes for the band fete. That night I took them all to Louise & Dom's new place where we decorated them all.

6/05- We had a lazy day and I watched another dvd and did not a lot else. Then we all had dinner and I drove back down.

7/05- Today was the band fete, or as I have come to affectionately call it... a fete worse than death. It was ALMOST called of because of the weather, however it started to clear and we had not too bad a day, except for the stupid wind that made everything difficult, especially playing music that kept flapping away. Everyone commented on how nice my cakes looked! It'll be interesting to see how much money the band made. I won 2 prizes in the raffle at the end! YAY ME! Anyways, that brings us up to now. As I have spent the last hour and a but typing this, and now I need to add photos and I'm done. There is going to be a quiz, but I need to go to bed as I am working tomorrow, so I will put it on in a day or 2. And the winner of the last prize for telling me something surprising was my friend who told me he got engaged.

Hola!

2007-04-20T19:48:00.000+01:00

OK, I am back! I have had a busy couple of weeks, but here I am! First of all let me start before the school holidays. I did 3 days work at the school I am used to, with a challenging class. They work on a rotational system, where the teacher sits with one group and does a focused activity and the other children do other activities. This was chaos as they were horrible, so I scraped that fairly quickly and had them doing whole class lessons which seemed to work better as I could supervise. I also had them doing a whole class reward system to get to have "golden time" on wed afternoon, but this wasn't working as then no one was accountable. So when they came back from lunch I had a list of everyone on a huge piece of paper with 10 spots next to their names, where if they got to 10 ticks they would get golden time, which worked much better. Plus, as there is a MASSIVE range of abilities, I implemented the rule of "be the best you can be, not the best someone else can be" and this inspired the less able to try a bit harder. The next 2 days were better, much better, still chaos, but organised chaos. Everyone ended up having golden time, although 5 or 6 had to do some boring work sheets first before they could do free choice activities. Then my holiday started. YAY!

Thursday 5th- I drove down to Devon to visit my Aunt and Uncle down there for the Easter long weekend. We spent the first day just chatting and catching up, as it was around midday/early afternoon by the time I got there. My other Uncle came over for dinner and it was nice to catch up with him too.

Friday 6th- We went to a fishing village called Looe in the glorious sunshine. So sunny in fact I had to buy sunnies as I hadn't thought to bring mine with me! It was very nice there.

Saturday 7th- We went up to Dartmoor and had a walk around. We walked to where the 10 commandments have been etched into stone slabs. And there are loads of Dartmoor ponies that are pregnant, wandering around, but we didn't see any males, so there must be one male pony working overtime!! Sunday 8th- The Easter bunny came! He found me! Even on the other side of the world! We went to have a carvery lunch, and then I drove home again.

Monday 9th- I got up, unpacked from the night before, packed again and drove up to my Aunt's in Milton Keynes, where I spent the night.

Tuesday 10th- At the awful time of 5am, we left the house and drove to the airport to catch our 7.50am flight to Alicante, Spain. There we had hired a car, and my Aunt, Linda, drove us from the airport to the flat in Javea. We left glorious sunshine to arrive in overcast conditions. We arrived at the flat at around 2pm. We unpacked and got settled and then went out for a walk around.

Wednesday 11th- We drove around to better acquaint ourselves. We went to the old town, where we got out and walked around. They have a cool church there which is built to reflect the fishing port heritage of Javea so it looks like a boat, and when you go inside it is like you are under a boat. Even the Crucifix was made out of boating materials like nets and ropes. We then had lunch on the beachfront with one of my Aunt's friends, Ken, and lucky we were undercover as it decided to rain. I also had an attempt of driving as I was scared of driving on the wrong side of the road (aka the right side of the road) so I had a bit of a go. It feels all wrong and you want to hug the edge as you feel you should be on that side of the car.

Thursday 12th- We drove to Madrid, which is a good solid 500ish KM. Linda drove to Valencia, on the smaller more populated roads. I then drove across the middle of Spain. This was right up my alley, cos it is like driving in Australia. Long roads that have very little exits or cars. The scenery was amazing. Just like the outback, sandy, spinifex, eucalypts, but... very hilly. Which was the major contrast as much of the same in oz is dead flat. We did find the plane in Spain, and it did have rain! But it fell mainly on the coast, so that was a lie! My undying belief in musicals has been shattered!! When we got closer to Madrid we swapped back again, which was good, as Madrid had round abouts with about 9 lanes all coming in at them from different directions and it was chaos! I almost hyperventilated and I wasn't trying to drive in it!! Finding the hotel was interesting, however we got there eventually (an hour later) thanks to my awesome sense of direction (and the fact Madrid has a ring road so you just keep coming back to that and try again). Then we unpacked and went on an open top bus tour, just missing rain showers!

Friday 13th- Wow, I didn't realise it was friday 13th til I typed that. Oh well! We split up after breakfast as Linda wanted to see the botanical gardens and the trees, and I wanted to see the Parque De Madrid which is a massive public park, with awesome different areas, and so peaceful, considering the 13 lane roads are just outside the gates. Everywhere had roses growing along trellis as borders, that when they are in bloom will look spectacular. Then I ventured on the Metro, to head back a different way, and we met back up for lunch in the Plaza Mayor, after which we headed back to the car and drove back to Javea. We arrived to find glorious sunshine at 7pm, so we went home via a restaurant on the beach front where we had cocktails (well, I had a mocktail).

Saturday 14th- I headed off on my own to a local cave, that was shut when I got there. Had I known this I possibly would not have set off, as it was over a mountain or 2, on tiny little windy windy roads that at certain points had nothing to stop you crashing down the side, and at other points had overhanging rocks sticking into the lane marking. Luckily it wasn't a busy road, as I had to drive in the middle most of the time to feel safe. Bit it had hairpin bends and other such fun things! There were amazing views up there though, and a couple of houses. Then when I got back it decided to pour with rain (lucky it didn't while i was up the hills!) and I went with Linda and Ken to a lahdidah restaurant, La Boheme, owned by the same guy who owns Acqua, for lunch. They had proper food, and I had 3 tapas sampler, as Spain does calamari (aka calamares) which i was MUCHLY excited by, as England has no clue about this! Then when we got back we had quiet time, then a low key dinner, after which Linda's brother- and sister-in-law who also have a flat and were out came over for nibbles. While they were over it absolutely POURED down with rain. I so far had managed to either be inside the flat, in a car, or in a restaurant each time it rained.

Sunday 15th- The sun was trying very hard to come out. We met Ken and the sibling-in-laws for brunch on the beachfront at 11am, then Linda and I drove to Cap La Nau which is where one of the lighthouses that flanks Javea is, where there were some good views. Then we went to Platja Granadella (Granadella beach) which is a tiny little pebble beach down some more windy roads from the mountains. It was very nice down there, very secluded and protected as it is in a tiny bay. I even got my feet wet in the water, which was refreshingly bloody cold! Plus pebbles are SO annoying to walk on cos they hurt! Next we went to Moriara, the next town along the coast, and had a walk along the waterfront there. Then back to Javea for mocktails and I took my Aunt to dinner in a place called Scallops.

Monday 16th- Huzzah! The sun was finally here to stay! We went to Denia market, then came back to have lunch at Tango's which is a little restaurant, nothing special, except it is RIGHT on the waterfront and you can hear the waves lapping at the rocks below the wall as they slowly wash in. It was glorious, sitting there in the sun, listening to the soothing sounds of the sea, and eating calamari! I left happy,with a tan on my arms, and even a little bit of sunburn on my chest! Then we went back, sat on the terrace and read in the last few rays of the sun. After which we went down to Acqua again for our last farewell cocktails, and watched the sunset behind the villas, streaming light onto the smooth water, with Mt Montgo, in the background. Glorious!

Tuesday 17th- We got up, tidied the flat, and headed off the airport. Another glorious sunny day. Everyone at the airport was coming back from school holidays and whinging about the weather! Oh well. Such is life! At least I got to see it as I should. I haven't let the weather affect me so far, and I wont let it start now!

Wednesday 18th- last day of my holidays I spent getting my car sorted. Took it in for a wheel alignment, £5.50 each wheel. Ended up needing a new front tyre, £74.50 and needing new front brake pads £76 which I am going back to do tomorrow. I was the only female in the place. The guy tells me to come have a look at the brakes, and then in his most professional "you're a girl so you wont know anything" voice proceeds to tell me that the brakes are important because if I let them wear down too much, when I go to brake one day I might not be able too. WOW! All this time I had NO idea what they were for!! How silly of me. Good thing there was a boy to explain it all for me! *rolls eyes*. But the good news is, the car doesn't shudder when I drive it anymore! YAY!

So, yeah, it has been really sunny and nice here. I have been going out to work the last 2 days in just t-shirt and trousers. Which is a BIT chilly when I leave the house and it is 8'C but by lunch time it is about 20'C. The scary thing is, I was in shorts on Wednesday and it was only about 16'C. What am I going to do when I get back to Aus and it is so much hotter!? If I am finding 16'C hot, I am going to be stuffed in 30+!! Mind you, if it is that warm here now, it might get to that here soon!! Who knows??

I'm off to Germany next, so I probably wont post anything between now and then, as it is next thursday I go. 1 week, 6 towns! EEEK!!!!

APRIL FOOLS!

2007-03-31T16:10:00.000+01:00

Well... I'd just like to start off by saying HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY ERNIE!!!!!! Wow, he's a real dog now, not a puppy anymore. And I'm not there to see him *pout*. This is him at his 2nd b'day party at the preschool with cakes the kids decorated for him. (no, he didn't eat all that, the kids did, he had a tiny little piece of cake)

Ok, now, not a lot has gone on over the past 2 weeks. Just LOTS of working, and I cleaned my room, and that's about it. I am now into the last 4 months over here (possibly 3 months if I can't get my correct return date!!!). That means I have survived 8 months over here. Feels like so much longer, because of the amount of stuff I have done. I can't wait to sleep. It feels like I have spent the last 8 months being sleep deprived!

I have spent the last 2 weeks doing 4.5 days work each week. The first week I was supposed to do a day of 2 1/2 days but the second school was MILES away and I didn't know this when I accepted it, then I couldn't find it in the street directory because it was that far away. Then I got traffic, so I was about 1/2 way there and it was already nearly 2pm, so I wouldn't have been there before 2.30, so they cancelled me and I drive home. Grrr. The school I was on on Friday afternoon was one of the worst schools in Bristol (I think I have been to the 5 worst schools now). I had a yr 3/4 class and there was 2 of us in there. And they were not too bad, because they had "golden time" which is basically a reward for friday afternoon, but when the other lady was trying to speak to them in a group it was chaos. There were kids walking out, kids hiding under tables, kids telling each other they were gay. Lovely stuff! The school was so bad that they had an independant assesor in to try and work out a classroom management plan for the kids. Thats why I was there, cos the teacher was out discussing with him. At the end she came back in and said what he had come up with (desks 2 by 2 in rows all facing the front) and I told her my thoughts and suggested a reward system I had seen work elsewhere in a similar class, and she was very enthusiastic and was going off that weekend to make this display for them. She said I was welcome back anytime. So I guess I could always have this as an extra side job, because obviously seeing how different schools cope with these "challenging" children has given me some pointers on what works and what doesn't. It was nice to have my opinion recognised, cos usually supply are ignored and deemed unimportant.

This week I had a luxury. Well... after monday, where I had a kid sniffing glue sticks and another kid attack a child, and was threatened! (JOY). I spent 2 days working in Clifton. This is the posh part of town. The nost noticable difference in the school was the yr 4 class I had on the first day had 38 kids in, and just me, and it didn't feel like that many kids once. I am usually in a class with no more than 20, and a support teacher, and it feels like about 50. They were great! A couple of the played up, as kids do, but if you wrote their names down it was serious! They actually behaved better! I had to speak to 2 of them at break about something they had done that was quite serious, and you should have seen the change in them after this, they were quiet and just got on with it. The next day I was in yr 2, and they were a more lively class, but there was less of them (25) and we still got on with it.

So yeah, that was my exciting last 2 weeks. Woopdidoo! Work work and more work!!! It's easter next weekend, and I will be down in Devon for that, then from there I will be turning around and driving back up to Milton Keynes to stay the night because Tuesday morning we fly to Spain really early. So yeah, I probably wont be blogging for a while intil after spain. And then I only have a weekend before Germany. Germany is turning into a saga. I am flying in and out of hanover, which has been booked for ages, but when I came to look at it closer, Hanover doesn't even have a youth hostel. So I have forked out for a drain pass for 6 days. Then I fly in at night, get on a train, go to Nuremberg over night. Spend that next night in Nuremburg, then go to Munich the following morning early, to meet a 3 day coach tour up the romantic road to Frankfurt. Then I stay 2 nights in Frankfurt, the next night in Cologne, then go to Hanover again for my flight back, all in 8 days. *sigh* it makes me tired just thinking about it!!! This is all that on a map (each colour is a different part of the trip, the other straight lines are the rail network)....

Ok, so that's the end of that. Happy Birthday to Ernie. I am sad that I am not there for it, but these things happen *pout*. Have a good easter everyone, see you when i get back from Spain!

I would walk 5000 miles and I would walk 5000 more...

2007-03-18T19:55:00.000Z

Ok, that's a lie! I wouldn't walk 10,000 miles, I probably wouldn't even walk 10 miles... but... this is leading somewhere... I promise... stay with me... I pulled into the driveway today after being up at Milton Keynes for the weekend and my Mileage went over to 30,050. When I bought big red it was 20,050. So I have done 10,000 miles exactly in 7.5 months. Not bad! And I haven't even done that much visiting places in weekend, that's just working and driving to airports and to relatives! That's just over 16,000km.

Oh, and I'm green this week cos it was St Patrick's day yesterday, so I decided to do green as my tribute to it. As much as I would have liked to have been in Ireland for it, I'm kind of glad I wasn't because of the drinking aspect. They mentioned on the radio that one town is having an invisible parade, where everyone dresses up, lines the street and a commentator announces the next float in the parade, but there is nothing coming down the street, yet the crowd still cheers. Ahhh, to be mental, to be mental! Anyways, yes, that's the highlight of my week. The weather has gone schizophrenic today, and there was glorious sunshine this morning at my Aunt's up in Milton Keynes, then it clouded over, then it rained, then it had tiny hail, apparently some parts of England got blizzard hail, last night was super windy, Northern Scotland had hurricane strength winds! MENTAL! It was also like 15'C yesterday, and 7'C today. Silly! Mind you, I have another cold, with a head full of snot, and a temperature, so I am feeling superhot all the time. (and not Superhawt, cos snot is never an attractive quality!) Sorry if anyone is eating while reading this! I shall conclude this topic by saying using 4 boxes of tissues in 4 days has left me with a very sore nose :(

I am very disappointed with the number of entries I got in my fairy quiz. COME ONE PEOPLE! I am starting to think no one is reading this anymore. *grumbles* So far the best is 2 correct answers. Clearly no one has been talking to the fairies and asking them.

Umm, what else happened last week? Not a lot. I discovered that my cousin who had a slight bingle with her old car had to write it off, cos it was worth less than the cost of fixing it, but wasn't a complete wreck. So now all of my pommy cousins have written off cars. The best I managed was a couple of weeks ago I had a fight with a lorry on a roundabout and it won, and my car had a big chunk of paint missing from the rear passenger door that the lorry took as a souvenir of the event. Luckily that's all I did, cos it sounded WAY worse from inside the car and I was so expecting the wing mirror to be ripped off, but instead it just folded in, and I folded it back out. Now some of you must be thinking 'wow, 2 speeding fines and an accident in that short a time, that's bad' but let me refer you to how much driving I have done, and it seems not quite so bad!

It is mother's day here today. I had a class of yr 5 kids on thursday that were making mother's day cards in the afternoon and they kept asking me what else they should put on them, and I kept replying 'Elephants! Nothing says "happy mothers day" like an elephant' and they all thought I was weird, and that it was some bizarre Australian tradition. One girl actually drew a picture of her mum riding an elephant, cos she thought her mum would like an elephant!! Hey, if u can't mess with children's minds, who's minds can u mess with?

The school I was at on friday was ok (yr 5 as well... i get more yr 5 classes than any other grade, random), but it was a messed up day cos it was red nose day, so they were a bit excited by that, then it was p.e. so that was exciting too, then in the afternoon 9 of them went to a netball tournament. So it was a bit chaotic. It was one of the first classes I haven't had work left for me, so I just used some lessons I have put together and played games and stuff with them I have learnt from other schools. In the afternoon I did a lesson on Aboriginal dreamtime stories I have adapted for all age groups and get the kids to write their own stories about Seahorses or Fish and how they got something in the format of 'how the birds got their colours' etc. We were having a rather relaxed day so there was lots of mucking around and joking, and the stories were great, because they used this humour in their stories too. At the end of the day they asked if I was back Monday cos I was 'The funniest teacher ever' and when I said no, they moaned. Then one kid (the class clown) came up and shook my hand and said it was a pleasure to meet me. So yeah, that put a smile on my dial.

Anyways, I need to put away washing and tidy stuff so I can find my bed so I have somewhere to sleep! (mum, just ignore that last sentence... and think happy thoughts!)

Slàinte

2007-03-13T16:43:00.000Z

Ok, so, hello in Ireland is Hello (unless you speak Gaelic, which clearly I don't) but they drink a lot, and I did learn how to say Cheers in Irish, so I thought I'd go with that! Ok, so, I just got back a couple of hours ago. I had a really good time, however the weather was mental! Blue skies one second, pouring rain the next, gale force winds and then perfectly still. It was all over the place. Was quite cold too, especially with the wind chill factor. But I struggled on through!
8/3- I arrived in to Dublin on the most knuckle clenching landing yet, due to the gale force winds, and not helped by the fact there was only 23 on the plane, so it was rather light! I trudged to the hostel, dumped my stuff and went for a walk, grabbed a bite to eat, and then met up with yet another internet person. I got my own private guided walking tour of what to bother with and what not to in Dublin, and then we had a hot chocolate in a cafe, and I headed back to my hostel.
9/3- I got up early and walked to the place where my '3 day Western Rocker' tour was leaving from. The first stop on the tour was Locke's Distillery where we had a tour of the old distillery, which is not purely for tours, and got to taste the Whiskey, which was... horrible!
Then from there we went to the old Monastic settlement of Clonmacnoise where we got an audio/visual intro then could roam around. It was blue skies when we got there, then it rained, and the whole time it was so windy I climbed up a little wall to take a photo and almost got blown off!
Next we drove through the Burren Plateau which is all limestone and the largest area of natural deforestation in Europe. We stopped off to see Pol na Brone Dolmen which is an ancient burial tomb that would have been under ground, but it had had the soil swept away and eroded away from around it so now it stands above ground. There is a cool fairy tale that goes along with it, that this man and woman fell in love and she betrayed her husband to be, who was high king at the time, and ran off with him, and he put a curse on them and said that she could stay with this man, so long as they didn't make love on his land, so they built these all across Ireland as they were running from him, so as not to break the curse.
Then from here we drove through a little town called Lisdoonvarna which every year has a matchmaking festival, and it all sounds a bit wrong, because rich American divorcees come to find themselves an Irish farmer, and 60 yr old men get with 16 yr old women. Wrong! Then from here, as the weather was no too horrible, we drove out to the Cliffs of Moher. It was a bit misty, but not pouring with rain which it can be. Again, it was SUPER windy. They have recently spent millions on the site putting up a windbreak wall as people kept getting too close to the edge and getting blown off! It was quite impressive, with the sun streaming through the clouds as well.
Then on from here we went to Doolin, where we stayed for the night. Most of us went down to the local pub for traditional Irish stew and I tried Guinness (with blackcurrant in it, which is the girly way) and it still tasted like filth. 10/3- We got up in the morning and drove for a fair way to the Tarbert Ferry which took us across the Shannon river. We drove through the Sliabh Mish mountains to Dingle, where we stopped for lunch. Dingle is a small fishing town that has a bottle nosed dolphin called Fungie (as he used to follow around an old sea dog who had crumbs and stuff in his beard and fungus grew there) that is their major claim to fame. We didn't see Fungie that day, but there is a brass statue of him!

Then we went for a drive around the Dingle peninsula which would have been spectacular if there wasn't so much mist you couldn't see what was meant to be out there! We went down on Coumeenole beach which had foam from the waves blowing all around with the wind! Then we drove on down to Killarney, where we had a group dinner in a restaurant, then went and saw a traditional Irish story teller, who was good, but had a way of yelling all the time, which would have been fine on stage with 200 people, but we were like 20 people in a tiny room. So we could have done without the yelling.
11/3- We had a long drive to Blarney Castle. On the drive, as with every other drive we had had on the trip, there was lots of fields, and sheep, and occasionally goats. It was very pretty, but very repetitive, so hard to stay awake for it. In Blarney we climbed the steps (which got increasingly more narrow in their spiral that at the top I had to take off my backpack cos I got stuck) then at the top, I kissed the Blarney stone, which is an effort in itself, as you have to lay down and bend over backwards to kiss it. So now I should have the gift of the gab (as you can tell by this mammoth blog). Then we went for a walk around and saw the witch's kitchen, which is in the stone under a giant tree and even has a chimney stack, pretty cool.
On from here we drove to the Rock of Cashel, another castle, and then back to Dublin. When we arrived back it was pouring with rain, so I trudged back to the hostel, showered, and went to bed.
12/3- I went on the open top tour around Dublin, and got off at the Guinness Store House where I learnt how Guinness is made and did a quiz, so now I am an honorary master brewer's apprentice! Then at the end you get to go up to the gravity bar for a free Guinness (which I did not indulge in) and the view is very nice. Then back on the bus and around to Kilmainham Gaol where you got to learn a lot about the uprising in Ireland and how the leaders of this were put in gaol there and then killed. I also saw the smallest pub in Dublin and I was amused to discover the mailboxes were green in Ireland! Then I did a bit of wondering around, waiting for 8pm, and watched the sun setting over the river Liffey, which splits Dublin in north and south, and in the evening I went on the Dublin Ghost Buss Tour which was very good. You learnt about some of the haunted places, how Bram Stocker might have come up with Dracula, how to body snatch, all with a very funny guide who liked to scare the crap out of people. There were 2 Chinese girls who were so scared of him they ran away every time he walked near them. It was very funny. We got off twice, once to go into an old graveyard and a haunted church, and the second time to go to the most haunted place in Dublin, where lepers used to be allowed to stand outside and listen to mass.
And then today I came back. Woopdidoo! So yes, it was a good time. I enjoyed it. Loads of interesting history and random facts were passed on to me. And I even have another quiz for you all.... this time it is on Irish Fairies. As with last time, email me your answers and the first to get them all correct (easier this time with multiple choice) will get the prize:
1- Is a fairy ring:
a) a ring of stone placed in the bottom of the garden by fairies?
b) a ring of mushrooms that fairies sit on?
c) a ring of flowers that fairies dance around?
d) a ring of trees that people must not go inside?
2- If your normal, happy child suddenly starts crying all the time, it could have been swapped for a changeling baby. If you suspect this is the case, how do you prove it?
a) drop water on it's forehead and if it steams the baby is a changeling
b) throw the baby in the fire and if a puff of purple smoke comes out, the baby is a changeling?
c) hold the baby underwater for 1 minute and if it doesn't struggle it is a changeling?
d) place a cross on the baby and if it leaves a burn mark it is a changeling?
3- If you want to make a wish at a fairy ring do you...
a) walk around the outside anticlockwise singing your wish?
b) walk around the outside clockwise singing your wish?
c) walk around the outside anticlockwise thinking your wish silently?
d) walk around the outside clockwise thinking your wish silently?
4- Is a Fairy tree...
a) a magical tree that fairies live in which can bring good luck?
b) a tree that is part of a fairy ring?
c) a tree that has been carved into by a fairy with a spell?
d) a single tree randomly placed in a field that if cut down will bring bad luck?
5- If a Banshee knocks on your door does it mean...
a) someone inside the house will die?
b) the person who answers the door will die?
c) a curse has been placed on the house?
d) she has run out of sugar and wants 2 borrow some?

Ok, so, that is my quiz. Good luck to all. And I hope you liked my long rambling blog!

Airports are FUN

2007-03-08T14:10:00.000Z

I am at Bristol ariport waiting for my flight to be called to board to Dublin. They have the most depressing anouncements here, that sound like sumone is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to read it. The "please look after your belongings and keep them with you" one is AWEFUL!
I am on here for 2 reasons... 1- to announce the winner of the sound of music quiz, and 2- to waste time as I have looked at the 3 shops and read a magazine and am trying to avoid buying a slice of cake from starbucks.
So, sound of music quiz... noone gave me completely full and accurant answers, (noone, as in none of the 2 ppl who entered), so the winner goes to the most correct answers which is Susan (I only know one Susan, so you know who you are). Who will be receiving their Austrian themed prize shortly once i get back from Ireland and mail it.
The answers were (and i cant remember the order), the lake from the back of the vontrapp house (the building was not the house used though), the row of trees outside the actual von trapp house used for the swinging from trees in curtain clothes, the inside of the church maria got married in (which is supposedly in the abbey but is actually about 40 mins drive away), the pegagus fountain from the do re mi sequence, and the little man they tapped on the head in that sequence. There's 13 of them all together in the mirabelle gardens. (i think that was all of them). I will check and change later if I missed any.
What have I got up to this week? Monday evening I took part in an aqua aerobics class, at the local swimming pool, which was good, because it showed that I am still quite strong as I was doing the stoopid drag yourself across and back with just you arms things quicker than everyone else. I am going to do these thurs and mondays now to keep fit.
Thats about it. Thats my boring week.
OOOHHH!!!! flight has just been called! I'm off now. Will blog again when I get back!

yawn

2007-03-03T07:08:00.000Z

It is 7am on a Saturday. Why am I up? Well, apparently it's a new thing my body is trying out thats called wake up rediculously early no matter what time you went to bed. *grumble*
So, the last week has been a boring week. Monday I didn't work as my knee was sore and I didn't want to overwork it so I bludged all day. Tuesday I was working at St Paul, in Cabot Primary (worst achieving school in Bristol, Bristolis one of worst achieving cities in England), and again Wednesday. Thursday I didn't work (more about this later) and Yesterday I was in a lovely reception class with delightful little kiddies in a silly names town called Fishponds. Then after work I drove up to my aunt Marion's on her request where I am writing this from now.
Anyways, yes, the highlight (and lowlight) of my week has been Cabot. Tuesday there was big assembly in the morning to celebrate Abolition 200, which is essentially the same as the Aborigine's 'sorry' campaign, but this is a year long thing about black slaves and how they got freed, and how they want to govt to say sorry fo enslaving them. There were tv crews and newspaper reporters and photographers. They picked Cabot as there is literally not one white kid in the school, they are all indian, jamaican, african, muslim countries. And the school is in such a disadvantaged area it was a political stunt too to bring some attention to it. Anyways, this dude, Denis someone, played a half hour set on his trombone, which he had hooked up to microphone and that to guitar pedals, so he could distort and record himself to create his own harmonies. It was pretty cool. And I was on the midday local news program, and my hands were in the local paper. I missed it unfortunately cos it was the morning paper, and not in the afternoon one. Grrr.
That morning, I was teaching the yr 3 class, who I had taught before, months ago, but they remembered me. I was in by myself, which you aren't supposed to be in that school, as there are so many behaviour issues you need support. But at least I knew them. In the afternoon I was sent to yr 2. I was there for a 1.5 hours, and I had a support person who ruled with an iron fist, yet they were still feral. Then she left for 5 mins to go to the bathroom, while they were having free play, and when she was gone they trashed the place. Tipped out every toy, mixed them together and threw them around the room. A bunch of 7 yr olds. And nothing I said or did got them to stop. She came back in and went mental at them and got them to tidy it up. I felt so helpless, and stressed. The second day I was back in yr 3, fine,exceptone of the kids tried to blame me of discrimination based on religion and said she was going to the head. I called her bluff and told her to go then, and she backed down. But I at least knew this was just one of her stunts, imagine if I didn't know the class and they tried that, you'd shit yourself! And then after that day, and the yr 2 situation, I wasalready frazzled and stressed, and I was supposed to be back on Thursday, all day, in yr 2. I debated right up until 7.15am, after I had had my shower and everything whether I could do it or not. On one hand, they were only 7 and I should not not go to work unless I am sick or wounded or dying, on the other hand, I was actually petrified of a room full of horrible little 7 yr olds. So i chickened out and didn't go. I felt horrible, but I couldn't physically or mentally face them again.
My other news is... which I have been looking into on and off since I got here... I re-joined weight watchers. I have been a good girl and been points counting all week. It's interesting tho, as I have no scales, so I guestimated by start weight and I have no way of knowing how much I have lost, but at least I know it works from last time. I am doing it online, instead of the meetings, which is cool, cos there's online forums and an online tracking thing, instead of needing pads and writing everything down. SO yeah, it's only week one, but so far so good. I have stuck to it, and even managed to save a bunch of points, and considering we are going to lunch tomorrow, I suppose that's a good thing! Perhaps that is why I have been getting up at stupid times, cos I have been eating less crap?
Anyways, that is my exciting week! I am off to Dublin next Thursday afternoon, so hopefully my next blog will be more exciting, but less eventful!
P.S. noone has got the right answers in the sound of music quiz (noone being the 2 ppl who bothered to enter) and number 3 seems to be the stumper. If Idon't get a correct guess by Thursday the prize will go to the closest guess of those 2 (or anyone else who enters).

Hallo!

2007-02-25T12:25:00.000Z

Well, I survived Salzburg, and it was really nice. I can't decide whether Prague or Salzburg is my fave place now. They are both very nice and both hold good memories for me. I think the reason they are both holding such good memories is that not only were they pretty places, but I also had good hostel experiences and met some nice people. So the combination of the 2 things made it extra special.
20/2- I woke up at the ever delightful time of 4am and drove to the airport, for my 5am check-in and 7am flight. Coventry airport is... well... THRILLING! (if you like sheds with 1 tiny counter selling bottled water). I arrived in Salzburg, caught the bus to the station then walked to the hostel from there. By the time I arrived, wearing my 4 layers, my full pack and my little backpack as well, I was red and boiling hot. I dumped my pack, and went off to explore. I used my free hostel map to find my way to the fernicular up to the top of the hill where there is a fortress. I was walking around up there, and down in the old town, in just a t-shirt, trying to cool off. This drew some looks and points, but it was quite warm and glorious blue skies and sunny, with the 12'C. The view from up the top was quite good, but then the Alps were behind making it seem less high up! I then went for a walk to the river and sat on a bench filling in postcards,but the sun was setting by now, and the temp dropped so I was in 4 layers again, gloves and beanie!Back at the hostel I discovered 4 new room mates, 2 from South Korea who spoke VERY little English, and 2 from Indonesia who spoke good English.
21/2- THE DAY OF THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!! yayayayay!!! The tour guide was a rather camp guy who had some good (well rehearsed) jokes and comments and he made it a very good tour. It was another glorious, blue sky day. We had a stop over in a place called Mondsee which is by Lake Mondsee where I had proper apple strudel. More about the tour later... When I got back, I took the tour guide's (Peter's) advice and caught bus number 25 to Untersberg Mountain, where I then caught the cable car to the top. OMG! It was scary and exhilerating all at once. Dangling from a cable all that way up,and when it went through one of the 2 points that were attached to the mountain to regain the tension, it kind of falls down again and bounces a bit! SCARY! Especially the 2nd one, as you couldn't see after it and it just bounced down over a huge snow filled valley between the top peak and the point it was attached too. When I got up there it was covered in icy,old snow, which was rather hard to walk on in sneakers! It was quite cool up there, as once the annoying children had gone, it was so very quiet, surreal, the quietest place I have ever been. When I got back to the hostel I met another new roomie, Amanda, from England, who has been on an afternoon sound of music tour and she had met others from the hostel there too. We went down for dinner (schnitzel) and ended up playing card games with some of the other guys in the hostel for a couple of hours which was fun.
22/2- I got up and struggled for ideas of what to do with myself, until my tour at 2pm. I ended up going out to the old town again. I went into a store called 'Easter in Salzburg' which is all blown eggshells handpainted. A lady asked how many there were and he said around 100,000!! Then I got some souveniers, then I went back, put them in the hostel, dumped the stuff and watched the last bit of the sound of music dvd that plays every day (with the annoying girls there from America who didn't understand bits, like they had never seen it before, GRRRRR, fools!) then I went for my tour, which was very pretty, and rather informative, but we also had 2 stops of free time for around and hour which wasn't very 'value for money' on a 4 hour tour! I went to Bavaria in Germany though, and I saw some amazing views. The water was crystal clear too, which was cool. They say it's drinking quality, but I don't know about the duck poo! When I got back I played some more cards with some different people in the hostel.
23/2- I went to Mozart's home and museum in the morning, then went to the airport. Salzburg airport is slightly more exciting than Coventry! Through the other side, past security check there are a whopping 2 stores! Neither of which sell books of magazines and my flight was delayed by an hour and I had nothing to read. The flight back was uneventful, and I arrived to pouring rain in Coventry!
I am now at my Aunt's place where I appear to have completely buggered upmy right knee. YAY for me! *grumble*. Anyways, sound of music tour! I have come up with the first (and possibly only) raych's blog quiz! The first person to email me (raychl@bigpond.com) with the correct answers gets an authentic prize all the way from Austria! So, in order to win, you need to email me the spot in the Sound of Music that the following locations appear. Please email the number of the photo, followed by your answer. Good luck!

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5) (this one is a bit tricky cos it was being rennovated)

(6)

Crappy valentines day to you all

2007-02-14T22:52:00.000Z

It is still valentines day here for another hour and 7 minutes. I went to work with yr 5 kids, then went and took myselfout to the movies, and saw music and lyrics, witch hugh grant and drew barrymore. It was ok, like the wedding singer mixed with every hugh grant romantic comedy. Then band practice, and now here i am. I'm away friday night up to the rellies, then Austria, then back to the rellies for the next weekend, so I'll blog again whence I return. Until then I leave with you a Valentine's poem that i found profound and heartfelt...

Lewinsky and Clinton have shown

What Kaczynski must surely have known

That an intern is better

Than a bomb in a letter

Given the choice of how to be blown

Snowflakes that fall on my nose and eyelashes...

2007-02-10T08:44:00.000Z

Hello!

Well, it snowed! In Bristol! We had snow early thursday morning. I looked out my window at 6.45am and there was not much, when I got out of the shower and looked again at 7.30 it was all blanketed in white. Not enough to close schools etc, unlike the midlands, who had a fair bit of snow and had school closures. The day before had been freezing cold driving to work in the morning. Thursday snowed in the morning and was pretty much done when I got into the car at 7.45am. Yesterday It snowed again, not as much, but I had to work ages away, and pretty much the whole way there I was driwing through snow. This in itself is an odd experience, asthe snow doesn't stick to the windscreen like rain does, and it kind of comes at the car, then goes up and over the car as you drive through it. It looks like driving through stars at warp speed on bad dodgy star trek as the closer you get to the snow it pulls towards your car and goes horizontal instead of vertical. It amused me on my hour and a bit long drive to woop woop.

Yesterday I was working in a place called 'Calne' which is near Swindon where I have worked before, which requires a few junctions on the motorway. Then Calne is down the other side, in little hicksville areas, as opposed to main cities. And it didn't exist on my Swindon street directory or my wholeof UK one, so as I got closer and was actually in Calne (I had looked it up on online maps and worked out roughly how to get there) I had to stop and get a Calne street directory. So now I have 5 street directories in my car! On the way to this place you get to drive past New Zealand, which is odd. I wonder which New Zealand came first!

Anyways, the school requested a 'strong teacher' and select rang me. Cos i'm a badass teacher! HAHAH! I think cos i survive all the innercity bristol schools with Somali refugees and issues that come with that. So I am pretrified cos this area isn't as multicultural so what issues they have would be more 'feral children' than children who are a product of their mum and dad being drug dealers and moving around all the time getting welfare. I get there, and i knew the school was a St sumthingorother, but I was thing CofE like all the ones I have been to. No, it was a roman catholic school. The school is very open plan, the head teacher was very enthusaistic. The children were great. A couple were a bit lively, but u get that. But they did their work and were able to work independantly at their desks and do things like write stories by themselves. Which I am not used to. I have not been at a school where yr 2 are at a yr 2 level for ages! I am used to yr 2 who are barely able to write their name, let alone focus on an activity indepoendantly for 45 minutes!!!! So at the end of the day when it came to me leaving the school secretary said 'so you survived then?' and i explained what i was used to and said i had a good day. And she said 'oh, so if we asked you back you'd come?' with a shocked tone. I said yes. Yesterday was a walk in the park for what I'm used to. I didn't have to yell and scream once and I didn't really have to raise my voice! I suppose for that area they were a bit lively and they could have carried away and gone too far if they weren't under control, but compared to what I'm used to, they were angels!!

There were all these decomposing snowmen out in the playground from the day before, as it was only 2'C and not warm enough for them to melt but in the rain their heads had comeoff of they had falled over. Poor snowmen!

Thats pretty much my week. Work, and work and work. Huzzah for 4 days teaching! that means I will get good money next friday, instead of the no money I will get after I have my week off during mid-term break to go to Austria. I can't believe the teachersover here,whinging that they have 7 weeks without a holiday when other schools in other areas have 6. I told them in Australia we have between 11 and 13 week terms with no break in the middle. They looked so concerned for how Australian teachers survive without holidays every 5-7 weeks. Wimps! I didn't tell them I was used to working 50 weeks a year with no holidays. Cos I think some of them would have fainted at the thought of that!!

Anyways, I'mgoing to get out of my PJs now and have me some brekky. Thanks for all the comments on the last blog. Nice to get some feedback from time to time.

Fare thee well!

Bonjour

2007-02-06T16:23:00.000Z

Howdy! I am back from gay Paris. I was a whirlwind trip, with only 3 full days, as the flight there was evening and the flight back was early morning. As I had been before, in torrential rain, and been in a fair bit, I didn't go in much (also because Paris is very expensive) but I had fairly good weather so I saw the outside of lots of things. So, here it is...

Thursday 1/2- I arrived at about 7pm to my hotel room which was very luxurious, not! Instead of getting a mint on the pillow you got a pube on the sheets! Huzzah! There were French kids staying at the hotel, I'm assuming from a school excursion, that yelled to each other constantly, and the doors were paper thin to the hall. Plus I think every singlepipe from the entire building's plumbing ran down through the bathroom behind my bed head as I could just hear constant water running, either in shower slow flow or fast toilet flushes. Thank god I brought my earplugs! So, I watched a bit of Friends dubbed in French, which was tres annoying, and gave up and went to bed.

Friday 2/2- It was a bit cloudy and attempted to rain acouple of times, but didn't manage more than a light misty shower. I explored the open top bus tour I had pre-booked tickets for. Most cities have one loop and about 12 stops. Paris has 4 different loops and over 50 stops! I spent all of the first day on busses, only getting off to change for another loop. Here aresome snaps from my bus top...

Then I got off at the Moulin Rouge stop and walked up montmatre to catch the fernicular railway up to Sacre-Coeur. But or course the fernicular was broken so I climbed up all the stairs. There wasn't much of a view becauseof the clouds and so forth. I went inside and sat on one of the pews for a bit. It was odd to be in there and see religious people coming in and kneeling, praying, holding rosary beads, reading the bible, crossing themselves. I feltlike I shouldn't have been in there. And unlike the Sistene Chapel people were silent and respecting the no photos. This church was more religious and sacred than the Vatican and St Peters. It was odd.

Last time I was in Paris I was with my granny, who past away last year, so I felt compelled to light a candle for her. I am assuming I wont get gods trying to smite me for this gesture, as neither me or my granny are what you would call religious, but it just seemed like a nice thing to do. And my way of saying goodbye to her.

After doing this I walked back down the hill and caught the metro back to my hostel.

Saturday 3/2- It was a much sunnier day today, although much colder too. I decided I would walk to the Cimetriere du Pere Lachaise which was not far from my hotel, and is a place where loads of famous peopleare burried. It is a massive cemetery filled with crypts and large raised tombs so it is almost impossible to find your way around. I was about to give up when this guy said "are you looking for Jim Morrison?" in a very French accent. I said yes, and he proceeded to show me around to his grave. On the way he took me to several others and I said I was looking for Bizet and he showed me his too. When I left the man asked for money, which was to be expected, so I paid him €10 which wasn't bad for a 30 minute personal guided tour of the cemetery, which I would never have found all the graves without. I asked him how he knew where they all were and he explained that 15 years ago he used to make the marble graves. Now he just wonders around finding lost tourists and making some money. I heard him pick up another lost person as I was leaving and started to show him around! I was Oscar Wilde's grave, which has loads of kisses on it. Edith Piaf's (which he was shocked I knew who she was). Jim Morrison's (which is guarded as 15 years ago someone stole the bust off it). George Bizet's. Bugatti's (who has a huge plot and a simple headstone, cos they burried him with his car).

Then I walked down to catch the Blue bus loop from place de la Bastille. The blue loop was my last one, as I had done the other three on Friday. I then swapped back to the Orange and went to Tour Montparnasse which is a huge tower that you can go up to the 56th floor in the fastest elevator in Europe (56 floors in about 40 seconds, so fast your ears pop) and see 360' view. And from here you can walk up a few stairs to the 59th floor which is the helipad on the roof, and stand up there in the open. It is in from the edge a fair bit though, so you don't get to see the height perspective of looking down. On a good day you can see up to 40km away, which I think I saw. You could see the curve of the horizon! Plus, unlike the Eiffel tower, there were no queues. While I was up there a lady came off the elevator guiding another lady around who had dark glasses and a cane. Surely that is a waste of €9 for a blind person to experience the view?

Then I went back down to the bottom and walked back to le Jardin du Luxembourg which is a nice big garden that has loads of seats where people were just sitting and watching the world (and the occasional jogger) go by. There are kid's playgrounds, this coold row of swings where the parents all have little spots to stand and push the kids who are going at different times,basketball courts, ponds, bee hives, orange trees. It would be really nice in the spring/summer to come and sit under the trees in the shade and watch the world go by, but in the cold winter sun people were sitting in the open trying to get any residual heat from the sun to warm up!

Then from here I walked across to the Pantheon, which is a copy of the one in Rome, and was boring. The only exciting thing is the pendulum clock that allows the earth to revolve the clock around the pendulum which swings in the same spot. When I got there it was on time, but it didn't catch up and when I left it was 30 minutes late. Maybe the world had slowed down?

Then I went just around the corner and met a girl I chat to online and her husband (who had booked a trip to Paris at the same time as me) for dinner. We went to a typically French place (that smelled of French cheese *shudder*) and ate typical French food. I didn't have the escargot... been there, done that! I had cheese pastry, beef burgundy and creme brulee. Yum!

Sunday 4/2- I got up early and headed off for my grand day as Disney. I caught a proper train and travelled nearly an hour to get to the station right next to the entrance. Then I went in and was suitably impressed with the typical Disney castle. Then 2 hours later after 1 ride (its a small world after all), several diney-esque souveneirs and a whole lot of pity for people who take their children and are forced to spend hours queueing for rides and queueing for fotos with people in disney character costumes, and queueing for extremely overpriced food, and buying WAY too much stuff that they really dont need simply because it has a Disney logo on it and they can't bear the 'but i want one' tantrum any longer like plush fantasia hats with mickey mouse ears stuck out the side. So I got back on the train and went back into Paris and saw the Pompidou centre, the place de vosges, then went back to the Sacre-Coeur for a sunny view picture (spot the difference) and saw the Moulin Rouge with the lights on. Then I went back to my hotel and went to bed, as I had to be up at 6am (5am Uk time) for the airportshuttle back the airport to head home.

I had a good time in Paris, and was lucky with the weather. It is supposed to be snowing there this week. Although, it is really cold here too, and is supposed to be snowing hereon Thursday. I had to scrape the ice off the windscreen thismorning before I could drive anywhere. Got as high as 4'C. Woot!

Now, I don't know if it's because evenyone has given up and isn't reading this anymore, or if it's because you have all just become slack lazy people, but I haven't had a comment for a while, so please write comments, or send me emails. I know I don't send you all personal emails every 5 seconds, but it is because it would just say pretty much word for word what this says, but you could reply from time to time! Please? (unless noone is reading this anymore, then BOO to you!!).

Buon Giorno!

2007-01-24T16:11:00.000Z

Ok, so I am back from Rome. I would have to rate it as my least favourite place thus far (well, not including Calais, which was merde). I think I did it the wrong way though, but there seem to be only 2 ways to do Rome as a backpacker. Make your own way around and look at the pretty things and have no idea what they are cos there are very few written notices for tourists, or you can pay for a tour, where you get WAY too much information because there is 5 years of history in the one spot, and you cannot process it all, you get bored with hearing all the dates and figures and your brain actually shuts down. I spoent the first 2 days in brain shut down mode, and the last 2 in wonder around mode, and I prefered the least information. I can always read about it later if I am that interested! There are LOADS of backpackers (almost all Australian) walking around Rome with maps and confused looks on their faces. The only people with smiles are the rich old people who are probably on their 50th trip and don't need the facts anymore, or the love sick honeymooners almost having sex everytime they see anything new (don't mind me, you carry on, I'll just squeeze past to get to look at that over there shall I?). The good thing was it was about 15-20'C every day and I didn't need my coat at all, and most days barely needed my jumper. I shouldn't say only good thing, as it was very pretty in parts, but there's just too much going on to appreciate all of it. It needed to be spread out over like 5 cities so you didn't get overwhelmed. Anyways.... here's my journey to Rome...
18/1- I left England on one of the windiest days ever (50-60mph winds) as there was a hurricane somewhere near by. On the way to the airport we passed 4 massive semi trailers that had just blown over. It was bad. Half the flights were delayed, some were cancelled, but even though we took off 45 mins late, due to what the captain called "a very strong tail wind" we only arrived 10 mins late. I got a transfer coach to the station and then walked to where I was sure the hostel was, going by the instructions on their website, however it was not on any maps. I found it fine, only 3 minutes from station. I was in a room that shoulod be the boys room first, cos there was a mixed group in the girl's room. It was ok though, apart from the world's smallest shower! I had a drama about what to do with my luggage cos everyone tells you muggings are high, yet there were no locks on the doors or safes for bags, so I would have to decide whether to take stuff with me or risk it in the hostel!
19/1- I got up fairly early, had my free breakfast and left for the open top bus, to get my bearings on where things were. This was over an hour of information on bits and pieces. I went on a loop and a bit as I needed to be at the Colosseum for a 2pm tour. I got there early so I sat in a cafe just opposite and had lasagne. Then when I was walking around a person asked me if I wanted to go on a tour inside, skip the queue and get a guide. There were only 2 others on it, so it was almost apersonal tour. I did that, as my walking tour I booked only did the outside. It was quite infomative,but not too much. Then when that finished I went and joined the walking tour. Our guide for this was a Roman archaeologist who was very passionate so we got WAY too much information and our 3 hours tour turned into over 4 hours! We went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Wedding Cake building, Trevi fountain (where I threw in a coin), Pantheon and Piazza Navona. By the time we finished it was dark and noone was able to listen anymore. He was very knowledgeable, but it was just overload of information. Some interesting, some not. Then I got lost trying to get back to the hostel and was starving so I had maccas with one of the best views!
20/1- I was booked on a tour of the Vatican and Sistene Chapel so I went to catch the bus with the tour and off we went. The Vatican is massive and such an excessive place. It is very beautiful and full of loads of nice, expensive things that have been presented from other countries. Again, there are no labels for what everything is, and the guide was on a strict time schedule so we only saw what she showed us. On interesting fact was all the ceiling that looks like it is relief is all trompe l'oil and painted flat. The sistene chapel was nothing like I expected and was like being in primary school as you had a load of guards clapping their hands, shushing everyone and yelling "no photo!" (but I snuck one anyways!). Then when the tour ended I caught my open top bus again to the Spanish Steps, where I sat and ate Pizza. There were so many people around, locals out walking, shoppers from the sales, toursists. I had to catch the metro to the steps as I got lost, and that was an experience in itself. You have to shove onto an already crowded carriage before everyone has even gotten off, as the doors just close and off it goes. FUN!
21/1- Oh My God! I took the advice of my guide book and went on a walk. I walked for 9 hours! I was exhausted! On my adventures I went to the most confusing museum ever (Capitolini) which the only cool thing in was large fragments of statues from the excessive days of BC Roman times. Then I went to a church which has the 'mouth of truth' a marble disc outside that they used to put people's hands in to see if they had sinned and legend says it would sever the fingers of the hands of a sinner. Apparently a priest used to stand behind it and whack the fingers of those he knew had sinned. I survived so I must be a good girl! Then i went to Ponte Sant' Angelo and from there Castel Sant' Angelo, which you can walk to the top of and get an amazing view of Rome. It was a cloudy day though, otherwise it would have been perfect. I then went on my own adventures to the most expensive street in Rome down from the Spanish Steps again, where there are all the lahdidah shops, and found an amusing sign telling you the rules for the Spanish Steps. Then on to a park with another commanding view, and I somehow ended up back at the Trevi fountain where I had a Gelato.
22/1- My everything ached geting out of bed after my marathon the day before! I went to St Peter's Bascillica with my 2 roommates from the hostel, and then they went one way and I went to Circo Massimo which used to be a chariot arena, and is now a running track, and then back to the Pantheon as when I went before it was night time. I had a very nice (if not expensive) fettucini and hot chocolate in front of the Pantheon, and then I went to the market I tried the day before on my walk but was closed, to find I had just missed it and they were finishing up the packing away. GRRR. Then I gave up and went back to the hostel.
23/1- I got back to England and it was 3'C! COLD!!!!! I went to the pub quiz with Louise and her friends, then stayed the night at the rellies place.
24/1- I woke up thismorning to discover that last night it snowed! Not much, but is snowed!!!I am back in Bristol now and I don't think it snowed here. Noone is home yet for me to ask.
Anyways, that is my adventures in Rome.

Head full of snot

2007-01-10T07:47:00.000Z

Yes, I still have my cold, and still going through roughly a box of tissues a day, with the odd arrival of an excruciating headache to go along with the fun! I worked Monday and then took yesterday off because I woke up, felt like crap, rang and said i was unavailable, and went back to sleep for another 3 hours, making a grand sumof 12 hours sleep, which i obviously needed. I was in 2 minds about whether to do the same today, as I really need to shift this cold, because i don't want it lingering around for weeks and ruining the next few weekends of stuff for me, yet I also am desperate for the money. So which is more important? my health of my money? I decided today I would not ring and make myself unavailable, but I would leave it up to them to ring me if they have work, that way it's out of my hands. It is 7.51am now and so far nothing. But sometimes they don't ring until 8.30am.
I am slightly annoyed because I typed a whole blog entry yesterday and was almost finished when the screen dissappeared and said the site was under maintenance until 9.30am (10.30pm) and I have lost everything I typed :( Not Happy Jan! I will now try and recall what I wrote...
Monday, at work, I worked in a school that I have only worked at once before, back in my 2nd week of teaching here, 4 months ago. I taught a year 6 class then, and once they learnt I was Australian we ended up having an impromptu lesson on spiders. Monday I taught the other yr 6 class at the school, and when I took them down to assembly the class I had 4 months ago waved at me and a couple go "its the spider lady!". Later they came up to me and were telling me some of the facts I had told them about spiders, 4 months earlier! I was quite impressed that they took in so much, as the class I was teaching that day didn't seem to retain information for longer than 2 minutes! So it is true, you only rememeber what interests you! The class I had on Monday were ... um ... noisy! I had to raise my voice a couple of times to get them to stop talking while I was talking, but generally they weren't too bad, compared to some classes I have had. I am not quite sure why I get given year 6 classes, as I was not very good at yr 6 maths myself, so teaching them is a bit of a joke! They were doing subtracting decimals and I had to look at their work to see how they worked it out so I could help the ones who didn't understand it! Tee hee hee! Then in the afternoon we were doing revision on the sun, moon and earth and orbits and gravitational pull etc. After we had talked about it, drawn diagrams on the board, had kids come up and be the moon, earth and sun, and answered the worksheet I got them up to play celebrity head, but with the words we had just been discussing. Like 'orbit' and they had to guess what it was by asking yes/no questions. Then we moved on to 'things in the classroom' then the kids wanted me to have a go and they chose an actual celebrity. I was guessing away and they said they would give me a clue cos 'i would never get it'. The clue was 'she's going out with Jay-Z (if you know who that is)' so I said 'Beyonce' and you should have seen how shocked they were! Once girl said, in typical Bristol style "you're well young miss to know that"! So I think I got some fans in that class! One of the boys who had been horrible all day and I had been on his case all day actually asked if I was back in the next day, and when I said no, he said that I should ask to be back in. Which I thought was odd, cos if anyone was going to not like me, it would be him!
Hmm, what else? I have some housemate changes coming up... the 'small room' as we refer to it, yes, it is smaller than mine, is being filled on Monday by Ashley... which we discovered if a boy Ashley. Then I think next wed Frenchy is leaving to go back to school in France, so we will be getting a replacement for his room at some time too. The smallroom was empty for about 3 months tho, so who knows. Gavin is talking about buying his own house somewhere, so he might leave, but no date yet. I think if I was here any longer than 5 months I would consider getting a different place, just because it has become quite blokey in here, with the level of blokey conversation and blokey comments slowly rising, and its like i dont exist when they say them, whereas before they would appologise when they got too blokey and I was in the room! There is also the issue of the one who plays techno doof doof stuff rather loudly ALL the freaking time! It's only 5 more months here, then a month with the rellies, and of those 5 months, I worked out 43 days i have booked in different places, so its really only 4 months, not including weekends at the rellies, so I think I can cope!
Hmm... what else? Oh, if anyone finds $1000000 lying around anywhere, send it my way, cos I could really do with it! I don't understand HOW people come to live in London, in a flat with 8 or 9 other Aussies and do supply teaching and go to different countries only to look at the ouside of buildings cos they can't affordto go in, and don't buy guidebooks cos thwy cost too much etc, but I now understand WHY they do it! But if i have to go back to Australia with no money left in my pockets, yet the experience of having lived in England like and English person and really experienced the culture and history of different countries, rather than ticking them off a list, then that to me seems so much better than the alternative. Surely you would go to England to see English people? Not to hang out with as any Aussies as you possibly can in the Aussie part of London where is isn't really England anyway. *end rant*
Ok, so, looks like I will not be working today, which I am kind of glad about, except not I am showered and dressed for no reason. But I will definately ring them thisafternoon and ask about work for tomorrow and Friday. Keep the comments coming, as I love to read them, and I probably wont blog again until I get back from Rome.
Oh, and it wouldn't be English of me if I didn't mention the weather! It has rained on and off for about 10 days straight now, so I will be sending some of it you way as soon asI work out how to control the weather. I shouldn't complain about the rain, because I might not ever see it again when I get back to Oz! Anyways, just thought I'd rub that in! I actually get excited at the number of different shades of green lush grass there are in the countryside here, which is quite sad, because its all pale green- brown in Australia, and from what I hear, just getting browner! So, I will head off now, and try and get my weather controlling powers working, and blog again when I get back from Rome on the 23rd.
Ammendment: I just got home from work, as soon as I clicked Publish the fone rang and i spent the day with feral 4 yr olds at the worst school in Bristol (where i worked in my 1st 3 days teaching) and I'm back again on Friday! Huzzah! I'm eating mickey mouse pasta bake with the micket mouse pasta I bought in Pisa! (just thought I'd throw that in!)

Hippo Gnu Ear!

2007-01-02T16:59:00.000Z

Hello! Yes, I know it's been a while but oh... the dramas!!! I don't know whether I mentioned the fact that my old laptop commited suicide (merry xmas to me!) btu I had to order a new laptop and get it delivered up at my Aunt's place where I have been since a few days before xmas. It is a reconditioned IBM and thus far I have noticed a few small problems, the most obvious of which is the space bar is temperamental, so I blend words together! So yes, new laptop, and wasn't at home, so didn't have my cable to download photos so I thought I would save it until i got home and could do that.
So.. xmas eve I went with my Aunt and Uncle to the village hall for an xmas carols event which I played 2 pieces on my clarinet at, and also participated in general sing-a-long-ness. It was different, but good, a nice community turnout. There was also this little boy who sang 'in the bleak midwinter' (a real uplifting carol) in proper church boy high pitch stuff. Was pretty good.
Then xmas day we had pressies ( i got the coolest monkey slipper socks that when u move ur feet they eat the bananas!) and croissants and then a proper xmas dinner (lunch) at one Aunts, then in the evening joined the other and all the family to play charades (family tradition) and open more pressies and other such family xmas-ness. It was young vs old in charades, and of course we won! HUZZAH!
Then on boxing day Marion and Linda (both aunts) and I went to see 'the holiday' at the movies which was a real tear jerker rom-com (apparently what we now must call romantic comedies). Then I headed back to Marion's as the grown ups (i know, i know) were going out to a neighbours for drinks.
I had an excursion to a local castle and the home of the porkpie at Melton Mewbray and Stamford, for a look around.
On the weekend I went back to Linda's and we went to Oxford (but the rain had been hanging around for a couple of days and came back to make our open top bus experience rather foggy and impossible to see, but at least I got a sense of what there is that I could go back and see). And on the way there we went to a little pub called the Turnpike and I had my very friest toad in the hole! Very Exciting!! That night though I developed the dreaded lurgy, which my cousin got on xmas day, and I have been sick since, with a rather bad head cold. Joy!
I got 12 hours sleep sat night so wasn't too bad for NYE! I spent it back at Marion's (even though they went over to Linda's) cos Louise and Dom's friends were coming over, and I have met them a couple of times now, and they are some of the nicest people in the world, as they welcome everyone in and are very warm! Oh yeah, i forgot to say when I first got up to Marion's I went out with them twice, once to a pub where they meet up with an old teacher from time to time, and the next night to one of their houses to experience their new Nintendo Wii (i won bowling, yes, thankyou! new record!). So I knew most of them. In the one room, with 12 people on NYE there was only 5 girls and 3 of us were called Rachel (Rachael)! How odd is that! It was a nice night!
Then yesterday i did NOTHING other than use a whole box of tissues, and I drove back down today to Bristol. My new years resolution is to try and spendless money on crap i don't need! I conquered last years! It was no maccas! I was having issues with a new years resolution for this year as some of the bigger goals i have had for myself I realised that I have actually come a good way to achieving in the last 5months of being here, like improved confidence and taking more risks, and improved ability to handle new social environments. I think I have had to tackle these head on being over here, especially with different schools and different countries and different housemates and different hostel dormmates, I have had to talk to more strangers than ever before and not be so scared of them, or take the attitude I wont see them again so why make the effort, which I can normally get away with. Maybe i'm becoming a grown up! EEEEEK! No! not gonna happen!

Do they know it's christmas time at all?

2006-12-15T14:05:00.000Z

Hello! I am still tying to get used to the fact that it is still 10 sleeps til xmas! I don't feel festive. Despite the fact that every school I have been to I have been enduring xmas carols and other fun stuff like rehearsals for plays, reading '6 white boomers' everywhere I have been, kids making decorations, and school classrooms that look like a tinsel monster threw up in them! I have no decorated anything, partly because I have nothing to decorate things with, and partly because I wont be here for xmas, as I am going to the rellies, so I don't see the point. I am most missing my xmas nails tradition, as thats what gets me in the mood for xmas.

We had our band concert last weekend. It went ok. Considering a lot of the pieces I have no played the whole way through at a rehearsal (due to me missing some, and due to us not making it through in one go) it could have been a lot worse! The conductor(s) were pleased, so I spose we didn't do anything too bad!

I am waiting for a phone call at the moment, as I have been in demand for work! The school I have done a lot of work at, I got approached by the Head Teacher (what we know as a Principal) who asked if the Deputy Head had found me to discuss dates for next year. I then went off in search of her in the afternoon, and she said she had heard lots of good things about me, and how consciencous I am, and asked if I was interested in covering a couple of the teacher's PPA (programming time), as I had been requested. I said yes, gave her my dates I am going to be on trips for, and was told they would call Select who would call me. I am now waiting to hear back from Select, I just rang them and asked them to chase it up, as it could be 2, maybe 3 days work. Probably 1/2 days, but I can find additional work for the other 1/2 of the day, and at least it is teaching, so if they gave me a 9 hour nursery shift (like they did yesterday... in Swindon again) i would still be earning the same amount as 3 hours teaching! So, the moral of the story is, I am brilliant!

I have discovered the worst thing about working over here. It's not the traffic jams from hell, it's not the shocking education system, its not the unenthusiastic teachers, nor is it the lack of pay...it's the playground duty when it is gale force winds and 6'C before you factor in the wind!! I tried to keep my hands in my pockets but the kids found a worm, so I picked it up for them to look at, and I couldn't put my hand back into my pocket then as it had worm guts and dirt on it!

I don't think I have anything else to share with everyone, so I will leave you now. I am going up to Northampton for xmas, and I will try and write more during the xmas/new years break, as I am taking the laptop with me, but until then, MERRY XMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

ahoj!

2006-12-04T14:45:00.000Z

Yes, I know i haven't blogged in a while but there's only so much you can ramble on about how boring work is, so I thought I'd wait until i got back from Prague. I got back Wednesday but then I went up to visit my Aunt and Uncle as they live only 30 mins from Birmingham airport, not 2 hours. OK, so... i have filled half a notebook on jottings from my time in Prague, and I'm sure I will bore you all stupid if i re-write that all exactly, so I will just summarise bits of it. With the odd pretty picture for those who dislike reading!

Wednesday 22/11- I arrived at the airport a good solid 4 hours before the flight, however they let me check in, so at least i was through to the interesting part of the airport. They are allowing fluids on flights now, but no more than 100mls and u have to put them in a see through carrier bag. And they made me take my shoes off to walk through the metal detector...not just me, everyone, not that I can fit anything in there except socks, orthodics and feet! Then the dude checking the passports just looked at the ticket and said "Prague hey? cultural trip" and gave it back. Didn't even look at the passport photo! But that's ok cos i don't have a bomb in my shoe! SO, i board the plane, and I notice a major difference between BMIBaby and Thomson... on the safety card it says to pull out the exit above the wing and escape over the wing.. however Thomson is intelligent enough to put a picture of flames outside the window and a cross, but BMIbaby assumes people will not open it if the wing is on fire! never assume anything with the general public!! The flight finally left 40 mins late yet we arrived on time, according to the captain "thanks to the traffic control giving them a good tail wind" ... since when do they control the weather?? So i got an airport shuttle transfer organised, lady holding a card with my name on it, and off we went. Glad I did, cos i would never have found the hostel by myself! I get shown up to the 4th floor... all stairs... no lift... and the room I have by myself as I asked for a female only room and noone else had. So I found the sheets with the least stains and the pillow without the black mould and made the bed using their base sheet and my own pillow case and quilt cover as theirs came with added hair! Then I went to bed.

Thursday 23/11 - I had a crappy night sleep and gave up at 7.30am when I showered (smashing my foot when getting out of the shower) and headed out into the gorgeous blue skies, but freezing weather! 4'C! Jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, jumper, jacket, gloves, beanie and scarf and still cold! I walked towards the old square, or Staromestske namesti (with lots of accents on everything) and fumbled around there for a bit. I saw the astronomical clock, which chimes every hour, and stumbled across the Vltava river. WOW! It was pretty damned impressive! Then from here I walked over a bridge and up the hill towards Prague castle (Prazsky hrad), or so I thought, but I ended up walking further than I needed up a steeper hill, and then coming down on the castle. At least there were good views. I walked round a corner and saw the castle, this awesome view, and there was a 3 piece group busking with classical music and it just was the perfect soundtrack for the view! Inside the castle I went to the cathedral and went to a classical concert in one of the rooms of the castle, where a pianist, flautist and violinist played a range of classical music for an hour. It cost me 390Kc (about $20) for the experience. My knees and feet were quite sore from all the cobbled streets and hills, so I went back down, via a supermarket, where I shopped by picture! Any country that sells smurf marshmallows is alright by me! And realising I hadn't eaten anything all day and it was 4pm, I had traditional Czech KFC and went back to the hostel. I got 3 drips of rain on my as I turned the corner into the hostel street, but that was all. I took off my shoes and my foot that I smashed in the shower decided to be excruciatingly painful, so who knows if i have broken anything? Oh well.

Friday 24/11- My foot killed as soon as I stood on it, but I don't have time to rest it and see a doctor and blah, so I'll just cope. I caught the metro into the old square where I had decided to get a tour out to somewhere else for the day. It was another glorious day. I got off at Muzeum instead of Muztek and walked further than I would have if i just walked from the hostel, so everything was already really sore by the time I got to the square, including a blister I was starting to rub from walking funny! The tour was me, an Irish couple who whinged about everything and I know all the intricacies of her bowel issues, and Julian (sigh) a Canadian who's work paid for him to come cos it was the same cost as a flight home. He made the trip worth while! We went to a church called the Ossuary which was AWESOME! They had to make the land smaller, so they dug up 40,000 people's bones and the dude who was the curator or whatever at the time didn't want to throw them away cos they were someone's history, so he decorated the church with them! Then from here we went on to Kutna Hora which is one of the many Unesco listed towns in Czech republic, where we walked (hobbled) around a bit and then had a traditional Czech lunch (mushroom soup, chicken steak and potatoes and an icecream cakey dessert). From there we went into St Barbara Cathedral which had really nice views. Then from there it was back on the bus and back to the hostel.

Saturday 25/11- I got up at 6am and went to take a photo of the sunrise, having found the perfect spot on Karluv most (Charles bridge) so I walked around to there, having got off at the wrong metro again, and my foot was in agony, plus it was freezing! Then I made it to the bridge, sat there for about 1.5 hours, realised the sun had risen but was behind clouds and went off to do other stuff. I got on the funicular railway that took you to the top of a hill where there is a little mini Eiffel tower called Rozhledna which is 60 metres high and was built for some Jubilee expo. Of course it is all stairs too, and being cloudy there was not a great view, but it was quite good. It looks very stable but it actually sways at the top when the wind picks up! Then back on the railway, which is on about a 45' angle back down. I wandered for about 3 hours, in agony, looking for somewhere to sit (there's nowhere!) but I did get some more xmas gifts for people. Nowhere sells charms for my bracelet, which is annoying, cos everywhere I asked answered like they had heard the question 1000000 times, so why hasn't someone cottoned on to the idea that there is a market for them? Then I hobbled back to the hostel and rested my foot. I met 3 other people in the hostel. Jan (yan) from Slovakia who smoked like a train, Paul and his friend who I never heard his name from England who were there together. We chatted and stuff until about midnight. The smoking didn't help the cough I seem to have developed though.

Sunday 26/11- I went on another outing to Karlstejn Castle which was beautiful, but painful. 2.3km up a hill between 15' and 23' the whole way (according to a sign) and of course about 750m into this my right knee (same as sore foot) committed suicide cos of the way I have been walking to compensate foot, plus cobbles, plus hills! So I was in agony for the whole day. The castle was very nice, and we were the last tour through before it was closed for the winter, so that was handy! There's a room in there with relics in it and some of the jewels. There is a crocodile skull that king Wenceslas bought as he was told it was the skull of the Dragon that St George slayed. So it is the most expensive crocodile skull in history! There is also a patch of blood still on the floor from when one of his wives used the secret passageway between his bedroom and her bedroom, but he was out and she forgot his hunting dogs guarded the room, so she was mauled to death. I made a compromise on the charm for the bracelet and bought a small garnet as they are mined in Bohemia which includes Prague. The people on the tour were French and Russian as well as English, but they spoke when the tour guide was giving his blurb in anything other than their language. He even turned around and yelled at them at one point cos it was so rude! I got back, showered and sat on my bed with my leg elevated. If anyone else was in the pain I was in today they would have been screaming on the floor. It took me the whole 45 mins we were given after the tour to get back down the hill cos my knee was so sore. But I didn't have time for agony, so it would have to wait.

Monday 27/11- I got up at 6am again and headed to the same spot, and again the sun didn't come up! I wasted the 2 days of sunshine cos it has been cloudy (but not rainy) every day since. GRRRR. I sat on the bridge listening to classical music on my ipod which was a bit surreal but seemed appropriate. The metro was much more crowded, being a work day, all it was lacking was the guys in Japan who shove people on! First thing in the morning the Vltava looks like a scene from Titanic as there are hundreds of seagulls and dozens of swans just floating on it in the darkness, semi-asleep. Very odd. I gave up after the sun failed to burn through again, and headed off to the Mozart museum, which was really the Mozart 7 minute walk through 4 rooms. I even read every single thing in English on the walls. I then went back to the hostel via the supermarket again. Riddle me this... when is a Smartie not a Smartie? When it's a Lentilky! I got back, had a chat to the boys about soccer and cars (wow) then Jan and person who's name I don't know went off to get a very cheap student meal that Jan knew about (he had been there for 2 months). It was traditional Czech mystery food! You got to pick a number based on a photo of the dish you want. Who knows what they were. I think I had beef goulash and bread dumplings. I also bought a ticket for a tour for Tuesday which is a 10 hour tour, hopefully not 2 hours travel and 8 hours walking, cos I will cry!

Tuesday 28/11- I woke up to discover another 2 girls in my room! I had no idea what time they came in so I must have been really tired! I slept from 9pm to 7.30am, which is good for me! I missed the sunrise, but it is cloudy again anyways. I went on a tour out to Karlovy Vary which is a spa town. There is the locals down the bottom and then a town of all hotels up the top which is where people come to have treatments. The people that go are called patients, and some go to escape the rat race, and others go cos they have medical disorders. But you go and included in the hotel price is 3 meals a day plus 3 spa treatments a day (massage, sauna, colonic irrigation) and then u walk around the town in between and sip water from the 12 different mineral springs that are channeled up through taps. The peak time is summer, so there was hardly anyone there as stupid as us an enduring the 2'C temps! We got lunch included here too, as the aperitif was Becherovka which is Czech vodka, and I had a sip. It is strong stuff that is herbal, so u can't even mix it with anything cos it tastes like grass clippings (to me who doesn't drink). Then vegetable soup (with more mushrooms), goulash (with 3 pieces of meat hidden in a pool of sauce) and no dessert. Bastards! We were shown where part of the new James Bond film was made (I saw it on Saturday with the rellies) and it's the bit where they say they are in Montenegro or somewhere, the poker scene. He stays in the hotel I have a photo of!

Wednesday 29/11- I decided to not get up early for sunrise, which was good cos it didn't... again! I packed all my stuff up and checked out at 10am, then went to the old town square where I did some people watching while I ate a traditional Trdelnik which is bread rolled in nuts and sugar and cinnamon and vanilla. It looks donutty but it rather thin bread, so stale is a word that sprung to mind! It crumbled to the floor as I was eating it so I had a collection of pigeons by my feet eating the crumbs. This old lady brought her 3 yr old (?) grandkid to watch the pigeons and they stood and watched me feed the pigeons and when I had finished walked off, so now I'm the crazy pigeon lady! I got to the airport about 8 hours early because I couldn't really go anywhere with my whole backpack and everything. I read a dodgy UK magazine I paid way to much for and was just about to lapse into a coma (there are 3 shops in the bit before customs at Prague airport) the 2 Malaysian girls who are also staying in UK working and travelling... the ones who I discovered in my room... showed up and luckily they brought extra trashy UK mags so we traded mags and then I headed through, got on the plane and drove to my Aunt's place where I spent the last 4 days.

I learnt a couple of Czech words:

Tam = Push

Sem = Pull

Yay me! Everyone spoke English, so why learn such a confusingly hard language! I ate traditional Czech food. I drank traditional Czech drink. I went to places outside of Prague. I met people. I broke myself. I survived the cold. Oh... in addition to the smashed foot, blisters on foot from walking funny, buggered up knee, sore calves from cobbles, bruise on hand from taking on and off backpack, cough (which turns out to be asthma cough and I am on medication)... I somehow managed to roll over in bed and smash my head into the bed post which woke me up and i let out a scream... only to discover this was the night I had acquired 2 people in my once empty room! But other than my general ability to injure myself in unconventional ways, I had a very good time, and Prague is so far the most beautiful place I have been to, because of the hills, which allow perspective and you can see more than just what is in from of u. Shame about the sunrise/sunset photos.

snot factories

2006-11-11T15:09:00.001Z

I have spent the last week working with tiny little snot factories in a nursery in Swindon. Not only were they little snot factories, but they came with 10% added drool for one low cost! Yes, I spent the week with 1-2 yr olds. Some of them were cute, because they didn't have a fountain of bodily fluids pouring down their face all day, and some were just *shudder*. There was one little girl who screamed when u left her alone, screamed when u came near her, she hated me, she was just a little bundle of rage. So she was fun. The other crier attached himself to me, so I spent 3 of the 5 days with him in my arms most of the day, which was ok, because he was cute and snuggled in, and wasn't a snot factory, but he was huge! Not like Pavarotti huge, but he was just big, and my back, arms, legs, hips, shoulders, everything hurt because u constantly shifted him around.
I managed to dodge a bullet though because they didn't get me to change any nappies, even though I am legally allowed to as I'm not a paedophile, so I just go to them "he has done a poo" and they changed him. BRILLIANT!
The car survived the trip every day. I have done over 500 miles in a week. It shudders when I change gears, well, jerks more than shudders, and when u get it to 5th gear and take it to 4 on the revs dial (staying well within the legal speed limit at all times, of course) the car starts jerking again. So I had to stay with the flow on the motorway. Monday was fun, and Tuesday, but Monday particularly as I wasn't sure where I was going. It was foggy, like couldn't see the house over the road foggy when I left at 7.10am. The motorway was less foggy than Bradley stoke, but it was still quite bad, so you couldn't see the signs until the were right next to you, not good when your not sure where u are! There are these electronic signs down the middle of the motorway so when there is a crash or something they flash and light up "50" so you know to slow down. On Monday and Tuesday they read "Fog" which was AWESOME and helpful, because you couldn't see them until you were upon them because of the fog! The red ring shows the sign that says fog. See what I mean! I have discovered some new ways to talk and some new words thanks to spending a week with 20 something girls. Here is my "how to speak pommy" guide:
Well - used as a replacement for very, e.g. "I was well impressed with that"
Lush - cute, adorable, "awww, you're lush"
Paddy - tantrum, "he just had a proper paddy then"
Babes - apparently exactly the same as babe, "aww, babe, come back" but said as a plural
And now for the confusing ones:
Rubbish is considered a swear word "that was rubbish" "you're rubbish"
lunch is called dinner, but only when it's hot otherwise it's still lunch, dessert is called pudding, dinner is called tea, unless u had lunch, not dinner at lunchtime in which case it's still dinner, unless its at 3pm, then its still tea but its afternoon tea. Did you get all that?
Hmm, what else? Nothing. It's been a busy week with all the traveling, 9-6pm shifts and leaving the house at 7 and getting home at 7. Tuesday I have a fun day, because I am back in Swindon, in a different nursery, from 8-6. Joy for 10 hour shifts and joy for 8am start, because it means I get to leave at 6.30am! WOOT! And Wednesday is 10-6, so that's not SO bad. They offered me a 5 day a week contract until Xmas as a teacher in a class with autistic children (with 3 support staff) however there were 2 problems. A) It was in Swindon. B) It was starting Monday and I am going to Prague on 22nd so not available. But it would have been good experience otherwise. I asked why they keep sending me to Swindon and they said it is because there are more jobs there, and I am one of the few who will go, so they offer it to me. I don't like going, but if I don't go I might get no work or half a day nursery stuff here, which is crap pay, plus they pay me some petrol money, so it's not TOO bad.Thanks for my ONE comment last time, random as it was. I'm over my home sickness. For now! Looks like it might rain. I think I’ll nip to the shops now and get some food before that happens. Ciao!

Brrrrrr part 2

2006-11-05T15:31:00.000Z

OK, so I felt the need to add some pictures of my winter woolies I got on my shopping adventure for Prague and to survive winter. I got a cute beanie with hangy down ear covery bits and some rainbow "arm wamers" and 2 pair of fingerless gloves/arm warmers. They are so cool, very comfy and nice and bright (me, bright? no! never!). So now i have rainbow beanies, scarves, socks, jumper and glove thingos. Yay me! They are all from different times tho, so none match perfectly, o I went with a black beanie with hangy down things cos i thought a patterned one might clash with my scarves, PLUS cos of my giant head it was the only one that fit! In addition to this I also got thermal socks, thermal tights and a thermal singlet.

I think I have discovered what homesickness is all about. I am feeling quite lonely on the other side of the world. I have loads of people to talk to at work, band, housemates etc, but no real friends. So its a bit hard. Plus I watched a movie on friday night "eight below" about the huskies left behind and it was sad in a couple of bits and it made me miss Ernie. Altogether now.... "awwwwwwww". SO yeah, if anyone reading this wants to send me an email, a proper letter, a comment at the end (just click on add comment... dont forget ur name)... anything I would GREATLY appreciate it because i'm just a bit lonely at the moment. It could be because I am sending everything via this, and assuming people are reading it, but I then don't get replies like I would with emails on how everything is going for those who are reading it. (some of you are keeping me up to date, and thats great...thanks!). I think because everything has settled down into a routine i've kinda had enough time to take a breath and for it all to catch up with me. Don't panic tho, I wont be rushing home any time soon, I still have lots of stuff to do.... and I have to stay until May at least because May 26th I am going to see Dirty Dancing the stage musical!!! Because nobody puts Baby in the corner! (oh, not related to anything at all, I taught a kid the other day who's parents are apparently druggies, and he's called Buddy Holly!)

Brrrrrrr

2006-11-03T15:12:00.000Z

I want to know how the weather knows that it is winter now??? We have gone from 3 months of "unseasonably warm weather" to the 1st of November being the first day of proper weather for this time of the year, and frost on cars, thick jackets needed, highs all day of 11-12'C. How does it know??
Well, my week has been average, I didn't ring in for work on Mon and Tues as I was so exhausted from all the travelling I just wanted a sleep in, and they didn't ring me, so obviously they weren't desperate. Then Wednesday I worked all day in the place I was at last term, where I got asked back too. I was sitting in the staff room and someone asked someone else who I was, and they obviously said, and I just heard "oh, so that's Rachel?" and then they started talking to me about how I had this reputation and they would request me wherever possible, but I'm known as the kookaburra lady for teaching them the Kookaburra song! The teacher I was with was lovely, and had only been teaching 3 years, decided to get her degree once her kids had grown up. She asked me at the end of the day for any suggestions I had to help her, she was one of the best teachers I have worked with yet, and I told her so.
Then yesterday I was booked to work at Swindon (over an hour away) and to be there at 8am. So I set the alarm for 5.30am, got up, showered, got dresses and left the house at 6.15am. The car was covered in ice and it was FREEZING outside. I turned the engine on and all I got was a flash of the lights and then they all went out, no engine turning over noises. Then I waited and tried again (once the 'door open' light was on again, as it meant the battery was working again) and the same thing. I tried several more times and at around 6.20am managed to get it on, but a little orange light with the car and a spanner came on. I tried to drive and there was no power, so I got as far as reversing out and 3 metres down the road, inbetween my house and the neighbours. So I rang AA (our NRMA) and I only have roadside assist, don't I?? So I gave all my details, then she put me on to the person who I had to pay another 88GBP to get home start added to my membership. I was told it will be some time before 8am. It was now 6.30am. I rang Select and left a message. I rang them again and left another message at 7.15am when he still wasn't there. AA arrived at 7.25am. He said he would 'download' to see what the fault was, but might not be able to fix it, because it was electrical. He does this and 'no fault registered' comes up and the light went out. So he asked me to drive it round the block, which I did, and it worked fine, so he filled in the paperwork, told me if it happens again to take it to the local dealership, and left. By this time it is 7.33am. I ring select for the 4th time and finally get a real person, who tells me to please still go to Swindon and they will ring the nursery and tell them what happened. So off I head, I got about 2 miles down the road and it is jerking and the engine starts miss firing. So I drive it, carefully, to the local dealership and leave it there for them to look at. I also rang select and said there was no way I was going to get to Swindon and they would have to replace me. Then I get to sit and wait for the courtesy bus to take me back home again, which I finally got to at 10am. So 6.15-10am all that took. I was not a happy camper. I did a couple of loads of washing and watched a DVD that I hired that had come in the mail (I highly recommend "Confetti" if you read this mum, you will like it), and then at 3.45pm I got a call saying the courtesy bus would come get me again as the car was ready to collect.
120GBP later I got new spark plugs and a fee for them to assess the vehicle. I drove it around a bit and it was still not 100% when I changed gears, better, but still a bit jerky. I took it straight back and the girl at the desk said to leave it til tomorrow (today) and she would leave my card out, but they can take a while to settle down. So I did.
Today I worked at Barton Hill again in the morning, and the car was still doing the same thing when I changed gears. So I took it back after I finished work and she said she could book it in for this afternoon but she couldn't guarantee they would even look at it, and if they did, t still wouldn't get finished til Monday, or I could bring it back next week, but as she had no courtesy cars that wouldn't work, because I have been booked in every day next week to work in Swindon, so I NEED a car every day, cos I can't afford a taxi to Swindon, even for one day, and me and public transport don't mix, especially when I don't know where I am going and have to be there by 9am! So it is booked in for the 13th November and I am going to cross my fingers that it will work until then!
I have NO plans for the weekend, and now, because of my car saga it doesn't look like I will be getting any, other than maybe going to the shops and buying myself some leggings or long johns or something, as I have managed to keep my top warm, but my legs are freezing! I even wore my thick bed socks to work today inside my ankle boots to stop by feet freezing! So I will DEFINITELY need something for Prague!
Mum (being technologically impaired) asked me whether I had been printing off my blog for prosperity as what happens to the old entries. They get archived on the blog site, but I had already thought of using my blog entries as the text to go with my scrapbooky items I have been collecting (maps, tickets, photos etc) for when I get back, so I went through and copied and pasted from "30 days to go" into Word this afternoon without formatting and pictures and stuff, so I have it all in one spot and it's easy to print off, and now it's less of a job to do 13 months worth when I get back. It was interesting to read my ideas from back then, to what has actually happened! I didn't do any travel until October, when my original plan was to do the tour in August, and I still haven't been to the places that were on that tour! I have booked the following trips though:
Nov- Prague (Czech Republic)
Jan- Rome (Italy)
Feb - Paris (France)
Feb - Salzburg (Austria)
Mar - Dublin (Ireland)
April - Hanover (Germany)
Giving myself roughly 4-5 days in each place, some over a weekend, some during the week. Salzburg is during school holidays, that's why I have 2 in Feb. I have nothing in December because I need to work to survive the 2 weeks school holidays when I will be up with the rellies. It is rather a juggling act with the money, but whilst I still have something in the savings I wont panic too much!
Oh, and I also read about my speeding fine... here's the latest update on that... I sent away my licence and a cheque for the fine and it came back a week later saying because it wasn't a UK licence it could not be processed as a conditional fine, and had been referred back to the Northampton Police who may wish to pursue the matter further. So at the moment, I have had nothing happen. I don't know if I will have to pay? If I will have to go to court? If I will just get a slap on the wrist and be told to be more careful. I have no idea!! And I don't really want to ask because I don't want to remind someone about me, incase I just slip under the rug somewhere and manage to avoid this for a year!
Hmm, ok, I can't think of anymore news, updates etc. I have a new housemate, another boy! Ola, he's African or something, very dark colourings. He's nice, but has a very deep voice so it vibrates through the house so you can hear him everywhere! There's an empty room, so who knows who will get that? Its the TEENY room, that now its empty I see it doesn't even have a wardrobe, just a single bed and bedside table!
PLEASE write comments, or send emails, or send actual mail, because I love hearing what is happening on the other side of the world and keeping up to date. Susan and Karl and Izzy from Neighbours are doing the tour of media interviews at the moment over here, which is very sad that everyone is so interested!

Hallo!

2006-10-30T15:28:00.000Z

Yes, Hallo is Dutch for hello! Challenging isn't it? I suppose it doesn't really matter much because as I found out almost 50% of Amsterdam is multicultural! And most people speak fluent Dutch, English and Spanish, and several are also fluent in Italian and other such things as well. I was a good girl, no sex drugs and rock and roll, although I could have had all if i wanted to! So, here's my week...

Monday: Boy was it cold, driving to airport and it was 12'C at midday! Got there and had some dodgy fish and chips for dinner. There was a rather posh man speaking loudly on the phone to his wife "yes, this airport is rather dreary. yes, dinner with _someone_ Parker-Bowles was delightful". Good for him! Arrived at Amsterdam in the rain, to discover when I claimed my bag it had been put on top of all the others, because it was soft, so it was almost soaked through, where as the hard ones can at least be wiped clean! I struggled along with my backpack on my back, carrying the large pack, looking at a map, under and umbrella, in the rain, in the dark. Luckily a possibly homeless man helped me! Turns out it is a Christian youth hostel, with bible study and church outtings. I was on the top bunk, joy! And there were church bells dingling away all night on the hour, so I didn't get a great deal of sleep!

Tuesday: I woke up at 5, 6, 7, 7.30 and decided to give up around then, showered and put on my jeans that were slightly damp still from the rain the night before. I had my free breakfast, listening to Bernard Fanning being played, which was rather odd. It was still raining, but I went for a walk around. I saw red lights in the windows 2 doors down from the Christian Youth Hostel, which was odd! Went to Anne Frank's house, saw a couple of churches, went to the flower markets, which sells all different tulip bulbs, and also tonnes of souvenier shops. You could buy seeds to grow your own cannibus plants, and you could buy cannibus lollipops etc. Walking throught Dam Square, which is the main square, you could see every type of restaurant ever, because Amsterdam is VERY multicultural! There are bikes everywhere! Everyone has bikes, everyone rides bikes, none of them are new, they are all old style bikes, but there i heaps of them! It chucked down with rain in the afternoon and I got jack of walking through the rain, so I went back to the hostel with some postcards and got changed out of my jeans that were soaked up to my knees. On the way though, I stopped off at the Hemp, Hash and Marijuana Museum to see award winning plants and learn about all the things you can make from one plant, including clothes, paper, plastics, shoes, teddies etc etc etc. Anyways, then the sun came out about 2.30 and I had seen that there was a 3pm tour of Amsterdam, so I put my shoes back on and rushed to catch that. It was 2 hours in a closed in coach with comentary. The 2 hours was actually 2/3 tour and 1/3 Coster Diamond factory trying to get us to buy diamonds once we had learn about how they are cut etc. I learnt a fair bit about the city, and it was all rather interesting. I booked a 1/2 day tour for Thursday aswell. I got back, grabbed a slice of pizza (seems to be the done thing) and walked back via the red light district with ladies in the windows at this stage, (possibly not ALL ladies to begin with) to the hostel where I sat and ate pizza, wrote postcards and watched Rex Hunt on tv! I managed to move down to the bottom bunk as the girl that was there moved out, so YAY! I saw this in a window in one of the shops from the red light district...

Wednesday: I slept for over 11 hours after going to bed at 8pm last night. There were 2 new people in the room who didn't even hear come in (god bless the inventor of ear plugs)! My hip was sore from walking about 8 hours the day before, plus I smashed it getting off the coach. It wasn't raining though! I walked up towards Centraal Station and along from there. The sun rose but dissapeared behind fog. It was about 9'C. I could see the Windmill I saw yesterday on the coach but it was hidden in the mist and fog. Then I walked down to the zoo. It was a good zoo, one of the oldest in Europe, but it had some different animals, which was good! There was a new butterfly enclosure you could walk through, and that was amazing as they were landing on people and there were hundreds of them! I have discovered that the Dutch are very rude people though. They push and walk straight into you, and talk very loudly in queues, and ride their bikes almost into you, and are generally rude when it comes to social skills, but as for public relations and customer service, they were really good. When I stopped for lunch I sat near the Zebra enclosure and got to watch 2 of them try to make little zebras! Which was amusing! I then walked around to something the signs said "Kindermuseum" and I thought, yeah, ok, but when I got there it is FOR kids, not about kids, and was full, being school holidays! I got on the Canal bus to go around to the Van Gogh museum and Rijkmuseum, and you get informative commentary with that too, however to "fun" it advertised was possibly overrated! It was cool seeing all the differen houseboats along the sides of the canal though, this one had its own floating garden next to it, but most were just covered in pot plants. The Rijkmuseum was closed for renovation, so I went to the Van Gogh museum, which was like any other art gallery, but I'm glad I went, seeing as how I was on his territory. I was lucky that it rained while I was in the museum then stopped again. I got Frites on the way back from the canal bus stop at Centraal, which seems to be the national dish, but instead of the traditional mayo I got ketchup with mine.

Thursday: I had an average night sleep. I was up at 6am and got no more sleep. I went to Madamme Tussauds in the morning, and some of the statues were really good, others looked rather waxy. I got to have dinner with George Clooney though! I then went back to the hostel, charged the camera, dumped some stuff and went to sit in Dam Square and people watch while I waited for my afternoon coach tour. Dam Square is the origin of Amsterdam, as it was a dam built on the only true river, the Amstel river, and the Dam became the city, from there it has expanded into a number of canals etc, however the Amstel is still the only true natural waterway. Amstel Dam became Amsterdam after time. Anyways, I watched a family hand feeding pigeons, and that can't be hygenic as the bird were up on their arms clawing them and they are the rats of the sky! Coach trip was good. Went out to one of the 2 true Delft blue factories that exist, where you got to see how it all works. Then on to the Hague and look at the Peace Palace, and then on to Madurodam which is 1:25 scale model of Holland. That was quite good. They put carp in the water, which was interesting, considering it is 1:25 so the carp look like whales. And a heron landed and watched the boat going back and forth across a canal, so it looked like Godzilla! On the way back was this beautiful sunset.

Friday: Up at 5.30, dressed in the dark, lugged my stuff to Centraal, then caught a train to airport. I didn't really realise on the way in but Amsterdam airport is massive! It has a casino, hotel, museum, childs play area, sleep area etc. I caught my plane back and all went well.

The rest of the weekend was spent down in Devon with my Aunt and Uncle which was nice and relaxing.

Been nowhere, done nuffink

2006-10-19T21:51:00.000+01:00

I got requested to work somewhere Monday, and then I was in the staff room on my break and 2 staff were outside and one asked about the person I was replacing, so they other mentioned I was there, and the first one said “she is sposed to very good, Helen said she was good with the kids when she came last week” so I am getting a name for myself, and the head teacher came in and asked me to work for them again after break. Plus I have been back to another place I was at last week, they didn’t say whether I was requested or not, but obviously I wasn’t not asked for.
Had my national insurance interview today, that was fun, I mean boring. I was one of the few ppl having an interview that didn’t have to be SPOKEN ... TO ... SLOWLY ... AND ... LOUDLY ... WITH ... THE ... HOPES ... THAT ... WOULD ... HELP ... THEM ... UNDERSTAND. Cos everyone knows if u don’t speak English, being spoken to like ur a deaf idiot makes it suddenly all make sense. There was another aussie guy there, he actually sounded like mick Dundee, which I thought was hilarious, cos that’s how ppl think we talk anyways. I have had several children ask me if I speak Australian. I say “yes”. They say “cool, can you say something in Australian?” I say “yeah, I just did” and they look confused. Yet they all know steve Irwin and I assume could understand him when he was speaking. Very odd.
Its raining…… yet again….. I can see why ppl who live here are referred to as whinging poms, and I really don’t blame them, I’m turning into one myself! What with the rain and the traffic and the price of everything! I am bracing myself to purchase a winter coat, cos the cheapest I have seen was like 50 pounds and for 3-4 months of wearing, its hardly worth $120, considering the cheap ones aren’t exactly glamorous, or even vaguely stylish! I keep putting it off, because a) I don’t think its “winter coat” cold yet, and b) its expensive.
I can’t understand how ppl who live here, therefore are more aclimatised wear thick coats as early as september and turn up the heating so it a sauna when it is only 17 degrees outside, yet I am coming from one of “the most unforgiving climates in the world” as I read the other day, yet I am ok with just a think jacket on, and have the windows open.
I got a blister today cos all my socks were in the wash and were drying, so i hadta wear my shoes with no socks, and i go and get a blister, which i really hope fixes itself by next week for traipsing around amsterdam. Speaking of which, I am going to be completely seized up by the time I get back to Australia and the physios are gonna have a field day on my leg muscles, because all this walking I have been doing on my adventures, coupled with all the sitting down in between (driving for hours, flying etc) is not doing my legs any favours. I COULD find a physio here, but i would waste the entire initial consultation just filling them in on my history! Plus, if I can barely afford a winter coat, I can't exactly see my forking out UK money for someone to inflict pain and suffering on me! I am not that much a masochist! I will wait until the pain comes entirely from my legs, not also from my bank account!
I just watched Extras, which is quite funny... ricky gervais new tv series. dunno if u have it out there yet, but it is amusing, then every episode has a really hilarious moment in it.
No photos from this week, so I will put in one of my random fotos of some underwear u could buy in Pisa of Michelangelo's David. He also came on an apron...

Bonjour!

2006-10-15T20:07:00.000+01:00

Calais c'est merde avec ne pas d'attractions touriste et ne pas de soleil! Here is the rundown of my last 3 days:
Friday: I got up at 8am and drove for nearly 4.5 hours to get to Dover. The whole way along the M4 I was hearing about an queue or 6-7miles as there had been a truck fire overnight and a lane was blocked. When I was IN the queue they said it had grown to 12-13miles of queues. As I drove past it was the container of a semi-trailer that has caught on fire near the back. The cab had driven clear so there wasn't petrol involved or anything. The trailer was loaded onto a trailer to be towed away and they were just sitting there. This was about 11am, why hadn't they cleared it by now when it happened at about 3am and noone had died or been injured? This was an omen! Then I carried on to Dover and caught the ferry, getting to see the White Cliffs of Dover. Ferry travel, how the other half live. And by other half I refer to those too cheap to fly, or too bogan to grasp that planes aren't just going to fall from the sky willy-nilly. I have never seen such a group of uneducated, poorly dressed (think "the 80's" and u'll be about spot on), loud, top-decked hairstyle wearing, beer swilling buffoons in one place, apart from Mt Druitt! (top deck hairstyle is bleached dramatically on top and dyed black underneath... for those who weren't sure, a specialty of the westie woman). There was 3 types of people on the ferry... the type mentioned above, which ruled supreme, the teenagers on school trips running around primarily unsupervised, and older people who had brought their caravan on and were going to see europe for a week of 2. Anyways, when I arrived in Calais, I caught a shuttle to the train station, then bravely caught a public bus to where I assumed the hotel was. It is quite a challenge to catch a bus when u don't know exactly where u want to get off! Then I checked in to my glamorous F1 hotel, complete with double bed, bunk ontop and sink. The toilet was down the hall! JOY! AS wa the shower, so I just did my best with the sink (to wash, not to toilet, I'm not that grose!). Right next door was a massive supermarket, so I wondered over there to get some pain and some poulet for dinner and an Orangina (aka chicken and bread rolls and orange fizz). Then I got back and had me a little picnic, and realised I was bored. So I flicked through the 7 french channels realising I did not recall enough french to have any idea what was going on, then I flicked up again and it was Neighbours, in English! Turns out, I guess for the tourists, they got BBC1 and BBC2 in the hotel! Hallelujah! Come 9.30 I was buggered tho, so I went to bed.
Saturday: I woke up at 8am-ish and got changed ready for a full day of sight seeing. I opened the blind to discover a thick blanket of fog "nevermind, it will burn off" I thought to myself, and head off for the fort down the road. I get there to see it was closed, and not open to the public, and hidden behind a think blanket of fog. "Nevermind, I'll go explore the centre of town" I thought to myself, so I caught the same bus back into town and started at the train station. I walked up through the main street, purchasing a croissant and a brioche for brekky, and a sardine, as you must sample the local wares (sure, it was a chocolate wrapped in foil, but it was still sold as "sardine"). Then I wondered around a shopping centre, bought a couple of xmas pressies, headed back up the main street, and realised I had reached the end of the exciting stuff. It was 11am, there was still a heavy blanket of fog. I decided to walk back to the hotel, and stop of for lunch along the way. I stopped for lunch at the shopping complex next door to the hotel as I didn't fancy stopping anywhere else, I had stumbled across the bad part of town. I had me some Calamari and Frites and then thought I would go back to the Hotel, read a book and wait for the sun to burn off the fog, and go back to look around the fort. My feet and legs were killing me from the walking for 4 hours, so I needed a break too. I ended up watching darts competition on the tv and then the new BBC1 version of robin hood (which is really very good, even tho I missed last weeks) all the time keeping an eye on the window, and the fog NEVER lifted, not even a little! So I gave up and for dinner had the rest of my pain from the night before. I did achieve one thing tho, I spoke french ALL day (mostly "gare sil vous plait" or "merci" or "oui", but STILL french!).. well, except for the one time a lady pulled over in her car, honked at me and asked where something was in french, she asked again, I still didnt understand, so I felt compelled to say "i dont speak french" which if i said it in french would have confused her EVEN more, so I didn't!
Sunday: Thismorning I woke up at 9.30am. Hallelujah! A sleep in! I looked out the window and everything was blanketed in fog. I was ready to leap out the window by now! I packed up all my stuff and headed for the bus stop, to go into town and to the ferry port and see if i could change my booking. On the way in the bus the sun started to burn off the fog! I actually managed some fotos of things that weren't hidden in white! I walked down to the beach which was surreal, cos the massive car ferries come out and turn and travel along the beach, so they are like about 30mtrs out from the shore, and SO massive, its VERY odd to see. I had une escargot for breakfast (not the snail, but the pastry, altho it was rubbish, i didn't eat it all, very stodgy, the puffy ones from oz are much better), and a quiche for lunch as I wondered around the long way to the ferry port. On the way I came across a few monumenty things that were fotoworthy, now I could see! Then I arrived at the ferry port at 1.30pm and my ferry was at 4.10pm. I handed in my ticket and she said "would u like the next one? it leaves at 2pm?" so i happily nodded and went thru th security check, where a massive security breach had just occurred, a lady was bringing a can opener, one of those big chunky one with ergonomic grip handles, in her bag, and the security ppl did not know what to do about this! Anyways, I got on the ferry, with even more bogans on this one, inlcuding lots of loud, tracksuit wearing yobby men with long hair who went straight to the bar. There were also lots of aussie accents, apparently they were on a coach tour and the coach was on the ferry down below, so they had all come up to get pissed and buy large amounts of duty free beer! It was a 3.5 hr drive back again, well, almost 4 hrs, I was doing so well, and just before the turn off for Bristol we all stopped and everyone merged over, cos an accident had JUST happened, there was a mini-cooper inbetween the 2 slower lanes, facing the oncoming traffic, very dinged up, both airbags had gone off and there was a smash in the windscreen. But I couldn't see the ppl from the car, or what it had hit. 4 cars had stopped and were obviously witnesses, I passed the police and ambulance coming from Bristol to the crash site, so they were still there sumwhere. Odd.
So the moral of the story is, Calais is pointless, unless u are going sumwhere from there, want cheap booze and smokes, or are actually French and live there. I did however get a free pass to Paris Disneyland with my ferry ticket, which was a pleasant surprise, so I am looking forward to going there, as I was thinking of going before, but I didn't see the point in spending nearly $80 to go an look and people walk around in large costumes of cartoon characters!
And I just got a phone call as I have been requested for work tomorrow. I am in demand! :P OH, and Don't watch "the squid and the whale" as it is rubbish.

Ciao Bella

2006-10-09T16:22:00.000+01:00

Howdy! Well, I have been on my first adventure to Europe. Here is how it all went down...
Thursday: I drove to Bournemouth, in the pouring rain. This is about 2.5hrs away, and was not hard to find. I got there early, and went to Bournemouth itself (the airport is a fair way out of town) and walked down the pier in the pouring rain, which by this time had picked up gale force winds too, so I almost blew off the pier. Then I drove back to the airport and sat and waited for the gate to open (I was rather early). I bought myself a book "The world according to Clarkson" which is a compilation of newspaper columns written by Jeremy Clarkson, the guy from Top Gear (not the one who is was in the crash, or the one who looks like a professor). Its quite funny. I read this, while also listening to a man argue with the woman at the info desk, and ask to see her manager cos he missed his flight check in by 30 seconds. It was amusing. I have never been close enough to hear one of those rants before. He said she had no human decency and he had lost faith in mankind. Anyways, then the plane boarded, I was number 1 to check in, and on the first group to board, and I sat in the row over the wing that has an emergency exit, and therefore more leg room. The flight was uneventful, and because of the strong wind, we managed to get there almost 45 mins early, which for only a 2 hr flight was damned good! This was 11.05pm. Then the fun started. I got off, rushed through customs and baggage claim and rushed for a taxi, as I was told by the hostel to catch a taxi to the hostel. There were very few taxis but a few started to drift in. I was number 3 in the taxi queue. The taxi came, I went to get in, showed him where I wanted to go and he said no, to go over and get the hotel shuttle taxi, it was cheaper. So I go over for the shuttle and the driver says "no, full" and drives off. Will there be another? Should I wait? Apparently there was a but that got me nearby, but it should have been already? So I stand and wait and a few other ppl come over and are looking at bus timetables. By this time it's 11.30pm and the queue for the taxis is about 100 ppl as 2 more flights have arrived in this time. The shuttle bus isn't back, the bus hasn't come, the taxi queue is massive. SO at 11.50pm I give up and walk back over to the taxi queue, which by now is down to about 30 people, and just then the shuttle taxi AND the bus arrive. So I rush back over and get the shuttle. Then I arrive at the hostel/camping place I am staying for the night. I check in, the man confiscates my passport as insurance (which is stoopid, cos I have another one on me, AND, what if the place gets robbed, and everyone staying there loses their passport??). Then he shows me to by cabin/shoebox. He waits while I check there is an empty bed. One door has a sleeping person behind it and an empty bed, the other door has 2 empty beds, so I go into the empty bed room and he leaves. I cannot sleep as I am still buzzing from everything that has just happened, so as I toss and turn for a couple of hours trying to get comfy and go to sleep, I turn over and the mattress moves and the slats move too, coming out of the frame of the bed and crashing to the floor, along with the mattress and me. I smashed my leg into the frame as I fell, and still have a nice large greenish bruise on my right thigh. So I get up and move into the other bed (which I didn't chose first up cos I thought slat bed was sturdier than a spring camp bed... stoopid me!) and drift off to sleep.
Friday: I get up at 7.30am, for some idiot reason, after about 5-6 hours sleep, and have a shower. This was an event in itself. The only ventilation above the shower was a little pop out window and beneath it was a fly screen. This had leaves and ants walking around in it, and during the night some of the ants had fallen through and were walking around the bottom of the shower. I turned on the hot water and waited for it to get hot, as I normally do (flushing ants down the drain as I go). It never got to hot. It got to warm, which was going to have to do! So I had a warm shower, got dressed and set off for the tower with my backpack. The tower was "800m <---" so I walked 800m that way, and sure enough, there was a tower! I took bazillions of fotos, and watched the people setting up the 20 or so tourist souveneir stalls along side the tower/cathedral piazza. When I got there, at 8am-ish there were about 20 people, by 10am there were about 200 people. It was glorious weather. I went on an open top sightseeing red bus, and that was nice, to hear about the history of a couple of places. Then it was lunch time, so I had Pizza, of course, and it was quite nice! Great place to people watch, never heard so many different languages in one place, and never seen so many idiots posing for the "look, i'm holding up the leaning tower so it doesn't fall down" photo. So I did my own version of this, considering it was just me.

Then I wondered around a bit more, and got a bit lost, which was frustrating, cos i needed to pee, and the only public toilet i had seen all day was by the tower, and it cost 0.60 euros to use. So I wandered around in circles trying to get back to the tower, walking through loads of kids who were finishing school and loads of uni students on lunch break, and finally found that I had walked further away, but was able to get back to the tower. I paid my 60c and then walked back to the shoebox, dumped my souveneirs and things I had bought, to lighten by load, then walked back to take fotos of the sunset with the tower, and had some rather average fast food, massed produced lasagne, which they probably bough in the UK, but it was cheap and easy! Then I walked back to the shoebox and went to sleep, there were 2 other girls there when I arrived, and the original girl had left, and my room still had just me. Saturday: I woke up to discover another person sleeping in the hazardous bed beside me, which I didn't expect, cos I hadn't heard her come in (god bless the inventor of earplugs!). The I got up, showered, walked to the tower to take sunrise pics, which I managed to get 1, then the sun disappeared behind clouds and never reappeared all day! I walked back, checked out, packed, and left, with the plan of walking to the airport (about 5 miles away) via the river and the other non-touristy side of Pisa. About 500m down the road it started to drizzle, so I had to stop, take off my huge pack, rummage around for my wet weather cover for it, put that on, put MY wet weather jacket on, and head off again. It then drizzled for the next hour or 2. My pack was getting so heavy, walking around with it fir the first time as an actual backpack, not just luggage, that my feet were aching, being pushed into the ground. I had to keep stopping, but taking the pack on and off was no easy feat, cos ur slinging 10kilos around ur back, and as soon as u undo the straps to release it, u stop carrying the weight evenly and it all goes thru your shoulders. Anyways, I made it to the main station, went inside for a 40c pee and a slice of pizza, and then the heavens opened, so I chickened out and caught a bus to the airport. Which was a good idea, cos about 90 mins later it was CHUCKING it down and thundering too, and I had I walked I would have been stuck in that. Plane came, number 3 to check in, number 5 to board, got leg room seats! YAY! Then when I got back to Bournemouth I drove 3 and a bit hours up the centre of England to get to my aunt's place for my cousin Louise's b'day lunch on Sunday.
Sunday: I was first up (what a shock) and my legs had completely seized up from 1.5 days of solid walking, 0.5 with a 10kilo pack on my back, and then a 3 hour wait, 2 hr flight and 3 hr drive sitting down. So I had a hot bath, which didn't really help, but it felt nice. Then I helped prepare lunch, and we had a good time, and at the end my other Aunt brought out sherbert sticks she had bought. I told a story of a friend who did a line of sherbert and their eyes fizzed. So my cousin thought this couldn't be done, so he did a line. It was hilarious! He then did another line through the other nostril to even up the tingling sensation in his head! I got it on video, VERY funny stuff! Then I drove back down and went to bed. And that was my very tiring, but rather enjoyable, weekend!

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

2006-09-29T13:36:00.000+01:00

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.

I fought the law and the law won!

2006-09-23T11:04:00.000+01:00

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.

Baaaaaaaaaa

2006-09-20T18:28:00.000+01:00

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!

i'm a working girl!

2006-09-15T19:43:00.000+01:00

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!

WOOKEY!

2006-09-07T19:16:00.000+01:00

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!

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

2006-09-06T08:07:00.000+01:00

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.

my new box

2006-09-01T17:19:00.000+01:00

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

Moving day tomorrow!

2006-08-31T11:48:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is the day that I move into my new place.... i'm a bit nervous cos i wont know anyone there, i'm also a bit nervous cos i have WAY too much stuff and WAY too little space to put it! I have been to ikea tho and sourced some possible CHEAP storage solutions to assist with this. So once i have moved in I will let you all know how that goes. I thought I would just take this opportunity to post some pictures I have taken on my travels as I can finally access them on my laptop...
This is a picture of the sunset in Devon

This is a detour i made as I saw it on a map and couldn't resist

This is a mural on a wall i found one day walking in Bristol

This is an old donkey I patted at the Donkey Sanctuary (set up for sick, injured, old, unwanted donkeys from around the world)

This is a pony that came and licked my car from the moors in Devon... there are lots of ponies there just wondering around.

Summer is over!

2006-08-22T14:14:00.000+01:00

A hoy hoy! It is a sad fact that the hot weather has gone. Not that I liked hot weather, but because the sun seems to have gone too, and i had to buy an umbrella! THE HORROR!! It has actually rained...several times! How dare it!
Mum and Dad have arrived, they are off today playing golf with my Uncle (what a shock) and I have been sitting here with my aunt, pottering around the place. Thismorning I undertook the massive task of getting my 3 cases, plus 2 boxes of stuff i mailed over, plus another suitace of stuff the parentals brought over, sorted into things I wont need until Bristol and things I will need before work, and things that are electrical stuff, things for backpacking and so on and so forth! I got it sorted, and I have WAY too much stuff already! And you should have seen how much stuff i left in Australia!!!
As for backpacking, I have binned that idea for now, and have resigned myself to just pottering around and doing more stuff with rellies, and maybe doing a couple of day trips around, who knows. I only have 7 weeks of work before the next school holidays in end of October, so I could always go and do sumthing then!
I probably wont bother to do much on my blog between now and when I am in Bristol because I don't want to be blamed for people lapsing into comas as they read that I sorted thru my socks and paired them up then went for a walk to the post box to mail a letter and other fun stuff like that! So, hope you are all having a great time. (not missing me too much I hope!).

I have a place to live!!

2006-08-19T09:56:00.000+01:00

OK, so, I got a bit overdramatic! But the good news is I have a room! It is in a share house in Bradley Stoke (suburbia) with 5 other people (i think, could be 4, but i THINK its 5) 1 girl, all others are guys. Its not the world's biggest room, but its cheaper than some, and its mine, and thats all that matters! SO now i don't have to stress anymore about that. I move in on the 1st Septemeber.
I have achieved everything I set out to achieve... car (tick), bank account (tick), place to live (tick), visited all the rellies (tick-well..i cant help it if some werent there, so i'm still gonna give myself a tick on that one), go to my interviews and reassure myself that i will be getting work (tick). Unfortunarely, because I had to pay a bloody fortune to live in Bristol for a week so I could stress myself out/find myself a flat, I have now put travelling to Europe on the backburner as it is just TOO expensive at the moment, and short of selling a kidney, it will have to wait until I have an income. I could go, but if my car died or something I would be broke, and that would end in teras and tantrums and NOONE wants that!
I am back down in Devon now, and it rained for the last 2 days... whats with that? I reckon its cos mum and dad are coming (they arrive tomorrow for a 4 week holiday that coincides with my trip by sheer fluke). I am organising to try and get back up to the other rellies in Milton Keynes for a few days before I go back to Bristol, as I am planning a day trip in to london and it is MUCH cheaper to go from up there, than from down here (i'm talking like £130 cheaper, aka $300, for a train trip! MENTAL!)
What else? thats about it for now. Thankyou to everyone who posted a comment! I love you all! When i move into my room I will have access to wireless broadband on my laptop and will be able to email etc whenever I want.
Okidokes then, for now, adios!

ARGH

2006-08-16T19:41:00.000+01:00

OK, so, my head is about to EXPLODE! I founf the ideal place, and was told I needed to wait til tuesday to find out if i get it.
Then i just looked at a smaller, nice place, and told him i'd have to wait until tuesday. Then when i was driving off i get a message from the tuesday guy saying his room is gone to a guy who saw it a week ago, but he has a friend who has the same house, same room (town houses) 30 seconds down the road for rend, but if i ring her to view it i may miss out on the one i just looked at. So i have a mental breakdown and a panick cos i dont make decisions on the spur of the moment.
Then I ring my trusty cousin Louise and tell her to tell me to take it, and after explaining the situation 4 times, she finally understood and told me to take it, so with the encouragement i needed, i ring the guy to say i'll take it and he doesnt answer his fone. So i sent him a message. PLEASE let him check his fone, cos i'd hate to miss out cos he didn't check his phone, and the guy who is viewing the room RIGHT now gets it cos he says yes on the spot, and i decided as i drove away, and had to get back here before i could tell him.
ARGH!!!!!!! I HATE this. i should have got a campervan, not a car, and then i could live in that, no worries, woulda been HEAPS cheaper as its a car and a property all in one, and 2nd hand ones were EVEN cheaper than the car i got! :P
Anyways, i will keep u posted with whether this guy checks his phone and gets back to me. If he doesnt, I am screwed, cos tonight is my last night in Bristol, and quite frankly there are better things i can think of spending my money on than really expensive "budget" hotel rooms (i looked around, it is on par with all other cheap hotels, and is almost the same as the backpackers, and here i get a tv and my own bathroom for £5 more!).
So, yeah, umm, hopefully next time u hear from me i will have a fixed address and can then work out boring things that come with having a fixed address. This place is really close to motorways and stuff which means if i need to teach on the other side of bristol it isnt as annoying. and the view out the window.... OMG... that was worth it in itself! So, now i am talking myself more and more into it, he will come back and tell me i cant have it either, then i will cry, and i will end up living in a gutter. YAY!
*tries to think positive*
Okidokes, byeeeeee. cross ur fingers and toes and eyes and ears and stuff for me. I need it.

U can't eat pot noodles with a spoon

2006-08-14T14:55:00.000+01:00

Good thing I wasn't very hungry last night as I discovered there is no free small plastic fork in the pot noodles, like u get in Australia, and all I had was my little teeny tiny spoon for my yoghurt, and no matter how hard I tried, the noodles just slid off, so i survived purely on 1 noodle and a yoghurt.
I went shopping today for more meals u can make using the only supplies i have, a kettle, a mug, a teeny tiny plastic spoon and water. I found several varaities of pot noodles and also make in a mug macaroni meals. I am also here to tell you i am now the proud owner of a £2.70 fork. So now i don't need a furnished flat, cos i have a fork, and thats all i need. a fork, a kettle and a working tap and i can eat for weeks! Damn being poor. Damn having to spend £49 a night for the world's crappiest hotel (its new too, I'd hate to see what its like in 3 years when its a bit run down and the staff dont care anymore!). Mind you, it would cost me about £40 a day in petrol to get up and down from Devon to here every day to try and look for flats, so its NOT that much difference.
I have got a couple of people "interested in my profile" on my website i am using to try and get a flatmate, and I am organising a couple of viewings. I can either live way beyonds my means, or with 23 yr olds, or in a place i don't feel safe, so there is slim pickings of ideal properties, but I will stop being so picky soon, as I am getting desperate. I have even applied to a couple of places that are for 2 months maximum stay, as then at least I will be here, so I can keep looking and work and get a National Insurance number and get a Doctor and and and and and.
I miss having my laptopn and being able to access my chatrooms and stuff, so this will have to do in the meantime. I'd ABSOLUTELY love some comments or emails or anything as I can go days without saying anything to anyone here. And I want some textual contact at least with people who care that I have a fork! :P
Oh... and if any parental type people are reading this, yes, I also bought 2 apples and some cereal bars for breakfast, so I am not existing PURELY on packet noodle thingos. Even I know that that is wrong!!
Hmmm, I don't think I have anything else to share. Oh... it rained yesterday! HOW DARE IT! But it managed to rain only when I was indoors, and every time i came outdoors it stopped! I also got car mats so when it does rain (which it should never do, cos it NEVER rains in England) I will be able to not get mud in the car.
Oh, thats what else. I had my second interview thismorning with the second teacher recruitment agency thingo doobedy. It went well, except the guy was not a bundle of fun, like he was very dry, and the other interview dude seemed like he had a sense of humour at least. I dunno. spose its not a reflection of the company cos one guy has no personality. Okidokies then. I cannot think of ANYTHING else for now. I'm going to read the bristol evening post to see if there is any ads in there for flats now. i bet that makes u all jealous doesn't it?
Until next time....... ciao

i'm in Bristol again

2006-08-13T19:49:00.000+01:00

i despise flat hunting! I am in Bristol again, for my second interview tomorrow, and now i have to stay here longer to try and find a flat, as the one I went of ran interview for last week looks like they may have found a friend who is interested, so it is back to square one.
I went to go and visit the other half of the rellies over the last few days. Was good to catch up with everyone. I didn't see 2 of my cousins, but the boys were around for bits of it, and I got to see the aunts and uncles. It was good to catch up with almost everyone.
I am glad that I got here when I did and managed to avoid the CHAOS at London airports atm due to the stoopid terrorists being annoying! I don't know how much info u are getting over in Australia about the tiny details, but the only things allowed in hand luggage are wallet/passport etc. No liquids of any sort (not even contact lens cleaner) and if u have a baby u have to taste the milk to take the bottle onboard, to prove it isnt liquid explosives, but unless they make u jump up and down and send an electical current thru u after, noone will tell.
Anyways, I just went ot the local shop to get pot noodles as there is a kettle in the room, for my dinner. YUMMO! :P and a yoghurt with the world's tinniest free spoon, so that may take me a couple of hours to eat.
Okidokes.
I'm going now to eat my delicious breakfast. cheeeeerio!

Greetings from Bristol

2006-08-10T10:43:00.000+01:00

I am angry now... I just sat and typed out a whole blog entry and was just finishing it and the stoopid computer I am on had a hernia cos I hadn't changed screens for 10 mins, and locked me out, and I lost it all.
I cannot be bothered typing it all again so I will just give you a general overview of my last week:
Sunday- Went and saw my Uncle
Monday- can't remember
Tuesday - Got up sooper early to drive to Bristol for my interview with select. Went well. I am excited now. And cos I said I was with another agency it seems there is a rivalry, so this may assist me as it means he will do everything to make sure i get work with them and cant work with the others. He offered me the option of working in the jails (they have kids jails here for 9-14 and 15-18 yr olds who have done VERY bad things but are forbidden to talk about it with each other so they are all in there for "car crimes"). I said I'd get back to him on that!
Wednesday- Drove up to Bristol to stay in an IBIS hotel in Bristol to view a flat last night. Was very impressed, but have to wait and see. *fingers crossed this goes as smoothly as everything else, but who knows*. I went on several walks around Bristol to find the flat then again to visit the flat. So now my feet are sore as Bristol (the part i am in) is all hills and the pavements are half normal and half old coble stone type stuff, so its uneven.
Thursday - thats today... i think... yeah. (i am SO confused as to what day is what!). I am going to check out of the hotel and then decide whether i drive around bristol and explore, 0r explore things on the way up to seeing the other relatives in Milton Keynes, where I have planned to stay for the weekend, then I will come back via here on Sunday so I can avoid another sooper early morning and long drive for my second interview.
Thats about all for now. I will write more when I get a more stable internet connection so I want have to have a temper tantrum in a hotel foyer again! :P
Hope everyone who reads this is well, and stuff, and yeah... till next time... adios!

I am here!

2006-08-04T09:36:00.000+01:00

So, appart from the odd hiccup (my laptop has decided to cease working again) I am here, in one piece, and surprisingly not jet lagged!
I arrived *thinks* Tuesday, after having THE longest Tuesday ever! I Left Koala Lumper at 9am and arrived here at 4pm after 13 hours of travelling in sunlight! JOY! Needless to say I didn't sleep much on the second leg, but I managed to get a solid 5 hours on the first leg.
By the time we arrived back in Bovey Tracey it was time to unpack, shower and bed at 9pm. And by the next morning I had pretty muych caught up and was de-jet lagged.
On the first full day here, Wednesday, I had an appointment with the bank to open an account, and then we went for a drive around the local area. Looked at a few car places, and I bought myself a car. I'm naming it Big Red.

Then we went and did some shopping and bought some bananas! Yes! They have bananas here!! I haven't had one yet as I am waiting for them to go ripe! We went up to Bristol yesterday to have a look around and I have made a couple of appointments to look at flats in the Clifton area.
I am now going to go on my first solo adventure drive around and get the hang of indicating without putting on the windscreen wipers!
It is nice and sunny here, Not too hot, but it is up around the 22'C mark almost every day, and I'm in shorts and t-shirt! My pasty white legs blend in better here though!

0 days to go!

2006-07-30T09:10:00.000+01:00

Today is the day! I have some final sorting and tidying of my stuff to do today, and I need to go to the post office, and mail a box of things over to England, as it is pushing my weight limit over the max. Then it's off to the airport for a few hours to try and get me a seat with leg room. *crosses fingers*.
My b'day party was great. Good to see everyone before I head off. I got a signature bear that got some "suspect" comments added on to it, and some additional body art!
And I did my own table decorations, which I was quite proud of, except several people thought the little coloured rocks were lollies (luckily noone tried to eat them).

I went out to Lake Parramatta (who knew there even was one??) yesterday with my friends for a picnic. It was great because it took my mind off the fact that I was leaving today. We took lots of fotos, and here is one of them (I hope they don;t mind that they are now on my blog!)

Now thats the end of it from this side of the world, next time you hear from me I will be a pom!

10 days to go

2006-07-20T22:59:00.000+01:00

I have worked out what to pack, I have almost finished sorting out what not to pack. I am almost done organising my KevShazza photo book. I am almost organised for my party tomorrow. I have pretty much tied up all my lose ends with people I wanted to touch base with who aren't going to the party. I have nearly organised everything I need to leave the old housemates to look after Ernie when I'm away. I have transferred money to Dad's account and he has transferred it to his UK account and I will hafta transfer it to my account when it gets set up.
I finally got my money cleared and in my account for my car, but that also means I'm trapped at home, and have been since Monday. Mum and Dad are up the coast today, they went up yesterday, so I am held hostage at home, cos I can't go anywhere without a car, or a driver. So i am using this time to do mundane things like finish my KevShazza book. Here is my fave KevShazza photo...
I am just worried that because he got spat on by an Echidna, he will get me stopped in customs because they will thing I'm trying to smuggle in an Echidna! Oh well. At Featherdale he was kind of attacked by several animals, a wallaby tried to eat one of his corks, another kangaroo tried to eat him, and this echidna spat on him! Such a trecherous life he leads!
So, tomorrow is my b'day. I'm gonna be another day older than I am today! Joy! And, as I have discovered in my research, I will no longer be classed as "youth" so cannot get discount tickets when travelling in Europe. That sucks! Oh... speaking of which, I have changed my plans for the tour I was going to do. It's just too hard to get to Switzerland for cheap, and travel within there. I have been working out that the best way to do it, so I have time to do things, is to fly straight into Salzburg, Austria, because then I can do the Sound of Music tour (which I can't NOT do, when I'm in that part of the world). Then from there I will travel down to Italy and tour my own bits of Italy on train networks, because I can come and go as I please, where as with the bus I had to go every second day, but if I ended up in a place that I got bored with, I could move on to the next place on my own, without worrying about fitting in with other people's time frames. High on a hill sat a lonely goatherd, Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo.
Ok, so I hafta continue with my to do list, so when the parentals get back tonight they have nothing to complain about, because I'll have done everything I said I would.

20 days to go!

2006-07-11T05:23:00.000+01:00

Gee Williker have I had en exciting 10 days? I got to do Vacation care last week, with children aged 5-12. It was very different to preschool. Not only did I have to learn new games (because apparntly duck duck goose doesn't cut it with this age group), but I had to realise that "poobum" wasn't a swearword anymore, whereas as "F..." and "S..." and "C..." were (yes, thats right, C). I also got to discover a whole new world or pre-teen angst. There was one boy, who was 12, who is in training to be the best teenager ever, and is going to drive his family mental. These were some of his catchphrases: "This sucks" "I want a refund" "There's no 'fun'" to which i replied "i never said there was going to be any fun" "NO" "Shut up" and my personal favourite "that's gay". people were gay, activities were gay, we wnt on an excursion and "buses are gay", "walking is gay", "trains are gay", "putt putt s for babies... its gay" was all I heard all day. We even played I-Spy and when it was his turn it was always "something beginning with G"... "Gay?" "Yep!". Then on Friday afternoon I went straight from vacation care to moving everything back to mum and dads' place. Not only was there everything I had moved back from my last house, but there was everything I left here when I first moved out, everything I dumped here after my 2nd move, everything I dumped when I left my old work, everything from the preschool, and several other dumped things. So, for the last 3 days straight I have been sorting, labelling, recycling, chucking, ebay-ing, trying on, organising everything in my room. Joy. I am going to go and work on it a bit more, and hopefully I can get an After photo by tonight to add on to this post, because that would be cool.
Ok, the stoopid blogger image upload isn't working, so scrap that idea!
If I discover it working again, then I will post them later.
Cos i had photos of Ernie's hilarious new hairstyle to give everyone a good laugh!! Oh well, again, if it starts working I'll post them.
I did manage to get the After Photo of the room by the way. It looks like a room again! Now I just hafta organise the lounge room and my brother's old room, and the landing which I kinda overflowed on to! Woops! The lounge room has to be next, cos mum is using it as her ironing room. Oh well. I'm off to the gym soon, get out some pent out aggression!
Woohoo! I got the photos to work... here ya go...

Ernie Before the HaircutErnie after the haircut... ROFL

My Room Before
My Room After

30 days to go!!!

2006-07-01T14:02:00.000+01:00

wow, 30 days, thats like this month! 3 weekends is my b'day and my birthday/going away party. then its on the final stretch. wow! I hadn;t realised it was so close! I'm getting excited now!!
I had a face to face meeting today in the city with the lady from one of the agencies i am using to get work over there. She was very nice. I had already had all my paperwork done, so we just chatted for an hour. She made me feel at ease and I am now pretty confident about the whole thing. She said that one of the ladies who rang me to book in an interview for over in UK left a note about the fone chat "arriving 1st august, getting car first up, prefers yonger age group, supply at first and later long term positions, sounds lovely". awwww, i sound lovely! How sweet!
I had my last day at work yesterday (excluding the week of vacation care which is casual and noone knows me, so they wont miss me when I go). The kids made me cry. Bastards! I am SO not a cryer about things like this, but especially because it was the kids who i have known the longest, and because they are older (generally) so can chat to me more one to one. We had a party lunch (OMG... i have never seen little kids eat so much and not explode) and then they gave me a card with their pictures of me, or their names inside, and then they sang this song which goes "skidamarinkidinkidink, skidamarinkidoo, i love you. skidamarinkidinkidink, skidamarinkidoo, i love you. i love you in the morning, and in the afternoon, i love you in the evening and underneath the moon. OH skidamarinkidinkidink, skidamarinkidoo, i love you." and when they saied 'i love you' they pointed to me. and I was fighting to hold it all together, because the kids gets freaked out when an adult cries. But then one of the mums was crying, cos it was so lovely, and she is sooper emotional, and she pushed me over the edge. So i had a little cry.
I had my farewell dinner for work last night. It was good. Went from being 10 to being 7, but it was still good. (and the 3 thats didnt come, 2 i wasnt fussed about! 1 i would have liked to have been there). It was like goodbye but not, because I am going back the week after next to be in the school fotos, as requested by the parents, and then the other 3 i will see at vacation care on the excursion on thursday. So yeah, wasn't that sad.
Anyways, I have a lady coming to look at the car tomorrow at 10am (finger's crossed), then going into the city with friends to ook at backpackers packs, so I should go to bed now, its WAY past my bedtime! I got carried away at a friend's birthday party making mystery concoctions out of eft over food scraps and disolving 21 packs of sugar into some lemon squash (and it tasted thick and syrupy if you ust kn0w). So, anyways, goodnight, until 10 days time...

Tattoo

2006-06-23T13:05:00.000+01:00

Just because...

40 days to go! GO AUSTRALIA!

2006-06-21T09:07:00.000+01:00

YAY! I only have one more wednesday to go at work! 1 more day of chaos! HUZZAH! As much as i'm going to miss the kids, the chaos that is wednesday I can do without! Although, I have been roped into coordinating the first week of vacation care the week after I leave. I don't know what to do, how to do it etc, but I will learn next Tuesday. JOY!
So I don't get to move back home until a week later now. I have started to slowly pack boxes and take them back to the parentals place this this week, so that the move isn't so painful when it comes time. I have been given free run of the 2nd story, cos noone is up there now, so I am filling my old room with stuff, and will be sleeping in my brother's old room. Then I get to sort through it all and sell stuff on ebay.
I went to see swan lake on ice last weekend. It was cool (no pun intended). They skated so close to the edge of the stage though. I was just hanging out for one of them to lose their balance and topple off the stage! That woulda made my day. It was at star city, so mum and I went to the casino first. We gambled hardcore style. 1c machines only. I wanted to play pontoon/blackjack but nooooo, it was 1c machines or nothing. We are going back this saturday to see Stomp! and mum said we will go and do something "stupid" this week, so I'm guessing we might use the 2c machines!!
I have a docs appointment friday to discuss my brain hiccups with the neurologist. Then I'm going to get my eyebrows ripped off. Then I might go to the gym and I desperately need to do washing. Saturday is Stomp!, Sunday is shopping in the city with friends to find me a backpackers pack, then Monday I have the day off, so I will be packing some more stuff, then I will do some more laundry, cos i have been busy the last couple of weekends, and the weather isn't hot enough for it to dry during the week, not to mention the dogs and their current trashing everything they can find in the backyard spree.
Hmmm, I can't think of anything else to say, so, ummm, bye!

50 days to go

2006-06-11T00:23:00.000+01:00

Ok, only 50 days to go! I have had the week off work because I have been run down. It is a long weekend right now so I don't go back to work until Tuesday. That means that I only have 3 weeks left at work, and all 3 of those weeks are 4 day weeks. Next week has the public holiday Monday, the next week I have a doc's appointment on the Friday, and then I have an RDO booked in for the next Monday. Then I'm done... that's it... I'll be unemployed for the first time ever, since I started working! I've always had another job lined up instantly.
It's going to be sad missing my children and families from work. I am thinking I might write them all a letter saying what a pleasure it has been and how much I have enjoyed working there.
I have had a very busy week, I have been out 4 nights in a row! WOW! What's with that? I never go out, and now I have been out 4 nights! Wednesday I went out to dinner with my friends, Thursday I went to dinner at my old director's house, Friday was just band, but I was still out of the house, and last night I went to dinner with the housemate's work friends. It was ok, but OMG did I feel old? They were all like 17-21 and there was me and Kel, the old farts!
I have decided to take the bull by the horns and get out more, take advantage of invites to go out from ppl I would normally not, to try and get used to living outside my very small social bubble, so I am not as socially awkward and uncomfortable when I get to England! Altho I did have to decline the social invitation I got from the creepy man who was walking back from the shops the other morning, as I was walking to them, who offered me money, cigarettes, beer and chocolate in return for me going back to his place so he could "kiss me all over my body". I would like to live outside my bubble, but I don't want to burst it completely!
Oh, and... I thought this was funny! ...

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

54 days to go

2006-06-07T09:15:00.000+01:00

these are my invites for my b'day slash farewell party. I should be a graphic designer... hahahah!

60 Days to Go!

2006-06-01T12:06:00.000+01:00

Ok, 60 days to go, and 4 weeks of work.
I as at work today and I was talking to the kids about how many days until different things, and I said "only 30 more days before I go away" and a couple of kids said "where are you going?" and one boy says "she's gonna be dead". I then had to correct them that I would not be dead in 30 days, or at least I hoped not!
So, what's new? Ummm, I have been sick and run down and had 2 days off last week and will be having the next week off as well. Yay! Cos there's nothing I like more than being sick! Ummm, I went to a party on the weekend and discovered everyone one I know from school is married, getting married, living wit sumone, buying houses, or the other end is studying for their 2nd, 3rd or 4th degree, or in the midst of changing jobs, still not quite knowing what they wanna be when they grow up.
I have discovered that the clothes I bought for England to work in, my nice things I have been collecting, weigh 17Kgs, 3 Kilos less than my maximum limit, so I am going to be shipping some over.
I have also decided I am going to do the following tour once I get there, and after I have caught up with relos, found a place to stay and had my interviews, before the work starts....

Except I am planning on starting in Lauterbrunnen and finishing in Florence, because Pisa is only 1.5 hrs from there, so I can do that in a day, and then the timing is perfect. Plus these countries are on my list of important countries to see. I figure I can do france myself later, and then I can get a feel of the backpacking lifestyle.

Ok, that's about it for now. I can't think of anything else to say, so until 50 days to go.... bye!

70 days to go!!

2006-05-22T10:36:00.000+01:00

Ok, 70 days to go! WOOHOO!
I am a tad hyper today because I went to the gym for the first time in AGES and I think the endorphins or sumthing have gone to my head!
I had a 4 day weekend with back to back RDO's and that was nice, except for the rain. Guess I had better get used to that in England! I took kevshazza up with me to explore the beaches of Budgewoi!
Its raining right now. The kids at work are convinced they can control the rain. It clouded over and we decided we need the rain for the dams and trees, but would rather it rained at night, so we sang the 'rain, rain go away, come again another day' song. Every time we sang it the rain clouds patted and the sun came out. The kids were sure it was their songs that were making it happen!
I am starting to realise that I wont be bankrupt when I get to England, so that's good. I have been teaching the children about France and tomorrow we are trying Croissants! Mmmm! I was gonna go with Snails, but a coupled of the kids refused to go, so yeah!
6 Weeks of work, and 10 weeks in total. And to throw into that, 2 months til my b'day! YAY!

80 days to go!!

2006-05-12T07:51:00.001+01:00

Ok, so, I'm starting to stress about money. Anyone wanna give me loads of money?? One minute I think I'm fine and the next i think I'm bankrupt! :P Oh well, only one way to find out how long i can live on weetbix and baked beans!
They have a new director for work too, she starts in 2 weeks, so that will be sumthing else to deal with too. This whole month off work is starting to look like a nice option now! a month with no paperwork and no deadlines and no meetings. JOY! :D
I've lost my remote for the tv, hmm, i had it yesterday, and now i don't. If you come across it, could you please give it back? Ta!!
I'm going on a picnic tomorrow... What's the bet it rains?
Anyways, i hafta get ready for band tonight.

86 Day to go!

2006-05-06T08:30:00.000+01:00

I went wondering around the city today and took some more photos of KevShazza for my kevshazza diary. I'm tired! I originally went in to a children's book expo. That was RUBBISH. I have got into the habit or taking kevshazza with me everywhere just incase the oportunity arises. I got some of the sydney skyline. So I walked from circular quay to the rocks, then to darling harbour, then to the city, then back to the rocks, and around the cove, then back to circular quay. I'm tired thinking about it!

Oh, and then, on the way back from the rocks for the second time, there was a contortionist who shoved herself into a box... always good for a laugh!

90 Days to go!

2006-05-02T07:50:00.000+01:00

Wow, what a day! I had fire extinguisher training thismorning... that was 3 hrs i'll never get back! Then we had a director's meeting! WOW! I'd rather have done the fire extinguisher training some more. At least with that we got to light fires and put them out, and not talk about policies and enrolment numbers and so forth. Maybe they could find a way to combine the 2, where we could set fire to all the policy documents! now THAT would have made my day worthwhile! Instead i wasted 8 hrs sitting in the same room (except for when we went outside to light fires).
I got my exit questionaire today from work, asking why i am leaving so they can make things better. "I resigned because I want to go over to England and you wont let me take that much leave, so you made me resign.". wonder how that will go down!
Anyways, I have to go and watch bold & beautiful and have hot choc with marshmallows now.

Getting started

2006-04-30T03:11:00.000+01:00

92 days to go until I hop on a plane and jet off to England. It's very exciting, yet somewhat daunting as well, because I can't get my head around everything I need to have organised, or need to organise while I'm over there. I 'spose the best thing to do is just get over there and hope it'll all work itself out.
I don't think there is anymore I can do from this end, other than count down the days and continue trying to save (try being the operative word).
I have been teaching the kids at work about England and Europe and where I am going. Last week we learnt about England. We made devonshire scones, looked at castles, the queen and so forth. The children are starting to understand, but I don't think they truly will understand until I'm not there anymore.
I have to go and clean my room now.... yay! the house looks like a Chinese laundry, because everytime I think it is sunny, the clouds come over so I panic!!

Raych's ramblings

Wedding pics

G'day

I SAW NESSIE!!!

Woops, been a while!

*pats self on back*

ITS TOO EARLY!!!!!

emotional overload!

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail

Competition results

Cotswoldians

Hello/Hallo/Bonjour

Answers

I have proof

Germany Quiz

Guten Tag

Hola!

APRIL FOOLS!

I would walk 5000 miles and I would walk 5000 more...

Slàinte

Airports are FUN

*yawn*

Hallo!

Crappy valentines day to you all

Snowflakes that fall on my nose and eyelashes...

Bonjour

Buon Giorno!

Head full of snot

Hippo Gnu Ear!

Do they know it's christmas time at all?

ahoj!

snot factories

Brrrrrr part 2

Brrrrrrr

Hallo!

Been nowhere, done nuffink

Bonjour!

Ciao Bella

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

I fought the law and the law won!

Baaaaaaaaaa

i'm a working girl!

WOOKEY!

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

my new box

Moving day tomorrow!

Summer is over!

I have a place to live!!

ARGH

U can't eat pot noodles with a spoon

i'm in Bristol again

Greetings from Bristol

I am here!

0 days to go!

10 days to go

20 days to go!

30 days to go!!!

Tattoo

40 days to go! GO AUSTRALIA!

50 days to go

54 days to go

60 Days to Go!

70 days to go!!

80 days to go!!

86 Day to go!

90 Days to go!

Getting started

pats self on back

yawn