ZutonatED

Last Sunday I was lucky got get me and Sarah down to the CUE and attend the Zutons gig. While I didn't know all the words to the songs I still had a really good time. They played for around an hour and a half then came back on for an encore session. It was a great little night out on a sunday. I think that apart form the ringing in my ears after wards it was great.

One of the nEDgatives...

As I was on my way to the first job today I was looking out the window at the mountains near Brecon and as I was looking I thought that that looked a bit too much like snow on the tops of the mountains. Well it was. So while I worked on the house in Abergerveny (Ab-er-ger-venny) I disninctly felt the negatives of this job. I was literally freezing. I was having to stand still, with latex gloves on my hands while I waithed for the cavity to pump full of insulation and then fill the hole with a handfull of cement. After about half an hour I was starting ot ge thte burning feeling in my hands, when you are getting too cold. In the end it wasn't the end of the world and now that the second job got cancelled I got to go home a bit early. Home now, 1 o'clock in the afternoon on a friday and nice and warm after ahot shower.

Saturedy Drive

Today Sarah an I decided to go for a little drive into the countryside. We headed off in the morning up towards the Brecon Beacons Mountains then up to Brecon town itself. We had a lttle break there, walking around the town centre before heading across to Hay-on-Wye and taking the B roads back to Cardiff. All in all it wasa good day out. By the time we had gotten off the B Roads we had both had enough so we both decided that it was time to head for home.



Some of the highlights of the drive include sliding down a wet hil on my bottom while Sarah laughed, seeing the beautiful countryside that is mostly green and orientating myself with some of the different areas and names that I have heard about for paragliding.

Forking Amazing!

Well, there are these pot noodles that you can just add hot water and they were offering this competition where under random lids you could win an awesome spinning fork. Well, enticed by this clever marketing, I proceeded to buy myself one tub intending to win a spinning fork first time. Well I didn't win, in fact I was totally insulted by the writing under the lid which went; "Bad luck LOSER! Better luck next time". So spurrned on by this insulting piece of marketing I decided to have another go, this time with three different flavours. This ended up with the same result and from that point forward I deceided to forgo any more of these pot noodles.

Now onto the point of this story. Over the last couple of weeks Sarah has been hinting of a present that would be coming in the mail for me. I was totally in the dark as to what it may be. Eventually it turned up and to my total suprise here was a spinning fork! I was stoked. Having already eaten all the pot noodles, I immediatly made up some cheep normal two minute noodles to give it a go. It was an awesome experience. But then I realised the impractiabilities of such a fork and decided that I shall only use it for spcial ocasions.

Well I am really getting on in this new job so far. My first day on the job I waa given the instruction on how to do the blowing of the insulation material. On the second day I was promoted to doing the blowing as well as pointing the holes after I had filled them. Now today, my third day, I was given a chance to drill the holes. Thats all the three major tasks of the job covered. Now all I have to do is to get good at tehm and get my gas safety card and then I will be earning the big bucks, well pounds.

Its been a hard days work

Well not really. I was sent out to a house with a couple of guys called Damien and Ryan. They were really laid back and great to work with and they put extra effort into showing me the tricks of the trade. Well no that there is much to pick up. Basically if you can climb up a ladder then you can do this job. It works like this, one bloke goes around the house drilling 25mm holes all over the place. The next guy, which was me for this day, follows him around and shoves this nozzle into the holes presses a button then stands around talking while you wait for the insulation to be pumped or blown into the wall cavity. That was basically the jist of the job and the hardest part was not climbing the ladders, but making sure that you filled all the holes that the drilliing guy drills. Well dosn't sound lke much and basically it wasn't that much, the only thing that took the longest was waiting for each cavity to be filled. Apart from that thats it. Cavity wall insulation done for one day. We finished the day about at 2pm or so and next week I will be haeding out with a dfferent person, one that is supposed to teach me all the tricks of the trade. We'll see...

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to work I go...

Well what a suprise. I am actually likeing the fact that I am getting up at a nice hour of the morning. 7 am to be precise. However this training is a bit boring. Too much standing around and around, waiting for the next thing to happen. The instructors here still tell you about how speed is the most desirable thing in the job, but half of our time is spent standing around waiting for them to get organised. But it is not too hard and it could be an ok job in the end. Had a bit of work on the cavity wall insulation yesterday, tomorrow will be a test, but for now I am stuck with the loft insulation. Its not that much fun, mostly powerpoints and the covering all the pipes with insulation material.

Insulated

Well tomorrow is a pretty significant day. It means that my lazy couch potato life that I have been enjoying for the last month is coming to an end. Hmmm, Bad times. However it does mean that from tomorrow I am going to be earning some cash! Well, after 5 weeks I will be earning some cash after I have paid off my credit card and the rent that is now due. Well that means that in five weeks I will be able to spend as much money as I want. Woohoo.

As for the credit card bill, that is from the planned trip to Australia over Christmas. Last year I enjoyed a cold christmas, not a white one, so this year it will be back to the normal, hopefully, hot and sunny christmas.

It looks like that from tomorrow there will be no more sleeping in as I have to get to some place on the M4 to meet my co-trainees and from there we will be heading up to Lecister to do our training course. I am a bit aprenhisive as it will be something new and different but it should not be that hard to master. Drill a hole into a wall, pump in some cotton. But we will see.

Let the search begin

After a weekend of celebrating Sarah's birthday it is back to thte start of the week again and this means that it has gone past time for me to get my ass into gear and get a job. I have realised now that with the lack of demand for primary school teachers in Wales and also that I lack the QTS which many a school would demand in their applicants it may be time to look in other areas for work. Which kind of sux.

Pub Quizzed

Last night was the inaugural night of 'The Special Ones'. Well it was just basically a pub quiz night and our team ended up winning first place. We kicked some ass.

It was only thanks to Liz's parents who got us inot the place and gave us a few of the answers which allowed the greatest team in teh universe to win!

Arrrgh! Working, so many edcisions to make!

So after a promising start to the day calling up and making contact with many of the agencies aound Cardiff it all went a bit pear shaped after recieving an email from one particular agency that listed some of the required things to bring in for the interview. This particular thing was Proof of Registration with the GTCW (where applicable).

Now normally I usually just say fuck-it and turn up to these interviews no problem as it is them the agencies that really need me as I am the person that makes them the money... but for some reason this particualr thing stood out as something that needed to be investigated. Hmmm, turns out that it is a registration for teachers that are qualified. Teachers that have QTS.

QTS the bane of teaching in the UK. It seems that they are just interested in preserving the profession for their own British teachers as the UK system seems to be very lengthly in actually getting into the teacing profession. Once you are in OK, no problems, but this QTS thing really pisses me off.

So in England I can teach for 4 years without needing to gain QTS, but here in Wales they have decided to be different and reduce this down to only 2 years. To make it a bit more difficult if I wished to work here in Wales as an unqualified teacher I would most likely be on a reduced pay scale, pretty much equilivent to that of a teachers assistant. Not much encouragement for me to persue a career in teaching for the moment.

But what I think really annoys me the most is just that I have to decide if I will teach as-is for the next year, or will I just go in headfirst and try to gain my QTS, even though outside the UK it dosn't mean diddly squat. Hmmm decisions, decisions.

And also a bit of pressure in that I really need a job.

And so the Saga continued

Well after a fantastic time in Croatia, seeing Split, Dubrovnik and some parts of Bosnia, Alex and I headed back to Switzerland on our Easy Jet flight arriving in Geneva. It was like travelling into another dimension. We got onto the plane with blue skies and temperatures in the shade reaching 30 or so degrees and we arrived in Geneva with pouring rain, wind and a temperature around 20 degrees. Feeling a bit exhausted from the early morning travelling we headed off to our friendly HI hostel in the dodgy part of town, as Patrick put it, for some rest and recuperation along with catching up on our washing. Exciting I know, but these things have to be done every now and then. We also booked a car for the following day for two weeks which should allow us a bit more freedom travelling around the alps.

The next day we go the car, our fantastic little Ford, I would never have guessed that one day I would have been yelling at the top of my voice inside a car ‘Go Ford!’ We spent the first day with the car finding our way around Geneva, well I did, and then we spent some time in Geneva’s famous swimming place. Today the lake was really cold, almost 14 degrees, and I was still wondering why nobody seemed to be having a swim in the water. We ended up spending the night at Patrick’s place, on his floor and it was the hardest floor in the world. Bad nights sleep.

The next day we were off to Annecy, driving on the wrong side of the road was going to take another day or so to get used to it. I had a flight in Annecy, back at the place where I had my inaugural tandem over 5 years or so ago. This time it was almost as good. We met these Poms that were travelling around the Alps, Jan and Chris. They were flying around having a good time also. I was really pleased in that I had not forgotten that much of the flying business. I was still able to do some relaxed take offs while others really still struggled. After that flight we hung around the landing zone watching the enormous numbers of tandems that would come in before deciding to start our journey to Grand Bonnard.

It was an amazing drive. Alex took a turn driving and he chose to drive on the road that was a bit challenging. He seemed to have a good time, but in the process it made me feel a bit sic. He was, I think a bit nervous and it showed in his driving, making it a bit jerky and uncomfortable. But the incredible scenery made up for the lack of a smooth journey. Grand Bonnard proved to be bit of a washout as when we arrived the cable cars had already stopped, so that meant that there was no more cable car rides to the top and Alex just missed the local school going up for a tandem in the setting sun. After that the rain decided to make itself known. So our tiny little tent got given a nice washing and a real testing overnight.

Morning dawned and with it miserable weather. That and the fact that it was the first night of camping which always causes a bit of soreness from the different, I mean much more uncomfortable, conditions. So with the horrible wet weather that we discovered when we woke up, we decided to head off to somewhere else to hopefully find some fine weather, to do a bit of flying and also some sightseeing. With the only deadline being to meet mum and dad at Geneva in the 19th we decided that Interlaken was the place to be, Interlaken and the promise of flying in Murren, Grindelwald, Shinge Plate and also the sites around Interlaken. We headed off back tracking then via Chamonix till we reached Interlaken. I was surprised that when I turned up at the campsite near the river that they still had me on file. Oh well, not completely anonymous in Switzerland, it just goes to show how well organised the are in that country.

The next day proved a bit better on the weather front. We checked out Murren and were very lucky to catch a guy falling from the sky with a squirrel suit on, before he threw his chute and landed safely. It looked amazing and at the same time completely insane. We decided that we would head off to Grindelwald to hopefully make the most of the shitty weather. We ended up getting a flight in and although it proved a bit dodgy and lumpy it still was good to be back flying in the really amazing scenery. We flew at Grindelwald the next day, I ended up having a couple of flights, the first one was ok at around lunch time, while the last one was later at about five in the evening, near to the end of the day and looking back it was a bit stupid.

Alex and I both took off and by the time we had flown half way down a storm front had popped its head over the top of the Jungfrau and decided that it didn’t want anybody else flying today. It started to come across pretty quick. So first Alex then I pulled in big ears to get down much quicker, rather than risk a long, long walk through the night. We later caught up with Jan and Chris and they said that it looked like we were both parked and just dropping like stones. Well the wind had picked up a bit and I guess that it was a bit foolish to fly but when we got through the really rough and bumpy wind layer the air turned a lot smoother for the landing and we were both able to land safely, pack up and then there was still time for me to trudge off to the train station with both gliders while Alex took off at a fast jog to pick up the car before the storm broke. It was an exhilarating flight, taking off through the light wispy clouds then feeling a bit like you are about to die…

A couple more flights at Grindelwald and I was becoming more and more courageous in my flying. I saw some guy perform some helicopters while I was overhead, they looked really cool. But all good things come to an end, so the next day we headed off back to Geneva to meet up with mum and dad and hopefully get some better weather. We hired the free bikes again and went for a ride all around Geneva; to the botanic gardens the fountain and also a bit of the city. At the conclusion of the bike riding trip we managed to loose dad for a while, but he had just decide to return to the bike shop by himself. We went back to the car and packed up the car a bit better before heading out to the airfield and picking up our gliders, repacking the car a lot better, while it was pouring down harder than cats and dogs, and then heading off to Chamonix with a really loaded up little car. Apart for m the rain there was not that much of a problem in heading from Geneva. We arrived in Chamonix just before dark and eventually found our Gite; Gite le Vagabond. It turned out to be a place above a pub, nice but with really weird bunk beds. The bottom was really low, the top bunk really high, weird.

Argule de Midi the next day then followed with a trip to the Mer De Glace and the ice grotto before we headed of to the place where dad could be having his tandem flight. It was a real nice place and I had a great flight but it was really busy. Loads of students were flying from another site to the same landing- zone and funny enough we ran in to Jan and Chris again (can’t get rid of those two). The next morning we said goodbye to mum and dad early before Alex and I headed off to the la Flagere launch site for an early flight. I got a bit trashed by some rough air coming off some trees but it was a real nice flight. Just a nice sled ride down, but considering the weather forecast it was the most we could have hope for. We had actually headed to the top launch site but it turned out to be a bit dodgy with some cross wind and rocks all around, un-flyable even though it looked really amazing. So we took the chair lift back down and took off no prob form the bottom take-off .

After this it as back into the car again and the destination this time was Fieche. Along the way the weather decided to change at an amazing rate. At one point we were driving along at the same speed as a cloud was. It was an amazing feeling to see the weather rushing in so fast through the valleys, especially when one valley met with another, the clouds streaming around the corner of a mountain to be whisked away in the wind in the other valley. The next day we were really tired. Too much travelling and not enough rest and relaxation so we were both trashed. We ended up spending the day doing our washing, playing foosball, aerobe and giant chess. However this relaxing was not to last.

The very next morning we were up and about flying Fiesche with almost the most amount of paragliders that there was in the air I had ever seen. So many gliders around. I got a little freaked during the second flight so I headed off to find a thermal of my own resulting in my flying lower and lower till I landed. After a holiday of flying I needed a break so we caught the gondola to the top and took a short walk to the peak of the Eggishorn to look out over the Aletsch Glacier. Amazing. The most serene place that I have ever been to. I was reminded of the movie about Buddha or somebody who had meditated beneath a tree till they nearly starved. I think that if I hadn’t been wearing a singlet and the weather wouldn’t have dropped to below freezing I would have been able to sit there looking at the glacier all day.

The next day the weather had turned sour so we headed back towards Geneva, arriving just after lunch. We got a flight in which was what I decided was the best of the holiday so far. It was amazing, climbing up to near cloud base, getting out of the cloud suck, spiralling in the cloud suck to only gain all the height I had lost really easily, Really hard spirals, some bigger wing-overs and a safe landing. A great flight to finish off the holiday.

The next day we were again given great weather. Alex and I climbed up the winding path to the top of la Slaeve and back down before I decided to chill out and catch all the pilots landing in the evening. There were some amazing limestone caves that we passed through on the way to the top, caves that Patrick and Laura had not even realised were there. Alex got in one more flight before he would have to pack away his glider for the rest of the trip. It was a great way to end our time in the Alps. One last day of mountain sunshine and relaxing for a wind down. The next day we were off to Amsterdam and that is where the rainy weather started. Amsterdam proved to be a bit awkward, we caught up with Dagmar and had a few beers and then we were soon bound for Cardiff. Cardiff came around really quick and soon Sarah was there to greet us at the airport and to really finish off the end of my holiday, even though we were headed off to London after the weekend. It felt that Cardiff was where my holiday ended. Yay! Now back to the hard real world of working.

Edwin's Saga Begins!

Hi Guys,

I know we should have contacted you but its seems that I haven't really been sending emails to anyone at the moment.

So I met mum and dad in London after my second last day of work. Well it was a quick catch up and a dinner before the both of them fell asleep, so i escorted them back to their hotel and let them have a nice sleep. The next day was teh last at school and also a party so I was a bit late in meeting up with mum and dad and marcus and cherry and hazel and fionia for dinner. But not to worry, they were all accepting of my badness so that was it. They enjoyed a nice dinner befoere dad fell asleep at eh table! Geeze, i didn't think that the jetlag would affect them that much.

On wednesday dad, mum and I set off on a site seeing trip around London, in which we took in the sites of Oxford street, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Green Park, the Houses of parliment, Big ben, Westminster abbey, The london Eye and that is wher I left them. They went to see Tralfagar square while I went and picked up the last few things from the school, only about 9 bottles of wine from the kids, so i coulden't leave them behind.

The next day we picked up a nice new hire car, a 207 which was fantastic, and set off towards Sailsbury and Stonehenge. We spent about 2 hours at stinehenge and it was great. Mum and i had a look around and finished our tour before dada even got past the 3rd stage on teh voice tour. So we just ast in teh grass and drank in the ocassional sunshine. Mum played around with her new camera and we just chatted. I think that she was a bit concerned that I had changed a bit to much but was relieved to find me the normal Edwin, you know confident, good looking, tall masculine figure tha we have all come to know... Anyway, from Stonehenge we ended up heading straight for cardiff and a meeting up with Sarah and her mum for a lovely risotto dinner that she cooked for all of us. It was great. On friday we headed off to Cardiff castle and a site seeing tour of there as well as a tour of the cardiff Bay and a walk around town. this was quite a full day so I took them back for a bit of a rest and a sit down chat telling them that the can't possibly see everything so they need to slow down ro they will miss stuff because they are asleep. Friday night was dinner at sarah's dad's place, a fish pie, and then saturday we said goodbye to Sarah as she was off to Portugal. Bad timing, i know.

From Cardiff we set off to Brnstable to catch up with some relos there, _Anthony I think as well as Nancy. It was great. Anthony needed a break from the young kids so he took me off to the local surf beach, the first that I have see in my time thi the UK. It was amazing, almost as good a s somewhere from Australia. The sun was shining and it looked beautiful. To bad there were so many people about. After a day in Barnstable we set off early to Cardiiff airportfor a flight to Edinburgh, and then to meet up with Hanice and Alisdair. It was at this point when I left my phone inthe ire car, and as yet unable to retrieve it. hmmm, it made things difficult but I have managed to be OK without it.

Back on track and we picked up a car, and then promptly headed off in the wrong direction for about half an hour before turning around and heading off to inverness. The drive through the country side was amazing. Hills nature, landmarked buildings, not so many dry stone walls but really beaoutiful. And apart form the road there was not that many people around. It was amazing, but then again it was in a different country, no longer in England. We shared the driving and teh snoozing on teh way up to inverness where dad picked up a phone card and got in contact with Janice. Then again we headed off, along the shore of Loch Ness, and no moonsters, to the tiny village of Tomich where JHanice and Alisdair were waiting. They live in the last house in the village and west from their house there is only wilderness to the west coast of scotland. Pristine lochs and forest. Alisdair was pretty pleased that there was another young bloke around to do some of the adventure sports that he love so much, and as I hadn't realipsed that the sun stayed up till 1000 at night I was a bit puzzled as to why he kept wanting me to do somethinglike canoeing down a river at nine at night. It was OK as we were all tired.

The next day we were recruited into helping Alisdair pull off the roof of his new house. It was just some corrugated iron, but it was stubborn and the structure was a bit dodgy. As it was I was the only person to fall off the roof, though landing soflty like a cat. Near teh end of the day we finally got all of the iron off and ever so cleverly we pushed and rocked this over 100 year old roof trusses back and forward till they crashed down. Unfortunately no cameras to record our triumph, only a pile of bronken wood filled with wood worm. This was rthe end of the work day for the workers, so we all headed back for some amazing grub that janice had cooked up wiht mum.

As it was not yet dark Alisdair deceided to oce again rally the troops and take us up the back of the forestry forest to some remote £Loch for a bit of fishing. It was my first time a fly fishing and I think thtat It will take a bit longer to master it. I only ended up catching some heather (the plant not the fish). It was here that I was introduced into the amazing Scottish Midges. Really really really horrible tings that fly all around you and there is nothg that you can do about them. I as glad when at 1000pm alisdair decided that he had had enough so we headed off back to the car and to relative safetly away from the midges. what a day, I would have never thought to hed off and go fishing at 8pm and there still be light at 1000.

The next day was my last so Alisdair got the mountain bikes out for a lilttle ride up the the blueberry patcheswhere we spent lots of time picking blueberrys, till my toungue was blue as well as my fingers. Then an amazing downhill run on the bikes before setting off to Inverness and a bus to Edinburgh. That is where I left mum and Dad and for a couple of days was by myself.

Spent a night in Edinburgh, it was buzzing as the fringe festival was just about to start so there were heaps of people out and about. I once again made themost of the late light and headed up tot the top of what i thought was authors seat, but was infact just a small little hill nex tot hte city. A very early start and off to the airport before flying to Geneva where I would meet alex the next day.

Geneva strated out as a stinker, so i spen most of the day lazing about beside the lake, hirin a bike and going for a ride and just catching up of a couple of zzzzz's. Met alex the next day after a day of searching around for him. we spent the afternoon jsut haveiong alook around, he was tired and worn out, the airplane had temporaryly lost his bags on route form heathrow. all was well and the very next day on Saturday we headed off to the airfiedl, a small paddock next to som cabbage and corn farms, where we caught the club bus up to the top of the mountain for a couple of flights. Alex and I were amazed witht e views an teh flying. It was just really really busy. There were heaps of carazy swiss guys about flying really hectically around the hill, pulling really big wingovers right over launch. But it was a really amazing vibe on the hill as everyone was just haveing a good time. well I thiought this but i could't understand teh frnch wholly. But i didn't here Merde once So that is a good sign. Another day of flying on sunday, which was even better, before the conditions turned really windy on monday. So jusst a day of relaxing beside the lake was in order.

Tuesday and then we were off to Croatia. wow. Amazing. Sun, the sea and plenty of beautiful women to look at. I have never seen so many skinny people wearing hot pants in one place before. we Started off in Split and spent a couple fo days just exploring the city, haggling with the market vendors and swimming in the sea. It was so hot that I think it took a coupleof days for us to get acclimitised to the conditions. After Split we headed off to Dubrovnik where milan and stan caught up with us. Dubrovnik was amazing. once againg it was mainly sight seeing till we got to hot then swimming in the sea, jumping off high rocks and just plain haveiong a lazing about itme.

The Hostel that wew were staiyng at arranged for us a day trip, with other people to go and see Basnia. This was great. We spent the day tasting Oysters fresh out of the sea, Swimming and relaxing in some amazing natural waterfalls, then some really good lamb off the spit for lunch. One of the lambs on the spit still had its tongue. cool. After Lunch we headed off to Mostar for some soubvenir shopping and sight seeing as well as watching a crazy guy jump off 30 metre high bridge. well he wasn't so stupid as he got the tourists to pay first before he jumped. After that it was a bit of lame hore riding, lame because it was just get on these tiny horses and sit there as you get led around. we ended this day trip back in Dubrovnik at about midnight,l a really worthwile trip and an amazing experience.

The next day and we were back in Split just for the night before flying back to Geneva again to pick up our paragliders and strat flying ariound agian. Unfortunately here now as I sit here the weather is not cooperating and it has been raining hard for ages, most ofth time we have been here. So tomorrow Alex and I will hire a car and go and get our gliders and hed off into france in hope that there is better weather there. It is quite hard going from the high 30's back to around 20 degress. It makes you feel real cold. I really prefer the high 30's with swimming than all this rain.

An that is basically a quick ound up of the trip so far. I look forward to hearing form all of you and also telling you all about the rest of our trip.

From
Ed.

Been a while...

It has been a while but thats only because i have been busy and getting up to many things. At the moment I am sitting waiting for Alex to turn up, still.

My day started out well with finding out about a free bicycle rental program the the city of geneva runs. Off i went on my new bicycle, part the way round lake geneva till the rian came. Afther that I decided to hed off the the airport to try and meet alex somewhere. Things didn't go to planned bioth for alex and myself. Alex lost his bags, whileI ended up spending the time wondering around waiting for Alex to come out of the arrivals gate. Anyway we amnaged to contact each other and that brings me to where I am now, waiting for Alex, and at the same time spending it constructively, writing on my blog.

As fo rthe rest of my time since my last post well, that has partially gone into getting used to travelling around with a really heavy bag on my back. Since the 24th of July I spent a week traveling around with mum and dad. we saw quite a bit, with London, Stonehenge, Cardiff, Loc Ness and Janice and Alisdair crossed of the list. Mostly site seeing but more importantly catchup time.

Moving on up, moving on out...

Well half of my stuff is now residing in Cardiff.

I spent Saturday taking a really heavy bag to the bus stop then unloading it in
Cardiff. Both Sarah and myself are feeling a bit weird about the situation as I think we will both need a bit of adjusting to the new situation. We spent Saturday moving furniture about and building ikea furniture well into the evening. By the end of the day I had had enough of the whole moving buisness and was really tired. Good thing that Sarah has a bit more comfortable bed then mine so we both got a good nights sleep.

So Sunday now and looking forward to seeing mum and dad tomorrow as they will arrive in London from their trip from Australia. Fingers crossed that they will be able to follow all the signs to navigate their way around London and arrive in their hotel safetly.

Well only 3 more days to organise all my stuff in London and try to tie up all or any loose ends before I get my bags packed and hed off with mum and dad to Cardiff via a bit of site seeing along the way.

Training Dash... that went awry...

It was teh end of the school week and a bit of relaxing time was had before I decided to hed off to Cardiff to suprise Sarah. Well, due to some delays I ended up missing my train and with a ticket that was only useful for that service, so I decide that First Great Western were totally fucked, especially in their current services, and a bunch of total dick heads so I decided to get on the next train anyway. I jumped on the train and decided to go for the 'hiding in the toilet option'. This worked only until sombody kept knocking on the door needing to actually use the loo. Oh well. So next I just decide to play the falling asleep option. So for the next three and a haf hours I partially slept and actually slept the jounry away.

I got to Cardiff and Sarah was pleased to see me, especially as it was such a great suprise for her. We spent Saturday morning hanging around before heading off to the movies to watch 'Kung Fu Panda'. True to form Sarah turned to me half way through, completly bored by the film. I however enjoyed to film and there were some funny moments. Overall it was a good film.

I had to catch a train back on Saturday night to meet the landlord for my final inspection. This trip didn't go so well as well. I had to change at Bristol Temple Meades and then wait for an hour for my next connectoin, getting onto Paddington at around 12:45, too late for the Underground so therefore I would have to catch a combination of night buses to get home. I eneded up getting in around 2:30 in the morning, not so bad for a night out, but when you want to get home its a bit late. This is especially true when Sarah phoned me after her night out when I was still at paddington. Yay.

O2 Wireless

What a great Sunday. It started off pretty wet and horrible and not really looking like my time at the O2 festival would not be that great. But true to UK british weather form, the rain came down and it looked like it was going to be a wet day. Sarah and myself headed off to Hyde Park around lunchtime and it always looked like it was going to be a wet one.

As it turned out, after we arrived and saw a couple of bands the weather dried up a bit. The rain stopped, which was fortunate that I had lost our umbrella, but not so fortunate as I had broken my sunglasses.

The bands got on stage and the music flowed and it was a good day. Out of the day there weer a few standouts for myself. These were Powderfinger, The Counting Crows, Ben Harper and the Goo Goo Dolls. The music was great, the sun came out for short periods but the company was the best by far, Sarah, Sophie, Hannah, Liz, Bec and Julia.

Very Nice in Nice

What a great weekend. Catching up with SJ and Chris, spending time in the sun, relaxing and also getting to the beach for a swim and a relax.


Setting off at 3:30 in the morning to get the night bus to get to Stanstead, sounded like a great idea, but not quite. Caught the night bus with Sarah and got to the Airport with only a mild panic from myself when I saw the que to the check-in counters. But no problems at all. Got to Nice after sleeping most of the way and as we arrived it looked like the weather would not really cooperate. Clouds greeted us as we flew in over the mountains, but as soon as we got off the plane the sun had burned them off and it was looking like a good day. This would be the routine for most of the weekend, clouds in the morning but they would burn off by lunch.

SJ and Chris met us straight away as we walked out of the gate and then off to the Avis store before leaving in the fantastic spaceship of a car for Fayence, where SJ and Chris had booked into their place. We went straight to the airfield, had lunch then said goodbye to Chris as he left for his afternoon flight into the mountains. The conditions apparently had come good and on Chris' return his joyous face told the story of his amazing flight. The stories of ridge soaring following fantastic final glides enchanted me and at the same time made me feel like I should get involved in the high performance sport.

An afternoon of lazing about in the sun was just what the doctor ordered. The peaceful and for a change form London, quiet surroundings of the B&B garden were fantastic. We went off to find, or as it turned out, to discover where Sarah and myself were going to be staying for the next couple of nights. It was in the next village over and was just as idyllic and peaceful as the other one, except that our one had a pool. We only off loaded our stuff before we went back to SJ’s and Chris’s place for dinner on the way then football. It was a nice afternoon. I think that SJ’s hectic rate of travelling around was showing on Chris.

Saturday dawned a nice and clear day, Sarah and I got to try out the pool in the morning, then off to Fayence for their markets, which were interesting but at the same time just a small town market. Not too big, but a little too small for my liking. After woods we went off to check out his Flower Festival. It turned out to be a lot of displays set up in this small village on the hill. All the plants remained in their pots to ensure that they didn’t dry out, a bit boring again but worth checking out. I was a little more interested in the tiny village village, which had very narrow lanes and very few actual roads to speak of. More like a village that you could drive to but not amongst. Saturday afternoon was more of the relaxing and lazing about in the sunshine, soaking up the rays. Football of the European Championship followed, The Dutch winning a fantastic match that ended up beating the French thoroughly.

Sunday was check out day and we all decided to head off to Antibes for a bit of swimming in the Med as well as lazing about and also a bit of sight seeing. I really enjoyed my time in the city. Sarah and I lazed on the beach till we started to burn. A distinct lack of planning led us to this lack of sun cream and towels, but we managed to overcome the towels by sitting on the rocks till we were dry then sitting on our clothes. Sarah was strangely excited when I used her dress as a towel to change my shorts; a quick swim had her brought over to my reckoning, as the water was much to my liking.

We spent the afternoon sitting in a bar having a couple of beers and listening to the funky sounds that eh dj delivered. After that It was a drive down the coast to the Airport where Sarah and Myself too our leave and caught our plane back to the harsh reality of jobs and city life in the UK. As for me I much prefer the climate that we saw in the French Provence region.

A flat feeling

So, I am ready to go riding off to work on my fantastic new bike, but when I get down stairs to the bike I discover that the back tyre has gone flat over night. Oh well, all that effort and when I really need the bike it has a flat tyre.

Next stop the bike store for some tyre levers and a puncture repair kit. Seems to be a bit of a curse.. well not really.

A new set of wheels.

Woah, what an effort. After a week of traveling almost half way to work on the bus then having to walking the rest of the way, this is due mainly to Thames water deciding to dig up half the road, I decided to get myself a bike. I hunted around in Gumtree and ebay for a while before I came across a bike that looked ok. It turns out to be worth pretty much what I payed for it. but for thirty pound I am happy with it. At the moment it has a 10 speed deralier that is a bit worn and fiddly, new cranks, new break levers, new brake pads, the dodgy old-school brakes, a plastic seat and mountain bike handle bars.

Already I am thinking of getting rid of the rear 5 gears and converting it to a single speed freewheeling bike. London is so flat with hardly any hills so you can get away with only one or two gears. The other thing I am thinking of doing is getting rid of the wide handle bars and trying to find myself a cheap pair of courier handle bars, ro ill just chop them off. Squeezing through the gaps between cars and busses will be made so much easier. How I came to these decisions, well that is quite a journey.

I met the bloke at Redbridge tube station after school and had a little try on the bike. Already I realised that the gears were a bit didgy and shit, but for a cheap bike I was willing to put up with gears that were a bit twitchy. After handing over the money, I decided to let this guy show me the way to the nearest train station. You cannot take bikes on the tube, you have to take them on the overground, even then getting a train to where my house is is almost like trying to get a train to chatswood from Ryde via Sutherland. So I set off on what I had originally found out to be a 1 hour bike ride, of about 3 - 5 miles. Not that far, I know. But as it is, without knowledge of the streets and arriving at the locatioin via the tube I was completely out of my depth.

A quick call to Sarah to get on the internet for some directions resulted in no pleasure. So back to plan C, following, what I guessed were familiar bus routes, but were in fact bus routes that took me on a explotory journey across the NE of greater London. I went from Redbridge to Ilford and back again, on to Wandsworth flats, on towards Leyton, where I had once taught for a day, continuing up north towards Walthamstow Central train station. Here is where I had thought I had rounded the corner back into familiar street knowledge. However I did make a silly mistaake and continue on Past Walthamstow Central following the 230 bus route in the wrong direction. Woah.

So back to Walthamstow Central, then following the 230 bus towards Turnpike Lane, where I fianlly met up with Seven Sisters road and that is where I knew where I was... I had set off at around 6:00pm and arrived home close to 9:00pm. Quite a journey, and one that I didn't particulary want to take on an unfamiliar bike. But in the end I guess I now know what my bike is really like. I just have to sort the rest of the stuff out...

Tunnel vision...

Went and saw what has now become known ans 'the Banks Tunnel'. It is a disused tunnel that at the start of May became the scene of a series of artworks that focused around the street art culture. Well since the start of May some of the works have been removed, mainly a car on the wall, however all of the wall paintings have remained. I really liked many of the artworks that I saw, especiall the stencil works that have been created. Any how here are some of the awsome artworks that are there.

How time flies.

Well I just realised that this mid term break at this point in time is the time when I arrived in the UK. How time flies when you are kept busy with work and play.

Go to Beer, for a Cider?

The second May bank holiday. Early morning Saturday, standing at Paddington train station, listening to my MP3 player, waiting for the platform to be announced. Platform 5, the usual. There is the common mad dash towards the train by the passengers without seats booked. Suffering from a mild hangover I take my time. I also have a seat booked. Checking my ticket I realise that I am in coach A, which to my delight is the closest coach to the station, just a short stroll for me, while the other passengers rush along vieing for the best available free seats.

Anyway, after what seemed like a short 2 hour journey, I arrived in Cardiff central refreshed and ready for a weekend of camping. Sarah and I decided that we would set off after a couple of detours and head down to Exmouth. With my fantastic new driving license, a pink EU UK one, Sarah handed me the keys and we set off with only a tent and our spare clothes (as well as our sleeping bag, doona, some food and a few other things). Off we went, down the M4 till we reached the M5 and the slow moving traffic. Aparently some other people had heard that there was a long weekend on aswell. Rain and sunshine greeted us along the M5 and it was only a short journey till we reached the beautiful area of Dorsett. From there we went on to Exmouth and the sandy windy coast.

The kite surfers were making the most of the windy conditions and after a nice walk on the beach we headed off to a nice camping ground and set up our tent in one of the only remaining places in the field. Before we set up the tent we did not however get off to a good start with out neighbours. We had to ask them to move their car and the lazy sods were quite adamant that they were not going to move it. But in the end the westies gave in, as I really knew that they were just bullshiting. So after that we decided to keep more to ourselves rather than spend more time with the westies.
I thought that the campsite would be great, however during the night the weather decided to turn. Howling winds, driving rain were apparently the order of the night, but I wouldn't really know as I was sound asleep, snug as a bug in a rug. I did wake up for a while, as someone nudged me but it didn't take me that long to get back to sleep.

Sunday started out a bit miserable, with a bit of light rain, but after we set out and visited the donkey rescue farm and then started to head out off towards Beer the sun, and myself, saw this as a decision from sun gods and they started to shine, so by the time we arrived in Beer we were able to head straight down to the beach and laze about for a while.

Camping in Beer turned out to be a thououghly enjoyable experience, with a BBQ in the evening and lots of lazing about. We found a campsite in the Beer Head Caravan Park and set up our wet tent with plenty of sunshine around to dry it out. The throw away BBQ was fantastic to use. It saved a bit on carrying a heap of stuff along to the campsite and it also gave us some fantastic tasting greese burgers.
But with all holidays as soon as the day dawned on Monday it was almost time to head home. As I didn't get as much sleep as Sarah on Sunday night, she set of with the driving first. We headed off back towards Cardiff with fond memories and pledges to return to Beer. BTW I did think that Beer was one of the best ever named towns that I have been to.

The saviour of the commute!

Well I guess that you are immediatly thinking of a fantastic story that will appear following this sentence, of me reaching out and grabbing somone at the last possible moment before they fall down the stairs on the bus. Well no. I am just going to say how awsome my MP3 played has turned out to be. Now that i went and got myself a SD card for it, it has become the ultimate weapon in the fight against boredom on the bus. I don't know what i was doing before I got my hands on it. Now I can spend my time sitting on the bus listening to music and staring out the window. The joys of the moring commute on public transport.

All that remains is for me to write a letter to Transport for London and get them to take out at least on row of seats on each bus to ensure that I will have a bit of leg room.

Sun today, gone tomorrow...

Made the mistake ofgoing to school today with only a t-shirt on. Well it was a good idea till about 8:05 in the mornign when i got to the bus stop. After that it turned into a bad idea. The temperature dropped, especially when you stood in teh shade. Oh well, a lesson learned. British weather in the best of times, unpredictable.

Hopefully the weather will improve as for the weekend, a bank holiday, Sarah and mysef have decided to try and go camping in Exmouth. Its only 2 hours away from Cardiff, so if the weather turns shit then we can just go home.

Had a big decision recently in regards to my driving license. I ended up thinking that it would be a good idea to go and change it for a UK one. Although it may have been a bit of a wate of money but at leaat I will be able to drive around in the UK in the future. Yay! I will also have this UK license for at least 45 years, wow!

Here comes the sun, do do do do.

It seems like the summer time has come round here in the UK. After a week of brilliant sunshine and clear skies, the weather stayd around so I was able to have a fantastic weekend. The weather was brilliant and the trip down to Sailsbury was great. Hanging around in Lizzies backyard with Sarah and a few beers was an awsome time to spent what seems like the first hot summery weather of the year.

So I thought that it was...

So I thought that it was the start of summer on Saturday. The sun was shining, the birds were flying about (pidgeons, but they still count) and the squirells were making brief appearances. Sarah and myself decided to make the most of this sunshine so we decided to head off to the massive Hyda Park at the end of Oxford street. It was glorious. The sun was almost burning, people were out and about, the sun was shining and it just felt really nice in London. We sat inthe sun in the park on the soft green grass, until I started to get a bit of a reaction to the grass, probably brought on by the years of toil in the garden maintenance industry. So we set off and picked up some anti-histamines and some eye drops to help my cope with the grass.

Back to the park to a more sheltered position amongst the trees because the sea breeze had come in. We sat there in the sun until the clouds came across and then decide to go home. It turned out that Both of us had caught a bit of the sun and both of us felt a bit warm that evening. But it was worth it.

Strike! Strike! Strike!

Tommorrow ther wil be a strik by some of the teachers across London. This I was amazed to hear was the first strik for 21 years. Well its all about Pay, and as it turnes out I will not be able to get paied fopr that days work, or will I be able to get into the school, which is a bit of a moot point considering I would be donating my time and effort.

Hopefully the Sun will be shining so I can make the most of the day off, YaY!

Summer at last?

Tuesday turned out to be a fantastic day for the sun to shine and at last I had thought that Summer had arrived. I SMSd Alex and he asked wether the weather had turned or not and at that point in time, I guessed that it had. But this morning I woke to the gentle grey cloudy skies that had recently dropped a few rain drops on the city of London. Enough I to settle the dust and clear the air a bit.

Now all I am left with is the grey skies again. It is unbelieveable how different you actyually feel when the sun is shining. All I can think of now is the comments that the fellow staff members had made about summer; "Summer is not guranteed", "That was your summer Edwin, we are already into Autumn again", "we were wanting global warming to arrive, but not his type of global warming".

Oh well all I can think of now is a fantastic trip to Nice, where I will see SJ for a little while and be able to soak in the amazin MED sun for a couple of hours. And of course there is the day off tiomorrow.

OMG I am 26...

For my birthday we went to Manchester. We took a slow train from the Lake District that seemed to stop at every lamp post along the way. We had tickets to Jose Gonsales concert in the Opera House (a bit different from Sydney). The concert started off in a slightly different way but it was really great. Jose' Gonzales played a great set with pretty much all the favourites as well as a couple of suprises (one by Kylie). The hotel we stayed in was a bit fancy with the biggest bed in the world and breakfast was really good too. Sarah had out done herself in the selection of this Abode. In the morning I had a few cards to open and a (rather small) birthday cake, how appropriate that it had 'Gramdpa' written across it.

A week in the Lake

First week of holidays. Yes, finally here. After a dissapointing end of term drinks with the rest of the staff, I was up early and off to the Diff where I would meet up with Sarah and then set-off to the Lakes District.

Well it sort fo got off to a not so good start, with the bus ride to Cardiff taking around 3.5 to 4 hours. OMG what a horrible ride, no leg room, a rather large person sitting next to me that didn't appreciate the fact that I was supposed to have a whole seat, but basically the length of the journey (yes I know, just trawling for sympathy, you can almost hear the violins). The train is much more preferable.


Got to Cardiff and as it turns out Sarah had had a pretty big night out on the town. Well not my falut that she had had a bit to drink, so the sympathy didn't really flow.
She met me at the train station and from that point till we were nearly to the Lakes I was designated driver. In Sarah's words "She didn't really think this through". Oh well not to complain. The trip was uneventful and thanks to my superior skills at putting the car in the right direction, and a heavy right foot, we may have made it to the lake district in record time.



Well. The scenery was spectacular. The cottage was situated alongside the road out of Grasmere but also at the base of the Lion and the Lamb, as well as down the road from the travelers rest. I guess that both Sarah and I were relieved to arrive, me to have a break from the driving and Sarah from the continuous stream of "is it that one, is it that one..." I kept directing her way. The cottage was built over a hundered years ago, and it turned out to be a pretty good deal, 90 pounds a week plus electricity. It's a three bedroom place with two sitting room and about 5 DEGREES most of the time. The fact that it was built over 100 years ago also meant that it still was back in the 19th century. No heating, weird carpet, tiny fireplaces that didn't give out that much heat and tiny beads. Oh well, it still was a steal.

We spent the week in the lakes district checking out the local towns in the area, Grasmere, Ambleside, Kendal as well as a few of the pubs and outdoor camping stores that they contained. The weather was not as friendly as I had planned, but to my delight we were lucky to have a bit of proper snow.




The snow continued throughout the night and when we both finally got out of bed the next day all the hills around us were covered in the white stuff. It made the scenery even more spectacular.

On Tuesday we spent the day trudging along the alcok Tarn walk. This was in fact a nice and easy walk that took us away from the town of Grasmere and up into the hills that surrounded it. The heavens opened up ahlfway through the walk and we were hail rained upon for only a short while, enought to lower the temperature for a while, but we continued along neverltheless.

Another highlight was our hiring of some bicycles for a nice pleasuarble ride around windermere. They proved to be a great idea, hiring the bikes, but they were slow mountain bikes that coundn't coast for all the gold in the world. So they were great for going along the flaat but not so great for going up hills. It was still a great idea to hire the bikes. We followed the suggestion of the hire man and made our way along the back roads towards the lake, then across the lake via the ferry. I felt a bit ripped off by the ferry, apparently they had doubled the price without even changing the signs and this only became apparent when you were half way across the lake. Oh well, we were a bit of a captive audience, so we payed. We continued along the far side of the lake until the path seemed to go up hill. That was where we decided to turn around, witha bit of encouageemnt form the icy haily rainy weather. Once we got back to the other side the sun decided to come out and shine, so I rode along the foot path and kicked a few swans inthe backside before they could turn around and bite me. good fun.



Near the end of the week we went on another walk around Elterwater. It was a fantastic walk - a bit longer than we anticipated but the scenerey made it worth while. Very picturesque. That was the last of our walks as the end of the week came around far to quickly and we had to set off on the journey home. For Sarah it was back to work but for me it was the start of a week sitting on my arse not doing any dishes.


I did however get to climb one mountain. Me at the top looking back towards Grasmere.

Holidays at last, (sigh)

Tomorrow is the last day of the school term, so that means that tomorrow the school will shut early at about 2pm, and then the teachers can go wild and hit the pub. At least we don't have to go far, literally across the road. It is just the start of the beginning of a couple of weeks of R & R and on Saturday will catch a bus to the 'Diff' before heading off with Sarah to the Lakes district, which hopefully will turn on the fantastic weather. Fingers crossed the al will stay clear and calm as the weather is set to drop to snowing and horible on Sunday. But what I know about weather is that good always follows the bad so the sunny weather will eventually follow this setback in the weather. OMG I have turned into a whining pom, only talking about the weather.

Congratulations to SJ as I just go off the phone with her, hopfully it didn't cost that much. I have my fingers crossed that all goes well and it seams that Sarah is also sending her love and congratulations.

It has been such a hard slog and finally the holidays have come around really quick! I am alsmost relaxing...

'Moovin on up...'

Well I am mooving up the property ladder. Well up is the key word. I left my enormous sun drenched room and took a cut in the amount of rent that I would have to pay, yay! My new room is a bit smaller, with a cupboard and a low ceiling, but with two differnt windows, wich let ample amounts of light into the room. This is good but basically I am downsizing and saving some money.

Bowling it up!

Had a really great time on the weekend. After a bit of a disaster at not meeting Sarah at the station we went out to dinner. I once again lived up to my bet at ordering a rubbish meal while Sarah ordered a fantasitc meal, resulting in me once again feeling a touch of menu envy.

Saturday we ended up going down to covent garden and getting some lunch, of Sarah's choosing. This turned out to be a fantastic meal at the fantasitc maccas. We walked around a checked out a few shops looking for a replacemnt pair of shoes to my old favs. But to no avail. We did actually find the HMV at Covent Garden that we had searched for a few weeks ago. After the HMV we searched out he fantastic Australian Store. Wow what an amazing place. There were all the different, quirky things that you can get from Australia like Cottees cordial, cherry ripes, aeroplane jelly, stubby holders, tim tams and weet bix! The only problem with this amazing stuff is that the guinius of the shop owners is on display. They jsut get eh goods, take the price in the home country and then turn this price into pounds. Very expensive, but at the same time able ot drive a good buisness.



Saturday night we ended up going bowling then Kareoke. This is a brilliant thing. Combining these two activities gave us such an enjoyable time out. I think that Sophie (Sarah's friend) really threw a fantastic bash and almost everyone had a great time. We ended up singing the night away, literally. The place closed at two inthe mornign and I think that everyone had left the place, the staff were cleaning up, then they realised that we were still in the kareoke room singing or yelling our voices out. A great time.

Easter

Happy really early Easter all!

S no way, at the beach?

Snow at the beach? you may have actually thought that I have gone bonkers. Well just got back from Tenby, a small busy costal village in west Wales which is very nice if you happen to ever go there, and today as we were exploring the remains of the once glorious castle (well I think that it may have been glorious in its day) and the wind had come up, probably 30 or 40 knotts. Well it could have been more than that, probaly force 5 or 6 judging by the large enormous amounts of wind caps on the sea, and as we were standing there battling against the wind, well I was battling, Sarah had run off like the girl that she is for shelter, and then the snow started to come. Just little itsy bitsy piecec of snow. More like a frozen hail like thing, but it came down softly. It waws amazing I thought. But I didn't have time to check it out or try to catch one on my tougue ( which would have been impossible) as Sarah had said "I've had enough" at which point I realised that I also had had enought standing there in the forceful wind, so we headed for the nearest store to warm up in and get some post cards as well as a massive Ice cream.


After browsing the menu for what seemed like forever, Sarah decide to go with the Strawberry special one. I actually decided to just help her to finnish her own one, so we shared. When it came it lloked like it was half a meter tall glass with strawberry syrup, vanilla ice cream, strawberries and cream on the top. It was massisve and oh so nice.


After that our stay in Tenby had come to an end, so we decidec to battle through the driving snow and wind back to the car for an interesting drive home. Why was it interesting? well Sarah's car is only little, and for some reason the wind decided to always hitthe car side on. This ment I was continully swerving in and out of my lane all the way down the moterway. Much fun. Much more fun that just driving in nromal conditions.

Observe me will ya!

Well its come around quick and tomorrow Silver class along with Mark and myself are off to the Royal Observatory for a class trip. I am heading off at around 9:00 in the moring with around 28 kids in tow to the tube then the docklands light rail. It should be quite an interesting trip. We have a day at the observatory doing various school stuff and then back to the school before i can fuck off to Wales for the long weekend.

However it seems that the trivilaties of my life are nothing compare to that which is going on with the Norhtern Beaches HGC. Such an outcry that has resulted from the accident at Cooks Terrace, the email forum has been going bonkers with all the messages that have ben going back and forth. Well as for me I think that it is a bit of a relief that I am not there, especially with all these site closures. There is nothing more uncomfortable than sitting around with fantastic days of flying that are just going bye. hmmm. Well Alex if you are interested in any ideas as to memberships, instead of T-shirts, why dont you just do what the HGFA does and make it compulsory for everyone to display a STICKER on their helmets. Hey they have to wear helmets so why not make them put a sticker on it. That way you know who is a member and who isn't, that way of you are there, on site and you see somone who dosn't have a sticker then you could get them to pay their membership as well as sign a waiver or form agreeing to site rules. That way you know whos who in the northen beaches paragliding club. anyway...

Go Wales!

I was over at Sarah's place for the weekend and it happened to be the last round of the 6 Nations rugby competition. It was a good night, Wales thumped the French in what would have been an amazing matchto watch. Sarah got offered some tickets for the match, but at £150 each they were a bit of a rip off. Watching the first half in the pub was almost as good. It seemend if the entire Welsh nation was out and about in the city for the match.

However it all turned a bit sour at half time. Sarah decided that she wanted to go and meet up with her friend, Lauren, as it was her birhtday. I was ok with this, until I actuall found out that it involved walking across the town in pouring rain to a different pub, where we discovered it had been closed, as there wer already too many people in it. Oh well. That just ment that we had to stand outside antother pub and watch it through the window. This was OK, but I could have been dry and warm in the original pub all along. hmmm, the things I do.

Apart from that it turned out to be an OK evening until I bumped my head and drank too much. But I still had a good time. :)

The day I nearly died...

Wow, well today there were fantasastic storms that were hitting the UK. Aparently parts of south England and Wales were subject to flooding. Well when these hit London it mostly was driving rain and fierce winds, which actually made it a bit interesting up until I left for work in the evening. But that wasn't the exciting part.

After I got off the bus at Angel I proceded ot walk down the road to the school. As I was heading downt the road there was a sudden large gust of wind which caught my attention. This was because it had chosen to play with a recycling bin and boy did it play. It dragged it across the road and then back before picking it up and throwing it against the gutter. It thoguht this was pretty coool until I caught movement in the top of my vision.

Well suddenly the small recycling bid was a bit boring as a huge bit of, what I guess was a piece of temporary roofing, came crashing down onto the back of a car. Man was it cool. It hit the car and the entire back window shattered and exploded out into the street showereing me in glass. I thoght that it was pretty fantastic. This piiece of plywood completely obliderated this small VW and smashed it good. Wow it was great!

After thought I realised that if I had got off the bus a bit earlier then I woud have been right under the piece of roofing. But not so I was just left to look on amazed at this cool thing that had just happened.

Arrgh, I am under attack!

I am under attack! Well sort of as I realised that a couple of evil dooers have infiltrated my computer with their sneeky wooden horses. So I've recruited the help of some fantastic programmes to help me get rid of these evil malicious pieces of software. I don'tknow exactly how to get rid of them completely, but i am going to give them a whole can of whopass and wipe them off the face of the earth. So far I think that these sneeky infiltrators have been have been having the run of the whole PC, but now that they have been found out I have put them into the virus chest so i think that for the time being, they have been locked down. Ill see what happens when later today i will go on the ofensive against them.