Back in Two Weeks

Well World, I am off tomorrow for two weeks to some unknown destination. Unknown because I as yet have no ticket. Once at the airport on Saturday, my destination will reveal itself to me. I am hoping for Greece. Two weeks in Greece, which, if I go there, will be the first time in 6 months that I will see the sea... I do miss the ocean, and the mountains and forests back home in Vancouver.

So I'll be off taking beautiful photos, eating wonderful meals, and resting on gorgeous beaches (if the weather holds) for the next two weeks. If Greece is the plan, then I'll spend a few days in Athens (checking out the Parthenon) and then set out by boat to visit three or four islands in the Cyclades (including Santorini, which used to be a volcano that exploded, leaving only a ring of rocks as the island!)

Enjoy your time off, if you've got some, and continue to vote in my dino movie poll (even if you've already voted, vote again, and again...). Check out my new map, on the side bar, showing the countries I've visited. I'll see you in two, back in time for the start of the Playoffs! Go Canucks Go!

Happy Easter, everybody!

Dino Movie Poll

What is your favorite dinosaur movie?
	King Kong
	Jurassic Park
	Disney's Dinosaur
	The Lost World
	The Land Before Time
	One Million Years Before Time
	Jurassic Park 3
	Gertie, the Dinosaur
	Baby, Secret of the Lost Dinosaur
	Fantasia
pollcode.com free polls

Travel Ideas...

Not much to relate at the moment, so no real cool post.
The only exciting upcoming event is in one week - Two Week Holiday somewhere!!! I'm hoping to go to Greece - Athens and some island hopping, but I don't have a ticket yet. My friend works for an airline and can hook me up, so we are going to hit the airport and grab a cheap flight to somewhere in Europe! Ireland? Greece? Italy? Turkey? France?
Any suggestions?

Disco for 6-10 year olds

Today after school, a disco was held for the students! So, when the last bell rang, all the children filed into the hall set up with disco lights, dj table on stage, food tables at the back, and pumping music from the speakers. Kids are dancing, kids are eating, kids are singing, kids are spending (apparently an event like this disco will bring in over 200 pounds!)

The songs ranged from the nostalgic ("Can't touch this") to the inappropriate ("my Humps"). "I predict a riot" by Kaiser Chiefs and "Monster" by the Automatic ("What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster?") were real crowd pleasers! And what was the addictive substance the kids were ingesting? Well sugar of coarse! The kids were high as kites!

And what of Mr. Bond? Did he participate? But of coarse, for a bit. Can't let them think you are having too much fun as a teacher! What a great moral boost for the kids and for the school spirit!

Darth Vader's Bad Day

Just for a laugh at the Sith Lord's expense, watch this!



Silly Vader. He's no Godzilla!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful St. Patty's Day and embrace the Irish spirit wholeheartedly! Have a Guinness, wear some green, dance a jig, play the fiddle, and enjoy the day.

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day on my blog, I've posted pictures of Birmingham's St. Patrick's Day Parade I went to. Slante!

Waiting for the parade in Digbeth...

The crowds bracing the cold air... with beers.

Even the Pope came out the bless the Parade!

Street cleaner getting into the ...um... spirits.

Debbie and I in the crowd

Ian and Lisa - friends

Kids love Tonka Trucks!

Some dogs make great handbags

I also love my Irish Quarter

Go go Irish-mobile!

Invisible floats!

March of the Bagpipes!

March of the Other Bagpipes!

Look! It's the Irish Bigfoot! Give us back out Guinness!

Young Irish Elton John

Artsy Balloon Reflection pic

Lisa bearing the cold with only a shirt and a beer.

And after, back to Hennessey's for drinks!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

MySpace and Facebook

FACT: It is a fact that almost everyone and their dog have MySpace websites, and now I have found out that their cats have Facebook websites, too. So many sites on the web advertising how cool you are and how many friends you have. Who has time to update all these websites?! Being a sensible blogger, I planned to stay away from all this self-publicizing...

...But I changed my mind and have delved into them wholeheartedly! Whoo hoo!!!


This is my MySpace site.



and this is my Facebook site.


Come see how cool I am and add yourself to my friend list!
Caving in rocks!

Are you on MySpace or Facebook?

Weekend Vote

Boy, it's been a busy weekend!

First off, Patrick left the house, being replaced by our new roommate Andy. Andrew is a nice quiet Mauritian gay guy who works down the road at Marks & Spencer's. With Patrick leaving, we went on the lash (out for a night of drinking) down on Broad Street. I had a great time seeing all the friends I've made here. In the end, I went to bed at 6am!

Secondly, Debbie (the girl I'm seeing) and I went to see a friend of hers who lives in an actual haunted house. Apperently they have seen ghosts, have heard whispers, have felt unexplained cold patches, have had objects move across the room, and have been cut on the arm and stomach. They have had a medium and a priest do exorcisms to rid the house of the ghosts. I left a video camera running during the night, to try to catch some evidence. Did anything happen? Check back later to see that nothing did. I'll post some pictures later...

Thirdly, and much less ghostly but more spirity, St. Patrick's Day/Week began in earnest on Sunday with a huge Irish Parade. After getting a pint at Hennessey's, we watched the parade and all the green and orange colours. I'll post some pictures later showing the craziness.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend! Please vote on which "thing" would be the most fun for you:
a. Going out on the lash with friends until 6am
b. Visiting a real haunted house
c. St. Patty's Day parade

So? Vote!

Bus Rant

I know this sounds like I am posting complaints, but is this not one of the many reasons this blog exists? I just wanted to rant about my bus rides home on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If you find this topic too boring, please click on Traumador's blog to see what that crazy dinosaur is up to in New Zealand. If not, read on.

One of the hundreds of double-decker buses I ride everyday

I leave school at around 4:30-5pm each day. It takes me about an hour to get to and from Timberley Primary School. On this last Tuesday, the bus system (and all traffic) grinds to a halt. Seriously all traffic stops. And doesn't start again. Along with other passengers, I get bored of waiting and decide to walk to a stop farther along the route on Broad St (Downtown Birmingham). Unfortunately, the sky, which had been clear and sunny for days, decided to pick this moment to rain down in buckets. My umbrella also picked this time to completely collapse (it's like a conspiracy!), leaving me soaked. Eventually the bus came, traffic limped forwards, and I got home an hour late.

This happened again on Wednesday. 2 hour commute home. It wasn't until today that I heard that traffic was stopped and diverted because of a stabbing. Apperently the stabbee wasn't quite dead or alive yet, so the crime scene couldn't be touched, or something. But this still doesn't explain Wednesday.

Today was different. Traffic flowed and the buses smelled nice. Until a group of teenage high school girls got on the bus. Maybe I'm getting old, but I don't want to have to listen to loud music, shouting, swearing, screaming and swearing at your friend (?) on the cell phone while holding it an arms length away... I won't repeat any of it here as my mom reads this blog. (Hi Mom!)

Well, I do have to give the Birmingham buses a break, because "bus officials/cops" came and removed the foul ladies from the bus and I got home in time to watch Hollyoaks (where someone has just had a baby, and her mom is pretending it's her's, while the woman in jail died and blah blah blah soap soap soap...)

Everyday at 6:30pm

Houseparty last night

The '13 Albany House Posse' had a party here last night and we are slowly cleaning up. It was a good party with lots of drinking and some dancing. It was over the moon! No, literally. The moon was eclipsed last night! We were so lucky that the sky was clear and the lunar eclipse was spectacular.

Lunar Eclipse
(I didn't take this pic, but I did take some video I'll post later.)

Some of the highlights from the party include:

-Leon eating an entire onion for 20 pounds on a bet. He did it and smelled like onion after.
-Carl and Roger bet to see who could eat an entire pack of Jaffa Cakes first. Carl won by default as Roger began to choke after the first 5 cakes. He then threw up all the cakes and lost the bet. Roger is fine and doing well.
-Someone slipped on our front steps and was knocked unconscious. Her friends took her to the clinic and she's ok, I think.
-The Lunar Eclipse happened. Resulting in lots of moon jokes and puns. Loony.
-2 glasses smashed (I didn't break any last night. I only broke one while setting up the party and blowing up balloons. Best to not play volleyball around glasses.)
-A shopping cart full of beer and mixer out in the backyard.
-I went to sleep at 6am, woke up today at 12:30pm.
-No neighbours banging on the walls or telling us to turn down the music.
-Police cars slowing down outside our house.
-Random food on the floor: scotch egg, chip, pea (?), sausage roll.
-1am punch made by Roger including gin, rum, cranberry, lee & perins, chili vodka.
-Chili vodka jello: very spicy and jiggly.
-Random person sleeping on four chairs (of different heights) in our living room. I don't know who he was.
-No hangover for me!

All in all a great party. I hope your Saturday night was as fun and lune-y as mine!

Celebrity Look-Alike

Ready for a laugh? This is interesting...

He he! Man, you have to try this...

Second week at Timberley

Just finished my second week in the new teaching position and things seem to be settling in fine. The problem classes of last week are starting to get used to me and I'm learning what works with each class.

Don't get me wrong, there are some children who are horrors. The entire year 4 class used to be one, but was split into two as there are so many children with behavior problems! One child. Thomas, is on a behavior diary, where he is assessed a 1-5 on every lesson, and that gets sent home to parents. His behavior is that he hates writing, so anything to do with sitting and writing, he flips out and refuses to work, throwing things and sulking on the wall. He has been "excluded" (which means separated from the class - mostly sitting in the office all day) many times, though I haven't seen a flip-out yet.

The same class also produced Tavian, a hyperactive, partially-blind partially-deaf attention-deficit-disorder kid, who last week drove me crazy, but this week I was ready for him. The girls in this class are also terrible - mostly from a tattle-tale point of view. They keep telling each other off!

"Mr. Boooooond! Jane broke my pencil!"
"Mr. Boooooond! Chelsea stuck her tounge at me!"
"Mr. Boooooond! Sarah looked at me!"

What?! Oh NO! She looked at you?:!! Oh what shall I do!? Pluck her eyes out??! I'll get the ravens!!!

Oh man. Immaturity can suck. But look who's talking! Hehehe.

On a less school and more social note, my flat is having a house party tonight and you are all invited!!! Should be a blast and I'll be taking photos, so I'll let you know about it later. Party on!